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tally and physically in the production of mere words, and long to listen to the messenger from Christ, who has a message and delivers it clearly." Dr. Green declared himself outspokenly, perhaps a little unguardedly, on the inadequateness of a two years' College course. Otherwise, his hearers were counselled and complimented in the choicest terms, and are indebted to him for many valuable suggestions. They were glad to learn that he considers the position of the General Baptist College has been improved by its transference from Chilwell to Nottingham, and they will no doubt do as he wishes them, as soon as possible-create an endowment, that its support may be less dependent on precarious collections. The apology with which our Principal Goadby began was surely unnecessary. Dissatisfied because he selects distinct topics for annual addresses! No: we consider ourselves to be incalculable gainers. This year "The wider aim of the Christian Ministry" was his chosen theme. When "Speeches delivered by Dr. Goadby to General Baptists" are published book-wise, reviewers will in unison declare, "Not the least interesting and practical of the entire series, was the one delivered at Ealing." All this year's reports concerning the College are highly gratifying. The services of the students have been in constant demand. Churches appreciate their discourses. Examiners speak in complimentary terms of their painstaking care, and the secretary announced that several of them have passed with distinction in given subjects at the University. By the treasurer alone a word was spoken which curbed for a moment our rejoicing. On the special building account there is a large deficit. Now make note of this-the successful Centenary Bazaar was held in 1869 at Leicester. Well: all its attractions are to be revived; yea, stores more varied, contrivances more tasteful, pleasures resistless, and profits abundant i Verily, a pleasant plan to excite attention, secure a large audience at the next Association, and lift the burden of debt which presses heavily on our College.

Public Meeting the second.-Home Mission work sententiously and lucidly described. Churches at Birmingham, Market Harborough, Hyson Green, Walsall, and Crewe have been helped, and a site obtained for another building at Ferme Park-one of the growing suburbs of London. Income from the Conferences, same as last year. Total receipts, £1,139. Mr. Pease, M.P., as chairman, when reporting formalities were finished, expressed the pleasure with which he noted a diminished tendency to attach importance to differences of arrangement and belief between churches. His enumeration of duties which are incumbent on individual Christians, and his plea for lay agency, based on the saying of an archdeacon of the Establishment, "Unless we use our laymen we are undone," formed a fitting prelude to three powerful and impressive speeches. The Revs. Guinness Rogers, B.A., F. Carrington, and O. D. Campbell, M.A., dwelt on almost every aspect of the movement now in progress for more thoroughly evangelizing England. The last named speaker was intensely practical. Some of his hearers would perhaps hesitate to accept every one of his conclusions, nevertheless they must have felt that they were listening to a minister in earnest, honestly attempting to get at the real ground of the religious indifference of the working classes, and bent on some effort to remove it. It will tell to the invigourment of our churches if points of suggestion in

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Mr. Campbell's address initiate kindly but pointed correspondence in the pages of this Magazine.

Public Meeting the third.-A true missionary spirit animated every speaker. Mr. Plimsoll-how glad we all were to see him!-rehearsed touchingly snatches of narrative and passages of his own manifold experience. His opportunities of estimating the value of Christian work in heathen lands have been numerous. We have often listened to travellers recounting daring exploits and dangerous ventures, but with interest less keen than that which Mr. Plimsoll excited when he took us into his confidence at Ealing. On one occasion while resident in a land, not so long since blighted by superstition, he was awakened from a reverie by sweet sounds of sacred singing. Venturing through the darkness for it was long after sundown-in search of the singers, he discovered a small congregation of negroes, assembled in a building which they had themselves consecrated, listening to a preacher of their own appointment, and observing the ordinances of religion as instituted by Christ, with becoming gravity, and quiet absorbence of the spirit they ever transmit to humble and devout recipients. Henceforth, when reading historic descriptions of the memorable scene in the House of Commons, when Samuel Plimsoll championed the cause of our perishing seamen, we shall think of that other equally creditable incident in his career of which we heard at the missionary meeting. We shall picture him seated unassumingly at the supper table of the Lord, in a far-off land, the only white communicant, breaking bread surrounded by converted negroes, children of God, brethren of Christ, and inheritors of the kingdom. The Rev. J. R. Wood's survey of the larger resources now available for missionary enterprise was exceedingly cheering; and Mr. R. F. Griffith's plea, that help may be sent to our solitary representative in Rome will surely be responded to. But how shall we characterize the speech of our brother Pike? His slashing attack on Moncure Conway, the theistic patron of all heathenish religions; his graphic blood-curdling exposure of the horrors of Brahmanism; his vigorous delineation of progressive Christianity, reducing to impotence powerful and cruel priesthoods, and enkindling, even in the hearts of Hindoos who are unconverted, tender compassionate feeling for the weak, and aspiring desire to realize nobility of character; his appeal for more men and more power-power from on High-that the triumph of the gospel may be made complete ; all this excited the largest audience of the week to real enthusiasm. The cheers, amidst which Mr. Pike resumed his seat, were hearty and prolonged. We actually awoke to the fact that we were present at an Association! The indescribable something-impulse, fervour, magnetic sympathy, shall we say ?-of which we are usually made conscious at these annual assemblies was for the first time generated.

In addition to public meetings thus worthily sustained, the Association comprised two conferences, at which thoughtful papers were read, and practised speakers, such as our brethren Jackson, Rickards, and M'Cree, excelled. The Letter written by brother Jolly, B.A., of Boston, will encourage, especially among young believers, "the use of the Bible in the cultivation of the spiritual life." The carefully-prepared Presidential Address applies to weighty and perplexing social problems the

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solvent of high Christian principle. The Sermon, by the appointed preacher, W. H. Tetley, of Derby, was, to all who heard it, consolatory and helpful. Palms, cedars, lilies, and other poetic figures were made to interpret spiritual laws productive of strength and beauty. The ear was charmed with chaste diction, and the heart regaled with nourishing truth.

Evidently all concerned in working up to the programme of the 116th Association did their very best. Lack of interest, if such was felt, cannot be due to the inadequacy of their efforts. A delegate has written us: "So far as I am concerned, I confess the Association seemed to produce a species of ennui. I am vastly afraid our Associations are lapsing into stereotypedness of form, which, in the long run, cannot but be injurious." Take heart, brother. The catastrophe of which thou art fearful cannot possibly come to pass, nor was it even faintly presaged by the meetings held at Ealing. A sober-minded verdict now! Were not all the usual signs of ability and power apparent, conspicuous as ever? One element of pleasure was indeed denied us the stimulus of numbers. We missed brethren from some of the poorer churches. What a pity trains at excursion fares cannot be arranged for, when Associations meet in districts widely distanced from the denominational centre. We missed the crowded meetings. "It is always worth a journey to unite in one of our large gatherings in singing our hymns of praise to Christ." Weaklings! that paucity of numbers should have sufficed to depress our spirits, when all that wise forethought and consecrated talent could do, was done, to engage attention, promote spiritual vitality and signal unmixed blessedness. We must find an antidote. Here it is. The attendance at Ealing, meagre as it was, supplied evidence of progress. Sixty years ago an Association was convened in the same district, though in another part of it-Whitechapel. No stereotypedness of form then. Attractive novelties were provided. Real live Indians, in quaint and picturesque costume, figured on the platform, with much animation of manner, sustaining a conversation in classical Oriya with the missionary William Peggs. The Secretary of the year was privileged to report great progress as having been made from end to end of the Connexion. How many delegates attended this good-old-time Association, to give evidence of the revived zeal and eager spirit of the churches, manifesting by their presence appreciative interest in the very special arrangements made? Just twenty-five! Verily if through some horoscope of faith, these twenty-five worthies could have seen the number of General Baptists in convention at Ealing in the year 1885, they would have rejoiced at being privileged to anticipate progress so rapid and so real.

It is not the duty of the present writer to summarise the results of denominational legislation, or specify particular resolutions passed at Ealing. The following items of information will, it is hoped, stimulate interest, and increase a demand for the new Year Book-a full and official record of everything, price sixpence. Greetings from representatives of the London Baptist Association, and the Evangelical ministers of Ealing, were fraternally responded to. New pastors received a cordial welcome. Churches at Haslington and Bethnal Green, the former reporting 29, and the latter 201 members, were received into the

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285 Association by a unanimous vote. The year's earnings of the Publication Board amount to £200, and have been proportioned in equal shares to the Home Mission, College, Building, and Village Churches Funds. An increased membership is announced of 182, exclusive of that accruing from the admission of new churches, so that now our total is considerably over 27,000. The Conferences are to commission angels, whose doings will be supervised by an archangel, to visit weak and pastorless churches at least once a year. A new order of messengers to churches has been constituted, with the Rev. J. Clifford, M.A., as Secretary.

In suitable terms we recognized the unbounded kindness and hospitality of our Ealing friends. Mr. A. H. Moore was ubiquitous, always turning up at the right place and in the nick of time. His fertility of resource seemed wellnigh infinite, his courtesy and care unceasing. The Rev. Charles Clark overflowed with geniality and good humour, and at the Lyric Hall, where for the comfort of his guests at dinners and teas he was so exceedingly solicitous, as M.C. he has earned an additional degree. Each delegate will value the book presented to him by Mr. Digby, C.I.E., Secretary of the Haven Green church, a copy of his well known work, "India for the Indians," as a most interesting souvenir of an Association which, meeting on new ground, made a new departurebecame incorporate; while still, accordant with every good tradition, in all its utterances and acts it declared fidelity to ancient and eternal truth, the gospel of free grace, and Jesus Christ the only and allsufficient Saviour of mankind.

Next Association.-Place, Dover Street, Leicester. President, Rev. T. R. Stevenson. Preacher, Rev. J. Fletcher. Letter writer, Mr. H. Godkin. Subject of letter, "The Ministry of Religious Truth in the Villages of England." Secretary for next three years, Rev. Charles Payne, of Louth. ARTHUR C. PERRIAM.

Be Strong.

"My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

Be strong to labour; for thy hire

Is glorious, as thy work is free;

Toil on through noontide heat, nor tire
Till thou the shades of evening see.
Be strong to suffer; though thy heart

Lie crushed and bleeding, kiss the rod;
For heaven hath balm for every smart,
And trouble springs not from the sod.
Be strong in faith, in hope be strong,
Strong in thy spirit's quenchless love,
And press from strength to strength along
Thy pilgrim path that ends above.
Be strong to battle! they who wear

The crown o'erhead have fought below:
Bold to the front thy banner bear,
Nor basely falter from the foe.
Armed in the right, while sin surrounds,
Go forth, and grapple with the wrong,
Thy Captain's voice the watchword sounds,
"Quit you like men, stand fast, be strong!"

-CHARLES L. FORD.

II.

A Ramble in Warwickshire.

WARWICK CASTLE AND LORD LEYCESTER'S HOSPITAL.

WE Come to Warwick-the Benones or Venones of Roman times-on a warm June afternoon, and find the town looking rather sleepy in the summer sunshine, almost as if it were still in the last century, when the expense hither of a letter or pacquet sent express from the General Post Office was £1 14s., and quite as if the days when London trembled at its name were far, far away in the past. We steer our course to the majestic entrance of the grand old castle, and pass through probably the same doorway out of which "The Fox," Piers Gaveston, was led, to meet the Welsh headsman waiting at Blacklow Hill. The ancient portcullis is there, looking as ready as ever to assert its authority. A lovely shady road leads to the inner court of this stately home. We

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rest for some moments in the large porch, then the ponderous door is opened wide, and we find ourselves in the "Great Hall," which is a long and lofty apartment, looking thoroughly of the past, as if it would seem not strange to see the great Kingmaker himself enter by some secret door. The iron bars of the large fireplace are filled with small logs of wood, and close by is a large pile for replenishing. A brassfaced clock in the corner looks wise enough to be the one which suggested Longfellow's poem. Not least conspicuous is the great porridge-pot-holding 120 gallons-of the famous "Earl Guy," used since that hero ceased to need porridge to help him to fight, as a Punch Bowl;" our guide has three times seen it filled with that extravagant and dangerous beverage.

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