rural districts, or outlying thinly-populated portions of the country. A laudable and anxious desire to roll away this alleged reproach from the Congregational body, and to meet the need of our less affluent pastors, has been widely felt, and has found expression in free discussions of opinion, in resolutions of collective assemblies, in papers read before ministerial associations, and in appeals made to the public through the medium of the press. The subject has been frequently presented to the attention of the Congregational Union, in its Annual and Autumnal Assemblies; for the most part, on such occasions, it has been introduced and postponed for further consideration, on account of want of time, to a more convenient opportunity. The Committee, anxious to discharge their duty fully in reference to this matter, and feeling perhaps as keenly as any other persons a desire for a remedy for ascertained deficiencies, while more conscious from their position than some others of the difficulties which encompass the whole subject, have been concerned that ample opportunity should be afforded in the meetings at Cheltenham for the full consideration of this most important matter. They therefore instructed their secretary to prepare and lay before the Assembly, at its first sitting, a short paper with a view to pave the way for a complete, outspoken, and candid discussion of the whole subject. They have no wish to arrive at any foregone conclusion, nor to limit in any way the objects or extent of the debate, but simply to initiate the subject in a practicable form, and to direct attention to the facts of the case as presented to them. To leave all persons as free as possible in the expression of their opinions, it will be well to regard this paper, while embodying generally the views of the Committee, as the production of one individual, and thus to place it on a level with other papers, which will be read to the Assembly, on different subjects, by various brethren, who have kindly complied with the wish of the Committee to provide for the efficient conduct of your business.

In bringing this subject fairly under the notice of the Assembly, it will be right to remark on the attention which has been given to it at different times by the Union. It was brought forward and considered at Leicester, 1848; and at the Autumnal Meeting, held in Sheffield, in the year 1849, two valuable papers were read, by the late Rev. Algernon Wells, on efforts for the more adequate support of the pastors of our feeble churches. The first paper discussed at some length the wisest plans for regulating the communication of aid which might be given by wealthy churches and individuals, to help poorer churches in securing a comfortable competence for pastors labouring amidst many privations in destitute neighbourhoods, and was characterised by the discrimination, zeal, and brotherly affection, which belonged to the gifted and lamented author. And the second paper was, "An Appeal to Congregational Churches for the suitable Support of their Pastors, specially addressed to those Churches needing aid for this purpose." These papers were published with the Minutes of the Sessions, in the "Year Book," but there is rea

son to doubt whether their just and forcible appeals produced much effect in calling forth extraneous or congregational aid. At the Annual Meeting in 1853, a paper, prepared by Mr. Edward Swaine, a large-hearted, intelligent deacon, at the request of the Committee, was read to the Assembly. It contained many wise and benevolent suggestions in relation to the raising and distributing a supplemental fund, which should aim at bringing up the maximum income of each pastor to £120 per annum. This paper was printed in a separate form, and a thousand copies of it sent to pastors, deacons, and others, with a request that it might be brought under the notice of the churches, and inviting suggestions as to the best measures for remedying an admitted evil. In the following October the Committee had to report, with regret, "that whatever amount of attention had been given to the paper, very few answers had been sent to their request for opinions on its recommendations; so few, indeed, as to leave them without any adequate means of forming a judgment of the sentiments of their brethren on the subject." Nothing daunted by the paucity of replies, which it was believed arose not from indifference to the matter, but rather from its felt difficulties, the Assembly appointed a Special Committee, consisting mainly of influential laymen, further to consider, and that most carefully, the recommendations and suggestions of Mr. Swaine's paper, and to report thereon at the next Annual Meeting. That Committee frequently met, and paid the most diligent attention to the subject entrusted to their care. From thirty-three out of the forty-four Associations of the country, they obtained returns which showed that, while the great majority of pastors were adequately supported, there were no less than two hundred and seventeen receiving less than £70 per annum each, and that ninety-three of these were under £50. They found that, from County Associations, the Home Missionary Society, and purely benevolent institutions in aid of the ministry, about £22,700 was annually granted to pastors as a kind of supplemental provision to the incomes they derive from their flocks. In reporting on the subject, they directed attention to a plan which had been suggested for forming a Pastors' Aid Insurance Society. This latter subject was referred to the further consideration of the Special Committee, and in the month of October, 1854, the constitution of the proposed Society was adopted by the Union, and it became an actual organization. During the three years it has been in existence, it has aided pastors in making provision for their widows and children in the event of their own decease, and has exerted an important influence in averting evil, and accomplishing great good. The Committee reported that they did not see their way clear to the recommendation of any other plan be. side the one thus adopted, but they earnestly urged on the churches the duty of exerting themselves, to the utmost of their ability, for the support of their own pastors. This narrative is given to recal a number of facts, which have probably escaped from the recollection of some present, and to prove that

neither the Union, nor its committees, nor officers, have been guilty of any great neglect of duty in relation to this subject.

The deferred, though not abandoned hope of doing something in the right direction, was revived, with the consent of the Committee, at the meeting in London, in October, 1855; and again in May of last year, when a paper was submitted to the Assembly, by the Rev. John Ashby, containing a proposal for the formation of a sustentation fund. The Committee did not commit themselves to the details of this plan, or even to its principle; but they promised that, as it could not at that time be adequately discussed, the earliest opportunity should be given for its full consideration in an Assembly of the Union. Other and urgent matters have occupied your attention until now. And, now that the God of love and peace has permitted us to meet under auspicious circumstances, and that the changes desired by many have been effected in the working departments of the Union, our attention may with advantage be directed to a subject which affects the comfort and usefulness of many of our ministers.

As the paper read by Mr. Ashby is short, it may be well, if the Assembly approve, to have it read here to-day for information. Whether or not this be determined upon, it is due to him to say, that the paper proves he has paid great attention to the subject, and that he is not altogether insensible of the financial and other difficulties involved in carrying it into effect. He computes that a sum reaching £44,800 per annum will be required to bring up the salary of every ordained pastor to a minimum of £100 a-year. Looking at the fact that about £18,000 ayear may be supposed to be available from existing funds, the remaining £25,000, he thinks, might be raised by collections, subscriptions, and donations. It is, however, to be remembered, that the £18,000, or, as your Committee have found, the £22,000 per annum of supplemental income, is actually now distributed, and its distribution by any other means would not make a real addition to the income of the recipients; and, further, your Committee found, by intercourse and correspondence, that the managers of these funds are, for the most part, bound down by trustdeed to distribute themselves the funds in their hands; and that, if they were not so compelled, they would naturally enough evince a great indisposition to give over the management of property, sacredly committed to their care, to the management of any central board, even aided by the advice and control of County Associations. Anything, therefore, that may be done, must be undertaken on an entirely new and independent foundation, while it might be effected advantageously in a way of friendly co-operation with the Fund Board, the Home Missionary Society, and other institutions. These remarks are not made with a view to prove that nothing can be done, much less with the design of showing that nothing ought to be attempted; but for the purpose of indicating an opinion that the difficulties of creating an adequate sustentation fund are extremely great.

On a previous occasion, your Committee

have adverted to the delicacy of attempting any great organisation for the support of our ministry, as involving the fear and jealousy of infringement on the scriptural right of each church to choose and maintain its own pastor. They have likewise expressed their opinion that much care should be taken in planting or upholding churches of our faith and order in localities where, from the thinness of the population, or the pre-occupancy of the ground by other Evangelical Denominations, an Independent church is not likely ever to become self-supporting. It canot be doubted that, in some towns, we have two or even three feeble churches where there ought to be but one church, and that a strong one; and it is equally clear, that some village congregations neither present a field wide enough for the energies of a pastor, nor sufficient remuneration for his weekly toil. Some of the smaller village congregations might, perhaps, be united under one pastor, and be aided in the maintenance of Divine worship and preaching by gifted brethren from neighbouring churches. In many cases this is done with advantage. If carried to a greater extent than it is, the benefit would be proportionably enlarged; but such changes can only be wrought gradually and carefully, as the result of internal conviction, and not by the pressure of external authority.

The duty of liberally supporting the ministry ought to be enforced on the churches. The financial law of the Christian Church provides that those who are taught in the word should communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. The Lord of the harvest has himself declared, that "the labourer is worthy of his hire." In many cases, individuals and churches, to the utmost of their ability, endeavour to fulfil this obligation. In other cases, there is parsimony or carelessness, which can only be generally deplored; but which, by kind and systematic endeavours on the part of deacons might, to a great extent, be obviated. Surely this matter especially belongs to them.

But, after all that can be done by a wiser distribution of pastoral labour, by the liberality of churches, by associations, and by annual grants from funds, a considerable margin of want will remain to be filled up by additional effort. Whether this should be attempted by forming a new fund, or by augmenting old ones; by originating a Society for the kingdom, or by seeking to render County Associations more efficient, and establishing a link of communication between them, whereby the strong may help the weak, is a grave question, which demands prayerful thought. The Committee of the Union are prepared to advise and aid any judicious scheme which can benefit pastors without injuring churches. It lies, however, beyond their province and their power to originate any large plan adequately to meet the actual wants of the case. If the matter were solemnly referred to the County Associations by vote of the Assembly, they might with advantage meet and consider it; and by appointing their officers to arrange for a meeting in a central town, for the deliberate contemplation of the whole matter, might arrive at a satisfactory solution of the difficulties. Their deliverance

would, for the present at any rate, be deemed final; if they arrived at the conclusion that nothing in the form of a new organization ought to be attempted, they would thereby terminate many anxieties and trembling hopes; while, on the contrary, if they should be guided to the conclusion that a remedy for admitted defects is feasible, and should be able to originate such a plan as may appear desirable, they would remove a reproach from our Denomination, would relieve the hearts and strengthen the hands of many loved and

devoted brethren, and advance the kingdom of our glorious and adorable Lord, in connection with an ecclesiastical form of polity which, whatever may be our defects in working it, has been mighty through God, in the best days of England's Commonwealth, and in the freest States of the New World in recent times; which was known and loved in the apostolic age, and which, we doubt not, will more and more prevail as the Church approaches the predicted days of her millennial glory.

Lofthouse, 28th

AT the half-yearly meeting of the Association, held at Thirsk, in the month of April last, the ministers and brethren present had some conversation on a subject which has of late engrossed a large share of attention among the churches of the denomination, and to which the aspect of the present times gives peculiar importance; we allude to the duty of making a congregational collection every Lord's day, when the churches are assembled together for the worship of God. On the north side of the Tweed a discussion of this kind would be altogether superfluous and uncalled for: for there the weekly offering has been practised from time immemorial by all denominations; and the discontinuance of the practice, or the introduction of any other mode, would be as great an innovation as the substitution of a liturgical form of devotion for free prayer, or the substitution of monthly or quarterly preaching for weekly sermons. What was the practice of the Church of Scotland before the Reformation we have no means of ascertaining; the priests were supported by tithes, and the poor were mainly dependent on the contributions they received from the monasteries and other religious establishments; but from the days of Knox there appears to have been introduced a weekly offering, which was appropriated to the relief of the poor in each parish; the distribution being entrusted to the Kirk Session, consisting of the minister, elders, and deacons. So, in the directory for public worship, agreed upon by the Westminster Assembly of Di

October, 1857.

vines, and approved by the Church of Scotland in 1635, it is enjoined, among other things, "that the collection for the poor be so ordered that no part of the public worship be thereby hindered." This practice continues to be observed to the present day, and, till within a few years ago, the collection at the church doors on the Lord's day was the principal source whence provision was made for the poor, and which rendered it unnecessary to have recourse to any poor's rate. But, owing to the increase of Dissenters, and especially to the disruption of the Established Church, which greatly thinned its congregations, a legal assessment for the support of the poor was rendered inevitable, and the law of Scotland on this point was assimilated to that which had previously existed in England. Still, however, the weekly contribution is kept up, though much less productive in the parish churches than formerly; and in the Dissenting and Free Churches the money thus raised goes far to the support of the ministers, the rest of their income being made up by pew rents. No respectable person in Scotland would think of going out to public worship on the Lord's day, without having previously provided himself with the usual offering. In this way, from ten shillings to two or three pounds, is regularly obtained, according to the numbers or wealth of the congregation, and in many small and poor churches the weekly collection seldom falls below £1 sterling. Thus, a sum of from £50 to £60 is raised by the peo

ple themselves, without any difficulty, and the churches are rendered, in a great measure, independent of foreign aid. Of nearly 800 congregations composing the Free Church of Scotland, only 148 contributed (according to a late calculation) less than £50 a-year for the support of ministers, independently of the schoolmaster's fund, the foreign missions, and other schemes; and in the United Presbyterian Church, consisting chiefly of the middle and working classes, and comprehending upwards of 500 congregations, in the year 1857 only 134 received assistance from the supplementary fund. The total sum raised last year by that body, for all purposes, amounted to within a few pounds of £160,000, showing an average of upwards of £309 for each congregation, and of upwards of £1 for each member. It is no uncommon thing to see a working tradesman, whose weekly income does not exceed ten or twelve shillings, depositing sixpence every Lord's day in the collecting plate, as he passes into the place of worship. No doubt he is content with a plainer dinner than his brethren "of like occupation" in the south; and his wife appears in the pew with fewer ribbons and a less costly gown than her sisters in England; but he has the proud satisfaction of knowing that he not only forms an integral part of the congregation, but has a reasonable claim on the instructions and attention of his pastor, while he feels that it is a privilege as well as a duty to minister to his support, on the principle that, if he be partaker of his spiritual things, his duty is to minister to him in carnal things.

But, without dwelling longer on the views or the doings of other churches, let us endeavour to ascertain what is the will of God in this matter. Do the Scriptures afford any information on the subject, or furnish any rule by which the churches may be guided respecting the best means of supporting the Gospel among themselves? We take it for granted that all the members of our body are satisfied as to the lawfulness of ministerial support, and hold it as a standing law of Christ's kingdom, that "they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel." We admit that there is no authority in the New Testament for the exaction of tithes, or the compulsory maintenance of pastors. This

mode of supporting the ordinances of religion formed part of that "yoke of bondage" from which Christ came to set his people free: there is no enactment in the statute-book of his kingdom, enforcing pains and penalties on those who withhold from his servants their just rights, or laying down the exact measure of giving. Christ reigns over "a willing people," and requires nothing which is not the result of conviction and the fruit of faith and love. Even under the law no civil penalties were inflicted on those who defrauded the priesthood of their legal claim; God reserved the punishment in his own hand, by "staying the heaven from dew, and the earth from her fruit." Still the law remained in force, "Thou shalt not forsake the Levite, for he hath no part nor inheritance with you," Deut. xiv. 27.

It would appear that, at the great festivals of the Hebrew Church, regular contributions were made for the support of public worship; for it is expressly enjoined that "none should appear before the Lord empty," Deut. xvi. 16, 17; and the rule of giving is substantially the same with that afterwards laid down by the apostle: "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord which he hath given them." To the same effect is the exhortation of the Psalmist: "Bring an offering, and come into his courts." In the time of our Saviour it would appear the people were accustomed to "cast into the treasury" certain voluntary contributions as they passed into the house of God; and it was on this occasion that our Lord commended the faith of the poor widow, who threw in her two mites, even all her living, Mark xii. 41-44.

But it is to the authority of the apostles and to the practice of the primitive church we must especially look for direction in this matter. Our Lord, when he sent forth his disciples to preach, forbade them to take gold, or silver, or brass in their purses, and permitted them to avail themselves of the hospitality of the people to whom they ministered, on the equitable principle that "the workman is worthy of his meat:" and the apostle refers to this rule in giving directions to Timothy respecting the support of pastors: "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour"

(or of a more liberal maintenance) 1 Eph. v. 17, 18. In his Epistle to the Galatians (vi. 6), he recognizes the duty of churches to maintain their pastors: "Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things;" but it is especially in his first Epistle to the Corinthians that he lays down the law of Christ on this point: "Do ye not know that they who minister about holy things live or eat (esthiousi) of the things of the temple; and they who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel," 1 Cor. ix. 4-14.

Such being the ground on which the right of pastoral support rests, the next question is, how are the necessary means to be provided, or in what way may this duty be most easily and efficiently discharged? Now, without denying the lawfulness or expediency of other modes for the attainment of this end, such as annual subscriptions, pew rents, and quarterly collections, we hesitate not to say, that the weekly offering is the most simple, effectual, and scriptural method of raising the necessary supplies. On this subject the Rev. John Ross, of Woodbridge, has written largely and forcibly, not only in separate tracts, which have been widely circulated, but in a series of communications which have appeared in the pages of the British Standard, with the full concurrence of its able and indefatigable editor, Dr. Campbell. He may be said, indeed, to have exhausted the subject, and to have advanced all that can be urged in defence and commendation of the practice. Still, it may be useful, on the present occasion, to review the leading arguments in its favour, and to show its practicability and efficiency, as well as to answer some of the more common objections that have been brought forward by its opponents.

1. There can be no reasonable doubt that the primitive churches held their stated assemblies on the Lord's day. Thus it is said of the disciples of Troas that "they met together on the first day of the week," Acts xx. 7. This is spoken of as their usual practice. It is no less certain that, on these occasions, among other observances, they brought certain contributions along with them, which were put into the common stock. So it is said of the

church in Jerusalem, immediately after its institution: "They continued stedfastly (or constantly) in the apostle's doctrine, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers." The original word for "the jellowship" is the same word that is elsewhere applied to the contribution for the poor saints, in Rom. xv. 26: "It hath pleased them of Macedonia to make a certain contribution." The same word occurs in 2 Cor. ix. 13: "They glorify God for the liberality of your contributions" (fellowship); but we have the same evidence that this "fellowship," or contribution, formed part of their usual religious observances, as "the apostles' doctrine, the breaking of bread, and the prayers;" for it is mentioned in the same category, and the disciples continued constantly or steadfastly in them all. Hence we soon afterwards read of "a daily ministration"--an expression which supports a regular and frequent contribution, from which this ministration was supplied. No doubt this fund was set apart for the relief of the poor, and especially of widows; but it is almost certain that the apostles and elders were also maintained out of it; deacons were appointed to superintend its management; and in this way the apostles were enabled to "give themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." That such contributions were usually made on the first day of the week is evident from what Paul says: "Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come," 1 Cor. xvi. 1,2. From this passage it is evident that the church of Corinth usually met on the first day of the week; secondly, that the apostle enjoined them to collect their contributions on that day; and, thirdly, that the same order had been given to the Galatian churches; and, as the churches in Macedonia collected for the same object, a similar order had probably been given to them, 2 Cor. viii. 1, 2. But why collect on the first day of the week, rather than on any other day? Evidently because this was not only the day of their assembly, but the day on which they usually brought their contributions. But, it will be said, the apostle does