There suspicion and distrust shall never be known 'Mongst the loving and loved ones who bend round the throne. And let us rejoice that our heavenly Friend, Having loved us all once, will love on to the end; Not changing as friends upon earth sometimes do, But immutably faithful-eternally true! THE RIGHTEOUS SOUL'S RE LEASE. On, mark the spirit in her upward flight, A new, a vivid, a capacious life Her essence thrills. Her faculties expand With infinite expansion. Every power, Each passion, inclination, feeling, thought, Has been, if earthly, sensual, and impure, In death annihilated; if heaven-born, Preserved, perfected, and subservient made Unto her ever-satisfying bliss. What rapture fills the soul when thus she opes Her eye upon the infinite-when thus Unshackled, from mortality's dull prison, time to others. He commenced his historical review by furnishing some interesting information respecting Mr. Newcome, whom he described as the "honoured founder of Manchester Nonconformity." The speaker confined his remarks to persons and circumstances of local interest. The Rev. A. E. Pearce read a paper "On the Congregational Churches in Relation to Sabbath-schools and other Institutions." The paper stated the dates and circumstances connected with the erection of the various chapels in Manchester, which now numbered 26, erected at a cost of £100,000, and attending which were about 3,500 members, and about 17,000 hearers. Sabbath-schools had been formed in connection with all the chapels, and they were now taught by 1,000 gratuitous teachers, and attended by 10,000 scholars. Missionary societies had been formed by the influence of Mr. Roby; the first juvenile auxiliary in 1812. The amount contributed altogether had been about £150,000. In illustration of the effect which the missionary spirit thus fostered had produced, he mentioned that one church had sent forth 37 ministers, 11 of whom had gone out as missionaries to the heathen, and among them the devoted Moffatt. The Rev. P. Thomson read a paper "On Practical Lessons suggested by the Past." From the past they had got a pure theology, which they were bound to transmit to their posterity. They had had in Manchester eminent advocates of a pure theology, two of whom he would name, Mr. Roby and Mr. M'All. Having passed a eulogium on the characters of these ministers, he said that a great responsibility rested on those who now occupied their pulpits, and who laboured in the community they once blessed, to transmit the same pure theology to the future. To this end their ministry should be a learned one. They should be learned in simplicity, and derive their aids in theology from the writings of their Puritan forefathers. He alluded next to the characteristics of their church, which he should like to see preserved "purity of communion" and "free prayer." The interesting services connected with the celebration of this centenary were brought to a close by a united communion of the Congregational churches in Manchester and Salford, in Cavendish-street chapel. NEW INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, FAZELEY, NEAR TAMWORTH. ON Thursday, Dec. 11, 1856, the above chapel, in connection with the interest at Tamworth, which is under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Burgess, was opened for the stated worship of God, when sermons were preached by the Rev. John Angell James and the Rev. R. W. Dale, M.A., of Carr's-lane Chapel. Friends from neighbouring parts showed their sympathy in the providing of spiritual means for another congregation from a populous locality, not over supplied with Gospel ordinances. The pastor of the Independent church at Tamworth was congratulated that he had now a second means for usefulness afforded him, as, with Wilnecote on the one hand, and Fazeley on the other, he had enlarged opportunities. The following ministers from the surrounding neighbourhood were present on the occasion, and took part in the important services: -The Revs. Peter Sibree, of Birmingham; George Swann, of Stafford; Thomas Burgess, of Tamworth; James Gouge, of Polesworth; Robert Massie, and James Read, of Atherstone; and Thomas Johnson, of Hinckley, formerly of Tamworth, who had engaged to occupy the pulpit on the following Lord's day. This small but neat and commodious chapel, in the early English style, has been built by a resident in Fazeley, who is one of the deacons of the Independent church in Tamworth, with the intention of its becoming denominational. No rent will be charged the first year; but if, twelve months hence, the people are not in a position to have it conveyed to trustees, a small yearly rent will be charged, until, by occasional collections, and the generous assistance of friends at a distance, the money expended will be realized, when the chapel will be conveyed over to the Independent denomination. The entire responsibility has been incurred, not by a wealthy Nonconformist, but by an unassuming and useful Christian man, of the class of village shopkeepers. PARK CHAPEL, SYDENHAM. IT will be gratifying to many friends of evangelical enterprise to learn, that at a recent meeting of the congregation connected with this place of worship, it was resolved to endeavour forthwith to dispose of the pecuniary liabilities with which it has hitherto been encumbered. At the time it came into the hands of the London Congregational Chapel Building Society-about three years since the debt amounted to 2,3351. By the blessing of God, partly on the ministrations of the devoted Pastor, the Rev. T. C. Hine (then introduced to this sphere of labour), through the generous aid of the Chapel Building Society, and the liberality of the congregation and many friends, only 2001. are now needed to accomplish the proposed scheme of liquidation; and this amount it is hoped will be realized before the next anniversary of re-opening in June. The chapel would, with the addition of galleries, be capable of seating six hundred persons. Perhaps few denominational edifices of the same limited extent will be found anywhere to represent a more satisfactory combination of ecclesiastical variety :-Episcopalians and Presbyterians, as well as Baptists, uniting with Independents, statedly and harmoniously, in its ordinances of worship. This the church desires to record, not as a matter of boast, but of devout encouragement, in the midst of some special losses which it has been called during the past year to sustain, in consequence of the erection of an affiliated chapel at Anerley, and the commencement of another chapel by a kindred denomination in the immediate neighbourhood. Theology. ON THE LOVE OF GOD IN TIME.-No. II. IN the last Number of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS we sought to furnish to the saints of God some unfoldings of the fond and fervent affection which he feels towards them, as these are to be found in the fact of his being their God and they his people. But as it is a matter of such unspeakable importance to the saints, both as it relates to the Divine glory and their own comfort, that their minds should be thoroughly grounded in the great truth, that God loves them in time as he did in eternity, the assurance of that blessed fact cannot be made too sure to them. Let us glance, then, at some of the relations which God is represented in his word as sustaining to his people, and which are eminently adapted to assure their hearts of the tender affection which he cherishes towards them in time. First of all, then, there is that most endearing and most tender of relations, the relation of FATHER. God is, in a sense, the Father of all men. He is called the Father of the spirits of all flesh. He is our Maker, the great Creator of every living thing. We all owe our breath and being to him. In that respect, therefore, he is the universal Parent, the Father of us all. But he is the Father of his people in a peculiar sense. He is so by their regeneration and adoption; and regarded parentally in that light, there is a blessedness in the relationship which no mind can conceive, and which neither the tongues of angels nor of glorified saints will be able through all eternity fully to express. Everywhere in the Scriptures God is, in this sense, spoken of as the Father of his people. It is not necessary to quote passages from the word of God to confirm or illustrate the statement. Every attentive reader of his Bible-and every saint is presumed to be so-will be able at once to recal to his remembrance many portions of the inspired volume in which God is represented as sustaining the relationship of Father to his people. There is no name more dear on earth to well-regulated minds than that of Father. It is a word in VOL. XIV. which there is an inexhaustible amount of meaning. We know what depths of affection there are in a father's heart towards his children. We know that it is as natural for him to love them as it is for the sun to shine. And that love leads him to bear with their waywardness, to exercise patience amidst the greatest provocations they can give him, to provide for their various wants, to protect them in times of danger, to pity them in their distress, to sustain them in their hours of depression, to solace them in their seasons of sorrow, to delight in their society, and to forgive their faults when they have done amiss. If all this is true of the better class of earthly fathers, how much more true is it of God in the Fatherly relation which he sustains to his people. Who shall set forth the love, the pity, the compassion that there are in the heart of God towards his saints? These attributes of his character are all infinite, like himself; yet though they cannot be comprehended, we are enabled to form some conception of what is included in the word Father, as applied to God, when we think of the glory which attaches to the relationship. "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord." Here the great Jehovah actually, in a sense, elevates us poor worms of the dust, and rebels against his government, to the dignity which belongs to himself. No wonder that the apostle Paul, when he contemplated that glorious and gracious relationship, broke out in the rapturous exclamation, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." But though the term Father is to all the children of God, or, at least, ought to be, inexpressibly blessed in itself, because of the unfathomable depths there are in it of the love, the tenderness, the pity, the condescension, and solicitude of God towards us, it is found to possess a peculiar import and sweetness in the frequency with which it was employed by Christ, when sojourning as man on earth. If one may H so speak, it was, as will be more fully shown hereafter, the favourite word which Jesus used in his approaches in prayer to Him who sent him to the world to rescue the race from otherwise hopeless ruin. Indeed, in addressing God, Christ hardly ever employed any other term than that of Father. And when speaking to his disciples respecting the supreme Being, he almost invariably made use of the words, "Your Father," "Your heavenly Father," "Your Father in heaven." So, too, when identifying himself, so far as related to his human nature, with his disciples, his most frequent phraseology was, "My Father and your Father." And on that memorable and deeply touching occasion, when, in answer to their solicitation, that he would teach them to pray, the language which he instructed them to employ in approaching the throne of God was, "Our Father which art in heaven;" and no other aspect of the Divine character is presented to us in that beautiful form of prayer. In this, as in all other respects, Christ has left us an example for our imitation. If he constantly regarded God in the endearing relation of Father, and taught us to do so likewise, we surely ought to be obedient to his will. If the people of God could but bring themselves habitually to look on him in the paternal light in which our Redeemer, in his capacity as man, uniformly did, all that slavish dread, which the most eminent saints occasionally feel, would vanish from our minds, and we should sing and rejoice in him. Our hearts would then be drawn out to him in abounding filial affection. There would be a child-like simplicity in our confidence in God; and ever discerning in him all that tenderness, love, and pity, which flows in a Father's bosom, we should be passive in his hands amidst all the chequered scenes of life, feeling that one whose affection for us is so strong, and whose relationship is so sacred, can never himself do, or permit to be done by unfriendly agencies, anything that is not for our real good. Let us, then, seek for grace ever to regard God as our Father; and for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to discern, in some measure, the fulness of meaning there is in the word as applied to God; and then, habitually crying "Abba, Father," we will feel ourselves unspeak ably happy in a sense of his love, and in the outgoing of our affection towards him. The instances in which God speaks of himself, in his holy word, as sustaining the endearing relation of Father to his saints are so very numerous, that all that can be expected of us to do will be to quote a few of them, accompanied with a passing observation, as circumstances may suggest. Allusion has already been made to the tenderness of an earthly father's affection for his children. The Psalmist, taking up that fact, as conveying a better idea of sincere and ardent love than could otherwise be furnished, says of God, that "like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." The term "pitieth," as here employed, is one of great expressiveness. It includes the most tender affection as well as compassion. It unfolds most blessedly the overflowings of God's love towards his people. In Jer. xxxi. 9, we have direct from God's own lips, in his communications with his people, a very delightful unfolding of the fatherly relation which he bears to them: "Behold," says Jehovah himself, "I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." No one can fail to be struck with the way in which this beautiful and precious portion of Scripture winds up. In the verses, as well as in those which preceded, various spiritual blessings of inestimable value to the saint of God, and showing us, as it were, the greatness of the love which he bears to us, are specified in a manner the most marked; and then the passage concludes by clearly indicating the close connection which subsists between the bestowment of those blessings and the fatherly relation which God sustains to his people; "for," says he, "I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." The same blessed words are equally applicable to the spiritual Israel and Ephraim of the present day, and will be so to them so long as the world shall last. We have another proof of the tenderness of God's regards to his people, given by himself, in a reference which he makes to this blessed relationship in Malachi i. 6: “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master if then I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?" He there remonstrates with and rebukes his people for their forgetfulness of him, and their rebelliousness against him; and, in doing so, makes the fact of his sustaining the relationship of Father to them the greatest aggravation that could be given to their misconduct. "If," he says in reproachful terms, "I be a Father, where is mine honour?" God feels in reference to this in the same way as his creatures do on earth, that nothing can be more unnatural, nothing more unseemly, nothing more criminal, than that his children should withhold from him that affection, honour, and homage, which are so eminently his due, in virtue of the Fatherly relation which he bears to them. Because he is our Father, and feels for us with all the tenderness of an affectionate parent, he claims, in return, that we should love, honour, and obey him. Behold, also, in the passage which has just been quoted the wondrous condescension of God in thus stooping to reason and remonstrate with his creatures because they did not render to him that reverential regard to which one sustaining so endearing a relation to them as that of their Father had a right to require and expect at their hands. It might be supposed that such mingled condescension and love would melt the hardest heart, and bring back, with weeping and confessions of the deepest regret, those that have wandered from God, or in any way failed to remember him with the warmest affection, the most profound gratitude, and the loftiest adoration. And yet, alas! it is as true of God's spiritual Israel now as it was of his people in the days of Malachi, that they do not render to him the honour which is due from children to their Father in heaven. And this chiefly arises from the dimness of our perceptions of the fatherly relation in which he stands to us. Did God's saints realize vividly and habitually that glorious and gracious relationship, their hearts would not be harassed with those slavish views of God which, in so many cases, cause them to walk in darkness and in dread, and which indicate how nearly they have been driven to the verge of despair. Let us now meditate for a moment on that solemn and impressive representation which God gives of his tender love towards his people as unfolded in his Fatherly character, which we find in Isa. i. 2. Perhaps there is not a passage of more awful sublimity in the whole word of God than the passage in question. Through the mouth of his prophet he calls heaven and earth to witness the frightful aggravation of his people's guilt in consequence of the parental relation which he bore to them, the unceasing solicitude which he felt for their welfare, and the tender affection with which he regarded them: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against "Nourished and brought up children!" Wondrous words to come direct from the lips of God himself. God, as our Father, nourishing us as a mother nourishes the child in whom her soul's most tender affections are centred! What unutterable love on the part of God is revealed in that precious portion of his word. And how great the depths of the depravity that there are in man, when he could rebel against a being so good and so gracious. me. Let us now come to the developments of the Fatherly character of God which are made to us in the New Testament. Though in the Old Testament, as we have seen, we are furnished with perceptions of the paternal relationship which God sustains to his saints, these are but faint and feeble unfoldings of Jehovah as our Father compared with the effulgent light which is shed around the subject in the brighter and better dispensation under which it is our mercy to live. With the exception of those of whom we read in the books of the law, of the Psalms, and of the prophets, who were privileged to have especially enlightened views of God, even his own peculiar people had but very indistinct ideas of his Fatherly character. They |