We divided our strength and preached both days till we were completely exhausted. Many heard attentively, but the noise and dust were far from agreeable. Several were met with who had read our books, and the applicants were very numerous. As however, many tracts had been distributed here in former years we thought it desirable to be sparing. A few books we succeeded in selling. Leaving the native brethren to visit another festival, Mr. Bailey and I returned to Cuttack. Over a large tract of country the seed was scattered, and we look to God for the increase. BAZAARS AT CUTTACK. A SMALL box received from some kind friends in London, not connected with our denomination, was disposed of on the 15th of February, and realized rupees 190 (£19). We felt thankful and encouraged, especially as our local subscriptions had fallen off the last two or three months, owing to changes and removals. On the 27th and 28th March, a bazaar was held in the Mission College to dispose of the articles in a box sent by Mrs. Young, of Rothesay; and we are glad to state that, including a few articles since sold, the sales realized rupees 480 (£48), and some articles still remain unsold, which will, no doubt, in due course be disposed of. Most of the labour of the bazaar devolved on Miss Guignard, but other friends cheerfully rendered their help in various ways. The proceeds are to be devoted to three objects-the Girls' School, the Brides' Fund connected with the same, and the Female School at Choga. This box, though the largest and best assorted of any we have received, was not sent by any society, but was the gift of private benevolence. A few friends at Rothesay, who had read with much interest our Indian Report for 1860, aided in the effort, but the labour and expense of preparing and sending out the box devolved almost entirely on this estimable lady and her family. We hope not to offend the unostentatious christian excellence, which we so much esteem, by expressing the high appreciation we entertain of their self-denying and benevolent effort. Surely, in such a case, we may apply the gracious words, "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love." LOCAL SUBSCRIPTIONS, CUTTACK. A FEW months ago our subscriptions were much reduced by the death of one liberal friend, and the removal of several others, but I am thankful to say that God has sent others in their places. The head quarters of the Orissa Irrigation and Canal Company have been fixed at Cuttack. This has increased the European community here, and as several of them are decidedly christian men we are helped in the work of the Lord. One friend gives five rupees a month (10s.) and a donation of fifty rupees (£5); another subscribes twenty rupees (£2) a month; and the monthly subscription of a third is twenty-five rupees (£2 10s.). I cannot but hope that the Irrigation Company will greatly benefit Orissa. It seems so sad that such a body of water as we have recently seen should pursue its course to the sea, not only without doing good, but in many places doing much mischief, when it might be turned to good account. DEAD YET LIVING. THE cedar is most useful when dead. It is the most productive when its place knows it no more. There is no timber like it. Firm in grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and Time himself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the chambers which it ceils, Foreign Letters Received. the worms will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards. All but immortal in itself, it transfuses its amaranthine qualities to the objects around it. Every Christian is useful in his life; but the goodly cedars are the most useful afterwards. Luther is dead, but the Reformation lives. Calvin is dead, but his vindication of God's free and sovereign grace will never die. Knox, Melville, and Henderson are dead, but Scotland still retains a Sabbath and a Christian peasantry, a Bible in every house, and a school in every parish. 64 Bunyan is dead, but his bright spirit still walks the earth in his Pilgrim's Progress." Baxter is dead, but souls are quickened by the "Saints' Rest." Cowper is dead, but the "golden apples" are still as 439 fresh as when newly gathered, in the "silver basket" of the " Olney Hymns." Eliot is dead, but the missionary enterprise is young. Henry Martyn is dead, but who can count the apostolic spirits, who, phoenix-like, have started from his funeral pile. Howard is dead, but modern philanthropy is only commencing its career. Raikes is dead, but the Sabbath-schools go on. Wilberforce is dead, but the negro will find for ages a protector in his memory.— Rev. Dr. Hamilton. Died at Piplee, August 6th, George Buckley, eldest son of the Rev. G. Taylor. Aged 5 years and 6 months. This is the fourth child Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have followed to the grave since they left England seven years ago. Foreign Letters Received. CUTTACK.-J. Buckley, Aug. 16, Sep. 3. -W. Hill, September 3. PIPLEE.-G. Taylor, August 14. Contributions RECEIVED ON ACCOUNT OF THE GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, From September 20th to October 20th, 1862. Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by Robert Pegg, Esq., Treasurer, Derby; and by the Rev. J. C. Pike, Secretary, Leicester, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books and Cards may be obtained. cumstances demand. There is nothing in the arrangements of our congregational churches which requires more attention and revision than their government. Everything betokens the convulsion of present systems, to prepare, it is to be hoped, for a system of ecclesiastical arrangements to which the faithful will submit themselves, in which, on the one hand, the liberty of each believer will be preserved, and on the other, the authority of Christ's laws will be effectually maintained. We have not the least desire to interfere with the independency, or congregational order of our churches, but we would have it tempered with a wholesome conservatism. THE writer is perfectly convinced, | claims which the times and cir by long and painful experience, that it is impossible for one man, even under the most favourable circumstances, to meet the spiritual claims of a large church and congregation, both in public and private. The amount of labour devolving upon a minister in a large town is overwhelming; not only has he to prepare diligently and fully for the Lord's-day, and to attend, during the week, various services and public meetings, and these alone are sufficient to occupy all his time and energy, but he has the sick to visit, the discipline of the church to conduct, the unruly to rebuke, quarrels and grievances to redress, religious and benevolent societies to aid, countenance, and advocate, marriages to solemnize, funeral services to conduct, to aid all public institutions, to observe the ordinances, and a variety of other duties. Surely the Divine Master never intended His servants to have accumulated upon them duties too onerous and too numerous to he discharged; and hence, in every large church a plurality of pastors, or elders, is most desirable, entirely in harmony with Scripture, and necessary to meet the imperative VOL. III.-NEW SERIES, No. 12. The voice of the church, in the present day, demands an efficient ministry. In order to this, besides the gifts and grace required for such a work, far more time is required for pulpit preparation. The entire week spent in *We have been requested to publish the above brief paper, written by Rev. H. Dow comply. We commend the remarks of son, of Bradford, and very cheerfully Mr. Dowson to the thoughtful attention of our readers.-ED. the study, and devoted to prayer, reading, and actual preparation is not too much for the work which the Sabbath demands. It is affecting to think how many ministers are compelled by engagements, thrust upon them, to ascend the pulpit with brief and scanty preparation. The marvel is, not that they sometimes fail to interest and edify, but that they are able, under such disadvantages, to edify their congregations at all. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint, under the pressure of labours, which others should perform. It is the fault of the churches that the ministry becomes feeble. They bind heavy burdens grevious to be borne, and place them upon their ministers' shoulders, and, sometimes will not touch them with one of their fingers. Services of a public, and not urfrequently of a private character are required of the preachers of the gospel, utterly estranged from their calling. Few, amongst the professed disciples of Christ, have any conception of the mental anxiety and effort necessary to sustain the successful preaching of the Word. It is not so difficult to fill up halfan-hour in desultory remarks upon a passage of Scripture; but, to meet the spiritual wants, Sabbath after Sabbath, of an assembly composed of persons with a variety of experience, difficulties, prejudices, and mistakes; to adapt the message to the conscience of each of them, rightly to divide the Word of Truth, aud to give to every man a portion of meat in due season, this can only be done instrumentally by the most diligent preparation, reading, and thought. We would not for a moment discourage a friendly and confidential intercourse between the minister and his people, (and their are occasions of personal and domestic sorrow, where his absence would be improper and unkind,) but this we seriously believe, that the low state of religion in many of our churches is connected with the constant harass of engagements which preclude the duties of the study, and render the pulpit exercises defective and barren; and it generally appears that the individuals who have been most solicitous to engross the pastor's time, and estrange him from his own sacred employ, are the first to complain of defective ministrations, and to require sermons of a higher order, as the demand of the times. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus, the declaration of the whole council of God, is a minister's chief employ. He is to give himself wholly to it. It is a work in itself, requiring the entire energies of his mind;-sufficient to absorb a life in its interests and responsibilities. Everything besides must be subordinate to this. It is not the press, though that instrument is mighty for its purpose; not private conversation and enforcement of Divine Truth in the domestic circle; not visitations from house to house; it is the work of the evangelist, the public, solemn, procla mation of man's ruin and Christ's salvation, that the Spirit of God will own for the conversion of men. The emphatic and reiterated commands of our Divine Lord make this certain. This admonition sounds from His throne, Go thou, and preach the kingdom of God. THE NEWBURYS: THEIR OPINIONS AND FORTUNES. A GLIMPSE OF BAPTISTS IN ENGLAND TWO CENTURIES AGO. CHAPTER XVIII. A DOUBLE WEDDING. HAPPY were the days that followed | of their existence. There was asking the meeting of Stephen and Keturah, and joyously the opening summer symbolized the newness and richness of questions and answerings, gentle touchings upon sacred memories and solitary hours, swift glances back. |