1

DOMESTIC.

RELIGIOUS.

Oldbury Double Lecture.

THE Annual Meeting of Ministers, denominated "The Double Lecture," took place at Oldbury, in Shropshire, on Tuesday, (the second Tuesday,) September the 10th. The Rev. John Small, of Cosely, conducted the devotional service, and the Rev. Edmund Kell, of Birming ham, and the Rev. John Kenrick, of York, preached. Mr. Edmund Kell's sermon was founded on Heb. xii. 14; "Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord;" and Mr. Kenrick's on Matt. xxiv. 1, 2: “ And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Both the sermons were listened to with much pleasure by a very respectable congregation. The ministers and several of their friends afterwards dined together; Henry Hunt, Esq., of West Bromwich, being in the Chair.

J. H. B.

Welsh Unitarian Quarterly Meeting of Ministers.

THE Welsh Unitarian Quarterly Meeting of Ministers was held on Thursday 1 the 26th day of September last, at Panty-defaid, Cardiganshire. There was ser vice at Capel y-Groes, on the preceding afternoon, where Mr. J. Griffiths, of Llandybie, introduced, and Mr. Thomas Evans, of Aberdår, preached from Job xxxii. 9, 10; the object of whose sermon was to shew that it is not the duty of Unitarians, in present circumstances, to support Missionary Societies. At Pant-y-defaid, on the 26th, Mr. B. Philips, of St. Clears, introduced, and J. James, of Gelli-Onnen, delivered a discourse on Original Sin, from Eph. ii. 3; and concluded with a short prayer. Im mediately after, an open conference was held, Mr. J. Thomas, the minister at the place, in the Chair. The question proposed at the last summer meeting by Dr. Thomas Rees, namely, Whether it be proper that the Lord's Supper be administered at our Meetings of Ministers, in which all that wish may partake, was, in

the absence of the proposer, moved by J. James, of Gelli-Onnen. And after a long, a very interesting and friendly debate, in which a greater number of per sons took a part than the writer has ever witnessed at any of our meetings, it was at last unanimously agreed to adjourn the question to the Annual Meeting at Capel-y-Groes in June next, when the subject is to be reconsidered, and the Lord's Supper to be administered, if it be then thought proper. There were present about twelve preachers. The audience was numerous and seemed very attentive, and the writer does not know that any man went away till the conclusion of the conference, about two o'clock, and service began at ten. Though the time must be at least four hours, no one seemed impatient or inclined to complain that it was loug.

The next meeting is to be at Aberdâr, near Merthyr, on the 2d of January next. Mr. John Davies, of Capel-y-Groes, to preach, and Mr. B. Philips, of St. Clears, to preach in the evening of the preceding day.

Fardre, October 22, 1822.

J. JAMES.

Testimony of Respect from the Unitarian Congregation, Tenterden, to their Pastor, the Rev. Lawrence Holden, on completing the Fiftieth Year of his Ministry.

15, Russell Street, Covent Garden, SIR, October 10, 1822.

A FEW months ago, the Congregation of the Unitarian Chapel at Tenterden, came to a unanimous resolution of presenting a piece of Plate to their highly-respected Pastor, the Rev. Lawrence Hol den; he having completed his fiftieth year's ministry at that Chapel. The plate selected was à Cup; which was presented a few Sundays ago by the two deacons, after the afternoon service, the congregation being present. The paper enclosed is a copy of the inscription upon the cup, also the addresses of the dea cons, and the reply of Mr. Holden.

The Tenterden Chapel is endowed with a piece of land, which lets for about 120. per annum; also a house and garden close to the Chapel for the minister; likewise a small burial-ground attached to the Chapel. A Charity-school has been established some years for educating a

into the hearts of the younger members of this Society to establish a Sunday School, to enable all the children of the poor to read the Holy Scriptures, to guide them through life, to support them in death, and to lead them to everlasting mansions of happiness beyond the grave.

Having mentioned but few amongst the numerous benefits we have derived from your invaluable ministry among us, we sincerely hope it will please our heavenly Father to bless you with many years of health and strength to continue your ever-active and useful exertions.

Happy, Rev. Sir, am I to state to you, this Cup is procured by the mutual wishes and mutual exertions of the whole of this Society, whose feelings of affectionate attachment are but feebly shewn in offering for your acceptance this “small tribute of respect and gratitude for fifty years' exertion in the cause of Christianity, and in promoting the best interest and happiness of man."

Mr. Holden's Reply.

1 confess, my fellow-christians, that I want words to express my obligations to you for all your acts of kindness; for the attention you have always been ready to pay me in my public services, and particularly for this testimony of your respect and affection; for, next to the favour and approbation of Almighty God, and the testimony of my own mind, I have ever set the highest value on the esteem and affection of this congregation.

All the returns I can make are the warmest good wishes for your earthly prosperity; or that, so far as a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness shall know it to be consistent with your highest and best interests and everlasting happiness, your cup of earthly good may flow over; but above all, that you may be pre-eminent in all Christian knowledge, and more especially in all those Christian virtues which add the highest worth to the human character, and are your appointed qualifications for the happiness of an endless being.

Upon your reminding me of the various plans of usefulness which have taken place in this Society, I can only wish that I had done more, and this more effectually, in promoting the good of others, and the sacred interests of religion in the world.

But particularly as to the SundaySchool, I would pay a just tribute to the young of this Society, with whom it originated, and who have pursued this highly commendable object with unabated zeal and ardour from its beginning. To this I would add, that on all other occa

sions I have had the ready co-operation of my friends. As to myself, in whatever degree I may have been useful to you or to the world, to God be all the glory.

To the Two Deacons.

I have also to express my obligations to you, Gentlemen, for the respectful and affectionate manner in which you have fulfilled the trust reposed in you.

I can only add, may the best blessings of Heaven attend on all around me.

in Birmingham, a few months ago, testiTHE Congregation of the New Meeting fied its sense of the important services which it has received during a series of years from one of its members, who (will he excuse the writer for saying it?) cannot be known without being esteemed, by presenting him with a very elegant piece of plate. The following is the inscription which it bears:

This piece of plate is presented to Mr. THOMAS RYLAND, by the Members of the Congregation of the New Meeting House, as a memorial of their gratitude for his highly valuable services in instructing the children of their SundaySchools in singing, during thirty-four years, and for his kind attention to the psalmody of their public worship.

"Birmingham, November 1, 1821." We have sincere pleasure in recording such testimonies of gratitude and affection. B.

THE REV. J. DONOUGHUE has resigned the pastoral charge of the congregation assembling at the "Great Meeting House," in the High Street, Coventry: and on Sunday, October 13, the Meeting House, which had been shut up for more than three months, during which time a large proportion of the congregation regularly met, on the Lord's-day, in a different part of the city, was again opened for public worship, by the Rev. James Hews Bransby, of Dudley; who preached, in the morning, from Psa. cxxii. 1: “Í was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord;" and in the afternoon, from Col. i. 28: "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Mr. Bransby concluded his morning sermon with an address adapted to the peculiar circumstances of the congregation, urging on his hearers, the paramount importance of those great principles in the profession of which they were assembled; and affectionately re

The Rev. Dr. MEARNS, Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen, Moderator to last Assembly, delivered an appropriate discourse, in the High Church, from St. John x. 17 and 18; after which, his Grace and suite proceeded to the Assem. bly-house by the new entrance appropriated to their use, when the General Assembly was constituted with prayer by the late Moderator.

The names of members whose commissions had been produced having been read,

The Rev. Dr. MEARNS observed, that it was now the time when the Assembly, as usual, should proceed to elect a Moderator for the present session. He therefore begged leave to propose the Rev. Dr. LAMONT as a candidate for the Chair; a gentleman whose respectability of character, knowledge of the laws and business of the Church, and general talents, had been so long and so well known to all the members of this Court, as to make it unnecessary for him at present to enlarge upon his merits and qualifications for that office.

Principal NICOL seconded the motion. Sir HENRY MONCRIEFF then rose to propose another candidate, Dr. GEORGE Cook, of Laurencekirk. This gentleman's talents and experience in the proceedings of the Church were known to every one present; and, he might add, his charac ter and abilities were held in so high an estimation by the public at large, that he felt he might sit down, without saying another word in commendation of him. The motion was seconded by Professor JARDINE, of Glasgow.

Dr. Cook then entered into a long statement and refutation of the charges which had been brought against him, of being a renegado, turning his back on his former friends, and being a person disaffected both to Church and State. He was the same man that he had ever been. He had spent much time in studying the history of the church, and had contemplated with admiration the character of its founders, and with gratitude

the result of their beneficent labours; and after having experienced these feelings, if he was capable of turning against the Ark of our Zion, then must his understanding have been completely perdestroyed. verted, and every honourable principle

Principal NICOL was proceeding to address the House, and to answer those charges preferred by Dr. Cook against many of those with whom he acted, when

The LORD PRESIDENT objected to any discussion taking place, observing that it would be endless, as it would lead to disagreeable altercation.

After some delay, the votes were called and marked, when the numbers were found to be

Majority........ —132

Dr. Lamont was then called in, and informed by Mr. Mearns, that he was elected. The Rev. Doctor accordingly took the Chair, when his Grace's commission and his Majesty's most gracious letter were read,

His Grace the COMMISSIONER then addressed the Assembly, and communicated the Royal warrant for 2000, to be eniployed in the propagation of Christian knowledge in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

The MODERATOR replied; and after arranging the meetings of Committees and other routine business, the Assembly adjourned.—Edinburgh Paper.

Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty.

(Concluded from p. 645.)

Prohi

Or Miscellaneous Matters, which were many and important, (continued Mr. WILKS,) the following were most prominent. Complaints as to restrictions on soldiers respecting religious worship, which he believed the Royal Commanderin-Chief would readily redress. bitions of visits to prisons by Dissenting Ministers. The Bill depending in Parliament, known as "The Marriage Service Act," and intended to relieve Unitarians from embarrassments, which all should deprecate and avert, and which was recommended to approval and sup port. Proceedings at Great Chart, in Kent, where an agent of the clergyman and magistrate, required WM. BRENCH LEY and his wife, worthy Wesleyan Methodists, to sign a pledge not to visit the

sick, and to hold no religious converse with the poor, on pain of being turned out of a house and forge, where the honest blacksmith had long lived, and his livelihood obtained. But to that threatening ruin (like old believers) they submitted, relying only through the remnant of their lives, on the good Providence of God. The vexations that in Suffolk had visited a worthy shopkeeper at Stonham Aspal, and thought to be directed by a Prebendary of Norwich Cathedral! an Incumbent of several livings! and also an acting magistrate! and only because he went to a neighbouring parish-church, and dared to distribute Church Missionary Tracts. The prosecution at Manchester of Mr. WALLER, for obstructing the highway when he preached on the steps of a house at Ashton-upon-Line. For that offence, although excellent in character, possessed of fortune, and suffering from ill health, by a bench of Justices, with a Clergyman as Chairman, he was committed for the long period of three months to the common gaol! While too that sentence was made to seem vindictive, by the committal on the same day, to the same prison, but only for one month, of a woman guilty of publicly selling songs too indecent to be even publicly submitted to the court!

Some proceedings at Wisbeach on the election of a great Burgess; when it appeared that all votes given at a corporate election, for a Dissenter, are thrown away, and that the next candidate with a smaller number of votes is duly elected, if before the election the disqualification of the Dissenter from the nontaking of the Sacrament, be publicly announced. The notice of this proceeding was succeeded by a long and able explanation of the origin, degradation, and impolicy of the Corporation Act, of the folly and profanity of the Sacramental Test, and of the insufficiency and dishonour of the Acts of Indemnity annually passed; and by an urgent and eloquent entreaty, that Protestant Dissenters would resume universally their attention to these obnoxious Acts, and would prepare for a wise, deliberate, but prompt and simultaneous application to Parliament for their repeal.

For the protection and honour of Dis. senters, several matters required to be attained. He presented them that they might never be forgotten. They should be inscribed in characters of fire. They should be known, desired, sought sought with union and perseverance until attained; if so sought, that attainment was secure. They were, 1. A legislative explanation of the Toleration Acts, whereby the penalties for disturb4 Y

VOL. XVII.

ing their religious assemblies, could be enforced without delay, or expense, by the courts before whom convictions were obtained. 2. The placing of Baptists in the same situation as to the right of burial, with all other Dissenters. 3. The exemption of their places of worship from parochial assessment. 4. The publicity and security of all their registrations of baptismus and interments; and 5th. That repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, which though last announced, was most to be desired. Year after year, he purposed to present these objects to their view: and if the memory of their greatly-good forefathers was truly cherished, and the love of posterity was really felt-they would not be looked upon as unattainable, or worthless— they would be rightly estimated and finally obtained. Nor would the safety of the Established Church be compromised by their success. Its situation might be less elevated, but would be more secure; the rude frowning eminence would be exchanged for a lowlier but safer site. Toleration would be made more tolerable; and as the fetters remaining on Dissenters would be lighter and less gall. ing, they might be more quiescently and permanently worn.

Mr. WILKS then adverted to the Royal and noble and distinguished Patrons of the Society, who had successively filled the chair at the Annual Meetings, and passed a high eulogium upon the Russell family and the present Chairman. He concluded with a review of the state of Religious Liberty on the continent of Europe, and sate down amidst loud and long-continued acclamations.

A series of Resolutions were then passed, of which we give the 1st, 4th, 5th and 8th:

1. That, aware of the benefits resulting from the frequent and public avowal of memorable truths, this Meeting again declare, that the right to Religious Liberty is a universal, paramount, unalienable right-that religious opinions should not alone entitle or disqualify for public offices-that all restraints on their expression, by penalties or exclusions, are acts of oppression and of wrong-that the connexion of privileges and emoluments with particular opinions may create hypocrites or martyrs, but that the unrestricted allowance of all religious opinions and diversites of worship is essential to the rights of conscience, favourable to the promotion of piety, and propitious to the harmony and improvement of mankind—and that this Meeting observe with pleasure the progressive recognition of these truths throughout various countries of the world, and ardently