clining years. This subject was reserved for the closing session, as probably attendance may not be so numerous on that occasion, and being one of detail, and less popular, it may gain a more effectual sifting in a smaller than in a larger company. There is no reason to doubt of its satisfactory settlement. The important subject of the constitution of the Union having been happily settled to the general satisfaction of all its friends, its financial position seems more safe and hopeful than ever; and the connection of churches and brethren with the Union being more distinctly defined than before, the annual assemblies will be more strictly what they were always intended to bemeetings of the members of the Union,-but not to the exclusion of visiters and friends. And now may the Divine blessing and favour crown all these anticipated meetings with peace, success, and delight! May the Congregational brotherhood find in them times of refreshing from the presence of God! IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY. THE Annual Meeting will be held, in conjunction with the other branches of British Missions, at Exeter Hall, on Tuesday evening, the 9th inst. The chair will be taken at six o'clock, by Alderman Challis. An abstract of the Report will be presented, and officers chosen for the ensuing year. The Committee, on completing their year of office, feel that there is much reason for thankfulness. On entering on their duties, they found the country, over whose spiritual interest they were appointed to watch, suffering under the horrors of famine. Thousands, during the few previous months, had miserably perished, and tens of thousands more must inevitably have died, but for the generosity displayed by the churches, in the noble contributions made to mitigate the woes of that unhappy land. The fund entrusted to them, the Committee, by their own agents and others, were careful to distribute in a way best calculated to effect the object for which it was raised. The remittances made were always accompanied with instructions to relieve the miserable victims of hunger and disease, altogether irrespective of creed or party. By this course of action, not only was an immense amount of suffering mitigated but the happiest effect was produced on the minds of all who were either the recipients of the bounty, or the witnesses of its administration. This fearful visitation has now in a great measure passed away. It has not entirely disappeared, for in some districts there are hundreds who are still on the very borders of starvation. The Committee are, therefore, thankful that they have yet a surplus of the Relief Fund in hand, which they are gradually dispensing, in the hope that, should God in his providence vouchsafe, in its season, an abundant harvest, the calamity will be entirely abated, and the population that remain be found in happier, because less suffering, circumstances. The Committee have great pleasure in stating that the effect produced by this truly awful visitation is most salutary. Multitudes are not only willing, but eager to listen to the evangelical instructions of the agents. There is now no difficulty in obtaining congregations. The prejudices of the Catholics are, to a great extent, melted away. They have had such proofs of the disinterested conduct of the agents, that they no longer regard them with jealousy and hatred, but recognise them as their best friends, as they have been their most generous benefactors. If the Society could employ three times the number of agents, they might at once enter on the most promising fields of labour. Nothing but the want of sufficient funds prevents the Committee from engaging the services of suitable men, either as Missionaries or Scripture Readers, and they will retire from their office at the approaching Annual Meeting, earnestly entreating their successors to strive to the utmost to improve the favourable crisis to which God in his providence has conducted the Society. In their last Report the Committee had to announce, that in the three principal cities, Dublin, Limerick, and Cork, pastors were needed for churches in these places. This deficiency is happily supplied. The Rev. Wm. Shaw, late of Highbury College, is labouring with great acceptance at Cork. A promising young minister, who has completed his term of study at Manchester College, has been unanimously and cordially invited to succeed the late lamented Mr. W. H. Cooper, in Dublin. The Rev. Wm. Tarbotton, at the request of the Committee, has consented to sever himself from an affectionate and attached church, at Totness, and to devote himself to the cause of Christ in Ireland, and to take the oversight of the church at Limerick. These are circumstances which excite the devout thankfulness of the Committee. It is to be hoped that this will prove, not only an accession to the number of devoted congregational ministers in the country, but that, by their counsels and efforts, in harmony with the honoured brethren who have long borne the burden and heat of the day, the happiest and most delightful results will, ere long, be realised. The Committee would call on the subscribers and friends of the Society to unite with them in the prayer, "O Lord, we beseech thee, send now prosperity!" COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY. AMONG the trials and difficulties encountered We The Colonial Missionary Society is now visited with an instance of this nature. Of the various missions undertaken by this society, that to St. John, New Brunswick, was one of the most important and hopeful. The rising consequence of the city-its position relative to the two extensive provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Our the peculiar character of the population of those two provinces, very extensively of Puritan and Congregational origin-the present crisis of opinions and institutions in those communities, bringing into discussion the most interesting ecclesiastical questions-combined to render the mission to St. John one of peculiar interest. beloved brother, Mr. Gallaway, laboured in that city for four years, with great vigour and success. He obtained an effective congregation, and an excellent chapel. He gained a high standing in public estimation. He traversed the two provinces, and everywhere excited attention, and called forth dormant regards and recollections in favour of Independent principles. He bore part in originating an effective Congregational Union, and in commencing a college in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Mr. Gallaway visited and held fraternal intercourse with the brethren and churches of our faith and order in New England and the United States, and was in every respect carrying forward an effective and a successful work. In the midst of these labours Mr. Gallaway deemed it his duty to visit the Fatherland, to obtain help for his undertakings. As he himself expresses it-"The true cause of my coming to England was the great success of the mission." Mr. Gallaway wished to obtain some help for his people, in liquidating the debt on their chapel ; they had raised more than fifteen hundred pounds, and he wished to assist them towards the remaining thousand. Also, Mr. Gallaway hoped for some assistance towards the projected college at Liverpool, Nova Scotia. He further desired to be accompanied, on his return, by one or two additional labourers; but most of all did he desire, and hope to be instrumental in deepening upon the minds of British Christians their present inadequate impressions of the importance of Colonial Missions, and in calling forth more generous and vigorous efforts on their behalf. Full of such views and feelings, our brother arrived in his native land about the close of last year; but all his purposes were, if not altogether frustrated, yet greatly broken, by an absolute prohibition of Mrs. Gallaway's return by her medical advisers. Of this painful disappointment Mr. Gallaway thus speaks:-"I wish to be employed as actively as I can for the cause of Colonial Missions. The grievous, and much-tobe-regretted frustration of my plans, by my not returning to St. John, only renders me the more desirous of serving a cause, for which I have made no little sacrifice, the more devotedly." And no doubt Mr. Gallaway's advocacy and statements will very effectually aid this most important, but too little felt or perceived, branch of public enterprise. What the Committee will be able to accomplish in respect of sending forth to St. John a successor for Mr. Gallaway, cannot yet be determined. That question will be decided by the liberality of the English churches. St. John must not be abandoned. Too much has been already effected there-the station is too important and influential-the honour of the society is too deeply engaged for following up a work 80 successfully commenced, to allow of an abandonment of the people and the cause in that city. But the Committee has incurred so grave a responsibility in the mission of Mr. Heudebourck, to Halifax, Nova Scotia; the present resources of the society are so completely en gaged, and the determination of the Committee to incur no debt has become so settled, that, if money cannot be obtained, the work must be left undone. It is due to Mr. Gallaway that the following fraternal address, presented to him by his brother ministers, in St. John, at a public valedictory meeting, on occasion of his visit to this country, and when his return to St. John was fully expected, should be made public. It shows in what estimation our brother was held in that city by those best able to judge of his public course during the arduous work of first introducing into it our denominational principles— and it proves that firm and zealous attachment to distinctive views need be no barrier to cooperation and peace with those of other sentiments on subordinate points: "REV. AND DEAR BROTHER,-We, the Ministers of different evangelical denominations in the city of St. John, understanding that you purpose to leave this place for a time, on matters connected with the interests of evangelical religion, cannot allow the opportunity to pass without some expression of our respect for you as a gentleman, a pastor, and a brother. "Your demeanour, sir, since your settlement in this city, has been, in all respects, highly creditable to your character as a gentleman, and has gained for you the respect and esteem of all who have met you in the private circles of lifein such circles your intercourse with all denominations of Christians has uniformly proved that you never failed to carry the bearing of the Christian minister from the pulpit into society. "We believe that your labours as a pastor have been much felt by souls in this community, and that they bear the obvious marks of the Divine approval. "As a Christian brother, we have all felt great pleasure in your valued society, having always found in you an able and unflinching advocate of evangelical truth, of Christian union, and of perfect religious freedom. "While we feel the loss which your absence from this city will occasion, we rejoice to think that it will be amply supplied by your best efforts being exerted on behalf of the cause of our common Lord in these provinces; and we are quite sanguine in the hope that your visit to the mother country at this time, will tend to subserve the interests of evangelical religion in the colonies of British North America. "And now, dear brother, we commend you to God, hoping that his gracious providence may protect you by the way, and restore you to us again in the fulness of the Gospel of Christ! "We are, dear brother, "Your affectionate brethren in the bonds of "the gospel, "ROBERT IRVINE, "Pastor of the first Free Presbyterian Church. "SAMUEL ROBINSON, "Pastor of the first Baptist Church. 241 Theology. "WE BELIEVE, AND THEREFORE SPEAK." THE apostle Paul, in these words, speaks of himself and his coadjutors in the dissemination of the gospel. He here gives the reason why he and they laboured with such zeal in their work. They believed! This declaration of Paul's suggests to us some important topics of reflection: 1. The importance of faith as a preparative to action.-No truth is clearer than that a man must have faith before he is qualified to labour understandingly and efficiently in the world. Especially must he have a true religious faith before he is fitted to be a teacher of others. A personal experience is the best guide to just views of truth. No man is so well qualified to explain the gospel as he who has felt its power; no one can bring its lessons home to the heart so well as he. Hence the duty of faith is put first in the claims of Heaven, because this is a necessary preparative for labouring in its service. There is much to be done in the world for the good of mankind. Many ignorant ones are to be instructed; many erring ones to be reclaimed; many votaries of destructive pleasure to be persuaded to relinquish it; many poor, deluded, suffering victims of sin to be lured to the path of virtue and life. But he who would aspire to this work must first become a firm believer in Christ. His soul must grasp the sublime doctrines of the gospel, and his heart be imbued with its spirit, before he has the necessary requisites to fit him for the work. He cannot "speak" aright, and to the purpose; he cannot be a safe and efficient guide and instructor, till he has thus qualified himself. Nor will there be, otherwise, sufficient power and unction to his words. His judgment will not only be at fault, but his zeal will flag, and his power vanish. He will find himself stripped of his armour, and inadequate to the battle with his foes. He needs, as a preparation of heart, that living inward impulse which faith imparts; for this alone can fit him for such a work, and sustain him in it. He who has faith speaks from the heart; and whatever comes from the heart, as by a mystical instinct, goes directly to the hearts of others, and secures a willing hearing. But the words of Paul suggest to us another fact, to which we proceed: 2. Whenever faith is attained, it is attained by an obligation to endeavour to communicate it to others." We believe," says the apostle, "and therefore speak;" as if the very fact that they believed were a sufficient justification and motive to their speaking; as if, because they believed the gospel, they must proclaim it. Now, from this particular example, we infer the general principle, which we think is true universally, that whenever a man gains a knowledge of important truths not generally known he is bound to disseminate them. All truth is useful, and men are social beings. Whatever truths are useful to one individual will be useful to many others, if known by them. And as every individual is indebted to others for a thousand truths communicated to him, so he is bound in return to communicate whatever he may gain by his own investigations, or which Providence may have placed in his pathway. The principle of duty which rules in this matter is indicated in the Saviour's direction: "Freely ye have received, freely give." Hence, it is wrong for any man to conceal any important truth which he has attained or experienced. The cause of humanity and the cause of God demand that light, wherever it is possessed, should be allowed to scatter its rays abroad, and aid in dissipating the mists of our earthly atmosphere, and in recovering to the right path the wretched wanderers in error. Woe to that man who possesses light of any kind, and hides it under a bushel, or fails to use it diligently and conscientiously for the good of his race! That man is an unfaithful steward, and God will not fail to call him to an account for his misdeeds. say I that the cause of humanity and the cause of God demand that such a gift should not be concealed or kept back. Human nature is to be elevated and sanctified through the influence of light. This is the lever which the Holy Ghost applies for the regeneration of man. It is no less true in religion than in things of this world, that ignorance is death. In every department of life light is what men are calling for, and woe to him that hath and yet withholds it! If a man finds out any new truth in science, he is bound to tell it. If he makes a new discovery in the arts, useful to man, it is his duty to bring it forward. He has indeed a claim upon society for remuneration for his labour, and may demand that they shall pay him for the pains taken to acquire the knowledge; but he has not the entire right to that knowledge. He is a man, and is bound to aid his fellow-men in bettering their condition, by imparting to them whatever important truths he may have gained beyond others. We are to regard all such things as legacies to the race, and whoever hides them does so at his peril. If we apply these truths to those men who are acting the part of reformers at the present day, we shall easily see their bearing. The faith such men feel in the several schemes they attempt to forward fully justifies them in their strong effort. If they, or any of them, are to blame in any respect, it is in adopting false principles, for not being sufficiently careful in laying the foundations of their faith. Grant them but the premises which they assume, and we cannot but honour them for the zeal with which they attempt to forward their enterprises. If a man believe as they do, that is sufficient reason why he should utter his thoughts. It is principally by thus setting forth truth that it is brought into successful competition with error; the two are then set side by side, and the ignorant are assisted to judge between them. Whoever thus sets light before men aids in elevating and saving them, and is one of the greatest benefactors of his race. Whoever has the means of doing this is solemnly bound to use those means, to whatever department of life they belong; for all have not the same gifts nor duties, and each should help in that sphere where Providence has placed him. Let us apply this principle to Christianity. Well might the apostle exclaim, in reference to it, "I believe, and therefore have I spoken;" for if anything would justify a man in speaking, it is the possession of such a faith. He who can say from the heart, in respect to the sublime truths, the holy mysteries, the priceless hopes and blessed communications of the gospel, "I BELIEVE,' that man has a solemn mission to his race! The very bestowment of such gifts upon him by Heaven is really a call upon him to labour for their dissemination. He is guilty if he remains silent. He does not well to hold his peace. Millions around him are perishing in want of the same faith, and he ought, he must impart it, or he is guilty. Well will it be for such an one if he can say at the judgment, "I have not shunned to declare the truth as far as I knew it." "According as I believed, I spake." Who does not see that, according to the arrangement and plan of Providence, the gospel is dependent for its progress in the world upon the faithfulness of its professors in this respect? If all should hold their peace, the gospel would soon die out from the world. And, as a matter of fact, we always find it progressing and triumphing just in proportion to the faithfulness of those who have embraced it. Hence the solemn duty of all Christians to converse about, discuss, present, and urge upon the attention of others, those great lessons of eternal truth which they, by Divine grace, have been enabled to master. We generally expect of men that they will speak most frequently of those things which they think most of. It is so in respect to every other matter, and why should it not be so in respect to religion? And if it ought to be so, how can the fact be satisfactorily accounted for, that many persons who profess to be believers in the doctrines of revelation, and to have themselves experienced the grace of God which accompanies salvation, yet manifest no interest or zeal to speak of these things to others? Ought not such persons to do otherwise? Does not reason, as well as Scripture, demand it? Whose duty is it, if not theirs, to set these things forth in a clear light before men? Need they any other prompting or call to this duty than what is furnished by the very position in which Providence has placed them? Reader! if such a faith be in thee, give it utterance: the very gift constitutes thee a prophet: speak! THE PLAGUE, AND ITS CURE. "And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed," NUMB. xvi. 48. DEAR READER,-Did you ever read the awful narrative of which the text forms a part? If not, let me request you to do so, and then ponder its terrible solemnity. You will find it in the 16th chapter of Numbers, extending from the 41st to the 50th verse. Notice I. THE PLAGUE of the dreadful nature of which you can form some idea when you reflect, that in the short space of time (only a few minutes) in which Aaron was preparing the incense, there died of the people about 14,700. What an army, at once destroyed! "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Tragical as is this picture, it bears but a feeble, and yet how fearful, a type of a plague that is raging amongst mankind, which is carrying off its thousands every week, not only to the peaceful abodes of the tomb, but to the fearful horrors of a death that never, never dies. Dear reader, you are infected with this plague, and soon, unless it is cured, it will destroy you. This plague is sin; it was introduced into your nature at your birth, and ever since then it has been increasing; and now, unless it has been checked by the grace of God, every faculty and feeling is tainted with it. Your moral condition is well described in these words of the prophet: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in you, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." Here is your portrait, pencilled by the Holy Ghost. This plague is contagious-you carry it wherever you go; it spreads fast, and its effects will be felt throughout. eternal II. THE CURE: the part Aaron sustained towards this dying people. "He 1st. The position he occupied. stood between the dead and the living;" between the living God and a people sentenced to death-all dying, 14,700 already dead. Solemn situation, surrounded with dying people, who place all their hopes on his intercessions, and yet they are such enemies to him, and they would have killed him; but how does his noble heart retaliate? Witness him, borne down under the weight of years, decrepid with age, yet he ran into the midst of the congregation, forgetting his own danger for the people's safety. Witness again, the incense rises-his offering is accepted-the plague is stayed. He stands between the dead and the living, blows away God's anger, pacifies his wrath-Israel lives. Are not our thoughts carried to his great antitype? Behold the Saviour standing between dying sinners and his offended God; all his people's hopes are placed upon him; he prays for them: the incense rises from off the consecrated altar of the cross-the offering is accepted the angry countenance of his Father lingers into love; a smile of holy benevolence beams upon his reconciled countenance-his people live: "And when he who is our life shall ap |