are employed to call; "but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."

Nor was this a characteristic peculiar only to the new dispensation. The admonition was recorded, to be often recalled by a nation, for every family of whom a special providence had secured an heritable possession in the soil, that "the poor should never cease out of the land;" and, even for the most auspicious times of their happiness, the promise remained: "I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." In harmony with these foreshadowings of evangelical condescension, and the assurances of his ennobling grace, whose poverty was endured that he might make many rich, the apostle could confirm his ministerial authority by the fruits of gospel preaching, and demand, "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?"

It is a beneficent as well as compassionate dispensation of goodness which has so provided: we discern wisdom as well as grace in this economy of mercy. The multitudes scattered abroad are not only as sheep without a shepherd; but, while often they may apprehend they shall faint by the way, they inherit the original destiny-the general doom of a fallen race, and "in the sweat of their face eat bread till they return to the ground." As the rich and the poor meet together at the last, so do they spring from a common source-an outcast parentage, whose appointment was to till and toil, to labour and have sorrow. Few out of the myriads rise above this lot; the masses still remain the sons of toil, and require that their brackish fountain be sweetened, and their burdens be lightened. Nor is this impracticable or unprovided for. The miracle of the tree in the waters of Marah, and of the cruise of salt at Jericho, are more than equalled by the evangelical achievements of a crucified Christ, and the truth of his grace. The mission of Jesus was to heal the broken-hearted, and to set at liberty them that are bruised; and while in his left hand are durable riches and honours, his blessing maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Nothing is more clearly established in the history of true religion than that god

liness is profitable for all things, having the promise of this life and of that which is to come. The Divine promise standeth sure to them that seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, "that all other things shall be added unto them." The observation of the psalmist is confirmed by the experience of all ages as the general principle of Divine providence, "Those that be blessed of Him shall inherit the earth;" and, "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” So soon as men become truly religious, they are animated by noble and energetic principles; they have a character to sustain; and the laudable ambition thus inspired finds resources in the vigorous independence and generous operations of faith in God. The assurance of his blessing, and confidence in a good cause, impart resolution. The expectation of success stimulates to effort in a bold enterprize. We are saved by hope. A new, a moral, and elevated character is acquired by the lowliest convert to Christian truth and love; and he whose religion is the fruit of his own choice, the spontaneous adoption of his own mind, the voluntary acquiescence and conclusive convictions of a conscientious consideration, yielding to the claims of God and his salvation, renews his youth, acquires an elasticity and impulse which suffice to conquer many difficulties, and dispel many fears and obstructions. Religion more than compensates all the sacrifices it requires. It promptly betters the condition of its votary. Not alone in the industry and economy it cultivates, and the restraint it places on luxury and extravagance; nor merely in the favour and blessing it insures; but in the more healthy tone of mind, and in the more correct and expanded principles of action, which it imparts, evangelical truth improves the personal, the social, and oftimes the domestic character and position of its recipient. Nor is this always a tedious, or protracted process; the transition is comparatively rapid; and the man who has learned to respect himself, and act in conformity with what is due to selfrespect, has not long to wait till others honour him, give tokens of their esteem, and of sympathy in his advancement.

It would not be difficult to illustrate the application of these observations in the progress of Nonconformity, or in the condition of its communities. Multitudes have started for the goal of life, from the humblest origin, and have reached the

most honoured eminence, whose first impulse was derived from the force of religious principle; and whose improvement could justly be only ascribed to the regenerating power of personal godliness. They were among the labouring crowd; they were associated among the masses doomed to drudge, and bore the heaviest burdens of the children of toil. Not only some who have grown rich, and risen to honour and position as the ornaments of our denomination, but the sturdy and independent workmen of all grades, in our shops and factories; the enterprising and adventurous, though not capitalists, shop-masters, whose trade in labour and skill furnishes our markets and commerce; and the occupants of intermediate stations, between the employed and the large employers-the clerks and warehousemen of extensive establishments—have been deeply indebted to the influence of religion on themselves, or their relatives. The men of might and renown among them, whether for capital or influence, have advanced by no remote pedigree from those whom we usually designate the masses.

A large proportion of the Sundayschool teachers, now devotedly and assiduously watching and labouring for the improvement of the age, have themselves been taught, as children of working men, among the pupils of a former day; or are the immediate descendants of those who occupied the humblest positions in society. It would be no disparagement to the pastors and missionaries of our churches, and no dishonour to our principles, could we determine how many of them had been children of the multitude, and have themselves toiled at the loom, the anvil, the last, the forge; while, as the disciples of Jesus, they have been also the cause of offence, because they ranked no higher than did the carpenter's Son. How many printers and shoemakers, how many weavers and factoryhands, shipbuilders and bookbinders, have adorned the mission field in foreign lands, and occupied our pulpits at home,-the names of a Carey and Ward, a Morrison and Milne, and other honoured men, might declare; who, with their compa nions were willing to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of their God. Those who have obtained this honour will not forget the Rock whence they were hewn, or boast themselves of a higher dignity than belongs to their principles, and the spirit of their religion. But neither will they, as if

they despised, speak slightingly of the adventitious distinctions of providence, or the possessors of them; though "the brother of low degree" will "rejoice in that he has been exalted."

The phenomena have been of so frequent occurrence as to authorize us to designate it a law in providence, and the church has experienced its operation: that improvement has emanated from the practical and laborious; reform has proceeded from the poor more than the rich; society has been regenerated from its roots; the broad base rather than the wreathed chapiter has sustained the pillar, and new and invigorating blood has flowed through the system by the process of incorporation and ingrafting. The miner's son of Mansfeldt was Luther-to whom, more than to any other, was owing the extent of Protestant reformation in Germany. The leading reformers in Switzerland and Scotland could boast of no exalted pedigree or patrimonial inheritance. The system in England, against which Puritans and Nonconformists protested, was the creation of royal and prelatic ambition; the gentry and the hierarchy sympathised in the show, the pomp, and ceremonial which Elizabeth bequeathed and Laud matured. But the innkeeper's son of Gloucester, the tinker of Bedford, and the associate labourers of the Tabernacle, did more to renovate England than did all the lords or gentlemen whom royal patronage could enlist. The so-called middle classes were spectators more than coadjutors of the workers to whom Britain owes the revival of the eighteenth century. Modern reforms, political and commercial, have been the achievement of the newborn energies of the working classes; the heaving, swelling multitudes of Birmingham and Manchester, of Lancashire and York; the chiefs and counsellors have been calico-printers and cottonspinners, cutlers and hammermen.

The societies which modern benevolence has originated, and by which the largest benefits have been conferred on the world, have been the discovery of men whose root was in the humblest place. The Town Missions and Tract Societies, the Sunday and British schools, the Bible and Missionary enterprises, in contiguous places and distant lands, were projected and brought into successful operation by men whose fathers did not sit in the gates, but whose sympathies and associations were with the people, and who were content to wait for patron

age till their work was done. By the same agencies and processes, do we anticipate, will yet remaining undertakings and changes be effected; and therefore we desiderate the best means of enlisting and securing the continued and cordial fellowship and co-operation of the teeming multitudes of our population. It is to be deplored that though the ranks of Nonconformity be pre-eminently constituted by the men whose hard hands, and indomitable resolution and enterprise, have raised them above want, and inspired them with tastes and pleasures which cannot be had in the beer-house or the tea-garden, there yet remain an immense number of their fellows, aggregates of the same social and political mass, who have neither part nor lot in our religion, or sympathy in our nobler joys and sorrows. We have not the aristocracy, the hereditary gentility of our land; or those aping their manners, who aspire to the ranks of fashion and the assemblies of pleasure. It is also true, and is easily accountable, that wealth does not abide with us to many succeeding generations of the same family; the action of secular influences, in such circumstances, is great; and it is true of Nonconformists, as it was of those who at first embraced the Gospel, they are "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." We have not the indigent, the selfish, and the unthinking poor-for ours is a religion of sacrifice; and we cannot, with a good conscience, purchase or bribe suffrage. Our system, however, comes into closer contact with the multitude of such; our agencies reach them in missions of Divine mercy; and, were we more numerous among their better circumstanced neghbours, the industrious and self-sustaining working classes, our access would be more facile, and our message more acceptable. The question is, How shall we deserve and obtain, to a wider extent, the confidence and energies of the mechanical and manufacturing multitudes?" How shall we conciliate the artizans and craftsmen of our towns and large cities, and especially of the metropolis, so as to deliver them from hostile prejudices and unfounded misapprehensions; that they may be drawn into the communion and enterprizes of our churches?" There may have been in ourselves, in our administration, or in our system itself, something repulsive or antagonistic. So far as we judge our system scriptural, and, therefore, divinely accredited, that

cannot be altered. We must obey God rather than man. But have our own principles had fair play, or full scope? Have we been faithful; or have we rather done what we ought not, which has prejudiced the minds of intelligent observers? Have we demonstrated such faith in our doctrines, as a religion come from God should warrant?

In dealing ministerially, or as the expositors of Divine truth, our communications should be so characterized as to convince them that we possess unwavering confidence in the vitality and vigour of evangelical principles; and that conscientiously we so esteem them for truth and authority, as to judge them worthy of acceptance and capable of being duly appreciated by men of ordinary intelligence and undoubted integrity. A professional sanction and an official conformity, accompanying a formal and speculative acquiescence, will be received with suspicion, where filthy lucre has been imputed as the temptation to sanctimonious grimace and the zeal of priestcraft. A salaried ministry, and a vocation to spiritual things, which isolates from secular toils and solicitudes, may be suspected as hireling and hypocritical, unless when identified with well-sustained, self-denying, and benevolent devotedness, which exercises a salutary influence on mankind generally. The acceptable pastor and teacher must live the divinity which he proclaims, and be himself the exposition of his own doctrine. Does our pulpit pretend to more than our lives among the people confirm ?*

"The people of God, redeemed and washed with Christ's blood, and dignified with so many glorious titles of saints and sons in the gospel, are now no better reputed than impure ethnics, and lay dogs; stones, and pillars, and crucifixes, have now the honour and the alms due to Christ's living members; the table of communion, now become a table of separation, stands like an exalted platform upon the brow of the quire, fortified with bulwark and barricado, to keep off the profane touch of the laics, whilst the obscene and surfeited priest scruples not to paw and mammoc the sacramental bread, as familiarly as his tavern biscuit. And thus the people, vilified and rejected by them, give over the earnest study of virtue and godliness, as a thing of greater purity than they need, and the search of Divine knowledge as a mystery too high for their capacities, and only for Churchmen to meddle with which is what the prelates desire, that when they have brought us back to popish blindness, we might commit to their dispose the whole managing of our salvation; for they think it was never fair world with them since that time. But he that will mould a modern bishop into a primitive, must yield him to be elected by the popular voice, undiocesed, unrevenued, unlorded, and leave him nothing but brotherly

Do we, in our churches and denominational institutions, in our ecclesiastical appointments and religious polity, sufficiently defer to the expectations warranted by our theories, and cherished in our teaching? Are our churches generally, or mostly, constituted and administered according to alleged scriptural precedent? Is our church polity, in practice, consistent with our form in words? We are under the scrutiny of shrewd observers, of men whose minds are led, by the discussions of the day, to analyze the governing element. The distinctive principles of Nonconformity should be clearly exhibited and consistently applied, while we profess to cooperate with the less distinguished of our community, in the maintenance of denominational interests and the government of our churches. It should be manifested beyond suspicion, that not only a harmony subsists between our principles and our profession, but also how congenial with liberty and its preservation, and how calculated to promote free institutions and equal government, is true Nonconformity. The democratic principle, with all its advantages, when our ecclesiastical system is scripturally administered, is clearly, within just limitations, and under the most favourable auspices, exemplified in Congregationalism.

As far back as apostolic ages, Christian communities, and the administrators of their discipline, were tempted to have respect to him that wore "the gay clothing, or the goodly apparel and the gold ring. It was nothing more than is congenial with human feelings, under every religious aspect, philosophic or superstitious; but it is palpably a violation of Christian precept. We may be drawn into the snare by the usages of others, or the dependence of our operations on the equality, matchless temperance, frequent fasting, incessant prayer and preaching, continual watchings and labours in his ministry."

"The light which we have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge. It is not the unfrocking of a priest, the unmitring of a bishop, and the removing him from off the Presbyterian shoulders, that will make us a happy nation; no, if other things as great in the church, and in the rule of life, both œconomical and political, be not looked into and reformed, we have looked so long upon the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin have beaconed up to us, that we are stark blind. There be who perpetually complain of schisms and sects, and make it such a calamity that any man dissents from their maxims. It is their own pride and ignorance which causes the disturbing, who neither will hear with meekness nor can convince, yet

aid which such members can contribute but it is not unobserved by those who are naturally covetous of social distinctions, or jealous of successful rivals. To secure the sympathy and confidence of the craftsmen, as far as it may be legitimately pursued, the Congregational community should, as they honourably and appropriately may, labour to deserve them. The plain and direct course in such pursuit will be to follow the example of Christ, and adopt the counsels of inspired apostles, with relation to the labouring poor. To the same degree as Jesus sympathized with the people, though reproving their follies and correcting their errors; and on the same principles as his personal disciples cared for the poorer brethren; should modern Nonconformists identify themselves with the people, and remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them. Proof should be palpable and strong that there subsists in our churches no alienation of interest and affection between the many, and those reputed the higher classes-that, whatever barriers secular society may have thrown up between class and class, Christianity has knit together in the bonds of brotherhood all who are in Christ, as members of his body; and, having discovered to the citizen who is his neighbour, has also taught him, that all things whatsoever he would that men should do to him, he should do even so to his neighbour. neighbour. And although the devout saint should disregard for himself electoral rights and honours, he will evince no indifference to the best means of securing their immunities as citizens, and their claims on the ruler for the attainment of the influence among their fellowsubjects to which the more political of the community may properly aspire. The Christian minister, and his more congenial associates, may not care for the suffall must be suppressed which is not found in their syntagma. Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding, which God hath stirred up in this city. What some lament of, we rather should rejoice at, should rather praise, this pious frowardness among men to re-assume the ill-deputed care of their religion into their hands again. A little generous prudence, a little forbearance of one another, and some grain of charity, might win all these diligences to join and unite into one general and brotherly search after truth, could we but forego this prelatical tradition of crowding free consciences and Christian liberties into canons and precepts of men." -Milton on Reformation, and Liberty of Printing.

rage or enfranchisement, though they believe the natural right of one is equal to that of another; but if they perceive that others value the heritage who have it not, it may justly be apprehended that a denial of concurrence discovers, and will be judged as, a want of sympathy with the oppressed, and an approval of the wrong inflicted by those who have power. Not for our own sake, but for the good of others, may we be called to sympathize with agitation. An apostle became all things to all men, which he thought right, that he might save some.

It may be the fashion to sneer at terms which recently have been familiarized with political excitement; but the fraternity and equality of the Christian church are as real as is the love of the brotherhood, and as applicable as is the common salvation. It is not by patronage, personal blandishments, or the cozening of a proselyting crusade, that the thinking and intelligent sons of toil are to be attached to evangelical dissent. In the aspirations of a legitimate zeal to gain as converts the alien mechanics, without pandering to passion, or bribing by eleemosynary and debasing charity, the respect which is due to man from his brother man should be sustained. The independence, which alike is the dignity of man and the necessary ingredient of social happiness, should be scrupulously cherished. The degenerating and pauperising tendency of a State-provided religion, a State-paid clergy, a State-controlled and endowed education, cannot be too earnestly deprecated and withstood, even on this account: full liberty should be accorded for a voluntary and unbought choice, while it cannot be denied that the recipient of religious principles is himself the beneficiary, whose advantage is more promoted by the spiritual things imparted, than he can confer benefit by a return of his carnal things. Every believing accession is a triumph of truth; and every convert is recorded among the willing people. It is possible to have numbers and latent resources, and yet not have energy to labour, nor power to advance. The day of small things may be despised, and streams may flow down into the desert, because the conduits and channels have not been kept free and in repair. It may have been sometimes forgotten, that they who gathered much had nothing over, and they who gathered little had no lack: only they who cast in much may have had praise, while the small offerings have not been encouraged. Men may not give, because they are not made to

feel their responsibility; and they may withhold more than is meet, because the contribution is solicited on subordinate considerations-for the benefit of the receiver, rather than of him who gives; for the praise of the man, rather than for the glory of God. There are resources with the multitude, and continuousness in their oft-renewed energies. When united they are strong, and their generous contributions are as the nutriment of the system. It is, therefore, requisite that the working man should be persuaded, that to him belongs a mission of benevolence and dignity, and that he is invited to share in the responsibility and honour of advancing the improvement of his age and country, and in the diffusion of truth and righteousness. When he and his associates have been persuaded, as were some early Christians, first to give themselves to the Lord, and then to one another, according to his will, and so to become the crown of their minister's rejoicing, and the demonstration of evangelical power and liberality, they will prove themselves the salt of the earth, and enable the church to fulfil the commission received from Christ-to preach the gospel to every creature; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded his disciples.

The artizans are familiar with the powers and subserviency of machinery; but they do not the less appreciate the skill which contrives it, and the mind which directs its operations. They estimate themselves in proportion to the complexity and force of the instruments which they employ, and as to them belongs its controlling power; but they would not relish a policy by which they themselves should be treated as machines. It may, indeed, be needful that, for the purposes of self-government and popular administration, their own youth should be trained, and their growth into manhood be with preparation adapted to their prospective duties. The apprenticed artizan, the juvenile mechanic, and their associates, in our schools, congregational institutions and churches, should be early habituated to the responsibility of selfaction, and the occupation of their minds in the pursuits and interests of religion. It is a short-sighted policy, which indolent timidity eagerly cherishes, merely to employ them as unintelligent automata, to be moved as wires pulled by managers or ministerial dictators. To induce them to qualify themselves for usefulness they should be taken into counsel, and made to feel that they are quite as much in