stances of entire change of conduct, it is hoped of genuine conversion to God, might be mentioned.

The expenses of the Missionary will be £65 a year, and other expenses connected with the Bible loan and Tract proceedings, will be about £10 more. But, if the supporters of this little village Mission, should give the committee larger funds, they would be enabled for every £70 entrusted to them, to send forth an additional Missionary.

These simple facts have been communicated to us, and we are anxious to accomplish two objects:-1st. To secure for the Kirkstall Village Mission, generous support from the friends of christianity. 2ndly. To lead other villages in this country to ask themselves, cannot we do all that a few of the villagers of Kirkstall have done? It is not necessary that the great, the noble, and the rich should join in such efforts. It is only needful to adopt the immortal Dr. Carey's principles, and energetically to work them out;-"Attempt great things for God." "Expect great things from God." If six or eight energetic christians in every village or combination of villages, containing above one thousand inhabitants, in this country, would imitate the men of Kirkstall, the cause of pure and undefiled religion would prosper in the land, and the mighty efforts now making to establish popery and puseyism would speedily vanish, because there would not be a sufficient stratum of ignorance to nourish the seed sown.

A. D.

PUSEYITE IMPERTINENCE, INTOLER

ANCE, AND DISLOYALTY.

The Queen of England went to a Presbyterean "meeting" while she was visiting in Scotland last summer. The Puseyites of England made a great outcry on the occasion, that the Queen, the Head of the Church, should thus give her sanction to such an offence as Presbyterian worship. These Puseyites were laughed at by the rational part of the people, but they have made a great discovery, and bring it forward to prove it no laughing matter after all. The English Churchman says:

"That we have not overstated the error which Her Majesty made in worshipping with the enemies of Episcopacy, we request our reader's attention to the following suggestions from a correspondent, who is about as sound a specimen of an English Churchman as can well be imagined.

According to the Act of Parliament of William III. the Sovereign of England must be in communion with the Church of England, or the people are released from their allegiance.

Might not the Bishops EXCOMMUNI

CATE THE QUEEN FOR ATTENDING A PRESBYTERIAN PLACE OF WORSHIP, if the discipline of the Church is worth anything?

If they did so, WHO WOULD BE THEN SOVEREIGN OF ENGLAND?

No doubt this Act was intended to secure us from the power of the Popish Sovereign, but will it not equally secure us from a Presbyterian one?'

"This is a very serious, and, it may be, an erroneous view of the case; but, whether true or false, we shall, doubtless, have the old cry raised against us for even publishing it; but as our object is to act fair y and honestly towards every member of the Church, from the highest to the lowest, we care very little for mere cries, so long as we conscientiously feel that we have done neither more nor less than our duty."

Surely, while such things as these are allowed in the Church, Dissenters cannot be esteemed disloyal and intollerant. 66 They love the queen

Who loves the law, respects its bounds,
And reigns content within them !"

But these men would even excommunicate her from the church, and drive her from the throne, for merely exercising the commonest rights allowed to the meanest subject of her realm.

CHURCHMEN AND CHURCH-RATES.

An Appeal to the former on the subject of the latter. By a Nonconformist. London: Ward & Co.

This cheap little Tract is admirably adapted for circulation amongst all pious or respectable church people. While not deficient in spirited appeals, it is written in such a christian spirit, and with such anxiety not to hurt needlessly the prepossessions of members of the compulsory church, that any Dissenter may hand it with pleasure to his State-church friends and relations.

MISCELLANEOUS.

MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. Sir R. Peel, with the cordial co-operation of all the Whigs and almost all the Tories, will bring in a Bill after Easter to endow Maynooth College additionally, and probably to found other institutions for educating Roman Catholic priests, to teach the people spiritual slavery. Dare Dissenters remain inactive? doubtless he who obstinately refused to mitigate the most glaringly unjust features of his pet, the income tax; and who has been so determined to maintain every clause of his own propositions, will be obstinate enough; yet we hope ere this meets the reader's eye, an effectual movement will have be

gun against this legislative impiety. Let us not, above all, forget a throne of grace. The God who defeated Sir James Graham can defeat Sir Robert Peel; both have the same end in view, to make religion the efficient instrument of the most corrupt ambition; to make the Church of Christ the tool of aristocracy.

POST-OFFICE DELIVERY ON THE SABBATH.-We are glad to find that the letter carriers of Leeds, prompted by a desire for the enjoyment of the Sabbath as a day of rest, are making a strenuous endeavour for the decrease or abolition of the delivery on that day, and have just published an address to all classes of the inhabitants, calling upon them for their assistance and support. They consider that the increasing amount of Sunday delivery, and unquestionably the extreme fatigue and consequent exhaustion, induced by seven days of severe and unintermitted toil, are such as to warrant their appeal for a short cessation from labour; especially "when it is borne in mind that they as anxious as others to obey the commandment to keep holy the Sabbathday that the remuneration they receive is extremely moderate that no allowance is granted in times of sickness-and that they have no prospect of being provided for, when laid aside after a long period of services." We heartily wish them success.

ANECDOTE OF DR. MANTON.-In the year 1658, Dr. Manton "being called to preach before the Lord Mayor and court of Aldermen at St. Pauls, chose a subject in which he might display his learning. He received thanks for his performance. But as he was returning, a poor man gently pulled the sleeve of his gown, and asked him if he was not the gentleman who preached before the Lord Mayor. He replied, he was. 'Sir,' said the man, 'I came with an earnest desire after the word of God, but I was greatly disappointed, for I could not understand a great deal of what you said, you were quite above me.' The Dr. replied, with tears, 'friend, if I did not give you a sermon, you have given me one; and by the grace of God, I will never play the fool to preach before my Lord, in such a manner again.""

PUNISHMENT OF PHILANTHROPY.We have just heard the intelligence, that Mr. Torrey, who was condemned for aiding the escape of slaves in Maryland, has been sentenced to seven years' incarceration in the Penitentiary. Whether he will be permitted by the Head of the Church to stay there until, like Butler and Worcester, he has changed a prison of felons into a house of prayer, is beyond our ken.

BAPTIST VILLAGE MISSION-KIRKSTALL AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. — On Friday evening March 21st, an interesting

Meeting was held in the Baptist Preaching-house, Kirkstall. Eighty persons sat down to tea; after which, the chair was taken by James Richardson, Esq. of Leeds, and the meeting was addressed by Messrs. J. Tunnicliff, T. Morgan, Jones, Whitaker, Hardy, and Barnsby. The following resolutions were carried unanimously:

1st. That the gross ignorance and spiritual destitution of many of the inhabitants of Kirkstall and the neighbourhood, call for the increased and persevering efforts of christians to support the Baptist Village Mission which has been recently established.

2nd. The objects of the Mission are, preaching of the gospel on the Sabbath and on week-days in the Baptist Meetinghouse, and daily from house to house; the circulation of religious tracts;-the sale and loan of Bibles and Testaments;and the maintenance of the Sunday-school.

3rd. That the Mission shall be managed by a Treasurer, Secretary, and Committee, who shall be nominated at the Annual Meeting which shall be held in the spring of each year. That the Treasurer and Secretary shall be members of the Committee by virtue of office, and that at the Committee-meetings three shall be competent to act.

A Committee of Management was also appointed.

BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY.— We are glad to hear that Mr. Dutton, in a communication with Mr. Williams, of Hunslet, states, that Mr. Knibb has been deputed to visit England, and is expected to be present at the London meetings in May.

Mr. J. Law, student of Horton-College, has just been accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society.

Our readers will be gratified to learn, that "The Dove," which left Cowes on the 5th of February, reached Madeira on the 17th of that month, and sailed on the 18th for Fernando Po.

BAPTISMS.-Bramley. - Two females were baptized the first Sabbath in March.

Bradford-On Lord's-day, March 2nd, four persons were baptized at Sion Chapel, and six at Westgate.

Rawden. On Lord's-day, March 2, Mr. Liddell baptized three persons at Rawden.

Wetherby.-On Lord's-day the 23rd of March, six males and five females were baptized in the river Wharf at Wetherby, by Mr. Geo. Paterson and Mr. Thomas Morgan. They were previously members of the Independent church at Knaresbro'.

Leeds:

PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. HEATON, No. 7, Briggate;

To whom all communications for the Editors must be addressed, before the 15th of the month.

While pacing the deck of a steampacket, as we were once sailing on the German ocean, far from the sight of land, our attention was arrested by the movements of the ship's crew; who, at the direction of the captain, were thrown into instantaneous activity, without any other apparent cause. Some were soon hauling down the sails, or running up the masts; while others were equally busy in stowing away the seats and passengers' luggage, or in tying down a strong tarpauling over the hold. And thus they continued, until every rope, sail, or spar, that could take the wind, was made secure. As soon as the bustle subsided, we went up to an old seaman, whose grey hairs and weatherbeaten countenance bespoke a long acquaintance with the winds and waves, and asked the cause of what we had seen. "Cause, Sir ?" said he in a tone of surprise, "Cause enough, a storm a-head!" "A storm?" we replied; "the waves all around are smooth, or only just rippled by the breeze; are sparkling with the beams of as glorious an evening sun as ever shone; and the sky above us, with the exception of here and there a gold or crimson coloured cloud, is bright and blue." "Aye, aye, Sir," said the veteran tar, "all that may be true; but just look a-head, over the bowsprit there, in the wind's eye, at them dirty-looking fellers, that are creeping along towards us, close to the water's edge. 'Tis time," he added, shaking his head significantly, "to make every thing taught, when such as them is seen. Depend upon it we shall have a dirty night." Looking in the direction pointed out, we saw before us, at a consi

VOL. II. ENLARGED SERIES.

derable distance, just above the horizon, the "dirty-looking" clouds which the man described; nor was it long before the sun went down, and abandoned us to such a terrible fulfilment of the sailor's words, as made us long for the return of day, and a sight of land.

The position in which we then were placed, affords so striking a representation of the present position and prospects of the people of God in this country, especially the Protestant Dissenters, that when we began to reflect upon them it came instantly to mind. At present the sea and sky are calm above and around us, and the storms of persecution and civil or foreign war are unknown; and religious freedom, though beginning to set, permits us for awhile to rejoice in its beams. But in the principles maintained, and the measures threatened, by the House of Com. mons, and that divide and agitate the people, we see the prognostics and elements of such a storm as this country has never known. The inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland, hitherto ranged under a great variety of minor distinctions, are now gathering fast into two great hostile parties, the endowed and the unendowed, or the slaves of antichrist, and "the followers of the Lamb;" and it is easy to see that our leading statesmen, anxious, by the extinction of religious liberty, to bring religion itself under their control, are bent on silencing or crushing all the evangelical denominations, by tampering with the rest. By granting endowments to the Socinians in the north of Ireland, and to those in England, chapels, libraries, &c. which originally belonged to orthodox Dissenters,

E

they have bribed them into acquiescence in the re-establishment of Popery. By bribing the Papists, they will endeavour to reconcile them to the continuance of the Anglican Tyranny, and the endowment of all other parties corrupt enough to be bought and enslaved: and thus will the bribing system be carried on, until the advocates of evangelical voluntary religion, reduced in numbers, and worn out by exactions in support of one Establishment after another, can at a blow, by some such Bill as the memorable one of Lord Sidmouth, be entirely silenced and crushed. Without a renewal of the old system of fines, imprisonment, and torture, such a policy, it is true, could never be enforced. But we are evidently in the hands of unprincipled men, who, having no conscience of their own, care not what they inflict on others for conscience-sake; nor is there a spot in the British empire, in which aristocracy and priestcraft, playing into each other's hands, are not kindling the fires of persecution and civil strife.

With these prospects before them, Protestant Dissenters have not a moment to lose; but, like the mariners we have mentioned, should one and all be employed in preparing their vessel for the coming

storm.

In order to this, let them take care, in the first place, thoroughly to examine and understand their own principles. As a spider, when its web is threatened by a boisterous wind, may be seen running along the threads to ascertain their strength, and especially examining and strengthening them at the points, where they are fastened to the walls or leaves from which they hang, so let the members of our churches thoroughly examine the sentiments they hold; scrutinizing, with especial care, their dependence on the word of God; since they may rest assured, that only those who have the word of God, and know for themselves, and can prove to others, that they have it on their side, will be able to sustain the ordeal through which all parties will be shortly called to pass.

Along with their principles, let them also thoroughly sift the motives, by which their adoption and avowal of them has been determined. Those who have been led to unite themselves with our churches, because they believe them to be the churches of Jesus Christ, founded solely on his word, and formed for the advancement of his glory in the salvation of men, have nothing to fear, though the earth should be removed, and the mountains should be cast into the midst of the sea. But those, on the contrary, who have joined the ranks of Dissent, simply from party-spirit, or because their fathers were Dissenters before them, or in any way to promote their temporal inte

rests, will find themselves but ill prepared for the coming conflict of opinion. "Behold," says Christ, as, in prophecy, he points out the great contest into which we are now entering, "I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth,, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

Having, in the manner recommended, arrived at a satisfactory conclusion respecting the scriptural importance of their principles, and their motives in avowing them, it will next behove them to watch, with the utmost vigilance, all the movements of those political and ecclesiastical parties, who wish to make a gain of godliness by blending religion with the world. Scarcely a single parliamentary session passes away without repeated attempts to fetter our liberties, and grind down the Protestant Dissenters into the dust; and unless they take more pains than they have hitherto done to inform themselves, by means of proper journals and other periodicals, of what our statesmen are doing, they will find themselves, before they open their eyes to their danger, stript of every fragment of those liberties, for which their fathers bled.

If they would save themselves from the ruin threatened them in such measures as Sir J. Graham's Factory Education Bill, Sir R. Peel's infamous Bill for the support of Popery at Maynooth, and the Bill actually re-enacted last session, which exposes them to fine or imprisonment for denying the spiritual supremacy of the Queen, of which every Dissenter and Christian in the land is, and must be guilty, they must not only make themselves better informed than they hitherto have been, of what their enemies are doing, but prepare themselves, as citizens, to offer a better organized and more determined and effectual resistance. Instead of selling or throwing away their votes, by helping any knave to a seat in parliament, who wishes to make the House of Commons a stepping-stone to power, or of shrinking from their political duties, leaving the control of the nation in the hands of their enemies, let them look upon their citizenship as a most sacred and responsible trust, and so discharge its duties as to leave no hope of power to those who deny the rights of conscience, or would trample on the prerogatives of the Son of God.

As the opposition, which Dissenters are called to encounter, arises in part from profound and general ignorance of our sentiments, immediate steps should be taken to make the nature of our principles, as well as the scriptural foundation on which they rest, more extensively known, by conversation, by the circulation of tracts, and by giving to our various periodicals a more zealous and liberal support.

Thus, conscious of having used all means in our power for the spread and maintenance of truth, we may safely appeal to the great Redeemer and Head of the Church for his blessing on our holy cause,

and leave the issue of the coming struggle in his hands; assured, whatever the immediate issue may be, that all who are faithful unto death, shall receive from him a crown of life. G.

Dear Sir,

In my last letter I briefly illustrated the fact, that "no sanction to the principle of Establishments can be found in the word of God," and deferred till this month the illustration of my second remark, That the New Testament teaches church principles which condemn Establishments. It is allowed by all candid christians, that the details of church management are no where authoritatively prescribed in the New Testament, and that therefore much liberty is permitted to christians in different ages and circumstances, in regard to forms of worship and church government. This liberty, however, cannot be unlimited. We may not make laws in the church which invade either the prerogatives of its king or the franchises of his subjects, much less any which bring the Head of the church into degrading relations with the princes of this world. We are bound therefore to inquire since Establishments could neither be approved nor condemned by name in the New Testament-whether they at all violate its principles. We think the result of unprejudiced examination must be, that Establishments. of christianity are both unchristian and anti-christian.

The governors of a State may, first, Endow, giving up all control, or retaining it: secondly, They may endow all religions, or that which they consider to be the true one. The Church of England is the most remarkable instance of the first case. It is completely and effectively under the control of the Government, its highest officers, and many others, being all nominated by the political party in power, and the slightest modification of its liturgy depending on the will of the monarch. Probably there is not a church in nominal Christendom, so completely governed by the worldly powers. In Scotland, also, the Free Church seceded because the State would not give up its purchased right to control in spiritual matters; on the other hand, in establishing Popery in Malta and Canada, and Juggernaut in India, our governors asserted no control over the

priesthood or ceremonies of either. In France, again, all sects are paid on equal terms by the State, while in England, from Henry the Eighth downwards, the State has prescribed the system which it has supported.

Now, if the State endow equally all re ligions, so grossly is Christ insulted by placing him and his truth on a level, in point of national homage, with all the impostors and their lies, which also claim State patronage, that you, I am happy to perceive, fully allow that it were better to let all sects shift for themselves, than to endow truth and error indiscriminately; and, with the utmost stretch of christian candour, it does seem impossible to assign any other ground for the votes in favour of the Maynooth bill, than mere political expediency. Ought we not to hope, that all really evangelical clergymen will at once abjure a principle which they now see may endow, in perpetuity, a most degrading and impious corruption of christianity?

If, again, the State undertake to select the true religion, in order to employ the powers of Government in its behalf, this would either suppose governors, as such, to be competent judges of truth and error, or they must patronize the religion of the majority of their subjects. In the former case, governors must be invested with infallibility, made Popes at once, and allowed that "lordship over our faith" which even the apostle Paul disavowed. To make the civil magistrate a judge of truth for the nation, is surely to place him on the throne of God, or of God's vicegerent, conscience. It is to assign him an office from which any real and enlightened christian must shrink; while to ask any such monarch or legislature as our country has seen since the days of the Long-Parliament, to select for us the true religion, is to ask a verdict on religion, from bigotry or infidelity, from licentiousness or worldly gaiety.

Some good men, seeing the inconsistency of allowing men whose power in the State is generally obtained by birth or ambition, to choose a State religion, have