by the church and congregation, and a Sabbath school opened, of which the poor around gladly availed themselves. The liberality of other churches in Manchester, in which this cause originated, has been continued. The new chapel is capable of holding 1000 persons, containing 300 sittings for the poor, and is a chaste and beautiful structure. The cost has been, exclusive of the ground (value about a thousand pounds) £3,700. Thus a pleasing instance of "Church Extension" upon what Mr. Jay termed the "gracious Voluntary Principle" has been furnished, and another door of usefulness has been opened. May our dear brother and his co-workers, whose efforts have been thus honoured, receive large supplies of divine influence and success. NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, OUSEFLEET, YORKSHIRE. On Tuesday, 21st April, 1840, a small church was formed in Ousefleet Independent Chapel, adjoining Whitgift, Yorkshire. The service was conducted as follows: In the afternoon, the Rev. James Sibree, of Hull, met the candidates for communion, and in a very solemn and impressive manner formed them into a church of the Congregational Order. The Rev. Hugh Boyd, father of the Missionary Mr Joseph Boyd, minister of the station, offered up the occasional prayer, and the Rev. James Bruce, of Howden, then addressed them on the nature of a christian church, and the duties that devolved upon them. In the evening of the day, the Rev. James Sibree preached to an attentive auditory, from Acts xvi. verse 17, after which the ordinance of the Lord's Supper was administered by the above-mentioned ministers to the new-formed church and some occasional visitors, closing the solemn day singing the 4th and 5th verses of 13th Hymn, 3d Book, Dr. Watts. NEW INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, COMMON CLOSE, WARMINSTER, WILTS. On Thursday, the 12th of March, this commodious and elegant chapel, erected in the Gothic style, for the use of the church and congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. G. I. Tubbs, was opened for divine worship. The Rev. Thos. Adkins, of Southampton, preached in the morning, and the Rev. W. Jay, of Bath, in the evening, to large and attentive audiences. The Rev. Messrs. Elliott, Ashton, Little, Harris, Mann, Fernie, and Middleditch engaged in the devotional exercises. After the morning service, upwards of seventy ministers and friends assembled for dinner in the adjacent and recently-built school-rooms. On the following Sabbath, sermons were preached morning and evening by the Rev. H. I. Roper, of Bristol, and in the afternoon by the Rev. R. Ashton, of Putney. For the erection of the school-rooms and chapel, more than £2,300 have been raised by the congregation within a few years, and efforts are now being made to liquidate the remaining debt of £700. The members of which the church at Common Close was first composed, enjoyed the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. South, one of the ejected ministers, and their original place of worship was a barn. TUTORSHIP AT OLD COLLEGE, HOMERTON. On April 15th, the Rev. Henry Lea Berry, M. A. commenced his course of duty as the Resident Classical and Hebrew Tutor, in the Protestant Dissenting College at Homerton. A solemn meeting for prayer was held, and Mr. Berry delivered an instructive and interesting address, upon the departments of learning which belong to his professorship, and the obligations and encouragements of the gospel ministry. This event, we understand, is thought to be eminently auspicious, and has the warm approbation of the Committee, the senior Tutor, and the friends of the academy in general. REMOVALS, &c. The Congregational church assembling in George Lane, Oxford, which since the removal of the Rev. J. Hill to Salford, has been without a settled pastor, has recently invited the Rev. Eleazar Jones, of Rodborough, to the pastoral charge, and he will commence his stated labours in that important station early in July. The Rev. Thomas Rees, of Craig-y-fargod, in the county of Glamorgan, has accepted the unanimous invitation of the Independent Church at Ebenezer, in the parish of Aberdare, in the same county, and commenced his stated labours on the Lord's day, June the 14th, 1840, with encouraging prospects of acceptance and usefulness. The Rev. Benjamin S. Hollis has accepted the unanimous invitation of the church assembling at Islington Chapel, Islington, and proposes to commence his pastoral duties at the close of the present month. We sincerely wish a happy revival and increase of the church and people under his ministry. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. Favours have been received from the Rev. Dr. Hoppus. Rev. Messrs. Thos. Russell-Thos. Pullar-James Turner-John Hill-W. Thorn.-W. Walford-M. Butler-W. Davies-G. Swan-R. Ashton-Thos. MilnerJames Taylor-Joseph Morison-H. J. Rook-E. H. Nolan-R. Slate-R. Chamberlain. Also from Messrs. F. Duncombe-J. Jones-E. Philips-W. BevanThomas Rees. A Congregational Observer—A. D. M.—A Lover of Truth. It is due to the congregations assembling at the Independent and Methodist Chapels at Ramsgate to state, that the Sermon of the late Rev. James Mather, which we reviewed in our last Number, was not preached in either of their places of worship. A learned Correspondent regrets that Dr. Wardlaw has not noticed in his second Essay on the Book of Job, (p. 359, par. 3,) the argument in favour of Elihu's being the author, from xxxii. 2; as it is said to be a character of Persian poetry for the author to introduce some where (and particularly in what might be called an out of the way place,) his own name combined with his country and parentage. E. F. C. Rosenmüller, though he judges it utterly impossible to ascertain the authorship of the book, yet appears to think very respectfully of that hypothesis. Lightfoot, too, no mean authority, thought Elihu the writer. The Rev. Thomas Pullar, of Glasgow, the Delegate of the Scotch Congregational Union at the late Assembly, has addressed us the following letter, which we readily insert, as our only anxiety has been correctly to record the facts and sentiments, if not the precise words, of those who spoke at that meeting. "Sir,-In the report of my remarks at the meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, contained in your June Number, there are a few errors, most of them, however, of a minor and verbal character. But in one or two instances, which I deem it my duty to correct, facts are concerned. "In reference to the progress of our denomination in Scotland, I am represented as asserting that, In the year 1825, eighteen new churches were formed, and six or seven have been added every ensuing year.' What I said, or meant to say, was, In the year 1835, eighteen churches had pastors settled among them,-many of them enjoying that privilege for the first time; and during the past year, six new churches have been formed. Concerning funds, it is stated, that one-half is devoted to the Islands of Scotland.' If Highlands is prefixed, all will be right. "It is affirmed, concerning the churches in Denholm and Sterling, that for a long time they had had no addition to their number; few or no additions' would be more correct. By giving these corrections, in any form convenient, & place in your next Number, you will much oblige, "Sir, your's truly, THE CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE. AUGUST, 1840. MINISTERIAL FIDELITY ENFORCED. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. The following impressive address was delivered by M. de Félice, one of the Professors in the College of Montauban, at the ordination of M. Héber Sohier, at Negrepelisse, in July, 1839. Having been published in the Archives du Christianisme, a correspondent has acted upon the kind suggestion of Dr. J. P. Smith, and translated it for our pages. As we are convinced that every thing which deepens a sense of responsibility in the minds of our brethren in the ministry promotes, under God, the prosperity of our churches, so we cheerfully publish the following paper, and shall be happy to receive further assistance from the same gifted pen.-Editor. THE discourse was founded on Ezek. xxxiii. 7, 8, 9, but we select that portion of it which illustrates the following words-" Thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me." After showing that the ministry of the gospel is of divine institution, the preacher amplified these two ideas:-A servant ought to “hear," that is, listen to and attend to the word of his master; a child, the word of his father; an ambassador, the word of his king; a messenger from God, the word of God: and as we have not received the mission from ourselves, so have we no right to speak from ourselves. "Go," said the Lord to the apostles," and teach the nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;" not your doctrine, but mine; not your law, but mine; not that which may be learnt by your own feeble intellect, but that which I have taught you, that which I have commanded you. God has not given us a religion to make, but a religion to accept and preach. He has not charged us to invent the contents of our message, but he has made it, and he confides it to us, that we may relate it to others. The pastor is, and ought only to be, the faithful echo of the voice of God. This, my young friend, is a rule from which it is never permitted you to depart. Go, every day, and sit, as did Mary, at the feet of Jesus, and listen to the word from his mouth. N. S. VOL. IV.-VOL. XXIII. 3 U There is your place; and you can never take any other without failing in one of your most sacred duties. Diligently inquire of the Scriptures, the written word of God. All that the Bible teaches, do you teach; all which it does not teach, teach you not. And not only let all things which are found in the Bible be found in your discourses; but let each occupy the rank and the extent which it does in the Bible. The proportion between doctrines ought to be carefully preserved, as well as the doctrines themselves. If that which occupies a considerable space in the sacred volume be reduced by us into narrow limits, or if we lay too great a stress upon that which is but cursorily mentioned, we may not be chargeable with positive unfaithfulness, but yet we commit a great fault. As a well polished mirror reproduces exactly, though in smaller proportions, the image which it represents, so ought the messenger from God to bring forward faithfully that which God says, that which he commands, that which he denounces against the ungodly, that which he promises to the righteous; nothing more, nothing less. We have seen, alas! in all times, and particularly in our own days, men who call themselves the ministers of Christ, and yet speak a language totally different from that of their Master. They have not heard" his word in the sense of our text; or if they have heard, they have not received it. They have boldly marched on, substituting their own ideas for the things which God has revealed, their own maxims for what he has commanded; that is to say, they put darkness for light, falsehood for truth, unrighteousness for righteousness, the uncertain for certain, and ("foolish and blind!") they fancy they have a more rational and better religion, when they have only obscured, disfigured, and mutilated the religion of God. As if a man should imagine the dim pale light of the lamp which he has kindled, to be more brilliant than the magnificent splendour of the sun. They lavish great pains to discover of themselves that which they should humbly have received from the mouth of the Lord. And what comes of these tiresome efforts? Theories which strike no root into the conscience of man, shallow opinions, lifeless systems, a prodigious clashing of contradictory errors dashing each other to pieces; in a word, emptiness and chaos. Man cannot create, like God, in the domain of religion and morals, any more than in the material world. As he cannot add a drop of water to the ocean, a single grain to the sand of the desert, one blade of grass to the herbage of the field, an atom to the immensity of creation; no more can he add one single true declaration, one single living word, to the word of the Bible. And when the human mind, imitating the rebellion of ancient times, would build its tower of Babel, saying, "I will mount to the sky;" the edifice has scarcely risen from the earth, when it shakes on its frail foundation, and soon rolls in ruin upon the heads of its powerless architects; and see, a child's foot sweeps away these ruins of man's wisdom, and the wind of the morning bears away the last remnants of its dust. Let man be silent and listen to God! trate itself before the Spirit of God! Let the spirit of man pros- 66 servant heareth." And there, (forget it not, my dear brother,) is our glory; and at the same time our duty and our safety. I know nothing more truly glorious for us, than to listen to God; because, by this very word which he addresses to us, it is manifested that there is a bond of union between our spirit and the Supreme Intelligence of the Universe; because God, by opening his mouth to speak to man, declares thereby that man can understand and obey him. In abasing itself before God, our reason is elevated; in humbling itself, it is glorified; and its most noble triumph is to efface its own thoughts, that upon its tablets may be written that which is God's thought. "Thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, saith the Lord." And after having heard it, what must we do?" Thou shalt warn them from me, saith the Lord;" which is equal to saying, Thou shalt speak to the people in my name, and with my authority. A new command, as necessary as the preceding; for if it be true that it is our glory to hear what God shall say, it is equally true that we are empowered to speak in the name of God. A servant speaks in the name of his master, and that alone accredits his message. An ambassador, in the name of his king, and that alone gives authority to what promises or threatens. So a minister of the gospel must speak in the name of the God of the gospel, if he desires that his word should be heard and obeyed. If we What are we, my dear brother? Feeble, limited beings; liable to error, and prone to sin, like the rest of our fellow creatures. What authority can we draw from ourselves? None. What is our name? Nothing. It is of no more value than that of others; it will avail us nothing in demanding the obedience of men. present ourselves in our own name, every one may, and with propriety will, say, "Who are you? We know you not." If we rest our instructions upon our own authority, or reason, or conscience, or experience alone, may not every one else say "my authority is equal to yours; I have, like you, reason, conscience, and experience; you have made your religion; be it so, I will make my own too; our rights are perfectly equal." And then, what immense confusion? What anarchy in moral and religious things! None has a mission to teach, and no one submits to be taught. There is an interminable struggle between a thousand rival opinions, and the world is delivered up to every wind of doctrine; because it belongs to no person to arise and say to his fellow man, this is the doctrine which must be your choice. But, when we present ourselves on the part of God, when we teach in his name, and with his authority, the face of every thing is immediately changed. Instead of hearing the inquiry," Who are you that impose a religion upon us?" it will be our place to say, "Who art thou that opposest thyself against God? This is neither my doctrine, nor my commandment; it is the doctrine and commandment of God, which I have learnt and received from the mouth of God; and to thee I give it." If they can resist this, they will at least be forced to take some other ground. God's testimony must be denied before they can allege their own. The name of God |