will have in the course of time, as well as myself. I cannot but reflect upon the Congregational Union with peculiar pleasure, because in my earlier days there was an attempt made to form such a Union, and you well know that it failed. On that occasion it was put down by the remark, that it was only a money bill, That which proved a bugbear on that occasion proves the magnet on the present; and we are all delighted that the Union is going to work in various ways, so that it will be always bringing in the money bill. This is its very charm with us. How happily the times must have altered! Then the thought of a Union was terrible, because it would call fresh resources into action, and now, happily, this thought is delightful, because we shall have to go to work in the most useful and important directions, and the money bill must follow. While I reflect upon this as a sign of the times for which we ought to be grateful, I cannot but acknowledge, my brethren, the great satisfaction I feel in seeing the numbers that are rising up to usefulness. We have calculated this morning upon doubling our numbers. It is pleasant to think of numbers, but still more delightful to think of them as all one; and when we reflect upon this unity, that it is intended not merely for a beautiful theory, but for a most practical and important use, it is pleasant to us, who cannot expect to remain much longer in the field, to think of having so many to follow us on the scene of action, and to think that they will do much more than we have done. I may be allowed to say to my younger brethren in the ministry, let them labour for God as much as they may, it will be the chief source of regret at the close of life that they have done so little. Nothing that my brethren can say in acceptance of my services can prove to me any thing more than the kindness of their hearts. I esteem their affectionate recognition of my services as, next to the approbation of God, my highest reward; but I am deeply sensible of the imperfection of those services. In this last thing, to which my dear brother Redford has referred, I would say that it was a sense of duty which impelled me to action. I had too much upon my hands to give to the work the attention which it required; but a sense of duty urged me on, and I have had the satisfaction of doing what I could. (Cheers.) I feel persuaded that if the cause of evangelical truth, pure and undefiled, without extravagances on either hand, is to be defended in this country, it must be by the Independent churches. It is with great satisfaction that I reflect upon this, because it is manifest that those who merely theorised upon the subject would naturally-and we must allow plausibility in the objection-naturally say, We shall have all sorts of doctrines, if we leave every congregation to choose its own pastor, and every pastor to preach truth according to his own views, without binding him down to any form. This, which seemed so natural an objection, perhaps could never have been controverted but by facts. Facts have now controverted it; they have controverted it for nearly two hundred years, and we may safely hand in the result for all future generations.

If I might illustrate the point, it would be thus. If we had had an exact astronomical description of an eclipse, and had been called to notice how it entered upon the disc of the moon at an appointed moment just in that quarter where it was predicted, and we had seen it advancing in all its steps exactly as was pretold, in time and position, and we had been called away at any moment from watching the result, we should have said, I have seen so much of the prediction verified, that I may safely believe all the rest. This is just what is happening with regard to us as a body. We feel that liberty and truth can go together; that there is no better friend to truth than liberty. We have seen it fulfilled in the Independent churches hitherto, and we may safely leave it to future generations more fully to verify the result. (Cheers.) Now, I feel great pleasure in having presided over this meeting; I shall feel equal delight if spared to behold another brother in my position on another occasion; and if it should please God to lay me upon a bed of death before you next assemble, it will not have been the least pleasant of my recollections that I was embosomed in a circle of brethren, the friends of their country, and that to them I leave the

care and the pastorship of the churches over whom Christ shall watch till the whole earth shall be filled with his glory.

The Rev. J. BURDER, of Stroud, proposed a vote of thanks to the officers of the Union, for the arrangements which had been made for conducting the meetings.

The Rev. J. REYNOLDS, Seconded the motion.

The Rev. W. S. PALMER, of London, one of the Secretaries of the Union, briefly returned thanks, and the company separated to attend the public meeting of the Home Missionary Society at Castle Green Chapel.

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Mr. Jacks' spacious chapel was crowded in every part, on Thursday evening, by a most respectable and attentive audience. Edward Baines, Esq. M. P., of Leeds, took the chair. The Rev. S. D. Bergne, of Lincoln, prayed. Dr. Matheson read the Memorial of the Directors. Resolutions were moved and supported by Rev. R. Elliot, Rev. A. Wells, Rev. Dr. Redford, Rev. George Smith, Thomas Thompson, Esq., Rev. R. Knill, R. Ash, Esq., and Rev. J. Blackburn. As a very full report of the speeches has been published in the Patriot newspaper, October 19th, we do not think it necessary to occupy our pages with them; though, did our space permit, we should delight to record some of the glowing sentiments that were delivered on that occasion.

The munificent donation of £1,000, from an unknown individual, for British Missions, was a cheering circumstance,—while the manly and christian eloquence of the Chairman, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Wells, and Mr. Smith, will not soon be forgotten by those who had the happiness to hear them.

COLLECTIONS FOR BRITISH MISSIONS ON THE LAST LORD'S DAY OF OCTOBER.

On turning to the first page in the advertising department, our readers will learn the results, as far as ascertained, of this proposal to the churches and pastors of our body.

Those results are not, indeed, such as to warrant language of warm congratulation, yet neither are they such as to be quite barren of encouragement. The subject requires to be considered with attention, in order to arrive at sound conclusions upon it.

The present is the first occasion of trying the experiment, and the proposal was made but a comparatively short time before the Sabbath named for the collection.

All the collections actually made are not yet reported. Many others, it is confidently expected, will yet be made by brethren and churches concurring in the design, but unable to join in the effort on that particular Sabbath.

It will appear by the list, that, errors excepted, sixty-seven congregations have remitted, as the aggregate amount of their collections, £961. 14s. 9d. giving an average of about £14. 7s. for each collection.

The thanks, not only of the Societies for which the collections were made, but of the churches at large, are due to the brethren who have thus sustained, at its origin, a movement that may lead to most important results.

On looking over the list of collections, it will be owned that, taking large and small together, it cannot be regarded as presenting more than a fair average of the abilities of our churches as a whole. The average proceeds of these collections are more than £14. Abate something of this amount. Take £12 for each collection, as what may be reasonably expected to result when collections are more generally made by the churches. See what may be easily done by concert. Let all our brethren agree to collect for British Missions annually, on the last Lord's Day of each successive October. Eighteen hundred pastors pleading for their country; eighteen hundred churches responding to the call; prayer called

forth in full proportion with money; more than twenty thousand pounds thus obtained as the harvest of the churches for the religious welfare of Britain.

Ought not, then, this plan to be steadily persevered in? Every year the number of churches collecting, will, there can be no doubt, increase. The anxiety of committees will be relieved. The expense and toil of deputations diminished. The power of zeal, and the power of system will be combined.

It was never intended that this particular mode of obtaining aid for British Missions should be adopted to the exclusion of all others. The results of the recent collections will leave almost undiminished the necessity for the appeals and efforts of the Committees of the several Societies, for Home, for Ireland, and for the Colonies. Their voice must still be heard pleading for their respective objects; but the necessity of those appeals will diminish just in proportion that concurrence in the annual collection becomes general.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE COMMITTEES OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY AND THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION.

The Resolution of the Congregational Union upon American Slavery, as prepared by the Secretaries, embodying the wishes of the Assembly, was published, with a report of its proceedings, in the Patriot newspaper. The Editor of the Anti-Slavery Reporter has made it the subject of his criticisms, Oct. 21, and this has been followed by a letter from the Committee of the AntiSlavery Society, which led to the following proceedings.

At a meeting of the Committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, held on the 17th of November, the following resolution, transmitted by the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, was taken into consideration :—

"A resolution, passed at a meeting of the Congregational Union, recently held in Bristol, was laid before the Committee, in which these words appear:'Yet this meeting must add, in explanation, that it does not approve, but deplores, the extravagance and bitterness, the violence and irregular proceedings by which some American abolitionists have brought discredit on their holy cause, and placed difficulties in the way of its early, peaceful, and perfect triumph.' "That this Committee cannot but regret the indefinite phraseology employed in the foregoing resolution in reference to American abolitionists, inasmuch as it may, and probably will, be applied by the enemies of the cause to the whole body, and hereby express their conviction, that it is due to all parties to indicate the persons against whom the complaint is directed."

Whereupon it was resolved

"First-That the Committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales feels so strong and ardent an attachment to the holy cause of the entire abolition of slavery throughout the world, and particularly in the United States of America, and entertains so high a respect for the judgment of the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society on all questions connected with the great objects of that institution, that this Committee cannot learn, without great regret, that any proceedings of the body they have the honour to serve, should appear to the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to require animadversion, as, in its judgment, injurious in any respect to the great anti-slavery movement.

"Second-That this Committee must yet, with great deference, question the justice of the strictures of the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society on the resolution passed by the Congregational Union at Bristol. The Committee cannot admit that the language complained of 'may be applied by the enemies of the cause to the whole body,' because, first, it is not employed, as stated in the resolution of the Anti-Slavery Committee, in reference to Ame rican abolitionists,' but to 'some American abolitionists;' and next, because if the clause of the resolution under review may' be applied to the whole body of American abolitionists, there will remain no portion of them whatever to whom the foregoing sentences of the Bristol resolution can be applied,

which are as follow:- Nor can this meeting forbear to express warm sympathy with the devoted abolitionists of America in their generous zeal to free their fellow-men from hateful bondage, and their country from the more hateful crime of holding them in cruel captivity; and in the noble courage with which, amidst every disadvantage, they take their firm stand for truth, liberty, and benevolence.' The phraseology in question of the resolution passed at Bristol, as used and connected by the meeting that adopted it, does not therefore seem to this Committee to be indefinite,' but to define what it condemns; and if it should be applied to the whole body of American abolitionists, it can only be by uncandid and unscrupulous partizans, knowingly perverting it from its intended application, and against such adversaries no accuracy of language, but only entire silence, can prove an effectual precaution. Neither is this Committee able to respond to the call of the Anti-Slavery Committee, when that Committee express their conviction that it is due to all parties to indicate the persons against whom the complaint is directed,' both because it is very unusual, and would be highly injurious, for public bodies, in declaring their opinions on great questions and measures of benevolence, to indicate persons,' as the objects of their censure, and because this Committee cannot feel itself authorised to give any such specific directions to sentiments not thus personally applied by a meeting of the body from which this Committee receives its appointment, and under whose authority it acts.

Third-That this Committee is, however, prepared to declare its full belief that the resolution on slavery adopted by the meeting of the Congregational Union at Bristol, commencing, as it does, with a reference to the recent AntiSlavery Convention in London, was intended to express generally the sympathy of the meeting with the men, the measures, and the principles which prevailed in that Convention; and to sustain that great movement by an approving and accordant declaration. And though this Committee could not commit itself to an entire approval of all the sentiments and measures adopted in the Convention-much less could it so commit the past General Meeting of the Congregational Union-yet this Committee feels warranted to assert for the members of the Union as a body, the honour of firm attachment to the anti-slavery cause, as represented and sustained by the men whose counsels guided the proceedings of the late memorable Convention, and to claim that all declarations and proceedings of the Union on the subject of slavery, should be interpreted in accordance with these its known sentiments on the subject."

OPENING OF A NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL, BURY,

LANCASHIRE.

On Wednesday, the 9th September, the Congregational chapel erected for the accommodation of the church and congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. Wm. Roseman, hitherto assembling in an old warehouse at Shorefields, was opened for divine worship, when sermons were preached in the morning and evening by the Rev. Andrew Reed, D.D. of Wycliffe Chapel, London, and in the afternoon by the Rev. John Ely, of Leeds. A respectable number of ministers and influential members of other churches were present. An excellent dinner was laid out in the large school-room, and tea in the evening, to both which numerous parties sat down.

On Sabbath, the 13th of September, sermons were preached in continuation of the opening services; those in the morning and evening by the Rev. John Brown, of Cheltenham; and that in the afternoon by the Rev. Richard Fletcher, of Manchester; the devotional exercises were conducted by the Rev. Messrs. James Kennedy and John Sunderland, (the pastors of the two sister churches in the town,) in conjunction with the Rev. Messrs. Wm. Jones, of Bolton; D. Hewit, of Rochdale; Wm. Blackburn, of Bomford; Wm. Orger, of Heywood; and William Atherton, of Middleton. Collections were made after each sermon towards liquidating the debt incurred in its erection, amounting to the sum of £123. The building is about 16 yards square; it is a very neat and substantial

edifice; the corners are of stone, the chapel of brick; the interior is well fitted up, and will seat comfortably from 600 to 700 persons. It stands upon a fine elevation in the Croft, and very near the spot where once stood one of the twelve baronial castles, which was destroyed by the parliamentary troops in 1644: the prospect from it, many miles in extent, is of the most delightful kind. A large and commodious school-room, capable of accommodating 500 children, together with a small vestry and library room, form the end of the building. It is situated in the centre of a rapidly increasing population, and its erection many have watched with the greatest interest, and from many hearts the prayer has ascended, “O Lord, we beseech thee, now send prosperity," and hundreds have joined in singing

"Peace be within this sacred place,

And joy a constant guest,
With holy gifts, and heavenly grace,
Be her attendants blest."

NEW INDEPENDENT CHAPEL AT ROBIN HOOD'S BAY, NEAR WHITBY,

YORKSHIRE.

Ou Wednesday, the 4th of November, this beautiful little chapel was opened for public worship, when sermons were preached in the afternoon and evening by the Rev. John Ely, of Leeds. The discourse in the afternoon was singularly appropriate, both as it regards the subject and its illustration; the text, Matt. iv. 19, "I will make you fishers of men." In the evening the subject was Heb. ii. 30, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" and the sermon was distinguished by deep and impressive solemnity. On the following Lord's-day, the Rev. James Jameson, the minister of the chapel, preached in the morning from 1 Cor. ii. 20, and the Rev. J. C. Potter, of Whitby, in the afternoon and evening from Matt. xiii. 45, 46, and from 1 Kings xviii. 21. On the Lord's-day, as well as the day of the opening, the congregations were large and deeply attentive, and it is believed that the impressions produced will not soon be forgotten. The collections, at all the services, amounted to upwards of £21.

The prospects at Robin Hood's Bay are exceedingly encouraging, and such as ought to stimulate Christians to make greater exertions in behalf of the towns and villages of our country. The chapel, which will accommodate nearly 400, is built on a lofty site, commanding a fine view of the surrounding cliffs, the town, and the great wide sea, itself a beautiful and commanding object. The union of elegance and ecomomy has seldom been more happily attained than in this village sanctuary. May the blessing of God triumphantly rest on this infant church and their zealous pastor, "and if the Lord shall count when he writeth up the people, that this and that man was born in it," the utmost wish and prayer of those who have been mainly instrumental in rearing this house for God shall be fulfilled.

NEW CHAPEL, WITHY BROOK, WARWICKSHIRE.

On Thursday, Oct. 1, a new Independent chapel was opened in this village, when three sermons were preached; that in the morning by the Rev. J. A. James, of Birmingham; that in the afternoon by the Rev. J. Hopwood, of Lutterworth; and that in the evening by the Rev. F. Franklin, (Baptist,) of Coventry. The Rev. Messrs. Jerard, Rowton, and Hewlett, of Coventry, with other ministers, took part in the services. On the following Sunday two sermons were preached by the Rev. T. Mitchell, late of Leicester. In addition to subscriptions previously contributed by liberal friends in the immediate vicinity, amounting to £248, the collection at the doors amounted to £195. 1s. 7 d. making, in the whole, £443. 18. 74d. an instance of liberality worthy of imitation. The ground on which the chapel and the minister's dwelling-house have been erected was generously given by Jones Lloyd, Esq. Banker, London.