number of Christians in 1840, or any of the following years, did far more for God than a larger number in 1846. These things prove to my mind that spiritual apathy is the great reason why we have not had to our churches more abundant accessions. Though our number has been swelling for years, our prosperity has gradually declined. Other facts, we think, will sustain this position, and make it doubly evident that spiritual apathy is the sin of the denomination at large. Our statistical returns prove that in a church of 100 members, we have not on an average more than fifteen or twenty persons employed in the sabbathschool, that rapidly increasing field of Christian usefulness. Suppose, however, that we have twenty in the sabbath-school out of every 100, perhaps we shall have about the same number that assist in conducting prayer-meetings, visiting the sick, and engaging in other works of mercy and benevolence. Then, we have forty out of 100 doing something for Christ. Then there is that important sphere for devoted effort-tract distribution, in which, so far as I can ascertain, we do not employ more than ten individuals in a church of 100 members; so that, on the most charitable calculation, there is quite half of our members that do nothing at all in the shape of active, devoted effort for the glory, of God in the salvation of men.-General Baptist Repository. BENARES. The Friend of India contains an Appeal from the baptist missionaries at Benares for assistance in the erection of a chapel in that city, a spot of ground having been obtained which is about three miles from any other Christian place of worship. The editor, referring to it, says, "The mission with which it is connected, was the first ever established in the Holy City' of Hindoostan; its efforts were for many years confined, in a great measure, to the natives of the country; but two European missionaries having recently been stationed there, facilities have been afforded for English service, and the want of a commodious chapel begins to be felt. We are happy to find that the promoters of the undertaking have wisely resolved to restrict their views to a plain, neat, unpretending place of worship, and that their call on public liberality does not exceed 2000 Rs., for these demands are so rapidly multiplying through the country, while those who do and can contribute to objects of public utility are comparatively so few in number, that it becomes increasingly difficult to meet them all. Nearly one half the sum has been already raised; and there can be little doubt that a little perseverance will secure the remainder. TAHITI. The Directors of the London Missionary Society are encouraging their friends to present memorials to Lord Palmerston entreating her majesty's government, "First, to adopt such measures, by negotiation or otherwise, as may secure to the inhabitants of the Society Islands the peaceable and permanent possession of their country, and, secondly, to employ its friendly mediation with the government of France, to allow those natives who may be so disposed peaceably to withdraw from the island of Tahiti." The reasons for this procedure are that in addition to about a thousand French soldiers now in the island, fifteen hundred more have just sailed from Brest, with an adequate supply of artillery, rendering the extermination or slavery of the Tahitians apparently inevitable; and that Providence appears to have afforded to them in their extremity an asylum in the neighbouring group of the Society Islands, to which the French government has renounced its claim. HINDOSTHAN: Another of those cases which have fre quently occurred lately, has just been exhibited at Madras. A young brahmin youth, who affirms that his age is seventeen, was convinced of the truth of Christianity, and resolved to remain with the missionaries of the Free Church. His parents caused him to be brought up on a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was only twelve years old. The judge of the Supreme Court, Sir W. Burton, put a number of questions to him, and was so satisfied of the maturity of intellect he displayed, that he allowed him to make his own election, and he chose voluntarily to return to the missionaries. We regret to hear that the carriage which drove him to their house, was assailed by a large mob, in the most riotous manner. The following account of this disgraceful scene we extract from the Atlas: "Sir William again asked Ragavooloo where he would go; to which he replied Mr. Anderson's.' His lordship asked once more, Persuaded only by your own mind ?* Yes.' Then go to the sheriff.' Hereupon the sheriff took charge of the boy. The noise and clamour in court, and the rush and riot out of court, baffle all description. The father and mother of the boy were in court, not far from Mr. Anderson; they roared out shortly after the decision, but the court was soon cleared. Mr. Anderson and his party, under fear of personal violence even in court, were forced to put themselves under the protection of the sheriff. Mr. Anderson attempted to get into his carriage, but a hideous yell from the infuriated mob forced him into the court-house. The boy and party were taken to the sheriff's office, Mr. Anderson's and Mr. Braidwood's conveyances had to be moved about from one end of the courthouse to the other. There were from fifty to a hundred police peons, or upwards, but they helped only to swell the mob; whilst the few European constables were of essential service, and did their duty admirably. The number could not at this time have been less than two thousand; it might have been three. This watching and dodging went on till about half past five, when Mr. Anderson contrived to get into the carriage, with Ragavooloo, and the coachman drove off at a fearful rate, galloping all the way; while the whole mob ran after them roaring and pelting stones. The parties, however, safely reached the mission house. The native community appear panic struck by this occurrence; the moral benefits of it to them can hardly be estimated-whilst the present position of the missionaries cannot fail to command the increased sympathies of all true Christians."-Friend of India. CHINA. Mrs. Gutzlaff, the wife of a Chinese missionary, says, "I have been nearly twenty years in Asia and have never observed so much of the divine power and manifest influences of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of the heathen as just now. The work is increasing, and the individuals who express their faith in the Saviour are becoming more numerous; and although their number is still exceedingly small compared with the millions of Chinese, still the work has commenced under the auspices of the Saviour, and will continue. What rejoices us most is that so many Chinese are coming forward to preach the gospel, and that with effect and the 41 full of energy and faith, have to-day proassistance of the Holy Spirit. Five natives claimed the gospel to their countrymen, not an hour or so, but nearly the whole day, in the open air, and in the houses wherever they can find hearers.”—Bil cal Review. BAPTIST PERIODICALS. Other Christian denominations do and will avail themselves freely of the press, from a six shilling quarterly review to a penny magazine. If baptists neglect this grand power of modern times, they must proportionably suffer. The reading part of our community have a full right to their share in the religious periodicals of the day; considerable effort is made to meet their just claim, and we appeal to them at the close of the year to do full justice to those efforts. Our magazines are not taken to the extent to which they easily might be, and ought to be. Now is the time to extend their circulation. If our ministerial brethren, especially, and other readers, would bestir themselves adequately during the month of December, it is not too much to suppose that the circulation of each of them might be nearly, if not quite, doubled. It has been observed that the Wesleyan Magazine is to be seen in almost every Methodist household, though it costs a shilling! Why should any baptist family be ignorant of the state of things in their own denomination? Why should it want that incentive to thought, and that measure of current knowledge which periodicals are peculiarly adapted to furnish ?—The Church. CORRESPONDENCE. QUERIES AND ANSWER. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR, Your number for last August contains a review of the Lectures on Christian Discipleship in reply to Dr. Halley, in which the following sentence occurs, at page 488, column 2, line 44 : "The true answer to his (Dr. Halley's) argument, as it seems to us, is, that he falls into an error similar to that which we have noticed in Mr. Stovel, viz., the attempt to push grammatical accuracy too far." In the latter part of the review several matters of fact are referred to which, if it were consistent with your feelings of propriety, VOL. X.-FOURTH SERIES. I should be glad to set right; but the sentence now before you, besides its reference to the parties therein named, comprehends a most important principle which ought to be made perfectly clear. Will you, therefore, be so kind as to state, First, What is intended by "grammatical accuracy?" Secondly, What is meant by "the attempt to push" it "too far ?" Thirdly, By what rule are we to determine, when studying the holy scriptures, how far "grammatical accuracy" is to be observed? I will not trouble the reviewer to produce any lengthened article on these points, but if he will favour me with a few words on each of them to make me more sure that I understand his meaning, it will greatly oblige, Yours, &c., C. STOVEL. 5, Stebon Terrace, Philpot St. East, London, Nov. 19, 1846. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. MY DEAR SIR,-I feel some difficulty in replying to the first two of the questions which Mr. Stovel has asked through you, inasmuch as the phrase upon which they are founded seems to me so little ambiguous that I fear I may not be able to present my meaning in a more distinct form. I will however attempt, in as few words as possible, to explain the idea which I intended to convey. I mean 1. By "grammatical accuracy accordance with what are ordinarily called the rules of grammar. 2. By "the attempt to push "this "too far " I mean the endeavour to apply these rules to written compositions without making allowance for exceptions to them, whether such exceptions belong to the language in general or to the individual writer. That there are such exceptions neither Mr. Stovel nor any of your readers, it is presumed, will question. It would not indeed be difficult to show, in regard to almost any general rule of grammar, that there are cases in which it is not adhered to. To give one well-known instance. There is no rule more generally laid down in grammars than this:-that "a verb must agree in number with its subject or nominative case," yet in Greek there is the remarkable exception that when the subject is a neuter noun in the plural number the verb is most frequently in the singular number. And again, if we consider this exception as forming a sort of special rule we find that there are various instances in which it does not apply. To the 3rd question I think I may fairly answer, that it is requiring too much to ask that I should give (even were it possible) any rule by which to determine "how far grammatical accuracy is to be observed." It is sufficient to show in respect to any instance under consideration, that there is in the grammatical construction an exception to the general rule. This is what I attempted to do in the case to which Mr. Stovel refers. If I have failed in doing so my reasoning falls to the ground. But indeed it would not be possible to lay down any one rule by which adherence to "grammatical accuracy," that is, to the general rules of grammar, is to be determined. A full answer to the question involves the whole science of grammar as applied to the New Testament, and to furnish this answer is the precise object which the various grammars of the New Testament (such as Winer's or Stuart's) have in view. must, however, protest against its being supposed by any of your readers, either from the form of Mr. Stovel's question or from the answer I have given to it, that accuracy in the interpretation of the New Testament is either an impossibility or a matter of small importance. Such accuracy is not indeed to be attained by the mere application of the general rules of grammar. It must be and ought to be sought by careful study and close investigation, both of the language in general and of the peculiar style of the writer. but as Mr. Stovel asks for a few words only It would be easy to extend these remarks, on each of his questions I will not encroach on your space. Permit me, in conclusion, to express my regret that Mr. Stovel should have stated that "several matters of fact are referred to in the review which he would be glad to set right," without distinctly mentioning what they are. Mr. Stovel will, I hope, give me credit for not having intentionally misrepresented him; and if I have fallen into any mistake I should be most thankful to be corrected. I am, my dear sir, Yours sincerely, THE REVIEWER. CHAPEL DEBT EXTINCTION. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. SIR,-May I request a place in your next number for a few thoughts on the paper of Mr. Green's in your Magazine for this month? In this matter there is no personal controversy between my friend Mr. Green and myself. We are both attempting to point out a way by which to remove a great burden of debt from the churches; and what, in its continuous operation (i. e., the payment of the annual interest), is more oppressive, sinking the energies and exhausting the spirits of the church? It is because I think there is a more excellent way already established in the loan principle, and on which the Baptist Building Fund is now acting,-just towards all parties, scriptural in its principle, and most efficient in its practical operations,that I solicit from you the insertion of some of the results that follow upon the working out of the table which forms part of Mr. Green's last communication. If he has done nothing more by his papers than awaken up in the church, as I hope he has done, a deep attention to this subject, he has done good service, notwithstanding any imperfections, or error, or even, as the following deductions will show, insufficiency and a measure of injustice in his propositions. I shall in this communication state simply the results; and as any of your readers will be able to examine them for themselves and it would occupy too much of your space, I shall leave the figures and calculations of interest; because it is my intention in a few days, after your magazine shall be in the hands of its readers, to publish at a low price, which may be had of any of the booksellers through whom your magazine is procured, some observations on the subject of chapel debts, &c., and of Mr. Green's" propositions in the Baptist Magazine for June and December." Allow me then briefly to state the results which are fairly deducible from the table given in Mr. Green's paper in your magazine of December, page 745. First, Its inefficiency to realize the relief of the churches in the extinction of their chapel debts. In the June number Mr. Green takes the debts at £180,000, and in order to reduce it to £135,000 and so bring it within the compass of the operation of his plan, he proposes to leave the churches to provide for or still to retain the burden of one-fourth part thereof, at once leaving his plan deficient to the amount of £45,000; and in addition to this he leaves upon their shoulders one of the worst features of the debt, i. e, its interest, which must be paid by the churches during the nine years specified in the table for the borrowers to receive their £135,000; and at the payment of the whole debt this will amount to from £30,000 to £40,000 more, so that when his plan has done all that he proposes it to do it falls short of the extinction proposed to the extent of £75,000 or more. Secondly, He requires that the churches (i. e., the "borrowers" who are the four fifths that are to take loans) numbered in the table, one to nine inclusive, should pay to his proposed society eighteen thousand pounds more than he proposes they shall receive. Thirdly, That out of this loss which the borrowing churches are to sustain they have to pay the expenses; in fact on them is thrown the whole expenditure of the establishment during its thirteen years' operations. Fourthly, but certainly not the last of the objections to which the plan is liable, That whilst the churches (i. e., the borrowers from number 1 to 9) have to find funds to the amount of more than £153,000, and are losers in the money they receive back to the amount of £18,000, the rich members, "the one-fifth who may invest for a profit," being numbers 10 to 13, finds funds for the society to the amount of not £57,000, and yet these receive a clear profit free of all expenses to the amount of fourteen thousand pounds. I feel assured, sir, that these deductions might be verified by any of your readers from a careful inspection of the table; it need not, therefore, that I should give the figures to prove them which would take up your space, particularly as it is my intention to go into this subject in my intended pamphlet of "Observations on Chapel Debt Extinction," with reference to the operations of the Loan Fund, &c. With respect to the reference made to Mr. Daniell's pamphlet, I think the taking the £48 as the sum in the bidding society,i. e., the Provincial,-and the £60 in the United Kingdom is not quite fair, because I believe the average of the biddings in building societies would be more; indeed this is very near a minimum. Mr. Daniell's plan is in itself most simple; it is one proposition easily understood, and wants but that spirit which is manifested in the author to make it efficient for, sir, to persuade members of churches to put their money in the public funds, or in savings' banks, or building societies, or any other lawful investment that will yield the most interest, and let that interest increase at a compound ratio for thirteen years, is a most excellent recommendation. If it were more generally adopted it would prevent much evil, and members of churches would oftener be enabled to do more largely for the cause of God. Mr. Daniell is right; it should be the effort of the church, i. e., its individual members; it belongs not to the commercial transactions of the world; it is not their work; it should be the voluntary out-pouring of a pious heart grateful for its mercies; but I fear we are not arrived at that millennial state to expect members of churches, after they have saved their interest with its accumulations, to give it all to pay our chapel debts: most heartily would I desire, and as earnestly as my friend Mr. Daniell, to see such an evidence of the spirituality of the churches, but I can scarcely hope for it, at least, in this case or at this time. I shall be sorry, sir, if these observations should be thought to imply an objection against building societies constituted and directed according to the intentions of the legislature; so constituted and so confined to their legitimate objects, they are a great good. Neither do I mean to imply the profit to the capitalists is larger than it should be. It is when you make them, as I think the London Provincial and the United Kingdom make them, semi-religious vehicles for the purposes of the church of Christ, that you make an illegitimate use of them, attempting to derive a worldly profit out of the necessities and in union with the church of Christ. I shall be obliged by your insertion of this in your January magazine. I am, dear sir, Yours truly, Dec. 16, 1846. WILLIAM BOWSER. PROVIDENT SOCIETIES. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,-It was with unmingled satisfaction that I found in so prominent a portion of your magazine for November the excellent article of the Rev. C. Kirtland on Provident Societies. The subject of which it treats is worthy of being repeatedly placed before the religious public. It is of vast moment socially, and the fact is known to the world and appreciated. It is of vital importance morally, but the church has not hitherto been sufficiently aroused to its claims. In the neighbourhood in which I reside, five or six new societies, either distinct benefit clubs or branch lodges of distant parent institutions, have been recently formed; but they have been based on principles unsound and inequitable, and have been accompanied with practices revolting to every sensitive Christian mind. These have, however, gathered into their polluting folds hundreds of young men, among whom may be seen many sons of the pious, a sprinkling of churchmembers, and here and there a sabbathschool teacher and village preacher. to a It was probably observed that in the statistical information presented to our readers last Let me exhibit one aspect only of such month, the account of General Baptist instiassociations. One of the first engagements of tutions was peculiarly meagre. It had been persons entering these clubs is to pay a sum so the year before, and therefore in October of money at a certain public-house monthly, last we applied to an esteemed brother of that most commonly on the first Monday in each denomination for such publications as might calendar month, at or about the hour ap- enable us to give a comprehensive view of its pointed for the missionary prayer-meeting. state and labours. He referred us The club room and the prayer-meeting have minister in the country whose official position here competing claims. The calls of business, would enable him to forward everything of prevent attendance to both even if the the kind. To him we wrote immediately, character of the two appointments harmo- and waited with anxiety day after day, nized. A formal agreement, backed with expecting every post to bring the desired pecuniary fines, stands with the club-none answer. It appears, however, that he had with the mission, and hence the claims of the attended to our request promptly, and given latter are waived by the necessity or duty of directions to a bookseller at Leicester to attention to the former. Mark the influence forward several Reports, but that the parcel of such a union of persons statedly meeting had been so delayed that we did not receive in a public-house:-the moral are encouraged it till about six weeks afterwards. The neglect and sheltered by the conduct of the pro- appears to have been with a house in London fessedly pious; the immoral are strengthened through which it was to have been transand secured under the example and fellow-mitted to our publishers; and we mention ship of both the other classes; all are moving the facts only to show that the omission did in an atmosphere charged with a moral not arise from indisposition to friendly offices, miasm, and, alas! few escape the contagion. either on our part or on the part of our What has been done for the rescue of our General Baptist brethren. youth from such baleful influence? Nothing. There are many willing to be rescued, but the hand of purity and benevolence is not stretched forth to them. Even in a very small circle I have met with several (a type of a large class) desirous of freeing themselves from such a doubtful connexion could they do so consistently with provision for future necessities; but there exists no fraternal enclosure into which we can invite them. Shame on our churches that nothing (at least in this district) has been done to preserve our congregations from such worldly and dangerous alliances! Are there not Christian men in London, Leeds, Bristol, &c., that will follow the noble example of Birmingham, and who will arise from past lethargy and commence with zeal the formation of central provident institutions to which minor branches in neighbouring churches might be affiliated? Could not the secretaries of our associations be appealed to on this subject, and through The most recent letter which has been received from Mr. Angus, one dated Nov. 23, intimates that he and Mr. Birrell were about to separate for a few days, the former visiting Trinidad and the latter Haiti, which they found would not very materially delay their arrival in Jamaica, where they intended to meet, and where we hope that before now they are. Kingston was to be their rendezvous. The long-expected life of Christmas Evans, by Mr. Stephen of Manchester, has just appeared. We have looked at it enough to see that it will furnish us with an interesting memoir for our next number; but as the book contains three hundred pages and may be purchased for five shillings, many of our readers will doubtless anticipate us and obtain the volume. *The "Odd Fellows" have 400,000 in their brotherhood. |