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would be invidious to mention the name of one where so many have done and are doing valiantly; may the Lord reward them. Along the Northern Coast of Kent, Sittingbourne, Faversham, and Whitstable are instances of new ground broken up, and, in the same manner, along the Sussex shore, Newhaven, Eastbourne, Portslade, and Shoreham, in rapid succession, saw the rise of new and vigorous interests, which have much to struggle with, but will live and prosper. In all directions our bough has run over the wall, and would do so yet more if we were not compelled to stay from entering upon many a hopeful field from want of men and money. We do not complain, but yet we sometimes mourn when we are hampered in the Lord's work, and remember that hundreds of his people have heaps of gold and silver cankering in their coffers.

Here we may joyfully call attention to the statistics of additions to the churches over which our brethren preside, which show beyond all doubt that these have prospered, as a rule, far above the average of the churches of the denomination. To God be all the glory. This is our richest and best reward. The Lord make the increase to be ten times greater in years to come.

In the matter of funds we have to magnify the Lord that so much has been forthcoming. The beloved friends at the Tabernacle, by their weekly offerings, furnish more than £1,800 of our income, and, at the supper given by our generous friend and deacon, Mr. Phillips, a similar sum is usually given. God moves the hearts of his people to send the rest that is needed; may he graciously influence far more. One brother in Christ aids us annually in the chapel-building part of the enterprise, and to him, under God, we owe much of our power to launch forth into new spheres. It is the more remarkable that our needs have been supplied for this work because so few comparatively see the importance of it. Appeal to any man for an Orphanage, and human sympathy moves him to assist, but only a believer in Christ comes to aid a young minister in his studies; and even among Christians there are grave differences of opinion upon the need of such institutions as ours, and the right method of managing them: consequently the area from which we draw our supplies is a limited one, but the great Lord knows how to make it yield sufficient. The cruse of oil and the handful of meal have never failed and never will. No paid collector calls upon regular subscribers, in fact we have no list of such. Friends give as they are moved and when they are moved, and their help generally comes at the most welcome time. There are occasions when donations appear to be timed to the hour, to prevent anxiety and provide for need. He who has the care of this work resting upon him is often refreshed by manifestations of the divine favour, and therefore, having obtained help of God, he continues to this day.

Prayer has been often offered that men might be called from among our number to occupy the mission field, and we have lately received the first fruits of the gracious answer. Our beloved brother, Mr. Pegg, having laboured awhile in Turk's Island, is now commencing evange listic operations in the island of Santa Domingo, and so great has been his success in gathering congregations that he has been obliged to visit this country to collect the means for erecting a commodious meeting house. Few spheres promise so well, and few men are better fitted for

such a work. If the Lord be with him, Mr. Pegg will be the apostle of Santa Domingo and Hayti. Two of our young brethren have gone to Spain to preach the word, and are now in Barcelona learning the language, and meanwhile distributing Bibles and Gospels on a large scale. They are not connected with any society, but they have faith that their needs will be supplied. Another friend has gone out to serve the Lord under the direction of Mr. Hudson Taylor in China, whose mission is one of the grandest efforts in modern times; and yet another has commenced his studies in Edinburgh with the view of becoming a medical missionary. May the Lord prosper these brethren and make them to be but the first rank of a numerous band of missionaries. I am delighted to hear from our brethren in Canada and the United States. They appear to find churches with remarkable ease, and to be well appreciated by their congregations. The pastor is not, by our American friends, starved down to the lowest living point, but is liberally supported, and treated with respect and liberality; the absence of a State Church, no doubt, to a great extent, accounts for this. There are twenty-one ministers upon our College list now preaching in America, besides others who were dismissed from the College before their time was fulfilled because the tutors and myself feared that they would not succeed in the ministry: two or three of these last named are said to be acceptable across the sea, and we can assure them that we are right glad to hear of it, and we earnestly hope that their future career may prove how mistaken we were. Seven of our host are now in various parts of the great Southern world of Australia, and there are openings for more, but the expense of transit will always restrict the numbers as compared with those in America. It is our belief that in future years the United States will receive a far larger number of our brethren, and that the lack of ministers in that vast and growing country will thus be, in a measure, supplied. The universal kindness expressed towards our brethren is hereby very gratefully acknowledged. There is, in connection with the College, a Loan Fund to assist in the erection of places of worship, amounts being lent out to be returned by annual instalments, without interest. This was intended to be £5000, but remains several hundreds short of that sum. In all probability, some donor will see it right to complete that part of our machinery.

The great want of our College remains to be spoken of. We are in urgent need of suitable rooms. The rooms under the Tabernacle become worse and worse for light and air as the surrounding buildings become higher and more numerous. Gas has very frequently to be burned all day long, or the men could not see their books; indeed, on ordinary days, all the year round, the period of sufficient light is very brief. The rooms being underground become close and stifling after the classes have been in them for a short time. For one day in a week this may be borne, but for every day it becomes a hardship. Much inconvenience would have been put up with had we not found the health of the men suffering materially. Very much time has been lost during the last winter through illness, and the men who have not succumbed have many of them exhibited great lassitude after a few weeks in our subterranean apartments. The tutors and president feel it personally, but the students most of all.

They have not complained, but we feel that we cannot afford to have them so often laid aside, and that it will be the truest economy to build a proper home for our school of the prophets. We cannot go up to the forest to cut every man a beam, or we would gladly do so; we are, therefore, dependant upon the Lord's servants for our new house, and we trust they will not deny us. Let all who believe in our work help us. Let all who count us faithful help us. Let all who would do us a personal favour help us. The College is my dearest enterprise, and I would earnestly plead its claims now in the time of its need. If my sermons have refreshed any hungry hearts, and been food to any weary souls, and if these desire to show me a token of their love, let them have a stone in the College Home. I might say more, for it is not for myself that I ask anything, but for the sake of the gospel, and the Lord of it, I am bold to beg. I commit the case to God, and next I look to all my friends who have in times past aided me, and who love me still for my work's sake. This year the work must be done. The plans are preparing, the contract will soon be put up to competition, the need is urgent. A word to the wise will suffice.

Too Brave to be Prudent.

(ENTREMETS.-No. 6.)

WE standing our ground would surely bring

E probably sometimes run away from duty, and find ready excuse

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honour and substantial benefit both to ourselves and others. wicked may threaten, but nothing so readily cows the wicked as taking a bold stand in defence of what is good and right. One day during the dark time of the French Revolution, when crowds of Paris citizens seemed to find a peculiar pleasure in shedding the blood of their fellows, a victim was being hurried to death, and, as usual, amid shouts of mockery, jeers, and insane revelry. Perceiving what kind of tragedy was being enacted, an English military officer took up a stand before the guillotine and called out, "This man has never been tried! You shall not drag him to the guillotine, or if you pass on it shall be over my body!" Those brave, noble words at once cowed the savage mob. They were startled and even struck with inexpressible admiration. The execution was stayed. The intended victim was set free, and his rescuer voted a civic crown.

Now, on looking down that tumultuous street, what merely prudent man would not have avoided contact with the crowd of raving and blaspheming wretches who were thirsting for blood? Common prudence would have naturally suggested a policy of non-intervention. Hence, remember, that in religious and moral warfare even prudence will sometimes be disregarded by the nobly brave. Prudence is a real virtue, but she may, nevertheless, be made to serve as a disguise for real cowardice. We should not expect prudence to step into a life-boat when the storm-waves dash and foam against treacherous breakers. She would scarcely risk suffocation for the sake of rescuing a child or a woman from a burning house. Most certainly she would not have faced a crowd of brutal French Revolutionists.-G. H. P.

A Ramble into Golden Lane.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF THE STREETS." DERSONS who have not seen something of the everyday life of Goldension in that remarkable neighbourhood, cannot say that they have

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really seen the great world of London. Passing along Old-street, the passenger comes suddenly upon the dingy entrances to the thoroughfares

named, and if he have an eye to take in what is archæologically picturesque, he will surely find something in the close frowning streets to repay a passing inspection. There is always something about ancient roadways, which though not easily defined, seems to bid strangers linger and learn what is there to be told about the past; and notwithstanding the abounding squalor and misery, we may learn many lessons also, such as may be turned to account in the present day.

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Here then, is Golden-lane. Perhaps the district we have now arrived at should be doubly interesting in the eyes of Christian philanthropists because of its not being a thoroughly bad neighbourhood in the criminal sense. The densely-packed courts are not mere refuges for bad characters as one might judge from appearances; for in a great part they are occupied by costermongers and street-sellers, or, as they would call themselves, general dealers. These costers are a hard-working, patient, enduring class, accustomed to making many shifts when times are "quiet," or when the commodities they deal in command prices in the open market which suit neither the coster's capital nor the pockets of his humble customers. Dr. Johnson defined "costermonger" as "a person who sells apples." A more trustworthy authority on such a question-a citizen of Mr. Orsman's territory-summarily sets aside the lexicographer's interpretation as a popular error of the Georgian era. In fact, he declares "a person who sells apples" to be "all gammon," and then considerately explains that a coster is a cove wot works werry 'ard for a werry poor livin', and is always a bein' hinterfered with, and blowed up, and moved hon, and fined, and sent to quod by the beaks and bobbies." But if in this degenerate age this useful class are accustomed to hard work, hard fare, and hard usage, they are at least able to lay claim to a lineage ancient, if not proud. Thus we are told by one journalist that "The costermongers of Golden-lane and Whitecross-street are the direct descendants of the 'costard-mongers,' mentioned by Ben Johnson and his contemporaries, and of the street traders who, in after years, furnished such abundant material for the pencil of Hogarth. There are costermongers in Whitecross-street who can trace their descent in an almost unbroken line to the time when Golden-lane was lined with hedge-rows, beyond which were green fields and smiling gardens, amid which the sightless author of Paradise Lost' loved to stroll when staying at his residence in Barbican close by. There exists curious resemblance in form and feature between the costermonger of St. Luke's and many of the street traders in Hogarth's pictures, for to this day the costers' preserve many of their old characteristics, not the least marked being their intense dislike of the police, who have replaced the old Charlies,' a feeling which is duly reciprocated by the blue-coated representatives of the law. In olden time the costers who now throng Whitecross-street were spread over the City, and had stalls in Fore-street, Grub-street, Redcross-street, and other City thoroughfares, but as the value of City property increased, and the need for keeping the principal streets free from obstruction became more and more urgent, the costermongers and street traders were driven back step by step until they reached Whitecross-street, so that this part of London has become the metropolis for costermongerdom."

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