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he learnt they were discussing the practicability of "obtaining" a few apples from Farmer Allison's orchard over the way. The glowing description given by Bill Stephens (one of the boys) of the fruit being, "oh, such bonny ones," coupled with Jack Roberts's sophistical excuses, as "Farmer wont miss a few," and, "He's more than he can ever use himself," and the like, induced little Peter to put himself in their way; and after breaking the ice by relating what he had overheard, he found himself strongly assailed by both parties, exercising their utmost endeavours to effect a twofold object on him; first, secrecy with regard to themselves, and, secondly, complicity, if possible, with their designs. Onward they went, still pouring the insidious poison into his artless ears, till, just as they reached the shop Peter had been sent to, Bill Stephens had succeeded in obtaining a halfreluctant compliance with his wishes; and Jack catching sight, or pretending to do so, of the portly form of the farmer, as he disappeared over the summit of a hill close by, bound on some business to a neighbouring town, Peter's reluctance was overcome, and forgetting his fond mother and her good advice, he took the first step in the downward path, by “walking in the counsel of the ungodly."

Satan often permits his victims to be successful in their first goings astray, in order thereby more effectually to work their ruin hereafter. Who has not read of the reckless and dissipated youth, who, intoxicated with his success at throwing the dice at first, has plunged madly into a career of gambling that has ultimately caused his ruin, and from which, had he been unsuccessful in his first attempt, he might probably have been spared? Just so with Peter. He and his companions were permitted to carry off their ill-gotten prize unseen, save by the eye of Him who seeth all things. They hastened away from the place, and Peter, concealing his apples as well as he could, entered the shop, and purchased the necessary article. He then posted off for home, and as one sin naturally entails another, in reply to his mother's question as to why he had been so long, with downcast looks he said, "The shop was full of people, and I was compelled to wait." Ah, little did Mrs. Arnold imagine what was passing in her little boy's mind, or what was the true reason of his delay; for, ever accustomed to rely on his simple word,

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Uneasy though he felt the remainder of the day, and afraid lest he should be discovered, no sooner did the morrow dawn than, upon some slight excuse, he left home, to meet once more his sinful comrades; and day after day, and week after week, it became a constant habit, whenever he could, to steal away from his mother unnoticed, to take part in some scheme of plunder or mischief; and frequently might he have been seen at the corner of some street, illustrating the second step, by “standing in the way of sinners."

Habit soon becomes second nature, and the mind, before innocent and pure, shrinking from the very mention of guilt, now gradually yielding to the seducing wiles of the tempter, becomes bolder in its wickedness, and learns to look unblushingly on virtue whilst committing acts of blackest vice. Peter, at first careful to evade his mother's notice whilst indulging in sin, soon hardened by frequent and continued intercourse with wicked companions, and giving rein to the evil propensities of his own deceitful heart, began to throw aside the mask, and exhibit to the shocked and astonished gaze of his confiding parent, unmistakeable evidence of his being one of the "ungodly." Parental authority was tried to stop his sinful course, but it failed: he had gone too far to be awed by threats into his rightful duty. Entreaty and supplication followed, but they likewise failed to accomplish the desired end; and the weeping mother beheld to her sorrow her tears, her threats, her prayers, treated by her son, as he grew up in years, at first with indifference, then contempt, and at length (oh, shame to have to record it) resented with oaths and curses! No longer a punctual attender at the Sabbath school, Peter wandered about with idle comrades, and spent that most blessed day of all the seven in strolling through the fields and lanes; and, as night drew near, he was to be seen with his wicked friends seated on some eminence near the very place he used so regularly to attend, mocking the worshippers as they passed, and making light of former friends now no longer cared for.

Peter! thou hast wellnigh run thy course; from that happy morn when young thou readest of the path of the ungodly, from the time thou yieldedst to Bill Stephens's tempting words, and Jack Roberts's winning

ways, thou hast been but illustrating more fully the dangers of that downward path; and now, unless some mighty power be out

stretched to save thee, thou must still abide where now thou art, “sitting in the seat of the scornful!"

THE MONTH.

Entelligence.

Of all public matters the war is the one which engrosses universal attention; even the most earnest advocates of peace principles share in the general solicitude, and prudently abstain from mooting their great topic when it would not be easy to gain an audience. In the Crimea, where the Allied troops were safely landed with wonderful skill on the part of the commanders, and providentially favoured by suitable weather, a most furious battle has been fought, and a great victory gained by our troops. All our readers will have seen the details of what they all were eager to learn, long before this page reaches them; they will also have shared in the common delusion originated by the false reports of the fall of Sebastopol, and have learned that on the contrary the Allies are now investing it with every circumstance in their favour on the south;-now, that is, while we write, for what our readers may hear in the few days which must pass before we publish, no one can tell. The battle was, indeed, a fierce one. The English troops had to storm batteries of heavy field guns over the precipitous banks of a river, and up a strongly fortified hill. It is wonderful indeed to think how coolly, merely under the inspiration of military duty and honour, a regiment of men could advance to charge a battery which was strewing the ground as It advanced with its killed and wounded, multiplying ghastly spectacles at every step. To the christian reader it cannot but suggest the enquiry, Why cannot the christian church discipline its numerous regiments to a sense of honour and duty equally deep, and prepared for as perilous exploits in a holier warfare? It is not our province to record the horrors of the battlefield on the subsequent night and morning; we advise our readers, however, to study them minutely. What we have to pay for war is but an unworthy check to the love of mili tary glory, compared with the moral one, of our distress at the agonies of the thousands wounded, many of them fatally, our sorrow for hundreds cut off at once, that their comrades might conquer,-and our sympathy with the life-long sadness of widows, and the loss of helpless orphans. Of all this blood and sorrow the author of the war is alone guilty. The accursed wretch, we use the term advisedly,-who, to extend his overgrown tyranny, and to multiply the number of his slaves, could wantonly interfere with the rights, and invade the Provinces, of a neighbour Stateon him must rest the execrations of all who suffer by it. St. Helena would be a mild

punishment for the monster who, without a shadow of pretext, broke the universal peace. In the hands of an overruling Providence his accursed pride and ambition may lead, however, to the deliverance of Europe from bondage to the fear of a Czar, may make him again a simple Czar of Muscovy, and raise oppressed Poland from its ashes to a national life again. It ought to do this, and would do it, if we had leaders worthy of our country at the helm. The present war would be made the occasion of stripping Russia of all she has stolen of Europe, from Finland on the north, to Bessarabia on the mouths of the Danube.

At the time we write a vigorous political contest is going on between the Danes and their treacherous and arbitrary monarch, in behalf of constitutional freedom; a contest in which, at any other time, the British public would take deep interest.

In Germany there has been a large meeting of the churches which accept the creeds of the Reformers, in which many questions of moral, religious, and social interest were freely discussed. Baptists were, of course, excluded from taking a formal part in the proceedings; but they were spoken of as "our brethren," and were honoured with a formal discussion on their distinguishing tenet, in which the difficulty of defending Infant Baptism as an apostolic institution was freely admitted. A popular book to keep the people right, if possible, was ordered to be drawn up, but the Baptists were not permitted to speak. The publi cation of such a book will, no doubt, give a great impetus to the spread of Baptist sentiments in Germany, as we have always found to be the case when similar attempts have been made in England. It shows that our brethren are becoming worthy of notice for their numbers and exertions, and will furnish them with a definite set of arguments to reply to. Baptists have always gained by discussion, and will doubtless do so in Germany. It is, indeed, little better than theological suicide for Protestant divines to attack believers' Baptism.

In Canada the Church and State Struggle is proceeding most prosperously. The able Whig ministry, like their comrades in this country, were for saving all they could for their beloved Episcopalians. They were, however, driven from office (though on other matters they have deserved well of the province), and a Tory leader has been installed as premier, whose leading engagement with the majority of the assembly is, that he will bring in a bill to secularize the "Clergy Reserves," that long source of ecclesiastical discord in the Provinces. Pres

byterians and Wesleyans meanly helped the Episcopalians, hoping to share the crumbs which fell from the Government table, but all in vain. We earnestly hope the day is near when Lord John Russell and his dirty Church Rates, will share the fate of Mr. StatesHincks and his Clergy Reserves. men ought to be taught that truckling to the Church will no longer be endured. Never was the time more auspicious for advocates of the voluntary principle to do their duty, both in the Parish Vestry, and in enlightening the House of Commons. In the Church itself an active party is denying the Queen's Supremacy: and the notorious Archdeacon Wilberforce, brother of the Bishop of Oxford, has resigned on that question. At the same time the Puseyites and Evangelicals are at bitter variance; and their opposite principles, if only carried out as honestly as those of the Free Churchmen, would compel them also to come out.

The opening of the University of Oxford has worked in a way that few expected. A Puseyite Hall has actually been started, to give a more perfect training in Popery and Jesuitism. Wise they in their genera tion ! Will Evangelical Churchmen, and other Evangelical denominations, venture into this ecclesiastical Sebastopol,-this head fortress of religious serfdom?

We have not room to advert at length to other facts of great domestic interest. The tremendous conflagration and explosion at Newcastle, with the loss of perhaps forty lives; the loss of the Arctic Steamer, with the sacrifice of nearly as many lives as were destroyed at the battle of the Alma, teach us solemn moral lessons, and some practical ones in respect of guarding against similar future accidents.-We must not omit to record also, that the gallant Sir John Franklin, the hero of the Arctic seas, about whom the public anxiety has been so long tried, has been found at length, starved, alas, with his crew, to death!-One pleasing fact we gladly record, the more so as it may escape notice at such a time as the present. Some forty licensed victuallers, in the parish of St. James's, London, have agreed to petition Parliament to close the public houses on the Sunday entirely !

BILSTON, STAFFORDSHIRE.

In compliance with the invitation of the church and congregation worshipping in Wood Street, in the above place, the Rev. J. C. Park (late of Colne, Lancashire), commenced his pastoral labours amongst them on the first Sabbath in September. On Tuesday, Sept. 12th, the recognition services took place, when above four hundred persons took tea in the schoolrooms; and in the evening, the Revs. J. Davies (Independent) and Baylis, of Bilston; C. Young, of Coseley; Tipple, of Wolverhampton; and Nightingale, of Princes-end, addressed a large assemblage in the chapel. The services were characterised by kindly feeling, and the addresses, which were serious and practical, produced a most gratifying impression.

POPLAR, NEAR LONDON.

"On October 18th, the recognition of the Rev. B. Breece, late of Great Grimsby, as pastor of the Baptist church, Cotton Street, Poplar, was held. The Rev. J. Cowper (Independent), of Mill Wall, commenced the service by reading the scriptures and prayer. The Rev. J. Angus, D.D., President of Stepney College, proposed the usual questions and prayed the recognition prayer; and the Rev. John Aldis, of Maze Pond, London, delivered an impressive address to the pastor, from Ephesians, iv. 11, "Pastors and teachers." After refreshments, the evening service was commenced by the Rev. F. Clowes, late Classical Tutor of Horton College, Bradford, who read the scriptures and prayed; and the address to the church was delivered by the Rev. J. Whittemore, of Eynsford, Kent, from John iii. 8, the "Fellow - helpers to truth." The devotional services were conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Williams, of Moorfield; Cator, of Chelsea; and Messrs. Freeman and Fieldwick.

CORTON, WILTSHIRE.

On Lord's-day, Sept. 24th, the Baptist Chapel and School at this place were reopened after enlargement. The Rev. J. Farmer preached in the morning, and the Rev. G. Howe in the afternoon and evening, to large and deeply attentive congregations. The collections were good, considering the poverty of the people. The chapel and school-rooms will now accommodate about three hundred persons. The expenditure amounts to £110. Some kind friends in the village gave the stone and the earth required for the enlargement, or the expenditure would have been very considerably more. To defray the expenses, the friends have entered into a twelvemonth subscription, some giving 1s. per week, others 6d., others 3d., and others Id., thus raising £50. Some of the churches round have helped a little; and if any of the readers of Church" would enclose a few stamps in an envelope to assist in the removal of the debt, the friends would be very thankful.

NEW BRENTFORD.

The

On Wednesday, August 30th, a public tea meeting was held in the Town Hall, in connexion with the settlement of the Rev. J. W. Lance (formerly of Houghton Regis), as pastor of the Baptist Church and congregation meeting in that place. Charles Watkins, Esq., occupied the chair, and addresses were delivered by the Revs. J. Smith, J. Russell, D. Katterns, J. W. Lance, and others, who took part in the meeting.

BULL.

The Rev. R. Hall, B.A., late of Arlington, has accepted the unanimous invitation of the Baptist church meeting in George street, Hull, and commenced his labours there on the 15th of October. The friends at Arlington, on his resignation, kindly presented him with a handsome timepiece and some plate,

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."-Eph. ii. 20.

DECEMBER, 1854.

THE LAMB OF GOD.

BY DR. F. A. G. THOLUCK.*

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."-John i. 29.

My Jesus is an innocent, spotless Lamb, meek and patient, even when led to the slaughter; and none, indeed, but a spotless lamb could be brought to the Lord. He was slain, but not for his own sin; oppressed, but not by his own burden. Voluntarily he renounced his own riches, took upon himself our poverty, shared in all our lot, and suffered, that we through him might become rich. The head suffered in sympathy with all the members. He wished to redeem, not angels, but men; and hence he took upon him our poor flesh, as liable to temptation, as averse to suffering as our own; and in that flesh endured hunger, and thirst, and weariness, and sorrow, and pain. The miseries of his fellow-men became his own. At the grave of Lazarus, when all around were weeping, he was so deeply moved in spirit, that from his own eyes flowed tears of sorrow. He felt the woe which death brings upon all the sons of Adam, and he wept. How often, too, must his heart have bled when all the misery and wretchedness that every place contained, wherever he came, was displayed before his eyes,-and from morning to night, the lame, the blind, the paralysed, the leprous, the possessed, were congregated around him! But how deeply must our spiritual wants have moved that heart which could so keenly feel for the wants of our bodies! Over Jerusalem and its blindness he poured forth his tears. Over the unbelief of his disciples he exclaimed, "Oh, thou faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?" Deeply it grieves even us, and that more and more, year by year, to see the name of God dishonoured; and our prayers therefore ascend with ever-increasing earnestness to heaven: "Hallowed be thy name!" and yet, the while, we ourselves are so unholy! But whas must have been the feelings of God's spotless Lamb, when he beheld the name of God everywhere dishonoured upon earth, and the form of God so shamefully disfigured in his creature man. He was not ashamed to call himself our brother; but what must have been the feelings of his holy spirit, when he saw the image of his heavenly Father so disfigured in those whom he called his brethren. He knew, as we know not, what we are with sin upon us, and what we ought to be! But it is written for our consolation, that when he tabernacled among us, he shed tears of

1

From "Stunden Christlicher Andacht."

(1) Luke xix. 41.

VOL. VIII.

(2) Mark ix. 19.

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compassion, not only over our physical miseries, but likewise over our sinful obduracy. So that now that he is seated on his throne, we may feel the fullest confidence that his thoughts will still be thoughts of pity, when he looks down from the height of his glory upon the troubles and trials, and the evil thoughts and evil deeds, of those whose flesh and blood he wears, and whom yet shall lead to glory. "It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Oh, innocent Lamb of God, thou hast borne the sins of the world!

How he bore them in Gethsemane and on Golgotha! There his pure and spotless human nature shrank from the horrors of that death which, of all deaths, a pure and spotless nature specially abhors. For it was not merely the horrors of a natural death, it was of the violent, the bloody death of the criminal! Sin set itself in judgment over holiness without a spot; the unjust pronounced the condemning sentence upon the just without a fault. And, therefore, when our dear Saviour looked down, as in Gethsemane, upon the last dark hour, he beheld, not merely the awful night of his own passion, but also the black night of our sins, and felt them both. Once, as he approached Jerusalem, he wept over the blindness of his people; and can we wonder that now, when he draws nigh his last hour, he should sweat great drops of blood, when he thinks that those for whom he had mourned and wept were about to put the Lord of Glory to the accursed death of the criminal? Well might he exclaim, as they bound him and led him away, "This is the hour and the power of darkness!"* Ah, who can conceive the feelings of his soul in that dark hour! Then, deep called unto deep; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over him. Death is surrounded with terrors, even when the criminal is given over to death by the hand of justice; much more when the innocent dies by the hand of criminals; with what aggravated horror is it surrounded when it is an innocent king who is doomed by his rebellious subjects; but, oh, how terrible the thought-the only begotten Son of the Father led forth to die, by those whose flesh and blood he had assumed in mercy! Who can think of this, and yet look with an unconcerned, a stranger's eye upon the bloody sweat of Gethsemane! Oh, innocent Lamb of God, how fully thou hast borne the sins of the world! "Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands." "And when they had bound him, they led him away.' 995 "Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head." Oh, Lamb of God, verily thou hast tasted the full bitterness of the cup which sin has offered thee ! The blindness and wickedness of the human heart can be perfectly displayed only in contrast with thy holiness; as the night in all its darkness is only rendered visible by contrast with the pure light. And so it was now. And thou wast silent all the while,-patient under the contradiction of sinners against thyself,-silent when they smote thee with their fists, when they spat in thy face,-the unjust to the Just, the servants to their Lord, the creature to the Father's only well

(2) Luke xxii. 53.
(4) Matt. xxvi. 67.

(1) Heb. i. 17.
(5) Matt. xxvii. 2.

(3) Psalm xlii. 7. (6) Matt. xxvii. 27-30.

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