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to denominational action, do we not need to be united, and have we no efforts of usefulness that need to be helped? We know that there are many high-minded and liberal members of our christian communities who view denominational papers with undisguised repugnance. What occasion may have been given for this feeling need not be a matter of enquiry now. If we, indeed, thought that such a paper as is proposed would conduce to the spread of a narrowminded sectarianism in the denomination, we should be the first to deprecate it. We are denominational, but not sectarian. We look upon the denomination with which we are identified as a field to be worked, and worked with our might; we do not look upon it as a field from which we are to throw stones and dirt upon the fields around us. And we firmly believe that a paper may be connected with a denomination and devoted to its interests, yet remain free from littleness and narrowness of feeling in the treatment of general questions, avoid a gossiping and offensively personal style of discussing matters special to the denomination, maintain its peculiar opinions with catholicity of spirit, and preserve an :undeviating dignity of tone.

With these feelings, therefore, we have much pleasure in announcing the probability that a Baptist newspaper will soon be started. A number of gentlemen are now uniting to provide the necessary capital; high literary ability, joined with other qualifications which are sure to obtain the confidence of the denomination, has been secured; and the project is to be placed for working in the hands of the publisher of "The Church," for him to devote to it the energy which the projectors have been pleased to say he has shown in other cases. In reference to this last arrangement it is needful to say, in order to meet a possible objection, that by the Electric Telegraph the latest news is almost simultaneously now received in all parts of the kingdom, and that the facilities for postal transmission from all the large towns are such, that the

paper would come to hand, in the great majority of cases, from Leeds, as early as if published in London.

The paper will, of course, be entirely neutral upon the Communion question, as well as upon the points of difference between the General and the Particular Baptists, It is intended to make it serve all the purposes for which such a paper can be suitably employed; to use it to promote true manliness, and to help to right action, in all the relations of the christian life; and to furnish, not only a condensed record of all interesting political and religious news, but also an amount of family and fireside reading which, perhaps, only a weekly paper can supply.

We hope to be enabled to announce price, date of commencement, &c., in our next number. Meanwhile we commend the project, which has been the subject of much consideration and prayer with its projectors, to the sympathy and the prayers of our brethren. A project which has already secured the hearty co-operation of such men as Dr. Acworth of Bradford, Mr. Brown of Liverpool, Mr. Burchell of Rochdale, Mr. Chown of Bradford, Mr. Cooke of Bradford, Mr. Dowson of Bradford, Mr. Dunckley of Salford, Mr. Evans of Scarborough, Dr. Godwin of Bradford, Mr. Green of Bradford, Mr. Kelsall of Rochdale, Mr. Landels of Birmingham, Mr. Larom of Sheffield, Mr. Lomas of Leicester, Mr. Lord of Ipswich, Mr. Manning of Frome, Mr. Middleditch of Frome, Mr. Richardson of Leeds, Mr. Smith of Cheltenham, Mr. Stalker of Leeds, Mr. Stead of Bradford, Mr. Stock of Salendine-Nook, and Mr.Wheldon of Scarborough, can scarcely be a failure. But in order to its full success, the aid of all will be needed. That this aid will be given, on the opportunity being presented, we do not doubt. We have reason to have confidence in the zeal of our brethren in the support of a publication suited to them, and worthy of them. At present, we ask earnest consideration of the project, so far as we have been able to lay it open; and

we shall be glad to have communications, containing opinions and suggestions about

it, from as many of our readers as can find time to write.

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A Page for the Young.

"NEXT CHRISTMAS."

"Next Christmas," said Florence Baymey, you will be with us then, you know, and you shall see how much we enjoy the merry, merry time."

They had been having a girls' chat, had Floy and her cousin, all about Christmas and its pleasures, and the former had grown quite animated over her descriptions of family gatherings, and German trees, and all the almsgivings of the time: these last having, perhaps, the chief place given to them, for Florence had a gentle heart, and loved, by word and deed, to sooth the sorrows of the poor around her.

"Look up, dear," she continued cheerily, "are you not wishing that old Christmas would make haste about it, if he means to visit us at all?"

"If!" said the younger girl, leaning her head upon her hand. "Oh, Floy, how do I know that I shall live till then ?"

Floy's gaiety subsided to a sympathetic seriousness, as she said, "We cannot tell, dear; we must be quite ready, and then leave the time to God."

"Ah, it is easy for you, so full of health and life, to say all this; but I," and she spread forth her thin hands as she spoke, "I stand close to the cold river, and I am not ready for a passage through its waters!"

Floy could not speak, but she sank down beside her, and they wept together.

Alice had spoken of her cousin as full of health and life, and she had spoken truly. There was something about Florence Bayney which attracted even a stranger's gaze; something in the tall figure, in the rosetinged cheek, and in the laughing eye, which led one, all admiringly, to say, "God has given health there, and a mind at ease."

It was all true, and Alice knew what a contrast all must observe between her slender form, her lily cheek, and almost saddened gaze, and the buoyancy which marked her cousin's every look and action.

But not always, when Death comes and

waits to bear away his victim,-not always does the Ruler of the skies say, "Lay thine hand upon the pale, drooping flower." No; for our brightest, our most healthful ones, are often carried in a moment hence. So was it here. October came,-and Christmas,-to which Floy had gaily looked, -Christmas was hastening on, but she who had scarce known sickness all her life, she, the only daughter, and the brightness of the household, laid her fair head upon her mother's breast, and sighed her life away!

"It is very gloomy, aunt," said Alice, drawing nearer to Mrs. Bayney, as they sat in the still twilight; "I have missed Floy's laugh to-day." There was a long sad pause. "I wonder," continued the child, as one "thinking aloud, "I wonder if she will be better by Christmas; she spoke so much about those pleasant days, that I quite long for them."

The mother leaned her head upon her hand. Oh, that sad heart!

"Alice, dear Alice, I must tell you of something which will make you very sad." Again the face was hidden by the hands. "Alice, dear Floy is very, very ill. You remember," she asked, rousing herself as by great effort; "you remember how this fearful disease has raged around us ?"

Alice could scarce say, 66 Yes." There was something in her throat which checked her words, and yet she could not weep.

"This, then, has seized our darling, and they tell me she may die." How long that silence, without tears, seemed to them both!

"I left her, for the first time to-day," said the elder mourner presently, "that I might tell you this; and that I might say, also, that it will be our duty, dear, to send you from the house until "

Alice felt an added weight upon her heart. "Must I leave them," she asked silently, "now, in their sorrow?" But she would not add to her aunt's grief, and so her head was bowed in mute assent.

"Oh, Alice, if I knew that Floy was ready! then one-half this weight would leave me! Shall we kneel, dear child," she asked, as the welcome tears began to flow,

"shall we kneel and ask Jesus to draw her now to himself ?"

And in that deepening twilight they knelt side by side; and in low voice, with many a sob between, the mother prayed, as, thank God, many mothers do pray, for the salvation of her child. Oh, it was more the sighing and the tears, than any words she uttered, which rose, as in a cloud of glory, to the outspread hands of Jesus. And before they rose, that mother's faith was turned to gladdening sight, for beside them, in the darkness, knelt a manly form, and an earnest voice was lifted up in holy prayer.

It was the pastor; and the mother learned one of the sweetest, holiest things a mother ever learns, from that brief prayer, which sounded more like one continued praise. She learned then that her child was one of God's redeemed, an heir of glory, travelling to heaven!

What joy could equal this? Oh, mother, dost thou wish thy child to taste earth's joys, to mount to earth's high honours? Ask it not! Desire this glory, and this honour, and this joy for thy beloved one, and Eternity shall prove that thou art wise. Not many weeks before the hand of disease was laid upon her, Floy had journeyed to her pastor's dwelling, and had told him of her deep convictions, and her yearning after peace with God. And it had been his privilege (how high a privilege let angels strive to tell!) to lead her on to faith in Jesus, and to sweet adoption into God's own family. And now in her illness he had come to visit her, and, entering the room where the mother knelt, had heard her voice in prayer, and from the word or two which fell upon his ear, had learned that she knew nothing of her child's great happiness. In prayer, as we have seen, he told her what he knew, blessing God that the dear girl was quite prepared to die.

"Mother, I have kept back from you what I know will give you joy. I have

been wrong in this. Mother, do you not long to know if-if I am ready ?"

"I do, Floy," Mrs. Bayney tried to say. "Mother, I believe in Jesus ;" and I feel, oh, so happy! I cannot tell you. Death," she continued, earnestly, “Death, with His arms around me,-Death opening heaven's gate,-oh, it has no sting!"

Next day she said, "I have not professed myself a christian, mother." "No, dear, you have had no opportunity." "I do not know," said Floy, in a low tone; "but it has not been because I was ashamed. Say that hymn, dear mother." Her mother began, but her tears checked her utterance.

"I should like to have sat at His table," said Floy, "young as I am; but heaven is before me, and there I shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb."

Oh, how we long, sitting by the bed of death, to say more than we do, and how our tears will choke our utterance !

Delirium came, and the parents watched in vain for look of love. "One interval of reason!" sighed they, looking up to heaven, and it was granted.

"Mother!"

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My love, do you know your mother ?" Oh, how tenderly those words were spoken l "Father!"

He took her hand. Servants, pastor, friends, she saw them all.

"I love, I love," would she express some earthly devotion for father or mother, or friends? Ah, not thus does she breathe forth her soul,-she murmurs, "I love Jesus!"-and the life is gone!

They lay her in the tomb; and, very soon, the father and the mother joined her near the throne.

And Alice, in the twilight,-spared till gray hairs crown her brow,-sits thinking of the days gone by, and blesses God that he has made Floy's death the means of life to her. Shall it be so with you? C.

THE MONTH.

Entelligence.

The great event of the month is beyond question a most bountiful Harvest; from all parts of the kingdom the accounts have been the same. Not only on account of the high prices last year has a larger breadth of land than usual been sown, but

the quantity and quality of both the wheat and other corn crops far exceed those of most years. The weight of the wheat is several pounds per bushel more than usual. Some deduction may take place from the full benefit we should otherwise enjoy from such a bounteous blessing, through the par

tial losses of other countries. In America the Indian corn has very generally failed, though there, as here, the wheat crop is a very good one;-and some localities on the Continent also are sufferers from floods and want of water, while British harbours are practicallynearer to them than more favoured parts of their own country. Still there can scarcely be a doubt that the necessaries of life will be so much cheaper this winter, as to save the country on the lowest calculation not less than twenty-five millions of pounds. Every cottage will feel the difference. Ample supplies of food will do much to abate the virulence of the pestilence, and the taxes required for "defending the right" in our Eastern war will be paid, perhaps doubly paid, by the direct bounty of heaven. "Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."

Adverting to that War, however, it is still painful to think how many remissions of taxation, and how many national improvements it has prevented. Ten millions added to our taxation, and partly poured out on foreign shores, partly diverted from the ordinary channels of trade, while it has served to rivet afresh excise fetters on others, can but have been a national mischief. In many cases, also, an essentially unchristian military ardour may have been kindled in breasts almost strangers hitherto to the feeling. It should be remembered, however, that a great deal of the professed love of peace was but a much meaner sentiment; in truth, the love of mammon. We have been enjoying and gloating over a material prosperity, which made too many insensible to any other consideration than the even flow of money into their bankers' accounts and shop-tills. They dreaded war, if they spoke the truth, more for lucres' sake than for religion's sake. Compared with such ignoble feelings courage is respectable; but the more general feeling of indignation at Russian wrongs to one of our fellow-nations, and of self-sacrificing desire at any cost to "defend the right," is more than respectable, it is noble at least; quite worthy of Old Testament saints, and many will think worthy of New Testament saints also. At the time we write fifty-eight thousand troops, to be followed by twenty or thirty thousand more, have just landed near Sebastopol, the strong-hold from which the Russian barbarian has hitherto menaced the liberties of Turkey.

At home we have had a most fearful visitation of the Cholera, in the metropolis. During nine weeks, beginning with five deaths the first week, it reached two thousand and fifty in the ninth week, but the next week the number of deaths was five hundred less. May the return of cooler weather be blessed as the means of lightening this solemn judgment. As usual, damp, dirt, and intemperance, seem chiefly to have attracted the baneful influence; but no class, age, or sex, has escaped its attacks. They have also been fearfully sudden. Premoni

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In the Ecclesiastical World there is little of novel, though much of note-worthy, character. In Victoria, the Council is endeavouring to saddle the colony with a costly State-Church, prior to its gaining a full and fair representation of the people. The avaricious arts of the sect of the wealthier few will, it is hoped, be defeated by an appeal to the home Government. The Church Rates struggle in England goes on bravely. Victories predominate where the battle is fought as it ought to be; but the victory, in the better sense, is always on our side, for each contest gains a victory for truth over error in the minds of hundreds and thousands who would otherwise hardly think of it. We urgently counsel' that, in every parish where there are but a few independent men, the rate should be contested, and the contest previously announced. Nothing will hasten Parliamentary action so much.-While Evangelical clergymen are thus enforcing Church rates in the name of Christ and the Queen, Archdeacon Wilberforce, who had published popish views on the Eucharist, and was threatened with prosecution, has found out that the Queen's supremacy is a stumblingblock in the way of his retaining holy orders! The Evangelicals are strenuous for the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy; the Puseyites dislike it. A quarrel is arising in the bosom of the Church itself on this vital point in our Establishment. On the other hand, the clergy, especially in the new voluntary Churches, are attracting large congregations, and if they go on as they are doing, will turn the tables on Dissenters at the next census. Partly because the Church system suits all who dislike a definite profession of religion, and partly because the clergy are much more diligent in pastoral work than Dissenters. The Church worship is also a matter of course with the unenlightened, torified, and trimming, if they rouse themselves to go anywhere. The zeal of some clergymen should,' however, arouse the Dissenting clergy to a worthier zeal for a purer gospel.

BURNING OF DR. COX'S CHAPEL, HACKNEY. FIRE INSURANCE.

On the cover our readers will perceive an advertisement of the report of the British Empire Mutual Fire Assurance Company. We draw attention to it for two reasons; one, that it is the first effort yet made on a national scale to apply the principle of mutual insurance in a fire office. By means of this principle, insurance is effected at prime cost; there is no proprietary to absorb the profits, but they all return triennially to the insurers. It will be seen that the British Empire has twice in the six years of its existence, re

turned 12 per cent. (i. e., 2s. 6d. in the pound) to all who have insured with it for three years. Another reason is, that we fear even many good men are imperfectly impressed with the importance of full insurauce against fire. They think "they will take their chance and risk it." Now, when for a few shillings or pounds per annum they may be quite safe, this is little better than tempting Providence. Had the chapel of Dr. Cox, which was entirely destroyed this month, not been insured, how severely would the deacons have been blamed for burdening the public with contributions, which, for a few pounds a year, might have been saved. We trust that all deacons and trustees who need it will take the warning. Generally, too, how many persons would, by a fire, be embarrassed in their business, perhaps even to bankruptcy; and no one has a right, for the sake of saving a small sum annually, to expose his creditors to the risk of a loss from which he might preserve them. A person even who has insured his life, might, if he had not insured his property, be compelled by a fire to give up his life insurance, on which he has been relying for the support of his widow or orphans in case of his early removal by death. Nothing can be more capricious and unforeseen than the causes of fires. Our servants' or our neighbours' neglect, spontaneous combustion, or lightning, and innumerable accidents not to be accounted for, place every thing combustible at the mercy of this terrible calamity. To us it is naturally some recommendation of the above-mentioned company, that it is not only established for the public good, and not for that of private shareholders, but that its chairman, with several of the directors and principal officers, are men of high standing in our churches, as well as in the commercial world.

WATERFOOT, ROSSENDALE, LANCASHIRE.

On Monday, August 14th, 1854, a meeting was held for the purpose of recognizing and assisting at the formation of a church in this place. Messrs. J. Howe of Waterbarn, Driver of Lumb, Nichols of Sunnyside, John Whitaker of Waterfoot, Jackson of Cloughfold, and John Blakey of Haslingden, took part in the service. The whole service was of a deeply interesting character, many felt it good to be there.

USK, MONMOUTHSHIRE.

On Wednesday evening, August the 16th, Mr. J. Lewis, student of the Baptist college, Pontypool, was recognised as pastor of the Baptist church in this town. The Revs. J. Bailey of Ragland, G. Thomas, and J. Thomas of the above college, and S. Price of Abersychan, took part in the services.

SHIPLEY, YORKSHIRE.

The Rev. J. P. Campbell of Towcester, has accepted the invitation to the pastorate of the church at Shipley, and will commence his labours there on the second Sabbath in October; the prospects for his comfort and usefulness are very encouraging.

HAMBURGH.

It will be interesting to our readers to hear that our beloved Brother Oncken, after his long tour in the United States, arrived safely at Hamburgh on the 23th of August, when his reception by his family and the church may be more easily imagined than described.

GREAT GRIMSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.

The Rev. R. Hogg, of Long Preston, has accepted a cordial and unanimous invitation to the pastorate from the church assembling in Upper Burgess Street, and commences his stated labours there on the first Lord's-day in October.

KEYNSHAM, SOMERSET.

Mr. J. J. Joplin, of the Baptist college, Bristol, has received and accepted an invitation from the Baptist church, Keynsham, Somerset, to become their pastor, and entered on his labours the first Sabbath in August, with gratifying prospects of success. NORWOOD.

The Rev. S. Wills, D.D., (lately returned from New York,) having accepted a cordial invitation to the pastorate, from the Baptist church at Westow Hill, Norwood, commenced his stated labours on Lord'sday, September 24th.

POPLAR.

The Rev. Benjamin Preece, late of Grimsby, having accepted an invitation to become the pastor of the Baptist church, Cotton-street, Poplar, entered upon his pastoral duties September 17th.

Obituary.

THE REV. J. G. PIKE, OF DERBY. We are sorry to have to record the death of this venerable minister, which occurred on the 11th of September, at his house in Derby. His death was sudden. He preached to his own congregation on the previous Sunday, and on the Monday morning attended the monthly prayer-meeting of the Independent and Baptist ministers, by whom he was congratulated on his apparent improvement in health. When

the hour of prayer closed, he consulted his brethren on the propriety of uniting in a public thanksgiving for the abundant harvest. In the course of the day he made some calls, and, in the afternoon, retired to his study to attend to his correspondence. Several envelopes were directed, and one note was commenced, but his pen was paralysed by the stroke of death. Not answering to the call to tea, his daughter entered his study, and found him sitting in his chair, pen in hand, with his forehead on his desk, senseless and lifeless! death is supposed to have been instantaneous, and to have occurred without a struggle or a pang. He was in his 71st year. His funeral took place on the 19th instant. Perhaps there has been no man of our day whose labours in the cause of God have been greater or more successful. Of him eminently it may be said, that "his works do follow him."

His

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