the peoples providentially selected from age to age to be the guardians and ministers of the church-those of Great Britain being the last, not the leastcertainly not the least to you and me.

Perhaps I may as well say that my course of thought will evolve itself under four heads.

1. The plan on which God conducts His providence.

2. The instruments chosen successively to carry it on.

3. The mischiefs threatening it in the present age.

4. Our duty in the circumstances; a duty of which we may learn not a little from what we read of the ancient occupants of these isles.

After a very able and erudite discussion of the first and second points, more suited to a select than to a popular audience, such as our readers compose, the Chairman proceeded :

Of the mischiefs threatening God's plans in the present day.-But now, as in the case of the ancient Hebrews, so in our case, everything as to the future of Great Britain depends on our being faithful to our trust. And there are elements and agencies amongst us which mar our excellence and impede our progress in the right direction; such as may well awaken the suspicion that God has a controversy with the inhabitants and the rulers of this land. To say nothing of the natural indisposition. of the carnal mind to spiritual things, and the prevailing mammonism of our age, to which I alluded in my address in May, Christianity-our Protestant Evangelical Christianity is in peril from most of its ancient foes, and from some of them in new and unwonted guise. It is proper, I think, on such an occasion as this, that we should look them in the face, and take the gauge and measure of their force.

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There is Popery, whose head we have long been accustomed to conceive of as the impersonation of the "Man of Sin;" and itself as Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations in the earth." There it is, up and doing, naked and rampant as of old. Some thirty years ago we flattered ourselves that, as a polity, it was become an innocent and harmless thing; at the worst only to be represented after the fashion of John Bunyan, as a giant in a cave, gnashing his teeth at the pilgrims as they passed on their way. I guess there were of us who were startled

out of their easy faith by the Papal ag gression, which put all England and Scotland in a ferment a short while ago. And I suppose some of us have scarcely yet recovered from our amazement at the agreement of the chiefs of the two greatest continental empires to give honour and power to the Papacy, as it has not possessed honour and power for many a day. It has devastated our Tahiti, and would have monopolised China; and it is clear that our missionaries will have to confront and grapple with its myrmidons in every quarter of then that the battle of the Reformation globe. There are those who apprewill have to be fought over again. I am not afraid of that; but we shall do well not to sleep as do others. It bodes no good to Protestant Britain, that the emissaries of Rome find their way so readily to the ears of our statesmen, and to the keys of our exchequer. There is as much poison as ever in the cup of Popery's enchantments, and no less than aforetime of "red lightning and pernicious fire" in the sweep of its arm.

Then there is Puseyism, which is only Popery in a mask, with the same animus and the same arts. To me there is I know no what of mournful in a movement which took its origin in the bosom of a Protestant church, and in the chair of its foremost university, and which is, with its non-natural senses, an insult on the intellectual manhood of the age, and in its tendencies an outrage on the settled constitution of the Church and the State. And the mournfulness is augmented by the fact that its principal abettors have been men with intellects of the finest structure, the richest endowment, and the most potent grasp. I am not willing to attribute to them conscious Jesuitrypositive knavishness; and the best I can think of them is, that they had lost their wits amid the rubbish of antiquity, and let their understandings creep into the strait-waistcoat of the fathers, when they seemed to themselves to have no safe or honest alternative but that of secession to the Catholic church. for their neophytes all over the land, who ape them, who have little wit to lose, and slender understanding to prate about, and who yet would cheat us out of our common sense, and swathe our reason in swaddling bands; who, in point of fact, are seeking by their fantastic tricks in the pulpit, and their gaudy processions on the saint-days and

But,

faith to the Word of God, there ought to have been an end at once of statecraft and of priestcraft, But the time was not then fully come. The system had to be weighed in other balances. And now one would imagine that every reasonable on-looker must be ready to say of it, "Mene, mene, tekel!" It has been weighed and found wanting. Under the most favourable circumstances it has failed to secure uniformity of belief within its own fold, while at least one half of our population has deserted its pale, to say nothing of the confusion, heart-burning, and strife, of which it is the prolific source. Our historic existence has been one protest against it; and every year our principles are winning their way to privilege and mastery. They are in error who fancy that we aim at the destruction of the Church, though we may have our private quarrel with its clergy and its ritual; we only seek to strike from it the manacles which disable it from doing the work of a church. We would see it a glorious church, exulting in the liberty wherewith Christ would have all His people free.

Then, once more, there is the Erastianism and Latitudinarianism of our rulers and others. They are afraid to meddle with the existing establishments of religion; and so they would fain create as many more. They feel the injustice of taxing all denominations for the endowment of one or two, and so they would extend their patronage to all alike. In this way they have tried to act in our colonies, and partly in Ireland. Now there was some show of reason and piety in the old principle of Establishmentarians that it is the duty of a nation, as such, to do homage to God in the support of what is deemed His cause; but the new principle, or rather policy without principle, which is in favour in high places, strikes me as altogether infidel and atheistic. To honour equally the most contrasted and antagonistic systems of faith and worship-the Gospel according to Paul, and the other scheme vouched as Gospel by would-be apostles, whom he visited with anathema-what is this but to declare religion to be a tool of Government, a pipe for statesmen to play any tune upon they please, a dress to be cut and squared after any fashion, with shoulder-knots or without them-with laced borderings or without them; so as to suit the fancy of Lord Peter, Baron

Martin, or plain blunt John! as if there were no truth positive and certain, and no God of the True!

Well, they are strong all these, Popery, Puseyism, Infidelity, Neology, Church of Englandism, and Erastianism; but the True, the Right, and the Good, are stronger. There is much in them to excite the alarm of not a few; but in the name of the Lord we defy them. "They compass us about— they compass us about like bees; but in the name of the Lord we will destroy them." We take our stand on the principles of the Reformation, or rather, on those of the New Testament; and with these in our hearts and in our agencies, we lift up and unfurl our banner; we ask but a fair field, with no favour; and whether we find this or not, we have no fear as to the issue. It is as impossible in Great Britain to turn back the shadow on the dial of its history, as it were bootless to say to the sun in the heavens, "Stand still!"

And here we are not alone. All parties who deserve the name of "Protestant" are with us, of one heart and of one mind, though in several minor points they differ, and ought to agree to differ; all the Methodist bodies, Wesleyan, Calvinistic or Reformed; all the Baptists, Particular and General; all the Presbyterians, Bond and Free; and, unless on one point, a great multitude of the clergy. We Congregationalists, then, form only a section “of the sacramental host of God's elect" in these realms, who would have Great Britain thoroughly Protestant in spirit, and decisively Christian in sway; but, if we err not, ours "is the Protestantism of Protestantism," and ours not so much "the Dissidence of Dissent," as the Catholicismn of Catholicity.

Of our duty in these circumstances.— And now to bring this address towards a close, and something like a practical close, I have to observe that, in order to the successful accomplishment of our mission as a Denomination in regard to our country and the world, we want a manly independence, a superior intelligence, and a fervent piety and zeal. And, brethren of England, I think we may derive a fresh invigoration to all that we have of these from what is recorded of the ancient Britons, and what we know of you, brethren of Wales, in our own times. I have trespassed already too long on your atten

tion; but you will bear with me a little longer.

I will speak, first, of manly independence. Without this an individual is ready to become a tool and a slave, and a nation is prepared to go under the yoke and the harrow. There was no lack of this "karlstalk of hemp in man," among the ancient Britons. With difficulty subdued by the terrible Romans, and at length assimilated to them, they retired slowly before the savage Saxons, to these mountain-fastnesses with their liberty and religionoften under their Uthers, Arthurs, Llewellyns, and Glendowers, rolling back the tide of war. We know not how Christianity was introduced into this island. I would willingly believe that the Apostle Paul found himself here. I do not think it unlikely that the family of Caractacus had something to do with it. I am far from being persuaded that the story of King Lucius is a myth. The only thing certain, however (as demonstrated by Neander, Milman, and Vaughan), is that the Christianity of the ancient Britons took its form from influences which proceeded from Asia Minor and the South of France, and not from Rome. And the

point on which I desire to fix your attention is this-that when the Legate of the Pope, after having succeeded in inducing a few of the Saxons to embrace the Christian faith, demanded of the British Christians that they should submit themselves to him, they said, “ No.” They met, we are told, for conference under an oak on the borders of Worcestershire, after the old Druidic fashionAugustin, with his regal train; Dynvoch of Bangor, with his venerable retinue. The former parades one of his stock miracles, and then sets forth the claims of the Roman See. The latter, more sharp-witted than the men of Kent, says nothing to the miracle, but replies in substance-"We do no dishonour to the Bishop of Rome, and we have no wish to discredit you in your Christian mission; but we have our own bishops, our own orders, our own laws, and no stranger shall have dominion over us." And so they parted; Augustin in choler and wrath-a wrath which, if he is not belied, he wreaked by the Saxon sword. And for two or three hundred years more the churches of Wales and of England, too, owned no allegiance to Rome. A singular fact which is mentioned in the seventh century puts their

independence in the strongest light. It is this: that the world-famous Wilfrid, the Champion of Rome in his day, when he was nominated to the See of York, would not receive consecration at the hands of his countrymen; there was only one bishop in all England and Wales who was not tainted with the Scottish schism ! Time passed on, and the Welsh were amongst the foremost to hail the Reformation from Popery, which at last had gotten the mastery among them in the dark ages. When, however, they discovered it by-and-by to be only the sham of a Reformation, they took a course oftheir own, in which they have persisted to the present day. In Wales, as in England, many of these Nonconformists had to suffer the tender mercies of the ruthless and truculent heads of Church and State. I know of no more melancholy and tragical story than that of the noble, gentle Penry; scarcely to be read without tears. Yes, there have been amongst us men who were faithful to their consciences and their religion unto death; and still there are men, we doubt not, who, if occasion required, would not count their lives dear for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

I speak, next, of superior intelligence as requisite to the accomplishment of our mission for our country and in our age. We flatter ourselves, I believe, that we are not deficient in this respect. But if so, it may be worth while for us to remember, that the ancient inhabitants of Great Britain were similarly distinguished. We learn from Latin sources, that in the Pagan times the Gaulish youth resorted to this island for instruction in their religion and various knowledge. And on the destruction of Druidism in its chief seat of Mona, we learn that it yet survived, transfigured into a Christianity, which spread itself over all the British isles. A Scotchman of Dumbarton became the apostle of Ireland, afterwards revered as St. Patrick. An Irishman of the name of Columba, migrating to Iona, became, with his Culdees, the apostle of Scotland. An Aidan of his fraternity became the apostle of Northumberland. And it is clear that, without any mission from Rome, the Anglo-Saxons would have been evangelised. But what I meant more particularly to say was this-that as in the Druidic, so in the Christian times, the Continental youth who were ambitious of a higher culture

repaired to these islands. We are unable to discriminate accurately between the parties designated British, Irish, and Scotch, by our old writers; the two latter terms seem to have been used interchangeably. But Ireland was famed afar as "the island of saints;" Iona as a gem of Paradise sheening in the dark northern sea; and Bangor as a centre of light and blessing. There were many Bangors, Bancors, high choirs, churches, colleges, monasteries no haunts of idleness and asceticism, but establishments for study, for piety, and for usefulness. We may judge of the quality of their learning, and the mettle of their pasture, by the fact that one of them sent forth a John Scotus Erigena, a scholar and philosopher, who was the oracle of the Court of Charlemagne

an

original thinker, persecuted, of course, by the clergy; and another sent forth a Geraint the Blue Bard, a Benedictine monk of St. David's, afterwards Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, the friend of Alfred, and his right hand in the founding or refounding of the University of Oxford; and a third sent forth Columban, who signalised himself as a missionary among the Frankish and Suevan tribes, the forerunner of multitudes from these isles who showed themselves through all Germany heroes of the faith. I must quote here the remarkable and emphatic words of Mosheim on this point, writing of the eighth century: The sciences seemed to have abandoned the Continent, and fixed their residence in Britain and Ireland. Those, therefore, of the Latin writers who were distinguished by their learning and genius, were all, a few French and Italians excepted, either British or Scottish." Thus there were more than one Goshen of blessed light in these countries, while all around there were only darkness and the shadow of death. And thus we, Britons and Saxons, have to glory in the recollection that not a few of our forefathers, at a very early period, found scope for their bold and dauntless spirit of adventure in the cause of missions. We must not be behind our sires in either of these respects. Of course it is for those of us who have been counted faithful, being put in the ministry, to maintain our position of influence by our diligent study of God's Word, and the earnest application of our minds to every other study which can help us to meet the various need of our times.

It

behoves us all, as individuals, to lend our sanction and aid to all the schools of the prophets, that they may nurture "men of God, thoroughly furnished unto every good work," ready for home service or for foreign; men able, not only to give a reason of the faith and the hope that are in them, with meekness and respect, but also to carry the war into the enemy's camp; men able to seize on error in all its Protean forms, until it is compelled to confess the truth, or give up the ghost. So shall our own people be proof against mediæval superstition on the one hand, and revolutionary scepticism on the other; and so shall our influence tell for us and our cause upon the masses of the workers around, and upon not a few in higher places. We shall be blessed, and made a blessing.

I have to speak once more of fervent zeal in religion, as an element indispensable to the fulfilment of our mission for our country and our age. This is partly an affair of temperament, and partly an affair of principle; but when they meet together, something great and wonderful may be expected. And the annals of Welsh Christianity present to us not a little of the one and the other, apart and in combination. The Cymry, as their kinsman the Gael and the Celt, have always been remarkable for their impulsive energy and enthusiastic deliverance. The opinion of a great Roman writer as to the "ingenium perfervidum Scotorum" would have been quite as true of the Britanni, whether in the arena of the schools, or the field of polemics. Morgan, or Pelagius, of Bangor, well nigh set the religious world on fire in the patristic age. And though he went too far in advocating the fair side of human nature,-so far as to show himself downright heretical,yet, in my judgment, he did good service to the church, in his protest against the fatalistic and manichean doctrines then prevalent. In modern times, the same ardent impetuous spirit has disclosed itself with happy results; in one revival of religion after another,first, through the erratic labours of Rowland and Harris, then through the surprising agitations of Whitefield and Wesley, then through the marvellous preachments of Evans and Elias, of Charles of Bala, and Williams of Wern, and continuously through the regular endeavours of ordinary ministers, with extraordinary unction and power.

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