BY C. H. SPURGEON.
IT was my ambition to make this month's magazine the best of this year's issue. Since our subscribers have sustained our circulation so constantly, I hoped to have shown them that we mean to sustain the quality of the periodical, and go on to something better still. Moreover, the many new monthlies which are announced, make an editor rub his forehead, and cry,
"Woe is me if I do not bestir myself;" and I must confess to a degree of the
same feeling, although my friends are so singularly endowed with
faithfulness that they will not readily desert their unworthy but most willing and earnest editor. Now so it fell out, as God would have it, that instead of meditating in the study., I have had to smart and mourn upon the bed of pain. Instead of going forth with the hosts to battle, I have been in the infirmary, among the sick. I would have worked on, and like the warrior with both his legs shot away, I would have fought on my stumps, but the head was my wounded part, and thinking was out of the question; a man may fight without legs, but cannot very well write without his head, at least not in such style as to suit our pages. If anything should be wrong in the magazine this month, pray excuse it, because of the editor's disability, The last day, up to which Mr. Printer can wait, is just arrived, and I am
considerably better, so although I cannot leave my bedroom, I must sit up in the easy chair and ramble by short stages from topic to topic, penning a few sentences upon certain matters which I had selected as subjects for articles, which might have edified or might have wearied my ten thousand gentle readers.
The Nonconformist newspaper has done good service to all sections of the Christian Church, by the issue of a statistical statement as to the religious condition of London. It cannot be too much regretted that the Government did not collect at the last census religious statistics in the same fashion as ten years before; but as this was omitted, the Nonconformist does well to supply the deficiency. The destitution of the metropolis is appalling, but there are some cheering signs, and Baptists especially should take heart, and gird themselves afresh for the battle. The tabular statement of the general position of the various religious bodies, and the note upon it, we quote with pleasure, giving glory to God that our loving friends have enabled us to make some small discernible mark upon the mass of ignorance and sin around us.
There is however no time to .pause for the slightest congratulation, for perishing souls are wading in our ears, and their blood will be upon us all, unless we arouse ourselves to send them the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone can save them from everlasting burnings. In the year 1851, the
National Census acted as a mighty stimulus to zeal, by revealing the terrible truth that in London there was a deficiency of accommodation in places of worship for 669,514 souls; at the present moment, after all the church and chapel building, there is an increased deficiency of 161,873, bringing, up the awful total to 831,387 souls, for whom there would be no room in a
place of worship, should they choose to attend. Let it be remembered that this is including every form of worship, from Jews to Mormonites, from Romanists to Southcottians, so that the need is beyond all measure unspeakably vast, if we only calculate the provision made for hearing the true gospel of the Blessed God. Meanwhile, having arrived at three millions, our population increases at such a rate that it will cost much zeal and' self-sacrifice to keep pace with it. The Nonconformist report has this significant paragraph:
"To meet the case, even as it was in 1851, there ought to be, nearly two hundred more places of worship in the metropolis than have been erected during the intervening, fourteen years; to keep pace with the annual increase of its population it would require some fifty new churches of very large capacity to be erected every year."
President Lincoln, during the late war, said in his rough man, "We cannot do all we would, but we keep on pegging away ;" and this is just what we hope to be able to do by the means of our College and Chapel building schemes, which have proved their efficiency so thoroughly. Help from heaven we crave, and help from heaven's friends we expect.
It is singular to observe the strength of Dissent around the Tabernacle, would to God that every other pare of London were as saturated with it.
Here is the table for our district of NEWINGTON; it may be as well to notice that the Free Church of England which we suppose to be Mr. Lincoln's is virtually Baptist, though the brother who ministers there declines to be numbered as such.
It is changing the topic with a vengeance if we turn from considering the Christ-like work of feeding the millions of London, to notice the buying, selling, and bartering of the souls of men which goes on un-blushingly in that den of all abominations, the Church of England. What a longsuffering being is that God who bears with me.n, who profess to be his ambassadors, and traffic in the holy calling of the ministry. Some one has sent us "the Church and School Gazette," a monthly newspaper, price Threepence, through which the clergy negotiate the sale or exchange of their ]lyings. By the dozen these sons of Simon Magus advertize their wares. Take a sample
LIVINGS FOR SALE
713. “A Rectory in the Midland Counties, offering a most important sphere of duty combined with position. Great educational and other advantages.
Net income £350. No house. Price moderate. Life in possession 71. Might resign.
714. An Incumbency on the South Coast. Charming little retreat for an invalid or gentleman wishing retirement. Duty nominal, most beautiful church. Good house. Net income £90. Price with possession £600.
716. Two Consolidated Rectories producing £350. net. Good house. One Church. Price £4,500. In consequence of the precarious state of the Incumbent's health it is requisite to sell immediately, but arrangements can be made for the money to be paid when possession is given."
LIVINGS FOR EXCHANGE.
"The Clergy are kindly requested from time to time to send a few stamps for postage to save positive loss, as the correspondence under this head is very heavy. 302. The Rectory of two consolidated parishes in an Eastern County. Income from globe and tithe £500 with an excellent house, very beautifully situated, and in pretty neighborhood. Good society. Population 100. Almost a. sincere. Suitable for a clergyman wishing light duty. A large parish desired with an increase of income.
These fellows will all swear that they gave no filthy lucre to obtain their beneficies, but as this is only one of many falsehoods which they find themselves called upon to utter, we do not suppose that this profitable perjury will trouble them much. Every churchman is morally responsible for all this iniquity, for by his connection and support he countenances the system under which such things are tolerated. It is quite as solemn a reflection that since the Anglican Establishment is a National Church, we are all guilty of its iniquities unless to our utmost we express our dissent and discharge ourselves from the responsibility.
Dr. Livingstone has favored us-with an early copy of his new book of travels — a tempting joint for our editorial table—we must, as soon as possible, give a summary of the volume. We do not like to cavil at the utterances of so good and eminent a man, but we are not much pleased with the way in which he awards unmitigated honors to the Jesuit missionaries, whose establishments have happily crumbled into ruins all
along the African coast. We would give a Jesuit his due, but that does not amount to speaking of him as, a good man engaged in perpetuating the faith. Nor do we admire the Doctor's mode of treating the Lord's day, upon page twenty-three: "This was the time, too, for the feeble minded to make a demand for their Sundays of rest and full meal-hours, which even our crew of twelve Kroomen, though tampered with, had more sense and good feeling than to endorse. It is a pity that some people cannot see that the true and honest discharge of the common duties of every, day life is divine service." The last sentence we feel half inclined to call Jesuitical, for its apparent force is a mere play upon words, and the Doctor right well knows that the best performance of the duties of every-day life is not the divine service which the great Christian day of rest requires. So long away from the land of Sabbaths, we excuse such language from a traveler, but we regret it from a missionary. These are, we hope, minor blemishes in a valuable volume. Dr. Livingstone's noble achievement in opening up the terra incognita of Africa, is prophetic of such blessings to the sons of Ham, that we never think of him without devout thankfulness for his past success, and prayer that nothing may tarnish the lustre of his reward. Upon the question of the conversion of the Africans, we need no testimony from man, for the inspired Word suffices us; but yet it is pleasing to find one who is so well qualified to on so speak, delivering himself so confidently:
We have be often asked whether the Africans were capable of embracing the Christian religion, that we venture to make the following observations, although our doing so may appear to be a work of supererogation to all who have witnessed the effects already produced in West and South Africa by teaching supplied entirely by private benevolence, or who have watched the Missionary movements of various Christian Churches during the last quarter of a century. - The question seems to imply a belief on the part of those who put it, that the reception of the Gospel involves a high
development and exercise of the reasoning powers. Some men, indeed, are constitutionally prone to reason out every subject as fox as their intellects can lead them, but those who are led through life by pure reason, constitute a very small minority of any race. To quote from one of Sir James
Stephen's excellent Historical Essay:—'The Apostles assume in all men the existence of a spiritual discernment, enabling the mind, when unclouded by, appetite or passion, to recognize and distinguish the divine voice, whether uttered from within by the intimations of conscience, or speaking from without in the language of the inspired oracles; they presuppose that vigor of reason may consist with feebleness of understanding; and that the
power of discriminating between religious truth and error does not chiefly depend on the culture or on the exercise of the merely argumentative faculty. The Gospel, the especial patrimony of the poor and the illiterate, has been the stay of millions who never framed a syllogism. Of the great multitudes who, before and since the birth of Grotius, have lived in the peace and died in the consolations of our faith, how incomparably few are they whose convictions have been de. rived from argumentative works like his!'
We prefer to use the words of this able writer rather than our own, to express the belief that our divine religion suits the lowest as well as the highest of our race. But in dealing with the different, classes of the human family, the teaching must be adapted to the individual circumstances. The stately ceremonial, the ritual observances, the sedative sermon, and the austere look of those who think it right to in. dulge in a little spiritual pride, may suit some minds; but the degraded of our race in every land, must be treated in somewhat the same man. her as is adopted in dealing with the outcasts of London. Whether we approach the down.trodden victims of the slave-trade in sultry Africa, or our poor brethren in the streets, who have neither warmth, shelter, nor home, we must employ the same agency to secure their confidence— the magic power of kindness—a charm which may be said to be one of the discoveries of modern days. This charm may not act at once, nor may its effects always be permanent; the first feeling of the wretched, of whatever color, may be that of distrust; or a suspicion that kindness is a proof of weakness; but the feelings which the severity of their lot has withered, will in time spring up like the tender grass after rain."
One trait in the character of the enquiring natives much gratifies us, viz., their longing for testimony rather than argument, as evidenced in the following : — "On the last occasion of our holding Divine service at Sesheke, the men were invited to converse on the subject on which they had been addressed, So many of them had died since we were here before, that not much probability existed of our all meeting again, and this had naturally led to the subject of a future state. They replied that they did not wish to offend the speaker, but they could not believe that all the dead would rise again: 'Can those who have been killed in the field and devoured by the vultures; or those who have have been eaten by the hyenas or lions;
or those who have been tossed in the river, and eaten by more than one crocodile—can they all be raised again to life?' They were told that men could take a leaden bullet, change it into a salt (acetate of lead), which
could be dissolved as completely in water, as our bodies in the stomachs of animals, and then reconvert it into lead; or that the bullet could be
transformed into the red and white paint of our wagons, and again be reconverted into the original lead; and that if men exactly like themselves could do so much, how much more could He do, who had made the eye to see and the ear to hear! We added, however, that we believed in a
resurrection, not because we understood how it would be brought about, but because our Heavenly Father assured us of it in His Book. The reference to the truth of the Book and its Author seems always to have more influence on the native mind than the cleverness of the illustration.
The knowledge of the people is scanty, but their reasoning is generally clear as far as their information goes."
Returning to home matters. Our day of meeting for the Baptist ministers of London, so overjoyed my heart, that the excitement materially assisted in sending me to a sick-bed; but at the retrospect, and in prospect of glory to God to be achieved by this Association, I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. The whole day, holy love and perfect concord reigned among us. The utmost liberty of discussion was by loving hearts made consistent with the tenderest unity of soul. Important questions were raised and settled, and differences were overcome by mutual concessions and agreements. I was sometimes reminded of the entry in the journal of a Quakers' society,
"Dorcas Fysche, a visitor, craved to know whether Friends, not being members, were permitted to speak on the subject, and was replied to in the affirmative, where. upon she held her prate." Our friends were far more careful to have liberty, than to be for ever using it to the marring of
practical union. I suppose that an account of the meeting, and a copy of the resolutions, will appear somewhere else in the Magazine, and therefore shall leave the subject, when I have very earnestly entreated the prayers of the Lord's people, that this union may work the lasting good of ira. mortal souls.
The old cry of treason has been raised against us in connection with a riot in Jamaica, provoked by the intolerable oppressions of the graceless legislature of the island. Much as we deplore the outbreak, we do not believe all that is said about the blacks; and we scorn the libellous
insinuations of the Times against the sainted Win. Knibb, and the Baptists both of the past and of the present. It is the old tale against Jerusalem,
"This city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and rebellion and sedition have been made therein." Sanballat would have made a fine
writer for the Times; we think we are reading a letter from an old planter as we glance at Nehemiah 6:6: "It is reported, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel." There does not appear to be the
remotest evidence of any organized conspiracy, much less of one planned and excited by Baptist missionaries, nor has any body of men been met in armed rebellion; but the governor has gone on shooting, hanging, and flogging, after the fashion of the Russians in Poland-making very little account of either law or justice, so long as he might but gratify the old planter thirst for cruelty and blood. Our missionaries, and Dr. Underhill, our secretary, deserve eternal honor for espousing the cause of the oppressed; and if this unhappy riot be the pretext for a cry against them, we must give them our warmest sympathy, and wait for the time when their integrity and excellence shall be confessed even by their enemies. Our brethren did, we doubt not, make very bad chaplains for slave-owners, forty years ago, and now they are not the men to hold their tongues when the poor negro needs an advocate; it is not among us that courage in denouncing tyranny is reckoned to be a crime. Episcopalian priests are much at home in teaching ignorant rustics to order themselves lowly and reverently to all their betters; our teaching is of another character, for while none more earnestly exhort men to honor the king, we forget not that the same word bids us honor all men, and that God hath made of one blood all nations of men. So far as the free spirit of the gospel renders it imperative upon us to seek the liberty of all, by diffusing independent and manly principles, so far are our missionaries guilty; but we hesitate not to assure all whom it may concern, that beyond this point none of them have gone.
Their accusers will have much to answer for at the bar of God.
Dr. Pusey's new book, "An Eirenicon, in a letter to the Author of the Christian Year," must be regarded as one of the signs of the times. The object of the Tractarians does not seem to be absorption into the Church of Rome, but the formation of an Anglican Church, which, with the Greek and Latin Churches, shall make up one all-dominant Catholic body. Dr.
Pusey shows very clearly that the Anglican Church is, in almost all respects, one with the Romish; and among other things he says, "We use the selfsame prayers in Baptism, and thank God, in the same words, that he has been pleased to regenerate our children therein. We both confess 'one Baptism for the remission of sins.' After confession, the church directs the selfsame words to be used in absolving from sin, etc." Thus far Pusey pilots men to Rome; but he does good service in the other part of his work, in