DIOOENES AND THE YOUNG MAN.
“Diogenes once spied a young man coming out of a tavern or place of entertainment, who, perceiving himself observed by the philosopher, with some confusion stepped back again, that he might, if possible, preserve·..
his fame. with that severe person. But Diogenes told him, Quanto magis intraveris, tanto magis eris in caupona: ‘ the more you go back, the longer you are in the place where you are ashamed to be seen.’ He that conceals his sin still retains that which he counts his shame and burden.”
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
sides. Sad, indeed, it is that holiness should be mentioned in connection with craft. Christ’s battles are be fought with the weapons of truth.
NOTES
It is one of the disadvantages of the early preparation of monthly
periodicals that notices must sometimes appear late. Friends must pardon the lateness of an in memoriam note concerning James Harvey Esq., of Hampstead. He was for many years one of the most liberal helpers of the work which the Lord has entrusted to us: and we hear that he has left a legacy of £500 to the Orphanage. We may not mention many of the things which were done of him in secret; but we may say that he was the donor of the house on the boys’ side of the Orphanage, which is known as “the Merchant’s House.” this he gave without a request., or even a hint from us.
He was a :man of mark: independent, yet ready to learn; lenient towards doubt, but hims.elf a firm believer. His views of truth were his own, and would not be parallel in all points with those of anybody else; but we always felt at one with him, and even where we judged him to be mistaken we were glad to lore him just as he was. Our personal loss is very heavy, and, hence, we can the more tenderly sympathize with the esteemed mourners who have lost father and brother. We shall not soon look upon his like again. Are there not other merchants who love our Lord, and will be baptized for the dead, filling up the vacancies caused by these many deaths, and taking thought that the cause of Christ shall know no lack? We commend to all our readers an extract from Mr. Brock’s admirable sermon
— the sermon itself can be had of J. Hewetson, Hampstead : —
“While in good health he was exemplary for punctuality at the service of God; and on very rare occasions was he absent from his place. ‘ I am come,’ he said to me, the very thursday evening before his fatal illness, when! expressed surprise at seeing him, ‘because I am able to go to business, and I do not think I ought to be absent from the church- meeting.’“
Our beloved and lamented deacon, Mr. William Higgs, left by his will £500 to the Orphanage, £500 to the College, and £500 to the poor of the church.
this last donation is peculiarly valuable, as the expenditure upon this item is very great and growing. Our church contains within it an unusually large proportion of the Lord’s poor, and as the Almshouses’ endowment is not
found to be sufficient for the widows who dwell in the rooms, this
occasions another draft upon our funds, which tends to weigh them down.
this legacy will help us for some few years to meet the annual deficiency, and before it is all spent we hope some donor will more fully endow the Almshouses.
A Petition for closing public-houses on the Lord’s-day has some time ago received the full sanction of most of the religious bodies, and we gladly express our hearty sympathy with its prayer. It may be questioned whether the people of London are ripe for it; but, at any rate, a trial could do no harm to anybody, not even the drink-sellers. ‘Where Sunday-closing has been tried the best results have followed to the morals of the people and the quietude of the neighborhood. Perhaps if our fellow-citizens w ere driven to the horrible necessity of going without alcoholic liquors for one day in the week they might lose some of their present dread of total
abstinence, and try it during the other six days. If that cannot be., they may at least be taught a little forethought by having to get in their precious cordials on a Saturday night: even this would be greater providence than some of them have as yet exercised. If harmless articles may not legally be sold on the Sabbath we fail to see why the Sunday trade in intoxication should be under national sanction. We do ‘not care much for sobriety by Act of Parliament, but we do care for anything which promotes order, lessens drunkenness, and helps to tranquillize neighbor-hoods where Sunday night becomes the terror of all quiet families.
Friends are reminded that the annual meeting of the Liberation Society will be held at the tabernacle on the evening’ of May 2. the present state of the Church demands :fresh efforts on the part of those who would see it freed from vassalage to the State,.
On Monday evening, March 5, the annual meeting of theLADIES’
BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, was held at the tabernacle. the report, read: by Mr.
Harrald, contained particulars of several very distressing cases that had been relieved (luring the year, and pointed out the need for additional workers and fresh subscribers to carry on the work efficiently. the balance- sheet showed that the total expenditure had been £99 18s. 0d., and that the balance in hand was £4 Ils. 6d. Addresses were delivered by Pastors C. H.
and J. A. Spurgeon, and Deacons W. Olney and B. W. Carr. Ladies who are at liberty on the thursday after the first Sunday in each month will be heartily welcomed at the working-meetings. the more of benevolent work
our churches can perform the better for themselves, for it is a healthy thing to care for the sorrows of others. Well-to-do people nowadays are almost universally quitting the poorer neighbor-hoods to live in the suburbs, and who can blame them? But should they not keep up their subscriptions to the charities which are intended to relieve the poorer districts? Will they leave the poor to the poor? Will the wealthy attempt to live by themselves, and forget the sorrows of those whose lot is daily toil? If so, the worst results are inevitable. Irreligioin will be fostered by the indifference of professors, want will fester into anarchy, and poverty will pine to starvation. Hence we wish to see all our benevolent societies greatly strengthened.
On Sunday evening, March l1, the regular tabernacle congregation stayed away to allow strangers to come to the service. It was a very wintry night, so that there was not quite so large a crowd as usual outside, but the building was well filled, and probably four-fifths of those present were men. Special prayer was offered that the word might be blessed, and many friends were on the watch for anxious souls. Here may be the place to remind our country friends that they can find seats in the tabernacle right readily on thursday nights at seven; and that on the Lord’s-day, if they are bona.fide strangers, they can always obtain admission by stating their case to the appointed officer at the door, who will supply them with the means of entrance. Many fear to make a trial of getting to the tabernacle because they may not find room; but we hope they will now venture, since they can be reasonably sure of entrance if they are from the country.
On Tuesday evening, March 13, the sixteenth annual BUTCHERS’ FESTIVAL
was held at the tabernacle. the master butchers and their wives partook of tea together at the College, and afterwards between seventeen hundred and eighteen hundred of the men employed in the Metropolitan Meat Market sat down to a substantial meal. the quantity of provisions consumed on these occasions is enormous; but it is all paid for by the willing
subscriptions of the masters. After tea the men adjourned to the tabernacle, where a meeting was held under the presidency of t. A. Denny, Esq., and addresses were delivered by Mr. Henry Varley, Mr. J. Ward, of Croydon, and Pastor C. H. Spurgeon. Prayer is requested that the testimony for Jesus thus given may be effectual for conversion. the men are rough, but there is about them that honest heartiness which is characteristic of good soil. telling words were uttered as to drinking, gambling, swearing, and the like vices; but Jesus was lifted up as the Savior from sin, and this was the
main theme of the addresses. Oh, for the Spirit’s power to water the good seed, and bring a harvest from it! Mr. Varley has long been the prime mover in this business, and the tabernacle has been gladly put at his service:
he will be specially glad to see more abundant results from this great effort.
On Wednesday evening, March 14, the anniversary of the formation of the METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY was
celebrated. Between 400 and 500 persons were present at the tea in the Lecture Hall, and afterwards a large assembly met in the tabernacle. the chair was occupied by Pastor C. H. Spurgeon, several anthems were sung by a special choir, the annual report was read by the secretary, Mr. A. E.
Stud[hers, and gospel temperance addresses were delivered by the
chairman, the Revs. Newman Hall, LL.B., G. M. Murphy, G. W. McCree, and W. J. Mills, and Messrs. G. Thorneloe and J. t. Dun.n, as the result of which seventy-five persons signed the pledge. Prom the report it appears that during the past year, in addition to more than 12,000 new pledges taken during Mr. Booth’s mission in September, 1183 persons have signed the pledge at the weekly meetings of the society, 2634 at the gospel temperance services at the Elephant and Castle theater on Sunday evenings, and 280 at ether special gather-tugs. Exclusive of the mission receipts, the income of the society has been £141 3s. 6d., and[the
expenditure £126 4s. 9½d. It is a great joy to us to know that the gospel is kept well ‘to the :front in the whole of this work, and. the consequence is that many have been, not only reclaimed from drunkenness, but also converted to Christ, and are now living as consistent Christians. the friends who manage the society do not intend it to become a temperance work with a little gospel tagged on;but they are resolved to put as much as possible of Christ and :free grace into all efforts on behalf of sobriety and abstinence. It is something to wash the black:am,:,ors of drunkenness, ]but our hearts can never rest till grace makes [hera white once for all. We wish it were possible to keel) on the Sunday services at the Elephant and Castle theater, but the expenses are some £5 per week, and the funds are not equal to such a strain. Crowds pass the doors on Sunday nights, and many look in: it is a :means of grace to a crowded neighborhood, but it will be closed for lack of funds unless some friend is raised up to help.
COLLEGE. — Mr. A. Cooper has settled at Batley, Yorkshire, and Mr. H.
P. Gower at New Mill, Tring. Mr. W. Clatworthy has removed from Kingskerswell to Helston, Cornwall, and Mr. E. P. Riley from Spenny-
moor to Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire. May these settlements and removals be under the divine approval.
the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Pastors’ College Association will (D.v.) be held in the week commencing April 10th. Will. all our readers :pray that a rich blessing may rest upon all who will be present? Deacons of churches, whose pastors belong to the Conference, would[de a wise and kind thing if they helped their pastors to come up. ‘Some miss the blessing because they cannot afford the travelling expenses.
When the London brethren met to arrange for the Conference we were rejoicing that the hand of death had not been laid upon any of our number during the year. Our brother W. Mummery, of Chatham-road,
Wandsworth, was with us then, but he has since been called suddenly to his rest and reward, leaving a widow and three children.
On Friday evening, March 2, about sixty of the London ministers educated in the College met at the tabernacle for a conference upon the moral and spiritual condition of the metropolis. the President occupied the chair, and delivered a short address; after which brief but able reports of the districts with which they were ac-quarated were presented by the following
brethren: — -W. J. Orsman, C. B. Sawday, t. Greenwood, W. townsend, W. Olney, Jun., J. Wilson, and A. G. Brown. From the information supplied to us it is evident that there are the greatest possible contrasts between the various divisions of our four-million-peopled city; in some parts there appears to be adequate accommodation for those who desire to worship God, and the people are outwardly religious; while in others, and especially in the East of London, the poverty, misery, and vice are
absolutely appalling. We left the meeting feeling that there was little that we could do to affect the multitudes around us except to preach the gospel clearly, simply, earnestly, and faithfully, and to pray to the Lord to raise up from amongst his people a band of men and women who would carry his word to the homes of the hundreds of thousands who will not come out to heat’ it. the testimony of our brethren confirms our own conviction that the much-vaunted ultra-sensational methods that some adopt do. not really reach “the lapsed masses,” but rather that they attract to their services those unstable ones who have been members of our churches, and are anxious for something new. to these the result is evil rather than good.
After awhile the truly gracious come back, but those who are for ever seeking some new thing go from one delusion to another. the testimony to
the mischievous results of noisy demonstrations in the street was intensely strong; those who most admire open-air preaching are the most distressed at this out-of-door carnival. Many ministers with whom we meet protest earnestly against the disturbance of their services, the enticing of their school-children into the streets, and the general spirit of disorder, and irreverence which is being spread among the populace. “Our streets are rendered unsafe, and our homes unendurable by a constant Pandemonium under the name of this Army and the other,” — so have brethren from certain regions complained to us again and again. the mob is being taught the art of rioting and disturbing public worship: taught it by those whose own conduct is the example.
EVANGELISTS. — Messrs. Smith and Fullerton have continued their services at Liter-pool during the whole of the past month. After three weeks of meetings at Pembroke Chapel they spent a week at Soho-street with our Brother Waiters, and another week at Byrom Hall with our good friend, John Houghton, Esq. they also conducted services at the Rotunda - Hall and the Circus, and closed their mission by paying a farewell visit to Pembroke Chapel. the Pastor, R. Richards, has been so considerate as to write concerning their work :—
“Dear Sir, — I feel constrained to send you a brief intimation in reference to the gracious work that has been wrought among us during the past three weeks through the instrumentality of your Evangelists, Messrs. Fullerton and Smith. the traditions of ‘ Pembroke’ were not in favor of such a special evangelistic :movement as we have just witnessed, and some of our older members were gravely shaking their heads and doubting the wisdom and propriety of the project when first mooted; but I can now safely say that the common sentiment of all in regard to the work done is, ‘ It is of the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’ Many lost ones have been found;
many anxtous ones have been brought to peace; many prodigals have returned home; and (not the least blessing) very many of the Lord.’s people have been stirred up to unwonted zeal for the salvation of souls and the extension of their Master’s kingdom. the attendance throughout the meetings has been wonderfully good: at some — notably at the ‘ Men’s meetings,’ on Sunday afternoons, and at the ‘ Song Services,’ on Saturday evenings — the chapel has been densely crowded. Some of the older members wept tears of joy at seeing the ancient glories of ‘ Pembroke ‘ revived; and both the effective singing of Mr. Smith and the plain, practical pleadings of Mr. Fullerton were felt to be’ with the demonstration of the
Spirit and with power.’ Moreover, these two brethren have so endeared themselves to us, not only by their earnest and faithful work for our common Lord, but also by their genial bearing and kindly disposition towards all around, that we could not help pleading with them for a renewal of their visit before they leave Liverpool. A.t a meeting called last week upwards of one hundred attended to testify to special blessing received during the mission. the Lord grant that these one hundred cases may represent much permanent addition of strength and usefulness to his church, that so his name :may be glorified. Believing that you would be interested in some little account of the work done, I have hastily penned you this, and will send you a few further notes when the Liverpool campaign is ended, should, you desire it.”
Messrs. Moody and Sankey’s Committee gave our brethren a pressing invitation to remain and assist the American Evangelists, but they were unable to stay, as arrangements had been made for services at Hull, commencing April 1st. Will all our friends in that town rally to the work?
Mr. Burnham reports good service,3 at Wintoun-street, Leeds, better at New Whit-tin#ton, and best of all at Long Buckby. On his arrival there he found that a prayerful interest in the work had been already awakened, and consequently from the commencement the meetings were very successful.
this month Mr. Burnham is to be at Great torrington, Lyme Regis, Enfield Highway, and Sheffield. He asks us to state that he is not fully engaged for June and July. His address is 24, Keston-road, East Dulwich-road.
Mr. Frank Russell will also have some vacant dates after the Conference.
the county of Surrey does not appear to be ripe for evangelistic effort, and he is therefore ready to go elsewhere. Brethren would do well to write at once if they desire either of the evangelists to come to their help. Mr.
Russell’s address is 33, Wyndham-street, Bryanston-square.
ORPHANAGE.— Mr. Charlesworth and his choir have held a very successful series of meetings recently at Norwich, Swaffham, Dereham, and Bury St.
Edmund’s. In each place large numbers of friends assembled, interest in the institution was either created or increased, and a good substantial amount was added to the funds. We are very grateful to all who in any degree contributed to this happy result. God bless you, dear friends, and send you a rich reward.