Baxter and Paul, which has built the largest house to preach in ever built in London, and keeps it crowded every Sabbath, leaving a great multitude outside; and which has so far answered God's idea of a preacher that the Holy Ghost has borne constant witness in the conversion of large numbers to Christ, of all ages and descriptions; and which has caused his sermons to be published and republished, volume after volume, wherever the English language is spoken, and so universally read that it is very dangerous for a man who preaches borrowed sermons to borrow one of Spurgeon's.

Spurgeon is not a man cultivated in the schools, never went to college, was a plain country schoolmaster, who first exhibited his peculiar gifts in talking to a Sunday school and a simple village audience. What then? Shall we conclude that our schools and colleges and theological seminaries are of less value than we have supposed? Not at all. If Charles Haddon Spurgeon had all the severe cultivation of Harvard and Andover he would turn all to good account, and add immensely to his power as a pulpit orator. But Spurgeon is severely cultivated, has been cultivating himself constantly and intensely ever since he began to excite attention by his oratory. He is cultivated and is cultivating himself every day as an expounder and preacher of God's word; and his grand success is as much the legitimate result of severe and incessant self-discipline as it is of his singular natural powers. He is simply proving that for the great purposes of the Christian ministry a preacher is better than a classic, a logician, a Hebraist, a learned professor, a theologian according to the schools. The grand defect in all our training institutions for men whose professions will require them to address public audiences, is that they make almost no provision for the cultivation of the gift of oratory. It is assumed that if a man has natural powers of eloquence he will be sure to manifest them without any special training in that particular direction, while, if he has not, no training will avail. A greater mistake than is involved in the former part of this proposition there could not possibly be. How is it that we are continually referring to Demosthenes without laying hold of the great lesson which the history of Demosthenes teaches, namely, that a man may have great powers of oratory which never will and

never can be made available without great labor in training? The thing required is not a system under which all shall be formed after one model-destroying individuality and force and producing affectation and mannerism, or an eloquence, however ornate, yet artificial and cold; but a system which shall educate just that which each man possesses as a natural endowment or, better still, which shall stimulate and guide every man to discipline and develop himself, for every man is mainly self-taught and self-made, and this will be found true just in proportion as his instructors are skilful and qualified for their work. And the result of the largest and severest training will be that the man will come back to the truest simplicity and naturalness, having perfect control of his voice, his thoughts, his subject, himself; and then yielding himself, unshackled and free, to his argument, his emotions, his audience, with never a thought of voice, gesture, or style, leaving all that to take care of itself.

To a considerable extent the English Baptists are in favor of open communion, and thus the way is prepared for co-operation with the Independents in religious matters. It is no uncommon thing to see both united under the same pastor in church fellowship. The Bunyan church at Bedford has had a Congregationalist for its pastor for the last fifteen years. The church is composed of both denominations. A popular Baptist minister in London a few years ago had a large number of Independents in his usual Sabbath congregation, and also in his church, under the name of " occasional members." It is a thing of constant occurrence for Independent churches to receive Bap→ tists in the same way. Such membership includes all privileges except voting. One of the largest and most flourishing Independent churches in London had for many years a decided Baptist for its most beloved and active deacon. The Eclectic Review is the joint organ of the two denominations, and under the editorial direction of each in turn, as it may happen. The London Patriot newspaper is also a joint concern, or used to be, its editor being supplied by one denomination, and its sub-editor by the other. In all public religious exercises, except those which are connected with the peculiar observances of each, they constantly unite, and in their views of ecclesiastical polity are perfectly

agreed and occupy precisely the same ground in relation to the Established church. The Baptists have less aggregate strength than the Independents, in numbers, intelligence, distinguished men, and general influence. But considered as religious bodies relatively to other religious bodies in England, their views, aims and modes of action are substantially the same. Together they constitute mainly what are usually called "The Religious Dissenters." Our remarks will therefore be applicable in about an equal degree to both Baptists and Independents.

In their principles of church government the dissenters are at antipodes with the Establishment, the affairs of each church being managed entirely by its own members, and each church holding itself to be entirely independent of every other in all matters whatsoever. Synods and Councils in every shape they utterly abjure, professing to see in them distinctly the vital germ of diocesan Episcopacy, with all the manifold evils of prelatical assumption, if not the papacy itself. A preaching shoemaker or tailor or draper, with no license except the approval of the church of which he is a member, (and there are thousands of such among the dissenters) is fully competent to discharge all the offices of the Christian ministry, including the administration of the Lord's Supper. A church invites a man to become its pastor, and the call is accepted. Though a student fresh from the theological college, where, possibly, he has spent no more than one or two years, he may enter at once upon the discharge of his duties, and may go on for half a century without ordination, the approbation of the church to which he ministers being considered valid Scriptural sanction to all intents and purposes. In most instances, however, a public service is held, to which the neighboring ministers are invited, with some distinguished preacher from London or other city of renown, to give the charge to the pastor- that being the principal part, occupying most time, and taking the place of the sermon with us. There is no council and no examination of the candidate, except three or four questions which have been sent to him beforehand by a minister designated for that purpose, and now read to him from the pulpit and answered from manuscript. These questions will probably be, 1. His religious experience; 2. His reasons for entering the ministry; 3. His doctrinal belief; and 4. His

plans for the exercise of his ministry. This is a part of the public services in the great congregation; no second person is: permitted to ask a question, and the ministerial brother to whom this duty has been assigned may not go beyond what is written. Do they not believe in creeds then? Most certainly they do ; and, inasmuch as they have no councils to look after the matter, the churches reckon this their duty, and guard the purity of Christian doctrine with a most watchful and jealous care.

They care very little about old and new school; they are impatient of speculation and metaphysics and subtle philosophical distinctions in the pulpit; but they look for the Gospel, simply and earnestly presented. If they miss the great doctrines of the Bible-human sinfulness and its desert, the law of God and its obligation, the atonement, God's electing love, the Holy Spirit in regeneration, justification by faith and the perseverance of the saints, they take the alarm and make their voice heard. It requires peculiar gifts of eloquence to enable a preacher with doctrinal deficiencies to pass the ordeal of probation and reach the day of recognition. Has not the time already come when the churches of New England must use their utmost vigilance in reference to this matter of Scriptural soundness in the ministry, and rely less on councils than they have done? Has it not always been the ministers, and not the churches, that have led the way, first in diminishing sound doctrine, and then in disparaging and dispensing with creeds?

Such a religious service as we have described is regarded as a thing of order, rather than of validity, and is generally called 'recognition." One of the greatest living preachers in London, Thomas Binney, refused to submit to the imposition of hands at his own recognition, because he thought it savored of apostolical assumption. His example has been very frequently followed by young ministers.

When a minister decides to bring his pastoral relation to a close, he sends a letter of resignation to the church, which is accepted, and the connection is sundered without any intervention of councils.

It would be a great mistake to suppose that their form of church government is the thing of chief importance in the esti mation of the English dissenters. That place belongs rather

to the notion which they entertain touching the entire separation of the church from the state, in all possible or conceivable forms. In that connection they see, or think they do, the fruitful source and almost sole origin of all the multiplied evils by which the glory of Christianity is tarnished, its power crippled and its universal triumph delayed. They are very prone to believe, on the other hand, that the dissolution of that connection would be followed by the general prevalence of Christian union, a spiritual and earnest ministry, and a high order of personal piety that it might even be the harbinger of the millennium. They object to the appointment of a fast-day or a day of thanksgiving by the civil power, and deny the right of the government to interfere at all in the matter of popular education; believing that all these things ought to be left to the action of the people themselves, and that when so left they are sure to be better attended to. Their conduct is in full harmony with their theories in these things; so that, however you may differ with their conclusions, you will find it impossible to withhold your high respect. The dissenters wield a mighty power in England, and statesmen of every party are compelled to treat them with consideration.

ARTICLE VII.

SHORT SERMONS.

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets."-Matt. vii. 12.

THE efforts of the Redeemer for the good of our race were directed not so much to the treatment of individual cases, as to the introduction of great principles that lie at the basis of all radical and permanent reforms. These principles are adapted to remove the individual, social or national evils that may exist in any age or nation; and they are simple and easily understood and applied.

The text is the announcement of one of them, as a universal rule of moral obligation, and covering the whole range of moral conduct. It presupposes the existence of certain universal moral relations.