on the great question which perplexed the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate "What shall I do with Jesus?" He exhorted professed Christians not to imitate Pilate, in crucifying Christ afresh, and putting Him to open shame by their half-heartedness, worldliness, and inconsistency; but to come to Him, to live upon Him, to follow Him, to confess Him in the face of the world-the profane world and the world in the Church-the Pharisees and Sadducees of the present day.

The Rev. H. J. MARSHALL, Rector of Clapton, gave some interesting particulars of the great revival in Scotland, a few years since, which he had personally witnessed, and spoke of the large gatherings, 5,000 in number, that used to assemble in the beautiful domains of that devoted Christian lady, the Duchess of Gordon. The rev. gentleman then gave an affectionate address from the words of Moses to Hobab, his father-in-law (Num. x. 29), "Come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."

The Rev. R. D. MONRO, Vicar of The Slad, then spoke. His subject was- Peace, the portion of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness." This was the blessing which the Lord would give His people. Peace was a fact which preceded feeling. It was based upon the work of Christ for His people. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Peace was made between God and the sinner. Christ had made it. "He is our peace.' His blood had procured peace for the rebel against God. Jesus was the God-man Mediator, who had laid one hand on God, and another on the sinner, and peace was the result.

The Rev. J. GRIFFITHS, Rector of Neath, followed, with a powerful address, which would be marred by an attempt to transmit to paper. The audience was completely melted by his impassioned appeals that they would receive the message of reconciliation. Though renouncing Sacerdotalism, in every shape and form, as a monstrous assumption, he claimed for himself and brethren the title of ambassadors for Christ. They came with a treaty, the terms of which were laying down the arms of rebellion and coming over to the service of Christ.

The rev. gentleman then offered prayer, and the congregation broke up.

The evening meeting commenced at half-past six o'clock, by singing Robinson's beautiful hymn-" Come, Thou Fount of every blessing," and prayer by the Rev. I. WHITE, Chaplain of the Seamen's Mission at Newport.

The Rev. J. GRIFFITHS delivered the first address, having to return to Neath by an early train. His subject was "Perseverance," founded on the words of our Lord in John xv. 9:-" Continue ye in my love." The best test of true discipleship was continuance in the truth of Christ. He had promised that His disciples should know the truth, and that the truth should make them free. Reason could grasp truth, but could not originate anything. In these days of declension from the truth of Christ, he urged them to hold it fast-to cling to it as their priceless heritage. Notwithstanding the presence of unfaithful men, he had faith that God would not desert to her foes the glorious old Church of England, so long as Christ was exalted within her walls, in the fulness of His grace, and in the completeness and perfection of His salvation.

The Rev. W. H. BATHURST said, a line in one of Dr. Watts' hymns"Tis like a little heaven below "-struck the note from which he would.

say a few parting words before he left the assembly in company with Mr. GRIFFITHS they would be on the presence and preciousness of Christ in the heart of a believer.

The Rev. R. D. MONRO then spoke of Christian service. This was the necessary result of reconciliation and peace. God's children were the purchase of Christ's blood; they were bound, therefore, by the constraining power of His love, to offer themselves, their souls, and their bodies, on the altar of His service.

The Rev. H. J. MARSHALL gave a striking address from the words of our Lord to Nicodemus, in John iii. 14, 15, setting forth the destroying power of sin, and the remedy provided in Christ Jesus.

The Rev. W. HURD, of Gloucester, offered prayer.

The Rev. ISAAC WHITE delivered an animated address from Isaiah xliv. 5,-"I am the Lord's," &c. God has a propriety in His people; they are His by creation, preservation, and redemption. He calls them His portion-His inheritance. When the Lord Jesus claims His people, and converts them by the power of His Holy Spirit, they yield themselves as willing subjects of His kingdom of grace, and are enabled boldly to confess Him before men. The speaker then detailed how, upwards of thirty years ago, he was taken into custody by three policemen in the Royal borough of Windsor, for preaching in a street in that town the Gospel of his blessed Master. He continued preaching as he was conducted through the streets to "durance vile;" but his undisturbed confidence unnerved his gaolers, and he marched back before their eyes to the spot whence they had brought him, and resumed his preaching amid the sympathy and cheers of the bystanders.

The Rev. W. SAUNDERS selected Rom. vi. 22, as the basis of his address,-"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." After speaking of his good impressions of the reality of the great awakening at Cardiff, which town he had visited, and where he had preached to large congregations with a power he had scarcely ever realized before, so eagerly was the Word of Life received, the speaker went on to say that the text he had read was a perfect and glorious chain of truth. It was a complete body of divinity: it embodied no less than five of the fundamental verities of the Gospel of Christ. In speaking of the privileges of God's children in the presence of the unconverted, he believed it was often the Spirit's good pleasure to awaken in the hearts of some who heard, an earnest, longing desire to be partakers of those blessed privileges themselves. The first great assertion of the text was, that the Christian believer was now free from sin! What was the meaning of the inspired statement? To be free from sorrow would be a marvellous deliverance! But to be now free from sin, the fount of all trouble! What meaneth this? Did it mean that the believer was actually free from sin? Not so. He mourns, and that continually, over his manifold sins. To be full of sin, and yet free from sin! This was a riddle of which the careless world was entirely ignorant. The Christian was delivered from the eternal consequences of sin. "There is even now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." He is free from the guilt of sin. In the words of the 11th Article of our Church-words perfectly harmonious with God's Truth-"He is accounted righteous before God only for the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, apprehended by faith, and that not for his own works or deservings.

He is made free from the dominion of sin. He is delivered from the love of sin. Sin is that abominable thing which he hates, and for which he loathes himself before God, and by and by he shall be delivered from the very being of sin.

"There we shall see His face,

And never, never, sin;

There from the rivers of His grace
Drink endless pleasures in.'

The happy person thus emancipated then becomes "a servant of God." He is the willing, captivated slave of Jesus Christ, and that service is perfect freedom. "Fruit unto holiness" then necessarily appears. Just as the golden fruit of autumn makes it evident that the tree is alive, and is in no sense the cause of that life, so the good works of a Christian, these fruits unto holiness, are not the cause of his new life or acceptance with God, but the evidences of both. He works not for life, but from life; not in order to be saved, but because he is saved.

"He will not work his soul to save,

For that his Lord hath done;
But he will work like any slave,

From love to God's dear Son."

The end is "everlasting life." Many and precious are the sure declarations of God's Word that he hath everlasting life in Christ Jesus -that Jesus is his life-that when Christ, who is his life, shall appear, then shall he also appear with Him in glory. But the end of this blessed freedom, the end of this happy servitude, the end of this fruit unto holiness, is the full fruition of it in heaven. It will be grace completed. Grace is the bud; glory the full-blown flower. Grace is glory begun below; glory is grace perfected above. These inestimable blessings, and most sure privileges, he earnestly desired his hearers to be made partakers of. This constituted real happiness indeed; this was the good news the Gospel brought. To be saved in Jesus with an everlasting salvation, and to have the assurance of it by God's Spirit witnessing with our spirits, that we are His children, and His heirs, this was really the joys of heaven begun on earth.

"All hail the power of Jesus' name! was then sung with much feeling by the large congregation, led by a harmonium, which was played by Mr. Bailey, the organist. The Rev. W. COTTLE offered prayer.

The Rev. Dr. DOUDNEY, in giving the concluding address, said he would gather up the fragments which had fallen from the preceding speakers, and say "Is anything too hard for the Lord ?" From this favourite text of his he had often derived encouragement under trial and difficulty, and he proposed it for the consideration and comfort of all present.

The RECTOR made a few remarks, and offered the concluding prayer, and thus ended the seventh happy gathering at Blaisdon, of Christians of every name, who trust in the blood of the Lamb.

A copy of the hymns that were sung, embellished with a neat engraving of Blaisdon Church, was given by the Rector to each person present, as a memento of the day; and a large number of tracts and copies of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE and Old Jonathan were distributed at the churchyard gate.

Gloucester, July 12th, 1872.

R. HANSON.

ONE MORE "STONE OF HELP."

RECENTLY, the following words of David to Abiathar came again and again to my mind-" With me thou shalt be in safeguard" (1 Sam. xxii. 23). No special power at the time attended them. Being unwell, I could not rest as usual. About two o'clock in the morning, the words returned with power to my soul. I asked the Lord if He intended them for me, as I felt afraid to claim them as mine, unless I had authority to do so from Him. They came again and again with such sweetness and melting power, as caused me to wet my pillow with tears of solemn joy. My dear wife, feeling concerned about my state of health, was awake; and, perceiving I was much affected with something, she asked me what was the matter, and if I wanted anything? Yes, something was the matter, and I replied, "All is right,"-a rare thing for me feelingly to say in regard to soul affairs.

In answer to the question if I wanted anything, I said, I wanted to praise the Lord. My soul for awhile was like "a watered garden." Passage after passage of God's holy Word flowed into my mind, but particularly the words, "With me thou shalt be in safeguard." Oh, this "with me į" From the effects which followed the words, I feel convinced they were meant for me. It was as if the Lord had assured my soul that with Him" I should be in safeguard; in Church troubles (which are no bubbles); new chapel-building troubles; in temptations, trials, afflictions; in life, in death, and for ever and ever. Everything my soul seemed to need appeared to be in the words. Ah, it's this blessed "with me." What is all without this "with me?" What can be substituted in the place of this "with me?"

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I found it very helpful in quieting my mind, in encouraging my soul, and in begetting in me the feeling of patience and resignation to the Lord's will, let come what may. I know I must die, but death will not separate my soul from this "with me." Oh, the eternal union between the living soul and the ever-living and ever-loving Jesus! I cannot tell what is coming. It may be some heavy trial or affliction may be near, or even death. I therefore put these few lines down in the fear of the Lord, as showing forth His free grace, great mercies, and faithfulness towards one of the chiefest of sinners. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." How I sometimes wish I could praise the Lord more than I do! Reader, don't you?

How I could confess my sins to the Lord when He melted my heart, and shone into my soul! It came out like water out of a fountain. For some time before this my soul had felt in a low state, and I needed afflictions and a hot furnace to purge the dross from me, and so fit me to sympathize with the dear tried children of God.

The portion of Scripture, among others, which at the time came so suitably to my soul was Isaiah xliii. 2: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee," &c. I could see, and feel too, that with this "with me" I could go through the rivers, and walk through the fire, but not else. I feel it was very kind in the Lord-the great God -the Maker of heaven and earth, to light up my soul in the silent nightwatches, with a ray of His divine favour, producing in my soul such a love to the Lord Jesus, such sweet relentings, and such a willingness of mind to bear all He saw fit to send upon me. For the most part I

find it is in hard-up, squeezed-up, and pinched-up times and seasons that the Lord shows out and forth His great grace to my poor never-dying soul. And yet how my fallen nature shrinks from anything like trials and afflictions! But, bless His dear name, He will not forsake the work of His own hands: "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself." Only a few days before the Lord blessed my soul in the way related, I had been begging Him to grant me a blessing; but I did not know when or how it was to come. Still, thank God, it has come, and not all the Balaams in the world can possibly reverse it. How can I estimate the power of God to my soul? How much the dear Saviour went through to procure this blessing for me! It is most certainly all of grace, and not of works, lest any man should boast. Tetbury.

F. F.

TREAT TO THE OLD PARISHIONERS OF ST. LUKE'S,

BEDMINSTER.

(From the Bristol Daily Post, of July 12.)

THE annual tea-meeting of the old parishioners of St. Luke's Badminster, took place last evening in the new schoolroom, Weare Street, when there was a large gathering. The Vicar, the Rev. Dr. DOUDNEY, presided, and he was supported by the Rev. W. SAUNDERS (St. Silas), Rev. G. THOMPSON (curate), and others. The schoolroom was prettily decorated with flags, banners, and mottoes; and the gaseliers were adorned with chaplets of flowers. The Mayor and Mayoress (Mr. and Mrs. PROCTOR BAKER) were present at the opening of the proceedings, and they cordially shook hands with the most venerable of the old parishioners, a patriarch whose age was within three years of a century. After tea the Rev. Chairman delivered an earnest address, in the course of which he assured those present that he always looked forward with pleasure to that exceedingly interesting gathering, though he could not refrain from expressing a regret that his aged parishioners were not seen at church in such numbers as formerly. Producing the list of invitations on that occasion, he said 348 had accepted invitations, and their united ages amounted to no less than 23,146 years. Their individual ages were as follows:-27 of 62 years of age, 20 of 63, 17 of 64 years, 13 of 65 years, 13 of 66, 16 of 68 years, 10 of 69, 21 of 70 years, 12 of 71, 12 of 72 years, eight of 73, eight of 74 years, six of 75, six of 76 years, five of 77, nine of 78 years, six of 79 years, two of 80 years, three of 81 years, two of 82 years, four of 83 years, one of 84 years, one of 85 years, two of 86 and one of 97 years. Of this 348, who had accepted invitations, notwithstanding that they had intended coming only a few days ago, only 250 were able to attend that evening. The Rev. gentleman drew a practical lesson from this fact, and then reminded them that it was the usual practice to have printed on the card which each of the invited guests received, with their name and age, a watchword for the year. That watchword for the present year would be the little, although weighty, word, "Me." Texts of Scripture would be found on these cards having reference to this word, and in some further judicious remarks the speaker dwelt in a practical way upon the word as a text of discourse. The Rev. W. SAUNDERS, the Rev. G. THOMPSON, and others, also addressed the meeting, which throughout was of an unusually interesting character.