members; and two Jews were appointed, in 1861, ordinary professors at the Universities of Bologna and Pisa. 8. In the kingdom of Poland, where formerly the Jews were more bitterly hated than in any other country of Europe, the national movement seems to have put an end to all mutual animosity. The Jews have actively taken part in the patriotic demonstrations, and very recently seven Jewish students were exiled, together with eight Christians, to Siberia. On the one hand, the merchants and manufacturers of Warsaw adopted by acclamation, a resolution which abolishes all distinction between Jews and Christians; and, on the other, the Archbishop of Warsaw, in a circular, enjoins toleration toward the Jews. Fragments. It is a Nursery. Christian families are the nurseries of the Church on earth, as the Church is the nursery for heaven." The nursery is a retired place, but abounding with preparations for eternity. Its germinations are immortal, and when rightly directed, they make it a training place for heaven. The family is a School. The parent is the natural and proper teacher. With what beauty of language and with what divine authority, does the Lawgiver of Israel appoint a parent to this work. (Deut. vi. 7) In the house, by the way, in the morning, in the evening, must this work be constantly done. So Abraham taught his family. (Genesis xviii. 19) So also the Puritans and early Nonconformists of Great Britain, and never was there a better "schooling" than that received at home. The family is a Society.-In it are all the elements of the social relations. Numbers, attachments, sympathies, temperaments, exercise of mind, moral power. It may be called a kingdom in miniature, and a happy one it is when the good of the whole is the one aim of each member. The family is a Church.-Such a family is a type of the "whole family named in heaven." "To the Church in thy house," said Paul to Philemon. Happy house! Thrice blessed home! God is their Father, Christ their elder brother, the Holy Spirit their sanctifier and guide. That house is like heaven. The sacred shrine is there. There the incense of prayer diffuses its sweetness. The melody of praise is there. Death but sanctifies the link, which binds it to the family above, and the grave but opens the passage to the glory. BAPTISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. The Baptist Almanac for 1864, issued by the American Baptist Publication Society, gives the following statistics of the denomination in that country :-The total number of regular Baptist Church members is 1,009,400; baptized the past year, 67,176; number of churches, 12,551; number of associations, 597; number of ordained ministers, 7,952. The above does not include 74,000 communicants in British America, nor about 500,000 of other denominations practising immersion. Total in America, 1,583,400. Useful Questions. ON DANCING. A question on Dancing having been put some short time ago, the following sensible remarks by the successor of the late Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, are given, as very appropriate to the subject: Last week Mr. Enoch Mellor, of Great George Street Chapel, Liverpool, was present at a tea meeting at Fleetwood, and, in the course of an address, he made reference to dancing, remarking that "he never allowed any dancingmaster in his house, neither did he allow his children to go to them; they always took it for granted, that so long as they had legs of their own they were allowed to use them in their own sweet way; and, provided they did not break the furniture or kick the glass, there were certain hours in the day when they might all dance away to their hearts' content. A great deal of nonsense was sometimes talked by the cultivated' people in favour of 'stepping paces, and their defence of the practice was induced by a foregone conclusion-they loved it. They say, What will your children do in society when they cannot dance? They will be behind the age.' He would reply, first, Very well, let it be so; it was well to be behind the age in some things, and he did hope that his children would be behind the age in dancing, as well as in some other matters. Secondly, he hoped that his children would be able to walk as neatly as those who had learnt to dance. Thirdly, not learning to dance would keep his children from company that was not always of the most desirable kind. Fourthly, he never knew anybody improve morally, religiously, or intellectually by dancing; and fifthly, the time spent by people in dancing might be very much better occupied." Can you inform me what year Organs or Instrumental Music were introduced into Protestant Dissenter's Chapels, and is it agreeable with the New Testament Church? B. Correspondence. STRICT BAPTIST MISSION IN MY DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST.I called at your office, to-day, in order to consult you as to what would be best for us to do with the important communication from China. Please do not let the matter rest. Το my mind it appears a very loud and plain call to all the strict Baptists to arise, and seek both in men and means, to send forthwith to China. Our honoured foreign Mission, owing to the serious deficiency in its funds, is not in a position to take up new stations, nor to engage new Missionaries. Some of our own friends do not sustain existing societies, and are, therefore, free to act; and I con sider the appeal from dear Mr. Roberts is just what they have been waiting for. I feel very confident, that did we all regard the privilege and duty of contributing of our worldly substance as God has prospered us, the funds would be easily raised; and that by earnest seeking at the hand of God, would attend the prayer of faith, and a suitable man would be found. I believe also, that were we engaged in other noble objects, be-, sides that of preserving the faith, and order of the Primitive church, that we should be much happier, more thoroughly united, and God greatly glorified. Nor am I unmindful of the claims of our fellow countrymen on our service and sympathy. It is for a lamentation that we have not organised efforts for the perishing at home. O brother, seek to stir us up to aggressive action; and praying that in all you purpose or practice you may be divinely directed,-I remain, your affectionate Brother in Christ, February 8, 1864. **** P.S.-I am willing to give £5 to an effort on behalf of China. ** Mr. Stokes. [With great pleasure we insert the appropriate letter of our zealous correspondent, because we feel quite one with him on this deeply important subject. Surely our strict brethren will not allow this matter to rest where it is! Surely they will not turn a deaf ear to so obvious a call from God's gracious providence! There are some two hundred or more of strict churches in Great Britain who are doing nothing whatever for the heathen world, and will they continue this dishonour? We are utterly opposed to the multiplication of societies for any one common object; but if some churches have honest scruples regarding union with the Baptist Missionary Society, Any then by all means let them originate, if they will, something better of their own. Anything rather than idleness. thing sooner than "neither hot nor cold" in God's great work upon earth. The heathen must be given to Christ "for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." (Psalm ii. 8, lxxii. 8) And who so proper to cooperate in this glorious work as those who are able to exclaim, "We love him, because he first loved us?" To strict Baptists, who know this truth and glory in it, we would say in reference to the cause of Christ among the heathen, “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."-ED.] SCOTCH BAPTISTS. To the Editor of the Primitive Church Magazine. DEAR SIR,-Will you kindly allow me to make known, through your excellent magazine, the fact, that for a long time past a few disciples of Christ have desired to establish a Scotch Baptist Church, in this great metropolis. They have been told again and again, there are many persons in London holding the same faith and practice, who would gladly cooperate with these disciples, if their circumstances were known. Should this arrest the attention of any individual so disposed, the writer of this will be glad to communicate with him, either personally or by letter, under the hope, that by the divine blessing it may lead to the formation of one more strict communion church where the truth of God would be set forth, the love of Christ proclaimed to perishing sinners, and the souls of the faithful made joyful in their king.I am, dear sir, yours very truly, ROBERT BLYTH. 5, Palestine Place, Cambridge Heath, London, N.E. Poetry. IN MEMORY OF MR. JOSEPH HARBOTTLE. Lines on the Death of that learned and excellent man, Mr. JOSEPH HARBOTTLE, late of Accrington, who was called to his rest, on January 19th, 1864, aged sixty-five years. His last sermon was preached in Barnes' Street Chapel, Accrington, on Lord's Day Evening, January 10th, 1864, from those important words, "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews x. 14) Those who were priviledged to hear that earnest, impressive discourse, will never forget it. The doctrine of that passage was the law and guide of his ministerial life. Whatever changes occurred around, he stood to that doctrine as firmly as a Paul, a Luther, or a Dr. Gill. He was interred at Tottlebank, near Ulverston, on January 27th, 1864. Why that loud wail?-Why that deep moan, Where weeping crowds their sorrows own? What woe profound has stirred the grief, That finds in tears a sole relief? Not the wild roar upon the blast, Or skies with thunder-clouds o'ercast; Not the deep cry of lone despair, Could spread those mighty sorrows there. All, all in vain the blast, the cloud, These draw no tears from yonder crowd; And grief retir'd, to few but known, Moves but that few to weep and groan. But when the noble cedar falls,* The stroke resounds in distant halls; While Cotters and their babes deplore, The greatness they shall see no more. Harbottle thus, in manly growth, The foe alike of pride and sloth; Rose high as some more favoured Son, Like Cedar in great Lebanon. Deep read in all of sacred lore, And rich in every heavenly store, Yet sunk he greatness in the mild And humble spirit, of a child. Pride, nor in word or deed he knew, Nor ever learn'd he to pursue The vain professor's empty fame, That nothing carries but a name. He knew not how to fawn on power, By doctrines "fashion'd to the hour;" Nor at the shrine of wealth to bend, Or own the "changeling” as his friend. * Zechariah xi. 2. Manchester. True as the needle to the pole, O noble man! Few like remain, +Barnes' Street Chapel, Accrington. WILLIAM STOKES. Reviews. THE CRITICAL SCHOOL AND JESUS CHRIST; a reply to M. Renan's Life of Jesus. BV EDMOND DE PRESSENSE', D.D., pastor of the French Evangelical Church. Translated by L. Corkran. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row. 86 pages. Scientific religion increases rapidly in boldness, flippancy, and fashionable verbiage. Having no character to lose, it can defy the universe, and where it is wanting in evidence, it makes good the deficiency by an unblushing impudence that attacks every known form of faith among men. It was positive in a Strauss, comparative in a Colenso, and it has now reached the superlative in a Renan. Beyond this the most subtle form of materialism cannot travel, without laying violent hands upon itself. It would be a barren, though an easy work to expose the sophistry, and lay bare the superficiality of this thinly-veiled scepticism, under what form soever it may have trifled with the credulity of mankind; but thus much may be declared of the whole system, that whether infesting the ancient or the modern world; whether it appear as rationalism in a Germany, or as a religious-infidelity in an England, or as a "critical school" in France, its aim is one, its purpose changeless, and that is to banish faith, if possible, from the face of the whole earth. Its battle is not with this or that or any other particular form of faith, but with faith as a whole, faith as the groundwork of religion, and the foundation of all that is sacred, and holy in the human heart. In a few words, it is in its present phase a dim but repulsive fore-shadowing of that dreadful state of mankind in the last days of our world, to which the Redeemer points in that startling interrogation where he says, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" This is the one work, and end, and aim, of the modern scientific religionism, and though it will fail, utterly fail of present results, it is none the less abhorrent as the early harbinger of the very worst, the most corrupt, and the most wicked condition in the history of the human family,—that which will most disgrace the earth, and arouse the fiercest wrath of heaven. In its final issue it labours to dethrone the great God, and to leave the universe without a Maker, a Ruler, or a Judge. This may be considered severe, but not more so than the crisis merits. Is it a mere failing, a minor defect, a human imperfection, to labour to establish an hypothesis on whose forehead may be seen inscribed the blasphemous declaration that " There is no God?" Is not this a crime against both heaven and earth;—an atrocious attack alike upon virtue, morality, and religion? And such is the tendency, if it be not the avowed design of the modern "critical school" of which M. Renan is the latest, though not the profoundest prophet. But in Dr. Pressensé, both the prophet and his system have met their match. With an amount of learning fully equal to the occasion, and an acuteness that allows no sophism to escape, he meets every turn of the crafty argument, and every false conclusion, to exhibit all that is weak in the one, and all that is treacherous or designing in the 4 |