HACKNEY

SEMINARY THEOLOGICAL AND SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

THE forty-sixth anniversary of the above institution was held on Wednesday, June 27th, at the New Tabernacle, Old-street Road; J. H. Mann, Esq., in the chair. The report stated, that since the last annual meeting, three students had completed their term of study, and had been settled over congregations; Mr. Rook at Thaxted, Essex, Mr. Walter Gill, Welford, Northamptonshire, and Mr. C. R. Howell, Robert Street, Grosvenor Square.

The classical examination was conducted by the Rev. A. Redpath, A.M., who reported, "That the students had been led through a useful and systematic course of mental training, and had given many proofs of habits of industry, and of a praiseworthy anxiety to avail themselves of the many advantages offered to them by the institution, and by the zeal and ability of their classical tutor." The theological examination was conducted by the Rev. J. Kennedy, M.A., who reported, "That the students exhibited a thorough acquaintance with the ground they had gone over, and a vigorous hold of the various themes which had been discussed during the session, and that the'r answers furnished undoubted evidence of the formation of habits of study and of thinking, which, in not a few of the students, would, there is every reason to hope, be the foundation of a ministerial character of great intelligence and useful

the ecclesiastical history of the second and third centuries, in mental philosophy and in astronomy. A preparatory devotional service was held on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday morning a powerful and characteristic sermon was preached at the Independent Chapel on behalf of the college, by the Rev. After the T. Binney, from 1 Cor. iii. 3. public tea, which took place at an early hour, the friends again assembled in the chapel, and the chair was taken at five o'clock by the Rev. T. P. Bull, when the report was read, and several addresses were delivered. The report stated that the college had its complement of students, and that the committee had been compelled to decline several desirable applications during the past year. The report of the esteemed tutor, the Rev. W. Froggatt, bore testimony to the great diligence and Christian deportment of the young men in the house. The death of some of the earlier students was recorded, and special reference was made to the efforts of the late Rev. W. Chapman, of Greenwich, on its behalf. The only drawback to the prosperity and efficiency of the college arose, as it appeared, from the inadequacy of its funds. The attendance was exceedingly good, and the whole proceedings of the day highly interesting.

It may be added, that an increase of £100 to its income would raise this valuable instiThe comtution above all its difficulties. mittee feel assured that a knowledge of its general history, of the comparatively large result of its efforts, as well as of its present efficient superintendency, and of its adaptation to the necessities of the church, would lead to its ample and permanent support.

INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, LONG MELFORD,
SUFFOLK.

ON Tuesday, the 3rd of July, the Rev. J. Burgess was ordained to the pastoral office over the church and congregation assembling in the above place of worship. The service was commenced at 2 o'clock in the afternoon with reading the Scriptures and prayer by the Rev. W. Macnab, of Sudbury; after which the Rev. James Lyon, of Hadleigh, delivered an introductory discourse on the nature, polity, and privileges of a Christian church; the usual questions were then asked by the Rev. J. C. Bodwell, M.A., of Bury St. Edmunds, and satisfactory answers having been given, the Rev. S. L. Harris, of Clare, offered the designation prayer; a very able, impressive, and affectionate charge was then delivered by the Rev. John Harris, D.D., President of Cheshunt College.

At the close of the service upwards of 300 of the congregation, which was large and respectable, were provided with tea under a marquee opposite the chapel; after which a

proposition was made and carried unanimously, "That Dr. Harris be requested to publish his charge, which had been listened to with so much interest and pleasure." The friends then adjourned to the chapel, when at 7 o'clock in the evening the service was commenced with reading and prayer by the Rev. J. W. Lethbridge, late of Kidderminster; an appropriate and impressive sermon was then preached to the people by the Rev. C. Elven, of Bury St. Edmunds. Among the neighbouring ministers who were present and took part in the services were the Rev. Messrs. Rutter, Sowter, Higgs, Mallis, Hickman, Anderson, and Colman.

The proceedings of the day were of a nature highly interesting, encouraging, and profitable.

It is gratifying to state that since the commencement of the present pastor's ministry in this place, a new gallery has been erected, an organ purchased, and a gradual improvement in the state of things is perceptible.

May the Great Head of the church continue to prosper this portion of his Zion, until it shall become a praise in the earth!

BOWDON DOWNS, MANCHESTER.

ON Wednesday, the 4th of July, the anniversary service, connected with the Congregational Church in Bowdon Downs, were held; on which occasion the recognition of the Rev. Henry Christopherson, late of Newcastle-onTyne, as pastor of the church and congregation, took place. In the morning, at 11 o'clock, the Rev. James Turner, of Knutsford, commenced the service by reading the Scriptures and prayer; after which, the Rev. Professor Stowell, of Rotherham College, delivered the introductory discourse, and received the minister's confession of faith; the Rev. Dr. Vaughan offered the recognition prayer; and the Rev. Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, gave the charge to the minister. In the evening, at half-past 6 o'clock, the Rev. Richard Fletcher introduced the service by reading the Scriptures and prayer; after which the Rev. James Parsons, of York, preached the sermon to the people.

NEW CAUSE AT ISLEWORTH, MIDDLESEX. ISLEWORTH is a village of considerable antiquity, beautifully situated on the banks of the Thames, nearly, opposite to Richmond, and contains a population of five thousand souls.

Several families of Protestant Dissenters having taken up their residence there, were desirous of enjoying the means of grace in accordance with their own religious views, and a very promising field for the preaching of the Gospel being presented in that locality, the attention of the West Middlesex Congregational Association was directed to the spot,

and resolved, in conjunction with the friends at Isleworth, on the erection of a place of worship.

The chapel, which is an elegant and substantial erection, was opened in September last, by the Rev. James Sherman, and the Rev. John Stoughton.

For the first five Sabbaths the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. John Harrison, of Northwich, and subsequently by ministers from the metropolis. Mr. Harrison received an invitation to undertake the charge of this infant cause. This invitation he accepted, and on the 24th of December he commenced his stated labours, which he has prosecuted with great encouragement and success.

On Thursday, June the 14th, a church was organized, after the Congregational order, when nine individuals, who had been members of other churches of various denominations, gave themselves to each other in the Lord, and thus form the nucleus of a church, which, it is hoped, will prove a blessing in the locality in which it is planted. The Rev. J. W. Richardson, of London, with the neighbouring ministers, assisted in the services.

On Tuesday, July the 10th, the Rev. John Harrison was publicly recognized as the pastor of the newly-formed church, when a discourse, on the Nature and Constitution of a Church of Christ, was delivered by the Rev. J. C. Harrison, of Camden Town. The Rev. J. W. Richardson stated the steps which led to Mr. Harrison's invitation to Isleworth, asked the questions, and offered the recognition-prayer. The venerable Dr. Bennett, with great affection and fidelity, addressed the pastor, and the Rev. Dr. Morison preached in the evening a powerful and searching sermon to the church and congregation.

At the close of the service, a very elegant and valuable service of communion-plate, which had been purchased by the contributions of a few friends in London, through the kind agency of an individual who gratuitously conducts the psalmody at Isleworth, was presented to the newly-formed church, by Dr. Morison, in a most affectionate and paternal address, to which the pastor, on behalf of himself and the church, made a suitable reply.

The devotional exercises connected with these services were conducted principally by the pastors of neighbouring churches, who attended in great numbers.

This interesting and important village will very soon be favoured with a direct railway communication to London; and should any of the friends of the Redeemer's cause, who may be looking out for a country residence, be directed in the providence of God to fix upon Isleworth, where a promising field for Christian effort invites cultivation, it will be to the pastor and his friends a matter of great joy and thankfulness.

CALLS ACCEPTED.

The Rev. Wm. Slater, of Teignmouth, has accepted the call to the pastorate from the church assembling in Cross Street Chapel, Barnstaple, and intends commencing his stated labours there at Midsummer next.

CHINA.

THE REV. W. B. LEACH, late of Robertstreet Chapel, Grosvenor Square, having recovered his health by the temporary suspension of his ministry, has received and accepted the unanimous invitation of the church and congregation at Newport, Salop,to be their pastor.

To the Church of Christ assembling in Trevor Chapel, under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Morison, D.D.

Hong Kong, 23rd April, 1849. DEAR FRIENDS,-More than twelve months have elapsed since we bade you farewell, after having been commended by you to the grace of God, and it is now nearly nine months since we were brought back to resume our labours in this sphere. Thus long absent from you in body, I have continually been present with you in spirit. On the week day I have gone with you to the prayer-meeting, and can often almost fancy that I hear the voice of one and another of you pleading at a throne of grace: on the Lord's-day my dear wife and myself talk of your being gathered together in your holy place, and we are comforted here when we think of the enjoyment that you are deriving from the ordinances of the sanctuary, and the profit with which you listen to the word of truth, ministered to you by him who is our father and your beloved pastor.

You will have been made acquainted with the principal events that have happened to us since we parted from you. The tidings of the death of our dear nurse would be received by you with sorrow. She was one of you. In your place of worship she was baptized. You welcomed her into the household of faith. It was a trial to us to commit her body to the deep almost in sight of her native land; but we were enabled to say, "Good is the will of the Lord." So long as she retained her reason, she expressed a patient submission to the will of God, and a confident trust in the Saviour. Much had she suffered from her attachment to our family, but she had gained more. hopes of heaven consoled her amid the many pains that she had here to endure; and now that her spirit rejoices, I believe in the presence of the Saviour, her adoring song rises to Him who led her to Himself so wondrously in a way that she knew not, and brought her safely through much tribulation into His heavenly kingdom.

The

The news of the death of our darling child would be still more afflictive to you-and they would be altogether unexpected. In answer to your prayers she had been restored

nurse.

We re

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to us from the mouth of the grave. joiced over her as the child of prayer. had less of trembling in our thoughts regarding her than we ought to have had. There was a great lesson to be taught us by our Heavenly Father. He gave, and He almost re-gave, and He finally took away. Blessed be His name. Entire submission to His will is due from us to Him. We may not think that His procedure will be according to our ideas of what is probable and likely. But it will be the wisest and the best. They were baptized on the same morning-she and our The day was one to be remembered by us, and the recollection of it, I believe, dwells with an unusual interest with many of you. They are now together with Jesus; He has received them both-the babe caught from its mother's breast, and her who rebuked away her country's gods, and clave to Him, as the only Saviour. How precious is our Christian faith! Our child is not lost. shall go to her, and find her-how blessed, how glorified! But her death was a severe blow, especially to her mother, and yet she was wonderfully supported. The consolations of the gospel have been made to abound to her. Many thanks to you, dear friends, for the sympathy which you manifested for us, when the mournful tidings reached you! Surely your prayers were not in vain, when you assembled-so many of you-and ap proached the throne of grace on our behalf. The Lord has fulfilled your petitions for us. May He cause all grace and consolation to abound to you!

We

This year has not been without its sorrows. In January I heard of the death of my beloved father, but he went down unto his grave, like as a shock of corn is gathered in in its season. He was an aged disciple, who for more than half a century had adorned the gospel of God our Saviour. The example of his Christian walk and consistency is a rich inheritance to his children. May I have grace given me to finish my course-it will probably not be so long a one-with as much faithfulness and honour! The mail this month brought us the intelligence of the death of our sister-in-law, so soon removed from her husband and children. How does wave continue to roll after wave upon our beloved parents! But they know how to stay them.

selves on God; and your affectionate sympathy will be manifested more and more towards them. The meek and quiet spirit of our departed Catherine has gone to a region more congenial to it than earth. Trouble and affliction, my dear friends, have, no doubt, been familiar to many of you during the past We have felt much in hearing of the year. illness of dear Mr. Room. If his place in Trevor knew him no more, the blank would be great to us; and how much greater would it be to his family, to his pastor, and to you all! I trust that, ere this time, your prayers have been heard on his behalf, and that he has been restored to a measure of health and vigour.

Afflictions are painful but salutary. They often recall the wandering child of God; they bring down the high mind; they purify the soul from its selfishness and earthward lusts. Here we are but pilgrims and sojourners; but while we are ready to acknowledge this, the pilgrim-spirit is a rare attainment. May it be yours, brethren, and ours, so that we may continually have our loins girt, and our lamps burning, and be prepared either to remain and do our work, or to depart and to be with the Lord!

But I leave these personal and domestic matters, and proceed to give you some account of my missionary labours. You would rejoice to hear that we have not been without manifest tokens that God was with us, giving testimony to the Word of His grace. We could not but see His love and kindness in the fact, that on the same month in which we had to mourn the death of our child, there came forward five of the boys in the school, and several other Chinese, professing their desire to turn from idols to the true and living God. Three of those boys, and an old man of sixty-six, were baptized in November, and in January I baptized two young men, who give promise of much usefulness. Of the other two boys, one was kept by his father when he went home at the new year, and has not been permitted to return to school. The fifth is still a catechumen, and growing, I trust, in grace. A spirit of serious inquiry is widely diffused among his companions. At a prayer-meeting, which we have on Saturday evening, preparatory to the engagement of the Sabbath, four boys have been regular attendants for a couple of months. Last week I spoke to the whole school about it, saying that it was entirely a meeting of Christians and inquirers, who believed in the power of prayer, and felt their own dependence for spiritual blessings on God. I did not require, I told them, any of them to attend it, but we should pray specially for them, as having long been highly favoured with Christian instruction, and yet continuing apparently far from righteousness.

On the Saturday evening there were twenty of them with us. A calm and earnest spirit shows itself in the countenances of many. May the Holy Spirit give life and permanence to every good resolution that they are revolving!

I have had to mourn over three among those who, in September and October, signified a wish to be baptized. They had not counted the cost, or perhaps they thought to make a gain of godliness! They come to us no more. Three others have been obliged to leave Hong-Kong, following their callings, but I hope it will be found they continue to give heed to the things that belong to their everlasting peace. There remain two, who are daily receiving instruction, and whom I expect, at no distant date, to welcome into our fellowship.

A new case has cheered me much during the last four weeks. There came a man of education to Hong-Kong about the middle of March, from a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, and introducing himself to our Colporteur, A-Sum, requested to be instructed in the Christian doctrine. The way in which he states he was brought here was this. An acquaintance came from his town last year to Hong-Kong with a cargo of mats to sell, and while he was here received a tract from A-Sum, which he handed to our friend on his return home. This tract produced a considerable impression on his mind, which was much increased by conversations in the beginning of this year with another acquaintance, the manager of a rope-work in this settlement, whom A-Sum and myself have often visited. This man having gone home in January to see his family, talked often among his friends of the gospel of Jesus, which had been pressed on his acceptance. Our friend was prepared to be interested by such a topic, and when the ropemaker returned to Hong-Kong last month, he came with him. Since he has been here he has read and heard much of the Scriptures, and has recently formally applied for baptism. Being a scholar, his progress in knowledge has been rapid. When told that by embracing Christianity he will be brought to poverty, and that we cannot do anything for him in a worldly point of view, he replies that the Bible tells him that God is supreme, the creator and the sustainer of all men: and he is ready, without fear, to cast himself on God.

Often have I thought, during the last nine months, This is, indeed, with us still the day of small things, but what would Dr. Morrison have said had he witnessed it! All his lifetime he sowed in tears: now we are reaping in a measure. The word of God is making its presence and power felt among the people; we shall, ere long, see great things.

But it is no easy matter for a Chinese to

profess the faith of Christ. I have seen an opposition to the gospel, since some of our scholars began to make a profession of it, which I did not think before existed. They are indeed confessors. They are tempted in every possible way. They are plied with "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life." They are appealed to to prove false to Christ through their natural affections and their national pride. And when these things fail, they are threatened and reviled. But they stand firm, strong in the Lord. Let us glorify God in them!

They

I must not omit to tell you of your friends, Kim-Lin, Futt-Keem, and A-Sow. have been a great comfort and help to me, and seem to grow in grace and knowledge. The following incident will make you think pleasantly of A-Sow. Some time ago he applied to me for three dollars. (You know he is supported by friends in England as a theological student, on £25 a year.) I asked him what he wanted to buy with them. He told me. "These things won't cost you more than two dollars. What do you want three dollars for ?" "I had rather not tell you." "Very well: here are the three dollars; but you might put as much confidence in me as I do in you." "Well, I will. Since A-Cheong was baptized, his father refuses to give him any clothes. He goes with me every Sunday to talk to the people, but his shoes are very bad, and I wish to give him a new pair." Next Sunday I saw A-Cheong with a pair of new shoes.

Kim-Lin and Futt-Keem went down to Malacca in February to see their friends. I was sorry to part with them, even for a time, but they had set their hearts on the visit, and a pious captain offering to give them a free passage, I let them go. They have not yet come back, but they will probably be here next month. A few days ago I had a letter from Kim-Lin, a few sentences of which I shall here transcribe. He says:

"MY VERY DEAR TEACHER,-It is with unfeigned pleasure that I employ myself in penning these few lines to you. What a wonderful attraction is there in Christian love! Neither the great breadth of the Pacific Ocean, nor the distance of the China Sea, can keep you and me asunder. I have constant fellowship with you in spirit, though far absent in body, and in a bond which no nearness of flesh can tie. I pray with you, and I rejoice with you. Our mutual requests are poured into one bosom. His eyes, his heart, and his love, are upon us both; and really it is a wonderful matter to consider the magnetical virtue of our Friend and elder Brother, Jesus Christ, that two persons distant thousands of miles, can have a fellow-feeling, and by means of their common interest in Him, can do each other the very best services."

Surely these sentiments are truly Christian and beautiful. Coming, and in so delicate a form of expression, from a Chinese youth, they greatly refresh the spirit.

But I must now draw my letter to a conclusion. When I write to you again, may there be more news of the triumphs of Divine truth and grace, over which to call you to rejoice with me! But blessed be God that He is not leaving Himself without witness! He is with us; and is anything too hard for Him? Where we have had one conversion, we may have tens and hundreds and thousands. O God, may I be strong in faith, giving glory to Thee, and watch unto prayer! And among you the word of God is not bound. From my dear father I have heard from time to time of the monthly additions to your number. The Lord increase them many fold!

My dear wife begs to unite with me in sending you her Christian salutation. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I remain, dear brethren,
Gratefully and affectionately yours,
JAMES LEGGE.

EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS IN CHINA.
A Letter to a Friend.

Amoy, March, 1849. MY DEAR MRS. M.,-I ought to have written you long ago, and intended to have done so, but have been kept very busy. We did not reach this place till the 2nd of September. We were on our voyage up during the very strong typhoon of the 31st of August, but were mercifully preserved by our little vessel getting in a small bay, where she anchored for two days and two nights. In November I re-opened my Chinese girls'school, which I am happy to say has been going on pretty well ever since. We had a few changes at the Chinese new year. Two or three of the children left; since that, we have been going on quietly in our usual way. The children have not had much sickness. At the end of last year two of them had small-pox, which is a very prevalent disease here. The people have not been in the habit of vaccinating their children. We often see them going about covered with sores. do not seem to fear their taking cold as we do at home; and as to infection, they think every one must take their chance, as they do not appear to take any special means to prevent it. The girls are getting on very well with their books: they have learned one Christian book by heart, and are now going on with a second; they also improve in their writing, and Mr. Young is teaching them arithmetic. They have a Chinese teacher,

They