ment to Dr. Wardlaw, from the Committee and Constituency of the Glasgow Theological Academy, for the important services he had rendered to that institution for the space of forty-two years, twenty-five of which he had served it entirely gratuitously.

Mr. Guthrie, who represented the present body of students, read a beautiful address from them to their senior tutor, who replied in a manner which could not fail to reach the hearts of our young brethren.

Our friend, Dr. Alexander, of Edinburgh, with his accustomed good taste and effectiveness, brought forward an address, purporting to be from the churches of Edinburgh and its vicinity, but virtually concurred in by the whole Congregational churches of Scotland, having the signatures appended to it of sixty-five pastors, and time alone preventing the addition of the rest. It is a noble address, worthy of the enlightened source whence it proceeds.

Mr. Finlayson, one of the deacons of Dr. Wardlaw's church, then rose and made some statements of a very gratifying kind. During the last twelve months, he informed the assembly, that Dr. Wardlaw's church and congregation had contributed, for the support of the gospel among themselves, for Home Missions, and Sabbath-schools, for the reduction of debt on the chapel, for the "Wardlaw | Jubilee" Memorial, and for sundry other benevolent societies, a sum exceeding £3200!

The Scottish brethren having completed, in a way highly creditable to them, their part of the business of the evening, the portion of time remaining was devoted to those brethren who had come from a distance. The Rev. Thos. Binney, who was expected to speak, refused, on the plea that he had had his share of the Jubilee in the discourse preached by him on the 13th. He contented himself, in his own peculiar way, by reading a letter from Dr. Morison, of Brompton, who, by an accident, more severe than he had supposed, was prevented from attending the Jubilee of a friend, whom he had revered and loved for the

space of forty-five years. Dr. Urwick, of Dublin, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, delivered a powerful specch, which arrested the attention of the audience to the last. Dr. Harris then pronounced the benediction, and the company separated, under the impression of feelings never to be forgotten in time or eternity. We regard this Jubilee of Dr. Wardlaw as creditable to human nature.

WIDOW'S FUND,

Established 120 years, March 6th, 1733. THE Annual General Meeting of the Subscribers and Friends to the Society for the Relief of the Necessitous Widows and Children of Protestant Dissenting Ministers, will be held on Tuesday, the 5th of April next, at the Guildhall CoffeeHouse, Gresham Street, at One o'clock precisely, to vote the Annual Grants to the Widows; and elect a Treasurer, Managers, and Secretary, for the year ensuing. The Governors and Subscribers are requested to attend.

Additional Donations or Subscriptions will be thankfully received at the Meeting, or subsequently.

THE LATE ATHEISTICAL CONTROVERSY.

OUR readers must have perceived that we have an exceedingly low estimate of the powers of Mr. Holyoake, encountered first by Mr. Townley, and then by Mr. Grant. We have had doubts whether the easy flippancy of such an apostle of Atheism should be advertised by association with men capable of dealing logically with an argument. We may be wrong in this impression; but a careful examination of Mr. Holyoake's appearances in the late public controversy, only tends to confirm our original impression. He is capable of following out no argument; and of being tied down to no conclusion. And, in such circumstances, is it worth while to muster half the bad people of London, or of any other great city, for the inevitable purpose of making a hero of a man who can never rise to this status by his own unaided influence?

Let us not be mistaken. If there should arise an Atheist of power, let him be confronted by all means; but let us not set

up a steam-engine of vast power to kill a gnat. It is, perhaps, an evil at best to furnish an arena for the utterance of atheistic blasphemies too horrible to be even named; but if this shall prove necessary, let us be sure that the interests of religion and humanity demand it imperatively. Mr. Holyoake is not the man to make such a stir-about. He will settle down into his own native insignificance, if men of power do not give importance to his feeble and illogical declamations.

While we make these observations with all deliberation and seriousness, we would not have any of our readers conclude that we think meanly of the powers of Mr. Grant. On the contrary, we believe that he is capable of meeting an antagonist of real ability, and would gain the day, were victory possible. With such an opponent as Mr. Holyoake, victory is a thing out of the question. He cannot keep five minutes to a single point. Are we, then, for losing the services of Mr. Grant? Far otherwise. Let him lecture in the length and breadth of the land, to those classes most liable to the assaults of Atheism; and at the close of each Lecture, let him encourage in- | terrogatories from the working-people themselves, misled by the apostles of Atheism. This will do a world of good. And there lives not a man better qualified for the undertaking than Mr. Grant. He has done his part nobly in the late controversy. And if anything had been given him to do, he would have done it manfully. But to reason with Mr. Holyoake was a thing above even his power.

THE SONS OF TOIL AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

are temperately, but effectually, exposed by Mr. Hall.

"The sons of toil," we have good reason to believe, are not all such bad judges of the persons and influences by whom they are surrounded, as to class, even at Mr. Mayhew's suggestion, the advocates of Sabbath sanctification among their real enemies. Nor will it be easy for Mr. Mayhew to convince the most happybecause the most virtuous-portions of the operative classes in our great cities, that a Sabbath excursion to the far-famed palace at Sydenham, will do so much for their recreation, their health, their domestic peace, their real prosperity in life, their substantial well-being for both worlds, as a visit to the house of God, and an occupation of the higher faculties of their nature, in those services which tend to prepare them for a purer and happier state of being.

Mr. Hall has well shown, that those sons of toil," who keep holy the Christian Sabbath, and who would not spend it in pleasure at Sydenham or elsewhere, have infinitely the advantage, in health, in comfort, in reputation, over their lessfavoured brethren who pursue a different course. We think we have seen, in these forty years of public life, as much of "the sons of toil" as Mr. Mayhew, and we venture, without fear of effectual refutation, to affirm confidently, that Sabbath sanctification is the labouring man's best recreation. With equal confidence, from large observation, we affirm, that it is the Sabbath excursion-the trip on the river-the visit to the tea-gardens-the habit of neglecting God's Day and God's house, that breaks down the labouring man. Whatever tempts him to make

The illogical reasonings, the gross misinterpretations of Scripture, the sentimental cant about popular reforms, the traduction of religious men and their motives, in which this writer indulges,

bad habits he cultivates at home, or acquires abroad, is the sure path to his religious and moral ruin.

The Sons of Toil and the Crystal Palace: in reply to Mr. Mayhew. By Rev. John Hall, Union

Price 6d.

The Crystal Palace scheme, then, so far as relates to the opening of it on a portion of God's Day, is not a provision for that section of "the sons of toil," who reverence the Divine law of the Sabbath. They will spurn, with abhorrence, the new-born and suspicious philanthropy of its proprietors,-they will tremble at the probable effect of their godless scheme upon their rising offspring,-they will plead with the Most High, at all their domestic hearths, to avert, in his infinite mercy, from our country, so mournful an infraction of the law of God, as that of creating, under the sanction of a British Act of Parliament, a mart of pleasure, on that day which God hath set apart for the spiritual well-being of his intelligent and accountable creatures.

The Sabbath-desecrating portion, then, of the Sydenham Palace speculation, is obviously for that section, no doubt a large one, of "the sons of toil," who make no conscience of observing the Christian Sabbath. Let this fact, then, be well marked. It is for them that the Crystal Palace is to be opened on the Lord's Day. Now, we ask with all seriousness and solemnity, has our Most Gracious Sovereign, our Government, our Legislature, the moral and religious portion of the community, no interest in diminishing this unhappy class? Can it be for the good of the nation, that they should persevere in their Sabbath-breaking habits, and that they should teach their families to tread in their steps? Should not all good men labour for their speedy reformation? But is there the most distant hope of Sabbath-breakers being reformed by the act of Sabbathbreaking? Will their excursions to Sydenham reclaim them from their fearful habits of neglecting public worship? Will it remove them, in a single instance, from the sphere of temptation? Will it separate them from their corrupting fellowships? Will it diminish their drinking habits? Will it be conservative of their humble means? Will a hard day's

seeing sights, in a dense and overwhelming crowd, really recreate "the sons of toil?" Will they be better prepared for the labours of Monday, by having undergone such fatigue and excitement on the previous day? These are questions which the Christian philanthropist will look at with a thoughtful mind. We submit them to the grave consideration of Mr. Mayhew, and all who think with him. Let them be dealt with in the light of reason and experience, and not of fiction and sentimentalism.

In a free country like ours, we could never wish to see any unnatural or injurious restriction imposed upon the liberty of the subjects. We could not, if we would, compel "the sons of toil" to keep holy God's Day. Those who have no fear of God before their eyes will multiply the temptations, of various kinds, by which their fellow-creatures are ruined for time and eternity. But, in the name of all that is sacred, let not the Legislature of this Christian country, which owes so much to its outward reverence for God's Day, set its seal to any measure which shall have the effect of formally trampling upon the law of God, thereby opening the floodgates of immorality and profaneness upon the nation, and diminishing, in an awful degree, that reverence for Divine institutions, which is the only safeguard of public virtue and national liberty.

We can understand, as well as our neighbours, how large collections of works of art may tend to improve the tastes of a people; but we have read the history of the past too carefully, and have watched the state of society on the continent of Europe too anxiously, not to know that all this improved taste may be in strict combination with the most fearful displays of national profligacy and ungodli

ness.

Take the element of Sabbath desecration out of the Crystal-Palace-scheme, and we hail it with delight and joy. Put it in the place of our Sabbath, and we can only entreat God that it may come to ruin. We shall assuredly never darken its door, if it is opened on the Sabbath;

and we can calculate on thousands who will follow our example. Art and science we know how to cherish; we hail every real measure of progress for the people; we have spent a large portion of our time in seeking to do them good; but we are not so lost to common sense as to believe, that to put down the Sabbath by law, and to erect the Sydenham Palace in its place, will work well for the best interests of our people, or secure that social millennium of which certain enthusiasts are dreaming, who never made the experiment of spending a Sabbath with God. We could weep tears of blood for those deluded men, who imagine that by trampling on the law of God they can work out any great reformation among the people.

If the proprietors of the Crystal Palace would not damnify their whole undertaking, they will not venture to enlist against them the Christian feeling of this great nation,-great, mainly, because it has not trampled by law upon God's Day.

HEREFORD.

J. M.

THE Rev. Thomas Nicholas, late minister of the Old Chapel, Stroud, has accepted the invitation of the church at Eignbrook Chapel, Hereford. His stated labours were commenced on the first Lord's Day in February.

HARLEY-STREET CHAPEL, BOW.

THE Congregation and friends of the above chapel met on Friday evening, the 11th Feb., for the purpose of completing the extinction of their chapel debt: and by the blessing of God on their united efforts happily succeeded in the accomplishment of their object.

In 1841, this chapel was in danger of being lost to the Independent denomination by reason of the reduced state of the congregation, and the pecuniary difficulties with which it was embarrassed. From this extremity, however, it was rescued by the assistance of the Congregational Board of London Ministers, whose kind and efficient co-operation reduced the debt, secured the chapel to the denomination, and promoted the settlement of its present minister-the Rev. Samuel Davis.

The persevering manner in which the

congregation has struggled with its difficulties; and the liberal spirit in which it has applied its resources to the discharge of the debt, furnish cause for devout thanksgiving to the great Head of the Church, and afford pleasing intimations of the power of evangelical truth, and the efficacy of the voluntary principle under its influence.

KIDDERMINSTER.

THE Rev. Thomas Greenfield, pastor of the Church at Endless-street Chapel,Salisbury, having received a very cordial invitation to resume his former pastorate in connexion with the Old Meeting, Kidderminster, and feeling it to be his duty to accept it, entered again on his former sphere of labour on the first Sabbath of the present year.

On the evening before he left Salisbury an interesting Tea Meeting was held in the chapel, numerously attended, at which several of the ministers of the city and neighbourhood were present.

After tea, the debt remaining on the school-rooms, connected with the chapel, having been completely liquidated, the two senior deacons, Messrs. Griffin and Giddings, presented to their retiring pastor on behalf of the church and congregation, first, a testimonial, beautifully written on vellum, expressive of the deep obligation they felt to him for his faithful and devoted services during a period of nearly eight years; and secondly, an elegant gold watch and key, with an appropriate inscription, as a memorial of affectionate Christian friendship.

This farewell service was rendered peculiarly solemn by the fact that his highly esteemed friend, the Rev. S. Sleigh, for more than forty years the devoted pastor of the church connected with Scot's-lane Chapel, died in great peace on the afternoon of the same day, while Mr. Greenfield was praying by his bedside.

THE LIBERATION OF THE MADIAI.

THIS most interesting intelligence has just reached our shores. From the moment we read Lord John Russell's noble dispatch, we believed that this event would be realized.