this whole district, we had good congregations, and the services of the day were felt to have been very profitable to our churches at home, whatever might be the result as to the treasury of our missions. The following evening our annual meeting was held at Gornal Wood, and presided over by the esteemed superintendent of this circuit, the Rev. W. Pacey. There was a very pleas ing attendance, and the addresses of the deputation, with those of the Revs. M. Bartram and E. Wright, were listened to with very marked attention and interest. The following evening our town meeting had to be held, and at the appointed hour Wesley Chapel contained so large an audience that our expectations, and the gatherings of the last several years, were largely exceeded. The chair was taken by Job Taylor, Esq., J.P. Mayor of Dudley, and most efficiently occupied. The speeches of the ministers already named, with others delivered by the Revs. D. Evans, J. Connon, and J. More, of the Baptist, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian churches of the town, were of a stimulating and earnest character, and impressions of the right kind were evidently produced by them. Our meetings were well attended at Darbyhand and Netherton, and the result is an increase of several pounds to our contributions to the Connexional Missionary Fund. The services of the brethren who formed our deputation were very effective, and will be remembered with grateful interest by our friends. We need but a larger measure of the spirit which glowed in their addresses to render our Zion a praise in the whole earth.

E. W.

LEEDS FIRST CIRCUIT. THE annual services of our Foreign and Colonial Missions were held on Sunday, Nov. 10th, and following days, at Woodhouse Lane, Armley, Ventnor Street, and Woodhouse. At Woodhouse Lane the meeting was presided over by A. Pilling, Esq., of Bolton. An interesting report was read by the Rev. T. J. Hamerton, and addresses delivered by the Revs. H. O. Croft, D.D., and E. J.

Baxter (the deputation); J. Addyman, J. Mann (Free Church), and other friends. Mr. J. M. Fawcett

occupied the chair at Armley; Mr. E. Tiffany at Ventnor Street, and Mr. J. G. Heaps at Woodhouse. On Sunday afternoon a united meeting of all the Sundayschools in the circuit, except Armley, was held in Woodhouse Lane Chapel, presided over by Mr. Councillor Barran (Baptist). Upwards of 1,000 children were present, and the meeting was a most interesting one. At Armley, also, a children's service was held. The congregations at all the above services were good, and the collections considerably in advance of last year. The services of the deputation, both on the Sabbath and at the various meetings, were highly appreciated. W. EDDON, Sec.

THORNE CIRCUIT.

WE have just closed the services on this circuit in behalf of our Colonial and Foreign Missions. The Rev. J. Hudston, and Mr. Stather of Hull were the deputation to Epworth, Haney, Belton, and Eastoft. The Rev. C. D. Ward of Huddersfield and Mr. Coe of Sheffield, were the deputation to Scotter, Westwoodside, and Grazelound. The Rev. T. D. Crothers of Sheffield, and Mr. Oliver of Hull, were the deputation to Thorne, Levels, and Fishlake. The labours of all these brethren were highly acceptable, and their visit will not soon be forgotten. Mr. C. Thorpe was at Wormley Hill. In nine of the eleven places the collections were over those of last year.-Yours affectionately, JAMES ARGue.

Dec. 17th, 1867.

MISSIONARY SERVICES, DUDLEY PORT, OLDBURY CIRCUIT. ON Sunday, December 15th, 1867, the annual sermons in behalf of our Colonial and Foreign Missions were preached at Dudley Port, by the Rev. E. Wright, of Pensnett. On Monday evening, Dec. 16th, the missionary meeting was held. Mr.

John Field of Oldbury presided, and the meeting was addressed by the Revs. E. Wright (deputation), L. Saxton, and H. Marsden. A very interesting report was read by the Rev. W. A. Baker. The meeting, though not largely attended, was a good one. The services of the 'deputation, both on the Sabbath and at the meeting, were much appreciated, and the collections, in spite of the awfully depressed state of trade in the neighbourhood, were in advance of what was realized last year. Oldbury, Dec. 17th, 1867.

BRADFORD.

L. S.

REDUCTION OF CHAPEL DEBT. DEAR MR. EDITOR, -Will you kindly add Mrs. Waring's name as one of the collectors for the reduction of the debt on the Bradford Chapel. The amount collected by Mrs. W., and accidentally omitted in the report, is £5 10s. 6d.—I remain, yours affectionately, T. E. HOPPER.

BRIDGTOWN,

WOLVERHAMPTON CIRCUIT.

REPORTS of improvements in the trust estates of our beloved community are always acceptable to the readers of our Magazine, because they announce an increase of Connexional wealth, are indications of the loyalty and affection of our people, signs of their spiritual life, zeal, gifts, labours, and success; but, best of all, because they point out enlarged spheres for fatare usefulness, and give reason to hope that they will be wisely occupied. For we are certain that the men who can go forth into the forest and make a clearing, or extend the one already made, can and intend to sow seed in that clearing, and gather in harvests. We venture, therefore, to lay before you the following facts:

The Bridgtown Society is the youngest in the Wolverhampton Circuit. The Rev. W. Wright, who was in this circuit in the year 1863, was its first class-leader. The friends can never forget his pious devotion to this new interest. After a short time it was found necessary to have

a chapel. They built one capable of comfortably seating 250 people.

The original site, containing 800 yards of ground, was the gratuitous gift of Mr. Alderman Walker of Wolverhampton. This gentleman

belongs to the Church of England, but in his youth he was connected with our own congregation and Sabbath-school at Wolverhampton, and he has not forgotten us. To the 800 yards of land named, the trustees and friends have just added 996 yards more, hoping in a few years to need a much larger chapel.

This is not all. About eighteen months ago, at the suggestion of Mrs. Walker (wife of the above excellent gentleman), our people commenced a day-shool, feeling that it was their privilege and their duty to give the children of the neighbourhood a secular and religious education unitedly. The children were taught in the vestry of the chapel. For a few months at first a female teacher was employed. Then a young man was engaged-a young man of earnest piety, under whose care the school has grown in number from twentyfive to one hundred. The vestry would not hold them. A number had to be taught in the chapel; the Sabbath scholars had also to meet in the chapel; so the friends determined to build a school-room.

On October 7th a memorial stone was laid by Mrs. Walker, upon whose advice the day-school was commenced. In a month it was finished. The opening sermons were preached on the 17th of November, by the Rev. W. Baggaly.

The building is twelve yards by eight yards, inside measure. It has cost about £100. £40 were raised by subscriptions; by the collection in the open air when the stone was laid, and profits from the tea-meeting on the same day, £16 7s. 9d.; by the opening services, £20. The debt left on the whole of the estate is but £150. E. A. [This is real progress, well worth recording. It evinces zeal, public spirit, and liberality. The blessing of God is sure to rest upon such efforts, for they are pleasing to God and profitable to mankind.—ED.]

NOTTINGHAM CIRCUIT.

HOME MISSION.

MR. EDITOR,-We have just concluded a series of very profitable services on behalf of our Home Mission. In these services we have been favoured with the excellent assistance of my honoured father-in-law, the Rev. John Hudston, of Hull, the Deputation. Mr. Hudston preached at Parliament Street Chapel on the 15th December, and assisted the ministers of the circuit and other friends in holding meetings at Nottingham, Stapleford, and Kimberly during the

INCIDENTS

DEAR DOCTOR, - Many persons whose judgment I respect, have several times expressed the wish that I would record some of the incidents of my life for publication, while I live. I now commence the work in the scrap form, sometimes offering one, and at other times two per month during the present year.

These incidents will embrace a period of more than fifty years, in which, I have, through the abounding grace of God, been actively engaged in the endeavour to bring sinners to an acquaintance with the Saviour. They will be of what I have seen, heard, and done in connection with the truth, providence, and grace of God. Every incident will be numbered and bear a designation.—I am, very respectfully,

HENRY WEBBER.

INCIDENT No. 1.-UNITARIANISM

ABHORRED.

WHEN the first Sunday-school was opened in the town of my birth, I was one of the first to enter it as a scholar. The school being in connection with the Independent Church, I attended with the school the Independent Chapel; but in the morning only, as in the afternoon and evening I attended the services of the Established Church. In the Sunday

following week. We are pleased to be able to report a gratifying increase in all the collections. Nottingham has raised £20, including a subscription of £1 from our friend and the chairman of the Nottingham meeting, Mr. J. Kirk; this being an advance of nearly £8 upon last year. Some of the places have more than doubled their last year's contributions; though I ought to say that last year there were no public meetings held except that in the town. Altogether, when all the services shall have been held, I hope we shall not fall far short of twice the amount of last year.

IN MY LIFE.

school I learnt the first chapter of the Gospel by John. The doctrine of our Lord's Divinity in connection with his humanity, as taught in that chapter, was well and deeply rooted in my mind when I left that school, which was at the age of ten.

When I was about eleven years of age, the Unitarian Congregation opened a Sunday-school; but such was my deep concern for the maintenance of the Truth of our Lord's Divinity, that I went to the parents of those children who had entered that Sunday-school, and entreated them not to send their children again, because the doctrine of Christ's Godhead was there denied. I was incessant in my efforts to break up that school; and very soon I accomplished my purpose.

At that early age I used often to pray most earnestly and sincerely that God would bring me up to manhood, and make me a preacher, that I might preach the Godhead of Christ, and that his death was the world's atonement. Thanks be unto God, who has brought me up to manhood, and permitted my name to be enrolled with those who publish the glad tidings of salvation unto al who believe on him, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells.

H. W.

Helena's Household: a Tale of Rome in the First Century. London: T. Nelson and Sons.

This volume begins with the imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome, and ends with the siege of Jerusalem, including a variety of important events connected with the introduction of Christianity into the imperial city, and the persecution excited against the followers of Christ. It is founded on facts, but filled up with details which, though substantially probable, are invested with their drapery by the imagination of the author. The author illustrates, with a pictorial power that is really wonderful, the condition of Rome at that period, its scenery, its buildings, its manners and customs, its cruel gladiatorial spectacles, its vices and general corruptions. That the Gospel found its way to the hearts of some who stood near the throne, in the time of the apostles, we learn from the New Testament. Helena was a Roman matron, the wife of a Roman magnate, who stood high in imperial favour, and was connected with one of the richest families in Greece. She and her youthful son were among the first converts to Christianity in Rome, as was Julius the centurion, who had charge of Paul when a prisoner. The inadequacy of the highest human philosophy to meet the requirements of man's spiritual nature is set in beautiful contrast with the allsafficiency of the Gospel, and is forcibly exemplified in the experience of the early converts at Rome. The voluptuousness, the despotism, and the cruelties of Nero are vividly depicted, and the meekness, constancy, and moral heroism of Christians, as they were dragged away to prison, or concealed in the catacombs, or consumed in tarred garments for the gratification of the emperor and his blood-thirsty satellites, are described in the most impressive manner. Throughout the whole, pure and undefiled religion is displayed, and life-like pictures of human nature in all grades of society, from the slave

Rome,-in the year of the city, 814; in the year of grace, 61; Nero on the throne; the apostles preaching Christianity; the ancient world in the period of its highest civilization, when petty divisions had become extinguished, and all the nations bowed to the one central city;-such is the time of this story.

It was a busy, a rich, and a denselypeopled world. Military roads started from the great centre, and went to the uttermost bounds of the empire. The Mediterranean was the highway of nations; surrounded by a girdle of populous cities; everywhere traversed by vast fleets, and filled with the commerce of the world.

Roman law had fashioned all the provinces into one form, and stamped them all with one image; and those states which were formerly ravished by war or piracy, now, under the influence of universal peace, grew with a rapidity that had not been known before.

Taking a comprehensive view of this world, Spain first attracts our attention, where for some time a Roman province had been advancing so peacefully, that history finds but little to record. Culture was there, and Rome was receiving from that quarter her Lucans, Senecas, and Trajans. Cities lined the coast, prominent among which was Gades, which yet, as of old, sends over the world its exports of fruit, and wine, and oil. Perhaps Spain was more prosperous than now. Certainly Africa

was much more so. Along the whole northern coast there was a line of nations, rich in culture and prosperity, possessing great cities, which sent over to Rome its chief supplies of grain. Carthage had arisen from its ruins on a new site, and many capitals had grown up in places which not long before had been the battle-grounds of

barbarous tribes. Alexandria had already reached a lofty position in science and literature, as well as in commerce, and was yet advancing still higher. Over all the country caravans pierced the desert, carrying civilization to the savages beyond, and the whole land was going on in a career of prosperity, which continued for generations with various fortunes, till it was checked by the disasters of the falling empire, and afterwards diverted in a new direction by Mohammedan conquest.

From Alexandria came the largest ships and greatest fleets; for Roman pride was yet conveying to the metropolis those enormous Egyptian obelisks which yet remain in the modern city, and no small part of Eastern commerce came up the Red Sea, to send through this port the spices, the gold, the gems, the silks, and the rich tissues which were demanded by Roman luxury.

Nor must we forget Palestine. Long since Hellenized to some extent, and now partly Romanized, the people saw their country filled with the symbols of Western art and science; but, in the presence of Greek rhetoricians and Roman soldiers, they cherished that fierce fanaticism which blazed up in revolt at last, and was quenched in the untold agonies of the memorable siege of Jerusalem.

Beyond Palestine were the crowded regions of Syria and Asia Minor, where there were cities such as Ephesus, Antioch, Smyrna, and Damascus, with many others, which surpassed the capital itself in splendour and magnificence, and have left ruins which are the wonder of the modern traveller. Through these came that great overland traffic with the furthest East, which formed a perpetual succession of caravans between the Roman and the Chinese provinces.

What lay beyond the nearest deserts crossed by the caravans was a profound mystery to the Romans. Their arms had never reduced Persia to subjection; nor had a Roman general ever gazed on the plains of Scinde, or embarked his legions on the Persian Gulf. The Parthians were more formidable to the Romans than the Persians had been to the Greeks; nor did the Latin historian ever forgive Alexander for leading his armies beyond the flight of the Roman eagles.

The descendants of those Greeks who had thus outdone the Romans in the furthest East, still lived with a

certain vitality in their old home. Athens was more populous than ever, and the country was prosperous. But the glory had departed, and the ancient genius had vanished for ever. It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose that the Greeks had sunk to a level with the other races under the iron dominion of Rome; on the contrary, they towered above them all.

The position of the Greeks at this time is partly instructive and partly amusing. They were at once the scholars, the wits, and the sharpers of the day. Their literature was studied everywhere; their arts were everywhere admired. No one who pretended to be anybody was ignorant of their language. It was the universal tongue, and had penetrated into all countries. Everything that required art, skill, ingenuity, all the finer employments of every kind, had everywhere fallen to the lot of the Greeks. They were the best painters, sculptors, architects, and musicians. The masterpieces of art now preserved at Rome, if they bear any names at all, have those of Greek artists. Wealthy Romans sent their sons to Athens to acquire a liberal education, or hired Greek tutors in their own houses at Rome. In Rome the Greek was everything. In the words of the sneering satirist

"Grammar, surveying, physic, shaving, art,

Rope-dancing, magic, all he knows by heart."

Northward, the barbarian races were held in check, yet chafed furiously against the barrier. The Pannonians and Dacians were watching their opportunity. The Germans refused to be conquered. Beyond them lay the innumerable Goths, behind whom were the Sarmatians and Scythians, who again were pressed in their rear by others. Among these tribes the Romans found a spirit which no longer existed among themselves.

Gaul had settled down into an orderly Roman province, with all the customary signs of Roman refinement. The southern coast had been a civilized country for ages; and Massilia, which was founded by the Greeks centuries before, was distinguished for its culture; while, in its neighbourhood were powerful cities which have bequeathed to our times vast monuments and majestic ruins.

Beyond the sea lay Britain, now