THE ministry which Paul "received of the Lord Jesus-to testify the Gospel of the grace of God," he himself describes as "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. v. 18-21); a message

of peace from the Sovereign Ruler to his rebellious human creatures, in which he graciously condescends to beseech them to be reconciled. In this message is made known " the kindness and love to man" of "God our Saviour" (Titus iii. 4), in having from eternity" set his heart upon man" (Job vii. 17); and by giving up his own Son for us all, manifestly showed that it was a heart of yearning tenderness and of compassionate love. This great fact (too often, I fear, lost sight of) is set forth in a most striking and forcible manner, in an admirable discourse, by Charnock, on God's being the Author of Reconciliation," from which the following passages are extracted.*

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"The world is fundamentally reconciled; there being a foundation laid for the world to be at peace with God, if they accept of the terms upon which this amity is to be obtained."

"All things are of God' in this reconciling act (2 Cor. v. 18). The whole Trinity is concerned in it; each person acts a distinct part. The glory of contriving is appropriated to the Father, as he that made the first motion, counselled Christ to undertake it, sent him in the fulness of time, and bruised him upon the cross, making his soul an offering for sin. The glory of effecting it is ascribed to the second Person, both in the satisfactory part to the justice of God, and also in the victorious partthe conquest of Satan. The glory of working the conditions upon which it is to be enjoyed, and the applying it is attributed wholly to the Spirit."

*This Discourse may be found in the second volume of the original folio edition of Charnock's Works, pp. 241-380.

"When Christ came to reconcile, he came to do God's will."

Christ is the effect of God's love of benevolence and compassion to relieve us, which love ordered Christ as the means (John iii. 16).

"The gift of Christ, which is the effect, doth suppose the love of God, which is the cause. God, indeed, was angry with all mankind, but it was an anger mixed with love; he was angry, but yet willing to be appeased. A pregnant example of this, which may give us an understanding of it, we have from the mouth of God himself (Job xlii. 7, 8). My wrath is kindled against thee (speaking to Eliphaz) and against thy two friends; therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering." There is a cloud upon God's face, but his mercy, as the sun, peeps out behind the cloud; as he acquaints them with his anger, so he shows the way to pacify it. Though his wrath was kindled, yet he is not so ready to inflame it, as he is to have it quenched by the means he prescribes them, wherein Job was a type of Christ, whose sacrifice God only accepts as well as appoints."

other with the honour of his law and the immutability of his sentence. There is a way, therefore, found in the treasures of his wisdom to procure peace to the sinner with honour to himself; to reconcile the sinner without impunity for the sin, to satisfy both the cries [demands] of his justice [as a righteous moral Governor], and the yearnings of his bowels [as a tender loving Father], the one in the punishment of sin in a surety, the other in pardoning sin in our persons."

Referring to John xvii. 7, "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee," the author says "which was indeed the manifestation of the name of his Father spoken of (v. 5), that all things which I do, are by thy appointment, order, and assistance. I have ascribed nothing to myself, but magnified thy love as the sole fountain of all that I have done; which was necessary, for I doubt many men think the Father to be cruel and full of hatred to his creatures, and that he was over-persuaded to redemption by the importunities of his Son; as a severe prince might be mollified by the suppliIcations of his heir. It was not so; and Christ was to acquaint men with the true notion of God and what his thoughts and affections were concerning them, and to show him to be a proper object of faith in this business."

66 We see the main cause of unbelief and despair. 'Tis the ignorance of the Father's interest in Redemption. The ignorance of the transaction between the Father and the Son is the cause of this "Because they know not him that sent me (John xv. 21); they consider

not that this was the Father's contrivance, that I am sent forth by him, and ordered by him to do what I do. If we had a clear vision of the Gospel, and remembered God as intent upon a way of Redemption, we should not nourish that which disparageth the whole plot. Such souls look upon him

as a God of wrath rather than a God of peace, whose hand is more filled with thunders than his heart with love; they

regard him as one of a narrow and contracted goodness,-that God minded nothing after man's sin but preparing his bow and sharpening his arrows. Hence they have frightful thoughts of God, slavish fears, fretful jealousies, that he will never accomplish their desires though they seek him never so fervently."

"See the blackness of unbelief. Whosoever doth not believe upon the declaration of the Gospel, doth endeavour to deprive Christ of a seed as far as he can. And those that endeavour to keep off others from Christ, endeavour, as far as their power extends, to make God violate His oath. This contrivance of God is the greatest masterpiece of wisdom and love; it was the most becoming thing God ever set about, most agreeable to his mercy and justice. Unbelief doth what it can to demolish this fabric of God's erecting, as though the contrivance of his wisdom were a piece of folly, and the beating of his heart only worthy of the spurns of our feet."

"How gross a sin is unbelief, which practically denies the ability of that Saviour which the Father so richly fitted by his Spirit to the work of reconciliation. 'Tis a charge and imputation upon God as though he did not furnish him with sufficient abilities.

. God's

compassionate a nature of his own ever to reject you."

"This is the aggravation of the sin of unbelief to the end of the world-that Christ hath an authoritative commission from his Father, and is not received by the rebels; that he speaks in his Father's name, and is not believed by the offender. (John v. 43.) God was in Christ reconciling the world as a prince in an ambassador; therefore God and his recon. ciling offer are despised on the refusal of his commission. "Tis to God the affront is offered, Christ being the representative of God in the highest and most gracious charge, in the tenderest and most indulgent offers. Any slight thoughts of his person, any contempt of his precepts, any disregard of his promises redounds upon the person authorizing him to those ends. He was sent to be heard and obeyed (Matt. xvii. 5), not to be slighted and despised."

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"The end of this commission was the reconciliation and redemption of man 1. Satisfaction for our sins. (Gal. i. 4.) 'Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." It was the will of God and our Father that he should give himself for our sins, wherein God acted not only as a just Judge, to have the honour of his law maintained, not only as a Sovereign Lord, to reduce the creature to obedience; but [also] as a tender Father, out of a paternal affection to restore the creature to happiness. 2. Testification of the love of God. (Isaiah xliii. 10, 11.) To witness the nature and love of God in the salvation he hath provided, to evidence that he was the only true God, because the only fountain of salvation to the lost world."

God hath spent his wrath upon him, and hath none for those that accept him."

"The constant wooings of men by God flow from his acceptance of Christ. He entreats and beseeches men to embrace him, to be reconciled to him, because he hath been thus reconciling the world in Christ. (2 Cor. v. 20.) The entreaty and arguments used to persuade men to the acceptance of it could have no validity without this foundation-that a reconciliation is wrought, and the expiatory sufferings of Christ accepted by God. So much is God in love with Christ's performance that he condescends to the lowest step, to beseech and solicit the creature's affections for him, and presseth them with that sweet importunity as loth to take any denial at their hands."

"As the enmity is removed from God in the satisfaction of his justice by the blood of his Son, so the enmity shall be removed from a believer, in the renovation of his image by the grace of his Spirit."

How is the Gospel an edition of God's heart as it wrought from eternity? Where is that religion besides, that presents us with such draughts of Divine love, that declares its secret resolves and transactions, that tells us of such an immense flood of bounty flowing down upon mankind? The heathens regarded God as severe, though they saw testimonies of his patience; they saw not those springs of kindness bubbling up in his own breast; they imagined them squeezed out by their sacrifices and solicitations, and purchased by their services. Here is the goodness and tender compassion of God making the first motion, laying on one colour after another, till it was brought to perfection. The Gospel shows us God contriving Redemption by his own wisdom, drawing it with his own hand, working it by his own power."

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"The Gospel is nothing else but a proclamation of the Articles of Peace. God's thoughts of peace were the cause

of his sending Christ, the accomplishment of reconciliation is the ground of proclaiming it. He sent Christ to effect it, and his Spirit in the Gospel to ratify it. 'Tis called The word of reconciliation' as though nothing else was intended in it, but to make God and man at peace together actually. 'Tis a declaration of his ardent desire to return into amity with us-that he is satisfied by the death of his Son, and can admit us without any contradiction to his justice, and with a stronger security than at the first creation."

"The grand obstacle to the fulness of God's mercy, in regard of the demands of justice, is quite removed."

Our rejecting Christ and the way of his appointment is a high contempt of God. 'Tis a slight of God in the glory of his grace, an envying him the honour of the Restoration. . Since his heart was [so] set upon this work, that all the counsels of eternity centre in it, a deafness to his proposals is a contradiction to all his counsels and the great desire of his heart. As faith in Christ redounds to the honour of God, as being an approbation of all God's acts in this affair, so unbelief of Christ redounds to the contempt of God, as slighting all these manifestations of his grace and wisdom. . . . Every act of unbelief redounds to the dishonour of the Father, whose ambassador Christ is, and the exact image of his person. If men do not heartily think reconciliation by Christ worth their highest thoughts and entertainments, they reproach God as if he were busy from eternity about just nothing.. 'Tis a making light of a rich feast of God's providing. (Matt. xxii. 5.) 'Tis a self-destroying fury worse than that of devils."

CONGREGATIONALISM IN AUSTRALIA. IN pursuing the sketch of the present condition of Congregationalism in the Australian colonies, we proceed to notice

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

This colony differs from all others in its formation. It was founded in the year

1836, by an incorporated company, which it was intended should exercise, by delegation from the crown, many of the powers of sovereignty within the intended province. The plan was regarded at the time almost perfect in theory, and designated the "self-supporting scheme," and it consequently became for a while very popular and attractive. It was intended that the produce of the land sales should be devoted to the purpose of conveying labouring families to the colony. It is still thought by some, that had the scheme been discreetly managed, it might have succeeded. But whether it was the result of bad management, or of anything inherent to the scheme itself, the colony was soon involved in inextricable embarrassments. The consequence was, that in the year 1840, the Imperial Government was obliged to interfere, by advancing a considerable sum of money to meet the emergencies of the case, on such security as could be obtained without overburdening the resources of the colony. So ended the "self-supporting" part of the scheme, and South Australia, like other settlements, was contented to depend on the mother-country for assistance.

It was to the founding of this colony, that the Colonial Missionary Society owes its existence. The Rev. T. Binney, having been applied to to find some minister who would be willing to accompany some of the first settlers, after maturely considering the matter, conceived the idea of forming a Society, which should care not only for this particular case, but for the colonies generally. The want of some such organization, that might be appealed to when ministers were required for any of the British colonial dependencies, had long been felt. The suggestion, therefore, that such an organization should be at once originated, met with a cordial response; and the Colonial Missionary Society was formed in May, 1836. It was not till a year after the Society was instituted, that a minister was found for the South Australian enterprise. The

way

It is difficult, not to say impossible, for us, with all the assistance which English zeal and liberality afford, even to imagine the obstacles which lie in the of Christian effort in a newly established colony. Perhaps no minister, in the entire history of colonial missions, had to endure greater privations, or to struggle with more formidable difficulties than Mr. Stow. Two years after landing on the Australian shores, he wrote with much feeling, but with no despondency: My field of labour," he said, "is widening. Villages are beginning to be formed in the country, which will call for help. The only place we have as yet had for worship in Adelaide, is the one which I helped to build with my own hands. Since my last statement respecting it, I have boarded in the sides, which previously had only canvas. It is, for its kind, a tolerable place, holding 200-could we but persuade 200 to enter." Such was the commencement of this greatly beloved brother's labours. What a glorious contrast did he live to witness! Ere he was gathered to his rest and reward, he could look around the land of his adoption and number nearly thirty churches, sustaining their pastors without ab extra assistance! The greater part of these were founded by the instrumentality of Mr. Stow. On the occasion of his decease, the Committee

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recorded the estimate in which he was held by them, in a suitable resolution, in which the following sentence occurs: They remember with a mournful satisfaction, the privations he endured and the toils he underwent at the commencement of his mission; and they bless God for the abundant success with which his efforts were ultimately crowned. His character and capabilities recommended him to their confidence at first; and his prudence, wisdom, activity, and zeal, secured its continuance to the end. Through his instrumentality many churches were established, and many ministers introduced to spheres of usefulness; while, by his able advocacy of the distinctive principle of evangelical Nonconformity - the dependence of religion on Christian willinghood he was enabled, in combination with sympathizing associates, to secure its separation, in South Australia, from every form of State-aid.'

As an expression of the affectionate remembrance still cherished in Adelaide for their departed friend, an effort has been initiated by his congregation and his fellow-citizens, to erect a " Memorial Chapel," which will proclaim to future generations by whose unwearied labours evangelical Congregationalism was introduced to the colony. To assist this interesting and appropriate undertaking, Mr. Binney has raised by contributions from friends in England, a thousand pounds, and it may be hoped before the end of the present year the work will be commenced. It is gratifying to trace the progress made from the small wooden structure raised at the beginning, which Mr. Stow personally helped to erect, to the plain chapel in Freeman-street, in which he officiated until laid aside by increasing infirmity, to the larger building now contemplated, which will exhibit architectural pretensions in accordance with the growing prosperity of the city.

In addition to the Freeman Street church, to which the Rev. C. W. Evan, B.A., had been associated, first, as copastor with Mr. Stow, and subsequently