meeting was held, and though the rain descended in torrents, we were greatly encouraged by 160 being present. Part of the trays being supplied gratis, we raised £6 13s. 9d. A splendid Christmas tree was also furnished by four of our excellent ladies, viz., Mrs. and Miss Robinson, Miss Goodwin, and Miss Spooner, being beautifully lighted with gas, gratis, by Mr. Byall. The profits of the tree were £5, leaving a number of articles on hand. In 1857, the school-rooms were much improved. The stone steps being very inconvenient in wet weather, were taken down and put up inside the lower room. This room being damp, we put down a boarded floor. It is now seated round, with backs to the wall, and is as comfortable as any room need to be. Through the liberality of friends and neighbours, the cost of all these improvements is paid, and leaves a balance in hand of £4 16s. 9d. towards painting the school-rooms, which is intended to be done before our school sermons on Easter Sunday. It is with much pleasure I add, that since our re-opening services God has been greatly reviving his work among us. The Word is attended with power. Our prayer-meetings and class-meetings are seasons of much refreshing; professors are quickened, backsliders reclaimed, sinners converted, believers made happy; some even of the oldest members are constrained to say, "We never saw it on this fashion." To God be all the glory. We look upon the past with gratitude, and to the future with hope. May the divine blessing rest upon us still more abundantly! G. R.

GENEROUS GIFT OF LAND FOR A NEW CHAPEL IN RIPON.-My Dear Sir, -You, and the numerous readers of the Magazine, will be glad to learn that we have at last secured land in Ripon for a new chapel. It has been purchased by our excellent friend H. Kearsley, Esq., for this purpose, and he has presented it as a gift to us on which to erect both a chapel and a school. The value of it is £200. new chapel in this city is essential, not only to our welfare, but to our very existence in this locality. It has been the object of desire and the subject of conversation for the last twenty years; but every effort so far has failed. Now, however, we have got land for both chapel and school in one of the best

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parts of the city, and our aim will be to build both, and leave them free from debt. Steps are already taken to accomplish this. Many are ever ready to boast of their Connexional attachment, and to talk of "their beloved Connexion." They can now evince their Connexional attachment and zeal by sending us a subscription, which will be most thankfully received. You may hear again from us shortly. Until then, I am yours affectionately, T. W. RIDLEY.

BIRMINGHAM.-In August last, 1858, we opened a very commodious room in Icknield Port-road, for the better accommodation of our Clark-street society. The room which, until the above time, we had occupied, was very small and inconvenient, and would not contain more than about forty or fifty persons; it was also very unpleasantly situated, and there was no prospect of our ever being able to raise there a thriving church. The place we now occupy is the second story of a new factory: it measures 52 by 30 feet, will seat about 300 persons, and has been fitted up for a preaching room and Sabbath school, at a cost of near £30, almost entirely by the few friends who compose our society at that place, all of whom are amongst the industrious poor.

Since the opening services our society has doubled the Sabbath-school is threefold what it was previously-and the congregation averages on the Sabbath evenings more than 200 adults.

A little while ago a piece of land, very eligibly situated, was secured in the above locality, on which to build a chapel and Sabbath-school, donations towards which were obtained amounting to £50. The Unett-street Ladies' Sewing Meeting also engaged to furnish a stall of articles and goods for sale to the amount of £40 or £50 more. That has been done, and it realized £45. Thus nearly £100 has been raised towards the purchase of the land, but more is yet wanting before the land is free.

In the meantime one of our Unettstreet friends has completed the purchase of the land, and holds it in behalf of the Connexion until the friends are able to pay the remainder of the purchase money.

Such is our present state as it respects the above society. The prospect

is encouraging, and our cause in that neighbourhood is succeeding.

The land we have secured is nearly in the midst of a population consisting of (at the lowest calculation) about 10,000 to 15,000, amongst whom there is only one place of worship besides our own. Here, then, is a fine field for a home mission. Our friends at the above place, and in the town, are not able at present to do more towards paying for the land or building a school, &c. But unless something more be done in the above locality by the Connexion than can possibly be done by our small interest now opening there, and that very soon, the ground will be occupied by others. It is no small advantage in such cases to precede others. We are already there, with the nucleus of a good cause. The groundwork is laid, but we cannot do more without the help of the Connexion or of the Missionary Committee. Should the Missionary Committee favourably entertain this subject, take the entire charge of it, and station a missionary there, a respectable and flourishing church would speedily be established, and the New Connexion would thus take its proper position amongst the other communities in the midland metropolis. The present seems to be the best, indeed the only opportunity, for some time to come, for the establishment of a prosperous home mission in this large and populous town. IOTA.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF A CHAPEL AT CROOK.-On Tuesday, March 8th, the foundation-stone of a new chapel was laid at Crook by Joseph Love, Esq., of Willington Hall. The site of the intended building is in the open space, termed the Marketplace, though in the strict acceptation of the term, Crook has not yet arrived at the dignity of having a market of its own. Ample space, however, has been reserved for market accommodation, which may soon be needed should Crook continue to advance at the same rate of progress it has done during the last few years. The chapel has been designed by Gibson Kyle, Esq., architect, of Durham, and, judging from the plans exhibited on the ground, will, when completed, be a very neat and elegant structure. A large number of people assembled to witness the ceremony of the stone-laying. The sun shone brightly at the commencement,

but before the conclusion of the proceedings a pelting snowstorm came on. The numerous assemblage, however, stood out bravely against this attack of the elements, and scarce a single person left the spot until the whole formalities had been gone through.

The proceedings were conducted by the Rev. J. Stokoe, of Durham. After a hymn had been sung, the Rev. W. Dunkerley read the 84th Psalm, and offered up an appropriate prayer.

Mr. Kellett then read a parchment document, containing the date on which the foundation-stone was laid, the names of the gentlemen by whom the ceremony was performed, the names of the trustees, and other matters. This document, with a number of silver coins, was placed in a glass bottle, and the bottle, after being hermetically sealed, was deposited in a cavity of the stone. Mr. Kellett afterwards presented Mr. Love with a beautiful silver trowel, and in doing so he remarked that the trustees of the new chapel desired to express the very great obligations they felt themselves to be under to Mr. Love, for having come forward so nobly and so generously to assist them in building a house for the worship of Almighty God. Mr. Love limited his benevolence to no sect or party; but he was ready at all times to assist in any undertaking which had for its object the promotion of morality and the diffusion of the religion of Christ. He trusted that the trowel he had now the honour of presenting to him might be cherished by Mr. Love's successors as another memorial of the benevolent enterprises in which he had taken part. He believed he expressed the sentiments of every one present when he earnestly prayed that Mr. Love might long live to carry on his career of public usefulness, and, when he had fulfilled his mission in this world, might he be succeeded by others of similar spirit and liberality.

Mr. Love then accepted the trowel, and proceeded to lay the stone with the usual formalities. He afterwards addressed the assemblage to the following effect:-My Christian friends, we have met to-day to lay the foundation-stone of a house to be reared to the worship of the only true God. In this act we are influenced by the true love of God. It is Christ's love which constraineth us to acts of benevolence, the manifestation whereof is a proof of our love to Him and of our growth in grace. Man's

happiness is closely connected with God's glory, for that which best promotes the cause of God best promotes the happiness of man. I trust that the house of prayer we are about to erect upon this site may prove the birth-place of many souls. I trust that, when this house of prayer shall have been completed, a full, free, and universal salvation will be preached within its walls. The religion of Christ is able to supply the wants of man, whatever those wants may be; and the treasures of the Gospel will here be freely offered to all, without money and without price. The doctrine of a full salvation will be preached to the poor sinner as well as to the saint, to the poor condemned criminal as well as to the justified child of God. It is one of the great blessings of our land that the poor have the Gospel preached to them. There is no

power which can exalt a man equal to the power of the religion of Christ; and the more man resembles God in His benevolence and loving-kindness, the greater will be his prospect of eternal salvation.

The Rev. J. Stokoe next addressed the assembly. He said :-Having witnessed the interesting ceremony of laying the foundation-stone of a new chapel in this multiplying and prosperous place, it is but natural you should make a few inquiries respecting those who are destined to occupy it, and worship within its walls. What is the name they bear? What is the history they boast? What the doctrines they preach, and the discipline they administer? You have a perfect right to put these questions, and we are not ashamed to answer them. The owl among birds, and the wrong-doer among men, hate the light; but the liberty-lover and truthdoer, like the eagle, regale and revel in the light. We, then, have no secret to keep, no inner and outer circle separating the few from the many, and making revelations to the one which we fear to make to the other. No, we have learned to receive and reverence the Master's precept, "What I tell you in secret, that publish ye upon the housetops." Perhaps in our name, "Methodist New Connexion," we have not been particularly felicitous. "New," in religion, is always regarded as a suspicious word, and in Methodism it is without further thought applied to the last sect which may have seceded from the old or original body. We are therefore liable to the suspicion, among those

who know us not, of heterodoxy in belief, and immaturity in experience. But our name in this respect is not an index to our character and history. Our community started into life four years ere this century began its eventful career. Communities do not reach the fulness and the force of matured development so soon as individuals, or by this time, having reached threescore years and three, we should have seen our best days, and borne evidence of decrepitude and decay. But it is not so; we are yet in childhood, and, God speeding us, a bright and brilliant career lies before us. The name "Methodist New Connexion" is not without significance. It shows that our forefathers, while they determined to separate themselves from what they regarded as a Methodist hierarchy, still clung tenaciously to that practical form of vital religion known as Methodism. Let it be known that we, their descendants, hold to the precious ordinances, and exult in the rich experiences, of the early Methodists. I now direct attention to our history. Thank God! we have a history; and history is essential to the sobriety, the solidity, and the stability of a people. This is an age of great discoveries and wondrous inventions; but one thing is above the ken and the achievements of the age: we have not yet learned to "put old heads upon young shoulders." Sound experience is the gift of lengthened life, and stability is the product of history. Our Transatlantic kinsfolk are clever and courageous, enthusiastic and enterprising, but "length of days" will have to "speak" to them upon subjects which learned men and learned books never touch, and a "multitude of years" will have to teach a wisdom which neither science nor philosophy reveals. And so of a religious community; it may possess talent, truth, zeal, energy, and enterprise, but age is needed to test its principles, and give stability to its institutions.

What are the leading incidents of our history? We owe our origin to a man, though not to him as a man, but as the representative and embodiment of great principles. The death of Mr. Wesley, in the spring of 1791, while a loss to the world and a blow to Christendom, was a heavy stroke to Methodism. He had blessed its birth and nursed its infancy, and when, therefore, he was gone, what was to become of the power he had wielded? Were Dr. Coke

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or Mr. Mather, trusty and tried friends of his, to enter his place, and exercise his power, repeating in Methodism the practice of ancient Sparta, where two kings reigned? Were the preachers as a whole to be constituted the governors of Methodism, superintendents becoming bishops, and districts taking the rank of bishoprics? Or were preachers and people to be fairly represented in Conference, and, like the centripetal and centrifugal forces in nature, keep up by combined action the unity, the symmetry, and the beauty of the whole system? Moreover, there was a question started as to practice as well as power. would be tedious and out of place for me to detail the events of this Methodistical controversy; suffice it to say that Alexander Kilham presented himself as the champion of the liberal side. He held and advocated essentially two principles. First, he was a Dissenter, and claimed for his church and its ministers all the rights, and privileges, and functions of any church or ministry. In the second place, he contended that the Church, thus independent of State control, should govern itself, and not be governed by a part of itself; that ministers were but a part of it, and that ministers and people, representatives of the whole church, should govern the whole. But these principles were far in advance of the times, at least so far as Methodists were concerned, and their advocacy was associated with obloquy. Mr. Kilham was deserted by influential ministers, who at first encouraged him in his principles. He was censured by the Conference of 1792, and expelled at the Conference of 1796. Like most leaders of a great movement, Mr. Kilham has been sadly misrepresented. What he contended for was an ecclesiastical freedom for the man that would correspond with the spiritual freedom which Christ has given to the Christian. Sure I am that in ages to come Methodists will place Kilham second only to Wesley, and, while they thank God for the father, they will embalm the memory of the reformer of Methodism. What remains of our history may be condensed into a few sentences. In 1798, a year after the formation of the body, they consisted of but seven preachers, and 5,037 members. Besides the ordinary difficulties which impede the extension and establishment of a new denomination, there were special ones in this case.

First, the premature death of the founder. Kilham sickened and died Dec. 20, 1798, two and a half years after his expulsion, and a year and a half after the establishment of the Connexion. He was reputed to have died by a judgment from Heaven, and the Kilhamites were stigmatized as Jacobins. Then the nature of their secession led the members too much into ecclesiastical disputation, and took off the mind and heart proportionally from spiritual things. Still, notwithstanding, the Connexion had in 1823 doubled its numbers, and in 1840 it had quadrupled them. But in 1841 a fiery trial awaited us. A minister of great talent and persuasive speech became unsound in the faith; and, as we have ever contended for'a liberal discipline, God now called us to the test of orthodox doctrine. He was expelled, and some thousands, who afterwards discovered their error, forsook the church of their adoption, and reduced our numbers very considerably. We have begun to recover the ground we then lost, for in England at the last Conference we numbered 20,351; in Canada, where our mission was opened in 1841, 4,546; and in Ireland, 503. In all, we have 25,400 members, 114 cir. cuit preachers, and 63 missionaries. We have also close upon 56,000 Sunday scholars, and 9,000 teachers. This brief sketch of our history shows it to be one of fire, and perhaps its emblem may be found in the bush which Moses saw on the precipitous heights of Horeb: "it burnt, but was not consumed."

I will next advert to our doctrines and discipline. A good church, as it appears to me, is possessed of three things,-viz., a good creed, a good constitution, and a good character. Creeds reduce to system the scattered truths of revealed religion, and do for us in the field of revelation what the botanist does among plants, or the astronomer among the stars. What is our creed? In essence it is the Bible; in form, what is called Arminian, not Calvinistic. We dissent from Wesleyan polity, not from Wesleyan doctrine. As to our constitution, perhaps there are no better words to express the principles we uphold than those we have so often heard repeated by our versatile friends on the other side of the British Channel-"Liberty, fraternity, equality." Liberty-the right of every member of the church to a voice and vote in the

formation of the laws which he is to obey, in the election of the officers who are to execute them and represent him, and in the selection of ministers under whose ministrations he is to sit and flourish. Fraternity-brotherhood; the recognition of the great truth that, however varied our gifts, our acquisitions, our circumstances, in Christ we are but one, having one great Father, God; one great Saviour, Christ, our elder brother; and one great and priceless home, Heaven. Equality-not the miserable subterfuge that would level all, and do away with whatever is peculiar in the mental calibre, the social position, or the circumstantial ability of each member, but that equality which makes all souls equal in the sight of God. The New Connexion has such a polity. The franchise extends to every member of the ecclesiastical family. Its officers are not self-elected or nominated by an aristocratical clique, or ministerial prerogative, but freely chosen by those they serve. A good character-the crown and climax of a true church-is expressed in the word godliness. The church is to be a portrait-a mirror of God. The church is not God incarnated, but enshrined. As the inland lake reflects the bright blue sky, so the church is to reflect God's lovely character to all the world.

In conclusion, allow me to say a few words respecting our position and prospects. Our ministers, many of whom have long enjoyed considerable fame as men of high talent and popular oratory, are diving more thoroughly into their Master's spirit. Our members perceive somewhat clearly that the crowning excellency of our church is not in her polity, however reasonable, nor in her theology, however Scriptural, but in the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. Our rich men, headed by our devoted friend Joseph Love, Esq., are making princely gifts to our institutions, and our poor members are offering their fervent supplications. Uneasiness is felt that we have not more Home Mission stations in populous towns in England; that, amongst our colonies, Canada alone has our agents; and that, while India is our possession, and Africa is opened to its very core, and China and Japan are guaranteed to us by solemn treaty for the transaction of commerce and the spread of Christianity, we have not one solitary missionary in the heathen world. These facts stimulate the belief that the day

of our comparative ease is over, and the day of noble enterprise has arrived. Yes, I believe a spirit is at work within us like that which moved Samson and stirred Paul, and that ere long, Samson-like, we shall rise to scatter God's enemies, and Paul-like, fly from continent to continent, and island to island, to carry Christ's Gospel to the world. Our liberal polity, our Methodistic spirit, our Saviour, and our God, demand this at our hands. Men of Israel! descendants of a noble race, pioneers of a better age, and heirs of a celestial estate, up and to work! Fight your way upward through Alpine heights, and onward to millennial victories, and if in the struggle you fall, fall like

A youth who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner, with the strange device-
Excelsior!

Mr. Stokoe's address terminated the proceedings in connection with the stone-laying.

A very large party afterwards partook of tea in the hall of the Mechanics' Institute. The room was far too limited in its dimensions to accommodate the whole of the company at one time, and a considerable period elapsed before all who had obtained tickets could be supplied with the needful refreshments. Subsequently a public meeting was held in the Primitive Methodist chapel, which was densely crowded. Joseph Love, Esq., presided, and, in a neat and practical speech, introduced the proceedings of the meeting. The Rev. C. C. McKechnie was the first speaker, and gave utterance to many catholic thoughts in choice language and an earnest spirit. He was followed by the Rev. W. Dunkerley, who warmly urged upon the assembly the duty of individual efforts to secure the pros-perity of God's cause and the salvation of their neighbours. After him the Rev. W. Atkinson delivered an earnest practical address; and then gave place to the Rev. Wm. Cooke, of London, whose speech was one of thrilling interest and power. They had all, he said, lived long enough to know that Love (referring to the worthy chairman's name) was a powerful magnet, and especially was it so, in his case. It seldom called but he felt the attraction was so strong as to be incapable of resisting, and so he had come amongst them that evening at the solicitation of Love. Behold, how good and how