ments." Then he described the characters, that neither the Old Conference Wesleyans, who are qualified for that ordinance-those the Primitive, nor the Reformers, have any who manifested repentance toward God and standing here. This part of Suffolk contains faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. After several Baptist Churches, and it certainly must closing this excellent discourse, he adminis- be admitted, that gospel truth has many tered the ordinance to four females and two faithful friends in this beautiful and richlymales, who went through it in a most be- productive part of our highly-favoured land. coming manner, all appearing to be deeply Near to the town of Saxmundham there are, impressed with the solemn and delightful at least, four long established baptist churches exercise of the evening. I can say, that for Aldringham, where Mr. Brand is pastor, and very many years I have not witnessed that whose ministry for some few years past has solemn ordinance administered so much to my been useful in gathering and holding up the own satisfaction, pleasure and profit. I truly cause. This old baptist chapel at Aldringham found it good to be there. From enquiry, 1 is not far from the little sea-port, Aldborough; find on Lord's-day evening, April 1st, if the and in these parts a lover of gospel truth, and Lord permit, there will be twelve members a seeker after health and retirement, might added to the church-which, no doubt, will spend a short time (with the Lord's blessing) be a very interesting opportunity. My heart very pleasantly indeed. Beside Aldringham, rejoices to think that the Lord appears to be there is Tunstall Church, where Mr. Pells now again shining upon that ancient church, labours; there is also Friston, where Mr. where the gospel has been preached so many Brown is pastor, and under whose ministry years, but of late years has been under a many have been brought in. Cransford has cloud; that the great Head of the church may likewise a baptist cause, where Mr. Baldwin shower down his choicest blessing upon that labours; but the town of Saxmundham, until little vineyard, and crown the labours of their 1854, was without any church strictly followesteemed pastor with abundant success, is the ing the practices of the Apostles, and abiding fervent prayer of A SINCERE FRIEND. by their doctrine. A GOOD FRIDAY AT KEDDINGTON. DEAR MR. EDITOR.-Some little time since it was proposed by one of our Brothers, and unanimously agreed to by the others, that we should try and get up a Public Tea Meeting, for the encouraging and strengthening the hands of our Pastor; and the Friends not only agreed in word, but in deed, for they cheerfully and liberally contributed the things necessary for the occasion; so by the arrival of the day, Good Friday, all things were ready. Yes, and our Pastor was made ready, and spoke in the afternoon to a chapel-full, Jesus, and the fellowship of his sufferings. After service, upwards of one hundred and thirty sat down to tea in the chapel, and were very much delighted. After public tea, service commenced by singing. Our Pastor prayed and spoke from-"If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." They were two solid, sound, and safe discourses, much blessed, we hope, to the comfort and strengthening of many. Perhaps to you London folks such things are not very interesting. But, bye the bye, we had two Friends, members in London with us, and truly real helps they were, in every sence of the word. May the Lord bless them an hundred-fold, we say to you. May the blessing of heaven rest upon you and your labours of love is the desire of your's sincerely, JNO. DILLISTONE. Keddington Chapel, April 9, 1855. THE NEW BAPTIST CAUSE AT SAXMUNDHAM, SUFFOLK. SAXMUNDHAM is a neat, commercial, and increasing town in Suffolk, nearly twenty miles beyond Ipswich, but a town without any particular Dissenting interest until within these few years past. It is most remarkable to me As it fell to my lot to be engaged in publicly recognising this new baptist interest on Good Friday, April 6, 1855, I shall, the Lord permitting, give a brief account of its rise, and prospect. My readers must not criticise, I am writing this as I ride home towards London by coach and rail; and, besides feeling fatigued from yesterday's labour, I am very unwell; but my small memorial of the Saxmundham church may be useful to some of its future friends, when those who were instrumental in its formation, have passed to their eternal home. The principle persons employed by the Lord in its commencement were Mr. James Smy, of Saxmundham; Mr. Barnes, (son of the late venerable deacon of the Tunstall church); Mr. William Day, the Baptist Minister; and a builder in the town. My conscience smites me here-it says, I ought by no means to omit the mention of good old Abraham Baker, who has lived in the dark town of Saxmundham for above sixty years; and for more than forty years has been praying to the Lord to let him see the gospel fairly planted, and faithfully preached, in Saxmundham. After the formation of the church, good old Abraham came and sat down beside me, and with tears of holy joy, he told me nearly all his heart. Dear old Abraham, I think I shall never forget the end of his tale-for after he told me of his first being cut down under deep convictions-how the Lord set his soul at liberty under a sermon preached by Thomas Row, now of Gransden; after he had spoken of the many years in which he had asked the Lord to bring the Gospel into the town, he said, "and when I saw this chapel built, and when Mr. James Wells was preaching the opening sermons here, I stood at the foot of the pulpit stairs, and seemed to be like good old Simeon when he said, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."" When Abraham Baker went to be baptised, his wife went with a lot of stones, to stone him, and she vowed that she would do it; but Mr. Sam. Studd, a farmer and a true friend to Zion, he | the word is a sword; it pierces and wounds stood by, and he was the instrument of keeping her from her wicked design; before the Lord took her out of this world, he brought her to his feet as a praying and hoping penitent. Abraham has also a son who is a soldier, a believer, and a preacher of Christ's gospel in the East Indies-I have some of his letters, and hope to make some extracts from them. But I must get back to Saxmundham, although the coach-horses are running from it as fast as they can. I left London early on Thursday morning as reluctantly as ever I left home in my life: the fact is, I am over-worked and very unwell; and I do increasingly feel that unless I can find a little quiet rest for a time, I shall not be able long to hold on. Through the mercy of God, I reached Saxmundham in safety. The next morning we all went to the new chapel, where we heard a sound discourse by Mr. Brand, of Aldringham. Friend B. is a plain, but truthful preacher of the Gospel; and my mind was very well entertained by his good discourse. In the afternoon, we proceeded to the solemn work of forming the Church, which we attended to in the following manner. After reading, singing, and prayer, I felt my heart stirred in me to call the attention of the people to the fact that in such deeply important matters as these, two things were absolutely necessary first, that we see and feel a divine warrant in the word of God and in our own souls; secondly, that we have suitable material, that is, a number of truly spiritual persons, whose faith, experience, character and position, unitedly testify that they are such as do live and fear God, and are the called according to his predestinating purpose. Such authority I certainly felt we had; such material the Lord had provided; a door of faith had been opened; a convenient house for worship had been built; a minister had been sent unto them; the way had been made plain; and therefore we might address ourselves to the work without fear. In endeavouring to shew the true character of the persons who are evidently qualified for church-membership, I spoke to the people from these words" And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." (1 Thess. i. 6.) From these words were noticed, first, "the great main cause of vital godliness in the soul;"-it arises from a true reception of the word, which, at first, is productive of much affliction: the word is a hammer; and by the Spirit's power it breaks open the hard and rocky heart; it breaks down the powers of darkness; and dethrones Satan and his destructive host; but, as the soul is all this time in darkness, it is frightened at the confusion, the noise, and the terrors which now fill the mind of the newly-awakened sinner, as David said-"The sorrows of death, and the sorrows of hell compassed me: the earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the hills-(all his false hopes and fleshly righteousness, and creature possessions, all moved; because the Lord, (by his law,) manifested his wrath: here is much affliction:the word is also said to be a fire; it purifies; burns up much that is carnal and sensual; the guilty conscience; penetrates and lays open the deep secrets of the human heart: the word is a candle; throwing a holy light into the real state of the fallen sinner, as he stands before God. By these operations, the soul is afflicted indeed. How emphatically doth the Psalmist say "I found trouble and sorrow." But the apostle adds-" With joy of the Holy Ghost." "After a night of affliction under the sentence of death, there comes the morning of joy. But what do we understand, what do we know, of this "joy of the Holy Ghost?" Whatever men may say by way of distinction-of the common and the saving operations of God the Holy Ghost, I will never believe that the blessed Spirit gives any sinner joy but such as have been truly and deeply convinced of their awful and their entire helpless condition as guilty and ruined transgressors in the sight of a holy God. To such smitten and solemnly humbled souls, (in the appointed time,) the Eternal, the Essential, the co-equal, and Divine CoмFORTER will give joy, by a soul-ravishing faith's view of the ever-adorable Person of our glorious GOD-MAN, the LORD JESUS CHRIST: which faith's view of the atoning blood, the holy and perfect obedience, the substitutionary sufferings and sacrifice, the resurrection power, the prevalent intercessions, and the celestial kingdom of a dear Redeemer, will take away guilt, and slavish fear; will crucify to the world, make us hate and loathe ourselves; unite us to the Lord, his truth and his people; in fact, it will give new eyes, and we shall see things as we never saw them before; new ears, to hear as we never heard before; and the thoughts and affections of the new man will be engaged as they never were before. The old Adam nature being still the same, will torment, and pain, and perplex us dreadfully; the fight between a living faith and an unholy flesh, will sometimes be terrific: nevertheless, the dear living Spirit will give us joy in Christ, in the gospel, in Zion, in the prospects of glory; and he will give us grace to become followers of the risen Saviour, and of the Saviour himself. I must not say more. A brief review of the remaining services will do to close up this imperfect notice of one of my happiest days in the gospel. After the afternoon discourse, the usual questions were asked. Brother William Day, the pastor, gave an interesting statement of the leadings of Providence in the commencement of this new cause: brother James Smy(who was much afflicted in body)-read the Articles of Faith; they were scripturally and experimentally sound, and sufficient, though comprised, in comparatively few words. It was a solemn scene when the right-hand of fellowship was given to all who were to form the church. The chapel and vestry were crowded with the friends who took tea. We closed the day by preaching from the words in Zechariah, "My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." We pray the Lord to give them the truth with peace, power, and prosperity; and keep the brethren of neighbouring churches from looking on them with a jealous eye. REVIEWS AND GENERAL NOTICES. "The Present Struggle: or, Calm Reflections and obtained their exclusion from the Church on the Retributive Character of War, the and how the French Government (ever Moral Government of God, and the Im-ready to serve the Pope) interposed to conprovement of Man's Condition under the Millennial Reign of Christ." By W. PALMER, Homerton. London: Houlston and Stoneman, 65, Paternoster Row. THE contents of this little book of 24 pages, by Mr. Palmer, of Homerton, scarcely comes within our province to notice; for if we once begin political discussion, where shall we stop? Yet we will say just a few words, as the subject is thus brought before us. The book answers very well to its titlepage; it shews war to be a judgment from God; and that it is a necessary evil, in so far as it is used to prevent greater evils, such as universal slavery, and destruction of all religious liberty. Mr. Palmer shews himself well, and very extensively, acquainted with history and geography; and in a masterly way lays before us the aggressive qualities of Russian despotism, the tremendous acquisitions it has made, its deep laid plans, and merciless execution of the same; and that its aggressions ought years ago to have been stopped by the British Government and power, and that we are now suffering as a nation for our political sins. Mr. Palmer then gives us a little hope and a little comfort from a prospect of the millenium. His views of the millenium are as consistent as any we have ever seen. He (Mr. Palmer) does not hold with the notion of the Saviour's local descent, and occupation locally of a throne on earth; but that the gospel will have universal dominion, and then shall not the nations learn war any more. We are truly glad that Mr. Palmer takes this gospel view of the thousand-years' reign of the gospel; and especially when so many are literalizing figurative language, and carnalizing spiritual things. Mr. Palmer has a mind evidently of no mean order. We should think he would make a most powerful Editor of a Nonconformist periodical. Indeed he has already, by his writings, shewn that he knows ten times more about the State Church than the State Church knows about itself; and he has in the book before us thrown out some heavy pieces of metal against this Ecclesiastical Sebastopol. But still Mr. Palmer has not taken that position in relation to the Russian war which we could have wished he had with his powerful pen have taken. We should like to have seen him shew that the war ought not to have taken place, and that so far from its being a righteous war, it originated in wrong on all sides-Turkish, English, French and Russian. We could have wished Mr. Palmer had shewn, from the Parliamentary Blue Books, that in 1847 the silver star, which from time immemorial had been placed over the altar in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, was all at once missing; and how that the Latins (Catholics) accused the Greeks of the theft, 1855. firm the exclusion of the Greeks; and how the Greeks sought, by the Russian Government, to the Czar, their own Pope, to be reinstated; and how, after years of negociation upon this matter, the Sultan promised the Russian Government so to do, and gave a firman to that effect; but the messenger, under French influence, had secret orders not to read the firman at Jerusalem; and that Russia, feeling herself trifled with by the Sultan, sent Prince Menschikoff in March, 1853, to Constantinople, to propose, not the right by the Greeks to the holy places only, but that the twelve millions of Greeks in the Sultan's dominions should have the same civil rights as other sects, not of the Mahommet religion; that Prince Menschikoff, while at Constantinople, drew up a note containing reasonable demands, which the Sultan, by the English Government, was advised not to sign. This was fatal error the first. A conference was then held at Vienna, when a note, the same in substance as the above, was presented to the Russian Government, and which the Russian Government accepted; but the Sultan, seeing it to be the same in substance which he had been advised not to sign, very naturally refused to sign this. Another note at Vienna was then drawn up, which the Sultan would accept, but which the Russian Government would not accept; and thus negociations came to an end, and the awful war began. The Turks were furious, the Russians fearless and tyrannical; the French Government, by claiming too much for the Sultan, had lighted the torch; the British Government had prevaricated, advising the Sultan to sign that to-day which yesterday it had advised him not to sign. Thus it appears all have sinned; and it is an awful truth that all have suffered. Truly, of our senators-at least, as far as we can see at present-it may be said, "He turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish." Isaiah xliv. 25. And that he "leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools." Job xii. 17. We have no doubt of the aggressive and tyrannical character of Russia, or of the awful darkness in which her people are enveloped; but are the people of the Turkish Empire a whit better off? We think not. Alas! "Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." And will the sword enlighten them? Alas! no; it only increases the barbarity, we, as a nation, are professing to destroy. War is in some cases, as Mr. Palmer says, a necessary evil, and has been in some cases used in defence of real freedom, but not very often. Mr. Palmer falls in with the general notion that Russia's object was the subjection to its iron grasp of all Europe; nor do we deny this. But then, we must remind Mr. Palmer F 3 of his own excellent remarks towards the close for prophecy, which employs enigmatical deof his book now before us-that there are vices for the purpose of presenting truth, as agencies of civilization and social improvement it were looming in a mist, to the eye of faith, at work, which will ultimately prove infinitely while it conceals the precise event forestronger than the sword. Will war help these shadowed from certain knowledge until the agencies? Will it not rather seriously im- proper period for its development. In this pede their working? And if this war had instance the enigma consists in substituting been avoided, as it ought to have been, we the Hebrew word Armageddon for the plain say to our senators, ye ought not to have name of the place Sebastopol. It deserves loosed from Crete; ye have run the State remark, that had St. John used the Greek vessel upon many rocks and quicksands; and word Sebastopol, this too might have equally many have already miserably perished. If hidden his meaning up to the time when the this war, we say, had been avoided, would Russians gained fraudulent possession of the not the agencies of which Mr. Palmer speaks Crimea, but no longer. The Tartar name of have more than counteracted Russian designs, the place was Aktiar. Dr. Clarke in his Travels, --and that not by meeting evil with evil, but published in 1810, alluding to this change in by overcoming evil with good? the designation of the city, says: 'We reached the great bay of Aktiar, upon which place the Russians, in the time of Cath. II. bestowed the fantastic name of Sebastopol.' At that time this new name was fantastic; but it may enhance our reverence for divine inspiration to reflect that not only was it foreseen that the place of gathering should ages after be called in human pride by a fantastic name, but that it should, in a short period, by the course of Providence, vindicate its title to be considered really illustrious. For what can be better entitled to such a term than that very place on which the eyes of the world are now fixed ?-the two greatest nations of Europe putting forth, and as yet vainly, their mighty resources to take it, and the immense empire of Russia so obstinately and beyond all calculation defending it. It is truly the illustrious city-the Sebastopol, the Armageddon, call it which we will. We believe there is generally too much stress laid upon the advantages to freedom resulting from war, and not stress enough laid upon the moral power of the Word of God. Revolutions favourable to freedom, which have been attributed to princes and governments, have more properly belonged to the moral power of the people, derived from enlightenment and the Word of God. Christian, be not an advocate for fire and sword, only under the direst necessity, for the defence of freedom and right. In the present war we do not believe that such a dire necessity did at the first exist; if such necessity came into existence, it was by the wisdom of governments failing them by the way. As Christians, let us pray for our Queen and country, and that our God would in mercy stop the savage progress of the demon of war; that he would make wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; that peace may bless a benighted world. "Is Sebastopol Armageddon?" THE Rev. D. Nihil, of Fitz., Salop, has favored us with a small pamphlet carrying the above striking question for its title. The author has thrown out some, to us, startling ideas-the following is one. Commentators, writing before the present war, have, I believe, generally drawn their explanation of the word Armageddon' from its first syllable Ar, signifying a mountain; but this has thrown no real light upon the text. There is another Hebrew word having the same sound (Ar), though formed from a different letter. This Ar signifies a city. Joining to it the word Mageddon, which in Hebrew signifies pre-eminent or illustrious, we get Armageddon,-the illustrious city. Now, Sebastopol is compounded of two Greek words, which together signify the same thing -the august or illustrious city. This, as far as I know, is, in substance, the discovery suggested by the present extraordinary siege. The coincidence is at least curious; but the point admits of further elucidation. "St. John wrote in Greek, and, if he had not in the passage under consideration forsaken the Greek for the Hebrew, that passage would have run thus in our English translation: And he gathered them together into a place called in the Greek tongue Sebastopol.' But this would have been too plain "Learned interpreters of prophecy (Mr. Elliot, for instance) some years ago brought down, from totally independent considerations, our present chronological position to the outpouring of the sixth vial. Under that vial the battle of Armageddon takes place; so that we ought now to be looking out for Armageddon; and if we ask where it is, Sebastopol marvellously answers the question." a literal fulfilment of Revelation xvi. 16, in The chief design of this pamphlet is to give the gathering of nations and armies against Sebastopol. The argument is well sustained. The pamphlet may be had of Houlston and Stoneman for two-pence. "A Reply to Dr. Cumming's Lectures on "The End of the World." AMONG other works pouring in upon us for review, we have one which we briefly refer to here, entitled as above-written by Mr. H. Bland; and published by Robert Stark, of Glasgow; and in London, by Ward and Co. This pamphlet contains the severest criticisms on the assumptions, assertions, and prophetic writings of Dr. Cumming that has yet appeared. In this work the Doctor's most glaring contradictions are plainly and powerfully set side by side. We must regret the mistakes the Doctor has made, but we are too far advanced in the month to say more now. The following extract is a sample of the author's style; and following upon the preceding extract, shews with what caution writers on prophecy should give their effusions | their plough-shares into swords, and their to the world. pruning-hooks into spears. "But though that will be the darkest part of the day, yet we must expect gloomy times till then, though with intermixed beams of light, wherein God will still be setting this over against that, to the end that men should find nothing after him. And thus God will chequer out the gospel-day, till that be fulfilled which is spoken by the prophet Isaiah, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.' And seeing the day shorteneth, and the shadows of the evening begin to be stretched out, let us expect no more days of tranquility and peace, but wars, and rumours of wars, nation lifting up sword against nation, and learning of war, the confused noise of battle, and garments rolled in blood; for the man upon the red horse is gone forth, to whom power is given to take peace from the earth; and nearer the evening still the darker. That which concerns us, is to be in a posture of humiliation and preparedness, for the reception of these dark dispensations. Here is the faith and patience of the saints." "Dr. Cumming says-'It is an ominous fact that the Greek name Sebastopol has precisely the same meaning as the Hebrew word Armageddon.' What does he infer from this ? Even if correct-which I doubt-will he venture to maintain the position that the warfare before Sebastopol is the event alluded to when the text says And they gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon? Will he maintain that the struggle at Armageddon is to be a physical one? or that Armageddon is the metaphoric or real name of a particular locality? If so, only let me understand what he means, and I will answer it; but to insinuate here, when he has previously been so dogmatic, is unworthy of an exponent of Prophecy. If he holds that Sebastopol is the Armageddon of the Apocalypse, why not say so at once, and shew how the Three Unclean Spirits (as solved by him in his Sketches) have caused the present gathering of the national armies there. If he does not hold this, why mystify the credulous by vague inuendo? I hold that as Armageddon is not figurative of a localityand that as the struggle will be a moral and spiritual one-therefore the mere historical incident of the Siege of Sebastopol is in no way connected with the Apocalyptic passage."« "Neither Night nor Day." ONE William Hooke, a preacher of the gospel at Dartmouth, delivered a comprehensive discourse in 1673, "On the Nature and Extent of the Gospel Day, reaching from the Destruction of the Old, to the Erection of the New Jerusalem." A reprint of this rather ancient, but, we think, interesting and faithful exposition, has just been issued by Houlston and Stoneman. We have neither time nor space to say more than we have read this discourse with much astonishment and pleaOld William Hooke was evidently a deep Bible student, and was favoured, we believe, with the anointings of the blessed Spirit. After going through the text Zechariah xiv. 6, 7-he comes to gather out from the doctrine some useful and practical remarks. The following appears to have been almost a prophetic sketch of the position of the gospel, and of the nations of the earth, at the present time. He says sure. "Scenes from the Life, Labours, and Travels of Paul, the Apostle. With Illustrations." The Library of Biblical Literature." THESE two volumes are published by Mr. William Freeman, of Fleet Street. They are instructive, interesting, and neat. The principal design of these volumes is to fetch out the most striking incidents in Scripture history-and in a popular and easy mode of writing-to attract the attention of thousands of readers. We There is, to us, a cold tameness about the writing of these volumes. should like them better if we could have found a little heavenly fire and some energetic Christian feeling dashing up and down amid the chronicles and curiosities herein so neatly Why should our gospel strung together. preachers and religious authors be such Real redelicate and dandy-like creatures? ligion is a mighty life from God-it is a resurrection power in the souls of all who really possess it its work is to break down all the barriers that stand in the way of God's glory-Christ's exaltation-the Holy Spirit's regeneration of the heart, and his revelation of a precious Saviour in the heart-its work is to select and to separate the vessels of "We are shewed, that the darkest time of mercy from the vessels of wrath; to baptise the gospel-day is yet to come. For that time them in the cleansing blood of Calvary's is to be expected in the evening, which is the cross, to clothe them in the perfect righteousdarkest part of all the day. Only this dark-ness of the inexpressibly blessed JESUS; to ness will not be (as I conceive) in respect of the withdrawing of the light of truth, but of the light of peace and tranquility: for at the evening of this day, men shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble, and darkness, and dimness of anguish. And this will immediately precede the conversion of the Jews, through the opposition of Turk and Pope. "For this will be the time when the kings of the earth, and of the whole world shall be gathered to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. At that time men shall beat unite them to the living family of God on earth, to meeten them for the presence and glory of God in heaven. This in few words is the work and design of that only religion which comes from the great I AM, and leads his ransomed ones into the possession of blessings which constitute them-not emperors of a fading and perishing throne--but kings and priests unto God, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. The religion of Christ is not a general, a universal, a mysterious something that every body may have, |