LAY-DELEGATES AND VISITORS.

The business of the meeting was preceded, as on other occasions, by a devotional service. The meeting sang the 389th hymn in the Congregational Hymn Book, commencing,

"Our God, who didst thy will unfold,

In wondrous modes to saints of old."

The Chairman then read the 4th chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, after which he offered prayer on behalf of the assembly.

Dr. LEIFCHILD then said, I am sure, my brethren, it is with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that I meet you on this occasion; thankful to see so many of you.

apparently in such healthy and pleasant circumstances, assembled, as I trust you are, under the influence of the spirit of devotion and of deep concern for the prosperity of the vital interests of real godliness. I hope you do not expect from me a lengthened address; it is not necessary. The object of our meeting you all well know. The measures which are to be brought before you have, I doubt not, been prepared with deliberative wisdom, and they will receive your calm and attentive consideration. I deem this meeting of the utmost importance to our body: I have never been absent from it at its annual return; I have not wished, indeed, to take part in its discussions, because I have felt my inadequacy to the task; absorbed in the affairs of a numerous congregation, I have not had leisure to attend the committee meetings of our denomination in this place, and I have, therefore, but a limited acquaintance with what is passing in it, and can take but very general views of the affairs of the country in reference to the interests of religion. The impressions, therefore, upon my mind, in relation to these objects, may be very defective and even erroneous. There are, however, one or two particulars of so broad and general a character, that they can escape the notice of no one, and if you will allow me, in introducing the business of the meeting, I will on those points make one or two observations. It is well known that we are met as the representatives of the Congregational body of dissenters. We have several friends here this morning, who, on some points, entertain, conscientiously, different views from ourselves, but I hope they will allow us to be free in expressing the sentiments and convictions of our own minds. We respect their conscientious convictions, and they will doubtless equally respect ours. It seems to me, my brethren, that we are met under peculiar and affecting circumstances. Since we last assembled here, a great change has taken place in the political movements of our country-a change in which, as a body, we are deeply concerned. The state church has exerted great influence in effecting these movements, and doubtless will control them in a great measure to its own ends. What those ends are is unhappily too apparent. There is no longer, a concealed, and suspected, and latent, but an open, avowed, and active determination to crush dissent in this country; to crush it in general, and particularly in our body, by which the ecclesiastical system is most directly opposed, and by which it is most endangered, standing, as we do, upon a purely scriptural basis, and having had some ability bestowed on some of us by the Author of all good, for the defence and maintenance of our principles. Everywhere and in all directions an outcry has been raised against us. The most arrogant assumptions and exclusive claims have been put forth to instruct the people, and administer the ordinances of religion. All connexion with us, in some places, even for purposes of general benevolence, has been renounced, and the petty arts of persecution have been employed to frighten and deter people from coming to our ranks. Our ministry has been calumniated and contemned in several places, to my own personal knowledge; and, as if intoxicated with their position, with the prejudices of the country in their favour, with the ignorance of the people to work upon, and with the government on their side, they seem to know no bounds to their triumph. I grieve to say-I grieve from my heart to say, that what are emphatically called the evangelical clergy, have, in a great measure, unhappily imbibed the same spirit; and those unworthy brethren, who have gone from our ranks to the other side, because they could not succeed among us, as if to justify their apostacy, and to prevent the sincerity of their present profession from being suspected, have been foremost in the ranks of those who oppose and vilify us. Now, in contemplating this state of things, it seems to me, that it would be most impolitic and unjust, that we should deal in mutual recriminations and censures, that one party should be blamed for having been too bold in the advocacy of their principles, and another for having been too tame. No; since this is the state of things, let us direct our views to the

best methods of meeting it as men of God, satisfied of the correctness of our principles, and confident of their ultimate success, so as not to faint with discouragement on the one hand, nor to be goaded, on the other, by dogmatism and persecution, into any spirit unbecoming the meekness and purity of Christian ministers and brethren. If we have entertained any of these feelings of recrimination, let us for ever lay them aside. Let there be among us no division; we can never afford, and especially not at the present time, to be at all divided. Most of you know much better than I do, how the divi sions of the Greeks retarded the conquest of Troy. No divisions. Let us resolve, brethren, more than ever, to be united in sympathy, in affection, in operation, in heart, and in hand. And if we have erred, as perhaps we have, by compromise, by keeping our distinctive principles in the back ground, and allowing those who have more of tradition and of prescription than of Scripture on their side, to vaunt themselves of their exclusive authority, though our object may indeed form some excuse for us, let us for ever lay aside this unworthy pusillanimity. Let us on every proper occasion assert the principles indelibly stamped on our own minds-that a state church is inconsistent with the spirituality of the kingdom of Christ; that coercion in any form or shape, in behalf of his truth, is alien from his mind and will; that Gospel worship is to be characterized by its simplicity and by its freedom from the admixture of all Jewish and Pagan rites; and that the Scriptures, as interpreted by themselves, are the sole, invariable, infallible, standard of faith and practice for all mankind. And, brethren, let us not forget, amidst all the obloquy and all the misrepresentation poured upon us, and seeking to overwhelm us, let us not forget the vantage ground on which we stand. Compare our denomination with any other; compare the harmony of sentiment amongst our ministers, and their independence of feeling and action, with the harmony and independence existing amongst the ministers of any other denomination; compare our agreement and concord without creeds and formularies with the extreme diversity of opinion among the hierarchy; consider the ability which God has bestowed on some of our ministers as writers, as lecturers, as competitors for prizes to be bestowed without respect to sect or party upon superior, intellectual, literary, and theological merit; and have we any reason to be ashamed? Think, brethren, of the feeling which is rising among us, in favour of a highly edu. cated ministry. Think of the advance which our principles,—whatever may become of us-think of the advance that our principles are making in the minds of intelligent and learned men, even against the prejudices of their habits and station; at the head of whom I might place an archbishop of the sister country. Think of the recogni tion of our principles in different parts of the world, so that as it seems to me-and I speak under correction, the theory of religious establishments was never in such peril as it is now in most of the courts of Europe. Think again of the accession made to the voluntary principle even by those who repudiate it; they take advantage of its efficiency, and, from the position they gain by it, assail us for its advocacy; reminding us of the individual who secretly climbed his neighbour's tree, to pelt him with its produce. Let us think of the trial which, as it seems to me, is about to bring to an issue the question, whether the word of God and the Spirit of God are sufficient for the conversion of the world, or whether we must beg the aid of creeds and councils, and pomp and power, to clothe them with efficacy. Remember, brethren, the first reformation, and anticipate the second and more complete one. Let us look upon the unsettlements and agitations now so universal, as but the precursors of a better state of things. As storis purify the atmosphere, and make the devastations of evening give way to the succeeding beauties of sunrise, so shall these conflicting opinions issue in the dawn of that millenium, when there shall be one Lord, and His name one over all the earth. I compare the condition of the church at this moment with that of Elijah, when he stood at the mouth of the cave, and the Lord passed by. I think that God

is coming out of his place to purify His church, the sound part by trial, the corrupt part by judgment, and I feel that we are in the circumstances of the prophet on that occasion. The Lord passed by; the first effect was a whirlwind; the next was an earthquake that rent the rocks and brake the mountains in pieces; and after the earthquake, a "still small voice," and the Lord was in the "still small voice;" and Elijah covered his face with his mantle, and bowed to the earth: it was the stillness of heaven brought down to our world. So when the moral whirlwind and earthquake have passed away, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and the Lord God will dwell among them, and wipe away all tears from all faces, and the rebuke of his people will he take away from off all the earth, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. I ought, perhaps, to have apologised for taking the liberty of thus addressing you. Perhaps I ought to have returned thanks for the honour you have done me in assigning to me this position, but I have rather peculiar notions about that honour. I believe the Committee, in inviting me to take this post, intended it as a mark of respect and esteem. As such, I appreciate it. But I cannot conceal from myself, that the particular reason which caused me to be selected, is one for which none of you will be disposed to envy me-age and infirmities -I thank God, at present, not rapidly growing ones. The Committee thought that I was becoming unfit for action; they did not wish to place me on the shelf, and therefore they put me in the chair. Seriously, brethren, if I have had less of excitement, I trust in God I have had more of principle in the discharge of my public duties. And if there be any pain-pardon me for adverting to my own personal feelings-if there be any pain, besides that of a domestic nature, in the thought of quitting the world, it is that I may not be permitted to share in that arduous struggle, for the cause of truth and righteousness, which has commenced, and of the successful and triumphant issue of which I have not the shadow of a shade of misgiving. I have a deep-rooted conviction in my mind, of the scriptural authority and foundation of those principles, in the maintenance of which our nonconformist fathers lingered out their lives in prison, or surrendered them on the scaffold-principles which, in common with you, my dear brethren, in common with every one of you belonging to our body, I hold dear to my heart, and which I would commend with my dying breath to all around. I thank you, brethren, for the patience and attention which you have manifested whilst listening to these prefatory remarks, and now ad rem.

The Rev. J. BLACKBURN said, Before my beloved colleague reads the annual report, it is my agreeable duty to inform you of the presence of various delegates and visitors in our assembly. We have with us two Prussian clergymen, beloved and honoured brethren in Christ, who are in this country on a very interesting embassy; Dr. Herman Ferdinand Uhden, and the Rev. N. Gerter, both of Berlin. Belonging to our own connexion, I have the happiness to introduce to you our honoured brother, the Rev. Dr. Russell, of Dundee, the representative of the Scottish Congregational Union, and an esteemed brother, the Rev. Samuel Roberts, of Llanbrynmair, the representative of the United Associations of North Wales. It gives me great pleasure to see once more amongst us a brother who has been engaged in a missionary enterprise on your behalf-the Rev. John Roaf, of Toronto, who appears as the representative of the Canada West Congregational Union; and we have also with us the Rev. J. Nisbet, a member of the Van Dieman's Land Congregational Union. Besides these brethren, who are officially deputed to us, you will have great pleasure, I am sure, in hearing that we have with us, as visitors, our stedfast friend Sir Culling Eardley Smith, Bart., and his much esteemed friend the Hon. W. Cowper, member of parliament for Hertford.

The Rev. A. WELLS said, The Welch connexion of Independents in the county of Monmouth desire to be affiliated with the Union. He proposed that they should be affectionately received.