lay on the ice. The night was dark. His horse missed the path, and soon horse and driver were whelmed beneath the gurgling flood. After three days' search the body was found, and, amid the tears of affectionate friends, consigned to its final resting-place, in this city. He was twentyseven years of age: a brother having good working talents, which were heartily devoted to the service of his Master. This occurred about the end of January.

The Rev. David Gibbs, A.M., was a native of Scotland, a son of the late Rev. Joseph Gibbs, of Banff, who emigrated with his family to Canada, in 1829. David was then a boy. In youth the God of his fathers remembered him in mercy, and through a somewhat protracted and severe "law work” brought him to the feet of a crucified Saviour in penitence and faith. A year or more afterwards he entered Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where, after a four years' course he graduated. It is an old and highly respectable institution, with a good corps of professors. Our young friend gained their esteem, and completed his curriculum with honour. For his theological training he went to Andover, where he spent three years in successful study. With intellectual powers of a high order, and well furnished with materials for his work, he forsook more attractive openings in the United States to cast in his lot among us. Seven years ago he commenced his labours as a Missionary of the Colonial Missionary Society, and at Russeltown and English River began and carried forward a good work. Abhorring all clap-trap and the dictates of a temporizing expediency, he worked hard at the foundation, and laid it well. The habit of his mind was to think of the ultimate, as well as at the present bearing of any course of action. He proved a large-minded, zealous, devoted Missionary. In addition to his enlightened teaching, his people enjoyed the advantage of his scientific attainments, made popular for their instruction, and adapted to the every-day affairs of life. Three years since he was invited to a more important sphere, affording larger scope for his peculiar talents. Owing to various causes, the people at Granby were not a little divided and torn with dissensions. Our beloved friend entered among them with special advantages, as a Scotchman, with an American training. His influence was speedily felt, with healing power. An united people hailed his ministry, and encircled him with their attachments. With comprehensive views and public spirit he advanced the cause of education throughout the community, while he considerably elevated its character. He was a thorough Congregational Voluntary. His great influence upon the community was exerted faithfully during our recent parliamentary election on the side of Voluntaryism, and in opposition to the proposal to endow sectarian colleges of several denominations out of the funds intended for an unsectarian university. The successful candidate felt and acknowledged with gratitude his influence, and received from him instruction on those points upon which many of our statesmen in the province yet need illumination. Had it pleased God to spare him, he could not fail to have exercised a commanding influence in the future progress of our body in Canada. But the All-wise has determined that he should be removed. His illness was sudden, mysterious, fatal. Ten days since he breathed his last,

calmly testifying the efficacy of Sovereign grace, through the Divine Mediator, to sustain his soul in prospect of death; and, with unwavering confidence, committing his much-loved partner in life, and their four babes, to the "widow's Judge," and the "Father of the Fatherless." His body was laid beside those of his father and elder brother, who had both "served their generation by the will of God," in the faithful ministry of the word. We have no widow's fund, and the salaries of our Missionary pastors are too meagre to allow of life insurance: thus, this young widow and children are left entirely without provision for their support. "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth!" Mr. Gibbs was thirty-three years of age. As churches we are but weak, and death has enfeebled us. Yours faithfully,

Montreal, 28th March, 1848.

H. WILKES.

SACRAMENTAL SERVICES FOR
COLLEGE STUDENTS.

To the Editor of the Christian Witness. SIR,-In a recent conversation with a student in one of our metropolitan colleges, and a member of the same church as the writer, having remarked that I had not for a long time seen him, or another, his fellow-student, at the ordinance of the Lord's supper, he replied, their preaching engagements were so numerous that he had not enjoyed that privilege for nearly twelve months, and added that he had felt this a great privation.

Now, while our churches need the bread of life every Lord's day without intermission, it is still important that those who minister to them should not be thus deprived of one of the most valuable privileges of God's children. I therefore expressed my surprise that some arrangement had not hitherto been made, by which the students in all the colleges might meet together monthly, or quarterly, for the celebration of this ordinance. He said he had never, till then, heard such a proposition; but thought, as it pointed to a likely occasion of spiritual profit, that means should be taken to make it public.

As some such plan, of the kind alluded to, would be productive of great benefit, and of holy pleasure, both to the students and the churches, and, although but a secondary consideration, as the funds of the institutions might also be beneficially affected, I beg leave, through your pages, to offer the following suggestions.

That sacramental services should be held at stated intervals, to which the students in all our London colleges should be invited; and to add to its solemnity, that they should be held by special invitation successively with one or other of our larger churches, who would, doubtless, esteem the opportunity both an honour and a privilege. But as large numbers, and, consequently, considerable bustle might hinder the profitableness and solemnity of the service, it might be desirable that the communicants should be limited to the students with their tutors, to the members of the church where the service is held, and to those subscribers to the colleges who had applied for tickets of admission.

On all communion occasions a collection is made, and ought not on that occasion to be in

termitted; but as these services would come only at great intervals to each church, special opportunities would be afforded in succession for urging the paramount claims of our academical institutions upon those most likely to sustain them. The proceeds of the collections thus made might be divided at stated seasons among the colleges, in aid of their funds.

Another subject of conversation between us was the want which he had felt, in common with his fellow-students, during their course in the academy, of arrangements suitable, either through conversation or otherwise, for the promotion of their personal piety. This matter, I believe, is known and felt, and it requires a remedy. Towards this it might be a considerable advance if, on the special occasions contemplated by the foregoing suggestions, the students and ministers met early in the afternoon for prayer and personal conference, taking tea together in the vestry or school-room of the place of meeting.

Should these suggestions be deemed worthy of attention, they might be best brought into operation by the appointment of a committee, consisting of a tutor from each college, with three or four members of the Congregational Board, of which most or all the tutors form a part.

It need scarcely be added, that the service should be held on a week-evening, when the students would all be in town.

Hoping that a proposition, through which the importance of the rising ministry may be brought before our churches, and likely in any degree to promote the personal piety of the students and the prosperity of the various institutions, will be my excuse for thus intruding upon your pages, I remain, dear Sir, Yours, &c.

A CHURCH MEMBER.

POST-OFFICE: LORD'S DAY OBSERVANCE.

SIR,-The attention of your readers having been directed, in the last number, to the most prolific source of Sabbath desecration, viz., the traffic in intoxicating liquors, which, least of all, ought to be tolerated on the Lord's day, I beg to remind them of the fact, that from 30 to 40,000 persons are engaged on this day, in destroying a nutritious grain, and converting it into malt, and suggest whether, apart from other considerations, this should not lead to the disuse of malt liquors as a beverage-which the highest medical authority has pronounced to be totally unnecessary, but rather injurious to persons in ordinary health-by every friend to a better observance of the Lord's day.

The delivery of letters and newspapers on the Lord's day, is an evil which can by no means be justified; no small proportion of our fellowcountrymen, and women too, are thus debarred, in a great measure, from attending the services of the sanctuary, and the minds of a still larger number, unnecessarily occupied with the affairs of this life, at a season, of all others, the most undesirable. Necessity cannot be pleaded in justification thereof; the experience of the metropolis, Dublin, Glasgow, and Newcastle-onTyne, testify to the contrary; and since railways have so greatly expedited the transmission of

intelligence, an additional reason exists for the discontinuance of the practice. Let Christians in their several localities, by every means in their power, seek its attainment, and as a means to this end, request the non-delivery of their letters on the day, and refrain from posting them, so as to arrive on the same.

As it regards Sabbath railway travelling, how desirable that professing Christians, above all, Ministers of the gospel, avoid every appearance of countenancing it! The latter, however, in instances known to the writer, under the plea of supplying a neighbouring pulpit (although we are enjoined "not to do evil that good may come,") sanction it by their example. In vain do we protest against it, while such is the fact. This is a view of the subject which, I conceive, has been hitherto overlooked, but deserving the serious attention of the parties alluded to, who, though not prepared to justify the system, are thus accessory to its continuance. In conclusion, I have only to add, it would afford myself, and I doubt not, many of your readers, great pleasure in being favoured with your opinion, more especially on the two last subjects, to which I have, in some feeble measure, directed your attention, at a period when much is being said and written on the topic.

I am, &c.,

A FRIEND TO THE BETTER OBSERV-
ANCE OF THE LORD'S DAY.

Our entire sympathies are with the writer of the above letter. Postal operations belong to the same category with the late-hour system; the evil is great, wide-spread, and most oppressive; but the cure is in one view very easy, although in another most difficult. It is doubtless within the province of Parliament, if they choose to interfere; but we fear if no relief come till Parliament shall bring it, the present race of sufferers will have rested from their afflictions before the advent of deliverance. We have more hope of the People than of the Parliament; if once the entire public would cease to write, or at least to post a single letter on the Saturday, as a matter of course, the work would cease, and within the space of one short month the evil would be remedied. Empty mails would cease to run, and secular bustle and laborious tumult would everywhere give place to Sabbath solitude and silence. The practice is, at present, so irregular, and the irregularities themselves of such a nature, as to show that the thing is wholly unnecessary; at present it is clear that reason has as little to do with the thing as religion. Surely, if London, Dublin, and Glasgow, can do without a Sabbath delivery, the less significant cities, towns, and villages of the land need not fear destruction from its cessation. We commend the subject to the consideration of the friends of justice, humanity, and the Christian Sabbath.-ED.

THE CONGREGATIONAL LECTURES. SIR,-You are personally unknown to me, yet I may say through your invaluable editorship I am well acquainted with you. I subscribe for all your periodicals, and read regularly the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, CHRISTIAN PENNY, and BRITISH BANNER with real benefit. I believe I am the only one who gets the BRITISH BANNER in this neighbourhood. We have little or no Congregationalism in the county. I often think that it is a pity, for, with all due deference to Methodism, I am a true lover of Congregationalism. Previous attachments and habits are not easily thrown aside. Well, but I must proceed. I have kept silence until my heart is stirred within me. 66 'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Is the subject of cheap publications with you now defunct? or, amidst your onerous duties, can you not find time for a few strokes from your powerful pen on this theme? I did hope, when the subject was so calmly, largely, and ably discussed in last year's WITNESS, we should ere now have had a liberal response from the proprietors of the Congregational Lecture. I did hope, that ere now, I should have been the possessor of at least six volumes, at 38. per volume, of those invaluable lectures. however, mistaken. Is the subject entirely dropped? Are we to hear no more of it? Are the proprietors not anxious for the diffusion of Congregational literature? I have read several of the volumes with real pleasure, and much benefit, and am sorry to say their price only prevents me from purchasing them every one.

I am,

I utter, Sir, only the sentiments of many of my brethren in the ministry. Our salaries prevent us from making large accessions to our libraries, and when we do purchase, we should like to have what is of sterling worth. I should hope, that for the ministry's sake, we shall have a cheap edition" of the Congregational Lectures. I am satisfied from what I know, that they would be extensively read among our ministers, did their price permit. As they are, they belong only to the few, and those few do not need them so much as we do, being able to purchase more expensive works. Do, Sir, agitate the concern; a few words from you go a long way. It is a pity that many of those invaluable lectures are only in their first edition. Who is to blame? Not the lecturers-their fame has gone forth, and with avidity would their productions be read were they within reach. A "people's edition" is what we want. I should be happy to hear of this. It is to the Collinses and the Nelsons that the poorer classes are indebted to for cheap reading. What is to prevent the Congregational body from adopting the "Free Church Publication Scheme?" They have moral and intellectual influence. I am sure they have wealth in abundance. Let them go forward, and they will find the ministry, as well as a reading public, ready to help. Sir, bring the subject before the million-agitate, agitate, until our wishes are accomplished!

I am, Sir,

Yours affectionately,

A PRIMITIVE METHODIST MINISTER.

THERE are two classes of Nonconformist ministers, who differ very widely with respect to the policy it is proper to pursue towards the Church of England. The one class are all tenderness, charity, forbearance. They preach peace, patience, endurance, while they continue, by a holy example, to adorn the truth; and, by a clear and faithful proclamation of the gospel, they labour on, to build up the kingdom of God, explaining, when opportunities occur, the true nature of that kingdom, and honestly and boldly witnessing for what they consider the truth. They are deeply alive to the evils of the Established Church, which they consider to be one of the greatest obstructions to the progress of pure and undefiled religion. They long for the day which shall separate between the things which are Cæsar's and the things which are God's, and believe that the course they are pursuing is the best adapted to promote the object of their solicitude; that they who adopt aggressive measures are mistaken, and, in proportion as those measures are marked

by energy, and conducted on a large scale, they view them as matter for lamentation, judging them calculated less to promote than to obstruct the object in view. With this class of amiable men may be ranked the Rev. Stephen Morell, of Little Baddow, who has made the experiment in a manner which, we conceive, on the principle of passivity, could hardly be improved, and with what success, the following letter to the inhabitants of the parish of Little Baddow will show:

LETTER.

MY MUCH ESTEEMED FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS,-After a residence of nearly half a century among you and your fathers, with all peacefulness and goodwill, I feel that I have become one of yourselves, quite apart from our several religious associations. I am, therefore, induced to express those genuine dispositions of unfeigned esteem towards you all, without respect to person, or station, or religious denomination, which I have for many years delighted to nurture, and to assure you at once of my very earnest desire for your well-being in this life, and your perfect happiness in that which is to come. To promote these objects (if it might

be) in every dwelling, I would thankfully make any effort within my own capacity; and to further them in some humble measure is the design of the present letter.

It may be, that some of the views I am about to offer to your consideration are not in perfect accordance with your own, especially as to a few points of religion; yet I am fully convinced that they are not unworthy of your serious reflection and honest investigation. I trust that nothing will be written in language that can be deemed offensive, and I am quite certain that nothing will be said under the influence of unchristian bitterness of spirit.

In the course of the long period that has been graciously allotted to me in this place, I have had much intercourse with most of your fathers, and many of yourselves. One of my greatest enjoyments has been to know the state of the poor and necessitous, and to attempt their relief. So far as my own limited means would allow, it has been a great pleasure to employ them for the comfort of others, uninfluenced by religious distinctions. Nothing has ever been withholden from any one because he was a Churchman, nor anything given to any one because he was a Dissenter. I mention this (alas! it is but little good in active benevolence I could do) only for the purpose of explaining my own views of religious duty towards others. Unconscious of any want of Christian courtesy towards a single individual in the parish, I very gratefully acknowledge the kind and respectful treatment I have on the other hand received from all quarters.

This kindly mutual feeling I attribute not to myself alone: for Nonconformist ministers, as well as others, when they conduct themselves with Christian propriety and benevolence among their neighbours, naturally conciliate friendly dispositions within the circle of their connections; especially if no adverse feeling is awakened by gentlemen and ministers of the endowed church. Such peaceful intercourse it was my good fortune to enjoy for very many years.

But most unhappily, such is not the spirit of the present times. So painfully am I impressed with this unseemly change in the aspect of religious denominations, that it is, I freely acknowledge, my principal reason for addressing you. Every good man would greatly rejoice to seewhat all such have been long praying for-a great increase of the vital and practical influence of pure religion: but, through the efforts of some influential members of the English church, a newly-awakened zeal, which is condemned by many persons as not according to knowledge, has invaded our country in almost every district, and religion has become in some circles a question of party rather than of principle. Too many persons who ought to walk together in love, unimpaired by sectarian feeling, have assumed an attitude of opposition far beyond that of fair and honourable discussion, an attitude which is calculated to set man against his fellowman, and instead of attracting all to all, to create an alienation from each other, which real Christians feel to be not according to the gospel of Christ. This distressing fact is bitterly lamented, not more by Protestant Dissenters than by very many of the attached friends of the National Church. These truly excellent and Christian men would fain have stemmed the torrent which they apprehend, perhaps not without reason, must prove injurious, if not ruinous, to their

own communion. All Churchmen and Dissenters, who have studied carefully and devoutly the law of Christ, well know that religion, as taught by the Son of God, forbids all exclusiveness of action and intercourse among the members of the human family, except only a voluntary, conscientious, and determined separation from sinners.

The following are but a few out of very many facts authenticated and published:

"Many persons (especially among the poor and dependent) have been induced to relinquish, most unwillingly, their connection with Dissenters, and to attend the institutions of religious worship in the parish church. Some have been conquered by the apprehensions of suffering with which they were threatened; some have been ejected from their dwellings; and some have been nearly ruined in their secular business and temporal affairs, because they would not submit to the will of others in violation of their own conscience." It is exceedingly painful to utter one word of censure upon the conduct of the poor so disadvantageously situated; yet it is certain that those who allow themselves to be conquered by the calculations of gain and loss in matters of such vast moment, really suffer in the end yet greatly more than they gain, through the defect of sterling principle. Though we sincerely pity them and sympathize with them, our pity does not involve any justification.

"Many parents, again, have been induced to withdraw their children from the Sunday-schools of Dissenters, against their own feeling and wishes, and send them to those of the church." "Many children and youths have been constrained to remove from unsectarian British schools, where they were making excellent progress without the violation of any religious principle, to national schools, where Dissenters are necessarily excluded, unless their parents submit to the sacrifice of their own acknowledged principles."

"Many have been induced, either by the allurement of kind promises, or by the dread of ungenerous threatenings, to adopt measures in conformity with the will of others, which were directly opposed to their own unbiassed feelings and wishes. And all this in the reign not of Queen Mary, but of Queen Victoria."

It is probable, that many of you to whom this letter is respectfully addressed, have not seen the statement of facts above described; I have both read, and received by other information, these and much more. You may think it hardly possible that such transactions should have taken place; and it is, indeed, lamentable that the deeds which we all condemn, as having been perpetrated some ages ago under the profane authority of papal infallibility, should be witnessed now, under the sanction of men belonging to a community once celebrated among nations for its honest and unflinching Protestantism. You will not be surprised that, having observed symptoms of this wide-spreading calamity even in this village, I should earnestly recommend that a course, which has effected so much evil in some districts of our beloved country, be not further attempted here, and if attempted, never

allowed.

The discreditable nature, and the morally injurious tendency of such proceedings as those above stated, will be at once perceived, if we suppose them to be attempted by Christians of any other communion. Not to speak of the

Romish church, which with respect to these matters you all condemn, suppose some gentlemen of influence, or some minister of the Scottish church, or of the Wesleyan body, or of any other religious connection, were to avail himself of any influence he might possess for compassing such purposes among his neighbours of the English Episcopal church. Suppose he were to go from house to house, and assuming an air of religious importance, and speaking with a look and tone of significance not to be mistaken, should say by intimation,-" You must leave the church and come to our chapel to worship God; you shall not send your children to the church Sunday-school, let me see them regularly at the chapel school. I expect you, also, to remove them from the national day-school, and send them to the British school. As to all matters of religion, you must submit to my judgment, and follow my directions; if you will take my advice, there are many little comforts and privileges at my disposal which you shall enjoy; but if you will not, you must take the consequences." What reception would such a man meet with among his neighbours, so unjustly treated? Conscientiously attached to the church, they would consider themselves grossly insulted. One would say, I cannot, as an honest man, oblige you; one is my Master, even Christ. Another, perhaps, looking at him expressively, would say, Pray, sir, who are you? Most likely another would say, By what authority doest thou these things? He might, indeed, reply, very truly, I have the same authority for these proceedings as any other man, that is, in reality, NO AUTHORITY AT ALL. Of course you would have nothing to do with such a man. If he attempted to gain the countenance of any one class of Dissenters, as a body, he would not succeed. All would condemn his unworthy tyrannical conduct towards their neighbours. Now I really am unable to comprehend how a course of action, which, in one class of religious professors, would be justly branded as mean, disgraceful, and even wicked, can become dignified, and honourable, and praiseworthy in another. This is to me, I confess, a great mystery; and in vain do I look into the only volume of truth and authority given to man, for the explanation of it. There is, however, another remarkable class of publications, which, if their representations could be at all supported by divine, or even human reason, would appear to remove much of this difficulty. If you have read these works, which the best friends of the Established Church utterly reject, you have been told,-That if you worship God with the Dissenters you must perish, whereas, salvation is certain in the church; that if your children have been baptized by a Dissenting minister, it is all nothing, but if they enjoy the privilege of baptism in the church, administered by duly authorised and qualified persons, they become regenerate; that if you partake of the appointed ordinance of the Lord's Supper among the Dissenters, it cannot be profitable to you, but that if you join in the communion of the National Church, you will partake of the body and blood of Christ the Saviour; that you may enjoy all the benefits of the ministry of the gospel, by men ordained in regular succession from the apostles to the Christian priesthood, but that no other persons are qualified for such distinguished services, or capable of discharging them efficiently.

VOL. V.

Extraordinary as such language must appear to many of you living in this retired and sequestered spot, I have not in the above paragraph exaggerated, but far otherwise, the ideas entertained and carefully circulated by some of the ministers and other members of the Episcopal church of this country. It would seem hardly necessary to reply to what many persons of all denominations treat as palpable absurdities, were it not that, although no persons attempt to define or explain these pretensions, (for, in fact, nobody believes them on any common principle of evidence), they are very conveniently arranged among unexplainable mysteries. It is, indeed, gloriously true, that the works and ways of the only wise God are past finding out; but it surely cannot be that religious truth-the highest, the brightest, the loftiest effort of reason itself-the wisdom of God, should in any instance be the very opposite even of common sense. Who ever believed that the grace of God in the regeneration of fallen man, can be wrought into our very nature by the application of consecrated water, and then only by the hands of men humanly consecrated and qualified for the employment of it!! The sentiment itself, however, is disproved by fact; it is most distressingly seen every day, that multitudes who have enjoyed the advantage of baptism, most unexceptionably administered according to these views, are not regenerate; their speech and their deeds betray them. Many of the most learned and the most devout among the clergy of England have laboured to protect their own communion from the fatal consequences of such assumptions, by denouncing the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as unscriptural, and even as a delusive and most dangerous fiction.

This course of argument, drawn from the infallible testimony of the Holy Scriptures, and confirmed by the resistless testimony of daily and distressing facts, will apply to all other Christian privileges and duties, especially to the profitable administration and reception of the Lord's Supper. Faith and godliness must be personal. But those gentlemen, who would, in common with ourselves, I think justly, denounce any pretensions to such spiritual power in other religious denominations, consider themselves as an exception, and allege that they only possess the capacity of administering the holy ordinances of the Christian church with effect, and, therefore, alone have rightful authority to enforce them. This high advantage is enjoyed, they say, by virtue of their regular ordination to the office of the Christian priesthood, and the validity of their ordination consists in their unbroken succession to this grace from the apostles of our Lord. Now, even if it were possible to trace this succession back to any one of the apostles, it could effect nothing without also the spirit of the apostles. But supposing it otherwise, our acknowledged pastors could, also, if they attached any importance to it, trace their official religious pedigree to the same source. The ordination of Dissenting ministers has been regularly administered by their predecessors in succession from men of great learning and eminence, who had been confessedly ordained and esteemed as ministers, and some of them bishops of the English Protestant Church. Their subsequent relinquishment of that communion, could not, and cannot to this day, destroy the vitality of the grace once communicated to them, since, according to the

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