tain, said," Knowledge! what do we want to do with knowledge? We don't want knowledge in the pulpit," and afterwards seriously proposed to a minister that he might " get quit of his old sermons by selling them as waste paper for 1s. a cwt." Again, there may be others who think personal affliction the best instructor for ministers; like a lady who feelingly remarked, that "her minister never preached so well as when in trouble," forgetting that the people are often under similar circumstances the best hearers. We are, however, thankful to know, that a great majority of our people are unmindful of their minister's necessities, bodily and mental, from ignorance of the fact, or from not knowing a inethod by which they could contribute to his happiness and usefulness.

Many years ago, when visiting in a large town the family of one of the first ministers of that day, occupying a most respectable sphere, I was struck with the great plainness, not to say meanness, of the children's dresses. There were seven, of various ages, all to clothe, all to educate, out of the chapel income. I did not then know the expenses of a family, but have often thought since of the remark of the mother, who was a pattern for all ministers' wives:-" The ladies of the congregation perhaps think I should be hurt to receive some of their faded or old-fashioned clothing; but indeed I should be thankful if they were not so delicate towards my feelings." Since then I have been practically in the secret of the benefit derived by ministers' families who have recived from thoughtful donors presents in this way. I know a manufacturer who inquired of his minister's wife if she knew of any person in decent circumstances, who would be glad of some secondhand clothing, too good to give away at the door. It immediately occurred that a minister in a small country place, with a large family, would be a suitable recipient; and the whole spare wardrobe was, to the satisfaction of all parties, so disposed of.

Sacrificing private feeling to public utility, and leaving the enforcement of Scriptural motives in hands more appropriate, I remain, Mr. Editor,

Your obedient servant,

A PASTOR'S WIFE.

ORDINATIONS.

THE Rev. James Bedell, of Lancashire Independent College, was ordained pastor of the church meeting at Oldham-road Chapel, Manchester, on Tuesday, the 25th of March, 1851.

The Rev. T. L. Poore, of Salford, opened the service with reading and prayer; the Rev. R. Fletcher, of Manchester, delivered the Discourse on the Nature of a Christian Church; the Rev. J. Griffin, of Manchester,

proposed the questions, and the Rev. W. Alliott, of Bedford, the pastor of the young minister, offered the ordination-prayer; the Rev. Dr. Vaughan, President of Lancashire College, delivered the charge; the Rev. W. Parks, Professor Halley, and the Rev. E. Day, gave out the hymns; and the Rev. James Gwyther, of Manchester, closed the interesting and solemn service with prayer.

On the following Sunday evening, the Rev. Dr. Halley, of Manchester, delivered an appropriate sermon to the people.

There is something peculiarly interesting in the history of the church at Oldham-road Chapel.

A Sunday-school for children and adults was opened some years ago in the neighbourhood, and Mr. Bedell, assisted by some of his fellow-students at the college, undertook the management of it, and conducted a public service on the Sunday evening. The school rapidly increased, and the large room wa soon crowded at evening service. The numbe of services was then increased, and increased success followed. The entire management of the whole affair now rested with Mr. Bedell ; and, on leaving college, he devoted himself entirely to the work of nurturing and establishing the infant cause. After he had laboured for some time with increasing acceptance and success, the propriety of erecting a chapel suited to the wants of the neighbourhood became evident. Oldham-road Chapel was consequently built, and opened last October. The congregation continuing to increase in the new chapel, and Mr. Bedell's ministry proving highly useful, it appeared to the friends and ministers at Manchester especially interested in the undertaking, to be expedient that a church should be formed, and that the whole management of the interest should be confided to its trust. Accordingly, a church was formed on the 20th of March, consisting of from seventy to eighty members, who unanimously agreed to invite Mr. Bedell to become their pastor. A considerable increase to the number of the communicants is expected shortly. The schools are flourishing, and the teachers active, intelligent, united.

May the Lord bless this infant cause an hundred fold!

It is right to add, that, through the liberality of the friends at Manchester, the debt is all but liquidated.

Much is owing to the interest which the ministers of the town have taken in the rise of this new church, and especially to the energetic efforts on its behalf of the Rev. J. L. Poore, of Salford.

ON Wednesday, October 2, 1850, the Rev. Joseph Hoyle, B.A., of Airdale College, and the University of London, was ordained to the pastorate of the church and congregation

assembling in the Independent Chapel, Pickering. The morning service was commenced at half-past ten o'clock. The Rev. G. B. Kidd, of Scarborough, read suitable portions of Scripture, and engaged in prayer; the Rev. Professor Creak, M.A., of Airdale College, delivered the introductory discourse, on the nature and duties of a Christian Church; the Rev. J. C. Potter, of Whitby, proposed the usual questions, and received the confession of faith; the Rev. G. Hoyle, of Northowram, father of the young minister, offered the ordination prayer; and the Rev. Professor Scott, President of Airdale College, delivered an able charge to the young minister, from 2 Tim. ii. 15.

In the evening, the Rev. James Parsons, of York, preached an eloquent and impressive sermon to the people, from Malachi iii. 10 (the latter clause).

The Rev. Messrs. Croft, Mr. H.'s predecessor; Brewis, of Penrith; Jameson, of Kirby Moorside; and Thomas, of Rillington, were also present, and took part in the services.

On the preceding evening, a preparatory devotional service was held, at which the Rev. J. C. Potter presided, and several of the ministers engaged for the ordination took part.

The services throughout were attended by large and deeply attentive congregations.

THE ordination of the Rev. Henry Davies, late of Newport Pagnel College, took place at George-street Chapel, Ryde, Isle of Wight, February 12th, 1851. The service was commenced by the Rev. F. W. Meadows, of Gosport, reading the Scriptures, and prayer. Dr. Ferguson delivered the Introductory Disourse, in which he admirably set forth the nature and constitution of Christ's kingdom; Rev. C. Giles, of Newport, asked the usual questions, to which Mr. Davies satisfactorily replied; the ordination prayer was also offered by Mr. Giles, Rev. G. Smith, of Poplar (Mr. Davies' pastor) gave a most eloquent, faithful, and affectionately impressive charge, founded on 2 Tim. ii. 25: " Study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." A spirit of regard and Christian friendship was manifested throughout the delivery of the discourse. Rev. J. Bailey, of East Cowes, closed the solemnities of the occasion, which were listened to with deep attention.

NEW SCHOOL-ROOM, AND JUBILEE MEETING.

ON Thursday evening, the 6th February, a newly erected, large, and commodious schoolroom was opened in connexion with the Independent Chapel, Whiting-street, Bury St. Edmund's, when upwards of 200 persons of all denominations sat down to tea.

The room, which has been fitted up with all the apparatus necessary for carrying out the system of the British and Foreign School Society, and is also applied to the uses of the Sabbath School, was, on this occasion, most tastefully decorated with evergreens, mottoes, devices, &c.

Addresses were delivered by the Rev. Alfred Tyler, minister of the chapel; Rev. C. Elven (Baptist), Revs. J. Guenett and H. Coleman (Independents), Rev. R. Tabraham (Wesleyan), Mr. King, of Ovingdon, Mr. Portway, and Mr. George Portway, jun., the Secretary to the schools. A inost kind and Christian feeling pervaded the meeting.

During the evening, the children of the minister's singing-class afforded much gratification by the execution of several anthems, being accompanied by the Rev. A. Tyler on the pianoforte.

In the course of the proceedings, Mr. John Hunter (Treasurer to the Sabbath and Day Schools), who had been connected with them ever since their establishment in 1801, read a statement embodying a most interesting history of their progress from that period, and containing important instances of decided conversion and of happy deaths, as the result of the instructions they had been the means of affording.

The building, a handsome red-brick erection, stands on ground adjoining and belonging to the chapel, and cost the sum of £200, the whole of which was raised before its completion.

WELLINGTON, SOMERSET.

THE REV. James Le Couteur (late of Liscard, Cheshire) having accepted the cordial and unanimous invitation of the Church assembling at the Independent Chapel, to become their pastor, commenced his stated labours on the first Sabbath in April.

BEDFORD UNION.

THE Fifty-fifth Anniversary of the Beds. Union of Christians will be held at Bedford, on Wednesday, the 28th of May. The Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, M.A., has engaged to preach on the occasion.

SABBATH RAIN.

"IT is very bad for the health to sit in church with wet clothes and damp feet."

Well, it is. At the same time, Sabbath rain is not worse than week-day rain, although there is apparently a much greater terror of it. The following considerations may suit the case of some "fair-weather" churchgoers:

1. It is as bad for the minister as for the people, and yet he must be there. Through rain and snow he must go, dry if he can, but if not, he must go. His health is no better than that of the male members of his congregation, generally, usually not so good. And if the rain furnishes no excuse for his absence, it furnishes none for theirs. If you say it is his business to go, so it is theirs; there is one law for both, And,

2. A wedding, a concert, a party, a fair, seldom wait for the weather. They are never put off on account of the storm. I have noticed when people are excited, they rarely suffer from exposure. If there were a little more interest in church-going, a little more unction in the worshippers, would it not prove favourable to health?

3. Bad weather reduces a church congregation quite out of proportion to any other collection of people. Why, the other evening, a Thursday meeting was given up on account of the weather, no one but the minister and one lady coming (which was hardly enough to plead the promise and secure the blessing), and yet the minister met some twenty-five people that same evening assembled in a parlour, who seemed to be quite unconscious that it was raining! And how they ever got there on foot, without soiling their silk dresses or damping their feet, has been a mystery to him ever since. Here was a religious meeting completely collapsed, and a social party reduced only about twenty per cent., and all by the same storm. How is it that the rain is so much more terrible "hard by the synagogue," than it is about town? It is quite true that many "women and children" are precluded from attending church in storms. But verily, four or five hundred per cent. is too much to allow for shrinkage, in a common congregation. We should be made of sterner stuff. We should be less the sport of circumstances. Satan waits not for fair weather. He does his work in "thunder, lightning, and in rain," and we ought to be as busy as he. God has never said, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary, except when it storms."

THE ROMISH LAITY.

"BUT only let your laity once catch a glimpse of the glaring truth, that the tradition of your Church is a fiction-that she imposes that fiction upon them by a blasphemous invalidation of the written word of God-that the written word is all-sufficient, AS IT NEEDS MUST be-let them but once suspect this, and thence be led to diligently search the Scriptures, with prayer for the light which the Author alone can give-with the prayer of unwavering faith in the allavailing, only name, the name of "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"-let this but once take place, and they will spurn your superstitious altar, and rush to the True One-the final One-final by the voice of the Spirit-the cross of Calvary! To that, and to that only, will they thenceforward cling, "with all their hearts, and minds, and souls, and strength;" and remember your Church, only to look back upon her with mingled loathing and compassion-compassion, for the fatal delusion under which she, and those who yet cleave to her are labouring; and loathing, at the review of the merchandise which, once, she made of them!"-James Sheridan Knowles's Idol demolished by its own Priests.

CHINA.

MRS. LEGGE'S GIRLS' SCHOOL.

Account for the past Year.

Hong Kong, Jan. 28th, 1851. MY DEAREST FATHER,-It is just a year since I wrote you a little account of what we are beginning to do for the Chinese girls here; and as some friends seemed interested in that account I have determined, should my life be spared, to continue the same every year. There perhaps may not always be anything particularly interesting to communicate, but the fellowship of feeling between our dear friends and ourselves, will, I think, be useful.

The number of girls during the past year has been increased to fourteen; several of these additions are of little children; still, their progress during the past year, has been on the whole satisfactory. They can read words of four or five letters in English, and have made about the same degree of progress in Chinese. They have likewise learned a little sewing; and if you had but seen the dirty, squalid little creatures they were when they first came, you would allow that there is, at all events, a marked improvement in externals. We are going on slowly, yet, I

would hope, surely. Sometimes I feel discouraged by the ignorance and utter want of thought of these poor children; but what can we expect? It really is wonderful, considering the homes they have, that they are as they

are.

For some months past, Cilian, the daughter of our good friend, A-Soo, the colporteur, has been at home, partly in order to prepare for marriage, which is to take place to-morrow (in the Mission House) with A-Sow, whom you will remember as one of the three youths he took to England. She is a fine young girl of about sixteen, quite a beauty, according to Chinese notions. I do trust that God may unite their hearts to fear and love him, and that they may be long useful among their own people.

On the the 24th December, my dear husband examined the girls as to their progress during the past year, and he was pleased with them. They repeated (the elder ones I mean) passages of Scripture, Watts's Second Catechism, and a good many pages of Chinese and English Vocabulary, being cross-questioned thereon. The little ones read and spelt a little, with the exception of two, whom, I fear, I shall find it no very easy matter to teach at all.

A few prizes, at a trifling cost, were distributed among them, to their great delight.

Thus, my dear father, I have endeavoured to tell you what we have been doing during the past year. A-Sha continues to be a great comfort to me; though I fear, before long, I shall lose her aid, as she, too, is engaged to be married to one of our Christian boys. Next in interest is a little girl, who has long been in the school, A-Mueg. She is really a good child, most anxious to do what is right, attentive, affectionate, and tractable. I have great hopes that she will grow up to fill ASha's place; but she is yet very young. As in all schools, there are good and bad; but we try to overcome the evil by good, and, taken as a whole, I do not think they are a bad set of children.

During the past year we have received three boxes, one from Huntly, one from Northampton, and one from Preston; and this week we have received a large quantity of clothing from our dear Trevor Chapel friends. At the last Chinese New Year, as some of you know, our poor girls were robbed of everything but the clothes upon their backs-and considerable expense was requisite in order to refit them. The clothing these dear friends have sent will be specially useful.

I may just here say, that in the box forwarded by our kind friends at Preston, a number of pieces of flannel, calicoes, remnants, &c., were most useful for clothing the children; that we generally have some sales during the year, and we have often been

asked for things not supplied in the boxes. Thinking, therefore, these sales would realize more if we had such things, I sent home an order for them to a friend in Leicester, and likewise to Mr. Varty in London, asking my dear husband to draw upon the Missionary Society to the amount of £20, to be repaid here to the Mission fund by the Girls' fund here.

By a late communication received from Dr. Tidman, we are led to hope that ere long our long wished for project may be accomplished; viz.- the hiring or building a house somewhere here, that under proper superintendence the girls may be taught. Here they are, as a necessary thing, rather too much confined; it would not be in accordance with the Chinese custom, or indeed with our own ideas of propriety, to let the girls play indiscriminately with the boys, and not to have sufficient room for separation. I therefore am obliged to keep the girls more in doors than I think is good for them. I will now subjoin an account of receipts and disbursements for the past year.