minister, by the Rev. R. Soper, of Farringdon, Berkshire. At the close of the morning service, the ministers and several other friends dined together in the Wesleyan School-room, kindly lent for the day. In the evening, the sermon to the church and congregation was preached by the Rev. James Sibree, of Hull. The devotional services were conducted by the Rev. H. F. Rushedt, of Thorne, and the Rev. R. G. Soper, B.A., of Manchester College. The whole of the above services were of a highly interesting and profitable order; and it is hoped that the day will prove but a promise of great good for the future.

HATHERLOW, CHESHIRE.

ON Thursday, June 19th, the Rev. Willian Urwick, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, and of the Lancashire Independent College, was ordained to the pastorate of the Congregational church at Hatherlow.

ROYDON, ESSEX.

THE new Chapel, erected for the Congregational Church, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. W. C. Frith, was opened on Tuesday, July 1st, 1851, when the attendance of ministers and friends from London and the surrounding country was most encouraging. Two sermons were preached; that in the morning by the Rev. E. Mannering, and that in the afternoon by the Rev. J. W. Richardson, both of London. A public meeting was held in the evening, the pastor occupying the Chair. The following ministers took part in the services of the day, Revs. Messrs. T. Finch, W. Ellis, J. W. Bowhay, T. Hill, and R. Holden; Mr. A. New and Mr. Innell. Dinner was provided in a booth adjoining, the Rev. Dr. Stowell, President of Cheshunt College, occupying the Chair. The total cost of the new building, which is capable of seating about 250 persons, together with the freehold and old chapel, allowing for much gratuitous service given by members of the Established Church, as well as Dissenters, is £300, towards which £160 has been collected, including the collections at the opening, and proceeds of the dinner and tea furnished by the friends without cost to the funds.

ORDINATIONS.

ON Tuesday, 15th July, Mr. Henry Stacey, upwards of seven years Town Missionary at Bishop Stortford, was publicly ordained to the pastoral office over the church and congregation assembling in the Independent Chapel, Abbott's Roothing, Essex. Rev. T. Finch, of Harlow, opened the service by reading and prayer; Rev. J. Waddington, of Lon

VOL. XXIX.

don, delivered the introductory discourse Rev. C. Barry, of Hatfield Heath, put the questions, and offered the ordination prayer; and the Rev. John Alexander of Norwich, gave the charge from 1 Tim. iv. 16.

In the evening, the Rev. C. Bateman, of Lincoln, the former pastor at Abbott's Roothing, opened the service by reading and prayer, and the Rev. W. A. Hurndall, of Bishop Stortford, preached to the people from Eph. V., part of the second verse," Walk in love."

The church at Abbott's Roothing was founded in the year 1698, and the present Meeting-house, which is large, was built in the year 1729. The Rev. Dr. Watts contributed to the building fund.

Mr. Bateman, the former pastor, preached his farewell sermon on the first Sabbath in February last, and Mr. Stacey, who had been supplying for Mr. B. eight Sabbaths, commenced his stated labours on the second Sabbath in February.

The attendance at the ordination was very numerous. Several of the neighbouring ministers were present.

A SERIES of very interesting services has been lately held in the Independent Chapel, New Conduit-street, King's-square, Morpeth.

The Rev. R. Brindley, of the New College, London, having, about nine months since, accepted the invitation to the pastorate of the Church and Congregation, assembling in the above place of worship, was formally recognized on Thursday, the 3rd of July.

On the previous Sunday, the Rev. E. Henderson, D.D., preached two preparatory sermons. The Rev. J. Brown, of North Walsham, commenced the service by reading and prayer, after which, the Rev. J. S. Russell, of Yarmouth, gave the introductory discourse; the Rev. J. Alexander, of Norwich, asked the usual questions, and offered the ordination prayer; the Rev. S. Martin, of Westminster, gave the charge; and in the evening, the Rev. J. Harris, D.D., Principal of the New College, London, delivered the sermon to the people.

After the morning service, about seventy ladies and gentlemen sat down to an excellent dinner, which was served up with good taste by Mr. Bollin, of the Duke's Head Inn, the tables being handsomely garnished with flowers, in pots and stands of the choicest kinds, and which received a large share of admiration from the company assembled.

On the following Sabbath, the newly ordained minister addressed his congregation from 2 Cor. 2nd chap. 16th verse; and in the evening, the late pastor, the Rev. R. Hamilton, preached to the people. The charge, delivered by Mr. Martin, fully sustained his reputation, as did also the sermon of Dr. Harris.

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THE Rev. George Shaw, of Rotherham College, has accepted a cordial and unanimous invitation to become the pastor of the Independent church at Patricroft, near Manchester. Mr. Shaw entered upon his stated labours on the third Sabbath in July.

THE Rev. H. F. Holmes, of Wendover, Bucks, has received and accepted the cordial and unanimous invitation of the Church assembling in the Independent Chapel, Grovestreet, Boston, Lincolnshire, and entered on his stated ministry there on Sabbath-day, June the 29th.

BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE JEWS, 1, CRESCENT PLACE, BLACKFRIARS.

AMONG the various agencies in operation to extend the dominion of the Lord Jesus, there are very few that possess such claims to the sympathy of the churches of Christ as this. Yet, strange to say, it has not received the amount of support that it is so justly entitled to. Our obligations to the ancient people of God have been forgotten. Generation after generation have been permitted to pass away from the earth, without any attempt being made by the church to diffuse among them the glad tidings of salvation! We, therefore, rejoice that this unsectarian Society exists, and that its constitution and agency render it deserving of the help of all who really love the Redeemer.

At present, the Committee are desirous of calling attention to the Society's operations on the Continent. The readers of this journal are aware that the religious ideas, as well as the social position, of the Jews of Europe, and especially of Germany, have, during the last fifty years, experienced a remarkable series of changes. These changes are justly attributable to Gentile influence. The development of the Jew is necessarily dependent upon that of the people in the midst of whom he dwells. As they are, he aims to be. The reason is obvious. He is conscious of being looked upon with contempt, as a member of an always despised and often proscribed race. Hence, he struggles not only to equal, but to excel his Gentile contemporaries in every path of literature, art, or science open to him. Thus he seeks to make good his claim to respect, when he cannot command esteem or win affection. The sphere of his religious ideas is not exempt from this spirit of emulation; and, therefore, the synagogue has invariably given a clear and vivid reflexion of the forms which the religious life of the German churches has, from time to time, assumed.

When, for example, under the influence of unsound philosophy, and erroneous principles of criticism and interpretation, the divines and

university professors of Germany pronounced the Bible to be a collection of Oriental fables, -when they declared that there was no state of reward, or of retribution after death,—and when they crowned their impiety by denying the personality of God,-the Jew, adopting their principles, imitated their example. The infidelity of the Church produced that of the Synagogue!

On this state of things the Committee are endeavouring to fix the attention of British Christians. It constitutes an almost impregnable barrier in the path of the Missionary. When and where the Talmud was losing, or had lost, its power over the Jewish mind, an opening was found for the introduction of the Scriptures; but now that the Bible itself is placed in the same category with the exploded traditions of the Rabbis, the Society's agents find their need of works that demonstrate the integrity, genuineness, authenticity, and inspiration of the Old and New Testaments. To supply this demand, the Committee ask the help of the churches. We trust that they will not have to ask in vain. Help ought to be rendered at once. But this is not the only reason why it should be so. The Society maintains a college for the education of its Missionaries; it employs nineteen agents, in Palestine, Northern Africa, Gibraltar, Bavaria, Frankfort, France, Holland, London, and in the principal towns in this country. God has smiled upon their efforts. The Scriptures have been circulated where formerly they could gain no entrance, and many who were once the enemies of "the truth as it is in Jesus," have received it "as little children." We therefore trust that the churches will promptly respond to the Society's appeal, and thereby hasten the promised ingathering, which to the Church and to the world will be as "life from the dead."

THE CHURCH OF THE NESTORIANS; OR, THE CHALDEAN CHRISTIANS.

THERE is an interesting chapter in Layard's "Nineveh," devoted to some inquiries into the history of the Nestorian Christians, the chief seat of whose worship-the Kurdish moun

tains, a short distance to the north of the present Mosul, and consequently of the site of ancient Nineveh -- Mr. Layard personally visited. Mr. Layard points attention to the fact, that these Christians have never acknowledged the authority of the Church of Rome; whilst from the time of Nestorius, at all events (A.D. 428), in their government and ritual they have maintained an existence distinct wholly, and independent of that church.

Facts are almost daily turning up, helping us to treat with its merited contempt the foolish taunt, cast at the disciples of our present scriptural churches, "Where was your religion before the time of Luther?" Monastier's History of the Church of the Vaudois, -which Romish persecution has never been able either to subject to itself, or to root out of its fastnesses in the wild Alpine home in which God's mercy has for so many ages sheltered it, has done some service in this respect, as the records of that church, in common with those of this now prostrate and fallen Church of the Nestorians, sufficiently prove the existence of an early primitive Church, from which the Romanists, and not us, have dissented.

The charge, therefore, of novelty, of which some are disposed to make so much, if this witness be true, must lie at the door, not of the disciples of Luther, but of Rome.

We merely examine one of these witnesses now, and, as we have intimated, a sadly fallen witness; yet, even in her fallen and reduced condition, repudiating, as stoutly as ever, all connexion with the See of Rome. The facts are taken mostly from Mr. Layard's volume, from whose personal observation all that relates to their present state was supplied.

The Name of the Church.-This deserves a moment's attention. Giesler states, that they were called by their opponents, "Nestorians," though they called themselves "Chaldean Christians," and in India, "Thomas Christians." With these remarks Mr. Layard's observations strikingly accord. He was not able to ascertain, from the Kurdish Christians themselves, the circumstances in which the name "Nestorians" arose; but inclines to the belief, that it originated with the Romish Missionaries, who, in their disappointed attempts to convert the people, may have found it "necessary and politic to treat them as schismatics, and to bestow upon them a title which conveyed the stigma of heresy." By the Chaldeans themselves the name has ever been disallowed. Thus Ebedjesus, a Chaldean writer of the 14th century, asserts, that the Orientals have not changed the truth, but as they received it from the apostles so have they retained it, without variation. They are therefore called "Nestorians, without reason and injuriously: Nestorius ollowed them, and not they Nestorius." The

name still used by the people themselves is "Chaldani," except when designating any particular tribe: and the Patriarch still styles himself, in his letters and official documents, "The Patriarch of the Chaldeans, or of the Christians of the East."

The Doctrine from which their name has arisen.-To speak, first, of the person from whom this doctrine emanated. Nestorius, prior to his elevation to the See of Constantinople, was a Presbyter of Antioch, where, says Neander, and the remark is worthy of our attention, he was "esteemed and celebrated, on account of the rigid austerity of his life, and the impressive fervour of his preaching". two great points, in their way, in the character of "a good minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." One feature in his history stands prominently forward, viz. his habit to take his doctrines, not from the Church, but from the Scriptures. Such, then, was the man who, about the year of our Lord 428, was raised to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The doctrine of the man, however, is far more difficult to get at than his character. Mr. Layard remarks, that, whilst still denying to the Virgin the title "Mother of God,"

according to the testimony of the ancient Church Historians-"they do not admit, to their full extent, the tenets on account of which they are accused of heresy by the Church of Rome." This fact is of importance in its bearing on the remarks we are about to offer. He further adds, that the distinctions they make on the point in dispute, are however "so subtle and refined, that it is difficult for one who discourses with them to understand that which, most probably, they scarcely comprehend themselves." He appends their Confession of Faith-still repeated twice a day by these Chaldean Christians-which professes to have been settled by three hundred and eighteen Holy Fathers at Nice, "in the time of King Constantine the Pious, on account of Arius-the infidel accursed." It agrees almost, in all respects, with the present Nicene Creed. With reference to the person of Christ, their profession of faith runs thus:

"We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, before all worlds: who was not created,-the true God of the true God-of the same substance with His Father, by whose hands the worlds were made, and all things were created."

And now for the doctrine of Nestorius, as delivered to us by church historians. Το say nothing of the fact, that the correct meaning of the more abstruse distinctions respecting the person of Christ, in which the theology of those distant times delighted to indulge, seems hardly possible, except on a far better knowledge than we possess of the