CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



175 



Confessing the Lord whom we unitedly worship, 

 you do now renew your self-consecration, and join 

 with us cordially in this, our Christian faith and cove- 

 nant. 



(The members of the church present should rise.) 



We welcome you into our fellowship. We promise 

 to watch over you with Christian love. God grant 

 that, loving and being loved, serving and being 

 served, blessing and being blessed, we may be pre- 

 pared, while we dwell together on earth, for the per- 

 fect communion of the saints in heaven. 



"Now the God of peace, that brought again from 

 the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the 

 sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 

 make you perfect in every good work to do his will, 

 working in you that which is well-pleasing in his 

 sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for 

 ever and ever. Amen." 



( Jude 24, 25 is proposed as an alternative benedic- 

 tion.) 



Congregationalists in Great Britain. The English 

 "Congregational Year-Book" for 1884 reports 

 4,015 Congregational churches in England and 

 Wales, of which 998 were in the principality; 

 101 churches in Scotland; 29 in Ireland; and 

 13 in the islands in the British seas; besides a 

 large number of evangelistic stations in Scot- 

 land and Ireland; making a total of 4,158 

 churches in the British Islands. The colonies 

 returned 683 churches and preaching-stations. 

 Nineteen new churches were formed during 

 1883, and 68 new chapels built, or old ones en- 

 larged; 4 mission-halls and 31 new school- 

 rooms were erected, and 21 chapels and 10 

 schools begun. The colleges of the denomina- 

 tion returned 451 students in training for the 

 ministry, and ten missionary institutions in 

 heathen lands returned about 300 native theo- 

 logical students. 



London Missionary Society. The annual meet- 

 ing of the London Missionary Society was held 

 May 15th. The receipts of the society for the 

 year had been 91,414 for general purposes, 

 and 11,148 of special contributions; the ex- 

 penditures had been 113,402. A large num- 

 ber of deputation visits had been made by the 

 society's agents to the various foreign fields. 

 The foreign secretary had thus visited India, 

 China, and South Africa. 



Congregational Union of England and Wales. The 

 fifty-second annual spring meeting of the Con- 

 gregational Union of England and Wales was 

 held in London, May 12th. The Eev. Dr. 

 Thomas Rees, of Swansea, was elected Presi- 

 dent of the Union for the year. The Executive 

 Committee reported that the subscriptions to 

 the Jubilee fund, to March, 1884, had amounted 

 to 305,673. The churches in the Australian 

 colonies had also resolved on the institution of 

 a Jubilee fund, and had obtained 100,000 to 

 be applied to the freeing of chapels from debt 

 and to other objects. The report described a 

 scheme for the education of the young in Bible 

 knowledge which it was proposed to bring be- 

 fore the churches. The subject of lay agency, 

 to which some attention had been paid, was 

 dismissed with the remark that it was outside 

 the sphere of the Union to erect a quasi-ecclesi- 

 astical authority in the matter, which had bet- 



ter be left to the unfettered action of the church- 

 es. The project for delivering non-conformist 

 lectures in university towns, under the joint 

 auspices of the Baptist and Congregational 

 Unions, had not, so far, fulfilled the hopes of 

 its originators. The committee, however, 

 were much encouraged to learn that a few 

 men of eminence at the universities, though 

 not themselves non-conformists, and looking 

 not to the interests of non-conformity, but to 

 the interests of the universities as seats of 

 learning, and to the present condition of re- 

 ligious faith in England, were prepared to wel- 

 come the lecturers. The Union had, in con- 

 ference with the London Missionary Society, 

 resolved upon certain grants to the West In- 

 dian churches, and it was prepared, whenever 

 possible, to advocate the claims of that society 

 to support, by reason of its general work. A 

 resolution was adopted in favor of the motions 

 pending in Parliament for the disestablishment 

 of the churches in Wales and Scotland. The 

 Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D., retiring President 

 of the Union, was authorized to convey to Mr. 

 Gladstone, as prime minister, a formal expres- 

 sion of its unabated confidence in him. 



The autumnal assembly of the Union met in 

 London, October 7th. The Rev. Dr. Joseph 

 Parker presided. The committee of the Jubi- 

 lee fund reported that the amount paid in on 

 its account exceeded 350,000. This was 70,- 

 000 more than the amount reported in the 

 previous year. Resolutions were adopted rec- 

 ommending the commemoration of the quin- 

 centenary of Wycliffe, which would occur in 

 1884, by sermons on the second Sunday in De- 

 cember, by lectures and public meetings, and 

 by such other means as might be considered 

 most effective. A determination reported by 

 the Colonial Missionary Society to attempt 

 Congregational work among English residents 

 and travelers on the Continent of Europe, was 

 approved. The president delivered an address 

 on the subject of "The Larger Ministry," the 

 aim of which was to show that many men 

 were in the ministry who were not in the pul- 

 pit, including in this class Christian legisla- 

 tors, journalists, schoolmasters, lecturers, and 

 philanthropists. Specially appointed papers 

 were read by the Rev. George Sale Reaney and 

 the Rev. Thomas Green, on " The Relation of 

 the Churches to Recent Movements of Thought 

 in regard to the Social and Moral Condition of 

 the Poor." Other papers were read on " What 

 the Churches owe to the Colleges," by Prof. 

 F. E. Anthony; and on "What the Churches 

 expect from the Colleges," by the Rev. R. 

 Craig. The report of the Congregational Total 

 Abstinence Association showed that 1,385 out 

 of 2,589 ministers of the denomination, and 

 309 out of 354 students in the 12 Congrega- 

 tional colleges, had taken the pledge. 



Congregationalists in New South Wales. The an- 

 niversary of the institution of the Congrega- 

 tional jubilee fund, in New South Wales, was 

 celebrated in Sydney by a public demonstra- 



