The Sunday-School Teacher. 66 Sunday Companion" of more than thirty years ago; for all that it is such a half-penny worth as the little ones will relish. We The Christian Witness. John Snow. WORTHILY fills its own sphere. are obliged by its very kind notice of Our Treasury of David," and shall be glad if our laborious work is found To our mind this has grown into one worthy of a place in all Sunday-School of the most solid of the monthlies, and libraries. The same Society issues The is conducted with great ability. The Biblical Treasury, which every minister Christian Penny also has taken quite a should subscribe for: The Bible Class new start, and is worthy of its palmiest Magazine, full of lively reading for days, when the vigorous pen of Dr. youths and The Child's Own Maga- Campbell was at its best. The Conzine, a little half-penny affair of so old-gregational Miscellany, a paper issued by fashioned a cut that it carried us back the Independents of Scotland, is always to the "Juvenile Herald" and "Child's full of interesting and useful matter. Memoranda. MAN proposes, God disposes. The Editor of "The Sword and the Trowel" had proposed to himself to take a little needed rest on the Continent, instead of which he has been called to three months of pain and weakness. For thirteen Sabbaths the Tabernacle pulpit has been occupied by others, while the pastor has been suffering among other sorrows that of a constrained silence. He is now better, and hopes to resume his ministry with the month of July, for which much praise is rendered to Almighty God. As the first person seems most suitable in this paragraph, I use it. It is for me a duty as well as a pleasure to record the goodness of God during my sickness. My beloved people have overflowed with love to me. Everybody has been kind. Prayer has been fervent. Our various works for the Lord have been well sustained. The congregations have been excellent, and the prayer-meetings especially large. I have to ask of friends the great kindness of letting me alone as to preaching for the next few months; for I cannot comply with their requests without incurring fresh sickness. A friend suggests that I should evangelise a few months in every year, and also start a weekly paper and edit it. These suggestions are kindly meant; but why not expect me to become the rival of Atlas and carry the world, or the successor of Hercules with twice his labours? A five-pound note for the Orphanage is of more value than the wisest inventions of new tasks for an over-wrought man. Friends like to know how matters go with us financially, and therefore we would say that the College has been well supplied, but the balance on the Orphanage is lessening, while the income is slack just now. We are never brought down to our last shilling, as our dear friend, Mr. Müller, was in his earlier days; for God deals gently with our poor weak faith, but if he were pleased to try us more severely, we doubt not that he would give proportionate grace. The work is his own, and therefore we cannot imagine that he would ever leave it. The Orphanage has been kept from smallpox and other epidemics, and where there are nearly two hundred children, this is a great mercy. We have four boys who are much afflicted, for whom we have had to take a house at Margate, that they may have the benefit of sea-air. The infirmary is proving of great service to us; the separation of sick boys is a great preventative, confining any disease within a narrower area. We have need of more students at the College. Many have gone to pastorates. Several have been removed by sickness. We are waiting for the Lord to send us really gracious earnest young men, no matter how poor, nor now many. They should apply at once, for a new session begins in August, and we require a few weeks in which to investigate the character and fitness of the applicants. Only devout, hardworking, studious, holy men need apply. A life of toil and probable poverty lies before them; and if they are not called of God to the work, woe unto them. Whosoever is truly called, we shall be glad to take as Aquila did Apollos, and show him the way of God more perfectly. We greatly need new rooms for the College, and are hoping that the means will be sent in due time. If it came in connection with the following occurrence, we should rejoice. During the month of July make provision for your family, in view of being called, in the providence of God, to enter before them to the heavenly home. This trust in the providence of Almighty God in we deem perfectly compatible, with a firm favour of those who place their reliance on him. We find our opinion corroborated by the general feeling of our ministers in this Province in favour of having their lives insured, and hence the appointment, at the last meeting of the Western Baptist Association, of a Committee to ascertain in what way life assurance could best be mutually effected. we shall (D.V.) publish our one thousandth | the means God has placed in your power to consecutive sermon. We had intended to have celebrated the event, but fearing lest it should be a suggestion of vainglory, we pass it over without any public meeting. We may, perhaps, call our own friends together at the Tabernacle, and may also say a few extra words in the printed sermon, but it suffices us here to record our personal gratitude to God for the unparalleled favour of being allowed to issue a thousand sermons week by week for one penny, in such numbers that we must have had many millions of readers. More profound is our gratitude for the souls which, to our know. ledge, have been led to Jesus thereby. That such hasty, faulty, and feeble productions should be made useful in the kingdom of Christ is a great joy to us. "John Ploughman's Talk" has now reached the 140th thousand. John's pen has been rather rusty of late; but we hear he has some thoughts of buying a fresh bottle of ink, and he is looking on the Common for a new quill. In that case, "The Sword and the Trowel" readers may hear from him again. We cut the following from a St. John's paper, and insert it, not only because we rejoice in the prosperity of Mr. Harley, who was one of our earliest students, but because we wish other churches would do likewise." We once wrote a personal letter to the deacons of many Baptist churches, begging them to insure their pastors' lives, but we fear nothing came of it. We should like now to try a public appeal; perhaps this example will speaks more loudly than our precept. Here is the extract: "On Wednesday evening, March 1st, 1871, after the regular weekly service in the Brussels Street Baptist Church was concluded, the Pastor, Mr. T. Harley, was made recipient of a very valuable gift, accompanied by an address. The following is a copy of the latter, and will explain the whole : "ADDRESS. "REV. TIMOTHY HARLEY,-Beloved Pastor: We, members of your church and congregation, actuated by the most sincere regard for yourself as our pastor, and by the high esteem we entertain for your beloved companion, Mrs. Harley, ask your acceptance of a life insurance policy on the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, for the sum of Five Thousand Dollars, in Mrs. Harley's name, with one year's premium paid. "Knowing, as we do, that so limited are the salaries of our Baptist ministers generally, that little margin is afforded them for laying aside even a small amount for any future wants or contingencies, we deem it an imperative duty to aid you, as our pastor, to use Also, please accept in addition the sum of Seventy-four Dollars Sixteen Cents, as a furfatigable exertions to promote the best inther mark of our gratitude for your indeterests of the church and congregation. We pray that you may be abundantly blessed in all your relations to your family, to the blessed cause of Christ our Šaviour, and to the church and congregation over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseer. "By request, on behalf of donors, "The address was read by Mr. Z. G. A piece of ground having been kindly offered us at WORTHING, one of our students, Mr. Joseph Tansley, has commenced preaching in the Montague Hall, with the view of forming a Baptist church. A Christian lady has offered us a piece of ground in Norbiton, near Kingston-onThames, for a chapel. We are thankful for these gifts of sites, but shall need much help in order to place chapels upon them. We are much pleased to see that two such noble donations (£100 each), have been given to the Colportage Society: they were acknowledged last month. These liberal gifts ought to be a stimulus to others to do the like. We know of no way of doing good, so cheap, so necessary, so useful as the work of colportage. Why is it that this department of our work falters? It is so useful, why so feeble? If it is not to prosper in our hands, we wish some other labourer would take it up. The young brethren who form our committee work most commendably, but they cannot make bricks without straw, or keep colporteurs without cash. treasurer is a noble man, but he cannot be expected to find all the money, and ought not to be left in the lurch. Our Baptisms at Metropolitan Tabernacle, by J. A. Spurgeon, May 25th-eighteen. Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle. PRESIDENT-C. H. SPURGEON. NUMBER OF STUDENTS, 60. Amount required for maintaining students, and the general work of spreading the gospel, about £6,000. Statement of Receipts from May 20th, 1871, to June 19th, 1871. Stockwell Orphanage. Statement of Receipts from May 20th, to June 19th, 1871. Presents for the Orphanage.-A Sack of Flour, Mr. Nye; Two Straw Hats, Miss Bateman; A Parcel of Goods for Saleroom: 2 3 050 040 009 080 F. Schneider H. & A. Semark W. Sewell Simms... C. Simmons J. Snook ... 6 6 020 030 R. Smith... 030 050 3 0 J. W. Stratford Subscriptions will be thankfully received by C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Should any sum be unacknowledged in this list, friends are requested to write at once to Mr. Spurgeon. Post-Office Orders should be made payable at the Chief Office, London, to C. H. Spurgeon. COPONOPO THE SWORD AND THE TROWEL. AUGUST 1, 1871. The Scriptural Mode of Dealing with Backsliders. T A PAPER READ AT THE COLLEGE CONFERENCE, 1871. BY PASTOR S. M. HONAN, OF SUDBURY. HE subject intrusted to me for opening is, "The Scriptural Method of Dealing with Backsliders;" and we remark at the outset that its very wording contains a most painful and humiliating assumption, namely, that there are backsliders to be dealt with. Is the assumption correct? Can any man, having tasted the deep blessedness of fellowship with God, forsake this crystal fountain for the turgid waters of the world's pleasure? Reason would seem to say, No. Yet Scripture, experience, and observation unite their voices in declaring the assumption an indisputable fact. Without going beyond the limit of our own spheres, do we not know those who are the reverse of what they once were? Through yielding to the temptations of the enemy and the inclinations. of their own hearts, they have been carried away, as by a centrifugal force, from the grand centre of goodness. Their heart has lost its softness, their conscience its tenderness, and their love its intenseness; and as a consequence, the throne of grace is not visited, the word of God is not read, and the cross of Jesus is not embraced. Private devotion is now a weariness; public services are tedious; the company of the saints is dull and uninteresting. True, they still attend the sanctuary, and keep up a measure of religious respectability; but this does not alter the fact of their declension. Though the tree retains its foliage, beautiful it may be, it yields no useful fruit, for the vital and generous sap has decreased in quality and quantity. The altar, though still standing, affords no pleasant savour, the fire which consumes the |