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was not slow to confess his error; he saw that he had miscalculated the danger of such an experiment, and modified his opinions accordingly.

The tendency of Mackintosh's writings is to uphold the authority of law, religion, and morality, as necessary to the welfare of society and the security of the State. Throughout his historical compositions there breathes the spirit of a lofty devotion to virtue and truth; and never was his enthusiasm so much excited as in the contemplation of the lives of great men, of characters like Russell and Sidney, or Hampden and Milton, who fought for the cause of rational freedom and the progress of our race by means of free institutions. In his hands history rose to its true dignity, by becoming a master to teach what to emulate and what to avoid. It has been said that he wasted much of his time, and that he did not accomplish all that he intended; that his works are only fragments, and not so complete as they ought to have been. That he was irregular there can be no doubt; that his best productions are incomplete is equally certain. That he might have won a far higher reputation by giving himself entirely to those studies for which nature had liberally endowed him is abundantly obvious. But when it is asserted, and when this amounts to a reproach, - that he has done little compared with what he ought to have done, and with what might have been expected from his talents and opportunities, we come to a question upon which a different opinion may well exist. His "Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy," and his "History of the English Revolution" are themselves far more than sufficient to secure him from the charge of having misused his time, and quite enough to entitle him to the gratitude of posterity. All who have any taste for the study of philosophy, who can appreciate the toils of those who have laboured at its problems in the spirit of philanthropy and with a sincere love of truth; all who respect a life of untarnished integrity, free from selfishness, and distinguished by a high-souled benevolence; all who can reverence a mind lofty in its conceptions, just in its judgments of men, tender in its charity towards the faults of others, will not pronounce the name of Sir James Mackintosh without feelings of admiration.

It only remains for us, in conclusion, to acknowledge that in Mackintosh, as in too many other literary men, we fail to find positive views with reference to Christian truth. He was far from being hostile to revealed religion; he venerated its precepts, admired its wisdom and goodness, and expounded views in harmony with its spirit. But he came short of exalting it in that way which of all others is best calculated to inspire the world with a sense of its authority, its beauty, and its power. The history of not a few men of letters is fraught with a sad significance, -that of a strange silence on things Divine. And it is to be feared that modern criticism sometimes overlooks this. The sympathy which is claimed for the faults of genius too often degenerates into partial estimates of character, which are as unfair to the authors as they are degrading to a genuine criticism and injurious to the interests of truth. Talent is too frequently exalted at the expense of principle; the writings of the man are too seldom viewed in relation to his life; in our gaze on the splendour of intellectual attainments we are in danger of losing sight of other qualities, the possession of which would have made those attainments even more splendid. How many histories want the golden thread? How many biographies lack the great lesson? How few lives of great men are judged by the life of Him who is the great standard, -the model of all excellence, the perfection of all beauty, the source of all light?

A one-sided criticism, the characteristic of much of the literature of our time, exercises a dangerous influence. In too many instances it lacks honesty of purpose, and the unsatisfactory character of its moral results is in danger of being overlooked. It has a tendency to laud intellect at the cost of that which is infinitely higher and better. It has earnestness, but on the whole not that kind of earnestness which is the genius of religion, jealous for the honour of God, and anxious for the best interests of men. It has heart, but not always under the influence of a high sense of duty; it has sympathy, but not always moved by the secret springs of pure and lofty principles. The age demands a criticism fearless in its condemnation, not only of books of a superficial and pernicious character, but also of such as are good enough so far as they go, but which fail to point their own moral by vindicating the authority of religious truth; that do much evil by saying nothing on the relation of this life to another and more enduring one; that are too rational to be wise, too negative to be morally good, too partial to be just, and too silent on the supremacy of God and His laws to be instrumental in promoting that progress which is necessary to the highest and truest happiness of the human race. The old charge must be rung out again with all its Divine authority, "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad." M. S.

WESLEYAN CHAPEL AFFAIRS.

THE appearance of the Report of the Wesleyan Chapel Committee for 1871 supplies another halting-place, where, pausing awhile, we may review the great work accomplished in this department of Methodist agency. A great work it undoubtedly is; but we have long ceased to wonder at the scale upon which our Chapel Affairs are now carried forward. For many years we have been accustomed to a series of Reports, full of deeply significant facts, which have been in themselves conspicuous indications of the economical prosperity of Methodism. The Report just published is not less instructive than those which have preceded it. Chapel and Trusts Affairs are arranged under two heads, called the Building and Relief Departments. This classification is in itself significant. When Richard Watson wrote the first Report of the Chapel Fund, in 1818, and during many subsequent years, the relief of embarrassed Trusts almost exclusively occupied the thoughts and anxieties of the Committee. Indeed, it was only in 1860 that a distinct Erections' Fund was started (brought into operation in 1862) with a view to aid in providing new places of worship, but now the Committee devote a large portion of their valuable time and unwearying energy upon this part of their work. Three hundred and sixty-four proposals, of all classes, have been provisionally sanctioned during the past year, being the largest number hitherto allowed in a similar period. In the Building Department there are two divisions, one including all fresh enterprises conditionally allowed, and the other all erections completed. It is to the latter we would first call attention, since they show what has already been accomplished. This year there are two hundred and fiftyfive cases reported as completed, prior to the last May District Meetings; but of these fifty have not fulfilled the specified conditions, and fourteen are wholly "irregular," not having received the Committee's approval. Leaving these for a moment, we find that eighty-one chapels, twenty-seven schools, nine ministers' houses, forty-eight enlargements, and twenty-six organs, are reported, with respect to which all the conditions agreed upon have been observed. The total cost thus incurred has been £174,781, of which sum more than £146,000 has been actually raised. The amount of debt remaining upon the eighty-one completed chapels is three per cent. more than upon the similar class of erections of last year, and the approximate estimated income is also less favourable. Upon enlargements and alterations the debt is six and a quarter per cent. larger than in 1870. But the indications of a returning tendency to move in a wrong direction do not stop here. The pecuniary burden resting upon the fifty cases of non-fulfilment of conditions is forty and a-half per cent. of the entire outlay, and upon the fourteen which have been totally irregular is twenty-nine and a-half per cent. Apart from the circumstance that in these instances no help can be obtained from the Chapel Fund until the debts are reduced to the sums allowed by the Committee, it is important to remember what the Connexion has suffered through the embarrassment of Trust estates in years gone by. Let any one take up the earlier Reports, say from 1818 to 1829, and read the ungarnished facts there detailed. It will then be seen how oppressive have been the burdens formerly borne by unfortunate trustees, burdens which injuriously affected the spiritual interests of the Societies concerned, and often effectually barred the way to Circuit and Connexional aggression.

No one will seriously contend that a chapel is in moderately fair working order with forty and a-half per cent. of its cost unliquidated. In large and influential centres, where generous and wealthy persons reside, such difficulties may possibly be grappled with, and reduced in a course of years; but what of country Circuits, where Societies are poor and the population widely scattered? Take two cases, in illustration, almost the first upon which our eye rested in turning over the pages of a recent Report. One is that of a small Lincolnshire village, with a population of little more than thirteen hundred. The Circuit, which has eleven chapels and a few preaching-places, has less than three hundred members in the Societies, and is now reduced to one minister; having been compelled some years ago to relinquish the unmarried preacher through inability to contribute a small sum towards his support. At this village a new chapel has been built, costing nearly £850, the remaining debt on which is close upon £500, and its estimated income is £10. The other case occurs in the West of England, at a village inhabited by about eight hundred and fifty persons. In the Circuit there

are less than five hundred members in the Societies, who have difficulty in sustaining two ministers upon small allowances. The chapel here cost nearly £500, and £215 is the amount left as a charge upon it. Now for many years these borrowed sums will be galling burdens upon these feeble Societies; and even if annual efforts should provide for interest and current expenses, still, when will the debts become extinguished or reduced? These cases are taken without selection, but are samples of too many of a like kind. The stringency of our regulations as to the building of chapels is often complained of; but if they were relaxed in the slightest degree, it is evident that the Connexion would soon find itself again plunged into embarrassments from which only the fidelity, the watchfulness, the ability, and the just rigour of the Committee have been able with great difficulty to extricate it.

In order to ascertain the full amount contributed on behalf of our Trust-property during the past year, the debts paid must be added to the sums spent in new erections and enlargements. It will thus be found that £219,856 have been raised for Wesleyan chapel-purposes in Great Britain in 1871. Extending our review through the seventeen years during which the Committee has existed in its present form, we are amazed at the aggregate results. The Connexion has actually contributed in that period more than £2,600,000 for chapel-building and the discharge of debts on Trust-property.* It is also gratifying to find that, after taking into account the additional temporary debt left upon new erections in the same time, reaching nearly half a million sterling, there is a net decrease of liability upon the whole of the Connexional property of £330,000.

If we change the mode of stating these results by substituting the number of chapels and schools built for the sum raised, we shall be equally surprised. It will then appear, -suchhave been the activity and liberality of our people, that within fifteen years we have built one and a half times as many chapels and schools as belonged to the Connexion seventy-five years after the United Societies had been first formed. These impressive facts are often supposed to speak of what may be called material prosperity only, but nothing could be more erroneous. It has been proved † again and again that numerical additions have generally accompanied this other kind of progress; and if causes of decrease are to be discovered, they must be sought in spheres other than those where gifts and graces are being brought into play by the invigorating and spiritually healthy exercise of Church aggression. A careful examination of our denominational statistics during a course of years will abundantly prove that religious prosperity and Church enterprise go hand in hand.

Turning now to the work in hand, or in prospect, we find three hundred and sixty-four proposals conditionally accepted by the Chapel Committee. These include one hundred and thirty-six chapels, thirteen ministers' houses, forty-one schools, eighty-nine enlargements, fiftyeight modifications of previously-sanctioned cases, and twenty-seven

• This is exclusive of more than eighty thousand pounds' worth of Chapel and School property given to the Connexion by liberal benefactors. † See "Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine," 1866, pp. 54-64.

organs; the total estimated cost being £229,766, of which eighteen and three-quarters per cent. is allowed to remain as debt. It is evident, therefore, that there are no signs of diminished energy or of hesitating liberality among our people. So thoroughly has the spirit of enterprise become awakened that the generous things already devised will certainly be even surpassed: in view of the great moral needs existing on all hands we may confidently anticipate an unflagging zeal and an untiring effort in the days and years of the future. With thousands of villages yet unreached by Methodism, many of them otherwise inadequately provided for, there is still ample room for vigorous action and costly sacrifice. Never was such an agency as our own Connexion represents more called for than in these unsettled times. The advance of a hateful superstition such as Popery, the undisguised tendency on the part of many either to Rome or Rationalism, the absence in tens of thousands of the artizan population of all appearance of religion, besides other recognized facts, constitute unitedly a call of imperative urgency upon Christian people. And one hope of the Church is in the multiplication of places of public worship, the providing of which is most appropriately described in the first Chapel Report, for 1818, as the greatest of human charities."

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Among the many important items of this Report, we may mention the record of generous gifts of Trust-property to the amount of six thousand pounds during the year. From the liberal bequest of the late Mrs. Joshua Burton, for the benefit of Cumberland and Scotland, the sum of £3,065 has been already promised in Grants towards cases duly approved, being over one-fifth of the entire legacy. Forty-two sales have been allowed; but in two instances only the sale has been an effect of the withdrawal of Methodist activities. It is gratifying to find a steady, though slow, advance in the number of Trusts contributing to Circuit-Funds.

The liabilities of the Chapel Committee, and the question of ways and means, are matters of deep anxiety, if we may judge from the concluding and other paragraphs of this Report. Without troubling our readers with particular items, we will give a summary from the present Report and the preceding one. The obligations incurred up to the close of 1870, upon account of Loans and Grants promised from the Erections' Fund, and of Loans and Grants promised from the Relief Fund, amounted in all to £53,818. During this year an aggregate of £3,665 has been promised in Loans and Grants in aid of new erections. It will thus be seen that, without including any aid promised in the Relief department during 1871, the Committee's liabilities amounted to £57,483. At the audit of 1870 there were balances in hand upon the four different accounts, A., B., C., D., representing a total of £18,648. In 1871, the Loan-instalments repaid on the Relief Fund account and the Erections' Fund account, reached the sum of £8,840: the income of the Chapel Fund for the twelve months, deducting cost of management and working expenses, would represent another sum of £6,600. These three items, indicating the total available resources of the year, barely exceed £34,000; and of this sum, nearly £21,000 has been paid during the year, in part fulfilment of the previously-incurred liabilities. Taking these figures as approximately correct, the Committee hold

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