THE CHURCH. Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." AUGUST, 1866. DISMISSIONS. BY THE REV. JOHN ALDIS, JUN. “Epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you."-2 Cor. iii. 1. No thoughtful Christian can glance over the pages of a Church Register without much and varied emotion. Amid such records as-" Fell asleep a Jesus," "Her end was peace," &c., which show that in these cases the ission of the church has proved a glorious success, and which call forth evout thankfulness, there are also entries of another character, which aken painful feelings, and may well call for "great searchings of heart.” As you turn the pages over you may often meet with such sentences as these -"Excluded for non-attendance," " Erased for non-attendance," "Left the eighbourhood," &c., and one fears lest the church has here bestowed labour vain. And besides these cases, it is to be feared that an appreciable perEtage of the names on the roll, might fittingly receive some such addition. Whilst most of us are believers in the final perseverance of the saints, . facts compel us to acknowledge how terribly common backsliding and apostacy are. And whilst fresh conversions should be earnestly desired, we are thus reminded of the great applicability to us of the Lord's words dressed to the Church at Sardis, “ Strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God." No doubt many who have been removed from the church in consequence the neglect of public ordinances, may be found scarce a stone's throw m the place of worship. And such cases may well act as a warning to e pastors, and deacons, and members of our churches, to endeavour to Leck in their fellow Christians, the first beginnings of the common, angerous, nay, even fatal practice, of gradually neglecting public worship, ing up first the prayer-meeting, then the Lord's Supper, next the second ice on the Lord's day, then even the one service, and then follows a Course of carelessness, the issues of which God only knows. But the object of this paper is to call attention to a matter, which even P the limited experience of the writer has convinced him, is a most fruits source of backsliding. It is in brief the neglect of dismission. The calls of business and other circumstances occasion the frequen removals of members of our churches, and, spiritually, such removals ar often very disastrous. Something like the following is, alas! too commo] the case. One who has been an exemplary member of a church goes t reside at a distance, and after a time seeks out the Baptist chapel. H misses the dear familiar pews, and tunes, and faces, and preacher's voice and we cannot wonder that he does not enjoy the worship as when at hom He goes a few times, however; and as probably no one in the congregatio gives him a friendly word (alas! that such should be the case), he becom sadder than before. When the new month arrives he debates with himse whether he shall go to the Lord's Supper. But no-he will wait a mont and see. Month after month rolls by, and each time the desire is fainter, an the disinclination more strong. Gradually a coldness steals over his heart and darkness clouds his mind. He feels unfit for membership; he goe sometimes to the Independents, sometimes to the Wesleyans, sometimes: Church, oftener-nowhere. He is lost to the denomination, lost as Christian usefulness, and the most that we can hope is, that at the last È may be saved, yet so as by fire." Among those whose piety to begi with is very feeble, plainly the danger is all the greater. their new But su No doubt under such circumstances, the more excellent and intelligen Christians will at once seek an introduction to the church in neighbourhood, and commune with them at the Lord's table. will often remain for months, and even for years, without obtaining a dis missal of membership, from which cause many evils often result. Not heit members of the church, they do not feel at home or settled; their wisdor cannot be secured in the business of the church; they will, to an exten stand aloof from the working organisations, and thus suffer in usefulness an in happiness too. Now a valuable remedy for such evils might be found in the prompt use dismissions, whereby many might be saved from backsliding: many mil be made far more useful and happy. When our members go to reside at distance, let them, if necessary, carry with them letters of introduction to the neighbouring church or churches. Let them lose no time in determinin where their spiritual home shall be, and then, without delay, let them ob tain a transfer of their membership. It is true that dismissions are often granted; but the common fault 13, that a long time is allowed to elapse first. And if they have not taken = house on a seven years' lease, or if there be any human probability that they will leave the neighbourhood in a year or two, the members of our churches usually prefer to retain their names on a book, perhaps a hundred miles distant. But how much better to be united with the church where the p are resident even for a year or two; and then, should the pillar of fire ani of cloud move, let another letter of commendation follow them; should it return to the place whence they came out, let the membership be restored to the old home. No evils surely would result from such a plan; whilst great -fits would accrue. An objection will probably be made on the score of - pain attendant on thus suddenly cutting off old and endeared ties. But ly we ought not to have such a feline attachment to places as to forego in which would be manifestly beneficial; and to refuse a new home, Ling, love-sick for the old one. Besides, the pain need not be so great as ometimes is. And we are thus reminded of the importance of what so of us are yearning for now-less isolation, more union, and closer ason among our churches. Why should the transfer of a Christian's ership so utterly cut him off from fellowship with the church of his nt lore, as to occasion pain? Why, when he visits the place of his al birth, should he be esteemed a stranger? Why should he not be erited to attend all the meetings of the church during his stay, and thus @led to feel "No more a stranger or a guest, But like a child at home"? ha zotion may be opposed to rigid modern Congregationalism, but it is urly in harmony with the Congregationalism of the New Testament. Who uld for a moment imagine that a brother baptized at Ephesus, but since sident at Colosse, would be excluded from the meetings of his mother burch, during a visit to Ephesus, with the cold rebuff, "You are not now member here, but at Colosse"? The Lord grant unto our churches more of the unity of the Spirit," and more brotherly love, "which is the girdle of reation"! No doubt there are cases in which, owing to the distance of the new place abode from any eligible church, a transfer of membership cannot be of Had we the piety of our fathers, in whose eyes a distance of ten or en miles appeared no sufficient excuse for absence from united worship, cases would be extremely rare. But as now-a-days the loadstone of sanctuary will not attract our hearts of steel more than a mile or so, ir excuse may be made in many instances for retaining membership at a In such cases let there be a periodical interchange of letters teen the church and the absentee, that the mutual interest and profit may be to an extent sustained. And let those who are thus situated avail melves of what opportunities their circumstances will allow, for stian fellowship and worship. upre. The subject of dismissions is very important, and belongs especially to embers of our churches. The pastors of the churches where travellers to reside, may sometimes feel a delicacy in pressing their dismission, lest hey should appear to wish to rob other churches. The pastors of the churches hence they come, if they write or speak of the matter, sometimes meet he reply, Are you tired of us, that you wish to get rid of our names?" they are suspected of ill-will, when really their motive is the welfare of he steep. Members of the churches, arise, for this matter belongeth unto u; we also will be with you; let it be done with speed. Should these lines meet the eye of one who is worshipping with a urch far away from that where his name is enrolled, the writer would earnestly entreat such a one (unless under exceptional circumstances be judged of by each man's conscience), to obtain the transfer of membership, and to obtain it without needless delay; believing that s a course would conduce to his own spiritual happiness and prosperity well as to his usefulness in the cause of Christ. Or should any one read this paper, formerly a happy member of church, but now written off as an absentee; and who, severed from first spiritual home, has gradually neglected the Lord's Supper and p worship, and in consequence has grown worldly, cold, and dark, cry in bitterness of soul, "Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the when God preserved me, when His candle shined upon my head!"— writer would urge such a one, as he values his spiritual health, to be himself again to those ordinances which formerly ministered food to soul, to apply without delay for membership in a Christian church: should he still stand as a member elsewhere, to seek dismission to church which may be nearest his dwelling, or from other considerati most eligible as his home. Haworth. THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS. BY THE REV. T. R. STEVENSON. "The way of transgressors is hard."-Prov. xiii. 15. THE Book of Proverbs is a moral armoury. It contains weapons wherewith to assail every sin and folly. Do you want a weapon against ignorance? That the soul be without knowledge is not good." Do you seek a warning against idleness? "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.' Do you desire a reproof of intemperance? "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Do you need a condemnation of pride? Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." you ask a rebuke of falsehood? "Lying lips are abomination unto the Lord." Do you wish for an exposure of deception? 66 A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour." Do you require a restraint upon lasciviousness? "Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death." Do In addition to these assertions, a made in view of special forms of e there are also more general ones, wh are so far-reaching as to embrace species of wrong-doing. They comp hend every offence against God The verse before us is of t order. Such being the case, a care consideration of it will be of valu each of us. "The way of transgress is hard" in three respects : man. There I. Hard to get in. II. Hard to keep in. III. Hard to get out of. I. It is hard to get in. good as well as evil tendencies human nature. Unhappily, the lat are the more numerous, and usus the more mighty. Albeit the former ist, and at times assert, with great phasis, their existence. Were it so, surely "the High and Lofty O would never compare Himself "Like as a father pitieth man. ldren, so the Lord pitieth them that Him." "As one whom his mother forteth will I comfort you.' There is a Friend that sticketh er than a brother." The fact that makes our affections and our reonships the medium by which we come, to some extent, to know is an evidence that something of tale and something of nobility is eft in His creatures. We are told the ancients in their wise perenally significant way, figured nature their sacred all, or Pan, as a tentous commingling of two dismis; as musical, humane, oracular the upper part, yet ending below in cloven hairy feet of a goat." This will help us to see how "the ay of transgressors is hard" to get to. It is difficult, because we have defy, overcome, and crush down ese good tendencies in our nature fore we can go astray. Like so any barriers, they must be assailed destroyed, ere we take the road ruin. Perhaps there is not a ore powerful illustration of this than afforded by our great national t. Othello, stung to the quick by alousy, resolves to murder his wife, demona. But how "hard" he the way of transgressors!" low he shrinks from the deadly purhe has formed! He goes into chamber and finds her asleep. As hears her gentle breathing; as he alds her alabaster breast heaving etly to and fro; as he gazes at the wey form he has so often embraced; she kisses her for the last time; as thinks of the dreary, dreary future fre him; as he looks at the lamp her side, remembering how easily, he put it out, he can relight it, thereas the lamp of her life, once exArished, can never be rekindled,recoils from the dreadful plan he made. The better part of his Mature rises in mutiny against the - design; and it requires the hasty, dened concentration of all the demination of which he is possessed the deed. That is a parable. Put the soul in the place of that miserable man, and virtue in the place of that woful woman, and then the tragedy teaches a great moral fact. Before we first murder a virtue, or kill a grace, there is many a struggle; and it is done, at last, in desperation. To use an humbler illustration. You have sometimes seen a horse galloped up to a fence which his rider meant him to leap. But when he came close upon it he suddenly wheeled round and retreated. The attempt was made again, but with the same result. It was repeated, perhaps, but with no better issue. Not until the whip was used unmercifully, and the spurs were pressed fast and far into the panting flanks of the poor beast, did it clear the hedge. Nor is it otherwise with the soul. Not at the first inducement does it leap the divine boundaries; it shrinks back; it protests against it; temptation must use its whip and spurs before it bounds over. Yes; the way of transgressors is hard to get into. Take a common and familiar case. A young man, who has had a godly education, leaves home for a situation in a city or large town. As a matter of course, he attends a place of worship. This is observed by his fellow-assistants, and is made the subject of ironical remark. Ridicule, in no measured terms, assails him. He is accused of cant; he is called a Methodist; he is saluted as "the Saint." They use various inducements to persuade him to abandon the sanctuary, in order to frequent other and widely different localities with them. They do all that they can to gain his company on the river, in the pleasure-gardens, or at the tavern, on the day of rest. But he will not hear of such a thing. Week after week they renew their efforts, but in vain. Spend Sunday in amusement? His mother's prayers seem to cry, no; his father's parting counsels cry, no; his Bible, laid carefully by a maternal hand in his box before he left her, cries, no; his own conscience cries, no. All these moral forces are against |