The London Gathering of the

"Generals."

NOT since the year 1858 has our Association visited the metropolis. Brought into life, as an Association of Christians and General Baptists in this city, it is not a little strange that we should have been so afraid of our birthplace, and so inattentive to its manifold and surpassing claims. In the early years of our denominational history we assembled in London every eighth year; but, for some reason or other, only one gathering has taken place here since 1842-one visit in thirty-six years.

Why is this? Why have the Midlands so largely monopolized the privilege of entertaining "the brethren" and transacting the corporate business of the churches? Why have our churches treated London with such conspicuous neglect?

These questions can be answered if the policy cannot be justified. Our denomination, at the moment of its formation under the guidance of the gifted and indefatigable Dan Taylor, had two elements in it. As our readers know, it was called the NEW Connexion of General Baptists; but it became NEW by separating from the Old Connexion, or Assembly of General Baptists, on the ground of antagonism to its deepening and death-spreading Unitarianism. Still, in that New Connexion there was a newer element than the one represented by John Brittain's church in Church Lane. Indeed, the life in and about London was old and came from the old body; but the churches at Barton, Melbourne, Kegworth, Loughborough, and Kirkby Woodhouse, brought with them a vigour and energy as fresh and bracing as the breezes of the Charnwood Hills. Dan himself, too, was reared outside the Old Assembly, and was indebted far more to Methodism than to it for any life he had. Hence it came to pass that the newly-imported and force-fraught vitality grew and increased and actually absorbed into itself whatever energy was left in the churches which had seceded from the Old Connexion. The new branch was grafted into the old and freshly planted stock, and has grown so luxuriously and fruitfully that the stock can scarcely be seen. Still it is there. And we are not more sure of anything than we are of this, that much of our future growth and fruitfulness will depend upon the wise care and loving attention we give to the old and newly-labelled stock. The progress of the denomination at large will be greatly accelerated by any attention we give to the soil in which the roots are set. Certainly if we wish the "Generals" to increase in London, we must have our gatherings there a little oftener than once in six-and-thirty years.

"Nay, nay," says some enthusiastic denizen of the salubrious midland zone, "there is not such a close connexion between the increase of the 'body' and the visits of the Association as all that.”

Is there not? Well, see! In 1810 the London General Baptist members numbered 218. In 1842 they had risen to 1,021. Between 1842 to 1877 the numbers increased to 1,634. In the first case of thirty-two years, 218 members had held their ground-added Four GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE, JUNE, 1878.-VOL. LXXX.-N. S. No. 102

churches, and were 803 stronger. In the second case of thirty-five years those five churches, with a membership of 1,021, had not added a single church, and had only increased by 613 members. In the first period the Association visited London four times, in the second only ONCE. I do not hesitate to append Q. E. D., and if any one doubts the validity of the demonstration, I will supply him with bushels of additional facts to prove that the organic corporate life of the churches in a district will be found to rise and fall according to the frequency of the visits of the Association to that district. Exceptional circumstances will, now and again, have to be taken into account, but speaking broadly, the rule will hold good.

From all this it follows that our Association will do wisely to reconsider its customs, and instead of visiting the Midlands so frequently as it does now, go in order into each of our six Conferences. Why are we so rarely in the vigorous and enterprising north? Is it necessary we should stay away from the mid-western area so long? Is London to be forgotten for another generation? Does the Cheshire Conference know anything of us? Do we know anything of it? Why should not Macclesfield or Stoke receive us? We have borrowed chapels before, and may do it again. Our object is not merely to secure large meetings, lengthy newspaper reports, and the most comfortable quarters, but to deepen the interest of all our churches in our common life and common work; to broaden the sympathies of our fellow members, and direct them upon the sublime objects for the realization of which we are federated together. Anyway, if it is too early for the assembly to visit all our Conferences, yet this is the ideal arrangement towards securing which we ought to work.*

No doubt the reason for the monopoly of the Midlands is due to the enormous facility our midland churches have in chapels, and "beds," and experience, and to the greater enthusiasm kindled at the meetings by the magnitude of the gatherings. It has been widely felt that London is, in many respects, an undesirable place for the annual meetings of religious organizations. Baptists know well enough the prodigious difference between the Spring Session of the Union in London and the Autumnal Session in the country. The Independents have the same difficulty, save when, as recently, they obtain the help of a Leicester Conference to rouse attention and stimulate attendance. It requires an extremely huge force to divert the eager, energetic, and high-pressure life of London from its ordinary and accustomed channels. Still ALL denominations feed and nourish their organic life in this city from year to year, and owe not a little of their robustness and success to the process. We alone have the unenviable notoriety of having visited London once in a generation!

Possibly the recollection of the last Association in London has acted. as a powerful deterrent. It was not a conspicuous_success. I visited it as a student and remember a little of it, and I have heard much more. Its meetings were not all well arranged, nor well attended. It is said delegates went to the "Zoo," and left the "business" to take care of itself. Beds were not too plentiful, and the facilities for transit

* This, too, would quicken the pulse of our Conference life; specially if, as with the Southern Conference, the gatherings of the tribes were made not merely the business of the one church that enjoys the largest share of the privilege, but also of the whole Conference.

were not abundant. But difficulties are only so many calls to fresh effort; and the chief use of being men is to master difficulties.

We are not without hope that we may preserve our manhood in this case. The attack was successfully commenced at the last Association by the suspension of the standing regulations as to order of meetings. When people come to London they must to some extent do as London does. To have early morning meetings, as we do in the country, is to invite and deserve failure. No meeting, therefore, will begin before ten o'clock a.m. The Chairman's Address, too, is placed at seven o'clock on the Monday evening, when Londoners can attend: for it is forgotten by some that the time of our meetings is not the time of our holidays, but the very height of our season, and when it is most difficult to get release from the demands of business.

Westbourne Park Chapel is conveniently placed. It is only half a minute from the ROYAL OAK station of the Metropolitan Underground Railway, and two minutes from the "Royal Oak" public-house, one of the chief West End centres for omnibuses. It will be found large enough for all the necessities of the Association, excepting the one matter of "beds." Dinner will be provided on the premises, and given to all ministers and delegates, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Our fifteen rooms will supply nearly all that is requisite for the meetings of Committees, and for the use of Secretaries.

The "bedding" question is the only one that is likely to prove too much for us to manage according to the desire of our hearts. Generous aid, however, is offered to us, and we shall certainly be able to accommodate all our ministers. We shall also provide the fullest information as to hotels and lodgings for delegates. Read what is supplied in the second sheet of this Magazine, and write to the Rev. W. J. Avery, 16, Maryland Road, W., the Secretary of our Local Committee, for further knowledge where necessary. As Chairman of that Local Committee, I am sure I may say that nothing will be wanting on our part, in labour and devotion, to give the Association such a hearty welcome as will make it anxious to visit the metropolis again within six years.

Only two or three words can be said concerning the subjects which will occupy our time at the forthcoming Association. Our NEW HYMN Book, it is hoped, will be submitted, accepted, and passed, and arrangements made for its early circulation amongst the churches. Whatever may be its designation, it is likely to be, if not the best, yet certainly one of the best, in existence in this year 1878. The work in Orissa and Rome needs to be reinforced. The Foreign Missionary Committee has appointed a sub-Committee to look out for men. Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send them. O that it might please Him to send them. soon, for the fields are white already to harvest. The College will require and repay all the attention we can give it. Our Home Mission, under its new dispensation, has just selected its first sphere of work under most encouraging circumstances. It is to be hoped the churches will give liberally, and that this branch of our labour may receive large accessions of sympathy and help.

May the Lord of our gatherings graciously favour us with His presence, and fill us with His Spirit, and so may His kingdom be greatly promoted by our meetings. JOHN CLIFFORD.

A Peep at the Annual Association of 1785.

THE New Connexion of General Baptists was fifteen years old when the Annual Association met in 1785. When it was organised in 1770, its roll of membership gave 1635 souls; but the effective strength was doubtless, as it is now, inferior to the nominal and numerical. The Old Body of General Baptists had greatly declined from the days when it was not only the elder, but the more numerous of the two branches (General and Particular) of the Baptist denomination in England.

I cannot say whether any Minutes of the New Connexion go further back than those of 1785. They are the oldest in my possession, and have a very primitive appearance, consisting as they do of twelve small pages, printed on very coarse paper. Yet I like to look upon them and to turn them over, for they introduce us to the Fathers and Founders of our Connexion-holy men of God, who have long rested from their labours.

The year 1785 was the year when Pitt's Parliamentary Reform Bill was rejected, and so an adjustment of the Constitution to modern changes was delayed for nearly fifty years. The American War was over, and the first ambassador from the newly-fledged Republic was received at St. James'. The same year letters were conveyed by stage coaches for the first time. France was slowly but surely preparing for her great Revolution, whose throbs have not yet subsided, andominous conjunction !—the guillotine was then introduced as an instrument of capital execution.

The place of assembling was Boston-the quaint old Lincolnshire town. It is older now, and still quaint; but the Boston of 1878 is less like the Boston of 1785, than was the Boston of 1785 to the Boston of 1620, when hearts beat anxiously in her gable houses for tidings of the Mayflower. But then, as now, Boston Stump was a famous landmark to mariners, and two and a half centuries ago the church it dominated was well-stricken in years.

The pastors and representatives who journeyed to Boston to attend the Association of 1785, had travelling difficulties unknown to the present generation; but these were surmounted, and the good men, most of whom probably put up at a public hostel, were ready for business on the 27th of April. The churches sending reports were twentythree, of whom seven were unrepresented at the Association. The total number of representatives (pastors included) was only twenty-four—a proof that then, even as now, a Boston Assembly could not command the attendance natural to the Annual Meeting when held in the Midland district.

When duly convened, Mr. Dan Taylor was elected chairman. Parenthetically be it observed that brother Dan Taylor was elected chairman of all Associations, with two or three exceptions, from 1770 to 1816-evidence that he was a natural leader of General Baptists. The proceedings extended over two days, and it is not surprising that these Minutes contrast very strongly with those which are now the transcript of our business on such occasions. Strictly denominational work-work common to the denomination as a whole-was then almost

A PEEP AT THE ASSOCIATION OF 1785.

209

unknown, for there was no Foreign Missionary Society, no Home Mission, no College, no Hymn Book, no Magazine, no Committees !

Devotional exercises and preaching there were very fervent and refreshing, we may be sure; and then there were the " Cases," to which the pastors and deputies addressed themselves with a lawyer-like tenacity and patience. Of these "Cases" I wish in this glance to give some account, as bringing before us our Connexional Fathers sitting in council, and as throwing light upon the questions which interested them and the churches of which they had the oversight.

Seven churches had sent in one Case each, Donington and Loughborough had sent two Cases each, and Leicester had three Cases of its own. Had the other churches been as prolific in Cases, it is clear that, despite the paucity of other business, the Association must have exceeded the number of sittings now found or made sufficient for the diversified work of the present times.

It is a curious illustration of the trifles which kept Christian men apart even a century ago, that at this Association Messrs. Boyce, Proudfoot, and Clarke attended with a view to union, but could not agree to it, unless those received as members of the New Connexion had hands laid upon their heads by a minister, and also abstained from eating blood. The matter dropt because the Association could not agree to union on such terms; and after a fresh debate the proposals were rejected by a vote of sixteen; one vote being on the contrary, and six members not voting.

In discussing Mr. Dan Taylor's removal from Halifax to London, it was resolved "to throw the matter into a systematic form;" and so, after letters had been read and reports made of what had been done, a series of questions were put, in answer to which "It was unanimously agreed that Halifax is not so important as London;" "After considerable debate it was unanimously agreed that London affords the greatest opportunities;" "It was unanimously agreed that at Halifax there were better instruments to be had fitted for the place"-i.e., in the absence of Mr. Dan Taylor; "It was unanimously agreed, except two neuters, that Halifax can more easily obtain a suitable minister:" and on the question, "If both the places be without a suitable minister, which of the places ought to be supplied?-Answer, London; only five neuters." At a subsequent hour the case of Halifax was again brought up, and after fresh readings and discussions "the final query was solemnly put, 'Does it appear, on the whole, likely to be for the glory of God and the good of mankind that brother D. Taylor remove to London ?'-Answer, Yes seventeen, neuters eight." To London, accordingly, Mr. Dan Taylor went before the next Association. The only London church then met in Church Lane, Whitechapel, and numbered "about one hundred and fifty members;"—the Halifax church having fity-six members.

The Donington church sent as their Case the question, "Has any Association a power to remove any minister from his people without his people's consent?" Answer, No; one yes." The brother who answered Yes, had evidently views of the prerogatives of an Association inconsistent with congregational polity. A more intricate question was next proposed-Whether, if a minister consulted the Association as to removal, and both they and he approved of the step as for the better,