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CONGREGATIONAL CON-¡ FERENCES…

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m, Norfolk, having failed to the proper time, the county 0 the deadlock by conferring lOwers and duties of a parish N CONGREGATIONAL CON- FERENCES at WELSHPOOL. A meeting of delegates of the Montgomeryshire Con- gregational Churches was held at Weishpool on Thurs- day. Mr O. R. Jones, Llanfyllin. presided in the absence of the President of the Union, Mr Ellis Roberts, of Llanfyllin. At the morning meeting a discussion took place on the question of localising a magazine for the county, and in the afternoon the meeting was devoted to the consideration of establishing a Sunday School Union. In the evening a public meeting was held in the Chapel, presided over by Mr Robert Thompson, who was sup- ported by the Rev E. M. Edmunds, Rev T. Powell Williams, Rev T. Bowson, and Mr D. Hamer. There was a fairly good attendance, The meeting opened with singing of a hymn, after which the Rev T. Rowson read a portion of scripture and prayed. The CHAIRMAN extended a hearty welcome to the ministers and delegates who had met there that day for the transaction of the business of the Union. They had met there that evening to discuss one of the most im- portant subjects connected with the Christian Church, namely, the religious training of the young and Sunday School work. It was a question in which they were all very much interested. Some of those present could boast of a record of 10, 20, or 30 years' experience as school teachers, and during that time some hundreds of scholars must have passed through their hands. But where had they passed ? He feared that a great number had passed into the world and not into the Church, which showed t at the truths they had endeavoured to instil into their minds had bee ) unavailing. They might well pause and inquire the cause. The subject of a Sunday School Union was to be brought before them, and, like the Llanfair Railway, was a thing they required. If a Union could be started that night it would give them greater power (cheers). Rev E. M. EDMUNDS said they lived in the age of forward movement, and when they remembered that there were six millions of children in the Sunday Sohools of the United Kingdom he ventured to say there was no forward movement in any branch of Christian work that would prove so beneficial as one in connection with Sunday School work. There had been a great awakening in the Churches in regard to the training of the young. This awakening had not come an hour to soon. He never liked to assume the role of a pessimist, but one could not be blind to the fact that the greatness of their country was being threatened, not by outside enemies, but by its inward foes. There was a tendency in every age to over estimate its own importance, but he did not think they would consider him guilty of over estimating the importance of the age when he said that never since the establishment of Christianity had any age possessed such claims on the earnestness and enthusiastic interest of the Christian Church, and yet her part would be pro- ductive of bad results. It was bound to leave a deeper impression upon society either for good or evil. This was not a time for the Christian Church to be indifferent to the claims of the children. They were told to train the children up in the way they should go, and upon the salvation of the children depended the salvation of the nation. The strength and stability of a nation depended not upon its wealth and commerce, not its army and navy, but upon the character of the people, and it was for this purpose that Christ established His Church upon earth. This should be the test in connection with every Church-not the size of the congregation or the length of membership, but of the kind of character; if the people who attended the services became better men and women, and the children taught in the Sunday School and Band of Hope grew up in the way they should go. It was by virtue of such character that the Church was the salt of the earth, to purify civilization Fo as to make religion a blessing instead of a curse. However wide civilization might extend its influence it would never attain perman- ence unless grounded on the principles of Christ. This was the special function of the Church of the present day through its Sunday School. The Sunday School was really the Church in its teaching capacity, to teach the rising generation how to apply the principles taught by Christ to daily life. The Christian Church was the moral university of the world, to teach its rulers to live spiritually and religiously. The greatest enemy to Christianity was its professed frit:nds, people who took the Bible as their guiding star, who never tried to teach the Bible to the children or to show any interest in the Sunday School work. It was really appalling to think of the grave ignorance in which the young people grew up. The 1 hief Constable of Denbighshire, in a lecture not long ago on the result of crime and criminals, stated that the best criminals were those who had been best educated -educated from a secular point of view. It was appal- ling to think what would be the result of secular educa- tion. He was afraid it would be giving the children more power to do harm unless they instilled into their minds the principles which they were to follow. Still they could not expect the blind to lead the blind. The more he thought the more he felt what a splendid instru- ment the Church was for the evangelisation of the whole nation. It was stated at a Sunday School Conference that only one out of the ten taught in the Sunday School ever became Church members. He could not help asking what had become of the nine ? What a great thing it would be if every Sunday School teacher made it their one aim to lead their scholars to Christ, and considered their work unfinished until they bad accomplished that aim. In the ordinary affairs of life they were not satis- fied to leave their duties unfinished. What was worth beginning was worth completing, and Sunday School work was worth doing and doing well. It was tho duty of every Sunday School teacher to realise the transcendent importance of the work upon which he was engaged, and ho should not be satisfied until he had finished the good work he had undertaken so that the scholars might be placed as an adornment to the temple of which Christ was the chief corner stone (cheers). Rev THOMAS JONES, Berriew, asked whether the game was worth the candle. Looking at it from one point of view it was not, but from another it was. Taking the first view, they said that the attention given to the children would not pay them directly for their labours. They were educating the next generation, and they would not receive the benefit. But taking the larger view, they certainly received handsome returns for their work. He was afraid they were apt to treat the Bible too much as the Book of God, and forget that it was the Book of man as well. They should train the children from the Church, and not to do the devil's work. They should try to get them to be Church members. The children now received a course of training in the Sunday School, but they drifted out into the world. It was their duty to see that they did not drift into the world, but become members of the Church. They should ask the children if they had an inclination to join the Church, and if so receive them. They should not catechise them severely. A child on entering a day school did nothing to pass a hard examina- tion until it had gone through a certain course of training. Therefore they could not expect too much from a child. They should study the psychological nature of the I children. He never stood before children without a care- ful preparation, because he knew they would believe what he said. Children took it all in and acted upon it. They had confidence. Therefore let them not betray the confidence and faith the children reposed in them (cheers). Mr DAVID HAMER, Newtown, said they had been the pioneers of religion for the last 300 years. Some Congregationalists had been the fathers of that glorious Republic the other side the Atlantic, and to them they owed the first principle of religious and civil liberty as founded in that nation. He noticed that the Vicar of Welshpool had been speaking the previous week upon Church reform. They had been Church reformers for 300 years, therefore the Vicar of Welshpool was 300 years behind the time. It was often thrown into their teeth that they were a denomination founded in the 15th century, but they could trace their descent back to the Sermon on the Mount. For the last 300 years they had upheld certain principles, which they upheld to-day--Independ- ency. What did Independency mean r It meant that they were independent of State control. They did not allow the State to control them in any way. They bad no king but Jesus. They would not allow any Driest, bishop, cardinal, or pope to have any dominion over them, and they permitted no presbytery to control them. Every individual Church was a complete Church in itself. They upheld these principles before the whole world. Religion was a principle of life, which must be carried on and borne out in every day life. These principles they had to teach to their young. They should not believe the state- ments continually dinned in their ears that they were indifferent. That was not so, they were rather the pioneers of religion.. What was the state of things during the past century, and how were the children brought up then, and how was the Sabbath observed? Every parish had its games on the Sabbath day, and there was no peace to conduct the services in the Church. They found that as soon as the Church service was over the Clerk would rush out first, and standing upon a stone would proclaim the events of the week, the sales, fairs, games, and wakes (laughter). Their forefathers protested against that, and came out from the Church of Eugland and built their own place of worship, and they existed in contra-distinction to the Church of England. They must therefore instil into the minds of the young those princi- ples which their forefathers established. This could be done by spiritual men alone, and he trusted they would do in the future what they had done in the past (cheers) Rev T. POWELL WILLIAMS also spoke. On the motion of Mr W. JONES, seconded by Mr R. POWELL, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the Chairman, and the ministers, and delegates. The meet- ing concluded with the singing of a hymn. During the meeting the choir, conducted by Mr Maurice Jehu, J.P., rendered several hymns.

LLANDINAM.

KERRY.

FOOTBALL.

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LIBERALISM j IN THE BOROUGHS.!…

"ABERANGELL. ~~

LLANBRYNMAIR.

CARNO.

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TREFEGLWYS.

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TREGYNON.

CAERSWS.

LLANGURIG.

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MONTGOMERY.

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