in the afternoon and evening the stalls | man, on behalf of the church and conwere liberally patronised. The annual tea was held in the same place at five p.m., when between three and four hundred were assembled. A public meeting followed, at which the pastor presided. The report for the past year was read, which was of a very satisfactory nature. Addresses were delivered by the Revs. W. Heaton, T. Sissons, R. Caven, and C. Williams. The evening was further enlivened by suitable Anthems by the choir. The pecuniary profits of the anniversary, as far as can at present be ascertained, will be about £80.

On the 25th of May a public tea meeting was held in the Baptist Chapel, Woodstock, and after tea a public meeting. The chair was occupied by | Mr. T. Hunt, senior deacon, and the audience, which was highly respectable, was addressed by Messrs. G. G. Banbury, E. P. Kent, W. Leggatt, and W. M. Duke. During the evening, the chair

gregation, presented to the Rev. J. G. Hughes, the esteemed and beloved pastor, a handsome clock in a glass case. A papier-maché inkstand, of a neat and useful description, was also handed to the pastor on behalf of the Bible-class. Mr. Hughes acknowledged the gifts in a very feeling and appropriate address, and the meeting was concluded about nine p.m. Mr. Hughes preached his farewell sermon at that place on the following Sunday evening to an overflowing congregation from the words, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved;" at the close of which the Lord's supper was administered. Mr. Hughes leaves Woodstock, followed by the respect and esteem of all classes. He has received and accepted a unanimous invitation from the United Churches of Culmstock and Uffculm, Devon, to become their pastor, and entered on his new sphere of labour the first Lord's day in June.

Pastor's College, Metropolitan Tabernacle.

PRESIDENT-C. H. SPURGEON.-NUMBER OF STUDENTS, 93. Amount required for Students during the year, about £5,000; the rest will be devoted to building Places of Worship.

Mr. T. Harvey

Mr. J. Craddock

Mr. T. W. Jones

Mr. Simpson

Statement of Receipts from May 19th, to June 18th, 1866.

Mrs. Elizabeth Stacey

Mrs. Charlotte Ware

Mr. G. T. Beilby

A Thank-offering for having escaped loss

in the panic

£291 19 1

Subscriptions will be thankfully received by C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Should any sums be unacknowledged in this list, friends are requested to write at once to Mr. Spurgeon.

THE

SWORD AND THE TROWEL.

AUGUST, 1866.

The Holy War of the present Hour.

BY C. H. SPURGEON.

VERY period is, on some account or other, a crisis. The conflict between the powers of darkness and the Spirit of truth concerns such vital interests, and is conducted with such unceasing energy, that each moment is big with importance, and every instant is the hinge of destiny. We may be held excusable, therefore, if we should be mistaken in the assertion that the present hour is one of extreme peril, and demands the utmost zeal of the servants of the living God. In addition to the stolid mass of heathenism which crowds our great cities and rusticates in the sparser populations, over and beyond the terrible indifference to divine things which covers the nation, we have in England to stand foot to foot with a Romanism of the most fascinating form, and with an infidelity of the most cunning character. The rapid growth of Tractarianism is astounding to all but those who know the adaptation of the system to the depraved heart; but to such it is as easily accounted for as the kindling of a conflagration when fire falls among hay and stubble. While men's hearts are tinder-boxes it will never be a wonder that the devil should be able to light a fire. The master-piece of Satan is Popery. Just as the gospel of the grace of God is the noblest display of the divine attributes, so is the Popish system the most subtle of all the works of Satan, wherein he manifests his utmost skill; and as the energy of Omnipotence is prepared to consummate the triumph of the Lord's Christ, so is all the might of hell engaged to secure the supremacy of Antichrist. There can be little doubt that in the Church of England the Tractarian party is by far the most powerful, and that out of that church its ill savour is doing much serious mischief. It has been called a brilliant fungus growing upon the church; we believe it to be, to a great extent, the legitimate form of that community, sanctioned by its past history, and prescribed by its liturgy and catechism. We are quite unable to agree with those who think Puseyism to be a departure from the Church of England, for the

fact that its adherents ask for no revision of the liturgy is a proof that they feel it to be on their side. Those who remember the Puseyism of ten years ago will have observed the tremendous strides with which it has advanced, and will have been equally struck with the development which it has undergone; its plumage was modesty itself then, compared with its splendour now, and its tone was indistinct as the famous roaring of sucking doves, compared with its present thunderings. No longer can we say that Puseyism is Romanism disguised; it has removed the mask, and is now openly and avowedly what it has always been—ritualism, sacramentarianism, priestcraft, Antichrist. Puseyism has clothed herself with the beggarly rags worn by the Romish harlot in the dark ages, and thrown upon the dunghill because they were too full of leprosy to be any longer endured by intelligent beings; these rags she has put on one by one with daily increasing hardihood, until at last her likeness to the Apocalyptic sketch of the woman on the scarlet-coloured beast is as clear as noonday; but all this has not opened the eyes of the boasted "No Popery" England, and multitudes in our nation are as much enamoured with priestcraft to-day as their fathers were in the days of Thomas of Canterbury. Meanwhile, sceptics in canonicals are debauching thoughtful minds with their speculations and insinuations, and so with a double cord the people are dragged downward to destruction.

Is nothing to be done? Can nothing be attempted? Shall all the zeal, energy, wit, and perseverance in the world go to the wrong side? Is there no demand made upon believers now to vindicate the truth? Our fathers held their own against all comers, and even turned to flight the armies of the aliens; are we tamely to sit still? Let a crusade against Puseyism and all other error be proclaimed, and let all faithful souls enlist in the great war. In the name of the Lord we will set up our banners and join in the fray. The gospel of Jesus is assailed by its ancient enemies, let every true man come to the front and face the foe. Oh for the God of Gideon to be with the few whom he may make worthy to smite the great host who have covered the land! The Puritans erred in using carnal weapons, and hence their victory was shortlived; our conflict now is not with flesh and blood, and if the Lord speed us, the triumph once gained will be perpetual.

The well-known story of Arnold von Winkelried occurs to us as admirably illustrating our present position. The tale shall be told, and then we will append its moral. The Austrian duke, determined to make vassals of the Swiss cantons, had marched an army of wellarmed knights and nobles to attack the city of Lucerne, against which the gallant Swiss could only send into the field a few ill-accoutred warriors. Armour was scarce among the Swiss; some had only boards fastened on their arms by way of shields, some had halberts which had been used by their sires at the battle of Morgarten, and others wielded two-handed swords and battle-axes; they formed themselves into a wedge, and strove with useless valour to break the bristling line of spears presented by the Austrian knights, whose gay shields and polished impenetrable armour stood like a glittering wall quite out of the Switzer's reach. Nothing availed against the Austrian phalanx, while death thinned the ranks of the patriots. It was a moment when some