a private house, fitted them with forms on my own responsibility, and announced, being a local preacher, that I would preach there to as many as would adhere to the Methodist New Connexion. This movement saved the cause. The friends took courage, and joined me in renting and preparing a carpenter's shop for public worship. There the congregation and society increased till the place was too small, and Brunswick Chapel, our present commodious and well-attended sanctuary, in Great Dover Street, was built. The building of Brunswick Chapel gave stability to our cause in London. A year or two after its erection, we had in London four places of worship, four societies, two circuit preachers, ten local preachers, and two hundred and twenty-nine members. In 1852, however, we had retrograded, and had only two chapels, one circuit preacher, and one hundred and seventeen members. A few years since, the accession of Messrs. Rabbits and other worthy individuals to our ranks invested us with additional strength, activity, and enterprise. Hence, our cause of late has made rapid and encouraging advancement. New chapels have been built, new societies formed, and new Sunday-schools established. Our numbers now are two circuits, five preaching rooms, ten chapels, fourteen societies, four circuit preachers, thirty local preachers, nine hundred and twenty-eight members, fourteen Sunday-schools, two hundred and forty-three teachers, and two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine scholars.

Looking at the improved condition of our cause in London, and the magnitude of the spiritual wants of London, we feel constrained to inquire" Shall we stand still, or go on?" To stand still would be to grow feeble, contract, and diminish; to go on will be to wax strong, enlarge our borders, and multiply our numbers. We say, therefore, Go on; in the name of the Lord, go on. But our cause in London, if left to itself, will not go on so fast as is desirable. Its resources are not adequate for extensive enlargement. It will do what it can, yet far more is requisite. London, therefore, should be made a field of Connexional enterprise.

The honour of our Connexion requires the extension of our cause in London. As long as we remain small and feeble in the metropolis, in comparison with Episcopalians, Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans, the press will ignore our Connexional efforts. No matter how bold and liberal our achievements, little or no notice will be taken of them. It requires no gift of prophecy to foretell this. Its certainty is plainly indicated by existing facts. Two years ago, with warm hearts and generous hands, we supplied the pecuniary means of sending missionaries to China. We now have a mission in that vast empire. The Revs. I. Innocent and W. Hall are there, endeavouring, in conjunction with the missionaries of other Denominations, to turn the Chinese from Budha and Confucius to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Yet a certain metropolitan paper, which circulates widely among the Congregationalists, in giving recently a list of the number of missionaries employed by the Denominations respectively in China, makes no reference whatever to the Methodist New Connexion and its missionaries. At the present time we have a munificent legacy of five thousand pounds available for the establishment of a college, and we are raising six thousand pounds additional for the same object.

If this legacy and these subscriptions were connected with the Episcopal, or the Baptist, or the Independent, or the Wesleyan body, the metropolitan press would blazon them forth in commendatory paragraphs, and in eulogistic leading articles. As it is, no reference is made to them. Why are our liberal gifts, to support missionaries in China, and to establish a college in England, unnoticed? Because we

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are comparatively unknown, and exert little influence in London. it has been, so it will be, until we become strong enough and sufficiently numerous to hold our annual missionary meeting in Exeter Hall, and thus constrain the metropolitan papers to know and acknowledge what we are doing, as co-workers with others, in evangelizing the world.

The usefulness of our Connexion requires the extension of our cause in London. That we are doing good in England, Ireland, Canada, and China is undeniable. Nevertheless, we long to do greater good. Our solicitude to be more useful is shown in the vigorous missionary operations we sustain, both at home and abroad. One means of increasing usefulness is the efficient occupancy of large centres of industry and population. Evidence of this is before our eyes. Wherever we strongly occupy such a locality we are extensively useful. There is Leeds, with Batley, Dewsbury, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax stretching away from it. There is Ashton, with Dukinfield, Hooley Hill, Hyde, Staleybridge, Hurst, Mossley, Lees, Oldham, &c., encircling it. There is Dudley, with Pensnet, Oldbury, Tipton, &c., near to it. There is Hanley, with Longton, Fenton, Stoke, Newcastleunder-Lyme, Tunstal, Burslem, &c., around it. If London were effectively occupied, similar results would be developed. If, in the east, the west, the north, and the south of the metropolis, localities were selected in which we have no place of worship, and flourishing societies established amid the teeming population, these societies, with Methodistic zeal, would originate others in the growing suburbs of London, and thus we should save thousands of souls from everlasting death. Nor would this be all. Our growth in London would stimulate growth elsewhere. Having a flourishing head, all the members would flourish. The spectacle of progress, and the consciousness of strength in London, would incite us to make progress and wax strong in other parts of England. The provinces would emulate the metropolis in works of faith and labours of love, and consequent usefulness and increase. Besides, the immense gathering that would then be found annually in Exeter Hall, to sustain our missions, would give a tone and impulse to the missionary meetings in every circuit, calling forth liberal contributions, impelling us to enlarge our missionary operations, and rendering us instrumental in converting multitudes from error to truth, from sin to holiness, from idolatry to Christianity, from the power of Satan unto God.

Think of the souls uncared for in London that require our sympathy and help. They number not scores, as in a hamlet; not hundreds, as in a village; not thousands, as in a town; not tens of thousands, as in a city; but hundreds of thousands! Meditate on this fact. Hundreds of thousands of souls-of rational, redeemed, responsible, and immortal beings-living without God, and without hope, in London; for whom no places of worship are found, and on whose ears a preached

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Gospel never falls, warning them to flee from the wrath to come. right to care for the bodies, but it is wrong to neglect the souls, of the dwellers in London. It is good to form ragged urchins into brigades of shoe-blacks; to provide food and shelter for the hungry and homeless; to erect asylums for orphans, the blind, and the deaf and dumb; to build almshouses for the aged, and to endow hospitals for the sick; but it is better to supply sanctuaries and ministers for the multitudes who are passing along the broad road towards eternity, crying as they go, "No man careth for our souls." Some persons, in the absence of romantic circumstances, seem incapable of yearning with compassion for souls, and making efforts to save them. They pity and care for souls that are far away; that dwell in fleshly tabernacles tinged with black, or red, or yellow; that develop savage passions; that worship grim idols: but the souls of their own countrymen, perishing for lack of knowledge, they forget and disregard. Far be it from us to be guided by imaginings, and not by convictions. Let us seek the salvation of souls both abroad and at home. The souls of Englishmen are as precious as the souls of Indians, Hottentots, Figians, and Chinese. Distance and nearness make no difference in the worth of Souls, and the desirableness of their conversion. Every soul won to Christ in London will be as bright a gem in the crown of Christ as the soul of a converted savage, or an idolatrous Chinese. To be the means of saving one soul is delightful; but to be instrumental in saving hundreds or thousands of souls is both gladsome and glorious. The opportunity of this achievement is placed before us in London. If we knew of a village containing one thousand souls, or a town contain ing ten thousand souls; or a city containing one hundred thousand souls, in which no chapel stood for public worship, and not a minister dwelt to preach the Gospel, our compassion and zeal would impel us to erect a chapel, and send a minister. In London there are souls equal in number to the inhabitants of six such cities, or sixty such towns, or six hundred such villages, without either a place of worship or a preacher of righteousness. If the large and populous town of Sheffield, containing one hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants, had neither a chapel nor a minister in it, we should endeavour without delay to supply its want. The multitude of souls in London unsupplied with means of grace would people three cities as large as Sheffield, and another as large as Nottingham. Shall these hundreds of thousands of souls remain without sanctuaries and ministers? Shall they live and die in the metropolis of England like so many Pagans; unwarned of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and uninvited to worship God, believe in Christ, and prepare for the kingdom of heaven? Shall they be led captive by the devil at his will, in the way of wickedness, until they fall into hell, without any attempt to rescue them from eternal death, and guide them to eternal life? God forbid. Help! men of Israel, help! Awake, awake, members and friends of the Methodist New Connexion, and make suitable efforts in London to hide a multitude of sins, and to save a multitude of souls.

To evade this appeal, it may be said that I have already intimated that various Denominations, including our own, are building new chapels and employing additional ministers. True, and I rejoice that it is so. But what are these among so many? A much larger

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number of chapels and ministers are requisite to overtake the existing spiritual destitution, than are likely to be built and appointed by the whole of the religious sects during the next ten years; and before the census is taken again, what a host of the unconverted inhabitants of London will have entered a future state! Then, let us up and be doing.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of rendering London eminent for righteousness. If Athens was the eye of Greece, and Rome was the eye of Italy, and Paris is the eye of France, London is the eye of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Africa, and India; of an empire that is found in the four quarters of the globe; and thus it is the eye of the world. To London the princes, the diplomatists, the literati, the divines, the merchants, and the mariners of every sea, and island, and continent resort. Men of all countries, and of all classes in society, receive sentiments and impressions in London, which they disseminate to the ends of the earth. The politics, the science, the art, and the commerce of London exert an influence on the people of every clime. So do the customs and habits of London: as far as those customs and habits are religious and moral, they benefit mankind; as far as they are irreligious and immoral, they injure mankind. Foreigners cannot dwell amidst the Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, and debauchery of London, without ideas and emotions unfavourable to the worship of God and the practice of virtue. Their intellect and heart are so acted on by the words they hear and the deeds they witness, as to cherish and develop evil thoughts and carnal affections. They are drawn into the whirlpool of ungodliness and immorality, and leave London worse, instead of better, in character and conduct, through intercourse with its inhabitants. When they reach their native lands, the opinions they express, and the actions they perform, bring Great Britain into disrepute, and produce false impressions respecting Christianity. Thus error and sin in distant countries, instead of receiving a check, derive encouragement from the visits of foreigners to the metropolis of England. London, instead of sending out light to scatter the darkness, deepens the darkness. London, instead of sending forth purifying waters to cleanse from vice, increases vice. How different would it be were London a godly city, with "Holiness unto the Lord written on the character of its population! Then, London would be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. All who enter it would leave it wiser and better for what they had heard and seen in it. Fraught with the wisdom and virtue that come from above, it would be a teacher of truth, and a pattern of piety, to all kindreds, and tribes, and nations. Its knowledge, morality, godliness, and benevolence would enchain the attention, charm the imagination, excite the wonder, enlighten the understanding, awaken the conscience, impress the heart, renovate the character, regulate the life, promote the happiness, and brighten the prospect of the people who either visit it or trade with it. Haste, happy day, when London, eminent for piety, shall be eminent for investing multitudes, now sunk in pollution and misery, with the beauty of holiness, and a foretaste of the joy of heaven.

The increase of religion in London would add greatly to its grandeur and comfort. England is so great, free, powerful, and prosperous, that its capital ought to be not only in name, but also in fact, its diadem of dignity-its crown of glory. Splendour, wealth,

knowledge, and civilization are found in London; yet darkest ignorance, leanest poverty, foulest vice, and deepest misery are found there likewise. These evil things exist there not as small spots, easily overlooked, and scarcely noticeable, but as large excrescences, arresting attention, and exciting disgust. Their prevalence so debases London, that we cannot look at and admire it as a royal diadem on the brow of old England. Its ignorance, poverty, vice, and misery must be either entirely or largely removed, by vital godliness, ere London will adorn and dignify Great Britain. If "righteousness exalteth a nation," it will exalt London. "Godliness is profitable unto all things." It imparts honour and prosperity to individuals, to families, to cities, and to empires. All that is wanted to invest London with majesty, magnificence, and happiness, in the highest degree, is more religion. The prevalence of religion, in its throbbing heart and active limbs-in its mayoralty and its suburbs-from its centre to its circumference, would make it a glorious circlet on the head of a mighty nation. The Kohinoor-the mountain of light-in the diadem of a country, is Christianity. Only irradiate London with this matchless diamond, and innumerable gems and pearls will cluster around it. If the multitudes in London who are now living without God be converted to God-be renewed in their character by the preaching of the Gospel, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, after the moral image of God-the ignorance, poverty, vice, and misery which disfigure it will be displaced by knowledge, opulence, virtue, and happiness. Then frank intelligence will be seen instead of vulgar cunning; comfortable dwellings will appear instead of dirty hovels; manly sobriety will be found in the streets instead of reeling drunkenness; modest beauty will meet the eye instead of impudent sensuality; good words will be spoken instead of foul and fierce language; comely attire will be worn instead of filthy rags; glowing health will mantle the cheek instead of pallid sickness; cheerful voices will be heard instead of melancholy sounds; politics will be patriotic; mansions will be magnificent; manners will be courteous; trading transactions will be upright; social habits will be pure; domestic circles will resound with prayer and praise; families will dwell together in love, and their homes will be the homes of plenty, peace, and joy. Thus majestic, virtuous, prosperous, and happy, London will be the diadem on the head, and the glory in the midst, of Great Britain.

To assist in evangelizing London will yield us abundant joy. The joy of extending Christianity and saving souls is peculiarly sweet and satisfying. This is the joy that was set before Jesus Christ, and it nerved him to endure the shame and agony of the cross; this was the gladness that filled the Apostle Paul, when he appealed to the souls he had won to Christ, saying, "Are not ye my joy, and my crown of rejoicing?" This was the joy of Wesley and Whitfield, when they looked at the thousands they had turned to righteousness in England and in America; this was the joy of Williams in Polynesia; this is the joy of Moffat in Africa; this is the joy of all successful ministers at home, and of all successful missionaries abroad; this is the joy of all who, by their labours, contributions, and prayers for Christian missions, have been helpful in bringing the souls of wild Indians, enslaved negroes, fierce savages, and civilized idolaters out of darkness into