The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-04-18 00:00:00

WESLEYAN TEA AND MEETING AT
DORCHESTER.

Good Friday with the Dorchester IVesleyans and
their friends was a grand day, as on that occasion
arrangements had been made for especial service, tea,
and public meeting, a great effort being made by all
to make the whole a success, and to raise • good round
sum towards the remaining debt on the magnificent
new chapel in South-street. The weather on the above
day was anything but tempting for a long ride from
the country, as the wind was blowing "hail a gale,"
and piercingly cold, from the NE., which prevented
many from attending from the country, but in spit. of
the cold the friends of Methodism from Bens Heath,
Bere Regis, Whitchurch, Sydling, and many other
distant parts rallied in good force, and the meetings
were gone the success the friends had contemplated
indeed more was raised than had been expected. None
know better than the Wesleyan friends how to "raise
the wind," so at preliminary meetings several ladies
were appointed to collect for " trays " in the town,
and others in different parts of the county, and that
they worked heartily will be gathered from the fact
that the ladies of Dorchester secured the gift of 78
trays whilst the country contributed 33, making a
total of 113! This was considerably more than had
been anticipated, and the esteemed Superintendent
(the Rev. W. Allen) at the meeting in the evening
aonaidered they had done nobly, anti the friends who
had been asked to help had contributed so freely that
they ought to be encouraged by being asked again I! '
The day's proceedings commenced by a IlerViC• in
the Chapel at 3 p.m., when there was a good congre-
gation. The Rev. T. Richards, of Gloucester, who
formerly laboured in this oireuit, was the preacher of
the day, and for he text took Hebrews ix., 13 and 14,
s. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes
of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, manctifieth to the
purifying of tlse Bah, how much more shall the blood
of airier, who through the Eternal Spirit offered him-
self without spot to God Purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God," OD which he
founded a masterly discourse, idling on the power
of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all ate, for if the
blood of bulls and of goats were able to sanctify to the
purifying of the flesh, hew surA non, said am

, shall the.precione blood 41 Jesus cleanse you away ?-By baptism! And newly other such queue
geninctlelrsin ; and in a sermon of 40 minutes' lentsth, Cons and answers were read. Among them being
which was listened ti It Mil the Htni°4 attentioe, the " Who can ,li.,,elmelutien ?--The pricet only."
rev. eentleman appead•il to his hearers to cems to the Wm.; this, *eked the speaker. to be the tesellitio Of our
fountain opened for sat and for uncleanness. churches ? Wleit we wanted watt to lift one prot.ut
At live "'dock the p 11,1 M ten tad.: pw. iii the Cru weiinst th% teaehime-to lift our voices hiirh mwl to
Exchange, and the attewlenee wee very tar w. At rat not until those, who twisht such trash were pitched
the public meeting in the eune room the Rev. W. across the as right into itome--(lond applcise). He
Allen presided, and on the platform were the Rev. T. then referred to their work, and thouglit they were
Richards, the Rev. J. Biehop, the nee. %Ir. Allen, not degenerating. He spoke of the hard liehting
of
jun., Mr. G. Crocker, seen.. Mr. l. Oasis, Mr. J. Bush, ' the Methieliste in its early days. and remarked that
Mr. G. Wright, jim., and Mr. !liege. those who were its bitterest enemies turned round
The flhapel emir wan in attendance, and sang afterwards and were their hest friend.. He noticed
admirably &trine the evening several of Mr. S'ankey's the humour awl wit which characterieed the early
popular hymns and mime hang ably aegompabied on friends of Methodism, even old Mr. Wesley was re-
the harmonium by Miss Legg. Preview to the meet- markable for his wit. It was by this that these great
ing, and whilst the friends were assembling, they gave men reached the manses of the people, and for years
"Seatter seeds of kindles.," and at the opening of the after they were gone their anecdote* sparkled and
meeting one from the later edition of the eanie song., their wit lived. Some people had been afraid to
" The Lifeboat." after which Mr. Allen, jim., offered embrace Christianity, as they thought it Was inch a
prayer, Awl "Tell me the old old story," was mime. melancholy thing; but he could assure them that he
The Clieleuee said they would never tire of hearing had never known any real pleasure until he had given
the old old story, but they were there that evening to himself unreservedly to Jesus Christ -(applanee). He
hear another "1,1 ',tory about that lino ehapel in then made some telling hits with regard to the collec-
Southatreet When they undertook to build that tion urged them to give as thosteh there was nothing
chapel it wan a grand and noble effort, awl they had else to follow, and made a forcible appeal to them to
eucceeded nobly; but they 'soul,' never have built make some sacrifice ler the Lord. The n was
such a chaiwl lint for the promises which they bad then made, and a. ,swin 714 over the ivy, gentleman
received. He wee ery pleased with the way in which i• lid Iw Want& I them to 1 eget the pest, and on the
tee, le.„ethe, sail been met, few had not been slip, iif peeler which would be supplied then, to write
fulfill, ', but he theught they were in duty hound to down their name, awl Miry. and the amount they
carry teens out One gentleman who had premised a would give or collect between thet time awl Whit-
large sum hail that day sent a cheque for 420 towards Monday, and concluded a capital speech, which had
the remaining sum, he having contributed I:50 at the caused much amusement, amid tremendous applause.
time the promise was given -(applause). There Several friends then took cards for collecting, and
now remained MO to raise, £2eo of this they had in the proceeding's terminated. The whole amount ham
promises, leaving £4OO to get, -a large sum certainly; to be raised or guaranteed by Whit-Monday, in order
but he thought they were well able to grapple with to ensure the free e,ift, and loan without interest of
it, and to wipe it off, and then it would he off their MX/ from the Weileyan Conference. The illy', pro-
tein& He ,h,l not intend making a Ling speech, he ceedinees were a great simoses, awl the Wesleyan
did not believe in them -and as some of their friends friends are to be roneretnlated on their efforts, the net
had come a distance of 13 miles, he thought they ought proceeds being (exclusive of the op cheque sent by
to get the meeting over as soon aa possible. He told the gentleman who had previously promised) about
of a preacher who once had to preach a funeral sermon, 410, which was beyond the amount reckoned on by
he was very " long-winded" generally, awl on this the friend..
occlusion he preached for a hour and a quarter, he than During the evening the 'hairman ,innonmed that
read the history if the decemed brother, from the Messrs. Davis :eel Son, the builders of the Chapel.
cradle to manhood, which took 45 minutes longer, and hail sent a cheque fir £lO towards the funds, awl we
then not content with this he began to shout "'Where understand they have also presented the trusteed with
shall we Ind him I" He could not be placed with the a clock which has been planed in the Chapel.
angels of heaven as they had never been redeemed,
whilst their brother had been, he could not be placed
with the archangels for the same reason, and again he
shouted "Where are we to put him r when'one of the
congregation, nun said. "Put him in my pew, as I
am going out !" He (the rev, speaker), went on to
urge his hearers to get more of the love of God in their
hearts, and stated that they wanted more personal
piety. He thought they should read more-read
&modally their bibles, and then their own literature.
Ire Wanted them to train up their children properly,
and urged the importance of providing them with a
number of the children's volumes, which were lathed by
their society. He also advocated everybody doing
their own work and fulfilling their own appointments,
and concluded a rattling speech by urging them to
attend to little matters, and do all their work in •
respectable manner, finally appealing to them to make
a grand effort that evening, to wipe off the exuding debt
on the chapel-(applause).
The Rev. W. Au Lev, jun., who is soon to follow in
the fa itatere of his father by geing out in the minim'
work, foliowe I with • capital speech, abonnding with
racy awl telling anecdotes, mingled with some pod
sound prsetic d advice. He did not vet know much
ale eit the Methodist Society, but he had seen enough of
it to like it, and to be thoroughly 'satisfied with it,
maehinery. He urged thetn to pray for more faith in
the r work, to use the means God had given them,
end He would help them to do the work they had in
hand. They must pray, work, and give; it was no
.ise t , be .d.rlys praying and never working-player
and work must go together. They had done hand-
somsly Ind if they persevered and were united in
deer efforts the debt would soon be elearyl off, and
teen they might look for a great spiritual awakening.
But to accomplish this they must make sacrifices;
but Al they could do weldl not equal the great
sacriiice they were that day celebrating- when christ
laid itown his life for sin, Ile believed in the power of
prayer, and told an ausii,ine anecdote. A Christian
man in a. small village had left £lOO towards a &sloe!,
to be paid at his death. This became known, and as
the friends wanted to build a chapel before that event
tie,k place, called and mke,l his atisietance. He said
be eoulil not well help them then, liut when "tho teed
teek him" he hail left £lOO for them. The minister
asked if he would pay half that .11111 then anil let the
other half stay till his death. He still held out, and
the minister left. At last the frienile hit ..n a mede of
procedure, which proved successful. They agreed to
wait nu him again, and they did. On entering the
minister told their misai ~,, , and then asked if he
believed in the ower if prayer. He replied" Pietism
the Lord, I do.' Well now, said the minister, as you
won't give us the money till your death, we intend to
pray to the Lord to take you home at once. And they
all knelt down accordingly, and prayed earnestly that
this event might take place, and on the conclusion of
the prayer the man jumped up from his knees and
shouted, "Here, take the money; 11l pay it at once!"
-(laughter). In concluding the rev, gentleman again
tulated the friends en the wade effort they had
Zi°27 and contrasted the way they had raised the
money with modes adopted fir building other places,
of worship, reading an extract from a bill which
announced agran, I Ethiopian entertainment by coloured
minstrels in nil of the building fund of a local church,
and, Raid the speaker, before calling in the devil to
help do the work of building a house fir God's worship,
they would go without a chapel -(loud applause!.
Th. Rev. J. ffisHol. was very pleased to see such a
gathering, and he hoped they hail all enjoyed the
preliminary service., of the day as much as he had
done. He spoke of the rich spiritual treat afforded
by the service and sermon of the Afternoon, awl of the
refreshing seasonof tea time, convulsing the audience
with laughter by telling of an id.] lady who used to
loam i.l drinking fotirteen cups of tea at a similar
gathering to that they hail just now. Passing on he
touched a little idand where he ueea to reside _
Nie is -which was always sai.l 4, be under a cloud,
and he thought that their nice little chapel was under
a small clew! at the present time, but he hoped that
cloud would be sinnewhat lifted to-day, and are long
he removed entiwl). But this could only be done by
perseverance, and he encouraged them by reminding
them of the efforts which were made to erect the
Jewish tabernacle when people brought so much that
they had to be restrained in giving, they had provided
more than enough. By way of showing that there is
a withholding which tendeth to poverty he told of an
old lady who lietesed to a charity sermon, and then
left without putting anything in the plate. 1.314
leaving the church someone picked her pocket, and
she went home exclaiming "the permit did not get
into my pocket, but the devil did ! -(laughter). He
then contrasted the amount given for religious pur-
poses with that spent in beer and tobacco, and thought
It was • crying evil that such should be the rex. He
admitted they had given well in the past, but they
must be continually giving until the debt heel been
entirely removed. Some people had condemned their
Chapels, and had said the gospel was not preached in
them. But these assertions had been made by men,
some of whom were to be pitied for their ignorance,
and the others blamed or their impudence -
(applause). He showed that the gospel was being
proclaimed faithfully, and passed on to notice the
heartiness of the services, and trusted the day wm far
distant when they should cease to hear a good
"Amen "in response to the prayers. He ridiculed the
congregations of some churches responding by, proxy,
were the clerk was paid te bellow out "amen ' at the
close of the prayer., and told • laughable tale of an old
Methodist friend who used occasionally to go to the
pari.h church, where his continuallyrespondingannoyed
the parson until that gentleman threatened to die-
centinue the dole of "sou" if he continued the
practice. This had its desired effect for a few weeks,
until one Sunday something touching reached the old
man's ears, and he shouted out "Soup or no soup
Praise the Lord "-(niare of laughter). He ur
them to be united in all their efforta, and reminirecal
them of the motto which Nelson nailed to his mast-
head at the great battle of Trafalgar-." England
expects every man this day to do his duty." This,
Raid the 'speaker, ran through the whole line of battle
ships an i victory crowned their efforts. Just so was
it with the Christian Jesus Christ looking down
from the cross says He expects each servant of His
to d. his duty. "The rev, gentleman cencludel an
excellent speech by remarking that "all labour ia
noble and hely-let thy good deeds be thy prayer to
God "-(loud applau.el-
The Chairman then intro luced the Rev. THOMAS
RICHARD. who Said he rose with pleasure to the call
of the Chairman, and expressed the joy he felt at
main meeting his old friends, and to be able to speak
in the new chapel. But though there was a joy there
WWI a tinge of sorrow, he clinged to the old
place a little even now. Ile hail spent many of his
happiest daps there. In a humourous manner he
related the nervousness which he had felt when find
commencing in the ministry, and how often he had felt
he Amid like to have ceoeped out of the chapel in some
other way than the right, but that was now wearing
off a good deal. He coneratubsted the chairman
on having shook hands with old Mrs. Nervousness
years aLlo, and caused row" of laughter by relating the
story of a young commercial traveller, who Was very
nervous on embarking In the travelling line, who
having placed his portmanteau in charge of the Otaril.
Was continually if his trunk (as he would call
it) was safe. This he continued till an old commercial
traveller in the same oompartment, grew Weary of the
cry, and .houteil fiercely at the young traveller "It
would have been a goml thing if you had been born an
elephant instead of a f—, les you would then always
have had your trunk with you! He (the speaker),
continued for some time to convulse his audience with
laughter, his remarks being of the most lively and
racy ileecription. But having had a spell of humour,
he said they must settle down to seriouenees. as they
hail slut of work before them. He thought they had a
strand gathering that evening, as there was no special
attraction -they were now wine nearly to the end of
the scheme. They were there as Wesleyan Methodists
and to di, Wesleyan Methielimts work, Some persons
fancied they hail no busheso, to live, they were not
wanted, but his impression was that the world would
not be able to get on without them. There was room
enough in the world for all of them-there was the
threat missionary societies, but they were not keeping CIRAMBORNE.
up with the work, there was rtill ths cry being uttered Parry 3e,suogs, Wednesday.-Before the lion. Evelyn
" Come over awl help us," his was uideed pleased Ashley, M.P., who Was the only justice present,
that there was one young man on that platform who ..Jniziorpiene, of li
Barteratflodnley, werysut;:uwAnual on the informs-
& donkey at the
Wag going ollt. on the great mission field. Might God
le place on the ieth ult., by working the animal, in a
bless him, and might he be the means of saving many cart, with sore shoulders. -it that the defendant
souls !-(applause). He (the speaker) urged that there did not work the donkey aftsrag=dnitable saw it on the
was plenty of work in the mission field. They were day in question, until its shoulders had got well-The
wanted at home ae well as abroad, for was it not a magistrate only imposed a nominal tine of lid. and 7s.
deplorable fact that 99 out of every 100 of our working coma.
mein London,
ro
habitually absented themselves from Jets Wilms, of Woodlands, anodbsetnasiricetlinTkorne, of the
the worship of God on Sunday. And in tlet Pvinces wile place, were 'e summoned for g the highway
ieavi
by ng stones thereon, to the danger of person.
there were 90 per cent of the working men who did the
ag on the said highway
adJourne, on Sunday. the 6th ult.-
same. He then passed onto notice the teaching which Mc"e had been from tab lest
meeting n
was adopted at some of the churches of the land, and consequence of only one magistrate attending.-The
quoting from a catechism used at a church in a Parish magistrate said he did not consider it right to further
where he used to reside, read several questions and ; adjourn the case-The Deputy Chief Constable said he
answers which were taught the children. Ilere are a would withdraw the summons, on payment of cos* es.
few ;--What does believe mean '-'To trust in what we . and thu,s,.th.,.matto or ended.
haying ip• J.
quantity
ofW.iIUSA.I
bTitobtl Handley,
the
entraoho for
are told. How are we to tell what the Bible means? --
We learn it from the Church. Are we to believe what
Sutton in the pariah of GRIMM St. Michael, on th:arfat
the Church teaches I-Yes. How many articles are ult., and leaving it there for four days. -This case had there in the ('reed 7-12. Moot we beiieve these? - also been adjourned from the had mestfog.,n. Deputy
Yes, if we wish to be saved. Ca u a child go to heaven Med Constable said he would withdraw this summons
having sin in his 801117-No. How can sin be washed on paytgent of met., which amount Kr. White paid.

IMPORTANT S LE.
We would remind our agricultural friends. that on
Thursday next, the important sale nf Shorthorn
cattle, which has been announced in these columns,
will take Mace. 30 head of the magnificent herd of
the Rev. R.. H. Kennard, of Marnhull, will fall under
the hammer of Mr. John Thornton, of London. The
Marnhull herd was founded about 10 years ago by
purchases selected from the herds of Lord Penrhyn,
Messrs. Rawly and Rich, and other noted breeders,
More recently it has been recruited by purchases from
the celebrated herds at Dunmore, Winterfold, Turner's
Hill, and Audley End. The mevalling character of
the herd is Rates—Bull' tat blood,
the highest quality, having been in use or
genera . Mr. Kennard has, however, always
looked upon pedigree, however fashionable, as aim*
a means to an end—via., the production of animals
perfect in their kind.

CELLS IN ASSIZE COURTS.
To the Editor of the Thing
Sir.—The Assize Courts are generally distant some way
from the County Gaols, and hence necessarily prisoners
awaiting Vial, and after, are confined for many hours in
the cells attached to theae courta. What are these cells
like 1 Are they not nometimes below the level of the
around, ill.liahted, and with scarcely any possible ventila-
tion, except through the "well," or narrow staircase, that
leads to the court shovel If the Judge and the barristers
complain of the vitiated and foul atmosphere of the court.
It is not difficult to find one cause in toe bad air arising
from the prisonen,' entrance. Though an Assize Court
may he of grand appearance—a kind of Grecian temple
yet the architect may have forgotten to make due and
decent arrangements for the pritionprs below.
The horrors if a recert inspection of the cells in the
Assize Court—awl a modern one, too—are vividly present
to my mind, and I would ad( my brother magistrates
throughout the kingdom, hy a present inspection, to
ascertain what is the condition of the cells attached to
their respective courts.
I mu, Sir, your obedient servant,
V.M.