The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-20 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE DOCK COMMITTEE

At the weekly meeting, yesterday, the following members
were present :—Messrs. Benn, (chairman,) Horsfall, T.
Holt, Middleton, Smith, Mellor, Burley, G. Holt, Tobin,
Chapman, Martin, Evans, and Aikin.
The Sub-committee of Works reported that several con-
tracts had been made for excavations, and scuttling the end
of No. 1 pierhead.
Gas, from the new company, was ordered to be supplied to
the offices of the South Dock-yard.
The Sub-committee, to whom the matter of the head
keeper of the Rock Lighthouse was referred, reported that
they ,had investigated all the circumstances, and having
found him guilty of neglect, of misrepresentation, and of fal-
sifying the log, besides having the assurance of the marine
surveyor that no confidence could be placed in him, they
were unable to recommend the general committee to retain
him in the service. Curwen was accordingly discharged,
but the fine of £5 imposed upon him some time ago was re-
mitted. The Sub-committee were authorised to select a fit
person to fill the vacancy thus occasioned.
The situation of clerk to the marine surveyor, salary £BO
per annum, was declared vacant, in consequence of the re-
signation of Mr. Thomas Davis. Referred to the Sub-
committee to recommend a successor.
The same Sub-committee was also empowered to make
arrangements for the working of Clarence, Canning, and
Salthouse docks, the masters of which are in bad health.
The committee then proceeded to the transaction of some
financial business and then adjourned.

CHALLENGE
TO THE MEMBERS OF Tim MANCHESTER CONFERENCE

GENTLEMEN,—What I anticipated has come to pass, you
have joined with the servants of " Belial," and with delusion
the most infatuated, and most arrogant, you have presumed
(see your chairman's speech of Tuesday last) that you are
able to work out the regeneration of your country even,
so incongruous sour our materials, the
dare as a body,
dare not seek for God's blessing or yefforts, through the
only channel of which it is to be obtained—namely, our
Lord Jesus Christ. How the Papist and Socinian must
have rejoiced in your weakness and wickedness ? and
what am I to think of your politeness ? I have addressed
and Yet you ha not deineto
your secretary by private letter, and yourselves, as a body,
notice ugh
either. And the public pwhy ? ress,
Simply becauseve my arguments are
unanswerable. But, in order that you may have no hole to
creep out of, so that the Papists and Socinians may have no
reason to say there is none to stand up for the honour of the
living God, I engage tom eet any of your body, you may de-
pute, and prove the following. from the authorised version of
the Bible :-
Ist, That it is due to the honour of God that there should
be a national church, upholding his word, and honouring his
name.
2dlv, That the Qhurch of England does so.
3dly, That you are political schismatics.
If you refuse t¢¢y meet me, pray have a little modesty, and
arrogate not to ourselves the title of Christian ministers.—
I am, gentlemen your obedient servant,
B. W. TRACEY, Lieut. R. N.

The increase in the average for the last ten years has bee
nearly equal to that of the Preceding twenty years

PROPOSED UNION FOR PRAYER THROUGHOUT
THE WORLD BETWEEN THE 2D AND ills
OCTOBER OF THIS YEAR.

It gives us great pleasure to inform our readers that the
above noble scheme for directing, concentrating, and adding

- _
fervency to the prayers of the " children of God scattered
abroad throughout the world," in behalf of those common

interests which every disciple of our absent Lord holds
dearer than life itself, is becoming very widely known, and
the invitations to join in it are cordially responded to by
Christians of various denominations in all quarters of the
globe. The originators, who we find are resident in the
great and, it may almost be said, religious, city of Glasgow,
have taken care to circulate the necessary information over

the length and breadth of our own country, and throughout

the various dependencies of the empire, as well as in the
United States, &c. ; copies of the address have been is duo
tune forwarded to the several mission stations of all the Pro-

testant churches and societies. An early opportunity was
embraced to bring the subject under the notice of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which venerable court
unanimously issued a hearty recommendation of the plan to
the ministers and people within her pale both at home and
in the colonies. As one of the effects of this sanction, we
find the Synod of Canada preparing to unite with energy in
the duty and privilege to which their distant brethren affec-
tionately call them. No doubt (though unknown to us) the
heads and representation bodies of other churches are tak-
ing similar steps to prosper and join the hallowed enterprise.
We have not heard whether the archbishops of the Church
of England have been applied to a view to procuring an ex-
ercise of their authority in stimulating the work among the
bishops, clergy, aad laity of our beloved and ancient branch
of the catholic church. Surely such an obviously plain
course has not been neglected. There is a want somewhere,
however. The success which has been vouchsafed the ex-
cellent Mr. Haldane Stewart in his annual appeal for a con-
cert of a similar kind on the first day of the year, points him
out as the fitting advocate of this extension of his own ho-
noured proposal. Singularly blessed as we believe that
scheme to have been, we anticipate more from this. The
present takes a wider range—it is the call not of an indivi-
dual but of a society—and is now issued and enforced, not
merely in their own name, but under the formal sanction of
ecclesiastical authority. Let us hope that the united church
of England and Ireland will manifest its zeal in the cause of
Christ, by being ready in this great work, and thus availing
itself of the means opened up in God's providence, for pro-
moting its purity and influence, and advancing the kingdom
of the Messiah.
The address that has been published is a document worthy
of diligent study. We content ourselves here with a short
recapitulation of its purport. After stating the fundamental
truth that believers are one with Christ, the head of the
church, and one with each other as the members of the
church, it deduces the conclusion, " that as there is thus a
a community of privilege established among Christians, so
there ought to be a community of feeling and of aim in the
exercise of that privilege." The design of God in constitu-
ting the church and calling a people to himself is next'brought
forward—their glorifying of his name, first as subjects and
specimens of his grace, and, secondly, as channels or instru-
ments whereby grace is communicated to their fellow-men:

" In respect of their active agency, they are appointed in and
under Christ to deal with men on behalf of God, and to deal
with God on behalf of men." It is to the latter of these high
functions the proposal is directed—that of being " the Lord's
remembrancers.' And the humiliating confession is made
that professing Christians have too generally lost sight of this
duty, and even given occasion to our Lord to say, in a re-
proachful sense, " Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my
name." The leading subjects of petition are then narrated :
1. Each believer should pray earnestly for himself.
2. He should pray for all other believers, that they, in like
manner, should be living Apostles of Christ.
3. Christians should pray for all connected with them by
relationship, neighbourhood, dependency, or otherwise.
4. They ought to pray for the Sovereign. magistrates, and
commonwealth under which they live, that Christian princi-
ple may regulate all the national proceedings ; and for their
fellow-subjects, that they may be joint heirs of the kingdom
of heaven.

5. The purity, unity, and increase of the visible church
should be prayed for. Connected with this subject is prayer,
for the raising up of highly qualified men for the ministry,
and for the strengthening, prospering, and multiplying of
missionaries.

6. Special prayer should be made for the conversion of
Israel, as the most remarkable event which is to take place
previous to the coming of our Lord. It is to be life from the
dead to the world and the church.

7. Along with prayer for Israel, supplications should be
made for the outpouring of the spirit on all flesh, the destruc-
tion of Antichrist, the abolition of idolatry, the universal
overthrow of Christ's kingdom, and the universal diffusion of
the gospel and its blessings.
8. Believers should, in their prayers. look forward to the
kingdom of glory itself. It may be found best to follow the
model left us in the Lord's prayer, and begin with the high-
est subject—the coming of Christ, and descend in the scale
of general importance, following the inverse order of the fore-
going heads, till each individual terminate in his own per-
sonal case. Confession of sin and giving of thanks will, of
course, be intermixed with his supplications by the devout
and humble Chrsitian.

It is satisfactory to find, notwithstanding their deplorable
dissensions on the important question of ecclesiastical polity,
there is still such a prevalence of right feeling between church-
men and dissenters that they can unite as they do in the
present instance in any judicious scheme that is brought
forward to advance the cause of truth. The deficiency of
brotherly love and the want of unanimity is aggravated by
want of sufficient zeal in the prosecution of those objects in
which all Christians are alike interested.

The present is pre-eminently a time for throwing aside dis-
cord and uniting in prayer and effect. The past and recent
history of missions is beyond measure encouraging. The
state of the Jews presents the promise of their speedy return
from their dire apostacy. The walls of China are tottering
to their foundation that the heralds of the gospel may be wel-
comed. Heathen superstition in India, and wherever it has
been assailed however feebly, ceases to offer effectual resist-
ance. The church is decidedly in an expectant attitude, yet,
alas, averse to move forward ;—and the world, the careless
world, is impressed with a dread of coming wants speaking
terror to the gospel, peace to the saints of God.
Our readers will observe that the period of ten days, com-

mencing on the 2d and ending on the llth of next October,
is the time appointed for this prayer union. What a blessed
thought that then thousands and tens of thousands of God's
people, widely dissevered as the places of their habitation
may be—some in the regions of hyperborean cold, others on
the burning plains of India—some in the vast regions of
Australia, others in the recesses of the Canadian forests—
some in the densely-peopled cities of Europe and America,
others in the isles of the South Sea and on the trackless

ocean—will bend their knees at one and the same time at the
same throne of grace, to present the same petition in the
same all-prevailing name. And they will not ask in vain,
for they only seek the fulfilment of what God has promised
to do in answer to earnest, united, believing prayer. " If,
when the primitive church assembled with one accord in one
place at Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was remarkably poured
out in answer to their united prayers, what might we not
expect if all Christians throughout the world were to agree
together us concerning what they should ask ! If, in answer
to the prayers of the 120 disciples, the Pentecostal first-fruits
were given, might we not hope that a full harvest would be
reaped when thousands or tens of thousands came in one
body to the throne of grace—all guided by the same spirit of
adoption—all pleading the finished work of Immanuel—and
praying that the adorable Redeemer might see of the travail
of his soul, and be fully satisfied ?"
We extract the following "Plan of the Proposed Union
for Prayer" :-
1. During the time specified in the accompanying address,
that is, for ten days from Saturday the 2d, to Monday the
11th October, 1841, inclusive, it is understood and agreed
that the hour betwixt eight and nine in the morning and
eight and nine in the evening, or as near that as possible,
shall each day be given to prayer for the objects mentioned
in the address. On Saturday, the 2d October, it is strongly
recommended that fasting should be conjoined with prayer,
and as much of the day as circumstances will admit given to
religious exercises ; and that Monday, the 11th, being the last
of the ten days, should be observed, as far as may be, as a
day of thanksgiving. In reference to duties of this kind, let
the gracious encouragement, applicable to them as well as to
deeds of charity, be remembered—that a man is accepted ac-
cording to what he bath, and not according to what he hath
not. 2d Cor. viii. 12.
2. It is very earnestly desired that where ministers approve
of the proposed concert, they would, some time previously,
direct the minds of their people to the subject, and that they
would meet at least once on a weekday during the proposed
period, along with their congregations, for the purpose of
praying together for the various objects mentioned.
3. Heads of families should also bring these objects before
their households, and make them in an especial manner
matter of prayer in their family exercises during the specified
time.

4. Thereafter, Christians everywhere are requested to r

iember, that the hour betwixt eight and nine every Sabbath
iorning is already observed by many in Scotland and Eng-
sod, as a season of united prayer for the outpouring of the
loly Spirit, and are respectfully invited to join therein.