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12 THE WELSH WEEKLY. April 22, 1892. Good Friday,*and, in spite of the inclement weather, was well attended. In the evening, Eev. P. Neville Andrews delivered his popular lecture on " Two Famous Local Preachers." The lay Evangelist here, Mr. Craven, has recently conducted a mission with much success. The Pwllheli quarterly meeting was held under the chairmanship of Eev. T. 0. Jones (Tryfan). He was heartily thanked for his ministrations during the past year, and unanimously invited to continue in the circuit. An additional minister is to be applied for to reside at Criccieth. The meeting was earnest and harmonious. We congratulate Rev. T. N. Roberts, of Oswestry, upon his recent marriage with Mrs. Morgan (daughter of the late Rev. Evan Davifs), of that town. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Edward Humphreys, assisted by Revs. D. Wynne Evans and T. J. Humphreys. The bride was the recipient of many handsome presents, amongst them being a handsome timepiece given by the friends at the chapel. The Bagillt quarterly meeting was held at Flint. The Rev. W. Hugh Evans wa3 heartily thanked for his three years' acceptable and efficient ministry, and regret was expressed at his impending removal. The Rev. William Thomas was invited to become his successor. A dis¬ cussion took place as to a re-arrangement of the residences- of the circuit miniiti rs. The foundation-stones of a new Wcsleyan schoolroom were laid at Pennar, near Pembroke Dock; on Good Friday, by Rev. R. W. Bryant (on behalf of Mrs. Dawkins), Mrs. J. Green, Mrs. Osborne, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. W. E. Seccombe, and Mis. E. Trayler. Amongst those who took part were Revs. R. W. Bryant, G. W. Kettle, circuit ministers, Messrs. J. N. Trayler, E. Trayler, and T. Barnikel. The collection amounted to £44 10s. At the Merthyr Tydvil quarterly meeling the Rev. Thomas Merge n, Chairman of the district, presided. A vote of sympathy was passed and sent to Mr. W. Jones (circuit steward) upon the death of his son. Rev. R. W. Jones was invited to remain at Dowlais another year. Rev. J. M. Owen was invited to become superintendent at forthcoming conference. Messrs. Thomas Turner, Ynys- owen, and Evan Jones, Dowlais, were elected to attend district meeting. The funeral of the late lamented Rev. David Richards, of Carnarvon, took place at Llanbeblig Churchyard. Ministers of the various denominations were present, and there was a large attendance of the general public. The Revs. Robert Jones, chairman of the district, Owen Williams, Ishmael Evans, D. 0. Junes, and Rowland Rowlands, took part. Several beautiful wreaths were received from friends in the various circuits in which the deceased had travelled. In connection with the Wcsleyan cause at Porth, Rhondda Valley, a very successful Eisteddfod was held on last Mabon's day. The Rev. D. Williams (Dewi Mai) presided and conducted. The subject of the leading choral competition was "Worthy is the Lamb," for the best rendering of which a prize of £30 was offered. It was carried off by the Treorky choir, under the leadership of Mr. W. Thomas. The same choir took the prize of £4 for the best rendering of the congregational tune, " Aber- ystwith." In the evening a concert was held, when the chief artistes were Miss Johannah Hopkin, Miss Ceinwen Jones, R.A.M., Gwynalaw, and Mr. D. Chubb. Mr. Taliesin Richards, Cardiff, acted as accompanist. On Saturday evening, the 9th inst., the Rev. Hugh Jones, Liverpool, delivered a very able lecture at the We:-ley Chapel on " Ymneillcluaeth Cymru." Saturday night is inconvenient in Ferndale for a lecture, but the timeliness of the subject, and the popularity of the lecturer attracted an exceedingly large audience. It would be superfluous to put on record the varied gifts of the lecturer as a public speaker, as his praise is in all the churches. Suffice it to say that f( r two hours save five minutes he held the unflagging attention of his audience. On the Sunday and Monday following, in the same chapel, the Rev. W. Jones and the Rev. T. Jones, Aberdare, preached the anniversary sermons. On Sunday afternoon and evening the chapel was crowded. We are given to understand that a goodly sum was collected during the meetings. EPISCOPAL. The Lord Bishop of Llandaff held a confirmation in the Cathedral, on Tuesday, 12th inst. There were 64 candi¬ dates presented from the parishes of Llandaff, Whitchurch, and Gabaifa. Appropriate hymns were sung by the vicar's choir, and Mr. C. E. Gibbons presided at the organ. The Rev. J. Gower, Chairman of the Llanrwst Board of Guardians, speaking recently in connection with schools, described the Established Church as foolish in providing schools at such expense, and under such disadvantages, when they could appropriate their money to a better purpose for their own welfare. The funeral of the late Rev. John Rees, for 38 years vicar of Capel Bangor, near Aberystwyth, took place at the parish church of Bangor, on Thursday, 14th inst. The Rev. A. Williams (Elerch) officiated at the house, the Revs. D. Williams and J. D. Lewis, curat s of the parish, in the church, and the Revs. W. Gab (Llanbadarnfawi) and A. Williams at the grave. The national memorial to BL-hop Morgan (translator of the Welsh Bible) will be unveiled by the Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, at St. Asaph Cathedral Yard, at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 22. A Welsh service will be held in the Cathedral at 2 p.m. ; preacher, the Ven. Archdeacon Griffiths, Rector of Neath. After the unveiling of the memorial a public meeting will be held at the National Schools; chairman, the Lord Bishop. Addresses will be delivered in Welsh and English by the Lord Bishop of Bangor; Principal James, of Cheltenham College; the Rev. Dr. Dickens Lewis ; the Rev. Dr. D. Roberts, Wrex¬ ham ; the Ven. Archdeacon Thomas; the Rev. 0. Davies (B.), Carnarvon; the Rev. Hugh Jones (W.), Liverpool ; Professor Lloyd, Aberystwyth ; and H. Rowland, Esq., J.P., Manchester. SABBATH SCHOOL LESSONS. THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. Lesson III.—Introduction (continued).] Occasion of the Epistle. The circumstances which called it forth are made to appear distinctly in the Epistle itself; see i. 6, iii. 1-3, iv. 9-21, v. 1-7, &c. From vthese passages, as well as from the whole tenor of the Epistle, it is evident that the Galatians, who had so promptly received the gospel, had been almost as readily led astray from it, and that at the time of writing their apostasy was already far advanced, and threatened soon to become complete. Causes of their apostasy. The error into which the Galatians were being seduced was the addition to the Christian faith and practice, as taught by Paul, of the ceremonial observances of the Jewish law, circumcision, &c, see v. 2, 3, 11, 12, vi. 11. In connection with this, and subsidiary to it, was the impugning of the Apostle's authority, see generally chaps, i. and ii. As to the instruments of this perversion we have no certain knowledge. It is highly probable that the Galatian churches included a number of Jewish converts ; it is certain that there were many Jews residing in the province; it was, moreover, a fixed custom with the Apostle to preach the gospel first to his own countrymen wherever they were to be met. The question, therefore, of the proper attitude of Gentile Christians towards the Jewish Law could not but occur ; and if the Judaic element in the Church was strong and inflaential, the dis¬ cussion of this matter could hardly fail to be main¬ tained with much zeal and with considerable effect. It is at least conceivable that the final apostasy of the Galatian churches was brought about by such means. However, many commentators are of opinion that this perversion was effected, not by resident Jewish Christians, but by emissaries from the Judaic party at Jerusalem—" Judaizing Christian teachers with Pharisaic leanings — emissaries from Palestine" (Meyer); " most probably emissaries from the mother Church of Jerusalem, either abusing a commission actually received from the Apostles of the circum-, cision, or assuming an authority which had never been conferred upon them " (Lightfoot). The latter infers, too, from v. 9 and i. 7, that there was a " small compact body" of these cmi siries at work in the province, and even that " there was a ringleader among the Judaizing teachers, marked out either by his superior position or his greater activity : ' He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be.' " Its rapidity. The suddenness and rapidity of their perversion can only be explained by the characteristic impressionability of the Galatians and the circum¬ stances of their previous life. Bred to a material and sensuous worship, the spiritual glory of the gospel in its first proclamation dazzled and captivated them, and they embraced it with all the fervour of their passionate Celtic nature. But an ardour so quickly kindled as quickly cooled. When the material, and withal showy ritual of the Jewish Law was presented to them, their re-action in a direction not incon¬ sistent with their former modes of worship was prompt and extreme. To the converted devotees of the sensuous and fantastic worship of Cybele, the Jewish rite of circumcision and its observance of feasts and fastings, &c, were more congenial than the extremely spiritual and simple gospel of Paul's ministry. Among such a people, inclined by nature and trained by habit to a material worship,the Jewish ritualists might be assured of speedy success. Method of the false teachers. In order to gain their end the Judaists must destroy the confidence of the Galatians in their former teachers. In this attempt again they were assisted by what so many writers, ancient and modern, describe as the " fickle¬ ness of the Celtic temperament." The enthusiasm with which they welcomed the Apostle's first visit, and which carried them almost to the point of deifying him (iv. 14), quickly evaporated ; and when the spell of his actual presence was no longer exerted upon them, they lent a willing ear to those who questioned and denied his apostleship. Object of the Epistle. It is easy to conceive of the extreme danger which threatened the Galatian churches in the above perversions. In such an age, and to such a people, their confidence in the gospel could not fail to depend upon, and to stand or fall with, their confidence in the Apostle who proclaimed it. Moreover, the necessity for circumcision on the part of Christians implied a denial of the fundamental doctrine of Paul's gospel—the all-sufficiency of Christ. The Apostle clearly apprehends in these errors the total ruin of Galatian Christianity. To avert this catastrophe by refuting the errors which hastened it, to vindicate his Apostleship against the insinuations of his adversarii s, and to demonstrate the freedom of the Christian from the obligation of ceremonial observances, to condemn the false teachers and the fickleness of the Galatians, to warn the latter of the danger of their perversion, and to exhort them to stand fast in the spiritual freedom into which the Gospel had led them, the Apostle writes this trenchant and concise Epistle. Contents of the Epistle. The Epistle is divided into three distinct sections :—■ (1) Personal. Chaps, i. ii. In this division Paul vindicates his Apostolic dignity, showing the Divine source of his authority, and that his gospel was received by special Divine revelation. (2) Doctrinal. Chaps, iii. and iv. Here he demonstrates the freedom of the Christian from the ritual obligations of the Mosaia Law. (3) Hortatory. Chaps, v. and vi. Exhortations to maintain their freedom, coupled with a warning not to allow it to degenerate into license, with exhorta¬ tions to sundry Christian virtues. Time and Place. Lightfoot fixes the date between that of 2 Corinthians and that of Bomans, i.e., in the winter or spring of the years 57,58, a. d. The subscription which occurs in our Testaments, " Written from Borne," is a blunder. Lightfoot thinks that it was written from Macedonia or Achaia ; Meyer says from Ephesus. But respecting both place and date there has always been, and there is now, a great variety of opinions. Perhaps we cannot do better than to follow Lightfoot, who has investigated the matter very fully and carefully. INTERNATIONAL LESSON. THE PRAYER OF THE PENITENT. Psa. Ii. 1-3 (May 1). . Golden text.—Create in me a clean heart, 0 God ; and renew a right spirit within me.—Fs. Ii. 10. Author.—David, as in the title. Some of the higher ctitics assign it to some unknown writer in the exile, on Eccount of the last two verses. But while it is adapted to the exile, and to all ages in which people have sinned, there is no source so natural and fitting as the heart of David after his great sin. " I see no ground for departing from the constant and reasonable belief of the church that the psalm was written by David under the circum¬ stances indicated in the title."—Perowne. Date.—About 1034 b.c. ; after David had been king more than 20 years. Ver. 1. Have mercy upon me. Admitting everything; confessing all, and humbling himself low b fore God, he pleads for mercy—mercy, simple and pure—nothing else.—Gowles. There is no attempt to excuse his sin, or to apologise for it; there is no effort to vindicate his con¬ duct ; there is no complaint of the righteousness of that holy law which condemned him. It was guilt that was b ;fore his mind ; guilt only ; deep and dreadful guilt.—■ Barms. According to Thy loYing kindness. Here is again a tacit admission of the greatness of his guilt, as requiring infinite mercy to forgive it.—Alexander. According to the multitude of Thy tender mercy. Men are greatly terrified at the multitude of their sins, but here is a comfort—our God hath a multitude of mercies. If our sins be in number as the hairs of oui head, God's mercies are as the stars of heaven.—Archibald Synison. Blot out. Blotting out, " making that which is dono as if it had not been done," is capable of two explanations ; either (1) it refers to erasing from a book or tablet which has been written therein, in which case sin must here be regarded a? a debt entered against the debtor, and so can¬ celled by being blotted out; or (2) it may mean, in a mora general sense, the wiping away of a thing, and so its entire removal.—Peroivne. My transgressions. Plural, for there were many. " No sin ever stands alone ; each single transgression is the mother of many transgressions ; each is a root of bitternes--, whence spring many bitter branches , so that we cannot confess one sin without confessing many.—Perowne. Ver. 2. Wash me thoroughly, or perhaps, " many time." The verb wash is used of the washing of soiled garments. And cleanse me from my sin. This is a more general expression ; as if the Psalmist said, "Lord, if washing will not do, try some other process ; if water avails not, let fire, let anything be tried, so that I may but be purified. Rid me of my sin by some means, by any means, by every means, only do purify me completely, and leave no guilt upon my soul." It is not the punishment he cries out against, but the sin. The thief loves toe plunder, though he fears the r.r.'soi. Not so David; he is sick of sin as sin ; his loudest outcries are against the evil of his transgression, and not against the painful coaseq lences of it.—Spurg eon. Ver. 3. For. Th's word does not express the reason why God should forgive him, but the reason why he cs'cs for forgiveness. I acknowledge (I know, I recognise) my transgressions. Primarily this means, " For I know my transgression." " No doubt it is implied also t lat he publicly acknowledged, i.e., confessed his sin and guilt in this matter. But this language primarily contemplates his relation to God. — Gowles. All true co, fession is first to God and then to man, so far as he has been in¬ jured by the sin. The confession should be as wide as the effects of the sin. Transgressions: And my sin. Looked at in one way he sees the separate acts of which he had been guilty; looked at in another way he sees them all knotted together in one inex¬ tricable tangle of forked, hissing tongues, like the serpent locks that coil and twist round a Gorgon head. No sin dwells alone; the separate acts have a common root, and the whole is matted together like the green growth on a stagnant pond, so that by whatever filament it is grasped, the whole mass is drawn toward jQxx. — AUx. Maclaren. Is CYcr before me. That is, my sin plague5 me, gives me no rest, no peace.—Luther. Oh! those moments in which a selfish act has appeared more hideous