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what was lately said by Dr. Selwyn, the new Bishop of Lichfield. Referring to the efforts now being made by contending parties to extrude one another from the Church of England, he significantly hinted that in dealing with the question of keeping up Establishments the country had begun to adopt the ominous practice of "counting heads"-and that if people wanted the English Establishment to be maintained for any length of time, they had better try to keep as many adherents in it as possible.

We have left to the last the latest assault made on the Church-that which has been directed against it in the shape of MR. GLADSTONE'S RESOLUTIONS. It is not necessary to dwell on that attack here, as we have directed attention to it in our leading columns. We. simply notice it in this place to complete the view wo have taken of the critical situation of the English Establishment. Whatever opinions outsiders may form on the subject, it is certain that the general run of Churchmen regard the movement as in its tendency dangerous to the cause of Church of Englandism in the country-and, putting ourselves in their position, we can perfectly understand and sympathize with their anxiety. The Irish Establishment is a "limb" of the Church—a disjointed limb, if you like-but nobody, under almost any circumstances, thinks of amputation with perfect complacency, and we cannot wonder at the cry which has been raised against the proposition. We have no fear of Christianity suffering in the long run, whatever be done, but it is impossible to question the fact that the disestablishment of the Irish Church will and must in some degree lessen the prestige of the Church of England.

In any case, THE WHOLE QUESTION OF THE LAWFULNESS AND LIMITS OF ENDOWMENTS bids fair to undergo fresh and more thorough discussion; and we are very doubtful whether the English Church will be as able to stand a keen and sifting Voluntary controversy as was the Church of Scotland in days gone by. The Evangelical party have unfortunately no Church Theory that can stand the fire. Dean Stanley's Omnium Gatherum Scheme is simply out of the question, and the only section in the Church which really is capable of presenting a strong and defensible front is the section to whose doctrinal beliefs we have the strongest aversion.

We are extremely glad to observe that the "Record" (in this agreeing with Dr. M⭑Neile) has once and again declared that it would "infinitely prefer Protestant disestablishment to the endowment of the corrupt apostasy of Rome;" and we have observed, too, with equal satisfaction, that so distinguished a man as Dr. Miller of Greenwich has publicly proclaimed his determination rather to leave the Establishment than to remain in it indefinitely after its reformation has been shown to be impossible. At the same time, it must be confessed that those who are now exhibiting the greatest amount of faith in their own principles, and in the ability of the Church to maintain itself, if necessary, apart from the State, are not, as one might fairly have expected, the Evangelicals, but the Ritualists. The Bishop of London thinks that if the Church were to be disestablished, Socinianism would rapidly creep into it-an admission which the Liberationists have not been slow to make a handle of; for the answer is obvious, that if State pay is the main bulwark against error, there is a poor look-out for the evangel in England. The High Churchmen, on the other hand, would rather welcome the disestablishment of the Church. In a late letter to the "Guardian," the Rev. H. P. Liddon of Christ Church writes: "So long as the Church of England is connected with the State, its social importance will always be greatly in advance of its real religious force. It will contain, as it does contain, in nominal connection with itself, as being the State Institute of Religion, clements of thought and feeling which are hostile, not merely to its own distinctive organization and principles, but even to the most fundamental dogmas of the faith of Christ." And the "Church Times," looking forward to a separation of Church and State as a very possible thing, says: "It is not to be supposed for a moment, that after the first shock is over, and the English laity learn that if they want a religion they must pay for it, they will be found less liberal in doing so than the Free Kirkers in Scotland are now!"

EPISCOPACY ABROAD.

It is curious to see THE EXCLUSIVENESS OF EPISCOPACY appearing also in America in conflict with the free spirit

of the age.

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Some time ago, a son of the well-known Dr. Stephen Tyng of New York ventured to preach in a Methodist meeting-house. This was no doubt the real offence the public countenancing of Methodismbut it so happened that the meeting-house was situated in the "parish" of another Episcopal minister, and Mr. Tyng was called to account for intruding into another fold. A case thus arose which has been exciting a great amount of interest in America. After a formal and formidable trial before a Board of Presbyters, the irregular clergyman was found guilty, and sentenced to receive a public admonition from the bishop, " in ac cordance with the provisions of the diocesan canon." This sentence was carried into effect on Saturday, March 15, and the scene is thus described in a New York newspaper:-" The church (that of the Transfiguration) was densely crowded. Mr. Tyng entered with his father, Rev. Dr. Tyng, and took his seat in front of the chancel. Bishop Potter, accompanied by Rev. Dr. Houghton, rector of the church, and other clergymen, among whom were three of the court, all robed in surplices, entered from the vestry at twelve o'clock. Dr. Houghton read prayers, after which Bishop Potter, seated, read the admonition to Mr. Tyng, which occupied about three-quarters of an hour. He gave a full history of the case, explained and defended the canon as designed to secure order and prevent confusion and improper intrusion of one minister into the parish of another.

"At the conclusion of the admonition, Rev. Dr. Tyng rose and commenced reading a protest, but as Dr. Houghton resumed at the same time the reading of prayers, he (Dr. T.) desisted, and at the close handed Bishop Potter the paper which he was not allowed to complete.

A meeting of Episcopal clergymen and laymen was held at the Church of the Mediator immediately upon the close of these services, which was addressed by Rev. John Cotton Smith, Rev. Dr. Dyer, and others. A number of gentlemen were appointed a committee to make the necessary arrangements for a public meeting, and to prepare a protest against the proceedings in the case of Mr. Tyng."

What may ultimately come of this it is impossible to tell, but what must help to perplex the High Church party still further is the fact that Mr. Tyng's is not the only case of the kind with which they are at present called to deal. Away in the south, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the capital of the United States, the rector of an Episcopal church has been exchanging pulpits with a Baptist, and a very outspoken correspondence with the bishop of the diocese has been the consequence. The following sentences from the letter of the offending clergyman will be read not without interest :

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Your information has been correct. I did notify my people last Sunday of my intention to exchange pulpits the following Sunday with the Rev. Mr. Denison of the Baptist Church; which intention, with the full approval of my people, and with the blessing of God, I still design to carry out.

Surely you cannot suppose that I have acted in this matter hastily, or without taking into consideration all its possible consequences, or that, having taken the step, I would now draw back from it. Long ago I gave this subject-the recognition of the validity of the orders of non-episcopally ordained ministers by our Churcha full and thorough investigation; and I entered our ministry on a full conviction that the validity of such orders was recognized. The reforming of the Church of England was carried on, and the Prayer-book was compiled, with the aid of such ministers. For a considerable period also they held high places in the universities and cures without re-ordination. The 23rd Article was drawn up with the express design of recognizing their orders as valid. As you yourself recently told me, the interchange of pulpits in our Church with non-episcopally ordained ministers was customary within your memory. And surely, on Bible principles, such recognition is right.

"I have always designed, sooner or later, to take this step which I am now about to take; but have waited these many years for some providential guidance, or for some older in the ministry than I to take the lead, so that I am acting upon the conviction of duty cherished through long years of prayerful consideration of this subject, and now at last, as I firmly believe, under the direct guidance of God's Spirit and providence.

"In a most wonderful manner God has poured out his Spirit upon this community, and united the hearts of ministers and people of the different Churches as the heart of one man. We have been working together unitedly for one single purpose-the glory of Jesus and the salvation of souls. This union and united action have been owned of our Lord, and very greatly blessed. Even ungodly men-as one did to me the other evening-are obliged to confess that there must be a mighty power in religion, which can so unite and bind together six Churches differing so widely as we do on points of doctrine and discipline.

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"If by any legislation you cut me off from you, I shall not cease to be an Episcopalian. I shall still remain in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Many beloved brethren, like myself thus cut off, will be with me. We shall, if thus forced to it, form a new and more pure branch of the Protestant Episcopal Church—a branch more true to the teachings and practices of our Reformers, more true to the teachings of our blessed Master. I have no fear as to the result. We shall have the approval and sympathy of all true Christian men; and, better still, we shall have the presence and blessing of Jesus. The guilt of schism will rest with you, not with us.

"And now, my dear bishop, having stated my intended action, and very briefly my reasons for it, my appeal is from the judgment of men to the judgment of Him before whom we shall all soon stand. Most respectfully and affectionately yours, JOHN P. HUBBARD.

"Rt. Rev. Thos. M. Clark, D.D.”

"WESTERLY, February 15, 1868. "P.S.-Having called a meeting of the wardens, vestry, and congregation of my church, and read to them your letter and my own reply, they have given to my reply their unanimous approval, and pledged to me their cordial sympathy and support."

Mr. Hubbard wrote to the bishop after he had consummated the exchange, stating that he had conducted the service in the Baptist Church according to the usual forms of that Church, and that Mr. Denison had read the Episcopal service; and added :—

"I was particularly careful to explain to him that in our Church the reading of the declaration of absolution was confined to the Presbyters, and that I desired him to read it, to show thereby my full recognition of his ministerial ordination.

"What I have done, I have done openly, and with full intention of testing the question,—the recognition of our Church of the validity of non-episcopal ordination."

AWAKENING IN AMERICA.

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We are cheered to observe that THE CHURCHES OF AMERICA APPEAR TO BE AGAIN ENJOYING TIMES OF REFRESHING FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD." The word "revival" hardly ever disappears indeed from the pages of their religious papers, and we are not now—as we once were so ready to attach special significance to these reports; but we can scarcely doubt, in the face of the concurrent testimony which is now coming to us, that a remarkable tide of awakening has once more set in; and we trust that the fact may prove a stimulus to more earnest prayer in our own land.

The following is from the "New York Observer" of March 19th

"During the last fortnight intelligence has reached us of revivals in more than 120 churches not before heard from. The number of new converts is 3930, of whom 2843 have become members of the Church. From many revivals already reported in our columns additional and cheering intelligence has been received; and we can announce that since January 1, accounts have reached us of 700 revivals, 13,500 conversions, and 6540 additions to the different evangelical Churches, excluding the Methodists, of whom we have kept no accurate record. A good work is also going on among our brethren of this persuasion, and an exchange states that 8201 cases of hopeful conversion have been lately reported in a single week by Methodist pastors.

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The most remarkable, perhaps, of the revivals reported the past fortnight is taking place at New Albany, Ind. All evangelical Christians share in the blessing. Daily meetings are well attended in the churches. A correspondent of the Christian Herald' says: 'Religion is the chief theme of conversation in our streets,

stores, banks, and everywhere. Business men had rather talk about the conversion of souls than the sale of goods. The work exceeds anything that has been witnessed here for many years.' It is stated in the secular papers that more than one hundred joined the various churches of the city the week before last; and, in all, 300 conversions have taken place since the beginning of the year.

“The same reviving and converting spirit is blessing the city of Stockton, in California. The San Francisco 'Occident' says of the gracious work: The Congregational, German, Methodist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian | Churches are united in the services which are held in the First Presbyterian Church. The attendance is very large, many going away for want of room to acommodate them. The interest is unusual. Forty havo already been hopefully converted, and many more are anxiously seeking the Saviour. The tone of piety in the Churches was never more harmonious. Many members of the Episcopal Church are interested workers in the meetings, and give them their hearty support.' | Forty of the Churches most recently revived are Presbyterian."

POPERY.

The Pope has lately created SIX NEW CARDINALS, and among the number is the Abbé Lucien Bonaparte, a cousin of the Emperor of the French. Little is known personally about this new "Prince of the Church," except that since he was ordained priest, about fifteen years ago, he has been kept near to the person and councils of the Pontiff. He is described "as a man with an inestimable faculty of silence, and with the brow of a Bonaparte." Of course the common notion is that so remarkable an appointment has taken place with a view to the filling of the Papal chair when it becomes vacant. But that is doubtful. It has not been the custom hitherto to choose young men for that office, and Lucien is not yet forty. It is very likely, however, that the conferring of a red hat on a Bonaparte has been done with a political purpose, and the honour in that connection may not be thrown away.

THE GREAT PREACHER OF PARIS, now that Father Hyacinthe has gone to Rome, is Monsignor Bauer, a converted German Jew. He has been lucky enough to please the Empress, and through her influence a pulpit in the Madeleine has been placed at his disposal. He preaches in that church twice a week-on Thursday and on Sunday-and he so times his sermon as not to prevent his hearers from enjoying their usual drive in the Bois. His frame and voice are powerful, his language is idiomatic, sometimes almost coarse, and yet he is a great favourite with the upper classes.

It is said to have been one of the features of the late Irish debate that, by the Speaker's favour, ARCHBISHOP MANNING was admitted to a privileged place in the House of Commons reserved for peers and distinguished strangers. During the progress of the debate he was again and again observed to go out into the lobby and converse with Roman Catholic members, like a general issuing his orders.

We can very well believe this, for here is how the "Tablet" speaks about the great questions which are now under discussion:

which is making some Protestants among ourselves willing to enter into new arrangements with the Papacy the issue of which is to be that all evangelical Churches which choose may "eat," as somebody has pithily put it, "out of the same trough with the Beast!" God guard us from a complicity which would prove ruinous to us in every way!

ENGLISH NONCONFORMISTS.

We have alluded elsewhere to the overtures made in the Convocation at York to THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS. These overtures are not being received in a very hopeful way by the party more immediately concerned. The "Methodist Magazine" for April contains an article on the subject, in which it is elaborately shown that "the proposals for Union are impracticable, ill-considered, and inexpedient." The gravest objection offered is based on the state of the Church of England. "A Church which has no claim to exist except as a Protestant Church," it argues, "seems disposed to ignore the very name, and while there is no manful and honest dealing with Romanists and Romanizers, Methodists must needs stand aloof, that they may not be implicated in the guilt of those who will not come out of Babylon."

....

INDEPENDENCY, and especially the London Missionary Society, has suffered a great loss in the death of Dr. Tidman. He had been Secretary of the Society since 1839. Dr. Mullens has been appointed his successor.

priesthood has gone down. The priests have been absolute masters in stria for, nineteen years, and there, as everywhere uere they are unchecked, have succeeded in developig a passion of loathing for themselves, for their rule, anor the principles which that rule represents. Interfered with every day and at every turn by some tonsured meddler, generally ignorant, and always arbitrary; told from the pulpit that civilization was a snare, and in the confessional that passive obedience was a duty, the Austrians learned to regard sacerdotalism and absolutism as identified, and in the first hour of freedom struck hard and straight at the priests' charter, the Concordat of 1849. They insisted that it should be regarded as null, and their representatives introduced a series of Bills on marriage, on education, and on proselytism, which were utterly inconsistent with its purport. The priests, with their usual want of wisdom, selected the Marriage Law as the test of their strength, and called on the aristocracy, who scarcely feel it, to rally in their defence. They could not have selected a less defensible position. The Austrians detest household interference almost as much as the English, and the priests had gradually surrounded marriage with so many restrictions, had invented so many obstacles, required so many formulas, and demanded so many dispensations, that it had really come to this,-no Austrian could marry without his priest's consent. The Government, pressed by opinion, therefore brought in a broad and simple law, leaving everybody who pleased to go to the priests, but permitting everybody who did not please to have his marriage celebrated as a civil contract. The priests resisted savagely, even in the Lower House, calling such marriages concubinage, declaring that the Concordat was a treaty, and threatening Austria with the wrath of Heaven. Austria, they said, if this Bill passed, would bo a heathen country. The Lower House laughed, declared by enthusiastic cheers for a member who openly made the statement that it was Darwinian,' and not Catholic, and passed the Bill. The Church, however, was not daunted, for its strength lay in the Upper House, where sat the princes, the cardinals, and the chiefs of the sceptical, luxurious aristocracy, which, believing nothing except that sugar is sweet, holds still that the Ultramontane organization is essential to the monarchy. So great was their influence, that the fate of the measure was considered doubtful; and all Austria, educated, be it remembered, by the 1200 schoolmasters who recently defied the priests who had appointed them, stood on tiptoe to watch. The debate came on, and, to the utter dismay of Rome, it was found that even among the aristocracy the passionate loathing for the priests had only been suppressed by fear. In vain did Cardinal Rauscher, author of the Concordat, | hired in destitute neighbourhoods, a small church has clothe himself with curses as with a garment; in vain did Dr. Arndt weary the House with proofs of the Church's divine right; in vain did Counts Thun and Mensdorff threaten secession from an infidel Assembly -a threat they have since fulfilled-the Ministry stood firm; men like Count Anton Auersperg, of a family as old as the Hapsburgs, only rose to implore the Chamber to strike off the badge of slavery' from Austria, the detested Concordat; and after a scene of emotion such as easy-going Vienna probably never witnessed, old men crying in the galleries, and crowds standing en queue down the streets to pass the speakers' words from the Chamber, the Upper House of Austria, the last home of the feudal and the Ultramontane ideas, accepted the Civil Marriage Bill, which involves the destruction of the Concordat and a national defiance to Rome, by 65 to 34. No sooner were the numbers known than Vienna poured towards the House of Lords, the crowds swarmed into the court-yard, cheer

"As for us Catholics, I fear much that we may, in such a crisis, forget the rights of the Holy See, and deal, or join in dealing, authoritatively with questions which lie outside our competence. If we desire a safe and a peaceful settlement of these questions, and one which shall be advantageous to religion, we cannot, as I think, do better than use such influence as we may have with Government to induce them to come to an understanding with the Holy See on these questions of education, endowment, and establishment, and offer for acceptance a settle-ing all who had voted for Austria,' shouting for Count ment based on such an agreement."

There is a free-born British subject speaking! He disclaims the right for himself to judge of such matters as Parliament has been discussing, and suggests that, before any proposal is made by a constitutional Government for the good of the people under its charge, it should, first of all, come to an understanding with another Government whose seat is in another and a foreign land!

After that, it is refreshing to read the following from the "Spectator," with regard to the recent recoil from ULTRAMONTANISM IN AUSTRIA:

"The great battle between Civilization and the Priesthood has been fought out in Austria, and the

von Beust, a Saxon and a Protestant, as a true Austrian now,' drawing the carriages of speakers who had denounced Rome, and commanding an illumination, which in an hour became universal throughout Vienna. The lower the quarter of the town, says one intelligent observer, the brighter was the glare; for it is with the Austrian people as well as the Austrian Government that Rome has quarrelled."

Certainly Popery is not changed. It shows itself in its true colours whenever it gets the chance, and it has had the chance in Austria since 1849. It is essentially anti-Christian, and just because it is so, it always proves itself to be in the long run anti-human. Surely it is, with a vengeance," the triumph of hope over all experience,"

The annual meetings connected with MR. SPURGEON'S COLLEGE were held in the end of March. They began with a Conference of those who are either still studying in the college, or who have left it to enter on public work. Of the latter, upwards of a hundred were either present, or had made returns, and it was reported that seventyeight were at that moment preparing for the ministry. Some time ago an American minister, referring to this great work, gave it as his opinion that there was silently rising, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, a new denomition, and that within a generation we should probably hear not less frequently of "Spurgeonite Baptists" than of "Wesleyan Methodists." Mr. Spurgeon himself, on hearing of this view, indignantly disclaimed any intention such as seemed to be imputed to him, and all who know him will cordially admit that he can have no thoughts but what are pure and unselfish. But there may be something in the American prediction for all that, as may be gathered from the following:

"While the students are in the college, they are exhorted to attempt to found new interests. Most of them during the summer are street-preachers; some of them all the year round proclaim the Saviour in the highways. A service has been regularly conducted under the portico of the Tabernacle. In many cases a room has been

been gathered, a congregation collected, a larger room has been engaged, a chapel has been projected, a selfsupporting church has been raised. Thus have many of our men made spheres for themselves. Since the college commenced, 253 men have been received for training in its regular classes, and at least 460 have had instruction in the evening-classes. One hundred and fifty-five students have gone from us to settle in the ministry, of whom 144 still remain in the work, the rest having either died, been laid aside by illness, or relinquished the work from other causes. Thirty-nine distinct new churches have been formed by the agency of our college. Twenty-two new chapels have been erected as the result of our agency. In London, at the present moment, we are making efforts to establish churches in 11 destitute districts. There are 78 students in the college at this moment, and 174 under tuition in the eveningclasses. Our men have, for the most part, either gone to old churches so impoverished as not to be able to support pastors until they were revived, and in many cases reformed; or else they have located in spots in which there was no Baptist church, and have built on entirely fresh ground."

If these men were allowed to become absorbed in the general community of English Baptists, the Tabernacle College would of course be just a grand Home Missionary Institute; but the annual conferences keep up the connection with Mr. Spurgeon, and he must necessarily continue to complexion the ministry which he has been the means of raising. We are very far from saying that there is anything objectionable in the arrangement. On the contrary, the wisdom of it from Mr. Spurgeon's point of view is manifest. We simply notice it as a very significant ecclesiastical fact.

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The Rev. THOMAS FINLAYSON, Moderator of the United Presbyterian Synod, in moving a vote of thanks to the Directors, said,-Although this motion is, in a great measure, one of courtesy and form, and requires no speech to recommend it, I may be permitted to say a word or two regarding our Society considered from my professional point of view. It has always seemed to me that, of all classes in the community, clergymen were specially interested in such Institutions as this, as a means of enabling them to make provision for their families. In most departments of commercial life men may hope, by skill and enterprise, to secure, if not wealth, a moderate competency for their families; but a clergyman, at least in Scotland, can hardly hope to do that in any other way than by a Life Assurance. His social position is rather above his income. His education, his character, and office, give him a high place in society, and his limited income is often sorely taxed to meet the expenditure which that position entails, if he is to maintain it with any degree of respectability. How, then, is he to make even a scanty provision for his family in view of his being prematurely removed by death? His great difficulty on this point is in the beginning of his career, when his family are young and entirely dependent, and when his ordinary expendi ture is heaviest. Were he assured-which no man is-that he would live to see his family educated, and sent out to fight their way in the world, he might have little anxiety; but he may be removed when they are young, and, as his whole professional income ceases with his life, his widow and children are thus left destitute and dependent on precarious charity to struggle with great and very painful difficulties. His only way of providing against this calamity is by the facilities which such Societies as this afford. By a limited annual payment, exacted from him with all the force of a most sacred obligation,

CHALLENGE.

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£21,189 16 11 £234,897 3 11 £80,413 5 0 £1,365,365 12 10

he can secure a certain sum payable to them on his death. With him, therefore, if he is a prudent man, and has no inde. pendent patrimony, it is scarcely a question whether he shall effect an Insurance on his life. The only question is, How or where can he do so to the best advantage? At least that is the way in which I viewed the matter. The question I put to my self was, How can I, for the premium which I can afford to give, secure the largest sum, consistent with perfect safety, in the event of my early death? I was therefore led to examine very carefully the principles and rates of various Societies, and found that the SCOTTISH PROVIDENT most fully met my view. I found that I could secure a sum of about £1200 in this Society for an annual premium which in several other Societies would secure me only about £1000. No doubt, if I continued a Member of these Societies for fifteen or twenty years, the £1000 Policy would be increased to £1200 or more by Bonus Additions; but my anxiety was to make the largest provision at once, and the distant prospect of such Bonus Additions had less charm for me than the larger sum at once secured by the terms of this Institution. Besides, I saw that in the event of my paying so many premiums as to cover the Society from all loss upon my policy, I became entitled to share in subsequent Profits; and it seemed to me to be in accordance with reason and common sense that those only who, by their numerous payments, create the Profits, should receive them. These views, which led me to join this Society, have been confirmed by fuller reflection; and I greatly rejoice in the report given us to day of the prosperous state of its affairs. It seems to me that the SCOTTISH PROVIDENT INSTITUTION has a special claim to the consideration and support of the members of the profession to which I belong.

THIS SOCIETY has taken a leading part in the relaxation of restrictions on Policies, and in the REMOVAL OF GROUNDS OF So long ago as 1849 it was declared that error in the original statements should not involve forfeiture, unless proved to have been fraudulent as well as untrue; and at same time the forfeiture which attached to death by capital punishment, by duelling, and even by suicide (unless occurring within six months), was removed.

Free Travelling and Residence.-Members (not seafaring men) are now at liberty, free of charge, to travel or reside in any part of the world (Asia excepted) north of 35 degrees N. and south of 30 degrees S. The Directors are also empowered, under certain conditions, to grant Certificates of Exemption from all restrictions.

The ADVANTAGES offered in other respects, as compared with other offices, are

A greatly Larger Original Assurance for the same Premium, with the prospect, to good lives (for whom exclusive'y the whole Profits are reserved), of eventually receiving very considerable additions.

Thus, a Policy for £1200 or £1250 can at most ages be had, from the first, for the premium charged elsewhere for £1000 only. Policies for £1000 which have shared at three Septennial Investigations have already been increased to £1400, £1600, and even to £1800.

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Thus a person of thirty may secure £1000 at death, with Profits, for a yearly Premium of £20, 15s., which in the other Scottish Mutual Offices would assure £800 only. Or, if unwilling to burden himself with payments during the whole of his life, he may secure a Policy for £1000, with prospect of additions from the Profits, for a Premium of £27. 13s. 4d., limited to Twenty One Payments, being nearly the same as most Offices require during the whole term of life. To PROFESSIONAL MEN, and others whose income is dependent on the continuance of health and activity, this mode of Assurance is specially recommended.

REPORTS, TABLES, and every information may be had on application at the Head Office or Agencies. April 1868.

NOTICE.

PRIZE ESSAY ON PRESBYTERIANISM.

A Prize of £50 is offered for the Best Essay on Presbyterianism, by any Minister, Preacher, or Student of the Free Church. It will be expected that the fundamental principles of Presbyterian Order and Government shall be clearly stated, vindicated on grounds of Scripture, history, and reason, and applied in a manner suitable to present times.

The following gentlemen have agreed to act as judges:The Rev. Professor DOUGLAS, D.D.; the Rev. Dr. MACKINTOSI, Dunoon; and the Rev. WILLIAM LAUGHTON, Greenock.

The Essays, with motto and enclosed address of each writer, to be forwarded to Professor DOUGLAS, D.D., Free Church College, Glasgow, not later than 1st October, 1868.

JUST PUBLISHED,

HANDSOME PRESENT BOOK.

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"It is a charming book to read, and a most valuable volume to think over. It was a wise, and we cannot doubt it will be a profitable, duty to publish it here, where it must take a place second only to that it occupies in the language in which it was written. The Engravings on wood are of a very masterly character; they are all firstclass, admirably drawn and exquisitely engraved; they may be classed, indeed, with the best productions of the art that have been produced in our age; and Messrs. Nelson have done full justice to them in the minor accessories of paper and print."-The Art Journal.

T. NELSON AND SONS, London, Edinburgh, and New York.

JAMES WATSON, Manager.

Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 6s. 6d.,

Life of John Welsh, Minister of Ayr, 1568

1622. Including Illustrations of the Contemporary Ecclesiastical History of Scotland and France, By the late Rev. JAMES YOUNG. With a BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of the Author, By the Rev. JAMES ANDERSON.

Edinburgh: JOHN MACLAREN.

"This book, as the Life of a stalwart and valiant servant of a Church that has played a great part in the history of Europe, is a valuable addition to the library of ecclesiastical biography."-Athenæum.

"We had no conception till we opened this volume that the Life of Welsh contained so much graphic and varied incident. We beg to recommend the volume to all who take an interest in the history of the Scottish Church, to which it furnishes an important, and, we may add, a most seasonable contribution."-B. and F. Evangelical Review.

"I have read the Life of John Welsh with much interest."-Thomas Carlyle,

"Few lives were more worthy of record. A most attractive memoir of one of the saintliest men the Kirk in Scotland ever possessed."-London Weekly Review.

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NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS.

The Atonement.

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No. 2.]

JUNE 1, 1868.

MISSION OBLIGATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES. MODERN missionary enterprise is something altogether unique. History tells of no such organized world-wide propagandism. Heathendom, we may say, is assailed over its whole vast extent. There are missions in China-vigorous and hopeful; in Siam and Burmah; in Java and Ceylon. From Cape Comorin to Cashmere, from the Ganges to the Arabian Sea, India is thinly dotted with mission-stations: they are in most of its great cities-they are here and there in its country districts-ground has been broken in its mountain fastnesses, where are still millions of the original inhabitants of the country, some of them fresh and high-spirited barbarians, with the root of noble things in them. The western coast of Africa, where the slave-trade used to flourish, has been long one of the chosen fields of missionary labour; in South Africa the missionary is busy at his blessed work among the Hottentots, the Caffres, the Zulus, the Basutos, the Bechuanas; in East Africa the line of barbarism has at least been broken, and Madagascar-"Isle of Martyrs"-is now for ever famous in the annals of the Church; North Africa, to which such illustrious memories cling, has not been without its gracious invasion-the Americans, for example, have interesting missions among the Copts in Egypt. There is scarcely a wandering tribe of North American Indians, between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, to which the gospel has not been sent. The salvation of Christ has been preached to the degraded inhabitants of Greenland and Labrador; the poor West Indian negroes, who have claims against us we all think too little of, have not been left uncared for by missionary zeal; within the memory of living men the banner of the kingdom has been planted, we suppose, on an hundred islands of the Pacific. If the past is any guide in reference to the future, may we not see in all this the seeds of great things—perhaps. of new Christian empires and civilizations?

But what, after all, have you actually made of it, it may be asked? Well, perhaps not all we would have liked-not all we counted on. We are ever apt to under-estimate the day of small things, though it may be altogether necessary to give basis and solidity to the greater and more sweeping success when it comes. Suppose that mighty and singular movement in China had been preceded by a long, laborious, praying, waiting day of small things-giving it a people considerably familiarized with Christian ideas, and a central formative nucleus of strong conviction and thorough instruction-who shall say how different might have been. the result? Yet very much has been achieved. Thousands and thousands have been brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The membership in the various mission-churches is not less at this time than a quarter of a million. Take India-on which missionary effort is so largely concentrated. How are matters there? During the last decade the native Christians doubled their number, and the native Christian ministry was more than tripled. The idol temples are falling into decay; in some cases they have been turned into Christian churches and schools. In one of the large educational institutions of the Free Church the attendance has suffered, strangely enough, from the decline of Brahminism: the Brahmin priest, who was wont to live on the fat of the land, is getting too poor to pay the school pence. From many quarters we hear that impression has been made far beyond what is indicated by positive result. The old religion is passing away from the convictions of educated Hindus, and the sad wail of the first centuries of our era is heard again. "Who will show us any good?" the empty but craving heart cries out. Hinduism, in fact, is breached; and if the Church could muster force and heroism enough for a grand assault, there might be issues we scarcely venture to dream of. At any time, indeed, we may have news of great religious commotions in our Eastern empire. There is everything to awaken hope and encourage effort.

Indeed the wonder, in some respects, is, that so much has been accom

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plished. For, after all, the Church, as a whole, has never been thoroughly awakened to its missionary duties. There is a small minority, it may be, alive to the claims and grandeur of the work; but what a want of prayerful, thoughtful, self-sacrificing interest there is among the far greater number of us! Here, for instance, are all, or almost all, the great missionary societies in financial difficulties, chiefly from the circumstance that the cost of living, especially in India, is increased. This is the case with the Church Missionary Society, the London Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society. It is the case, too, with our own Church, which may have to recede from ground it at present occupies, and to refuse offers of service from young men of promise, unless the liberalities of our people are increased; and though the slightest effort would give relief, it is hard to get the effort made. Is that because our giving abilities are taxed already to the uttermost? Why, so far from that, we believe that there is not a Christian Church in our country where you will not find, say a couple of men, whose annual personal income surpasses the annual missionary income of the whole community of which they are members. The poverty of the Churches could replenish those lacking coffers, and be only the richer for it. We long for conversions on a grand scale. We would have hurricanes of blessing casting down the hoary superstitions of the heathen nations and electrifying the world. But what right have we to expect such things without far mightier wrestlings in prayer with God— without the generosities, the heroisms of self-sacrifice, which are never wanting where there is the real love-spirit of the cross? We must rise to higher thoughts and higher things. The Church has committed herself, as it were, to the conquest of the world-encouraging success has crowned her efforts on the whole-and, at whatever cost, we must go forward with some real sense of the work we have taken in hand. We must have contributions on a far more liberal scale. We must have nobler gifts than money. If the gospel is real, and the mission cause not the mere romance of religion, the Church does nothing unreasonable in claiming for these high places of the field the flower of our Christian intellect and culture. The door is open meanwhile. Above all, India is for us such an opportunity as perhaps Christian people never had before. But open doors sometimes very suddenly close. Who has not been struck with what we might call the law of opportunities? They are strangely transient. Often the most stupendous results depend on their being seized at once. They are not targets on the hill-side, at which you may shoot when you like; they are birds on the wing, which you must bring down at once, or you may never have another shot at them. The great men, for example, who won the independence of America, disliked slavery. They would fain have put it away, but they lacked strong convictions. They did not act-the opportunity was lost; and instead of dying quietly at the time. they expected, the accursed thing got a new access of energy, and spread itself over new regions, where States arose large enough for empires, then came to worship it at last with a sort of fanatic devotion. And when God had at last passed His Emancipation Act, it cost America two thousand millions of sterling pounds, and six hundred thousand human lives. The willing sacrifice not merely brings us the blessing,-it is ever the least costly.

THE LATE DR. M'CRIE, AND TERMS OF UNION.

THE following letter has already appeared in the "Daily Review;" but it is sufficiently important to justify its republication in our pages. When Dr. M'Crie's authority is so liberally quoted, and apparently with complete inadvertence to the only point in which it is relevant to adduce it, it is of some consequence to set the matter right. Authority, in matters of truth or duty, ought not to be pushed too far, or too absolutely relied upon. Still, in a case such as that now under discussion, it has peculiar weight. Both parties can agree to point to men, now gone, whom they

alike regard as intelligent and conscientious defenders of Scottish Church principles. Those men are not involved in the questions now before us, and therefore occupy the position of impartial judges. Now, we may not be entitled to say that Dr. M'Crie or Dr. Cunningham have sanctioned the Union now proposed, because the case was not before them. But we may be entitled to say, because we may be able to prove, that some leading grounds, or all the leading grounds, relied upon by the opponents of Union, are grounds which would not have been recognized or sanctioned by these distinguished men. This, as regards Dr. M'Crie, is precisely the case in hand.

A brief statement of facts will make the bearing of the subjoined letter from Dr. M'Crie, junior, more evident. In 1827 the body with which his father-the late Dr. M'Crie-was connected, negotiated a Union with another small body of Presbyterians. The latter were, in fact, a branch of the New Light Antiburghers that protested and remained separate when the rest of that body united with the New Light Burghers, and formed the United Secession, in 1820. The Union of 1827 between this section of the New Light Antiburghers and the Old Light Antiburghers, or Dr. M'Crie's body, was prepared by means of a Testimony in which both parties agreed, and which was drawn up by Dr. M'Crie. It has often been stated and argued that this Testimony avoids committing the parties who adopted it to Establishments of religion. It has been argued that this course was taken because, on the one hand, the New Light Antiburghers would not have acceded to a basis that did so commit them; and because, on the other hand, Dr. M'Crie, having procured adherence to the principle of national religion, or the principle that nations as well as individuals are bound to recognize the authority and the claims of revealed religion, did not think it needful to require anything further in order to incorporation. The letter now published by Dr. M'Crie, junior, embodies his father's express testimony to the accuracy of the view just stated. The elder M'Cric tells us that when the Testimony was drawn up, everything was carefully kept out which might pledge men to formal Establishments of religion. He testifies further, that to his great surprise, after the Union, men came so rapidly to a harmonious view of things, that in seven years the body was prepared to agree to a "Vindication" drawn up by the younger M'Crie, which pleaded expressly and formally for Establishments. It is this latter document which has been so much quoted of late, especially by Dr. Begg. And the point to be especially kept in view is, that the unanimity with respect to Establishments which the "Vindication "expresses, did not precede Union-it was not made a term of Union— Dr. M'Crie was (6 very careful" not to introduce it into the basis of Union, but agreement on that point followed Union as an effect or result. It is to be noticed, also, that Dr. M'Crie does not speak merely of Endowments, but of "Establishments."

"SIR,-Though I had resolved to take no part in this controversy, I feel myself compelled to notice the late attempts, repeated ad nauseam, to drag the name of my late father into the service of a party. I feel the more encouraged to do so, as I am able, from his private correspondence, to let him speak for himself on the only point about which I am concerned that his sentiments should be fairly understood. I may premise that the address by the Original Seceders in 1834, entitled 'Vindication of the Principles of the Church of Scotland in Relation to Questions presently agitated,' which the following extracts refer to, and of which so much use has been recently made, was drawn up by me, and passed through my father's hands before being submitted to the Synod. To my draft of that address he made no additions worth mentioning, though he somewhat curtailed its fair dimensions by cutting out some passages on which I had bestowed great pains, and in which, with the enthusiasm of youth, I had enlarged on the charms and advantages of an Established Church. Writing to me, 18th September 1834, my father says:-'Your draft was as favourably received as you could wish. It was unanimously approved of, and ordered to be published as an Act of Synod, under the title of "A Vindication," &c. It is wonderful how much the truth has gained among us since our late Union, for which we cannot be too thankful. (Oh, how tender ought we to be of marring the work of God by yielding to our own spirits, or giving way to personal grudges and jealousies!) When our Testimony was drawn up, we needed to be exceedingly careful not to introduce anything which pledged its adherents to a formal Establishment of religion; and yet, within a few short years, a paper not only pleading for Establishments, but in which the word was introduced with approbation almost in every page, passed without a single mark of dissent, but with universal agreement. Had I had leisure to peruse it beforehand, I would (recollecting as I did former feelings, and disposed to respect them after they were become dormant and dead) have been tempted to soften or

blot out a number of the expressions which most prominently assert the doctrine; had I objected to them in public, I would probably have been as unsuccessful in procuring an alteration as I was when I proposed an alteration of the proposition which pronounced the Voluntary principle atheistical.

"In another letter, dated December 17, 1834, he writes me as follows: 'There was need, in moulding the document, to keep in our eye more parties than either one or two. It is the first paper in which the Synod ever expressed their approbation, formally, of Establishments; and, all things considered, it is wonderful that it should have met so unqualified and unanimous an approbation from within; for I have not heard of one, minister or private member, who is not pleased with it. But if we had not been very explicit and firm in pointing out the corruptions of the National Church, I suspect it would have been otherwise.'

"I leave these extracts to speak for themselves. For myself, I have only to say, that after thirty-four years of experience, I am not conscious of having abandoned any of the principles advocated in that address. The only point in which I have seen reason to change is the practical question as to the duty of demanding uniformity of views as to the past history of the Church as a term of Christian communion. I now also perceive that my father was right in objecting to apply the term 'atheistical' to the Voluntary principle; and I regret that, in common with many of my brethren at the time, I should have applied this term so indiscriminately to all who are opposed to religious endowments. I still hold the principle which, I think, is embodied in the Article of Agreement between the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches, namely, the duty of nations and their rulers, as such, to recognize and countenance the true religion; and, with the Free Church, I consider that this is the real principle from which civil establishments and endowments flow as corollaries. Το maintain the reverse of that principle would certainly amount to atheism; but, while the principle is granted and made matter of mutual agreement, I can conceive that many good men may not be prepared to draw the same conclusions from it, and may even consider themselves precluded from doing so by some other scriptural principle which they conscientiously believe to condemn civil establishments and endowments. I now, therefore, feel convinced that those who profess to adhere to the principle embodied in the Article of Agreement referred to should not be required (to use my father's language) to 'pledge themselves to a formal Establishment;' in other words, that Establishments should not be made a term of Christian union or communion, which is all I understand to be meant by the modern phrase of 'making it an open question.'

"Having made these remarks, I must decline entering further into the question, which seems unhappily, but, I would fain hope, only for a time, to obstruct the prospect of Union.—I am, yours truly,

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[Of the criticisms to which this Letter has been subjected one only deserves the least notice. It is asked why Dr. M'Crie, junior, did not publish his father's letter long ago; for instance, when he wrote his father's life? The answer is-That so long as Dr. M'Crie, junior, was associated in the same Church with men whose successive phases of opinion his father's letter commemorates, it would have been in

jurious and unbecoming, as well as useless, for any good purpose, to have made that

letter public. We need hardly add that the foundation of the argument derived from the late Dr. M'Crie's course in this matter, is the fact that then and always he was the consistent advocate of the principle of Establishments as his deep personal conviction. To reply to the letter by saying that it is an attempt to persuade us that he forsook that principle, is only to make it manifest that men do not know what to say to it.]

THE ENCOURAGEMENTS OF HOME MISSION WORK. WHILE encouragement in the work of Christ is neither the index nor the measure of our duty, it must always act as a powerful stimulus. We are persuaded that but few among us have an adequate impression of the encouragements of home mission work, and we wish therefore to invite attention to a few considerations bearing on this subject.

I. We approach the work with the Bible in our hands. The Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles record the origin and progress of the first Churches. Who were the members of these Churches? They were in many cases ignorant heathen slaves, who had not received the vestige of an education, whose religion often gave its sanctions to the worst vices, and whose condition destroyed self-respect and the hope of better things. History, and indeed the Bible itself, paints their character in black enough colours. Some of these early Christians, who were along with others the founders of the Church, and the prized companions of the apostles (Onesi

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