of the gospel and power of God, and the wisdom of God unto salvation. This joy, with which our hearts are filled when we rejoice in the progress and efficacy of the gospel, as manifested in the success of a brother's ministry in the salvation of souls, should lead us to give great glory to God; and then we are ourselves encouraged, amid our manifold sins and infirmities, and our down-way in them, to spiritual efforts, hoping and believing that our labours shall not be in vain in the Lord. He has sent these things to excite desires, and foster desires into expectations and hopes founded in his Word, which he will not, and cannot disappoint. Then, how delightful is it to see the harmony of truth,-the work of the Spirit, and the glory of Christ, -"He shall take of mine," this other Comforter, "and show unto you." To preach the gospel is to preach the glory of Christ, and the work of the living God glorifying Christ. Here we find that the work of the Spirit and the preaching of the work of the Spirit, however we may sometimes confound them, are, so far from being at all inconsistent, indissolubly combined for the glorifying of Christ; it is by the effusion of the Holy Ghost, that there is glory to Christ," He shall take of mine and show it unto you." And this would lead me to make a few remarks as to the nature of our ministry. If I might take the liberty of making a suggestion, and leaving it to the intelligence of the spiritual men who are listening to me, I would suggest the great importance of giving prominence in our ministrations, especially now, and as the lode-star in our present track, to the question of our Shorter Catechism, "What is effectual calling?" (Hear, hear.) What a wide field is there in the answer to this question, yet how useful a centre point! How wide a field, "our sin and misery," the conviction thereof, the glory of Christ, and the enlightening of our minds,-the embracing of Christ, and the renovation of our will thereto, the free offer, and the reception of the renovated will. How evangelical! The whole terminating in Christ. How spiritual! the whole the work of the Holy Ghost. Last year we were called to exercises of humiliation, and proceeded so far in them, not without tokens of the Lord's good hand enabling us to employ ourselves, in some measure, in his work. But while so much good has been done-for I think it were ungrateful to keep out of view the good that the Lord hath wrought-while so much good has been done, there has been a measure of disappointment; yet still I am not disposed, in the main, to indulge in any lugubrious complaints on that score; as I think that the report this year, and the tone of the Assembly and the Church, are pointing very much to practical measures; and if I should have wished a little more of humiliation, I certainly should not have wished any less of that practical tendency that seems to pervade the desires of the house at this time. The field that seems to open up to us in the report are, the twice principles of evangelism, and of the discipline of the Church. Now, I do not mean to enter into these two points; but I will make one single observation as to how the prosecution of practice has a converse effect to the doctrine of Christian experience. Christ tells us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. There is a tendency, even to the extreme, either of a Pharisaical legality and pride,—of a sour vinegar mixture,—or to the laxity of latitudinarians,—an unholy, or at least, uncareful practice. Now, here against the leaven of the Pharisees, we have the evangelism; for what can better, as a means under God, purge us of the leaven of the Pharisees, than just going to all the Sadducees, and all the publicans and sinners, with the gospel of peace and glad news of salvation, which we must per force preach to sinners? Here, then, in the very evangelism, have we a caveat against the leaven of the Pharisees, and we have our own minds indoctrinated with a deep evangelical element. But then, on the other hand, in the care and edification of the church,-in purging it of scandals,-calling on the people to be patterns to the world,-to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, by having our minds led to all the exercises of Christian experience, and all the holy heights of Christian prayerful efforts, and Christian humility, and any other Christian virtue, -and in the enforcing of them, so far as a holy, and charitable, and Christian discipline in the bowels of Jesus Christ will admit, and taking practical means to ensure it, we have a caveat against the leaven of laxity. In fact, we have an evangelism to keep us from the errors of Pelagianism, and our discipline to preserve us from Antinomianism. There is another idea in the report I would like to advert to, and that

is, the proposal of calling all hands to labour in the work of Christ,-that the Free Church of Scotland, like Nelson with regard to England, is "expecting every man to do his duty." Now, in perusing the word of God of late for private study and preaching, and in considering the circumstances of the Church, I have been struck with the hints, the more than hints, given in the Holy Scriptures of the state of the primitive church in that respect. It seems to be a principle there, that every Christian man, along with his grace, has of God a gift,-either a natural gift and talent sanctified by grace, and called out into exercise, or a gift supernaturally bestowed. I pretend not to decide; but all the gifts and graces thus given are for the man's own sanctification and glory mainly, and also for the edifying of the body of Christ,given for the use, and machinery, and exercise of grace in the corporate body of Jesus Christ-his Church. Thus, there appears to me a most beautiful and instructive ideal of the Christian Church set forth in these words,-" There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit,-there are differences of administration, but the same Lord,—and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." There are the gifts of the Spirit, and there is the administration of the Lord. There is the triune God and His Church, having the administration and the operation. The gifts are the gifts of the Holy Ghost. They are given to be placed in administration-that is, the Spirit of God gives gifts, along with grace, to every Christian man. The Church, as the recognised body of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to administer them; and if ever there has been a Church in time past, who have been unsuccessful in this administration,-if the duty of administration has been neglected,-that does not prove that the Spirit did not give the gifts. They might find their way out in our unadministered and irregular way; but it is not the design of the Holy Ghost that these gifts should go out in this inoperative and scattered way, but that all of them should be rightly administered-that the gifts of each individual should be ascertained and judged of by the church, in relation to God's designs and the church's ends, and the world's, and that these gifts be put under a proper administrative economy. All these gifts should be put forth into operation in the Church of the living God, and this cometh out of all the beauty, and the glory, and the perfected idea of the Christian church. And where there are these differences of operation, it is the same God that is operating all the things, in all the persons, that is, that the church is a God-energised society," it is God that worketh," the living God, by His living Spirit,'ye are His living body." One word with regard to the present state of our Church. It is evident, from the needs that have come before us, that they are exceeding great; and among the other needs which came upon us, there is the need of looking out and finding gifts for all the work before us, and especially for the holy ministry. The young men should be looking about to see what these gifts are, and efforts should be made to thrust forth those who have got the gifts, but who require our aid and cooperation, so that with the good hand of God upon us, we may be enabled to relieve the pressure of our great necessities. (Hear, hear.)

Mr CARMENT referred to several awakenings which had taken place in various parts of the Highlands, such as the Island of Harris, the Isle of Skye, the mainland of West Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, and also in that part of the country from which he came. He impressed on the Assembly the importance of sending into the Highlands those men who could preach Gaelic, and who are now settled in the Lowlands. Among these, he gave the names of Dr M'Kellar, Mr Beith, Mr Glass, the Messrs M'Gilvray, and Mr Noble of Edinburgh; and he spoke of the great eagerness with which they would be received in all parts of the Highlands and Islands, where the thirst to hear the gospel was everywhere most intense.

Dr CANDLISH said,-Two points yet remain to be disposed of as to the present duty of this Church in reference to the advancement and revival of vital godliness in the land. The first subject that remains to be disposed of is that which relates to the instructions to be given to the committee on the subject of the progress of Popery. I do not intend to resume again the discussion which took place this forenoon in reference to the Maynooth endowment. That portion of this great subject I hold to have been exhausted, in so far, at least, as the discharge of our duty in the way of

approaching the Legislature and the Throne is concerned; but we have to look at this proposed endowment of Maynooth, which, I suppose, we can scarcely but regard as virtually already effected, not merely as an evil in itself, but also as the prelude and preliminary of a wide and extensive recognition of Popery. We are to look also on this measure, and on the other measures of which it is but the preface, not simply as things evil in themselves, but to treat them as symptoms of a deep-seated malady under which this country labours; and it is in this last point of view that we are called now to consider this endowment of Maynooth as indicative of a great moral disorder, to the removal or alleviation of which the strenuous efforts and earnest prayers of the Church ought to be instantly directed.

Now, in regard to this view of the subject, it must at once occur to every one, that any committee to be appointed will require to call the attention of the Church to the whole nature of the crisis, and the full extent of the danger; for we are just about entering, as it seems to many of us, on the great and final struggle with the Man of Sin; and it is a part of the policy of the adversary, who, in this instance, is the father of lies, that he has introduced his last assault upon the souls of men by a previous lulling of them asleep, insomuch that there prevails at this moment throughout the land, and not merely among our rulers and statesmen, but to by far too large an extent, among our common people, a disposition even to trust and confide in Popery. So thoroughly has the Man of Sin of late contrived to disguise himself, that many are disposed to fondle and caress that gigantic power, which, if it once again obtain an ascendancy, will soon extinguish light and liberty throughout the world. (Applause.) But it is the duty of this Church, by lifting up a solemn protest against this great sin, to take instant steps for awakening throughout the land, and among all our people, a salutary sense of the impending danger; and in this view it may be that what is evil in itself is permitted by God, that it may be overruled for good. For, when we look back on the growing indifference and insensibility that have characterized our politicians and statesmen, and our people at large, when we look at the supineness,-nay, when we consider the false liberality that is beginning to infect even religious men, we cannot but think that nothing short of this thunder-peal would have served to awaken us to a right sense of the crisis that awaits us. And it may have been well ordered, no doubt it has been well ordered,—that this national sin is to be committed, that the country may yet in time be roused to separate and come out, and be no more a partaker in the sins or plagues of Babylon. (Hear.) And if we are to discharge this duty aright, we must begin with ourselves, the ministers and office-bearers of the Church, and the students who are coming forward to supply our places. Our ministers and students, for years past, have been allowed to leave far too much unstudied the Popish controversy, insomuch that I believe I speak not my own experience only, but that of many of my brethren, in saying, that when we left the Theological Hall, and entered on the field of ministerial duty, we were, to a large extent, so far as the instruction we received from the chairs was concerned, allowed to remain in a state of most happy ignorance in regard not only to the details, but to many of the principles of this gigantic system of error. (Hear, hear.) Beginning here, therefore, it will be the duty of the Church to raise, through the ranks of her ministers, and through the ranks of her students, a call addressed to one and all of them, to make themselves, without delay, familiar with the whole artifices of the Man of Sin; for it cannot but be apprehended as a grievous calamity, that this controversy should come upon us unawares and unprepared. God is giving us warning that we shall need all the preparation he may enable us to make. The day has gone by, I trust, when any of us dreamed for a moment of Popery having lost its power and subtlety. (Hear, hear.) The dream of its giving way before the advancing tide of civilization and the dawning light of a gradually developed millennium, has also passed away; and now the universal impression of all of us is, that even in our own day, if God spare us but for a few years, another lustrum or so, we shall be landed in the very same struggle that our ancestors had to maintain, and we shall need the very same weapons they had to employ. (Loud cries of hear, hear.) It cannot but strike observing men, as a strange symptom of the subtlety of this system, that the grossest of its delusions are yet palatable, not merely to the ignor

ant vulgar, but even to enlightened philosophers and wise statesmen. (Hear.) It cannot but strike us as remarkable, that Popery does not need to furnish herself with new armour. She can use the same weapons for this age of civilization and enlightenment that she used in the days of darkness; and this is in part our encouragement. We shall have no new battle to fight, but just the old battle over again,—we shall have no new paths to seek, but just to seek out the old ways, and walk therein. (Applause.) Then turning from the ministers and students to the Church at large, we are called to consider how we may best discharge this important duty. It is not for this Assembly or Church to launch forth upon the arena of political strife and agitation. It is not our business as a Church to kindle a flame of excitement in the parishes of the land; but I cannot help thinking that God has put into the hands of this Church a very precious opportunity, for the right use of which she will be responsible to Him,—a most precious opportunity for yet saving, if it may please God to give his blessing, this community of Scotland from participating in the sin that has been perpetrated. (Hear.) I have elsewhere referred to the singular providence of God, in giving to this country a breathing time between the passing of this Maynooth measure and the period when it is called upon to say whether or not it homologates that measure. Let the measure receive not only the vote of the Commons, but the sanction of the Peers, and the consent of the Crown, still it is not the measure of the community, but the measure of a body of men who were returned to the place and power they now occupy with an express view of their advocating opposite opinions. (Hear.) There is, then, this breathing time given; and I cannot help thinking, that if, under God, any instrumentality is to be available for keeping Scotland free of this sin, it must be the instrumentality, to a large extent, of the Free Church of Scotland. (Applause.) I do not mean this Church as separate and detached from other evangelical bodies, but as having been called by God to occupy a station in which she may serve as a bond of rallying to all the Churches of Christendom on this great question. (Hear.) It is not by mere agitation, by mere excitement, that this duty is to be discharged; but let it be considered that it must be discharged, if we would be faithful to God and to our people. We are called upon to give forth a voice in every congregation and every parish in the land,—not a tumultuous, but a deep, and calm, and solemn voice, setting, if it be possible, before every man and woman in the land, the fearful alternative which is before each and every one of them. There is not an individual in Scotland whose intelligence may not be brought to tell one way or other on this question.

Let us, then, call upon every man and woman in Scotland who can form an opinion, calmly and deliberately to settle the individual question, whether they will be on God's side, or on the side of Antichrist and the Man of Sin; and who can tell what good may be effected if right means be adopted of calmly and deliberately pressing home, not upon the people in the mass,-not upon large meetings got together for the purpose, but pressing home upon every family apart, and every individual apart, this solemn consideration, that Scotland is now before God on her trial,-pressing this home upon them, that in this season of forbearance and respite of judgment, another opportunity is yet afforded to our beloved land, for shaking herself clear of the responsibility of this heinous crime? (Hear.) It is absolutely necessary that we should now make the Christian people alive to the nature of the impending danger which threatens them, and the effects of the inroads which Popery is making, that they may be stirred up to action. There is not a family in the land where it is not showing itself; and, Sir, let us warn the people of this country,-let us tell them to care for themselves and for their children; for the day is coming that will sift and try the spirits of men. And ob, Sir, if the generation that is now rising to manhood,—if our sons and daughters, who are rising up to fill the places of those who must soon pass away, if they are left as ignorant on this question as their fathers have been,where, when the day of trial comes, will our God find a testifying people for his cause? I trust the Assembly, in appointing a committee to watch over Popery, and in giving them such instructions as I have endeavoured to indicate, will also hold fast by the broad flag of the unity of Christ, as we held by his headship. It is known to all in this house that this miserable measure has been already the occasion of

good, in bringing together evangelical Christians of every denomination, and causing them for once to agree. Hence we see the kind hand of God in bringing good out of evil; and we may feel joy and satisfaction in our brotherly intercourse and fellowship, even in discharging a painful duty. But it is time for us, as a church, to set the example to our brethren in promoting such concentrated and combined efforts. It is known that other denominations are willing to unite with us against this iniquity. Let us give them every encouragement, and whatever mode of operation may be agreed on, we shall have our representatives ready to take their seats in the conference, and aid in any combined movement that may be resolved on. I will now, therefore, move the following resolutions:

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“The Assembly instruct the Standing Committee on Popery to take the whole of the subject into their immediate, full, and serious consideration, and to adopt such measures as, under the Divine blessing, may be best fitted for maintaining and defending the cause of truth against the opposition of the Man of Sin. The Committee is also instructed, in particular, to direct the attention of the ministers of the Church to the duty and necessity of carefully studying, and frequently and faithfully exposing to their people, the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome; and to adopt measures for having the students of the Church thoroughly instructed in the Popish controversy, that, by the grace of God, they may be prepared to take the position in connection with it which his Providence may, ere long, assign to them. And the Assembly, considering that the time has now come for co-operating with other evangelical churches, for the purpose of offering a decided resistance to the designs and pregress of the Romish apostacy at home and abroad, appoint the foresaid Committee to be a deputation to attend any conference of deputies of evangelical bodies in this kingdom, who may be assembled with the view of resisting the progress of Popish error, or otherwise promoting the cause of truth."

And now, Sir, in passing from this branch of the subject, allow me to say, that we cannot for a moment imagine that this evil is likely to decrease, or that the progress of Popery, in a national sense, is likely to be arrested. For this opinion various reasons might be given. I will refer to one. Let any one consider what is likely to be the effect of those measures which are in course of being adopted by statesmen in reference to Popery. It is not from any peculiar favour to Popery of itself that they encourage it, neither is it to promote the spread of liberality or latitudinarianism; but it is from the miserable helplessness of the statesmen of the world. What has made the Premier resort to this wretched policy? It is not that he is a Papist, or a lover of Popery, it is not even that he is in favour of liberalism or latitudinarianism. True, he is latitudinarian enough in favour of Socinianism. But this is not the reason. He would not endanger his power merely to indulge his feelings. But the fact is, he is simply unable to govern this country. (Great applause.) He is totally at a loss what measures to propose to preserve the peace and integrity of this great empire. (Hear, hear.) The carrying of these measures amounts on his part, and on the part of his associates, to a confession that the reins of government have fallen from their hands, and that the crisis is such that they cannot manage to meet it. But this, Sir, is encouragement to us, that though politicians and statesmen may remain in helpless straits, and forced to have recourse to desperate contrivances, yet the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. They, Sir, have no pole-star to guide them; they have no indwelling conviction of the grace of God to support them. They cannot look on high and appeal there for guidance in these troublous times. They cannot stand unmoved amid the wreck of falling nations; but trusting to this device and to that device, they hurry on the government of this great empire by paltry shifts and expedients, without one settled principle to lead them through the contentions that are warring around them. But, Sir, I say that this is an encouragement to us; for we may expect that this state of things will go on increasing, and who does not see that the statesmen of the day must have recourse to another experiment,-who does not see that the great agitator in Ireland has already outwitted them? (Hear, hear, and applause.) Who does not see that another crisis and exigency is about to arise,→→ another occasion to be forced on the Premier for another step in some new direc