am happy to announce to-night that the late Rev. Alexander Anderson of the Free Gaelic Church, Rothesay, has bequeathed his library to the Lovedale Institution. There are about 460 volumes, besides maps and globes, and they will be forwarded to their destination without expense. The Scripture command to us is, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." How are we obeying that command! I was examining a book to-day, which contains the statistics of all the societies of every denomination throughout the world which are directly engaged in the work of evangelisation; and even looking at the aggregate result, we are still constrained to say that it is yet but the day of small things.

"Rari nantes in gurgite vasto."

At the same rate of progress we have witnessed hitherto it would take thousands of years before the world would be converted; but more rapid processes may be at hand to gladden our sights and hearts-nations may be born in a day. We have the promise that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the channels of the sea. And the spots on the map which mark our mission stations may be like the big drops before the plentiful shower that shall water the nations that are perishing with thirst. (Applause.)

Colonel DAVIDSON and Dr J. J. BROWN, Aberdeen, also briefly sup ported the motion, which was then carried; and the Assembly adjourned shortly after eleven o'clock till Saturday at ten.

SATURDAY, JUNE 1.

ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

The Assembly met in conference to-day at ten o'clock, for the purpose of receiving a deputation from the English Presbyterian Church. The deputation consisted of the Rev. J. C. Paterson of Manchester, Moderator of the Synod; Rev. W. M'Caw, Manchester; Rev. James Paterson, Liverpool; Rev. John Matheson, Hampstead, London; Rev. John G. Wright, Southampton-ministers; Thomas Matheson, Esq., George B. Bruce, Esq., George Duncan, Esq., Rev. William Swansonelders. Professor Lorimer was also present, and took his place amongst the members of the deputation.

The Rev. Mr BRAIDWOOD, late of Madras, had great pleasure in introducing the deputies from the English Presbyterian Church. There were, he said, many weighty reasons why the Free Church should give to any deputation from the English Presbyterian Church the most cordial reception; and he especially directed attention to the handsome manner in which members of that Church in Liverpool and Manchester had responded to the appeal rendered necessary some years ago, when a sum of £5000 was required to repair the devastations which occurred to their mission premises in Bengal by those calamitous storms peculiar to India. Of that sum the fifth had been contributed by their English friends. Their English Presbyterian friends had also laid them under obligations in other matters.

Mr J. C. PATERSON then addressed the Assembly. He said that the

deputies on that occasion appeared in their midst not for the purpose of making complimentary speeches, but for the purpose of presenting the claims of the Church which they represented on the sympathy and assistance of the Free Church in the arduous and responsible labours in which she was at present engaged in the sister country. We are, he said, your very near kinsmen. There is no Church in the world that stands in the same relation to your Church as the English Presbyterian Church. I do not know any other that have declared as we have done that we adopt the principles of the Free Church of Scotland. (Applause.) We have done that by actual deed; and for the resolution which we adopted to that effect, we suffered very considerably in the loss of Church property; so that I take leave to say that we have as fully, as faithfully, and as boldly maintained and exhibited the distinctive principles of the Free Church of Scotland as if we had been an integral portion of yourselves. (Renewed applause.) I take leave to say that our Presbyterianism is as distinctly and clearly defined as is that of the Free Church of Scotland. (Continued applause.) Mr Paterson also mentioned that a large proportion of their ministers belonged to the Free Church; and then thanked the Assembly for the £2000 which had been realised by the collection which had been made last year on behalf of the Church extension movement in England of their own Church. He also thanked the Assembly for the aid which that movement had received in consequence of the able and efficient ministers which, through the labours of Mr Hope of Wamphray, they had sent to them to assist in the organisation and formation of new stations and organisations in different parts of England. Having given thanks for these things, Mr Paterson said he would now state some of the things which he wanted the Free Church to do for them. We do not, he said, want any aid for our own existing congregations. We are perfectly equal to do that work ourselves. We can provide stipends for all the ministers of these congregations. We do not want you to do the whole work of Presbyterian Church extension in England. We do our fair share of that work; and what we want is simply that you should help us to extend Presbyterianism in England. We think that a responsibility lies on you to do so. think you will recognise our claims not merely for sympathy, but for positive help. (Hear, hear, and applause.) We desire to extend Presbyterianism in England; and we do so on two grounds. In the first place, on account of the present condition of the English Church. No man can inquire into the state of things in the prelatic Church of England without seeing that there are two forces there contending for the mastery that we have superstition manifesting itself in the Ritualistic movement; and be you sure of this, that the movement is not one merely on the outside-that it is merely superficial. (Hear, hear.) It is not a mere question of vestments. This movement has gone down deep to the dogmatic roots; and each of these vestments, in the eyes of the men using them, represents distinct dogmas, and dogmas that are sheer flat Popery. (Hear, hear.) Then we have the men of the Broad Church, who believe simply in the intellect, and who produce nothing except barren speculations. These two forces are contending for the mastery; and beyond all question superstition will overcome infidelity. Man has a conscience, and must face death with its fears; and this gives to superstition a power which the mere dogmas of infidelity do not possess. There

We

is no doubt in the Church of England at this moment a very large number of good Evangelical ministers; but they are sheltering themselves behind the Constitution of the Church, and behind the question of an Establishment. They will not come forth to the light of day, and rally behind some leader who will teach them what they are to do, and how they are to prepare for contending with these two forces. But while this is their attitude, the other two forces have great leaders. No man can read those most interesting and extraordinary essays on the "Church and the World," without seeing that Dr Pusey is not merely the recognised public leader of the whole, to whom all men look-the head of the party to whom all have recourse for advice and counsel-but that he is the secret spiritual director of all who cherish these views of all who are taking part in this Ritualistic movement. (Hear, hear.) There is nothing that can be done effectually in England at present to meet this state of things but by a Church thoroughly organised, and having divine institutions, for the work cannot be done by outward organisations outside the Church. We want you then to help us to set up a Presbyterian Church in England on a large scale, in order to do something, at least, to counteract the evil effects and influences of the teaching of the Broad party within the Church of England on the one hand, and of the Ritualists on the other. Another reason why we ask your help to set up a Presbyterian Church in England larger than we have at present, is that there are many thousands of Scotchmen who come to England every year. I do not know the number, but it is a very large one. In order to show the extent of this, Mr Paterson read an extract from a letter he had received from Staley bridge, near Manchester, to the effect that within the last three weeks no fewer than seventy Scotchmen had come to a place at a little distance, where they were expected to settle permanently. There, continued Mr Paterson, is a Scotch colony of upwards of 100 persons, and it so happens that we have arranged to open a station. May we not, therefore, in circumstances like these, ask this Assembly, and through it the Free Church, to do something for the Scotch settlers? By the claims of the Scotch population in England being overlooked and neglected, many are lost to Presbyterianism; many are, in fact, lost to the Church of Christ altogether, who otherwise might be gathered into congregations. I would ask you, for the sake of the Free Church itself, to give us at least a helping hand in our endeavours to secure those young men, the flower of your population, who annually come up to settle in our midst. And I take leave to say that the best of them remain Presbyterians; and that in our little Church we have got a band of elders composed of young men-there being scarcely a gray-haired man among them-second to none in any Presbyterian Church in the world. (Applause.) These young men-the flower of your youth-come up, as I have said, and settle amongst us. When we get them into our Church, we, by the blessing of God, keep them Presbyterians; and they afterwards come back as Scotchmen to settle here in their native land, where they buy estates and prove efficient helpers to you in your work; but if they become Episcopalians, as many of them have done, you know what is the result. You know who are the parties who are building those little Episcopalian chapels all over your country. (Hear.) For the sake, then, of our common Presbyterianism, I ask you to help in this matter. (Loud cheers.)

Mr M'CAW was the next speaker-He stated that within the last thirty years, when the Synod was organised, the number of their congregations had been trebled. In illustration of this, Mr M'Caw saidLook at the Presbytery of London itself. In 1843, the year of the Disruption, there were only seven congregations in the Presbytery, whereas now there are thirty-two. (Cheers.) Thus, in these twenty-four years the number of congregations in one Presbytery had been more than quadrupled. During the same period they have built twenty churches, besides purchasing and enlarging various others, so that in all respects the Presbytery was now, in numbers, strengthened more than fourfold compared with what it was twenty-four years ago. And although other Presbyteries of the Church had not multiplied so rapidly as the Presbytery of London, yet in the Lancashire Presbytery and others, the increase had been more than fourfold compared with the numbers twenty-four years ago. Our organisation is complete, and what we want is simply an increased number of men and a larger amount of money, in order, by the blessing of God, to plant a Presbyterian Church in every large town. During the last four or five years we have planted churches in Swansea, Cardiff, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Norwich, and other places, besides multiplying the number in London and Liverpool, and Manchester. Last April no fewer than six charges were sanctioned and added to the roll of the Synod, and when you bear in mind that we have only 110 churches, I think you will admit that the addition of six in one year is a large proportion of increase. (Hear, hear.) Then nine years ago the amount of the funds contributed for home mission work was only about £600. Last year it was upwards of £1200, so that during that time our contributions to that one department have been more than doubled. There is no place that we can go to in England-none of the large towns-in which we do not find a disposition to receive us friendly and cordially, and the truth is that it only needs that one of the stations be nurtured and helped for a short time before it is ripe for calling a minister, and if it gets a man of the right stamp settled in it, there is no fear of abundant success. I mention these things to show that we do not come and seek your help without putting forth our own energies. But the work is too great for us. The openings are so multiplying on all sides that we cannot enter them. There are still eighteen counties in England, in not one of which is there a Presbyterian Church. There are more than forty towns, with populations ranging from 20,000 up to 100,000, where there is no Presbyterian Church. Now, in every one of these towns there are a considerable number of Scotchmen, and openings for a Presbyterian Church, and it is, in the first instance-I do not say that it is only on behalf of these for our fellow-countrymen, that we appeal to you for help in carrying forward this work. It is computed that there are 4000 Scotchmen come across the border every year more than return from England. Now, it would require us, to overtake that influx alone, to build at the rate of four or five new churches every year. You follow your countrymen to Canada, to Australia, to the very ends of the earth, with Presbyterian ordinances; and I submit that you should not forget the country that lies immediately across your own border. (Applause.) We believe that when we are doing what we can to supply them with Presbyterian ordinances, we are doing your work-that we are doing work which,

if we do not do it, you would yourselves be obliged to do. (Hear, hear.) You would require to have your English Mission just as you have your Colonial Mission; and for that English Mission you would require to have your stated collection from year to year from your various congregations. We are perfectly willing to take at once the labour of the organisation and superintendence off your hand, and to do all we can in the way of furnishing men and means in endeavouring to overtake this work; but we cannot do it ourselves—it is far too heavy; and we therefore think that, in these circumstances, we have a claim, not only on the sympathy and prayers, but on the liberality of the Free Church of Scotland, so as to enable us to overtake it. (Applause.) The reverend gentleman then proceeded to show that they had also a duty to discharge towards the English population; and further, that in this work they had a claim on the Free Church, and pointed out the interest which the Free Church had, in common with other bodies, to do something for the lapsed masses, and in order to counteract the efforts which the Romanists were putting forth, convinced as the latter were that in another generation they would have converted England to the Roman Catholic faith; and that, if they succeeded in this, its influence on the rest of the world could not be over-estimated. On all these grounds he confidently appealed to the Free Church, and resumed his seat amid applause.

Mr WRIGHT said-When I first went from Scotland to Southampton, the Crimean war was at its height, and all the troops were shipped from that port. My settlement there brought me into very close contact with the army, and stirred up within me a deep interest in the Presbyterian soldiers. I turned to the Army List, and found that almost all the military stations were south of the Thames, and I may say within the limits of my jurisdiction. There were only two Presbyterian churches south of the Thames besides my own, and both of these were at the time vacant. I was therefore the only Presbyterian minister. There are, however, now about twenty congregations. I visited a number of the military stations, and found every encouragement given me, especially by the officers, and in course of time Presbyterian congregations were formed at Portsmouth, Chatham, Alderney, and Guernsey, and other places. I went over to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and found that they were exceedingly willing to help me, and they formed a congregation at Plymouth. That work was going on most favourably. I took a leaf out of the Church of Rome, whose practice it was to plant a priest wherever there was a military station, to secure a grant from Government, and by and by a civilian congregation was formed at the place, and a chapel erected. I thought that what wrought so well with them might be advantageously applied to Presbyterianism. The plan wrought admirably, and would have gone on till this day, but the Established Church of Scotland, who had never done anything for the troops up till that time, leaving the military stations bare and barren, so far as supplying religious services for Presbyterian troops were concerned, stepped in and claimed the whole of the chaplaincies, and in almost every case a desperate struggle had to be made to maintain our position, and from some of these stations we were driven. I do not know a single station in which we had planted churches where this course had not been followed. If that Church had acted in a some