southern peninsula of India through all its extent. Bombay and Puna are the most important positions in the Maratha country, the stronghold of Brahmanism, the province in which the Hindoo spirit, till of late, proved the most powerful and determined. To Bombay and its neighbourhood have come the great subsisting body of the adherents to Zoroastrianism, to see the system of delusion to which they are attached, slain before the Lord. Bombay is, all things considered, the greatest commercial emporium in the East, and in constant communication with the shores of the African continent, the African islands, Arabia, Persia, and other countries forming the empire of Mahommedanism, and to which countries we have sent from it hundreds of copies of the Scriptures, and, from first to last, thousands of tracts in various languages, and from all of which countries we have had from time to time pupils in our institution. On my leaving Bombay, I brought with me to Aden, on their way to their native county, Abyssinia, two youths who had resided under my roof for nearly five years, and who left our seminary most worthy members of our own Christian communion, and ardently longing to disseminate Christian light among the benighted churches of Tigre and Shoa. On the same occasion, one of our pupils, an Armenian, to all appearance a converted man, took his departure to his native town, Julla in Persia. Another of our pupils, a Persian munshi, who bad solicited baptism from my own hands, but with whom I was not altogether satisfied, though I was not disposed to place him beyond the pale of charity, was baptised by the chaplain of one of her majesty's vessels of war, lying off Beyrout. This individual, I regret to say, has been driven to madness by the persecutions of the Mussulmans. I found him, however, when I was in Syria, singing the praises of Christ even during the aberrations of his mind-a sight to me the most affecting. I had an opportunity for a few months of instructing two of the young chiefs of Hinzuan, one of the Comoro islands. Katiawar, where Mr Glasgow and our other Irish brethren, who are endeared to us as members of our own body, are with great zeal and ability labouring, is the most important settled province on the banks of the Indus, the river from which India derives its name; and I have no doubt that our friends there, with our esteemed American Presbyterian brethren on the confines of the Punjaub, will, in the course of a few years, find openings for their labours through the whole of the north of India, and for extending their influence to the great pla teau of Asia. The prospects which are before us in reference to our geographical distribution, it will be seen on this glance at it, are glorious indeed. Only one matter of regret we have connected with the points at which we wish to assault the empire of Satan, and that is, that hitherto we have not occupied a position in the centre of India. The occasion of the regret which I feel on this subject, does now, in the gracious providence of God, bid fair to be dispelled. The munificent offer of L.2500, made to us by a Christian friend in India, has particularly called our attention to that interesting region; and all our inquiries respecting the locality have increased our eagerness to enter it as heralds of the blessed gospel of peace. The statement which I have drawn up respecting it, I am happy to say, has commended itself to your Committee; and if the pecuniary means be forthcoming, as is most confidently expected they will be, the station of Nagpur, nearly equi-distant from Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, and where the co-operation of the three missions already established will be exhibited, will be immediately occupied. From it the gospel will radiate in all directions, particularly among the simple and unsophisticated aboriginal tribes of India, who as yet have scarcely, or not at all, succumbed to the heavy and degrading load of Brahmanism, and who, though greatly depressed in their circumstances, may enter into the kingdom of heaven, when their more self-righteous neighbours are excluded. Before I press on your attention one or two specific requests, I think it right to mention, that, did our time permit, I should particularly notice the labours of the various denominations of evangelical Christians engaged like ourselves in the great work of propagating Christianity in India. It is impossible, however, for me to do more than intimate the brotherly feelings which we cherish toward them. I allude to the agents of the Church of England, London, Baptist, Wesleyan, American, and German Societies. We view them not as rivals, but as friends and fellow-soldiers of the cross. Few names are dearer to my heart

than those of Graves, Fyvie, Taylor, Beynon, Candy, Farver, Dixon, Allan, and Valentine, and those of their junior associates, with whom I have often been called to maintain the most pleasing fellowship in the work of the Lord. They are now bearing the burden and heat of the day; and the time is coming when as good and faithful servants they will be welcomed to the joy of their Lord. The special requests which I have now to make of you and the Christian people of this country, will not, I am sure, be neglected because of their simplicity. I submit them with all the earnestness which a deep felt consciousness of want suggests.

1. And, in the first place, I most anxiously solicit a greater abounding in prayer for the spread of the gospel in India, and throughout the whole world. We missionaries ourselves stand greatly in need of the supplications of the Lord's people; for, in a spiritual point of view, we dwell in a dry and thirsty land, and are exposed to great temptations, having fears without and fightings within, and occupy situations the most fearfully responsible to which a minister of God can be called. Our converts need them, for they require peculiar illumination, guidance, strength, and purification. The unconverted whom we address need them, for neither the preaching nor teaching of the Word can of themselves be effectual to the salvation of the soul. 2. My second request of you is, that you do all in your power to excite a spirit of Christian liberality in behalf of India throughout the length and breadth of the land. I augur well for the cause of Christian effort from what has lately taken place in this land. The last few months I have witnessed unexampled Christian charity in Scotland, in behalf of this Church, now more than ever established in the hearts of the Scottish people. What has been done in this respect has been everywhere accompanied with the fulfilment of the saying that is written, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." By thousands and tens of thousands, it has been seen and felt, that there are joys in benevolence and beneficence far beyond all that the world can give or take away. The offerings presented at the foot of the cross have been followed by delights infinitely surpassing those which the most costly offerings presented at the shrine of fashion and worldly honour have ever produced. A great duty has been discharged, though not on the part of all according to the demands of the grace of God, yet, in the judgment of men, to an extent which has absolutely astonished the enemies of the freedom of the Church. Shall these enemies have occasion to say, that the effort which has been made is a partial, exclusive, and allexhausting effort, which leaves no power for extended action? Are the people of Scotland, by whom, and for whom, the Lord has done so great things at home, to signalize themselves on this memorable occasion by the small things which they shall do abroad? No, the sense of Christian duty, and deference to the will of Christ, under which they have acted, forbids the thought.

3. My third request of you is, that you furnish us immediately with more men for carrying on the work of the Lord, which has been so auspiciously begun. Another missionary, and one of no ordinary qualifications, is imperiously needed at Bombay, to aid in sustaining our present work. Men are required for the contemplated mission at Nagpur. All our missions will ere long require to be strengthenened. Our countrymen adhering to the Free Church will demand a ministry of their own from the Colonial Committee. We need European missionaries to conduct the primary evangelical work through the blessing of God, upon which those converts are to be made from whom candidates for the sacred ministry are to be selected. We need European missionaries to teach and train these candidates. We need European missionaries to show them the example of an apostolic ministration in all its amplitude, and with all its laboriousness, prayerfulness, self-denial, and enterprise. And shall few or no men be found full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and duly qualified by human learning, to come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty in India? Ye students of theology, and preachers and ministers of the divine word, answer ye the question! Answer it in the solitude of your closets, as before the pervading Spirit of the Lord. Answer it after surveying India in all its darkness, idolatry, impurity, and blood. Answer it in the view of the great pit which is there opened, and which leads to hell. Answer it the view of the exalted Saviour, whose bowels of compassion still yearn over

an apostate world, and whose soul now travails in ceaseless intercession above, as it did of old in unspeakable suffering and agony below, for the objects of his redemption out of every kindred, and country, and tongue, and nation. Come cheerfully forward as volunteers, and wait not the authoritative call of the Church. Let your aversion to expatriation, and your apprehensions about an uncongenial clime, and your dread of having to do with a people of strange countenance, and a strange tongue, be counterbalanced by the infinitely precious promises, "My grace is sufficicient for thee;" "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit eternal life." Look to the votaries of wealth and of honour, ready to brave the terrors of every clime, and to endure perils from every foe; and show to them that the soldiers of the cross can even surpass them in enduring hardness. Perhaps an humble testimony from flesh and blood like your own, and pertaining to your own day, may have its influence with you to a certain extent. My own residence in India and the East, extending to a period of fifteen years, has been one of arduous duty and peculiar trial. Many a weary hour have I spent in the endeavour to acquire such a knowledge of the living and the dead languages of Asia as the work to which I was called seemed to render necessary or desirable. Many a night have I spent in agony of soul, seeking an acquaintance with the great systems of delusion and superstition which have so long exercised their destructive sway over the fairest and most extensive portions of the globe. Many a weary journey have I taken through populous districts, and unfrequented wilds and deadly forests, conveying the glad tidings of salvation to the perishing sons and daughters of India. Often have I been ready to sink under the study requisite for the combat with error through the medium of the press. Wearied to utter exhaustion have I often been by the work of forming, and superintending, and teaching in schools and seminaries. I have learnt to some extent what the care of an infant Church is in a heathen land. I have encountered the tumult of the people without, and the wiles of the Sanhedrim within; and have more than once been brought before the judges of the earth for the name of Christ. Faint and sore broken, I have stood before the dying couch of wife, and child, and sister, and friend dear to me as my own soul. I myself have been in "deaths oft," my life having been frequently despaired of, or well nigh despaired of, by the most eminent physicians. And yet here I am, in the good providence of God, this day, a monument of the divine mercy and goodness, which it becomes me in this assembly of the saints devoutly to acknowledge, and which I now acknowledge. To the praise of God's grace I must declare, that I have not found one of God's promises to fail. The hours of my greatest suffering have been the hours of my greatest spiritual enjoyment. God I have found to be a very present help in every time of need. I have found the privilege of ministering in India, in the break of the day of its moral renovation, to be great, unspeakably great. With many Christian friends, raised up in the good providence of God to be my companions in the Christian pilgrimage and Christian warfare, including my own children in the faith, I have been enabled to take sweet counsel, and found their fellowship an unspeakable consolation. From my countrymen in general I have met with support and encouragement to a degree which I cannot rightly acknowledge. In the view of the dissipation of error and prejudice among the people, and particularly the rising generation, I have been transported. India is endeared to me by a thousand tender ties and associations. There I left my heart, and there, if God spare me again to reach the land of my adoption, may my ashes rest, till I hear the trump of God. Come ye with me, I can say, in the name of God, to many around me, and the Lord will do you good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning his servants. Moderator, and beloved Christian friends, I must conclude, for my strength and your time are alike gone. In my letter of adherence to this Free Protesting Church, I have thus declared-in a tract put forth by the Church of Scotland nearly two hundred years ago, in the year 1647, the highest object of a Synod, even an œcumenical Synod of orthodox Churches, is stated to be the defence and propagation of the gospel. "Surely it is to be wished," it is said in the Hundred and Eleven Propositions, "that for defending the orthodox faith, both against

Popery and other heresies, as also for propagating it to those that are without, especially the Jews, a more strait and more firm association may be entered into. For the unanimity of all the Churches, as in evil 'tis of all things most hurtful, so on the contrary side, in good it is most pleasant, most profitable, and most effectual." I look for much when I advert to the circumstances in which you are now met together, and to the presence of those around you. It was a question in Christian economics, which arose in connection with missions to the Gentile world, which gave rise to the first Synod of the Christian Church that was ever held; and the propagation of the gospel throughout the world is still the grand duty of the Church. Freed as the ministers and elders of the Protesting Church of Scotland now are from many embarrassments which constrained their action, and from many exhausting contests for the independence and purity of the Church, and the rights and privileges of its members, which they were compelled to wage, they will be enabled, it is to be hoped, to devote themselves to the discharge of this duty with a power of counsel and energy of devotedness hitherto unexampled, and for the effective operation of which our form of church government is so favourable. I indulge the hope that they will not only maintain and strengthen, but multiply our posts in our great and wondrous empire in the east, and extend their benevolent regard to many other regions of the earth on which the Sun of Righteousness has not yet arisen with healing under His wings. The hope which I have thus expressed will, I doubt not, be fulfilled. While the worm of Erastianism may consume the heart of the Residuary Church of this realm, from which I pray that the Lord may speedily deliver his ministers and people who still remain within it, and while that Church, if it be not speedily felled to the ground by a penitent Parliament taking counsel of a remonstrant nation, if not of the clear testimony of God-may soon stand a decaying trunk, with a paucity of leaves, and fruit, and even branches, the Evangelical and Free Church of a God-fearing people will, under the blessing of Him who hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS and Lord of LORDS, grow and flourish, and send forth its boughs to the ends of the earth, which, like those of India's own banyan tree, shall themselves take root and grow, and exemplify the wonder of the east to the people of the west, Quot rami tot arbores. Now, more than ever, we may expect the fulfilment of the anticipation of that illustrious man of God, Dr Cotton Mather, of America-" In the mean time, North Britain will be distinguished (pardon me if I use the term, Goshenized,) by irradiations from heaven upon it of such a tendency. There will be found a set of excellent men, in that reformed and renowned Church of Scotland, with whom the most refined and extensive essays to do good will become so natural, that the whole world will fare the better for them."

DR FORBES said,-I beg to congratulate you and this Assembly on the very interesting proceedings of this day-proceedings which, more than any other, have resembled those of the apostolical church of old. We, like them, have been privileged to hear what our brethren in Christ have been doing in heathen countries. I feel that the subject is one which has been so ably brought before you, that I need scarcely dwell farther upon its merits, or upon the claims which have been so eloquently set forth on behalf of increased prayer, increased contributions, and increased services. And yet the proceedings of this day have been marked by circumstances of so peculiar an interest, that even at this late hour it would be altogether unpardonable in me not to advert to them, though in the briefest possible form. One is the noble, the disinterested Christian testimony which has been borne on the banks of the Ganges, to the great principles for which we in the providence of God have been called upon to contend. I cannot help comparing the testimony which these brethren have borne, to that of the twelve silent men who, during the course of a trial, say not one word, but who, when the whole matter in all its bearings is brought before them, are required, as in the presence of God, to give their verdict on which side the truth and justice of the case lies. To this verdict we can refer with the highest feelings of gratification and delight. Our brethren were looked upon by both parties to be men of the most devoted piety, and of the highest talents -men every way qualified to judge on this matter, and to judge on it well and

wisely. I congratulate you, and I congratulate this church, that they have decided in our favour; and I look upon it as a token of God for good, and as fitted to convince many, who are nearer home than the Ganges, that our cause is not as they speak of it. (Hear.) Another interesting circumstance is the presence among us of that respected, that devoted, that God-honoured man, who has this day addressed us. (Great applause.) His presence, I trust, will give renewed life to the cause of missions in this country. That cause received increased interest and support from the visit of Dr Duff, who, in the providence of God, returned home to seek a restoration of health and strength, which had been weakened by his labours in that uncongenial climate. The same cause has brought Dr Wilson amongst us; and whilst we regret this for his sake, we rejoice that he is amongst us; and we trust that his presence will be overruled by the great Head of the church for the advantage of his people; that in due time his health may be restored: and that he, by the Divine blessing, may go forth to renew his labours with increased strength, carrying with him the conviction that his labours are not overlooked by the Christian people of this country. (Great applause.) The missionaries now stand in a different position towards the Establishment than they did before. They, like us, have lost their status as missionaries connected with the Established Church. They bave also given a highly disinterested testimony on this occasion. A large property was in course of accumulation in the way of buildings, and other things necessary for the support of the mission, and all this they have relinquished. Here, then, is an additional cause for coming forward with renewed enterprise and exertion in their support. They have ventured their all in the cause of Christ; let us feel ourselves morally bound to do our utmost by our prayers, and by the liberality of our contributions, to maintain them with comfort in their respective positions. I feel, from what has already been done in behalf of the Jewish mission, and the cause of education, that the contributions for the Indian missions will show that Scotland is increasingly alive to the value of that cause, and to the duty of giving it an energetic support. But men have been asked for as well as funds. What, indeed, are thirteen missionaries among a population of one hundred and sixty millions. I trust that we shall send forth many more labourers into that field. What a gigantic scheme of church extension opens to us over that great and populous country! India has in many respects peculiar claims upon the attention of the philanthropist. If there is one feature for which the inhabitants are more distingnished than another, it is for the tenacity with which they hold their opinions, and the truths which they have received. It is the wonder of modern astronomers, from whom they have derived the accurate knowledge which they possess of the motions of the planets, and the date of which is so ancient, that while they have the facts they have lost the principles, so that it requires all the arguments of the advanced science of Europe to find out that recondite knowledge with which the Brahmin, sitting under his banana tree, can calculate the approach of an eclipse. It is known that there are churches in the south of India as old as the days of the apostles-churches which profess to derive their origin from the labours of St Thomas, and it is certain that there are there the oldest buildings for Christian worship to be found anywhere in the world. Let us hope that when they have once found the true seed of the word, it shall be found to be an incorruptible seed, and that their characteristic feature will be to hold by the truth as they have held fast by their errors. I conclude by stating another fact, the remarkable qualifications of those distinguished men whom God has honoured by placing in important spheres of usefulness, men whose wisdom in conducting their operations has attracted the admiration both of India and Europe, whose education schemes have already produced great results, and promise to be followed with still greater; and whose plans have been in many instances adopted by other denominations; men who are capable of meeting the Indian mind in all its acuteness and sophistry, and who have attained the highest qualifications in a field of peculiar difficulty. We ought to thank God for furnishing us with such instruments; and we ought to feel this as an additional inducement for supporting them in their great work. I beg, therefore, to move, that the Assembly approve of the report of the Committee, and desire to record,

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