built, or we will take the churches and pay you the value of your contributions.”. (Hear, hear.) Surely there is justice in such a proposition as this, and I hope it will yet be proved to be so in law. We should not abandon our right to this property; and I have sanguine hopes that the result will be found in accordance with our views of the matter.

Dr SMYTH suggested that, if a statement embodying some of these facts were prepared by the Committee, and circulated previous to the collection, it would produce a deep impression amongst the Free Church congregations throughout the country.

It was then formally resolved, on the motion of Dr M'Farlan, that the Law Committee should be instructed to select a quoad sacra church case on which to take the judgment of the Court of Session; and that a collection, for the necessary funds to follow forth the case, should be made in all the churches on the first Sabbath in February next.

On the motion of Dr CLASON, the thanks of the Assembly were voted to Henry Dunlop, Esq., and William Buchanan, Esq, for the excellent accommodation which had been provided, and the judicious arrangements which had been made for the Assembly in Glasgow. The thanks of the Assembly were accordingly communicated by the Moderator to Mr Buchanan, who was present, and he was authorised to communicate with Mr Dunlop, who had left the Assembly, by letter.

CLOSE OF THE ASSEMBLY.

Mr DUNLOP then rose and said,- Moderator, I beg to propose that the next meeting of Assembly be held in Edinburgh on Thursday the 16th of May next. In making this intimation, I hope the House will allow me to express our thankful and grateful sense of the unanimity, harmony, and blessed peace which have reigned amongst us. Some questions have arisen that might have caused difference of opinion; but that cordial feeling has existed which must have disappointed the hopes of our foes, while it has realized the fondest expectations of our friends; and we cannot but bail it as a token for good, which should inspire us with the confidence that the Almighty has blessed us, and been with us. We cannot but feel that there is a difference, and a great difference too, between our first meeting, which was held in Edinburgh, and the present. We now see clearly what we have to do; and yet I rejoice to think that though we have not met here with excitement and enthusiasm, we have met with calm earnestness, and set our faces to our difficulties, to struggle through them, and, by God's blessing, we will overcome. The cheerful temper of our ministers is gratifying in the extreme, and the contentment with which they received the intimation of the small allowance from the Sustentation Fund, with which they must retire to their homes, must have excited the admiration and touched the feelings of all of us. I trust that we, the elders and members of the Free Church, will feel it our duty to make our sacrifices as disinterested and as noble as they have made theirs and I hope that we will soon be able to gladden their hearts, and show that we are worthy to have them for our pastors, by providing adequate sustenance, and, in some degree at least, compensating them for sacrifices they have made. (Hear, hear.) I move, therefore, that the next Assembly meet at Edinburgh, on 16th May 1844.

:

The proposition was cordially agreed to.

The MODERATOR, Dr Brown, then addressed the Assembly in the following

terms:

REVEREND Fathers and BRETHREN,- The important business of this Assembly is now brought to a close, and before it is dissolved, and ere we separate, and depart to our different homes and respective spheres of duty, it becomes me, according to usual custom, to address to you a few parting words.

And, in the outset, I cannot forbear acknowledging with unfeigned gratitude the honour you have done me in placing me in this chair. However much I might prize this distinction, yet all who know me are aware how much I shrunk from it, conscious as I was of my unfitness to discharge aright, and to your satisfaction, the duties devolving on me. Your unmerited partiality, however, over

came my reluctance, and your forbearance bas rendered my task lighter than my forebodings led me to anticipate.

The place in which this Assembly of our Free Church has been held, presses upon our notice what took place in a similar convocation here upwards of two bundred years ago; and it would be unpardonable in me to pass it over in silence. In November 1638, the last General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held in Glasgow; and if we consider the state of the nation, and the state of the Church, at that period, if we consider the character of the men who composed that Assembly, the subjects that came before it for discussion, the manner in which its proceedings were conducted, the presence and the power of God that evidently rested upon it, and the issue and result of the whole, it may be safely affirmed that, in many respects, it was the most interesting, eventful, and solemn Assembly, that was ever held in the kingdom; and as has been well said by a living author, one of ourselves "A glory, sacred and imperishable, must ever rest on the memory of that venerable Assembly, whom God honoured to accomplish Scotland's Second Reformation." It would be out of place here, and at this time, to enter into detail on what took place on that solemn occasion; but I cannot forbear mentioning that, trying as our circumstances have of late been, our forefathers at that period were placed in a more painful situation. Then a semi-Popish and arbitrary prince swayed the sceptre. Then the purpose was formed of crushing Presbytery, and establishing Prelacy on its ruins. And although this sacred convocation was professedly called, and was by the Church and nation understood to be called, for the purpose of considering and correcting errors and abuses, and although it was named a free General Assembly, it was rather nicknamed so; for the representative of majesty came down and appeared in the midst of them, armed with full power to carry out his own views, and the views of his sovereign, to check all free discussion,-to prevent the correction of those abuses and corruptions that had crept into the church, to defend the bishops who then existed, in the possession of their usurped and unconstitutional power, and to maintain the king's alleged prerogative as supreme judge over all causes ecclesiastical, as well as civil. He found, however, that both he and his prince were led away by a delusive dream. He found that a spirit of zeal for Christ's cause existed in that Assembly that could not be quenched,-a strength of principle that could not be overborne. He found that he had to deal with men that were able to speak with their adversaries in the gate, and to build the old waste places, in spite of all opposition. The Commissioner, finding that all his attempts to allure or to coerce were vain, that no protestations, no threats of his, could be of avail in inducing these men of God to swerve from their purpose, at length protested against all farther proceedings, declared the Assembly dissolved, and indignantly took his leave. This did not, however, stagger these holy men. They had taken their ground,-they knew their rights and their privileges,-they felt, as their Moderator well said, that "if the Lord Commissioner was zealous for his royal master, they ought to be zealous for their Lord and Master, and must maintain the liberties and privileges of his kingdom." They proceeded calmly and dispassionately, yet firmly and prayerfully, to carry out the important business for which they had assembled, and, by God's good hand upon them, they brought it to a successful and happy completion, the Moderator emphatically and solemnly saying, "We have now cast down the walls of Jericho: let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the Betbelite;" "and," adds the historian, "so all the members departed with great comfort and humble joy, casting themselves and the Church, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers, into the arms of their gracious God."

And how was it that, on this momentous occasion, they prospered and triumphed? Just because under God they were united. There were no jarring elements amongst them, no discordant voices, no clashing sentiments. Their eye was single; they were of one heart and of one mind; they were one in purpose, in aim, in judgment, in action; they thought, and spake, and acted as one man.

And had a similar spirit animated the members of the Established Church at its last meeting of Assembly, and bad the Church been true to herself, and faithful to

ber Divine Lord,—had they as one man stood up for the maintenance of our constitutional rights and privileges,-the painful disruption that then took place had been averted; our Church had stood firm and entire, the glory of our land, and the admiration of the world; and whether the representative of majesty bad felt himself called on to leave the Assembly or not, we had not been compelled to leave it. But our councils were divided. There were those among us who did not feel aggrieved, -who saw no need for any change,—who would have things remain as they were, and who, in perfect consistency with their avowed principles and uniform conduct, were willing to submit to the dicta and explanations of civil courts in matters spiritual; and there were those who, casting their former protestations to the winds, did, in violation of their avowed principles, unite with those with whom they never had acted heretofore, in robbing the Church of her liberty and glory, and rivetting around their own necks the chains of arbitrary civil sway. I will not characterise the conduct of either; to their own master they stand or fall; but this I will say, that the time may come when they shall sorely rue the day when, overlooking Christ's claims and the Church's rights, they never said to those in power, Beware; but tamely put their necks under the yoke, and in a few short hours swept away all those decisions and enactments which, for years, we had been labouring to pass and enforce, for the purity, the beauty, the glory, the stability, the enlargement of our Church; and if those who were once with us, but have now gone from us, retain their present position in the Church with a peaceful mind, and with the character of consistency in the estimation of reflecting men, I shall indeed wonder greatly. But passing from these topics, at which I was led naturally to glance, let me advert shortly to our own proceedings in this place.

As I said when I was first brought before you, so I say again, we came together, not for the purpose of laying any new platform, or erecting a new ecclesiastical structure, but for the purpose of adhibiting those adminicles that may render that structure more stable and permanent, and presenting it to the eye of the beholder in all its native beauty, in all its pristine loveliness, in all its original strength. We assemble to give effect to our original laws and regulations for the maintenance of the Church's existence and purity, to adopt resolutions for meeting the new and unprecedented circumstances in which we have been placed,-to devise measures for the more extensive diffusion of divine truth," that the law might go forth of Zion more widely, that the word of the Lord might be proclaimed more loudly from Jerusalem,” the grand purpose for which a visible Church has been instituted, and for which it is allowed to exist. We came together to deliberate as to the internal regulation of the House of God,-not to legislate about forms and ceremonies, and the priests' vestments, but to direct, countenance, and encourage, and strengthen, the hands of the man of God, in the execution of his trust of awful importance, while we have been careful to have respect to, and secure, the Christian people's dearest privileges, and to promote their best interests. We assembled together also to sanction and carry forward those plans that have been adopted, and, blessed be God, pursued with so much success, and to devise new measures for the outward maintenance of the Church, for the erection of sanctuaries throughout the land, and for the sustentation of those ministers who now occupy, or may be called in providence to occupy them, in after days and coming years. We came together, not to provide for the present emergency merely, and for ourselves alone,-we have taken a wider range as to time and men. ing through the vista of time, bringing before our minds, and bearing on our heart generations yet unborn, (although God only knows what the purposes of God, for weal or for woe, may be in regard to ourselves, in regard to our Church, in regard to our nation), but remembering that the Word of God endureth for ever, that Christ shall have a seed to serve him while sun and moon endures, and recollecting that present duty is ours, we have assembled to deliberate, to devise, in God's strength, for the behoof of children's children, in God's name to lay the foundation of that scheme by which the divine glory may be promoted, and Christ's kingdom advanced, by which, through the length and breadth of the land, the gospel may be published, and its ordinances dispensed in purity, and its ministers sustained in comfort; that,

Look

when we and this generation shall have passed away, and been carried to our fathers, -while Scotland exists as a nation,-the memory of this Assembly may not be forgotten, and its proceedings and its provisions may be looked back to by God's people in another age, with gratitude to God, and with thankfulness for those instruments whom He in his providence raised up for their benefit. And gladly would we hope that in these respects we have succeeded, through God's blessing upon us. While we look not to ourselves, and would ever bear in mind that the wisdom of man is foolishness, and the strength of man is weakness, yet in weighty deliberations we have been engaged, wise resolutions have been formed, and salutary regulations have been passed, all bearing upon the purity, the stability, the permanence of the Church. And withal, there has been in this Assembly a wisdom, a prudence, a skill, a zeal, a forethought, a painstaking, a union and harmony, and kindliness of feeling, amidst the variety and multiplicity of objects that have engaged our attention,—all combined with and sanctified by a spirit of piety and prayer that has rarely been witnessed, and which enables us to thank God and take courage. Yes, I congratulate you, and give God thanks for that solemnity of feeling,—that prayerfulness of spirit, -that unity of sentiment,—that harmony of love that have pervaded this whole Assembly, and been mixed up with all our deliberations. It has been truly a Christian convocation, not unworthy of being named in connection with that great Assembly to which I have adverted in the outset.

I do trust that that spirit of harmony and brotherly love which has prevailed in this Assembly will follow us into all our humbler meetings, and in all our minuter details, for the advancement of the interests of our Free Church; yea, that Christian affection will pervade the whole community adhering to our Church, in all the walks of life; that the Christian unanimity that has characterized this great meeting, congregated from all parts of the kingdom, and composed of men of all ranks, and circumstances, and occupations, and education, and talents, will emanate thence, as from a great centre, a mighty reservoir, and find its way to all the ramifications of our Church,-find its way into the Presbytery, the Session, the congregation, the private association, the domestic circle, so that all may take knowledge of us, and it may be said of us, as was said of the primitive Christians, "Behold how they love one another." We are united by our common difficulties and our common trials; but the grand chain that is to bind us together lastingly and firmly, is Christian principle and Christian affection. And oh, brethren in the Lord! if now, or at any future period, the demon of discord should find his way into the midst of us (what our adversaries devoutly wish, anticipate, and prognosticate), farewell to our prosperity, farewell to the growth and existence of vital godliness among us. Strive, pray, sacrifice all but principle to keep united. Remember that even Christ pleased not himself. Listen to the apostolic admonition," With all lowliness, and meekness, and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Many important subjects have come before us, which I am called upon to look back to. It has been stated, and the Church and the public were partly aware of it, that very great efforts have been made, since we last separated, for preaching the gospel in every corner of Scotland. At our last Assembly we purposed making the whole of Scotland a field for missionary enterprise; we purposed that our labours should be co-extensive with Scotland's limits and Scotland's necessities, and the pledge has been redeemed. I will venture to say, that the gospel never was so fully and freely, and extensively and faithfully preached in Scotland, since Scotland was a nation, as it has been during the last few summer months. Our ministers and preachers have been itinerating with apostolic zeal, from the Shetland and Orkney Isles, to the Solway Frith. In former times, we did know the grievous destitution under which many districts laboured for lack of the bread of life. This arose not merely from want of labourers, but from the want of faithful labour

ers.

Many parishes, through neglect, or worse than neglect, were absolutely moral deserts. And, notwithstanding all the destitution, and our knowledge of it, we could not, we dared not to send them relief. A line of circumvallation, as a Chinese wall, encircled them, which we dared not to approach. We might look over it, but we must not venture to break it down. I do not say that

in many cases this might not be proper, and that every labourer ought to have his own vineyard; but it will not apply universally. The Church is bound to see that every man does his duty, and not to allow sinners to die in their sins through the carelessness, or otherwise, of the accredited and hedged in-labourer. It was truly painful for a faithful ambassador of Christ to know of souls perishing in ignorance and in error, and yet not dare on any account to cross the defined limit, to proclaim his Lord's message, and to point to the way of salvation by the blood of the cross. But this state of things no longer prevails. These barriers have been removed and swept away. Our ministers, under the direction of their respective Presbyteries, have gone forth and scattered the seed of the Word in every corner. They have preached by the sea-shore, or the river's brink, or the retired glen, or the mountain side, and in many instances with powerful and blessed effect. In many of the districts which they visited, the doctrine which they preached, or their mode of preaching it, was new. In many corners, the cold, chilling, at best but moral disquisitions and addresses, issuing from many pulpits (we make exceptions), had indueed an apathetic indifference to the things of God and eternity; but the soul-melting heart-subduing strains of the gospel, accompanied by stirring appeals to the conscience, aroused, and captivated, and enchained many. Many a parched spot has thus been watered and refreshed, and many a soul, we doubt not, has been brought to the knowledge of the truth, and won to the Saviour. Had no other good effects flowed from the disruption, this of itself is a blessed consummation, proving that God can, and will, bring good out of evil; for oh, what are all our movements to be directed to! what are we to covet, what are we to sigh for, but that a people may be gained unto the Lord, and brands plucked from the everlasting burning? And as a consequence of this, the number of adherents to the Free Church has been vastly increased. In preaching Christ, there was a necessity for preaching him fully, preaching him as the King of Zion, the sole Head of his Church,-the Ruler in his own house; and this led, naturally and necessarily, to the subject of controversy; and thus many hearing what had never reached their ears before, they were led to think, and reflect, and compare, and judge, and choose; and thus, from being ignorant, have received light,-from being indifferent, have been aroused,-aye, from being inimical, have become warm friends, and the cry from every quarter is, “Come and help us." Thus, in many Presbyteries where the adhering ministers were few, the adhering congregations have more than doubled, so that, as I said, it is a national Church for which we are called to provide. The whole history of the controversy and its results have led us to see, that if men are open to conviction, and enlightened in the merits of the question,-if they are not armed with prejudice, led away by party spirit, or influenced by carnal policy, or views of expediency,-whenever they take the Bible in their hands, and the standards of the Church in their hands, and listen to their decisions, they must perceive that truth, and equity, and reason lie with us; that what the Church demanded, and civil authority refused, was nothing more than what was righteously claimed, and ought to have been readily granted.

In looking back on our past proceedings, I am sure I speak the sentiments of every member of this Assembly, when I say, that nothing has awakened greater gratitude to the Most High, or kindled more lively joy in every bosom, than the intelligence that has reached us in regard to our Christian schemes of philanthropy, and especially in respect to our Foreign Missions. I consider it to be one of the highest honours of a Christian Church, as it is its bounden duty, to feel for the lost and the perishing in every clime, whether Jew or Gentile, and to do everything in our power to remove the scales from their eyes, and the veil from their hearts, and to bring near to them the knowledge of the Saviour. Every Christian Church is then pursuing its most legitimate course,-is performing its most holy and characteristic work. And in our former Assemblies of late years, we have observed how much this has been felt. We have often wituessed with delight that feeling of sacredness that seemed to pervade the whole house, when the schemes of the Church were brought under consideration. Every man seemed then to feel that be stood on holier ground, that he breathed a purer atmosphere,—the arena of strife was then