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the guidance of the Holy Spirit, arrive gradually at a more perfect harmony of opinion on all points connected with their common Christianity. We rejoice in the prospect of a union so pleasing to every Christian mind. Meanwhile, we are truly thankful that when the enemy is coming in like a flood,' there is a large and unbroken phalanx of Christians, of every name, lifting up the standard of truth, having this inscription, The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King: he will save us.'

"We reciprocate the expressions of your brotherly love. We fervently pray that the blessing of the Lord may rest on the persons and labours of your pastors, and that your flocks may be as well watered gardens, and like springs of water, whose waters fail not.

"In name and by appointment of the Committee,

(Signed)

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111. From the General Assembly of Presbyterian and Congregational Ministers of New Hampshire, United States.

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NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, August 23, 1843. "The General Association of Presbyterian and Congregational Ministers of New Hampshire to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, sends Christian salutations.

"DEARLY BELOved in the Lord,— Our deep sympathies have been called forth in your behalf, while you have been struggling for the rights of conscience, and the dearest interests of the Kirk so precious to your hearts; and we cannot forbear to express our joy that you have come forth from the conflict with a spirit worthy of those renowned in Scotland's history in other generations. We love to recur to the times of Knox, to the Solemn League and Covenant, and to all those periods when Caledonia's sons have stood for the defence of 'the faith once delivered to the saints,’ and for the liberty wherewith Christ makes free;' and we have beheld the spectacle of moral sublimity which you have exhibited in the secession, with devout grati tude to the great Head of the Church, that he has enabled you to witness a good confession,' and to hazard ease, reputation, and worldly peace, for Christ's sake. We honour you as the friends of Christian liberty, we love you for your disinterestedness, your love of Christ, and your willingness to take joyfully the spoiling of your goods' for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom.

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"And might we allude to an ancient legend of Scottish lore, in regard to that stone which was accounted your country's palladium, and which Edward of England attempted to carry away, we would repeat the words of an ancient poet on the subject,

"Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum
Invenient Lapidem."

We believe, indeed, that you find the sure rock of your defence in trusting in Him for whose cause you suffer, and for whose truth you sacrifice objects so long enshrined in the heart.

If, as one has beautifully expressed it,' coming events cast their shadows before them,' we will look at the sufferings and trials through which you have passed as the harbinger of a bright and glorious day for Scotland, when a purer flame will be kindled on every domestic altar, when a clearer light will emanate from the pulpits, and when holier Christian joy shall pervade every hamlet upon the everlasting mountains. May the good Lord ordain it and accomplish it in his time.

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Forget not, dear brethren, those who by faith forsook Egypt, and by faith passed through the Red Sea. The same Lord protects his church in all generations, and there is reason to believe, that he will cast down those that oppose his cause, and that they will sink as a stone in the depths of the sea. But, brethren, there may be a great and terrible wilderness' before you reach the place of sure habitation; but be assured, that the Lord guides his people in the right way to the happy land.

"With Christian affection and earnest prayers for your religious prosperity, we are, dearly beloved, your brethren in the Lord,

"In behalf of the Association, and by their request,

(Signed) "S. BARSTOW, Secretary." "P.S. If you should think proper to take any notice of our body, please to direct to the Secretary at Keen, county of Cheshire, and State of New Hampshire."

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"COMMITTEE ROOMS, 7 NORTH ST ANDREW STREET, "EDINBURGH, 16th December 1843.

"Dear BrethrEN, The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, acknowledge with much pleasure the kind and brotherly epistle addressed to our late Moderator, by the General Association of Presbyterian and Congregational Ministers of New Hampshire, dated August 23, 1843. was Diversity of clime and diversity of political government have no influence in preventing the fulfilment of the prayer of our blessed Saviour, that his people may be one, even as Christ and the Father are one. A mighty ocean divides us; but we are united by a bond which distance of time and place can neither weaken nor dissolve. If Christ be our Head, and we unfeignedly and practically acknowledge him as such, we are all one in Him. May that union ever subsist between the Churches in America and the Free Church of Scotland-both free with the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free.

"Our General Assembly received much gratification and encouragement from the warm and cordial manner in which you have expressed to our Moderator your approobation of the course which, through divine grace, we have been enabled to pursue. We fondly hope that your good wishes and prayers for the prosperity of our Church may be fulfilled, and that we may profit by the brotherly warnings and admonitions which you have addressed to us.

"The Committee are persuaded that it will afford the greatest pleasure to our General Assembly to maintain a regular friendly correspondence with the Evangelical Churches in the United States, and with yours in particular. It is our earnest prayer to God, that the Great Shepherd of the sheep may watch over you and us continually, and that in the midst of surrounding errors and defections we may always be found united in contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. In name and by appointment of the Committee,

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(Signed) "PAT. M'FARLAN, Convener."

IV. From the Members of the Congregational Union of Ireland.

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"To the REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

"DUBLIN, July 10, 1843. "Reverend and DEAR SIR,—It is with much pleasure I comply with the wishes of my brethren, the members of the Congregational Union of Ireland, in transmitting to you the following resolution unanimously adopted at their late annual meeting:

"That this meeting records its unqualified admiration of the dignified and uncompromising stand for the prerogatives of Christ our Saviour King, for the freedom of the Church from the control of the civil power in matters ecclesiastical, and for the rights of Christian men, which has been made by our non-intrusion brethren in Scotland-a stand for truth and conscience unequalled since the days of the Pro. testants, Puritans, and Non-conformists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and which we are confident will, by the blessing of Providence, produce results most important and advantageous to our common Christianity; also, that a communica

tion be forwarded to the ministers and members of the Free Presbyterian Church of · Scotland, through their highly respected Moderator, embodying these sentiments, representing the deep and prayerful interest which we take in their affairs, and our full preparedness to fraternize with them in the faith and service of our common Lord. "This.resolution, my dear Sir, does best express the honest conviction and genuine Christian feeling cherished by, I believe, every member of our body. We have watched with much solicitude the progress of your grand struggle. To this the views we generally entertain of civil establishments of religion under any form of worship or church polity, as adverse to the purity, spirituality, and prosperity of Christ's kingdom, may have in a degree contributed. But we sympathise and rejoice with you and your cause on the broader ground of a common evangelical brotherhood, and a common love to Evangelical truth. The principles for which you have lately so nobly and happily—so triumphantly contended, have long been dear to us as involving the foundations and bulwarks of our faith and freedom, the honour of the King of Glory,-the order of his house and the chartered privileges of his servants. We bless God for the firmness, grace, and wisdom, with which you have maintained your testimony.

"The accounts that have reached us of your state and progress since the memorable 18th of May last, promise that our brightest anticipations in your behalf will be fully realized. Your case deserves, and will sooner or later find a home in the heart of every enlightened Christian of every name in every place. We are not unobservant of the sacrifices you have made, but we consider them to have been far more than compensated by the multiplied substantial proofs of Christian affection and of the Divine favour which you have received, and especially by the honours and moral influence of your new position. With that position your former state is not for a moment to be compared, as to the advantages it affords for making the communion of your Church a fellowship of real saints for fraternizing with the whole of the mystical body of Christ, and for unrestricted determined efforts to fill your country and the world with the light of life; and we confidently hope that God will so pour out his blessed Spirit, and so direct you and others of his people, as will speedily bring about a union of all real Christians in brotherly love and in devotedness to himself, such as have not been witnessed since the period of which we read, and great grace was upon them all.'

"Accept, reverend and dear Sir, assurances of unfeigned respect and Christian regard towards yourself personally, and towards the body over which you preside as Moderator. Trusting that providence will yet long sustain your valuable life and powers for great service to this cause, believe me, my dear Sir, yours most faithfully, in the gospel of Christ, (Signed) "WM. URWICK,

Secretary to the Congregational Union of Ireland."

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“Reverend Sir,—The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland to answer the addresses and congratulations received from other churches, acknowledge with heartfelt pleasure your letter of the 10th July last, addressed to Dr Chalmers, and embodying a resolution unanimously adopted at a previous meeting of the Congregational Union of Ireland.

"The Committee are persuaded that they do no more than express the feelings of their constituents and of the members of the Free Church generally, when they assure you that few, if any of the congratulations which they have received on the issue of the struggle in which they have been engaged, have afforded them greater satisfaction and encouragement than that which is contained in your letter. We know that you do not expect that we should agree with you on the subject of civil establishments of religion; but the cordiality and strong Christian feeling with which you have declared your union and sympathy with us on the broader ground of

an Evangelical brotherhood, and the approbation which you have been pleased to ex-› press of the firmness of our Church in her contendings for the grand bulwarks of our faith and freedom, are not on this account the less gratifying and refreshing to our souls. "We unite with you and your brethren in the fond expectation, that the stand which, through divine grace, we have been enabled to make in defence of great scriptural principles, may at no distant period find a home in the heart of enlightened Christians of every name, and shall deem it our duty and privilege to fraternize with all the parts of the mystical body of Christ, in our endeavours to disseminate the light of truth throughout every portion of the habitable earth.

"Be so good as offer our sincere Christian regards to your brethren of the Congregational Union at their next meeting for the resolution passed by them at their meeting in July; and accept of our sincere thanks to yourself, for the very comforting and encouraging letter which at their request you have addressed to our late Moderator.

"In name and by appointment of the Committee.

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No. V. From the West Riding of Yorkshire Association of Baptist Dissenters, October 1843.

"Bradford, YORKSHIRE, June 12, 1843. "DEAR SIR, At a meeting of the West Riding of Yorkshire Association of Baptist Churches, held at Shipley near Bradford on the 8th inst., the following resolution was passed, which we have great pleasure in forwarding to you, as the Moderator of the Assembly of the Free Church.

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Resolved, That this Association contemplates with great satisfaction, the recent secession from the Kirk of Scotland. We regret, indeed, that the seceders still insist on the theory that the Church is entitled to look to the state for temporal sup. port; and that they condemn the Voluntary principle, at the moment of their appeal to its efficacy. Trusting, however, that in these respects the whole truth will speedily be learned and practised, there are other things in the movement in which we cordially rejoice.

"1. We rejoice that upwards of 400 ministers receiving the emoluments of endow ed Presbyterian clergymen, have in maintenance of the rights of the people, and of the spiritual independence of the Church, severed their connection with the Kirk of Scotland, and cast themselves for support upon the unconstrained offerings of their flocks. "2. We rejoice that this step has been taken for the sake of those Evangelical views which the great body of the seceding clergy hold, and which they are come out to preach to the people.

"3. We rejoice that the first and necessary result of the movement has been a signal display of the efficacy of the Voluntary principle, in the greatness of the sums contributed in support of the movement, and the cheerful promptitude with which the contributions have been made.

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4. And most of all do we rejoice, that-though somewhat unwittingly and most unwillingly—the Seceders have made an effectual breach in the structure of ecclesiastical tyranny and usurpation as existing in Scotland, and inflicted a blow upon the whole Church-and-State system, the precursor of yet other assaults which shall ul. timately prostrate the state religions of Europe, and overturn the empire of the man of sin.

"On these accounts we would encourage our Scottish brethren to carry out their new principles to their legitimate issues, while we devoutly commit both them and their enterprise to the care of Him who is the head over all things to the Church, We are, dear Sir, with great respect, yours most truly,

(Signed) HENRY DOWSON,
"THOMAS POTTINGER,

"THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., Edinburgh.

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(ANSWER.)

"COMMITTEE ROOMS, 7 NORTH ST ANDREW STREET, "EDINBURGH, 16th December 1843.

"DEAR SIRS, -The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly to answer the addresses and congratulations from other Churches, in acknowledging the resolution passed by the West Riding of Yorkshire Association at Shipley, on the 8th of June last, and transmitted by you to Dr Chalmers, very naturally wish that the said Resolution had been less in the style of censure and reproof: But, believing that your remarks were well-intended, and knowing that you and we are agreed on the great question of the sinfulness of the civil magistrate's interference in sacris, we take your observations in good part, and shall endeavour to profit by them.

"In return we beg leave to assure you that our conviction that it is the duty of the civil magistrate to countenance, encourage, and support the true religion, is as clear and decided, as that he is usurping the office of the Lord Jesus Christ, when he intermeddles with the administration of spiritual affairs. We regard the nation which is without a religious establishment as virtually disowning the authority of Christ, and repudiating the name of Christian. We have not changed our principles-we have seen no reason for changing them. Our ministers have renounced the emoluments of the Scottish Ecclesiastical Establishment, and our people have deserted it along with us, because the grand bulwark of an Establishment was thrown down— and we would not be partakers of other men's sins. But we love our Jerusalem, we cannot forget her, least of all when she is in ruins. Our fervent prayer is,—that her walls may be rebuilt, her temple restored, the throne of Christ again erected in the midst of her, and the man of sin' withstood by the combined efforts of pure Protestant Establishments, and of Christians of all denominations recognising the supreme authority of Christ speaking in his word, and by the ministry of the gospel. With regard to the Voluntary principle, properly so called, we never were opposed to it. We controverted, and ever will controvert the non-establishment principle: but the voluntary contributions of our people we have never been ashamed to ask, and have at all times thankfully received. The efficiency of the non-establishment principle has not been proved as yet by the Free Church of Scotland. At the present time our funds come so wofully short of the demands upon them, that we are glad to receive the aid of our Christian friends in England and Ireland, aye, and in America, to enable us to prosecute the glorious end of making the Free Church commensurate with the boundaries of our beloved country.

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"That the Spirit of truth may guard us from error, and guide us into the knowledge of all truth, and that He may enable us in all our contendings to keep the glory of God and the promotion of spiritual religion steadily in view, is the earnest prayer, of,-Dear sirs, yours sincerely,

"In name of the Committee,
(Signed)

"PAT. M'FARLAN, Convener.

VI. From the Elders and Messengers of the Western Association of Baptist

Churches.

"To the Moderator, Elders, and Members of the Free and Protesting Church of Scotland, the Elders and Messengers of Western Association of Baptist Churches, met in annual assembly at Honiton in the county of Devon, the 7th and 8th days of June 1843, send Christian and fraternal salutation.

"Honoured BRETHREN,-Your present position, and recent magnanimous and Christian conduct, impel us to convey to you the expression of our sincere sympathy and fraternal regard.

"We have been no indifferent spectators of the conflict in which you have been. engaged for some years past, and we cannot but regard its momentous issue, as equally honourable to your conscientiousness and integrity, and pregnant with con

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