memorative festival in the metropolis, when practical measures were adopted for making the energies of all evangelical bodies to bear on the advancement of our common cause. It was with pleasure this Synod received, from a committee of your number appointed for the above purpose, proposals of a plan whereby denominations may jointly prosecute this labour of love without interference or collision. To the spirit of the arrangement we respond with unhesitating and entire cordiality, and trust that on both sides a sincere wish will be manifested to give the proposed regulations effect.

"And why, let us ask, should not all this harmony of sentiment and of action be more and more realised, while we severally hold our distinctive peculiarities, and give them in our public profession the prominence which is due.

"That you abide by the principle of church and state alliance, and that we as much as ever disavow it, is a difference which cannot justifiably be permitted to estrange us; seeing that in doctrine, worship, and government, we are so much at one. On this subject we can speak the more freely, that the repudiation of the establishment principle has never been made by this Synod a term of communion or of office. So far, indeed, as differences do exist, we must stand apart when the principle on which we divide comes into view as a denominational feature; but how unfitting it were that we should continue to speak and act in relation to each other, as if we were more anxious the world should know that there is one principle on which we differ, than that they should hear of the weightier matters of faith and salvation, in which, with soul and heart, we agree.

"From having long occupied adverse positions, it need not surprise us if we should now find that we have somewhat to unlearn with respect to each other. For ourselves, from the heart, we can say, and with regard to you, dear brethren, we as firmly believe it, that this duty of unlearning whatever is sectarian in spirit and pretensions, is one with the importance of which we are profoundly impressed. Our common position demands it. The state of the times demand it. The claims of our common Christianity, the wants of a perishing world, above all, the authority of our common Lord, demand it. Let Assemblies and Synods, convened in the name of Christ, respond to the call, and let all the people say, Amen.

"With a cordiality which we shall not labour to express, do we anticipate the future course of your Church to be one of advancement in reputation, and efficiency in numbers, purity, and strength. Such is our conviction of the advantages of the position assumed by you as a free and protesting body, that we feel assured our anticipations shall not prove overcharged, if, knowing your dependence on the blessing of Him who is head over all, you choose your way in his fear, and meekly imbibe his spirit. Freed from a yoke which your fathers submitted to with uneasiness, and which you could not bear, the world is before you as the field to be occupied, as the kingdom to be won. We congratulate you then, brethren, on the wide scope for Christian enterprise which invites your exertion. Devise liberal things, and weary not in well doing. In the missionary enterprise to which your attention has been so laudably directed, how loud a call for beneficent effort and abounding zeal! With the claims of education, as one of the highest of our national interests, you are already conversant-and here much, how very much, remains to be done. Regarding as we do the sectarianism of any system of education, as one of its most disabling defects, what should we say of the existing state of things which gives up to party what belongs to the people? Bear with us, brethren, when we say that the emancipation of education from party trammels is an enterprise worthy of a Church that protests against Cæsar's yoke, and at a great price dares to be free. Not less inviting are your facilities now for exemplifying the communion of saints, and for taking high ground in upholding the purity of the Church's discipline. To us it appears that a Church accepting the countenance of the State is not in favourable circumstances for thorough cordiality of intercourse with denominations which reject such alliance because of the snares which it brings. The love of the brethren is the most equalising of principles; while a position of adventitious distinction is apt to engender feelings of privilege and of caste. Free from the temptation, because free from the alliance that gives birth to it, you are at liberty to obey the impulses of a fraternis

ing spirit, and to stand forth in the advocacy of Christian union as the cause of truth and of God.

"How nearly the spiritual independence of the Church is connected with her spiritual purity, you are, dear brethren, aware. To renounce secular alliance that we may resist secular dictation, what is it but to protest, in the name of Him who redeems his people from all iniquity, we shall be independent, that we may be pure. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee: the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward, and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places-thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.'

"Our prayer on your behalf, then, brethren, is, that your course may be one of advancing excellence-your aim perfection-your progress sure-till the Free Protesting Church of Scotland, and all the churches of our land who owe allegiance to Christ's crown, and ascribe all praise to him who wears it, shall look forth upon friend and foe, 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with ban

ners.'

"In the name and by the authority of the United Associate Synod,

"Edinburgh, 11th Oct. 1843.

(Signed)

"THOS. STRUTHERS, Moderator.

Mr STRUTHERS said, that owing to the lateness of the hour, he would not detain them at any length; but he would not be doing justice to his own views, nor to the feelings of the United Associate Synod, were he not personally, and in the most direct terms, to assure them of the interest with which the Secession Church regarded the noble testimony which, as a Church, they had given before the world. The great principles which they supported were essentially the same which the first Secession laboured to maintain and extend. They (the Free Church) asserted the spiritual independence of the Christian Church-they repudiated all interference in the Church's affairs on the part of the civil power-they held that the Head of the Church had conceded to the Christian people, which they were bound to maintain, and never to part with, and they held the necessity of an independent jurisdiction in the Church. These were the principles for the sake of which the venerable fathers of the Secession were ejected from the Establishment, and on these great principles they now were fully united. United as they thus were in their views of the spiritual independence of the Church, and in their views of vital doctrinal truth, surely they were prepared, if not for a union of incorporation, at least for a union of co-operation-(cheers)-and in the mean time let them strive after the things that make for peace.

Dr HEUGH, who was received with loud cheers, said-From the paper now read and the observations of my friend who has preceded me, this venerable Assembly will understand the sentiments of the body we represent towards this Assembly, and the body it represents. That there should be some inconvenience-perhaps a little jostling-and here and there a collision in the operations of two Churches, so extensively spread over the land, and conducting their operations so much in the same localities, is no more than was to be expected. (Hear, hear.) But if we made up our minds to act lovingly together, at one as we are in all essentials of doctrine and in purity of intention, I, for my own part, believe that incredible good to the country may result from the two Churches doing our very utmost to spread the knowledge of divine truth through the length and breadth of the land. (Loud cheers.) But I would more specially allude to another view of that great ecclesiastical movement which the ministers I have now the honour to address-have had the singular privilege of leading. First, allow me to congratulate you on the extent of the movement, on the number of ministers of the gospel who have nobly led the way, and the large proportion of the Scottish people, or at least of Scottish wor

We all know that truth is

shippers, who have so nobly followed them. (Cheers.) independent of numbers, either as its friends or opponents; but where an important duty is to be performed, where a great service is to be rendered to any cause, it is evident that the greater the number we can bring to the performance of these duties, and the rendering of these services, we shall render the greater glory to truth and to its Author, and the greater good to our fellow-men. I was delighted, I say, to hear yesterday, from him who formerly filled your chair, that you already have 470 ordained ministers of the gospel, besides 130 preachers-I was delighted to hear that you have already an array of 600 labourers in the vineyard of our common faith. From the bottom of my heart—and I know that I am only expressing the sentiments of my brethren-I pray that every one of those may indeed be men of God, workmen needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, that they may win many souls to the Redeemer, and edify his body the Church, and at last receive his approval and eternal welcome. (Cheers.) But you must remember that you do not labour alone, that there are seven or eight hundred Christian ministers in Scotland unconnected with the Church you have left, most of them Presbyterians like yourselves, and nearly all of them holding the same Christian truths, and labouring with yourselves to uphold the knowledge of the truth, and diffuse it throughout the land. Believe me that these brethren, when they make intercession for all saints, remember you and your Church, and I think you will esteem it a duty to remember us, to remember them. Mutual prayer is no small part of the communion of saints on earth. Passing from your numbers, allow me to allude to another view of your movement, which interests the hearts of all Christians out of your communion who have ever heard of it-I allude to the noble devotedness to Christ shown in the amount of willing and cheerful sacrifice made by the ministers of this Church, of the amount of which they themselves are alone competent to judge. 470 ministers of the gospel, not consulting with flesh and blood, but suffering the loss of a long-cherished connection, of emolument, of status, and of much that was more than all these, rather than sacrifice your conscience and your duty to the Lord, we regard not only as an honour to you, and to the age and to the land in which we live, but as an honour too to truth, and to the Author of truth. (Loud cheers.) We old Dissenters, never having had those temporalities to give up, have not had an opportunity to make those sacrifices: but we have had a little experience in the way of minor persecution, if we can apply so harsh a name to the smaller class of annoyances-I refer to the exclusiveness of which we have been the object: to the harsh judgments and very harsh words which have flowed pretty copiously from the lips of intolerance and of pride; and to the no small annoyance we have experienced in the formation of our churches, of which you have some experience now, from the powerful and opulent of the land. But allow me to say that we never grudged-and that none of us ought ever to grudge-sacrifices in the cause of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us, and who for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. We never know how much attached we are to the cause of truth, till we begin to suffer for it. (Loud cheers.) A single other word on the subject of Christian intercourse and union. I do not refer to rash ecclesiastical amalgamation, which generally tends, in the long-run, more to mischief than to good; but I refer to a union in practice, to the extent we are already united in principle—(great cheering)-which I think to be a measure of union which every enlightened Christian must approve and applaud. Of the general principles of Christian union, I think we have a perfect identity of mind. Not one of us will insist on a perfect identity of views, in order even to a consistent ecclesiastical union, knowing that some sort of forbearance must be extended to mistakes in view, as well as to faults in practice. But a union must proceed on no sacrifice of principle, nor on the giving up of convictions, nor even of the honest utterance of such convictions. I think the mottoes of a church ought to be Honesty and Charity,-honesty as a homage to truth, charity in its operation to our brethren. (Cheers.) I do not know which of these is the more potent; but I am perfectly persuaded, that in the Bible sense they correspond, for Bible honesty is not uncha

ritable, and Bible charity is not dishonest. (Loud cheers.) It must delight us all to reflect, that the affairs of the Church are in better hands than yours or ours, in the hands of Him who loved the Church, and gave himself for it. We are poor erring mortals, unfit of ourselves to guide our own foosteps, and altogether unfit to manage the affairs of that great society-the Church. How often are we toiling at the oar to gain one point and get on in one direction, when a deeper and resistless current is conveying us in the opposite direction; and let us rejoice that the guidance of that current belongs to Christ, who loves the Church, and who has on his vesture and on his thigh, King of kings, and Lord of lords, and that our affairs and yours are in his hands. (Great cheering.)

DR KING was received with loud applause. He said,-At this late hour, any remarks with which I may trouble you will necessarily be brief. The Free Church of Scotland has been this day acknowledged by churches, by congregations, and by missions, and in an especial manner all must have been deeply gratified by the appearance of the venerable pastor from Geneva. It must have been gratifying, indeed, to this Assembly to receive such acknowledgments; for it has too often happened that Christian churches have had little but hostile intercourse with each other. We appear here, however, this evening an exception to this state of things; and if there be any wrong and jealousy, any heart-burning, we hold them in abeyance, and in the spirit of our Lord we bid God speed to you and your noble enterprise. It is not that we make any sacrifice of principle-it is not that we abandon any principle which we have ever held, and which we still consider sacred, although some may think that our appearance here wears such an aspect, and may look upon this step as premature and imprudent. It may be so; but there are times when I would rather be borne along by the tide of charity, than tremblingly follow the dictates of prudence. (Applause.) But if caution and prudence is to be inculcated, then I fall back upon this-" By these shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." We don't come here, I have said, to sacrifice our principles-as little do we appear offensively to obtrude them. We are not ashamed of them, but our object here is not controversy it is not even remonstrance-it is recognition and congratulation. (Loud applause.) And if our good understanding were, in any point, in danger—if, for example, any of the Secession churches were in danger from the aggression of illconsidered zeal, we could not put a more effectual check upon such a proceeding than by showing a large confidence in your fair and honourable dealing. We appear here to testify our agreements; and are they not great and numerous? We subscribe the Westminster Confession of Faith. So do you. We are of the same precious faith, and maintain that all men are guilty, and that no sinner can be justified but through Christ, and that he must be washed in his blood and sanctified by his Spirit. We maintain with you that the church is a spiritual society, of which Christ is the sole King and Head-that the people are its legitimate members-and that His Word is its only charter-book. These, he observed, are the principles which we hold, and are prepared to avow. (Hear.) And as we place our all to the grace of God, so we look forward to a glorious time when those distinctions, which yet exist, shall be done away, and when we shall mingle our voices in celebrating the song of Moses and of the Lamb. Holding these principles, we believe that we shall yet be united in a glorious church, having neither spot nor wrinkle, when these shall be destroyed, and when it shall not be left to us to cast out by the way. (Applause.) Let us then look to the sameness of our position. We inherit the same favoured and beloved land; we have the same encouragements and discouragements, the same allies and opponents. We have the same motto on our banner-the spiritual independence of the Redeemer's kingdom; our faith points to the same land which is to be occupied, and we recognise the same injunction-"Go ye up and possess it." You will not suppose I am about to precipitate an union; we are not ready for incorporation; but I believe the event will take place, and it is our shame that it is not nearer; but at the present moment it is impossible; and whatever may be our present position we should keep this end in view, and beware of doing a sin. gle act or uttering a single word that will retard or embitter that glorious and blessed

consummation. I may not detain you. (Go on, go on.) Let me say, then, that I agree in all that has been said regarding the noble sacrifice, not unparalleled in the history of individuals, but unparalleled, certainly, in the history of so large a body. But you are giving us still greater cause to admire you, in those noble efforts which you are instituting and advancing for the spread of the gospel. You mean to put us to shame with all our Voluntary boasting. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) We are before you with our principle, and you are determined to be before us with its application. (Loud applause.) There is much ingenuity in this mode of silencing us. You are determined to out-do us. We are determined not to be outdone; and if we have a rivalry, it will be that of provoking each other to love and good works. In former times we have had occasion to find fault with the statistical position which you have assigned to us. You have dealt with us as geographers do with Shetland in the map of Scotland. You have not assigned us a place in the body of the map, but have placed us in a corner, almost out of sight. (Laughter.) Notwithstanding this, I hope that our influence will be felt, and felt for good. Do all that you propose to do, and more. Exceed your own bright example, and this is vast. Take the Apostles and the early Reformers as your models—but even though you do this, you will not have all the work to yourselves. I trust we are duly sensible of our own nothingness; but by the grace of God you will find us in the streets and lanes of the city, and by the highways and hedges, addressing the outcasts, and compelling them to come in-you will find us on the hillside and in the valley. There you may find the evangelical Baptists and Congregationalists; but you will also find the United Secession Church of Scotland; and I trust all will work together for the dissipation of ignorance, for the eradication of crime, for the destruction of civic or ecclesiastical tyranny, and for spreading over the land pure, free, and independent spiritual Christianity. (The reverend Doctor concluded amid loud applause.)

Dr BROWN of Edinburgh next addressed the Assembly. He stated that he never occupied any situation in which he felt greater pleasure than now; and he most cordially concurred in every statement which had been made by his brethren. (Cheers.) It was indeed, he observed, difficult to convey to the minds of their brethren of the Free Protesting Church an adequate idea of the deep interest which they (the members of the United Secession) had taken in their contendings, and the most cordial satisfaction which they felt in the result. They had come to give utterance to their feelings, and to state that they regarded the Free Church with admiration and cordial love. They have (said Dr B.) a place in our hearts next to the body of Christians with whom we are more closely connected, and we look forward with an earnest desire and a confident hope to the period, which we think is not likely to be a distant one, when the two bodies will be closely united. (Hear, hear.) What we have chiefly to guard against is that of which we are warned in the gospel, by a statement peculiarly calculated to make an impression on our minds. It was towards the close of our Saviour's sojourn upon earth, and upon an occasion on which he seems to have been more than ordinarily sad and alone. His disciples entered into a warm dispute, apparently not aware that their Master's eye was upon them, and after going on their way, they arrived, at the close of the day, at the place where they rested. What was the cause of your dispute by the way? asked their Master; but they were ashamed, for they disputed which of them should be greatest. Let us instantly keep to mind, then, that the eyes of our Lord are upon us, and if at the close of the day, he should ask, Why dispute ye by the way? let it be exemplified that our great dispute has been which shall be most active and successful in promoting the honour and glory of our common Lord and Master. (Loud applause.) DR MAKELLAR said, he could not say how grateful they ought to be to God for the many mercies they had this day received at his hands. Among these, it was not the least that they had seen among them deputations from the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, and the Synod of the United Secession Church, who had addressed them in a tone and in terms which were calculated to refresh and comfort their hearts. He hoped the Assembly would not be satisfied by merely giving a response to their courtesy and kindness, but that they would sincerely say, and he trusted that God would not allow them to sacrifice principle or truth, that, through the