See Table II. circumstances seem to be peculiarly favourable for a great and final effort for the settlement of the Sustentation Fund. Two great efforts have already been made, namely, in 1847 and 1854; another such in 1860 could hardly fail to be successful. The Church never was in better condition than it is at present for such an undertaking. We have no other great work of a financial kind in hand. Most of our Congregations have got rid of the debt which formerly hampered them. A portion of the yearly contributions thus set free, if directed into the channel of the Sustentation Fund, would accomplish the object in view. A great interest has been awakened in behalf of Home Mission and Church Extension, which, were we in a condition fully to avail ourselves of it, would certainly place ample means at our disposal. Then we are all united and cordially agreed among ourselves, and a feeling of brotherly confidence prevails; and, above all, the Lord has been visiting us with times of reviving and refreshing. But, before coming to particulars, I must remove a preliminary objection, which might be stated against any movement of an extraordinary kind, founded on some conclusions brought out in the Report of the Special Committee on the Sustentation Fund. The first article of the Appendix to that Report is a "Note of some of the Results deducible from the Statistical Tables," and two of these results are the following, viz. : "That generally any great effort to increase one Fund is attended with a depression in the other Funds, or some of them. "That special efforts to increase the Sustentation Fund, though successful at the time, are afterwards followed by a reaction or a falling off, but not to the extent of the previous increase." These results, if true, are very important, and ought to influence the future financial proceedings of the Church. In particular, they forbid any further effort of an extraordinary kind in behalf of the Sustentation Fund, or any other Fund, if it be the case that any increase so obtained is to a large extent at the expense of the other Funds, and only temporary. But it humbly appears to me that there is no sufficient ground for either of these conclusions, in the instances adduced in support of them, while they are completely negatived by more recent experience. As to the second result--the alleged reaction after an increase of the Sustentation Fund-I see no even apparent ground for it. On the contrary, it appears to me that nothing is more obvious and striking, as well as encouraging, in the progress of the Fund, than the firmness and tenacity with which it has maintained as a whole every new point of higher elevation which it has successively attained. I see nothing worthy the name of reaction, or sufficient to warrant the above conclusion, even in the qualified terms in which it is expressed. The first result is more difficult to handle. The Funds of the Church show great fluctuations, especially during the first ten years after the Disruption; and while it may be quite fallacious to select one of these fluctuations, and connect it with some one contemporaneous movement or event as its cause, it is not easy to disprove that connexion. But a careful examination of the examples cited in proof of this conclusion satisfies me, and I think I could easily show, that the falls in the Funds referred to, cannot be connected with the effort on behalf of the Sustentation Fund, but may more naturally, and with a far greater degree of probability, be otherwise accounted for, or ascribed to other causes then in operation. It will be more satisfactory and conclusive, however, to refer to the experience of the last five years. This period was distinguished by two great efforts, viz., the "One-fourth more" movement to raise the Sustentation Fund, by which £13,639 was added to that Fund in 1854 and 1855, and the movement for Extinction of Debt and completing the Manse Fund, for which a Fund of £50,000 was subscribed in 1855 and 1856. Now, what was the effect upon the other Funds of these two great efforts? I refer to Table XV. for an answer, where we find that they not only Table XV. caused no decline in any of the other Funds, but seem to have infused new life and energy into all of them; and I believe this will always be the effect of a great effort for any one Fund, when conducted and carried out in a proper spirit and manner. In particular, we find that the Congregational Fund, which was supposed to have been affected in an unfavourable manner by former efforts, rises in 1854 to a height which it had not formerly reached, and has continued to rise ever since; while the Mission Funds show no decline, but the reverse. No doubt there is a falling off in the General Collections and the Education Fund; but that cannot be connected at all with the efforts referred to. It did not originate with these efforts, for it commenced some years before, nor was it accelerated by them; and, as we have previously shown (page 34), is to be ascribed to other causes. I humbly submit, therefore, that these conclusions of the Special Committee are not well founded, and that there is no reason to suppose that the success attending great efforts in behalf of any one Fund is obtained at the expense of other Funds, or that it is merely temporary and followed by reaction. It appears to me of great importance to clear up this point, for we are not yet in circumstances to dispense with great efforts, and I doubt whether we shall ever be so. We should never have got on in the past without them, and it will be the same, I am persuaded, in the future. Having thus, I trust, removed what might have stood in the way as an objection to any further special effort in behalf of the Sustentation Fund, the question remains, How is such an effort to be carried out? Upon this subject I shall venture only to offer one or two suggestions, 1. A mere repetition of the two former efforts, aiming at the attainment of the Equal Dividend of £150, and postponing Church Extension and Home Mission until after that point is reached, would, I am persuaded, prove a failure. To insure success, the two objects must be combined or go on simultaneously. 2. The great and urgent object is to bring our able and liberal aidgiving Congregations and Members into immediate contact with a great Home Mission and Church Extension movement. I dread the effects of leaving them alone, as they are at present, while means of a slow and gradual kind are being used to elevate other classes, and nothing else will move them but such an object as the above. 3. The recent procedure of the Sustentation Committee seems to present a basis upon which this movement might proceed. They have presented for general adoption, or at least consideration, as a fair and reasonable rate, a contribution to the General Sustentation Fund of 10s. per member (leaving out of view large Subscriptions), which, if generally realized, would not only complete the Equal Dividend, but afford a large surplus. Might not this rate be adopted for the present purpose, and to this effect, viz., that the increase above their present amount of Contribution of those Congregations which are at and above this rate, taking them as a class and in the aggregate, shall go to Church Extension and Home Missions, and the increase of those under that rate to the Equal Dividend ? To illustrate the reasonableness, the practicability, and the effect of this arrangement, let us recur for a moment to statistics. I do not suppose that the line thus proposed to be drawn would exactly or nearly coincide with that between the Sustaining and Non-sustaining Congregations. But, assuming this to be the case for the sake of illustration, and taking first the latter class of Congregations, the Non-sustaining or Aid-receiving. The deficiency of the General Fund, at the rate of last year, to make up the Equal Dividend of £150, was between £9000 and £10,000, say £10,000. I shall assume that this sum is to be raised by the Aid-receiving Congregations, and show how they would then stand compared with their present position. AID-RECEIVING CONGREGATIONS. Number Number of of Congre- Members Average Rate per Average Rate per Total Contributions Member. of this Class. Congregation. Let me now show how these Congregations stood last year, and would stand after the supposed addition, as regards the extent of their dependence upon the General Fund, that is to say, the sum paid in by them into the Fund compared with the sum drawn in the shape of Equal Dividend. On the footing of last year these Congregations stood thus....... £48,887 2 9 £85,836 0 0 £36,948 17 3 With the proposed Addition, affording a Dividend of £150, they would stand thus, 58,887 2 9 93,300 0 0 34,412 17 3 These statistics are not strictly accurate, but they are sufficiently so to be perfectly trustworthy for the present purpose of illustration; and I submit the following considerations and conclusions :— 1. That the present rate of Contribution per Member in Aid-receiv ing Congregations being 6s. 94d., the addition of 1s. 5d. per Member making 8s. 24d. (and that inclusive of all sorts of Contributions, great and small), would afford the sum requisite to raise the Equal Dividend to £150. 2. That this whole class would, even then, be drawing more than onehalf more, or 50 per cent., in addition to their own Contributions, out of the General Fund. 3. They would, as a class, themselves receive back three-fourths of the proposed increase in the form of increased dividend. 4. When we consider that the number of aid-receiving Congregations is 622, while the aid-giving, those who give the 50 per cent., or one-half more, is only 162,-that it is an obvious and universally admitted fact, that a large proportion of the aid-receiving ought to be self-sustaining or aidgiving, and that a still larger proportion might do very well with onehalf the amount of aid they at present receive,—can there be a doubt that the present state of matters is precarious and critical, and urgently calls for rectification; that the two extremes must and will approximate, if not by the elevation of the lower, then certainly by the decline of the higher class; and that the measure of approximation above proposed to be made by the aid-receiving Congregations, or by those which are below the suggested general rate, is the very least and lowest consistent with the present safety of the Fund? 5. We have seen in reviewing the Building Funds, that this class of Congregations, as a whole, have been able to build and pay for their edifices, with the help of one-third, or 50 per cent. of the amount of their local contributions, drawn from General Fund. It seems a fair inference, a fortiori, that they can do with the same amount of aid for Sustentation. Farther, we have seen that, generally speaking, each aided Page 21. Congregation has drawn £400 from the General Fund for their buildings. Now the increase proposed by these Congregations would be such a return or suitable acknowledgment for this aid, as may be fairly expected, now that they have, by means of it, got free from all local burdens and contributions for their buildings. It would be a return of no more than four per cent. per annum on that aid, and even of that, three-fourths would go back to the Congregations themselves in the shape of increased dividend to their ministers. So much for the Aid-receiving Congregations. Then as to the Aidgiving Congregations, can there be any doubt that, if they were set free to answer an appeal for Home Mission and Church Extension, they would cordially respond to it, and place at the disposal of the Committee a sum at least equal to the increase of the aid-receiving Congregations? And thus the Church would attain her long desired object, and have the means of carrying on her home work in a manner worthy of her position, and of the great and effectual door which has been opened to her in providence. But there is another consideration, equally important and more urgent, relating to this class of Congregations, to which I have alluded at the beginning of these remarks on the Sustentation Fund. I have stated that a decline has already set in among the aid-giving Congregations. To Page 48. prove this, I have prepared the subjoined Table, showing the amount raised by these Congregations for a series of years, and bringing out the surplus or excess of their contributions over and above the amount drawn by them from the Fund; and I request special attention to that Table. One most important practical view to be taken of that surplus is to regard it as an Endowment provided by the aid-giving Congregations for the benefit of the poorer Congregations of the Church; and it is this Endow ment which gives the Sustentation Fund all its value and efficacy. Now, the Table shows that the Surplus or Endowment is declining. It reached its maximum in the year 1855-6, being the year in which the "One-fourth more" movement was completed, and every year since that date it has been gradually falling off; so that the last year 1858-9 was less than the year 1855-6 by £1865-which is equal to £2, 10s. taken from the yearly income of each minister of the Church. This is the amount of loss in three years. I am not yet able to give the result for the year 1859-60, but I do not suppose that it will differ favourably from the three preceding years. This is a state of matters which requires no comment from me. I doubt not that it will receive the earnest consideration of the Church. It is grievous and alarming to see the ground which we have gained with so much toil and trouble slipping away from beneath our feet; and when and where will it stop? There will be various opinions as to the causes of this decline, and I shall not at present enter upon any speculation regarding them. I would only venture to say that it is most important to look upon this matter in a practical way, and especially from the point of view which the subscribers to the Fund, from whom the surplus comes, must be supposed to take. It will be of no avail that ministers satisfy or silence one another in the Church Courts with views or theories of the Fund which they consider the right and proper views to take, unless they can also satisfy the reasonable expectations of the contributors, and obviate any well-founded objections that can be brought against its administration. In the case of a fund derived solely from voluntary liberality this is obviously indispensable to its continued existence. The arrangement which I have taken the liberty to suggest appears to me to be fitted to afford such satisfaction. It would gratify the wishes of those who have been longing and striving for the attainment of a Church Extension Fund; it would stop the progress of decline in the upper strata of Congregations, and it would give the Equal Dividend a stability and certainty which I see no other likely way of its attaining. The plan, I may repeat, is simply this. Assuming that a final special effort is to be made for completing the Sustentation Fund, I propose-1. That the contributions of the aid-receiving Congregations, or of such of them as give less than the average of 10s. per member, shall go to the Equal Dividend until it reach £150; and 2. That the contributions of the aid-giving Congregations, or of such of them as are up to the average of 10s. per member, shall go to Church Extension and Home Missions;-always maintaining, however, the present aggregate amount of contributions of the aid-giving Congregations for the Equal Dividend. This plan may have too much the aspect of a mere expedient; but it does not appear to me to be opposed to any sound principle of the Fund, or to make any disturbance in its constitution. It is fitted to existing circumstances; and if carried out in a cordial and harmonious spirit, could not fail to set the Church forward once more in an advancing and prosperous career. What I have given is of course a mere outline, which would require to be well considered and adjusted in its details; making provision, for example, for the eleva tion of the Equal Dividend above £150, so soon as the state of the Fund shall admit of that step being taken. Would it not be both a noble and a wise thing for the aid-receiving Congregations to come forward, spontaneously and cordially, and say"For the better accomplishment of our common purpose, let us divide the |