from India, my argument with them is stronger still. In either case, it is their duty to make confession in the sight of Heaven and of the heathen that they were wrong,―to uphold the cause of that Saviour whom they had formerly denied, to come out and stand as on a pinnacle, and shew that they are now different men from what they were before, by doing what they can to send the gospel to those before whom they denied Christ, and whom, before their conversion, they did their utmost to destroy and send to perdition. I entreat of you to think of these things, and to see if it is not your duty to remember the perishing millions of India. (Loud cheers.)

The motion of Mr Dunlop was then approved of, and a Committee appointed in accordance therewith, to watch over the renewal of the East India Company's Charter.

The Assembly then adjourned till eleven o'clock next day.

THURSDAY, 27TH MAY 1852.

Deputation from English Presbyterian Church: Speeches of Mr Mackenzie, Mr Burns, Mr Adam, Dr Duff, the Moderator-Case of Mr Jonathan Anderson-Report on Popery: Speeches of Sir George Sinclair, Mr Thomson of Banchory, Mr Gibson, and Dr Cunningham-Case of Selkirk -Union with United Original Seceders-Deputation from Foreign Churches: Speeches of M. Buscarlet and M. Monod.

The Moderator took the chair at eleven o'clock, when the Assembly having been constituted and the minutes read, the clerk read a communication from the Presbytery of Ellon, intimating that the Rev. Alexander Forbes had ceased to be minister of the church of Methlic, having been deposed from the office of the holy ministry.

ENGLISH DEPUTATION.

A deputation from the Presbyterian Church in England, consisting of Mr Mackenzie, Birmingham, Mr Burns, Whitehaven, and Mr Fraser, Lowick, ministers, and Mr Adam, Liverpool, elder, presented their commission, which was read by the clerk at the table.

Mr BALFOUR jun. said, As one of the deputation appointed by last Assembly to visit the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in England, I have now the honour, in the absence of Dr Duff, to introduce to this House the deputation commissioned to represent the English Synod in the meetings of the present Assembly. In doing so, I may be permitted just to say, that the reception which the deputation from the Free Church met with in England was not only courteous and kind, but was of the very warmest and most cordial description. Great interest was expressed by the English Presbyterian Synod in the common objects which the Free Church and the Presbyterian Church of the sister kingdom are anxious to promote; and I am sure nothing can be more agreeable to the feelings of this House than to welcome our friends from the south with all the cordiality they so well deserve, and to listen with attention and interest to the addresses they may be prepared to submit to us. (Applause.)

Mr MACKENZIE, Birmingham, Moderator of the English Synod, then addressed the Assembly. He said, Sir, the Presbyterian Church in England delights in the national reciprocations of friendship interchanged at our respective annual Assemblies. Though two of the deputies in the Commission are not present, I am warranted, by letters which I have received, to assure this venerable House, that by none of us is their absence more deplored than by the respected elders themselves. For the noble deputation

sent by this Church to our last Synod, permit me to tender our cordial and grateful thanks. The addresses of your ruling Presbyters, as well as those of your teaching Presbyters, were to us both interesting and instructive. When providing for the augmentation of our missionary staff in heathendom, you sent us the greatest of living missionaries to quicken our zeal, to expand our views, to elevate our aims, and to strengthen our faith in the Divine promises. When writhing under the adverse decisions of the law Courts of England, and when tempted to forget the Scriptures, which saith, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: be not overcome of evil, overcome evil with good," in these circumstances you sent us your expelled missionaries from Hungary, as if, by their presence, to teach us meekness, submission, and thankfulness under our sufferings; reminding us that Manchester is not Pesth, nor Berwick Lemberg, but at the same time warning us of that system which, if fostered, would convert mighty England into a miserable Austria. It is not our design, nor is it your desire, that your deputies should use flattering words. In the presence of our King,-with the consciousness, too, of much sin in all our services and sacrifices, and realizing the account we have to render for this department of our ecclesiastical duty,-all such would be not only unbecoming, but a prostitution of blighted friendship; at the same time, we may magnify the grace of God given to you. When we observe the crude notions on the subject of Popery that meet with currency and applause in certain quarters in England, we rejoice that there is ever and anon given forth by the Free Church Assembly, not only a better exposition of Scripture, but a better version of the lessons of history. When we find men of high Christian piety among us,-men whom we co-operated with in the Sabbath question, and are co-operating with us in opposing Popery,-when we find such men misled by a diseased benevolence, if not by a superficial theology, on the subject of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and defending as expedient that which we regard as incestuous,-we feel thankful for your unmistakeable expression of belief on the point. But may I warn you not to lose sight of this measure, as, under the Derby administration, its friends are far more sanguine of success than we are of their repealing the Maynooth Act of 1846, unless forced to it. And, Sir, when we find your Church faithfully administering discipline, sympathising more with principle than with personal feelings,-when we observe you thus protecting the Christian Church from the sting of the infidel's taunt, as well as from the scorn of honest and honourable worldlings, who are oftener on 'Change than in church, I say, in the name of England's Presbyterians-of many other families besides in the name of England's morality-in the name of our common Christianity-we thank you, and pray that you may be kept stedfast and unmoveable. Since our deputies last appeared among you, we have sustained a severe loss in the removal, by death, of one of the noblest ecclesiastical staff. The loss of the prayers, the counsel, the liberalities,— above all, the loss of the Christian example, of Mr William Hamilton,* exceeds by far all our other losses. In these sorrows we have your sympathy. (Hear, hear.) But the Lord has been encouraging, as well as rebuking and awaking us. Our Church grows in favour with those who observe and watch our proceedings. In proof of this, I may state that the editors of the Birmingham Mercury and Whitehaven Pacquet have, in their respective journals, given high testimony to the orderly and praiseworthy manner in which the proceedings of our Synod are conducted. In regard to home operations, we are enabled to report four congregations as added

One of the elders of Regent Square Church, London.

to our register during the past year. These are the congregations of Horncliff, Leeds, Bradford, and Windsor. Of these, one is at present aidreceiving, but the others self-sustaining. Church-extension, if carried on thus for some years to come, will rejoice us all; for when the self-sustaining churches range to the aid-receiving in the ratio of three to one, there is little prospect of pecuniary embarrassment. During the past year efforts have been made to liquidate the debt, and to enhance the value of our property. By thirty of our congregations £13,317 were contributed, exclusive, of course, of £10,000 raised by the Grosvenor Square congregation in Manchester, during the two preceding years, for their own new church. To enable other congregations to extricate themselves as speedily as possible, a building fund has been commenced, to which the liberality of our Church and her friends are to be directed. This scheme spreads it subscriptions over five years; and by five elders of our Church £400 per annum, or £2000 for five years, have been already subscribed as a commencement. Private applications for aid to our churches will thus be greatly discouraged, the minister's precious time be redeemed from the miserably unsatisfactory work of begging for his own church or manse, and the liberality sought, as well as the applicant, may be referred to the treasurer of the Building Fund. Under the superintendence of that constructive master-mind to which the transept of the Crystal Palace owes its origin, as the work itself owes much of its progress to completion, this fund, we hope, may yet prosper, so as to present to the other churches in England an ecclesiastical framework of church, school, and manse, -a monument which no Government but the government of darkness will dare to pull down. Our College has presented symptoms of vitality, cheering indeed to us, and as gratifying to you. Some of our students already engage in evangelistic labour among the perishing masses of our great metropolis; and one of them, talented, pious, and suitable, has devoted himself to the foreign field, and he goes forth as coadjutor to Mr Burns in China. This is the first fruits of an institution on which we mainly depend for our supplies for the Presbyterian pulpits in England. Schools are rapidly being attached to our churches. The statistics on this subject will be more complete by next year; but in the mean time our hope of growth in England is connected with our schools. Our missionary agents in China continue to labour in faith and hope. Mr Burns and Dr Young are about to receive an additional missionary; and the following intelligence, of date January 8, is interesting:-"For years," writes Mr Burns, "there are new and increasing tokens of the approach of the blessed time. Since I came here, nine adult persons have made a public proof of their faith. These are to us the first fruits of China. O, may the two sorts of first fruits be to us the earnests of a glorious harvest, for the harvest is not glorious where the labourers are few, but where the labourers are many." (Applause.) Of our mission to the Jews in Corfu we have but little to lay before you. Mr Charteris, our missionary there, is assiduous in his labours, but with no great success among the Jews. He has had a congregation of Italian refugees. Several have been delivered from Papal superstition, and the best proof of his success is to be found in the intrigues of the Jesuits, who have succeeded in reducing the Italian congregation by about two-thirds. The door is not shut. Were our missionaries as yours are, I should not hesitate to say, set up a Presbyterian mission to the Jews of all the world, and set it up in London. Through the thousands who come there you can hold connection with Austria, and other places that are either already shut, or likely to be shut. And should our friends who have Ꮓ

ence.

only a fancy for what is far distant, doubt the eligibility of the station, I would say, grant me a committee of inquiry into the number of Jews resident there in the course of a year, and then let the cold figures dispel prejudice, and draw forth their liberality in behalf of those who are by nature partakers of Abraham's blood, but not yet, by grace, partakers of Abraham's faith. In conclusion, the times in which we live demand of us union and decision, and action, and dependence upon Him on whom our fathers trusted and hoped. When on the right hand and on the left there was no refuge for them, God was their shield, their counsellor, their consolation. In 1843 your sacrifices were for freedom: the next may be for ecclesiastical existThe combat thickens. The historian of the Reformation said Presbyterianism has a mission in England; and Cardinal Wiseman shows that Jesuitism has a mission there. The missions are organised, the missionaries are at work. England is Rome's best prize, and the best strokes of her policy are being played to secure success. But let us all stand together ;Presbyterians of all shades, Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Independents, and Baptists-shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, and heart to heart, and voice to voice, till not only the Maynooth endowment be recalled, but till the visible representation of the Man of Sin be sent back to the Vatican, to tell that Britons shall never be the slaves of the Pope or the victims of Popery. Mr BURNS said, When listening to the burning eloquence of that distinguished and eminent servant of God, Dr Duff, last night, I felt the power and saw the beauty of the inseparable connection which exists between the enjoyment of practical godliness and extensive usefulness. This principle our Lord not only exemplified in his own life, but taught to and impressed on his own Church. In his sermon on the mount he first told the Church what she must be, and then what she must do. First, she must be poor in spirit, meek, righteous, pure, and merciful; and having be come all this by grace, she is then to shine as a light in this dark, fallen world, attracting sinners to Christ. And I may truly say, that never did our Church in England more deeply feel her obligation to be a witness for God against Popery and Heathenism at home, and the delusions of Mahometanism and heathen superstition abroad, than she now feels. In language that cannot be misunderstood, God is saying to our Church, and to your Church also, Ye are my witnesses that I am the one living and true God. He looks down from the throne of His glory on the earth, and observing the false witnessing Churches, the time-serving policy of Governments, the general declension of Protestantism, the aggressive boldness of Popery, that masterpiece of satanic craft and consummate skill,-observing the conduct of men in relation to himself, he sees that almost everywhere He, the Sovereign Lord, is virtually excluded from his own world, and his place usurped, not by a Church, as Rome would have us believe, and some Protestants are too ready to endorse, but by the great apostasy, not by & religious system, but by an ecclesiastical and political conspiracy,-not by religion at all, but by Antichrist, the Son of Perdition, the Man of Sin, who is exalted above all that is called God, and sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, claiming the names and prerogatives of God, and therefore branded deep with the names of blasphemy. The exalted and rightful king seems to ask, Shall this state of things be allowed to continue? Am I never to be respected or to have my claims acknowledged in my own world? I will bring this matter to a test: it shall come to a conclusion. I will summon the nations of the earth; I will gather my saints who know me and my government, and who cry to me day and

night; and I will make bare my arms, and will clear it of all incumbrances, and with my vesture dipped in blood will gird my sword upon my thigh, and lead forth the armies of heaven to the battle that will issue in the downfal of Babylon, the mistress of harlots and abominations of the earth. (Applause.) All things indicate that we are on the eve of this great crisis. The Lord is marching through time, by the great changes of earth, ripening matters for His last and mighty conflict with this God-defying world, and the final accomplishment of His glorious designs of grace. Popery and infidelity have joined hand in hand in diabolical confederacy against the Bible Protestantism of the British Empire; and a time-serving statesman, knowing all this, and openly confessing that a Popish conspiracy exists, not only winks at the expulsion of your devoted missionaries, without a fault or charge, and dismissed from office the man who would have resisted this insult to our nation, and the infliction of so grievous wrong on British subjects, but encourages and fosters the very system at home at whose bidding our honoured but deeply-injured brethren have been expelled from their work abroad. This motion of the mystic wheels of God's chariot appears to our short vision involved, perplexed, and even retrograde; but could our vision take in all the parts of God's works and intentions, this apparently intricate and mysterious providence would be seen to be a straightforward motion of the wheels, which will issue in the accomplishment of his great designs to glorify himself and hasten his kingdom? The designs of God are lofty, and reach far; but the wheels are full of eyes round about, so that whatever part of the wheels is turned towards us as a Church or a nation, there are eyes there, there is intelligence there. The Bible excludes all chance from the affairs of the universe, and every move of the wheel is instinct with judgment and mercy,-divine judgment to Popery and infidelity, and infinite mercy to the Church of God; and ere long these ponderous wheels, which comprehend all things in their vast and majestic sweep, will drive over these Antichristian powers, and crush them to dust, while the same revolve will deliver the Church from oppression and wrong, and give her a thousand years' jubilee to celebrate the triumphs of the gospel, and victories of Emmanuel. (Loud applause.) Fearful to God's enemies are the indications of approaching ruin; and to conceal it from the Church, or from the nation, were to incur the charge of blood-guiltiness at the great day of the Lord. Whether men will bear, or whether they will forbear, the vengeance of God is denounced against these lands for sins that have long cried to heaven. It is right that the men of this world, who, in their love for the mammon of unrighteousness, set God's law at defiance, and plead for Sabbath desecration, should know that a day of reckoning is coming. It is well that time-serving statesmen, who support and encourage Popery at home and abroad, should know that the Lord is coming to destroy it with the sword of his mouth and the brightness of his coming. It is well that all unfaithful and ungodly men, who are appointed to the ministry for worldly and political purposes, should know that the myriads of immortal souls who are sinking into perdition unwarned, will one day raise the cry of blood, and be swift witnesses against an unfaithful ministry. It is well that all the enemies of Christ and his Church should know that vengeance is denounced, and it will assuredly be executed. A time for decision, and union, and action, among all the followers of the gospel has come. The friends of the Man of Sin sink their minor differences and concentrate their united powers for the exaltation of Antichrist in good old England. Let the friends of Protestantism rally together, and sink their minor dif