to assist us; we return you our sincere thanks, but we trust that you will do more, much more. Our wants are great. You know that on the field of Waterloo, Belgium witnessed the unyielding courage of the British army, and in particular it still holds in highest esteem the valour of the Scottish troops. It is even common to hear it said among the Belgians that Wellington would never have conquered Napoleon without the Scottish soldiery. I think, Moderator, and dear brethren, that it is your duty to declare to that country the still loftier, the yet more enduring courage of British, I will say Scottish, Christianity. You are not a nation exclusively warlike; you are, or you ought to be, a people eminently Christian, and in this lies your true greatness. The great triumph for which I press for your earnest, your enthusiastic co-operation, is assured to you by the promise of Almighty God. And I dare assert that, in this warfare, the laurels reaped by the victor will be more glorious than those gained by the conquerors at Waterloo; for, unstained by the blood of our adversaries, our struggle will be for the salvation of our foes, our aim to overthrow in order to save. The peace we seek to achieve is that which passeth all understanding that which is eternal. That peace, on the other hand, which your hardy warriors gained by the gory sacrifice of thousands, has waxed old in thirty-three years; and now, where is it? And when all the monuments of human glory shall have crumbled into dust, the lowliest soldier of the Captain of our Salvation, whilst flinging at the feet of his chief his imperishable crown, shall sing, Hallelujah, hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and he shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Let us raise, then, the banner of Christ, dear brethren, nothing wavering, and unite with your brethren abroad to fight the good fight, to insure the triumph of the gospel.

M.AUDEBEZ, from Paris, next addressed the Assembly. He said,―There is but one thing which reminds me that I am not quite a Scotchman, and that is the difficulty I meet in attempting to speak your language, in the position in which I am placed, of being called upon to address this dear General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in broken English. But, brethren, I am assured that you are prepared kindly to bear with my incorrect phraseology, as well as defective pronunciation. (Cheers.) I therefore feel encouraged, in the hope that perhaps you may understand me without much effort. I am here deputed by Christian friends, the Committee and members of the Evangelical Society of France, in order that I may present them before you, and bear to you an expression of their feelings. Such being the case, my duty, in the first place, is to return to you their thanks for your sympathy in the work in which they are engaged, for the assistance they have received from you in the course of the past year, and the helps I was allowed to collect in different places and in different ways, during my stay in Scotland in the month of July last. These greatly rejoiced the hearts of my friends in Lille, and contributed not a little to strengthen our hands, and to enable us to prosecute our work. Receive, then, in return, our thanks. I cannot express exactly the gratitude we feel for your kindness; but do not doubt of our earnest desire for the prosperity of the Free Church, and for its more considerable extension. (Hear, hear.) Though we are but few and weak disciples of Christ, scattered and lost, as it were, in a country plunged in darkness, in error, superstition, and infidelity, we however, by the grace of God, a merciful God, hold the same vital truths with yourselves; we rejoice and hope in the same Saviour, Jesus Christ,-man with God and God with man united; and, like you, we sincerely pant after, and, though with much infirmity, actively labour, for the triumph of his glorious gospel. (Cheers.) This, no doubt, is a truly strong and imperishable bond which unites us to you, and you to us, and will ever unite us. The Evangelical Society of France has been carried on during the past year in much the same way as formerly,-in a manner very satisfactorily, though without any remarkable particular. The limits of our missionary field is about the same; but if it is not more extended, I must say it is not for want of space, nor of very good opportunities indeed. But I need not tell you why it is that we still remain in the same circumstances. Bankruptcy is not a very good thing, and in the case of a religious society it would be a very fatal thing, and disgraceful, too; and consequently we have been obliged to take every precaution to avoid bankruptcy. If we had yielded to so many applications as have been made us,—if we had extended the sphere of our labours, how could we have escaped the consequences of the

important ones.

And I think it will interest you to know this.

(Hear, hear.)

have been as it were constrained to add to our former stations two new and very crisis produced by the last overturning,-by the last revolution. However, we Each of the stations comprehends five villages, and the population of both stations the stations into which the gospel has been introduced, including four other neighbouring villages. The Mayor of the place is a rich man, and as he desired to be married to a cousin of his own, he went to the priest and asked him to celebrate his marriage according to the Romish ritual. The priest told the Mayor that he could not be married to his cousin without previously paying one thousand francs, which is £40 of your money, for a dispensation to be obtained from the Pope, because of the relationship which existed between himself and his fair bride. The Mayor was astonished at this demand, and said he could not understand the reason of such a demand being made. "Let me," he said, "put before you this question. Is it lawful or not for a man to marry his cousin? If it be lawful, why demand my money; and if it be not lawful now can money make it lawful?" (Hear, hear.) The priest insisting upon the 1000 francs, the Mayor retired, and actually applied to our evangelical missionary to marry him. Our missionary agreed to do so, and the fact having become known, upon the day of the ceremony it was attended by an immense majority of the people of the district; and an impression was produced which proved so powerful and decided, that general protestations were made against Popery, and from that day the inhabitants of the whole district did not cease to petition the Committee of the Society to give them a minister and a schoolmaster. Such was their earnestness to have the gospel preached amongst them, that they agreed to raise money in order to purchase a large building, which they are at present having appropriated so as to furnish a chapel, two school-rooms, a manse, and a lodging for each of the teachers. (Cheers.) You can imagine that the priest would not see with very great pleasure the Protestants invading his territory. And what was to be done? Wherever he went, from time to time, he could not refrain from showing his bad humour. Not long ago the priest, knowing that the Protestants had assembled to read the Bible, determined to disturb them, and caused the church-bell to be rung in a very strange manner. Two young men were appointed to do this; and instead of using the rope to shake the bell, they provided themselves with two large smith's hammers, with which they struck the bell, at each stroke crying out, "Here goes a Protestant." (Laughter.) At last, however, they went so far that the bell got a blow, in consequence of which it emitted a rather curious sound-it was cracked. (Great laughter.) The two bell-ringers, as you may suppose, immediately became very confused; but they were much more so, when the Mayor, who had guessed the cause of the ringing, and heard the discordant sounds, went up the spire, and addressing the two lads, said, "Well, my dear fellows, you have been amusing yourselves, and making a great noise, but all is not pleasure here below; you know well that those who break the glass must pay for it, so make ready to supply the bell which you have cracked." (Laughter.) I can assure you there was great consternation. St Saviour is the other new station. It is a very fine small town. The gospel was introduced here in this way, Α young girl, about twelve years of age, purchased a New Testament, which she delighted in reading. She took her dear book, as she called it, every Sunday to the chapel, and instead of paying any attention to the sermons of the mass, she preferred to read some parable, or some of the circumstances attending the birth, and life, and sufferings, and death, and resurrection of Christ. I must tell you that it is customary in the country parishes of Burgundy, after mass, to form into procession and walk round the chapel. The priest, the vicar, and other office-bearers walk first, carrying crosses, and banners, and signs, and are followed by the people. However attractive such a scene might be for a young girl of twelve years of age, the young reader of the Bible absolutely paid no attention to it; she thought it was better to continue seated reading the Word of God. But the priest, at the return of the procession towards the altar, did not fail to perceive her, and the book which she had in her hand. At this view he was startled. He understood what book it was, and he was fearful of the mischief which such a volume would produce if generally possessed by the people, and thus read in the chapels. Accordingly, he gave an

order to the beadle to go and take the book from the hands of the girl. The young girl contended as long as possible to retain the treasure; but at last she was overcome by the beadle; she was dispossessed of the book, and burst into tears. (Cheers.) The people, as soon as they knew what sort of a book it was, and could comprehend the secret motive of the priest, were indignant, and the following week was a good one for our colporteurs. (Hear, hear.) Everybody went to buy a New Testament. Next Sunday the chapel was crammed, and when the procession took place, the people remained seated, each with a New Testament in his hand, and curiously watching the countenance of the priest. From this the priest understood that the mummeries of Rome were to be at an end. (Cheers.) The people agreed in great numbers to raise money amongst themselves. They hired a house for a place of worship, and about five weeks after the gospel was faithfully preached at St Saviour. The example of the inhabitants of this village was followed by those of four adjoining villages; and thirty more might be in the same position did the pecuniary resources of the Society permit them sending them ministers and colporteurs. The facilities which we now have for preaching the gospel in France is very great, compared with that under the former government. That government was completely against the liberty of religious worship, and it was to have been feared that ere long we would have been persecuted more and more. In January last I was in the southern part of the country, and attended the pleadings in two religious causes. It was held by the Court that we had a good plea, but in spite of that good plea, the Procureur sustained the pleadings against us. And would you know what commentary he gave on the Constitution of the Charter, which says, that every one professing religion in France shall have the same liberty and enjoy the same protection? He said, "that means a man who professes in his heart." (A laugh.) We were not permitted to cry out against this assertion, but the people were very indignant, and they made a great noise with their feet. The Judge cried silence; but the people would not be silent. (Cheers.) Now, my friends, all restriction on that precious liberty is over. Now a large and a wide door is open in France for all those who are desirous to take their life in their hand and go forth to proclaim that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the only Mediator, the only Saviour. It is no more necessary to make declarations, and to be exposed to the frowns of a mayor or a judge; for every one may go throughout France, and erect a church, and preach the gospel without difficulty. (Cheers.) Whatever may be the result of the labours of the Committee appointed in Paris to draw up a constitution, and whatever may be its character, I have no doubt that we shall have liberty for ever. (Hear, hear.) Because it is the time of liberty. The time is come. All these overturnings, so wonderful, are not from man, but from God. There will be a completion of the work, and we are but at its commencement. But if it be a time of great overturnings, it is also a time of great re-edification. Not only are the people in France quite disposed to hear the gospel, but they are exceedingly disposed to read

it. In the month of March, at the very time when the excitement was greatest, 10,000 copies of the New Testament were circulated in France,-not given away, but actually sold. (Cheers.) And this was at a time when money was anything but plentiful. Blessed be God, it is a proof of a secret and deep disposition in the people of France to receive something new. The Word of God is a new thing to them. Many of them are violent; but in the midst of all the violence which has been exhibited, there is in the bottom of their minds a disposition for which I have been led many and many times to bless my God. There is a secret want of some. thing; they know not what, but I know, and you know too. (Cheers.) They want something, they have a feeling that it is necessary for them to find out something, -something better than revolutions; they want something, and oh! no doubt it is the gospel. (Cheers.) Well, let us all unite in the spirit of faith, and in the spirit of prayer, with Christian activity, and with feelings of self-denial and devotedness. Let us form a great army in order to conquer France, and subdue the French people to obedience to the Chief and Captain of our salvation. (Cheers.) I bless God for the quietness you here enjoy, and all your other benefits. God be praised for the peace and harmony which prevails in this Assembly. What an aspect is presented in Paris! And what makes the difference? By the grace of God you know the truth, and Him who is truth, and they do not. That is the only cause of the differ

ence. Let the truth be but received in France, and its aspect will be changed immediately, and by its instrumentality the general prosperity of the nation advanced. (Cheers.) I repeat my thanks to you for what you have done for us last year, and I hope you will continue to us your sympathy and your asistance; and may God bless you and advance his kingdom on the earth. (The reverend gentleman sat down amidst great applause.)

The Rev. CHARLES SCHOLL said,-Though I have been kindly invited by the Continental Committee of the Free Church to attend this meeting, and though I have been accredited by the Synodal Commission of the Free Church of Vaud, I do feel very unworthy to appear before this great Assembly, and very unequal to the task that is before me. But I am supported, under this sense of my inability, by the feeling that the cause of Free Churches is so good, so great, so sacred a cause, that it has no need of a powerful advocate. The cause itself supports the advocate. I am also supported by the persuasion that I am addressing those who are quite convinced of its deep importance and real excellence; indeed, who are its best friends. The cause of Free Churches has an echo in every heart and conscience here. The more I think of it, the more I see that our cause,-I mean the cause of our two Churches, -is one. Not that I would for a moment compare our weak infant Church of Vaud with your own great Free Church. I look upon the Free Church of Scotland as upon a fine well-built and well-manned ship, riding majestically over the blue waters of the ocean; while our young and feeble Church is like a small boat following at a great distance, and tossed to and fro by incessant storms and threatening waves. But notwithstanding this great difference, I believe that both the great ship and the small boat are under the same good and great Pilot; they have both, one after another, emerged out of the same waters of a conscienceenslaving rationalism; they are both sailing under the same heavenly breeze, and tending to the same blessed haven. They are both fighting,- -as if it were for their very existence,—in the same good and great cause,-that of the complete independence of the Church in matters spiritual. It is true that enormities were asked of us, in point of concessions to the State and abdication of our spiritual freedom; while you will allow that comparatively small encroachments upon your spiritual independence were attempted against you, free men of Scotland. But this is not a question of degrees; it is altogether a question of principle. The plain question is this, Is the Church of Christ to submit, in matters purely spiritual, to the interference of any power, stranger to the Church, and which can be, and is very often, not only indifferent, but hostile, to its best interests, and to its great mission upon earth. Scripture, conscience, and good sense, tell us at once the Church is not to submit to any such interference. It ought not, it cannot, it must not. The charter of all Free Churches, to which they must be entirely faithful,-is, "render unto Cæsar that which is Cæsar's, and unto God that which is God's." Nothing that is God's must be given to Cæsar. If it were a question of expediency, we might reason and argue upon the greatness or smallness of the encroachments attempted upon the spiritual freedom of the Church. But when a great principle like that of the spiritual independence of the Church is involved, threatened, compromised, there is no reasoning and arguing against it; we must submit to the authority of a clear, decided, and positive principle; we must bow to it, and reject all improper interference, from whatever quarter it may come. Whatever you grant to the State which does not belong to it, is so much taken from the Crown and authority of the great Head of the Church. It is a case where we can, I think, apply justly the saying of our Saviour, "He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Can anything be called small which deprives the great Head of the Church, in any direction, of his absolute sovereignty and government of his own Church? I think not. Allow me now to allude to the chief difficulties our Church has from the beginning had to contend with, and has still in a measure to fight against. There were at first great and numerous internal difficulties, when we found ourselves all at once, and somewhat unexpectedly, called upon to form a Church separate from the State. We were very ill prepared and qualified for the delicate and difficult task devolving upon us. We hardly knew how to set our hands to a work at once so important and so new. Very different from you in that, as in many other respects, we had not a scriptural ecclesiastical constitution to look to, and to apply to

our new situation. We never had such a thing in the Canton de Vaud. All was to create, to organize, and that in the midst of very difficult circumstances, which left us little leisure and quietness of mind; and the work was the more difficult, since there were, among even pious ministers, great and fundamental difference of views as to matters of discipline and practice. We were agreed, thanks be to God, as to what are called strictly matters of doctrine; but there our agreement ceased, and we were to plan a constitution and organize a Church out of more jarring elements. You can easily fancy the difficulty of such a task, which, without the good hand of the Lord, reconciling us and uniting us in one plan of Church organization, we would never have been able to accomplish. Another great difficulty as to internal affairs arose from the almost complete want of elements proper to constitute a scriptural eldership, so indispensable in a Church disunited from the State. Laymen, in our country, had never taken an interest in the affairs of the national Establishment, had never had anything to do with it; and all at once they were called upon to help us in a work for which they were so totally, for the most part, unprepared and unqualified. When I think over all these internal difficulties, I wonder and adore that Divine goodness by which, notwithstanding all these obstacles, we have, in a measure, succeeded in forming a somewhat scriptural Church. It is the more to be admired. I mention it to the praise of God, since we had also great outward difficulties to contend with. You know some of them. Let me briefly mention the chief. As soon as our Disruption took place, we were assailed with all sorts of calumnies, intended to misrepresent us, detach our people from us, and prevent others from joining us. The chief falsehood uttered against us was, that we were actuated by political motives, that our movement was not a religious one, but an act of opposition to the Government that oppressed us. We deny it completely. There is not, I venture to affirm, a particle of truth in the accusation as directed against the Church. We have repeatedly dared our adversaries to the proof, and they have not been able to allege the shadow of a proof. But as, notwithstanding our repeated denials, the accusation has been again and again repeated, we have thought it right to publish a pamphlet in answer to it. I have the honour of laying some copies of it on the Moderator's table. I have no doubt it will carry conviction to every honest mind who takes the trouble to peruse it. Another great difficulty arose from the fact that, owing to the intolerance that pursued us from the beginning, we never were able to have any public places of worship, save in very few localities, which form the exception, and not the rule. This was a most serious inconvenience, and a great hindrance to many, especially of the common people, joining us. It was found very difficult to get them, even when well-disposed, to follow us into our drawing-rooms for the worship of God; a sort of shyness prevented most of them doing so. Immersed as we were in formalism, the change was so great, that many could not prevail upon themselves to worship and to take the Lord's Supper in unconsecrated buildings,-in private houses. Had we had churches of any kind, or could we now have them, I have no doubt we would see a very considerable addition to our numbers. But the chief external obstacle we have had to strive against arose from the oppressive or persecuting measures directed from the beginning against us, in a variety of ways, for the purpose of destroying our Church, deterring people from connecting themselves with it, or driving them back, if possible, into the bosom of the official Church. It is curious and instructive to observe the march and development of persecution in the Canton de Vaud. In the beginning, immediately after the Disruption, and for some length of time, the authorities, in the exercise of their powers, contented themselves with local interdicts of our worship in those places where our religious meetings had been the occasion, or the pretext, of some popular outrages and disorders. Quiet localities they left quiet, and even in those places where worship out of the pale of the National Church was forbidden by an interdict, when a religious meeting was found out, the local authorities contented themselves at first with dissolving it, without punishing in any way the contravention to the interdict. But about seven months ago, in the midst of the Swiss civil war, our adversaries began to take more sweeping and more severe measures. On the 24th of November they passed a general interdict against all meetings for worship out of the official Church, in the whole Canton, announcing penalties against the contravention