payment of 131. 6s. 6d. ; 504 Missionary Records' have been given amongst the children met with in the course of visitation; and several Bibles have been subscribed for. "It is the teacher's wish, through this statement, to suggest to other fellowlabourers the desirableness of introducing amongst the parents of the children, in their own classes, a similar plan. The less extended the sphere it embraces, the more probable will be its beneficial results; for it is by persevering, patient teaching, and watchful care in individual cases, that souls are instrumentally won to Christ." Reader, are there not some poor people within your reach, perhaps near to your own home, whom you could help in this way? By a little careful diligence and friendly counsel, might it not be possible to get the "Weekly Dispatch," or "Reynolds's Newspaper," exchanged for the "Christian Treasury," or the ther's Friend?" This simple narrative answers the question. I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY. Not always on the journey, O my God! Not always on the journey, when the home, The place thou hast prepared for my abode, Stands open to receive me, when I come: Why should I wish to linger in the wild, When thou art waiting, Father, to receive thy child? It is a weary way, and I am faint; I pant for purer air and fresher springs: O Father, take me home! there is a taint, A shadow, on earth's purest, brightest things: This world is but a wilderness to me; OUR MOTHERS. Around the idea of Our one's mother the mind naturally clings with stamped upon our infant hearts, when yet fond affection. It is the first dear thought soft and capable of receiving the most profound impressions, and all the after feelings are more or less light in comparison. passions and our wilfulness may lead us far from the object of our filial love; we may become wild, headstrong, and angry at her counsels or her oppositions; but when death has stilled her monitory voice, and nothing but calm memory remains to recapitulate her virtues and good deeds, affection, like a flower beaten to the ground by a rude storm, raises up her head, and smiles amongst her tears. Round that idea, as we have said, the mind clings with fond affection; and even when the earlier period of our loss forces memory to be silent, fancy takes the place of remembrance, and twines the image of our departed parent with a garland of graces, and beauties, and virtues, which we doubt not she possessed. HELP ONE ANOTHER.-The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid There is no rest, my God! no peace apart each other. From the time that the mother from Thee. binds the child's head, till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the deathdamp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, who need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals; no holds the power of granting can refuse without guilt. one who I have not been much in doubt as to my soul's state for these sixteen or eighteen years. The evidence on which I draw the favourable conclusion is, a consciousness that I am on the Lord's side; that I love his character, his government, his Gospel, his laws, his people; that the more I know of them, the more I love them. And these are things to which God has promised salvation, all through the Bible.-Andrew Fuller. Correspondence. CHURCH EXTENSION. To the Editor of "The English Presbyterian Messenger." DEAR SIR,-In the number of the "Messenger" for October, 1853, there were two letters from correspondents relating to church extension. The subject is one well deserving attentive consideration. Looking over the map of England, we see two-thirds of the counties without a single Presbyterian Church. We have to view the question in another light, by taking the large towns as examples- no congregation in Bath, Bristol, Plymouth, Derby, Nottingham, Norwich, Cheltenham, Coventry, Oldham, Halifax, Huddersfield, Preston, Worcester, Portsmouth. I have not the population returns of 1851 at hand, but, judging from those of 1841, the inhabitants of none of these fourteen towns can be much less than 40,000, and some are very far above that figure.* The most favourable locality for church extension would appear to be the Lancashire Presbytery, with its large number of members; and the great number of large towns within no great distance from its cities, Liverpool and Manchester. The recent efforts of that Presbytery in this way entitle it to the gratitude of the whole Church. I do not agree with the writer of one of the communications referred to in desiring to withdraw support from the old, though not large, congregations in our northern rural districts. The places we abandoned would be taken possession of by other denominations. We can keep both objects in view. Two things, it seems to me, would aid us greatly in church extension. Are there not, in the first place, congregations large, flourishing, wealthy, which could well afford to draft off a certain number of their approved members, with an elder or two at their head, to form the nucleus of another Presbyterian Church, in a part of the town sufficiently remote from the exist ing building to avoid interference with its prosperity? It is known that congregations in various other communities have acted in this manner, not really to their loss, and ultimately to the great good of other districts of the towns where the hallowed enterprise was consummated. Of course the movement in question must originate with these congregations; no external interference would either be warrantable or successful. Again, it is indispensable for a right accomplishment of church extension that we have a Church Building Fund really in operation. In every point of view it is undesirable that the ministers of new and struggling congregations should have time consumed and labour expended in travelling up and down the country, seeking for funds for their church. It is just so many years retarding the thorough organization and healthful working of these congregations. There are, no doubt, difficulties in the way with our already existing schemes, and the large amount of money that sites cost in those large towns where chiefly our new congregations may be expected to be formed. But the scheme would at least partially, in no long time, repay itself. With the right men for these congregations, we might well hope they would soon be able to assist others that might succeed them in the character of infancy and struggling. We need not abandon as hopeless the effort to enlarge our borders in the less populous north. Might not Newcastle strike its roots more extensively over the population of Durham? Might not those two Presbyteries of county designation, Cumberland and Northumberland, make some effort to be, in the matter of congre gations, more thoroughly co-extensive with their respective shires than they are? Our Presbyteries are now almost entirely composed of men in the prime of life, with all the sentiments of an age of vigorous movement and energetic effort. It is, in some important respects, a disadvantage to us as a Synod that we have not a larger per centage of aged ministers among us. But in this matter now before us, it is our advantage to have the vigour of comparative youth. In our more rural Presbyteries-and our Northern brethren may, without any great inaccuracy, be classed under that designa- | and well-proven principles, which, at tion-it might be found that a large mea- present, so largely prevails over England. sure of pecuniary co-operation would be found in the district, for aiding a local station, or new congregation. If the general and the distant less strongly impress the rural mind, the local and the neighbouring perhaps more strongly affect it than they do the urban mind. Looking back upon the ten years, which have nearly elapsed, since our Synod met at Berwick, we have no cause to feel discouraged. Taking everything into account, perhaps no Church ever made more progress in the same period. Perhaps the greatest evil we have had to contend with has been the frequent changes of ministers during that time. But this, though greatly to be regretted, was perhaps inseparable from a somewhat excited, because transitional state. Looking over our list of churches in the beginning of 1844, and comparing them with that at the end of 1853, we find that we have lost four, and have added twentyfour, making a gain of twenty. We have made progress at the rate of two new churches in the year. Lancashire and London have been, of course, the chief localities of increase. Within the bounds of Cumberland there has been no increase; within those of Newcastle there has been one new congregation added, but it was originally set a-going by the Northumberland Presbytery. Having got over now, we hope, our initial difficulties, as a Synod, and having every congregation within our bounds making collections for our schemes, we need not doubt that, under God, whoever is spared to live through the next ten years will see a more rapid rate of increase in our churches. If we have added-amid all our difficulties, amid all our trials, amid all our struggles-twenty churches in the last decade of years, why despair of, at least, doubling that number in the ensuing decade? It occurred lately to the writer of this letter to meet with two intelligent and wellinformed persons, the one belonging to Bristol, the other to Norwich. The conversation turning on Presbyterianism, the former had no idea what that system was, the latter supposed it to be a Scotch name for Independency. Let us hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have, through faithful ministers and wellorganized congregations, the means for dispelling that ignorance of our Scriptural • Another has been added, but, to counterbalance it, one has been lost. Let us hope, also, that the ensuing decade of our Church's history may witness us going forward in all that really concerns our Church's highest interests. It would be pure folly in us to indulge in attacks upon the English Establishment; we may quietly and curiously watch what events will do for that singular institution, whose half-a-dozen doctrinal systems are rolled into one! In its present form it probably will not last long; but let its own sons get the whole task of rending and soldering it, as they feel inclined! Attending to our own affairs, and letting others attend to theirs, may we not expect, by the end of 1863, to have a thoroughly vigorous Mission, of perhaps more branches than one;-a college taking its place among the event-honoured, if not time-honoured, academical institutions of the land; a "Children's Record," together with an at once enlarged and cheapened "Messenger; " with some vigorous and manful representatives of our principles in the newspaper press? Some other pen, more near the time, may in some future "Messenger" indulge its fancy in the prospect of a General Assembly, with subordinate Synods, and a host of Presbyteries, during the beneficent sway of Albert the First! PASTOR. THE REPORT OF SYNOD. To the Editor of the "English Presbyterian Messenger." SIR,-Will you be kind enough to insert in your next Number the following correction of the last Synod's reported proceedings: It appears that the phrase, "in consideration of what the Broad-street Congregation has already expended," has, doubtless, per incuriam, crept into all the public reports (the "Messenger" not excepted), of the Synod's decision on the Birmingham case. On the officially printed Minutes of Synod, page 61, the correct finding runs thus: - Motion) "the Synod did and hereby do, in "Therefore, in terms thereof" (of first view of all the circumstances of the case, Birmingham at the present time." refuse to sanction any new congregation in As the framer of this Motion, and to deliverance, I take the liberty of requesting prevent any misconception of the Synod's your insertion of this note in the "Messenger." I am, yours, &c., ALEXANDER F. KEMP. Bolton, Dec. 19, 1853. "CHURCH FELLOWSHIP." To the Editor of the " English Presbyterian Messenger." new disciples on the late happy change in their spiritual circumstances, and of welcoming them to their society, are surely in danger of losing some of this warmth of brotherly love." MY DEAR SIR,-I have remarked with sor- When persons are admitted to communion with a congregation, that congregation, as such, gives them no welcome, and its members do not know, even by name, the individuals who have been admitted to their fellowship. "Surely these things ought not so to be." When a person is, after examination, admitted by a minister to Church fellowship, ought he not to be introduced to his fellowChristians of that congregation, thus affording to them an opportunity of welcoming the new convert to their society? This is surely the natural order of things. I am convinced that for the want of this much evil results both to the body of the congregation and to these new communicants. The pious members of the Church rejoice to see others confessing the faith; but, having no opportunity of congratulating these And on the new communicants themselves the effect of the present system must be injurious. Love to "the brethren seems to glow most fervently at the outset of the Christian life; and, when a new disciple is admitted to communion with the visible Church, he rejoices in the prospect of being joyfully received by his fellowdisciples into their midst, of enjoying their Christian companionship, and of having his spiritual interests carefully watched over by these his brethren in the Lord. But, instead of being introduced to the Church, and receiving their congratulations and their welcome, he takes his place at the communion-table without receiving from his fellow-communicants one word of recognition. How is he disappointed at the seeming indifference of these Christian friends to his case! (On this point I speak from personal experience.) And not only is his disappointment bitter, but that fervent love with which he has heretofore regarded his fellow-Christians, is in great danger of being cooled. Hoping you will call the attention of our M. Notices of Books. The Secret History of Romanism. By the Rev. DAWSON MASSY, M.A., Vicar of Killeshin. Second Edition, Enlarged. London: Seeleys, Fleet-street. 1853. THIS is an eminently readable volume; and on a subject of all others suitable and needful for the times we live in. Despite of all the exertions that are being, and have been made, men are not yet beginning to view the subject of Romanism with half the seriousness it deserves, and will speedily find for itself. A knowledge of the position and strength and tactics of the enemy is a first condition of success in all warfare, whether the weapons wherewith we fight be carnal or spiritual. Not the least ominous sign of the times is the overweening confidence Protestantism has in its own strength and security, and the low estimate it forms of the untiring energy, the deathless zeal, the perfect drill, discipline, and equipment, and the prompt and united action of the Papacy. The author of this volume writes in no such strain. He knows his subject; he has lived in the midst of Popery in Popish Ireland. And he has read something more bulky than a shilling pamphlet, and has heard something more solid than the declamation of the platform. He understands Jesuitism, and speaks of that he knows, testifying also of that he has seen. He begins with Ignatius Loyola. He gives the history of the man and of the Society he established. He who would treat aright of the Papacy must begin at this point. Jesuitism is the very essence, the heart, the pulsing life-blood of Romanisin. He who speaks of modern Popery, without reference to the Jesuits, gives us the anatomy of a corpse, not the physiology of the living man. Till the Jesuits put on the copestone and consolidated the building, the mystery of iniquity was not complete. Mr. Massy in this volume traces all the darker and more bloody lines of the working of Popery back to their true source, the Jesuits. And his information is not gathered at secondhand, but from original and authentic sources. He has brought together in this one volume the results of much varied and painstaking reading. All the important eras of the history of the Church in England and in Ireland are fully and fairly sketched, the part played by the Papacy, and the result. To a mind at all familiar with the history of the past, the perusal of these earnest pages is exceedingly delightful. The whole of the past passes before you as in a panorama, now lurid with the red glare of the martyr fire, anon bright and glorious with the triumph of faith in the persecuted followers of Jesus. Specially full, and specially interesting, are the successive sketches of the history of the Church in Ireland. One gathers hope for Ireland's future from a perusal of the history of her past. A people who have dured and dared so much for the cause of God, who have suffered so long the Egyptian bondage of Rome, whose martyr blood has flowed so freely, and whose martyr dust mingles so largely in her soil, must have something better and brighter in her future than Maynooth and Jesuitism, with all their attendants of misery and wretchedness and woe in a scroll so long and black. Surely the "Story of Peace" inust at last bring rest to the weary. A consummation so devoutly to be wished Mr. Massy's volume will hasten. We cordially commend it to our readers. To a small library it would form an invaluable acquisition, containing, as it does, so much in so little space, bringing down the history of the Papacy from its first beginnings to our own day. Home Thoughts. Vol. for 1853. London: Kent and Co. This is not professedly a religious publication; but, of its class, it is one of the cheapest and best of the twopenny monthlies. We have here the numbers for 1853, in an elegantly bound halfcrown volume, containing useful information, in most profuse variety, on every out-door and in-door subjet of practical interest. The Lamp to the Path; or, the Bible in the Heart, the Home, and the Markel-place. Glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace; or, a series of Daily Meditations for Christian Disciples. By the Rev. W. K. TWEEDIE, D.D. London: T. Nelson. Two elegant volumes from the industrious pen of Dr. Tweedie. "The Lamp to the Path" is an earnest, practical work, displaying great knowledge of human nature; it is full of happy illustrations, fitted to gain the attention of even a careless reader and arouse the conscience to selfscrutiny. We wish it an extensive circulation. Among the "Meditations," "Hawker's Portion" has been our favourite; but were we in quest of another, we would certainly prefer the "Glad Tidings" of Dr. Tweedie. Work; or, Plenty to do, and How to do it. By MARGARET MARIA BREWSTER. Second Series. Louisa Von Plettenhaus. The Journal of a Poor Young Lady. Translated from the German. Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co.; Hamilton, Adams, and Co., London. 1854. WE are too late now for Christmas time, and too late also for New-year's-day. We are yet in time, however, for what our friends in the far North keep as "the auld style," and for all the "Handsel Mondays." And, being in time, we put in a word for these two handsome little volumes, as very suitable "handsel" for the young. They are both well gilt without, and both shine with the gold of Ophir within. Miss Brewster has given a second series of what was so highly appreciated in the first. We have here work for everybody. We have work for little children, young ladies, teachers and taught; for the household, employers and employed; for the country, the Sabbath; thought-work, proving-work, and, last of all, we have rest,-rest for the weary. The other volume is an exquisitely beautiful little German Tale, both pleasant to the eye and good for food. We heartily commend them both, and wish them and all their readers, and their authors, a happy New Year! What Think Ye of Christ? A Series of Meditations on the Titles and Offices of our Lord. By I. G. SMYTTAN. Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter; London: R. Theobald. 1853. THOUGH this is an abridgement of a larger work, it wants either the fragmentary or syllabus-like form of a mere compound. Mrs. Smyttan has reduced her larger and well-known book into a smaller compass with much judgment. Her short, scriptural meditations, interspersed with pious reflections and pointed addresses, are admirably adapted either for family reading, or as the ground-work of exercises for advanced classes. We would recommend its use as a text-book for a Bible-class of young females. We often hear of the difficulty of forming and preserving such a class, whilst the urgency for repeated trials of such a nature is universally admitted. Perhaps the fault is not always in the taught, but, sometimes, also in the teacher. Unless a pleasant variety be brought before the minds of young persons they will cease to be in |