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Returns of answers to queries in regard to financial concerns were given in by Messrs. Hoy, Lennie, Thompson, Cathcart, Edwards, Anderson, Gillespie, and Dr. Hutchison. Messrs. Huie, Cromar, and Blythe, postponed their returns till next meeting.

Presbytery adjourned to meet at Newcastle, in Mr. Blackwood's church on Tuesday 18th, at one o'clock. Closed with prayer.

Ecclesiastical Notices.

JOHN KNOX CHURCH, STEPNEY.-A meeting of the members and friends of this congregation was held on Thursday, the 13th April. Tea was provided by the ladies in the Session House, after partaking of which the meeting adjourned to the church, and was presided over by its esteemed pastor, the Rev. James Ferguson. After praise and prayer, the meeting was addressed on various topics by the Rev. William Nicolson, Professor Campbell, Joseph Fisher, and James Hamilton, and Mr. William Hamilton, in spirit-stirring speeches, which were warmly responded to by all present. The financial affairs of the congregation were laid before the meeting, and one of the deacons announced that an appeal would shortly be made to them, and to their friends throughout the Presbytery, on behalf of a day school in connexion with the Church, permission having at length been obtained from the Mercers' Company to erect one on the plot of ground at the rear of the Church, and facing into Princes-street. Much credit is due to Mr. Owens, the precentor, for the improvements effected by him in the psalmody. During the evening an anthem was sung by the psalmody class in a style reflecting great credit upon them. The meeting closed at a late hour, and we have reason to know that all present were highly delighted with the social intercourse they had enjoyed.

LONDON PRESBYTERIAN SABBATHSCHOOL UNION.-The quarterly meeting of this Union was held in London-wall Presbyterian Church on Friday the 18th February. John G. Auld, Esq., in the chair. The meeting having been opened with praise and prayer, the secretary, Mr. A. Hardie, read the minutes of former meeting. They having been confirmed, a report was given in from the com

mittee of the Union in regard to the missionary periodicals used in the Sabbath-schools connected with the English Presbyterian Church. The meeting sustained the report, and, in unison with the suggestion of the committee, deferred till next meeting the consideration of several points suggested by the same, and agreed in appointing Messrs. Auld and Hardie to communicate with the Rev. John Jaffray, Edinburgh, regarding the "Children's Missionary Record of the Free Church." Messrs. Mackay and Hardie reported that they, as a deputation of the Union, had waited on the teachers of River Terrace Sabbath-school, and explained to them the objects of the Union, and that they were happy to report that these teachers were now willing to co-operate with the Union in

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all its movements. Mr. Hill, superintendent of River-terrace school, spoke confirmatory of the same. Reports were then given in from seven of the schools connected with the Presbytery of London, and the secretary was requested to write to the remainder, and obtain their reports prior to next meeting. Mackay, treasurer to the Juvenile Missionary Fund, reported regarding the progress of the Juvenile Missionary Scheme; read some interesting communications from friends in Manchester, on the movements of the Presbyterian Juvenile Missionary Association of that place; and concluded by urging the teachers to be united in their efforts to sustain the interests of an association which they themselves had formed. After much conversation on this subject, in which all present took great interest, it was resolved, "That the secretary be requested to communicate with the teachers of the schools on this subject, and urge them to remit all moneys collected by the children for missions, at as early a date as possible in the month of March." Intimation having been given that a motion, somewhat to the following effect, would be moved at the next meeting of the Union, the meeting was adjourned till 19th May next:-"That the committee be directed to prepare and issue a circular letter to the different schools in connexion with this Union, inviting the serious and earnest attention of the superintendents and teachers to the importance of their regular and punctual attendance in the school-room morning and afternoon; to the necessity

for, and value of frequent visitation of the children, particularly the absentees; to the claims of the district in which the school is situated; to the importance of forming senior classes; and especially to the indispensable duty, as well as privilege, of holding frequent meetings for social prayer, that the Spirit of wisdom and might, who alone can prosper their labours, would guide and bless them in all their efforts for the promotion of the glory of God and the good of the children under their care." SHELTON, POTTERIES.-On Tuesday evening, the 11th ult., the annual meeting of the Juvenile Missionary Society, in connexion with the Sabbath School of this Church took place, when about 200 sat down to tea, about 150 of whom were scholars, from the age of twelve to nineteen. The room was tastefully decorated with evergreens, and missionary mottoes, and drawings, of a missionary character, were hung upon the walls, which produced a pleasing effect upon the minds of the young, and suggested subjects for the addresses of the teachers. A large number of articles of clothing, prepared by the girls at the Monthly Missionary Sewing Meeting, which are about to be sent to Africa, were exhibited. The Rev. J. M. Martyn took the chair, and called upon the Secretary to read the Report of the Society for the past year. The sum contributed by the children during the year was 127. 13s. 7d., 127. of which was remitted to the Foreign Mission Fund of the Church, and the balance appropriated to the purposes of the Sewing Society. Several most interesting addresses were delivered by the Rev. Mr. Martyn and the Rev. Mr. Wear, of Langton, also by several teachers, which riveted the attention of the young people, and elicited frequent bursts of applause.

BLYTH, NORTHUMBERLAND.-On Sabbath the 23d ult., two sermons were preached in the Presbyterian Church, Blyth, by the Rev. John Bryson, of Wolverhampton, on which occasion collections were made for the purpose of forming a library in connexion with the Sabbath-school. The services were very numerously attended, and the sermons of the accomplished preacher were universally admired.

HOWEVER matters go, the worst shall be a tired traveller, and a joyful and a sweet welcome home. Rutherford.

MISSIONS IN BENGAL.

THE following is an extract letter from a medical gentleman in Bengal to a friend in London :

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'Macdonald, too, the devoted Free Church missionary, is gone to his reward, one of the most valuable and heavenlyminded missionaries in Bengal, and his works do follow him. Duff is still spared to us and the Church of Christ in all his magnificence of intellect and heart, alike consecrated to the Saviour. He is, beyond all question, the first man in India. May the Lord long spare him to labour for His glory, among the teeming masses of immortal beings in this land of blackness, of darkness, and death!' The light of truth is glimmering around. May it shine more and more unto the perfect day, when myriads shall rejoice in the Redeemer's righteousness! Oh, that the Lord would hasten it in his time. Duff has just commenced a new and grand effort to grapple with the various modifications of infidelity, at present so rife among the so-called 'educated' Hindoos, just emerged and emerging into active and controversial life, from the various hives' of English literature among the natives, the 'Hare,' and 'Horace Wilson,' institutions, or their off-shoots. Great good will doubtless result from this new sphere of Christian philanthropy, and to God be all the glory! Duff is so perfectly master of his subject, and so wonderfully calculated to triumph over every hostile attempt to dishonour the noble cause in which he is engaged, that we cannot but consider him as specially raised up in providence for the onset. All our Societies are up and doing, Church Missionary, London, and Baptist. The good Bishop (Daniel Wilson) is as devoted as ever, and really labours in every way to promote the Saviour's cause. His Cathedral is exalted far too high, as an instrument; yet he hopes to see it materially advance his object, the object for which he desires to live and die. All honour, therefore, to his motives."

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Poetry.

ONE time I was allowed to steer

Through realms of azure light;
"Henceforth," I said, "I need not fear
A lower, meaner flight.
But here shall evermore abide,
In light and splendour glorified."

My heart one time the rivers fed,
Large dews upon it lay;
"A freshness it has worn,' I said,
"Which shall not pass away;
But what it is, it shall remain,
Its freshness to the end retain."

But when I lay upon the shore,

Like some poor wounded thing,
I deemed I should not ever more

Refit my shattered wing.

Nailed to the ground, and fastened there,
This was the thought of my despair.

And when my very heart seemed dried,
And parched as summer's dust,
Such still I deemed it must abide,

No hope had I, no trust
That any power again could bless,
With fountains that waste wilderness.
But if both hope and fear were vain,
And came alike to nought,
Two lessons we from this may gain,
If aught can teach us aught,
ONE lesson rather, to divide
Between our fearfulness and pride.

-TRENCH.

THE

CHRIST THE SOLE HEAD OF CHURCH. In the various churchyards and solitudes throughout Scotland, where the martyrs sleep, there is not one stone which it is not engraven, that he who upon rests beneath died for Christ's headship and royal office in his house. Our Church hath also borne witness against the Prelacy of the Church of England, which putteth one minister of Christ over another; and we maintain that the ministers are of equal order and dignity, lying side by side in the right hand of one common Bishop. We have borne testimony likewise against the supremacy of the man of sin, ever standing for the parity of the ministers of the Gospel. In which, her faithful and true testimony, the Church of Scotland is borne out more completely by this vision than by all other books which have been written. For Christ, in addressing the members of the Churches, proceedeth upon the principle that they are equally honoured of Him, and equally dear to Him; and with equal respect doth He give them instruction with regard to their ministerial charges. Such is the substance and intention of the first vision, to claim for Christ the PITEOUS STATE OF A COUNTRY.sole dignity of universal Bishop and Strange, and to many who hear me, Head of the Church; and, if possible, to incredible, from one end of Scotland to prevent all priests and all kings from the other, a traveller will see no such thing as a bishop or an archbishop, no-Rev. Edward Irving's Exposition of the usurping that divine name and dignity. such thing is to be found from the Tweed to John O'Groat's. Not a mitre, no, nor so much as a minor canon, or even a rural dean, and in all the land not a single curate! So entirely rude and barbarous are they in Scotland-in such utter darkness do they sit, that they support no cathedrals, maintain no pluralists, suffer no non-resident! Nay, the poor benighted creatures are ignorant even of tithes! not a sheaf, or a lamb, or a pig, or the value of a plough penny, do the hopeless mortals render from year's end to year's end! Piteous as their lot is, what makes it infinitely more touch ing is, to witness the return of good for evil in the demeanour of the wretched race. Under all this cruel neglect of their spiritual concerns, they are actually the most loyal, contented, moral, and religious people anywhere, perhaps, in the world!"-Lord Brougham's Speeches.

PRAYER is the native breath of renewed souls; it is as necessary to their spiritual life, as breath is to the natural life (Lam. ii. 56), "Hide not thine ear at my breathing."

Revelation, Vol. I., p. 56.

you

WHATEVER Your case may be must own your sufferings are not so great as your sins. The trials of God's people in Babylon were singular, yet Ezra owns (Ezra ix. 13), "Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve.”—Willison.

THANKSGIVING for former mercies is a

kindly way of petitioning for new favours, and God will understand it in this sense.

-Willison.

BEWARE of flattering the sick with vain hopes of life, when he is more likely to die; lest he be thereby tempted to delay or slacken his preparation for another world. It is fit that plainness be used with respect to his danger, that he may be quickened to his work.

BEWARE of Asa's sin, that sought to the physicians, and not to the Lord. Let us neither take food nor physic without prayers to God for his blessing thereon. Willison.

AFFLICTION Sanctified is a rod budding and blossoming like that of Aaron.

THE ENGLISH

PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER.

MEETING OF THE SYNOD OF THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

THE Synod held its annual meeting in Trinity Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 18th of April, and three days following. On Tuesday afternoon the Rev. James Anderson, of Morpeth, last Moderator of the Synod, delivered a sermon, able and appropriate, from Isaiah 1. 9, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, &c.' After Divine service, the Court was constituted by prayer, Mr. Anderson presiding. The roll of Synod was called over by the Rev. Professor Campbell, the Clerk, and sustained. Mr. Anderson, before retiring from the Chair, addressed the House as follows:

cottages of the poor; one who, on the sturdy Presbyterianism inherited from a godly and much honoured father, has grafted a catholicity of spirit which has won access to his influence far beyond the sphere of his own community, and made his praise fragrant in all the churches; one who, by his worth and warm-heartedness, has secured the confidence and love of all the brethren; and one who, from his intimate acquaintance with the constitution of our Church, and the forms of her ecclesiastical procedure, is eminently fitted to discharge the duties of the chair-need I mention after this the name of the Rev. Jas. Hamilton, of Regent-square Church, London.

No one can be more sensible than myself how very imperfectly I have DR. PATERSON, of Sunderland, had great discharged the duties of this office. pleasure in nominating Mr. Hamilton to Accept the assurance of my lasting succeed to the chair. Personally he should gratitude for the brotherly forbearance have great pleasure in seeing him in that and indulgence shown towards me. In place. Although not an old man, yet he retiring from the chair, I claim the was one of an old stock, who had privilege which by courtesy and usage laboured and toiled with them previous has been accorded to my predecessors, to the event which took place in 1843, that of naming one of the brethren to when they had to pull against a stronger succeed me; and I am sure that I shall tide than was now running; and when carry your entire and united suffrages he considered the place which Mr. along with me when I name one who, Hamilton had gained for himself among but for the then state of his health, the most popular and useful of the would have accepted the position which religious writers of the present day, when I am now about to vacate-one who, by he thought of the place which he had his talents, his genius, and his piety, con- secured for himself in the esteem and secrated to the service of our Church, has affection of every member of that given her an attractive power in the reverend Court, and when he remembered metropolis of our country; one who, by the ministerial faithfulness and unction his writings, has subserved in no ordinary with which he had maintained and exdegree the cause of vital godliness, and tended a large and influential congregamade his name familiar as a household tion, he could not anticipate there would word in the mansions of the great and the be the slightest hesitation on the part of No. 6.-New Series.

N

VOL. I.

any one individual in acceding at once to the Motion he had the pleasure of submitting. He thought that something ought to be said why it is only now that Mr. Hamilton is proposed for the chair. It was well known to many that in 1844, when the Synod met at Berwick-uponTweed, Mr. Hamilton would have been elevated to that position, had they not felt that they could not spare him from the floor of the house; and since then, it was only owing to the state of his health that he had not been elected Moderator. They all felt thankful that their Rev. friend's health will now enable him to occupy the place of the highest honour which they had to confer.

The Motion was at once agreed to, and Mr. HAMILTON took the chair. In doing so he said, If anything could make the office more formidable than its intrinsic honour, it would be the way in which my predecessor has proposed my name, and this house has accepted it. I can only say that I thank the brethren most cordially for the great honour they have done me, and I trust with their help I may be able to discharge the duties of the office in a way that will not make them altogether regret their choice. Two or three thoughts I may venture to intrude on the house, but brevity must be observed in our proceedings, and it is very requisite that the chair should set the example. But I cannot allow business to proceed without congratulating the Synod on the auspicious circumstances under which it meets. We all have pleasant reminiscences of our sojourn at Sunderland last spring; we recollect the hospitalities and amenities of that place with fond delight, and we remember too those remarkably judicious and happy arrangements which were made for expediting the business; and here, I am sure every one will have seen by this time that there is no falling off in the anxiety and assiduity of friends for the comfort and accommodation of the members; and more than this, I am persuaded through the arrangements of our kind friends here, this place of sojourn will be converted into a pleasant privilege, and that we shall find the homes of our Presbyterian and other Christian friends refreshing to ourselves, and I trust on the other hand, by the way in which our business is conducted by the preaching of the word in the mornings and also by the tone as well as the subjects discussed in this court, we shall have, not merely a favour

able specimen of our Presbyterian polity and of the order and beauty of our church courts-but that we shall convert more and more our Synods into something like ordinances, and leave a blessing behind us. He next referred to the Christian spirit and temper which should characterize all their discussions, and concluded by reminding them that by thus preserving the bond of brotherhood, they would strengthen each other's hands for the performance of the common work in which they are engaged.

It was then resolved, on the motion of the Rev. Dr. PATERSON, that half an hour of each diet should be spent in devotion, the choice of the period and the persons to engage in prayer being left to the Moderator.

A Committee for preparing the order of business was then nominated, who retired into an adjoining room, and shortly afterwards returned with a programme.

During their absence, the Rev. J. ANDERSON proposed that a dutiful and congratulatory address be presented to our beloved Queen on the recent birth of a princess, and that a committee be appointed to prepare such address. Mr. W. HAMILTON seconded the motion, suggesting that reference should also be made therein to the present state of Europe and this country.

The following is the address of the Synod, with the reply subsequently received from the Home Secretary:

"TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

66

'May it please your Majesty, We your loyal subjects, the Ministers and Elders of the Presbyterian Church in England, in Synod assembled, having rendered thanks to Almighty God for his distinguishing goodness to your birth of a Princess, hasten to convey to your Majesty and to the realm, in the auspicious Majesty the sentiments of ardent fidelity and reverential attachment to your Royal person, which successive years of domestic virtue and benignant rule have more and more inspired. nations are distracted by civil turmoil, and so "And especially at a season when so many many dynasties are endangered or overthrown, do we rejoice that a throne which our wholesome laws and glorious constitution have rendered so powerful and so august, is endeared by the virtues of its illustrious occupant and guarded by the affections of a devoted realm; and few though our numbers be, we are well persuaded, that of all our fellow-subjects, none, in case of need, would rally faster or more firmly round that throne.

That the King of kings may multiply His choicest favours on the head of our beloved Sovereign and her Royal consort, and their Royal children; and that the blessing of do

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