attested, from Woolwich, Greenwich, | poor, the comforter of the afflicted, and John Knox's, Marylebone, and Hampstead. Mr. Hamilton brought forward a Motion for amending the Resolution of Presbytery regarding Communion Rolls, on which the following finding was unanimously agreed to: That each kirk-session shall give in to the Presbytery, at its ordinary meeting in January, a list of those who have been bona fide communicants during the foregoing year, excluding all who may have been removed by death, or otherwise, from the congregation, or suspended from privileges. an ensample to the flock; and whithersoever he goes he will carry along with him the good-will, the gratitude, and the prayers, of many affectionate friends. MANCHESTER. - Juvenile Missionary Association of the Congregation lately worshipping in the Scotch Church, St. Peter's-square, Manchester.—This association held its annual meeting on Christmas-day, in the Mechanics' Institution, Cooper-street. The Rev. Alexander Munro, A.M., presided. After the usual devotional exercises, the Secretary read the Report for the past year. The Meeting was afterwards addressed by the Rev. Mr. Smith, of the Free Church, Dumbar The Sabbath Committee was reappointed as a standing Committee to ton, the Rev. F. Tucker, the Rev. watch the progress of the Sabbath | question, &c. Mr. Ross brought under the notice of the Presbytery the case of Southampton as a promising locality for a Presbyterian Church. Interesting details being given by Mr. Ross, and by Mr. Lamb, from Southampton, concerning the circumstances of the Scotch people in that town and the desire for a Presbyterian minister, a Committee was appointed to correspond with the friends in Southampton on the subject. Adjourned to second Tuesday in March. Ecclesiastical Notices. Mr. MKerrow, the Rev. Mr. MCaw, the Rev. Mr. M'Hinch, Robert Barbour, Esq., and others. This Association bears an equal share of the expense required for the support of S. Ettirajooloo, one of the three native preachers at Madras, and in addition to this sum, say 421. per annum for each association, it distributed last year to the Synod's Foreign Mission, 177., the Synod's Home Mission, 14l. Os. 9d., and to the Mission at Old Calabar, Africa, 6l. It is well that the children of our congregations have their attention directed to missionary operations, whether at home or abroad, but it is far better, if, when so directed, they do what they can in the work. Our young friends at Manchester have set a good example in this matter. NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.-On Christmasday the children of Trinity Church Sabbath-school were publicly examined in the school-room as to their knowledge of Scripture truth. At the close of the proceedings they received refreshments suitable to the season. On New Year'sday the teachers and friends of the school, to the number of sixty, sat down to tea in the same place. The Rev. W. Blackwood presided. TESTIMONIAL. CHARLES VERTUE, Esq.-On Thursday evening, the 15th ult., the minister, elders, and deacons, of | the National Scotch Church, Regentsquare, assembled to take leave of this much-esteemed brother on the eve of his quitting London for a season. After two hours had been spent in social intercourse and devotional exercises, Mr. Vertue was presented with a copy of Bagster's quarto Bible, in a morocco case, bearing an appropriate inscription, and containing The teachers and children of the the autographs of all his colleagues. English Presbyterian Church SabbathDuring the period,now quarter of a | school, Gateshead, met on Dec. 25th, to century and upwards, that Mr. Vertue | the number of ninety, in the schoolhas been a member of this congregation, room attached to the Church. Also, and has held the successive offices of the teachers and children of Highdeacon and elder, by his blameless walk bridge Church Sabbath-school, to the and consistent character, as well as by number of eighty scholars and twenty his meekness of wisdom and cheerful teachers. kindness, he has won the esteem and ENDOWMENT Or Porery.–A Meeting attachment of all his fellow-members. was held in Trinity Presbyterian Church, Stedfast in troublous times, and assiduous | Newcastle-on-Tyne, Jan. 3. The Rev. at all times, he was the friend of the | Messrs. Blackwood, Miller, and Porter, of Newcastle, and Storie of South Shields, | congregation whose contributions fall so made able addresses against endowing the Irish Priesthood. MORPETH. A soirée was held on New Year's evening, at Morpeth, for the benefit of the Presbyterian Sabbath-schools, which was attended by an audience of nearly 600 persons. The Meeting was opened by the Chairman, William Trotter, Esq., who stated that upwards of 400 children were annually taught in these schools that knowledge which fitted them for this life and for that which is to come. That amid the convulsions which had rent asunder the bonds of society throughout Europe, and filled its cities with blood, this country had alone remained in peace, which, under Providence, might be attributed to the religious education of its people; and, after suitable remarks to the children, the Meeting was addressed by the Revds. Messrs. Kerr, of Alnwick, Henderson, of Seaton Delaval, Cathcart, of Harbottle, Lennie, of Glanton, Anderson, Hood, and Tait, of Morpeth, and others. HEXHAM. On Christmas-day, the teachers of the Sabbath-school, Hexham, held their annual soirée; 133 of the children and 83 of the congregation, along with the teachers, partook of tea. CONGREGATIONS IN THE FREE low. Then there are 125 congregations whose average contributions are only 371. each: in the United Presbyterian Church we have heard of only one of this class. Again, there are 250 whose average contributions are only 731. each, but in the United Presbyterian Church we do not suppose that congregations of this class will amount to forty. Still farther, it would seem there are sixteen congregations, with 500 communicants each, that fail to maintain their own ministers without burdening the Sustentation Fund; but in the United Presbyterian Church we are not aware of a single congregation obtaining aid whose membership exceeds the half of this. Of a list of ninety congregations before us, whose ministers' stipends are supplementary, the membership of more than one-half of them falls short of 100. But will it be credited, in the Free Church there is a congregation with 1000 communicants that does not support itself! Something, it is evident, must be done by our Free Church brethren to check this tendency to over-dependance upon others. In the United Presbyterian Church, no vacant congregation, except in very peculiar circumstances, is entitled to call a minister, that is unable to raise 60%. ayear of stipend, while, in no case, is a grant given exceeding 50%. We by no means stand up for the precise sums now CHURCH AND UNITED PRESBY- mentioned, which may be altered as cir TERIAN CHURCH. (From the "Scottish Press" United Presbyterian.) FROM a recent statement it appears there are now in the Free Church 697 ministerial charges. This indicates, at first sight, considerable strength, but several circumstances must be taken into account which serve to abate the estimate we would be apt to form. Of these 697 charges, only 167 contribute to the Sustentation Fund a sum equal or above that which they receive from it. Thus 530 congregations are more or less dependent on 167, the former not being able, without the assistance of the latter, to raise for their ministers the small stipend of 1281. But this is not all. Of the 530 congregations, thirtysix contribute less than 25%. each to the Sustentation Fund. In the United Presbyterian Church we know of only one * For the sake of some of our readers it may be necessary to explain that the United cumstances determine, but the principle involved in requiring congregations to exert themselves, and to do so in proportion to their means, to entitle them to assistance, is one, the soundness of which all experience confirms. Some regulating check and stimulus of this kind must be adopted by our Free Church friends, or they will discover to their cost the folly of permitting 530 congregations to hang by the skirts of 167. QUERIES FOR CONSIDERATION.-Is it wise in the Free Church to have such multiplication of small charges? Is it necessary to have a fixed pastor for every Presbyterian Church in Scotland comprises what were formerly called the Secession and the Relief Churches, with the greater bulk of those who were dissenters from the Established Kirk previous to the disruption of 1843. They have the same Confession of Faith, worship, and discipline as the Free Church, differing mainly on abstract questions of Church and State union. The number of congregations in the United Presbyterian Church is about 500, in the Free Church about 700. local handful of adherents? Could not two or three stations, in some parts, be served by one minister, as is done by Wesleyans, Roman Catholics, and other bodies skilful in distribution of their forces? Is caution exercised as to the planting of new churches in places where already the Gospel is faithfully and sufficiently preached by other denominations? Is it wise to expend so much strength and zeal in establishing a separate educational machinery in Scotland, when a well-combined movement could open the parochial schools to all the country? Is it wise to set up separate University Chairs for Science and Literature, as well as for Theology? Is it not a pity that religious bodies so nearly akin as the Free Church and the United Presbyterian should not have more co-operation until the time comes for incorporation ?-ED. "E. P. M." it so. THE PRESENT AGE.* "ERROR is growing old and powerless; truth is ever young. It may be beaten back for a time, but it returns with fresh energy. It may be burned at the stake in the person of its defender, but, like the phoenix, it springs from the ashes. And therefore we can afford to wait for its triumph; we can feel content to do battle, and to suffer in its cause. Humanity's heart is so constituted, that the right prevails in the end. God has fixed Those who lead the van in truth's cause, no doubt often suffer from their ruder and more ignorant companions who are behind. The men who are in advance of their age are mocked, and sometimes rudely buffeted; or perhaps their voice is unlistened to, or drowned in clamour. Often is the modern prophet like the ancient one, found 'crying in the wilderness,' pouring out great truths upon minds unprepared to receive them, and he is not understood or appreciated. But here is his consolation, he is doing battle for truth; and, though he may not live to see it, the victory is certain. You have seen the tide rolling in on the strand, and as you watched you perceived one wave advancing before the others, From a Lecture delivered to the Mecha nics' Institutions of Workington and Maryport, "The Characteristic Features of the Present Age, and the Prospects of the Coming Era." By the Rev. M. Harvey, Presbyterian Minister, Maryport. and breaking high up the beach; but by and by the whole tide reaches the same spot, and advances like the first. It is an emblem of the in-rolling tide of truth. "This is an age of earnestness. There Anti is deep feeling as well as deep thinking abroad. There is an impatience with all that is merely show or sham,' with all pretension and hypocrisy. The world has been deceived long enough, imposed upon long enough by tinsel and drapery, and having grown out of its babyhood, it refuses to be satisfied with these any longer, and puts them indignantly aside for what is real, true, and honest. quity is no passport to favour now; buf everything, however time-honoured, is put to the test of a rigid examination. The men who, in the middle of this nineteenth century, are poking among the wreck of former days, and trying to persuade us that all wisdom is to be sought among the treasures of the past, the mouldy remains of the middle ages, or of the first centuries of the era, are beginning to be looked on as grown-up babies. The age wishes to have done with trifles. There are terrible wrongs to be redressed, deep wounds in humanity's heart to be healed, and a strong, earnest, but gentle spirit is needed to do this. There is not time for frivolities; a great work is to be done." "There is a humanizing spirit abroad, and this is pervading the broad bosom of humanity. Everywhere evils are brought to light, their causes ascertained, and the remedies sought after. The lowly, the sad, and the suffering are sought out; and sympathy's gentle voice cheers them, and helping hands are held out to raise them from their wretchedness. Earnest efforts are being made to elevate and improve the condition of those whose lot in life is cast in poverty's dark abodes, or who are the degraded victims of evil habits. The temperance societies, the town missions, ragged schools, hospitals, asylums, and penitentiaries, of our land, are proofs of this. Humane laws have limited the hours of labour in some departments, and given a little breathingtime to the hard-wrought sons of toil. Early-closing movements' are getting popular; and thus young men have more time to spend in the reading-room, or at the public lecture. Schools are multiplying; and education is felt to be the great want of the day, without which, all other improvements must prove powerless. The Christian missionary is active at home, and also in the far-off land of darkness. No form of misery is altogether uncared for. We have now lunatic asylums, from which the brutal violence of former times is banished, and gentleness and kindness are the only weapons. And, lately, we hear of institutions established for the instruction and improvement of idiots; and wonderful has been their success. Surely all this seems to say a better spirit is abroad-a holy, divine spirit of gentleness and love for the fallen, the wretched, the outcast-the spirit which the Saviour so earnestly preached and so touchingly exhibited. Surely the reign of love is commencing. We begin to see that man is our brother, no matter though he be clothed in rags, and all foul with sin, still he is the child of the same Father, the object of the same Divine love; and it is our part to speak gently to him, to seek to raise him, and win him to goodness and virtue. Yes; this gentle, loving spirit is breathing around us. The poetry of our age bears its impress. It is full of longings for the improvement of poor suffering humanity. It tells of its wrongs in burning words of indignation, or depicts its woes in pathetic strains that draw forth the tear of sympathy. We have an illustrious sample of this in Hood's 'Song of the Shirt.' The poor sempstress, with skeleton form and hectic fever burning her frame-starving and shivering in the winter's blast toiling eighteen hours a-day, and earning threepence by her labour-this pitiable object crosses his path. He follows her to her wretched garret, hears her sighs, sits down by her side and kindly takes her hand; counts her tears, her stitches, her bones, and, rising up, he swears to make her wrongs known. Soon her trembling, cracked voice is heard, bearing its burden of woe, quavering with its load of bitter grief "O men with sisters dear, O men with mothers and wives, "O but for one short hour, A respite, however brief, No blessed leisure for love or hope, A little weeping would ease my breast, My tears must stop, for every drop "Never, surely, was there a finer specimen of the true pathetic. All England listens,-tears of sympathy moisten many an eye; a happier day dawns on the toilworn sempstress, for her sisters gather round her and cheer and comfort her; and the holy mission of the poet is fulfilled. Or again, look at Hood's 'Bridge of Sighs,' another poem of the same stamp, but even deeper in feeling. One of the wretched outcasts of society, of the lowest grade to which woman can fall, maddened by want and misery, and rashly importunate,' rushes on death by springing into the dark tide of the Thames. The poet sees a crowd collected, the dripping corpse drawn from the river, he approaches, and his heart holds a coroner's inquest over her. He asks not how guilty she has been, he stops not to count her sins and stains, he only knows that she was wretched, tortured, trampled on, spurned by every hand, that pity's gentle voice never reached her ears, that virtue shunned her as dreading contamination, and that she was 6 "Mad from life's history, "And now she is dead: "All that remains of her Now is pure womanly.'" "In the name of humanity he forgives her. He invokes a tear for her untimely, wretched fate, and a sigh for her poor sisters that she leaves behind. I have referred to these as specimens of the poetry of our age-of that warm humanity that is beating in its heart, and hundreds more might be selected. And our light literature has the same virtue. What, I would ask, is it that renders Charles Dickens such a favourite, and makes him a welcome guest at so many hearths? It is not altogether his wit, sparkling and laughter-provoking though it be, nor yet his powerful dramatic talent or his marvellous and varied power of imagination, his delineation of character or creations of beauty. No, it is something higher and better that constitutes the principal charm of his writings. It is that deep sympathy with suffering humanity,-that sense of its wrongs, and aspiration for its improvement, that indignation with its oppressors, and love for all who try to cheer and elevate,-it is these that make some of the creations of his genius great sermons, from which you rise refreshed, purified, and with a deeper love for man, and for all that is beautiful and holy in his nature." “There are cheering signs of improvement and progress. The standard of universal morality has been elevated immensely through the influence of religion. The Divine spirit of Christianity is making itself felt more and more; and men are discovering that the essence of that religion is love, and that its attainment is the highest perfection and happiness of a human being. Bigotry and intolerance in every form are disappearing. Sectarianism, though still strong, is losing ground. The different religious bodies, as they come more into contact, are discovering that goodness and piety are not peculiar to any one sect, and that in a spirit of mutual love, they should pursue their respective paths of usefulness." JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.* We have often marvelled at, and lamented, the folly and infatuation of national rulers, in shutting their eyes and ears against the many excellent measures which have been from time to time suggested by able and philanthropic men, for effecting important meliorations of national evils. The venerable Chalmers spent a lifetime in unwearied efforts to benefit mankind, and in putting forth the gigantic powers of his genius, in devising and suggesting schemes of Christian benevolence, and in appeals to men in power to give their countenance and aid in carrying these measures into effect. Yet his gentle and generous soul was left to wear itself out amid the unaccountable and infatuated indifferency, and even blind opposition, of the rulers of the country, which he so magnanimously laboured to serve. Who can tell what mighty achievements of moral and social reformation might have been effected, had our rulers been wise enough to have availed themselves of an instrument which Providence seemed to provide to their hand, and whose schemes of philanthropy it would have done them honour to carry out? These thoughts have been suggested by the terse and talented pamphlet, the "Juvenile Delinquency; its Causes and Cure." By a County Magistrate.-William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. | a title of which we have prefixed. When we had finished the perusal of it, we felt constrained to exclaim, "How often shall such things be written before they be heeded?" Like many other admirable suggestions for the melioration of the condition of the human family, it will probably pass away without one effort being made by those who have the means to reduce to practice its valuable suggestions. Here is a legal functionary presenting to the world clear and pointed portraiture of scenes with which his official position has made him thoroughly conversant, unfolding the gross and grievous absurdities which are involved in the present state of the law; and pointing out with the intelligence and taste which becomes a man of shrewd discernment and sound Christian principle, the remedies which ought to be applied to existing evils, and yet we fear, he too may meet with no other reward for this service than the consciousness of having testified against evils, and honestly and boldly proclaimed how he would wish to see them cured. It is lamentable to think of the lavish expenditure of this country in punishing crime, compared with the candle-end economy so pertinaciously followed in regard to the most effectual measures for preventing it. With the "Civic Economy" and "Parochial System " of Dr. ChalJuvenile Delinquency, mers, and the " its Causes and Cure," of "a county magistrate" before us, we think we could easily show how the thousands and tens of thousands, annually expended in this country upon crime and its correction, might be applied with tenfold more advantage to the social and industrial interests of the community. Could our voice reach the ears of our Lords and lawgivers, we would earnestly beseech them to read this pamphlet. Although it is the production of a Scotch magistrate, and may therefore be supposed to refer more especially to the working of the penal code, as presented to his observant eye, in that country, it will be found no less applicable to the state of matters in England. And, indeed, this is made manifest by the Author's interesting quotations from English authorities. For instance, in speaking of the lamentable which flow consequences from the unwise and absurd indiscriminateness with which juvenile offenders are consigned to the malignant influences of a prison atmosphere, he |