DEATH OF PRINCIPAL CUNNINGHAM.

Ir was with no common sorrow that we received the unlooked-for tidings of the death of this great and good man. Of this sad event the Witness says :—

Dr. Cunningham's illness began about ten days ago, with what was at first supposed to be a bilious attack; but he felt himself so much better on Monday last that he was able to resume his duties in the New College. On Tuesday, he relapsed, his illness having assumed the form of pleurisy; and on Wednesday it became so severe as to excite the alarm of his family and medical attendants. The disease made steady and rapid progress until Thursday afternoon, when he became insensible to pain, and gradually sank.

had to deplore a greater bereavement. Dr. Cunningham was a wise and safe counsellor; he weighed every argument, looked at the matter in his mind from every point of view, but, having chosen It is with grief to which no words his ground, he maintained it with the of ours can give adequate utterance force of an irresistible logic, and the that we announce the death of the omnipotence of deep conviction. He was Rev. Principal Cunningham. This most a ready and fearless debater; and some sorrowful event took place at his house of the most magnificent specimens of in Salisbury Road, Newington, this argumentative oratory which the age has (Saturday) morning, at half-past twelve listened to were his speeches in the o'clock, to the inconsolable grief of General Assembly, more especially during friends, the irreparable loss of the Free the discussions which led to the Disrup Church, and the profound regret of the tion. Though a powerful, he was a sinwhole community. gularly fair and chivalrously honourable antagonist. He never misconceived, and he never mis-stated, the ground his opponent occupied; and he never misrepresented the reasonings by which he supported that ground. As a minister, he was richly furnished with a knowledge of the Word of God, and excelled in a beautifully clear, plain, and practical exposition of it to the understanding, and a faithful application of it to the conscience. As a professor and teacher of youth, he was as impressive as he was beloved. His prelections were luminous, logical, and enriched from the stores of We scarce can realise the event which his own vast knowledge, historical and our pen records; and certainly at this critical. As a Calvinist, we know not moment we are unfitted for a calm sur- that he had his equal among living men. vey of the character, the life, and the He had read more of the Calvinistic theogreat and varied gifts, of the eminent logy, and had a deeper and wider insight man now gone from us. To recount the into its profounder principles and its great services he rendered were at this logical developments, than perhaps any moment equally impossible. We can other theologian of his day. His mind only dwell upon the loss we have sus- was in many respects not unlike that of tained, but the full extent of which we Calvin: it partook of the same penetrating are utterly unable, as yet, to comprehend. and logical caste; and that, doubtless, It grows and grows as we contemplate helped to engage him so thoroughly in it; and when we think of the bereaved the love and study of the Calvinistic church from which he has been taken away at a critical and peculiar moment, we can only cry sorrowfully with the prophet, "My Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof."

No greater loss, so far as man can see, could at this hour have befallen the Free Church. Of those who remain, all will most humbly and willingly admit that the foremost and mightiest in their ranks has fallen. Since the death of Dr. Chalmers we know not that the Church has

system, and made him so profound a master of its greater fundamental principles. As a Christian, Dr. Cunningham was humble and exemplary; as a man, open, honest, generous; in private, he was distinguished by a child-like simplicity, and a gennine warmth of heart and playfulness of disposition, which not unfrequently mantled over into a fine genial humour, which was the more fascinating from the recollection of the great powers and attainments of the man.

removal to the United States of America, dence, on the evening of the following about eleven years ago, since which day, of the elders, deacons, and managers period Mr. Duncan has officiated as of the church, at which he intended to minister of the above place of worship, tender his resignation. He then apin a manner highly satisfactory to the peared to labour under considerable majority of his hearers. During the last emotion, especially when he announced seven years of Mr. Duncan's ministra- that that would be the last time of his tions, he was subject to the most painful addressing them. Being what may be bodily affliction, and may be said to have termed a man possessing a preponderbeen a perfect martyr to that painful ance of the nervous temperament, he disease known as rheumatic gout. Al- appears to have been so much affected though for the last two years of his by the taking leave of his flock that, on labours he was deprived of the use of his leaving the church, he appeared to be limbs, and quite unable to walk, yet he suffering very much from the effects of still was to be found in his pulpit on the the ordeal through which he had passed, Sundays. He was generally conveyed to and on arriving at his home he immethe church-door, and carried to a seat in diately went to his bed, from which he the pulpit floor, and raised to the re- never again rose. Mr. Duncan was quisite altitude, so as to enable his highly esteemed by his hearers as a hearers to see him, and listen to his man of great piety as well as theological earnest and eloquent exhortations, by attainments. In proof of the estimation means of a hydraulic lift, which had in which he was held, we may state that, been introduced for that purpose. Al- although he was unable to move about though Mr. Duncan had been a great amongst them as formerly, they made a sufferer for the period we before stated, considerable augmentation to his salary his last severe illness appears to have during his illness, and also incurred the been one of but brief duration. So re- additional expense of a colleague to assist cently as Sunday morning last, Mr. Duncan in the discharge of the duties at the was at his post, and announced to those Trinity Presbyterian Church; besides present the mournful intelligence of the which, the managers of the church sucdeath of His Royal Highness the Prince ceeded in removing debt to the amount Consort, which appeared deeply to affect of £1,100 from the church, which he him. He took the opportunity of im- was very desirous of accomplishing proving the occasion, and descanted on during his lifetime. Mr. Duncan was the uncertainty of this life, and the great very much respected by the general necessity of preparing for that which is public, and much sincere sympathy is to come. He also alluded to another already manifested on the occasion of his painful event, respecting his ceasing to removal from things temporal, as also be their minister; and gave notice that for his widow and two sons, who are but there would be a meeting at his resi- youths..

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PLYMOUTH.

ROBERT BARBOUR, Esq., Manchester, has just forwarded to the Rev. Joseph Wood the sum of £100 towards the building fund of the new church that is now rapidly approaching completion.

The importance of Plymouth, with its large population, its naval and military establishments, as a centre for Presbyterianism, can scarcely be over-estimated. At present 400 soldiers are supplied with religious ordinances, besides a large and increasing number of civilians, who from birth or from conviction are attached to the simple worship

of the Church of Knox.

The church is constructed to accommodate 700 persons; but even this, it is believed, will scarcely meet the requirements of the

congregation; a gallery can, however, be added. The cost of the building, including the purchase of the site (freehold), amounts to £3000.

The committee and congregation feel themselves greatly indebted to Mr. Barbour for his ready appreciation of the claims of Plymouth, and for the substantial aid he has afforded.

The important, the national position which this church occupies in Plymouth, as the only place of worship that exists for the accommodation of our Presbyterian seamen and soldiers, enables the committee to make a general appeal for aid in wiping out the £1,000 of debt that still remains on the building.]

Original Papers.

PROSPECTS

OF UNION AMONG ENGLISH
PRESBYTERIANS.

"Union is strength-Disunion, weakness."

PRESBYTERIANS can testify to the emphatic truth of both these aphorisins, for their experience has proved it. Among our Churches, everywhere, the happiest results have invariably followed from the recognition of brotherhood, followed by the mutual, well-considered, and wisely-matured incorporation of brethren. The United Presbyterian Church can tell us how much their history bear out these principles. At the beginning of this century, and for years later, the communities who now compose it were broken into small and divided sections, with comparatively little power for good beyond their own limited spheres. Since their ecclesiastical union, they have come to occupy a prominent and very influential position, from which they command the respect of all parties, both religious and political. Their leading ministers are recognised, both in the pulpit and on the platform, as men worthy to be the counsellors of their countrymen; and no national question bearing on education, morals, or religion, can now be settled for Scotland, till they are heard; while their missionary efforts and churchextension zeal have added new testimonies, from year to year, to their efficiency. The Free Church, though still perhaps better recognised by her Disruption than by her Unions, owes no small portion of her high and well-won character to her hearty reunion with Seceders, who have found in her what they looked for in vain in the old Establishment. Our Presbyterian countrymen in Australia have already experienced their newly established union to be the parent of as much good as their sanguine hopes led them to anticipate; while the Canadian Churches-United Presbyterian, and Free-only reunited last June, have certainly entered on their new career with double energy and enlivened hope.

Now all this was to be expected, for-Union is Strength. The hearty brotherhood of a family, whose estrangements and misunderstandings are for ever forgotten, cannot but exert the happiest influences. Heart warms to heart. For every enterprise there are now increased force and more numerous counsellors-more vigilance and more energy. Successes in each field become the encouragement of all, and disappointments and failures are more promptly compensated and more successfully retrieved.

Corresponding to all this, but opposite in their character, have ever been the fruits of disunion, as attested by similar experience. What was Presbyterianism in Scotland in the days when Churchmen and Dissenters scowled on one another, and when each little section of the latter bitterly inveighed against all the rest, and the spirit of disintegration was as active as that of union has of late been? The strength of our system during that period was mainly concentrated in the Established Church; and there it was to be ascribed to No. 170.-New Series.

3

her superior numbers, and their union for common ends. Out of the Establishment, its influence-beyond the little separate circles in which each section exerted itself apart from all the rest-was nothing; while all their disputes and dissensions directly tended only to increase their weakness. In the Colonies, similar results were constantly experienced; and all these evils would unquestionably have continued, and probably with augmented power, till the present day, had not a new spirit been infused into the mutual relations of the Churches.

The unions already alluded to were invariably genuine in their character, being the result of identity in principle, and of mutual respect and Christian affection; nor is any other kind at all desirable. We seek no incorporation which has in it the elements of discord and dispute. The union of High Church with Low Church, of Puseyism with the infidelity of the Essays and Reviews, of warm and earnest Evangelism with cold indifference or Pharisaic formality, is not what we desiderate. The union we need, is that which is now well understood, and which has been generally accepted in the Presbyterian Church. It is that of common principles and Christian love. Any other would be spurious, worthless, and even dangerous. In the unions of which we have been speaking, we repeat, it was their wellconsidered genuineness in mind and in affection which in each case gave to them their value. And better far for the great ends of the Gospel would it have been, that each section, now an integral part of the larger body, should have continued in its isolated insignificance and weakness, than that any sacrifice of principle should have purchased union. Such a sacrifice would have destroyed its virtue; and these united Churches are now strong, healthy, and hopeful, just because, in seeking it, they have not subjected themselves to any suppression or equivocation, and have most carefully and conscientiously guarded the interests of truth. They have sought to exercise in all their proceedings that divine wisdom which is "first pure, then peaceable."

Our English Presbyterianism has a lesson to learn from this experience. We are disunited, and we are weak. Three branches of the Church, of which our own is more than equal in numbers to the other two, are continuing to stand side by side,―(can we say to flourish ?)—mutually unaided and unsupported, if not sometimes mutually watched, suspected, and hindered. Might we not be strong, like other Presbyterians elsewhere, by means of a wellprincipled and well-considered union? This is not the occasion on which to suggest questions of doctrine or of practice which some may think likely to interfere with the desired result. If the thing is to be done, all such questions must be looked at and handled with becoming care, and wisely settled before the consummation can be reasonably desired. There must be no reticence here no risk of misunderstanding.

But it seems there are on the side of the United Presbyterian Brethren, practical difficulties of a different description. At present, there exist relationships between them and Scotland, endeared by many personal ties, and hallowed by long association, as well as fortified by considerable pecuniary benefits accorded by the North to their struggling congregations in England; and it may be difficult to relinquish a connection so much appreciated, and intrinsically so valuable. We would hope that the advantages of union among the English Presbyterian family might easily overbalance all considerations merely sentimental; and as for the material advantages now derived from their Scottish connection, we cannot think it improbable that their friends in Scotland may enter so cordially into the idea of forming a strong Presbyterian Church in England as to promise them, in a new relation, at least as hearty