taken under consideration by the aggregate committee, at its meeting in April; and a specific statement will then be adopted on these points, for the purpose of its being recommended to the Confer establishments; and, much more, cessa- | objects at which the alliance should aim, tion from all aggressive warfare either as well as the means by which they may against the principle or the system." be most effectually attained." The conAdverting to the magnanimous avowals clusions of this sub-committee will be of Drs Cox and Wardlaw, on the retention of opinions and of liberty of speech, he says "The talk is plausible and pleasant; but the thing is a mistake, a delusion, an absurdity. Anything short of silence and cessation, is utterly incom-ence in August. Meanwhile, it has been patible with such a combination. To assert the contrary, is to insult reason; to expect the contrary, is to run in the face of uniform experience. You cannot in this matter separate between men and their systems. It will be held that, to assail the system, is to smite the men. The articles of such an alliance, then, are simply articles of peace with the most corrupt and socially pernicious ecclesiastical institution in Europe." We submit that it is a very possible thing to distinguish between a system and the men who are connected with it, and to love the latter while we oppose the former. It is possible also for Christians, while they not only retain their sentiments on denominational peculiarities, but also give expression to them on all befitting occasions, and in all legitimate ways, to do this in love, so as not to provoke the animosity and bitterness of unhallowed strife. Further than this the "Evangelical Alliance" does not propose to control its members; and to this extent every Christian already is, irrespectively of the alliance, under law to Christ his Master. Had any other conditions of union been proposed, implying an invasion of the liberty of conscience, or of speech, or of action, in reference to the peculiar tenets of the various sections of the christian church, they would have been unanimously repudiated by the Conference. We regret to observe that the ministers and members of the Free Church, who were connected with the provisional committee in Scotland, have intimated their withdrawment, in the meantime, from the union movement. agreed, "that the parties to be invited to the Conference in August shall bethe members and corresponding members of the four divisions of the provisional committee in all parts of the world:" and "that the four divisions of the committee be requested to use their best endeavours to increase the number of their corresponding members; so as to include all those friends of the projected alliance (whether ministers or laymen) within their several districts, whom it may be desirable to invite:" "that it be recommended that the alliance should consist of those members of the committee and corresponding members who may be present at the Conference in August, and concur in the course then resolved upon, and of such absent members and corresponding members as shall signify their approbation of the same," and "that the present summary of principles shall be the distinct basis of the projected alliance." We have pleasure in adding a few paragraphs from the address of the London Branch of the Provisional Committee: "1. The proposed alliance asks no surrender of conscientious conviction. There is nothing which a good man values more than his religious belief. There are some things which it may cost him an effort to abandon, and some things which may cost him little. He may be called on to part with his money, and may be able to tell it down, and hand it over to its new possessor without a moment's pang or the most secret murmur. He may be constrained to part with some object of endeared affection, and may feel that in its vanishing his better and happier self has gone away; but when he feels that the Lord hath taken it, he feels a mournful blessedness-a sublime self-abdication-in letting it go. And he may be forced to surrender some A sub-committee has been appointed memorial of distant affection or departed by the meeting of the aggregate com- friendship; and however brawny the arm mittee at Liverpool in January, to "con- which wrings it from his grasp, he almost sider the regulations relative to the feels that there is a sacrilege in not letting admission of new members to the pro-life go with it. But in all these cases, posed evangelical alliance, and the prac- at the worst they are the natural feelings ticability of specifying distinctly the which are wounded,—the conscience re The great Conference of London, to which the Liverpool meeting in October was only designed to be preparatory, is fixed for the middle of August, instead of June, as was formerly intended. might be equally sincere in their creed, and honest in their peculiarities; and not wishing any man to abandon his convictions till he could abandon them conscientiously, it left all to keep intact and inviolate their respective opinions, till the flow of mutual love had increased their common Christianity. mains unhurt. It is far otherwise, how- | sented were trivial, nor that these disaever, when a man is called to abandon agreements could be discussed and settled truth which his Saviour has taught him there. It allowed that all the members to believe, or a duty which his Saviour has taught him to practise. The matter may be minute, but if he believes it to be his Saviour's will, he cannot sacrifice it without a dismal sense of delinquency. He feels that he is a traitor. His conscience is lacerated at the moment; and even should the deadly wound be healed -should he contrive to argue or cajole "2. But more than this: the Evanhimself into subsequent self-compla- gelical Alliance asks no one to conceal cency, the scar of such a wound, by his religious convictions. A lover of making conscience more callous, leaves truth loves to proclaim it. When his religious vitality less. Hence many he finds it, he calls his friends and went to the Liverpool Conference with neighbours to rejoice with him. He a painful misgiving. They felt that if, in order to union, they must surrender an iota of what they believed to be the truth in Jesus, they could not purchase even so great a blessing at such a perilous price. Looking over all the tenets in their creed, they could not find one so mite-like that they dared to buy even union with it. And in this they were right, for there is not a tenet in the faith once delivered to the saints' so insignificant, but some saint has thought it worth while to be a martyr for it. "But such apprehensions were entirely chimerical. The Conference was no conspiracy to inveigle the members into a sanction of each other's opinions, or into a surrender of their own. No man was asked to leave his peculiarities outside the door; and it was not the fault of the Conference if each did not carry back to London and Leeds, to Dublin and Edinburgh, all the theology which he brought to Liverpool. invites them to share it with him; and to bid him be silent, is to bid him be selfish. But if it really be truth which the man has discovered, and if it really be philanthropy which makes him proclaim it, he will not roar his Heureka like a ravening lion, nor sound his trumpet like a self-exhibiting Pharisee. Truth, as the Gospel conveys it, is benignant and mellowing; and the man who finds it in joy will speak it in love. He will also speak it at right times and right places, and in tones whose intensity shall bear some proportion to the intrinsic worth of the subject. But with such provisos-provisos which the christian wisdom of many has already suggested to themselves-the Evangelical Alliance would concede to all who hold in common vital truth, the utmost freedom of discourse. As it asks no man to surrender an iota of his creed, so it would ask no man to abate by a single atom his Christian "liberty of "It was felt and allowed that impor-prophesying." As it is not a union of tant diversities of sentiment exist among denominations, so neither is it a silencing those who give every evidence of sincere of particular testimonies. discipleship; and it was also felt that it would be a happy day which witnessed the melting of these diversities into a blessed unanimity. But then it was equally acknowledged that some other things must first be effected, and it was for one of these anterior things that the Conference had now assembled. It was not met for the discussion of dogmas, but for the diffusion of brotherly love. It was not to sit as a reconciler of conflicting sentiments, but as the restorer of ancient affections. It did not arbitrate denominational differences, but it sought the outlet and increase of christian charity. It rejoiced to find that the points were many and momentous on which all present agreed; but it neither said that the points on which they dis NO. III. VOL. III. 3. After this, we need scarcely add that the Evangelical Alliance does not ask any cessation of denominational effort, nor demand of any community to suspend its attempts at ecclesiastical development. Just as every individual disciple is in constant danger of seeking his own things more than the things of Jesus Christ, so every christian society incurs the same hazard; and whether they be individuals or societies, they cease to be in a wholesome state when their own things become dearer than the church of Christ and its wide interests. It is a sad inversion of the apostolic spirit when the transference of a conspicuous proselyte from one section of the church to another, is a source of higher exultation than the accession to the church of the saved of some notorious | bytery sustained the committee's report, sinner from an ungodly world. The one and expressed their thanks to Mr Pringle event excites rapture in heaven; per- for his services as clerk. Mr Lind intihaps the other is too trivial to attract mated his acceptance of the office of any notice there. Still there is a limit clerk. Read a statement by the congrewithin which denominational zeal might gation of Chapel Hill, of their pecuniary be innocent and even salutary. In civil affairs, embracing the last seven years, society we have often witnessed an honest and finding it not sufficiently minute, rivalry between different families-astrife agreed to require the congregation to who should count up the largest list of forward to the clerk, with as little delay worthies, and send out into the common- as possible, a more detailed account of wealth the goodliest band of brave, or their sources of income, to be transpatriotic, or learned sons; and this committed to the committee on Home Mispetition occasioned no heart-burnings sions, along with their application for and no bloodshed-nothing but a higher pecuniary aid, in the way of receiving style of family nobility. Would to God the services of the Gaelic missionaries that the different clans and families in gratis, until the meeting of Synod. Adthe Saviour's kingdom had the same journed to meet at six o'clock evening. loyalty and patriotism; and, instead of Closed with prayer. Met with the conwasting their strength in mutual ex-gregation in the church as appointed. termination, were striving who should Mr Simpson commenced with praise send out the noblest missions and the most devoted ministers - who should produce the holiest people and the most numerous converts who should supply the largest contribution to the common Christianity, and achieve the greatest services for the common Saviour! To do this, the perfecting of denominational machinery, and the development of denominational resources, might be needful; but there would be no need to demolish our neighbours' implements, or abstract our neighbours' workmen. There need be no breaking into each other's fold, so long as there are so many sheep in the wilderness; and there need be no strife between the herdsmen, so long as each may dig his own well, and write over it, REHOBOTH." UNITED SECESSION CHURCH. PRESBYTERIAL NOTICES. Elgin. This presbytery met at Forres, on the 16th December last, in course of a presbyterial visitation which they have been prosecuting for some time in the congregations under their inspection, with a view to the revival of religion. The court met with the session of Forres in the forenoon, and engaged in conversation with them on the state of religion. Messrs Pringle and Lind conducted the devotional exercises, and Mr Scott made observations on the duties of elders. The presbytery having proceeded to the transaction of their ordinary business, the committee appointed at last meeting to examine the presbytery's books, reported that they had found said books carefully and correctly kept. The pres and prayer. Mr Sprott preached from Luke xvii. 5, "Lord, increase our faith ;" after which, Mr Bisset delivered an address" on the value of the soul," and concluded the services in the usual manner. Adjourned to meet at Boghole next day. Boghole, 17th December.The United Associate Presbytery of Elgin met in the manse-Mr Whyte, moderator. The moderator having opened the meeting with prayer, the presbytery engaged in conversation with the elders in regard to their respective duties, and Mr Bisset having engaged in prayer, the court proceeded to hear Mr Borwick, student, deliver a discourse from Heb. iv. 1, which was approved of, and Mr Borwick was encouraged to prosecute his studies, and received several exercises from the presbytery to be prepared for next meeting. Mr Sprott laid on the table documents to show that the congregation of Archieston had fulfilled the condition of the grant of money promised to them by the Synod's Board for liquidating debts on weak con. gregations. The court instructed the clerk to certify the above statement to the Board. The presbytery having repaired to the church to meet with the congregation, Mr Whyte commenced with devotional exercises. Mr Stark preached from Luke x. 11, "Notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." After which Mr Reid delivered an address "on the great salvation," and closed the public services in the usual way. Commissioners from Campbelton appeared, in pursuance of a resolution of the congregation of Campbelton to apply to the presbytery to appoint one of their number to moderate in a call, with a view to the settlement of a minister in a communication from the Free Church that place. The presbytery unanimously Presbytery of Cupar, proposing a conagreed to grant the prayer of their peti- ference with the Secession and Relief tion, and appointed a moderation to take Presbyteries, for the purpose of providing place on Monday after the third Sabbath religious instruction to the railway laof January 1846, at six o'clock P.M.-bourers engaged within the bounds, when Mr Bisset to preach and preside at said moderation; and also, to ordain elders on the Sabbath immediately preceding. Mr Lind reported his proceedings at the dispensation of the Lord's Supper in Campbelton, and in the election of elders, which were approved of. Appointed the next meeting to be held on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the second Sabbath of February at Nairn and Inverness, Mr Scott to preach, and Mr Lind to address, at Nairn; Mr Stark to preach, and Mr Whyte to address, at Inverness. Closed with prayer. Mr Kennedy of Kilconquhar was appointed to preach at St Andrews on Sabbath first, and declare the church vacant. The standing committee on Missions reported their proceedings; and the members present were reminded of the Synod's appointment to report to this committee their yearly contributions to Missions by the 15th of March next. it was agreed to meet for conference on this subject on the Tuesday after the second Sabbath of March. Proceeded to consider the call to Mr Taylor of St Andrews from Regent Place congregation, Glasgow, when commissioners from Glasgow and St Andrews were heard; and Mr Taylor having intimated his acceptance of the call, it was agreed, without a vote, to dissolve his connexion with the congregation of St Andrews. The presbytery agreed, at the same time, to record their high sense of Mr Taylor's talents and character, their desire for Manchester, January 19,-Which day his usefulness in the new sphere of lathe United Associate Presbytery of bour to which he has been called, and Lancashire met, and was constituted. their sympathy with the congregation of Read an extract minute for meeting, St Andrews in present circumstances. held by the Lancashire Presbytery of the English Presbyterian Church, on January 7, 1846, agreeing to receive the deputation appointed by the United Associate Presbytery of Lancashire, to wait on them, on the subject of Christian Union. Agreed to receive and record said minute, and instructed the clerk to acknowledge said reception, and to intimate that the deputation will wait on the Presbytery of Lancashire at the place and time mentioned. Mr M'Ker row reported that he had had an interview with Dr Crichton, in reference to the re-union of Mount Pleasant Congregation, Liverpool, with the Presbytery;-1 -that Dr Crichton was favourably disposed to the object, and engaged to bring the matter before his session. As nothing more had been heard of the matter, the Presbytery in-nister and congregation. Mr Alexander structed the clerk to write to the Doctor again on the subject, and the clerk of session. Mr Baxter, student of the third year, gave a discourse on Rom. x. 9; also a lecture on Colossians iii. 1-3. The Presbytery strongly encouraged Mr Baxter to prosecute his studies. Prescribed for exercise, Rom. vi. 4, with Psalms i. and ii. in Hebrew, and 8th chapter of Romans in Greek. Cupar. This presbytery met at Cupar on the Tuesday after the first Sabbath of February, Mr Henderson of Lathones, moderator. The Rev. Dr Heugh, and Mr M'Lure, elder, of the Presbytery of Glasgow, and Rev. Mr Gemmel of the Relief Presbytery of Dysart, being present, were invited to correspond. Read Glasgow. This presbytery held its ordinary monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 10; the Rev. John Inglis of Hamilton, moderator. The Rev. James Taylor of St Andrews having accepted of the call from Regent Place congregation to be colleague to the Rev. Dr Heugh, his induction was appointed to take place on the 26th instant; the Rev. Dr King to preach, and the Rev. Drs Heugh and Kidston to address the mi Wallace, under call to Alexandria, and Mr William Graham, under call to Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, having completed their trials to the satisfaction of the presbytery, the ordination of Mr Wallace was appointed to take place at Alexandria on the 25th instant; the Rev. Alexander M'Ewan to preach, and the Rev. Thomas Lawrie to ordain and give the charges. The ordination of Mr Graham, as colleague to the Rev. Dr Crichton, was also appointed to take place at Liverpool on the 4th March; the Rev. John Robb of Ramsay to preach, and the Rev. Dr Crichton to ordain and give the charges. It was also agreed that the Presbytery of Lancashire be invited to meet and correspond with this presbytery on the secasion. A moderály z aktevedre receist of the foltion was granted so the empregan of oving mines:-Suisergaras per Miss Busty, so take place on the St Me: M Innen. Ben Bow, Edinburgh, the Rev. Andrey sm of Caminsing 15. Heining Lå ivm H. M. Gib, to preach and preside. Mers Brasil Eag: Cm per Mis Miem, raised in Mearns, and Penge, suteass of Eta:url LA 16: D. Anderson, Esq. divany, having completed all ther ma's Gasgev. L.19: Ber. G. Rocson Lauder, to the satisfaction of the presbytery, were Li: Wellington Street Congregational licensed to preach the everlasting mospel. Socery, Glasrow, L5: Birrar CongreLacke-This presbytery met on the rani nderson. L5: Cambusmethan 16th February. A request was made Can Li: mi Lingmire čina L5;— by the eater from the Hamry age a L42 12 wiki he has paid over gation for continned supply of sermka: to the restrer of the congregation. a.so that one of the prestery's mer There is still a deficiency of upwards of should be appointed to dipense the L41: ani Mr M-Lean respectfully sacrament in that congregate on the requests those brethren who have prothird bacbeth of March. Sepply of mised £1 to forward their donations as sermon was granted, and the Rev. Liben speely as possible; and solicits other Hogg Alyth, appointed to preside in the friends and treatrem to assist him in dispensation of the Lord's Supper in the making up this sum, which he is anxious Rattray congregation, on the third Sab- to do ere he leave the country in May bath of March. A list of the collections mert on the proposed Mission to New made in October last in the congregations South Wales. of the presbytery, was ordered to be transmitted to the Synod's treasurer. Instructed the ministers to bring the overture regarding the eldership before their sessions, and to report at next meeting of presbytery. Called for the report of the committee appointed to draw up a scheme for the revival of religion in the presbytery and its bounds, when Mr Muckersie read a very interesting report, which, after consideration, was approved of, and recommended to be printed in the Secessional Intelligence of the Secession Magazine. Reappointed the committee on revival to carry out the suggestions contained in the report submitted. Next ordinary meeting of this presbytery to take place in Dundee on Tuesday, the 7th April. CONGREGATIONAL REPORTS. Braehead, January 30.-The original place of worship of this congregation, erected in 1798, owing to defects in its construction, was of necessity pulled down in the course of the past season. A commodious and comfortable church has been built at a cost of L.378, exclusive of the value of the old materials employed in the erection. The congregation, which consists of only a few more than 200 members, chiefly of the labouring classes, contributes L.190, of which L.50 go to pay off a portion of the debt on the old chapel, thus leaving L.238 to be raised from sources external to itself. Besides aid obtained from the "Board for Liquidating Debt," &c. Mr M'Lellan has grate Langholm, 166 January.-The MisScary Society in connexion with the Secession congregation of Langholm, has raised during the past year (including the Sabbath School Missionary box.) upwards of L.42, which was divided in the following manner :— Secession Missions, Scottish Missionary Society, Moravian Missions. Continental Society, Jewish Mission. Missionary Publications, &e. L.30 0 0 4 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 L.42 0 0 have been made during the year for In addition to the above, collections the Synod Fund, Scottish Missionary Society, and Sabbath School, amounting to L.20, making the total amount for the year L.62. The Sabbath School Missionary box contained L.4, 16s. Westray, 17th January.-The annual Collection for Mr Waddel's 350 8 0 0 3 0 0 Collection for Synod's Fund, |