Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/ Document : 667 Title: The Scottish Church Author(s): Various THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. ASSEMBLY NUMBER. MAY AND JUNE. New Series. 1890. Vol. III. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. THE General Assembly met on Thursday, 22nd May 1890. At eleven o'clock A.M. the Most Noble the Marquis of Tweeddale, Her Majesty's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly, held a levee at the palace of Holyrood, which was numerously attended. After the levee His Grace went in state to St Giles' Cathedral, where service was conducted. The sermon was preached by the retiring Moderator, the Right Rev. Paton J. Gloag, D.D., Galashiels, from Galatians iv. 4. At the close of the service the Lord High Commissioner proceeded to the General Assembly Hall, where the Right Rev, the Moderator constituted the Assembly by prayer. The Roll of Members was held as read. It is as follows: - 1. Presbytery of Lerwick. - The Reverend Alexander Bayne, Tingwall; and James Kidd Bressay. Elder - James Wallace, Esq., Advocate. 2. Presbytery of Burravoe. - The Reverend William Smith, Unst, and John Bicket, North Yell. Elder - Professor A. H. Charteris, D.D. 3. Presbytery of Olnafirth. - The Reverend William Rose, Sandsting, and John Macdonald, Northmaven. Elder - William Handyside, Esq., Edinburgh. 4. Presbytery of Edinburgh. - The Reverend Archibald Scott, D.D., St George's; William Henry Gray, D.D., Liberton; Lewis F. Armitage, St Leonard's; Alexander Webster, St David's; John Glasse, Old Greyfriars; David Morison, Tron; Robert G. Fraser, St Thomas's; William Lockhart, Colinton; and James Christie, D.D., Gilmerton. Elders - John Turnbull Smith, Esq., C.A., Edinburgh; The Rev. John M'Murtrie, D.D., Edinburgh; John T. Maclagan, Esq., Leith; and John Stewart, Esq., Elibank, Corstorphine. Burgh Elders - Robert Miller, Esq., and Peter MacNaughton, Esq. University - The Rev. Professor M. C. Taylor, D.D. Church in India - The Rev. W. F. Archibald and David Sinclair, Esq. 5. Presbytery of Linlithgow. - The Reverend Oswald Bell, Muiravonside; Robert Cameron, Armadale; Thomas Aiton, Livingston; John Alex-- ander Ireland, Whitburn. Elders - Sir William Baillie of Polkemmet, Bart., and Robert Newton Herdman Newton, Esq., Polmont. Burgh Elder - John Braes, Esq. Linlithgow. 6. Presbytery of Biggar. - The Reverend Robert Rankin, Lamington, and Duncan Macfarlane, Walston, Elder - Robert G. Murray, Esq. of Spittal. 7. Presbytery of Peebles. - The Reverend John Milne, Newlands; Jardine Wallace, Traquair; and James S. Goldie, Walkerburn. Elder - Michael G. Thorburn of Glenormiston. Burgh Elder - Robert Thorburn, Esq., Peebles. 8. Presbytery of Dalkeith. - The Reverend John Charles Carrick, Newbattle; William Baillie Strong, Glencorse; James Sharp, Inveresk; and James Alexander Burdon, Lasswade. Elders - The Right Hon. Viscount Dalrymple and Robert Marshall, Esq., Lasswade. 9. Presbytery of Haddington. - The Reverend John Barr Service, Bolton; George Hogg, Cockenzie; John Kerr, Dirleton. Elder - Charles James Shirreff, Esq., Sheriff-Substitute, Haddington. Burgh Elder - Sir Alexander Kinloch of Gilmerton, Bart.; (Burgh of North Berwick) - James Tod, Esq., Edinburgh. 10. Presbytery of Dunbar. - The Reverend Thomas Stirling Marjoribanks, Prestonkirk, and William Veitch, Belhaven. Elder - Richard Hunter, Esq., of Thurston. Burgh Elder - James George Baird Hay, Esq., of Belton. 11. Presbytery of Duns. - The Reverend William D. Herald, Duns, and George Cook, Longformacus, Elder - James Nisbet, Esq., of Lambden. 12. Presbytery of Chirnside. - The Reverend John Dempster Munro, Eyemouth; George Alexander Bissett, Houndwood; and Macduff Simpson, Edrom. Elder - James A. Somervail, Esq., Broomdykes. 13. Presbytery of Kelso. - The Reverend Thomas Leishman, D.D., Linton, and Peter M'Kerron, North Church, Kelso. Elder - Dr Thomas Hamilton, Kelso. 14. Presbytery of Jedburgh. - The Reverend John Stevenson, Bedrule; George B. S. Watson, Cavers; and A. C. M'Phail, Hobkirk. Elder - James T. S. Elliot, Esq. of Wolfelee. Burgh Elder - Andrew Whitelock Mein, Esq. of Scræsburgh. 15. Presbytery of Earlston. - The Reverend Thomas Martin, Lauder, and William Workman, Stow. Elder - George Watson, Esq., Lauder. Burgh Elder - Robert Symington, Esq., Lauder. 16. Presbytery of Selkirk. - The Reverend Paton J Gloag, D.D., Galashiels; James Chalmers Herd-- man, D.D., Melrose; and Manners Hamilton Graham, Maxton. Elder - William Linton, Esq., Selkirk. Burgh Elder - Charles Grey Spittal, Esq., Advocate Selkirk. 17. Presbytery of Annan. - The Reverend Maxwell James Wright, Dornoch, and John L. Dinwiddie, Ruthwell. Elder - John Dunlop, Esq., Dornoch. Burgh Elder - James S. Rae, Esq., Annan. 18. Presbytery of Langholm. - The Reverend William Snodgrass, D.D., Canonbie, and Alexander Young, Westerkirk. Elder - John Scott, Esq., Langholm. 19. Presbytery of Lochmaben. - The Reverend George Wight, Wamphray; L. M'K. Fleming, St Mungo; and Robert Sanders, Tundergarth. Elder Archibald Hamilton, Esq., Wamphray. Burgh Elder - William Rae, Esq., Lochmaben. 20. Presbytery of Penpont. - The Reverend Andrew Paton, Penpont, and James Richmond Wood, Sanquhar. Elder - Robert Burgess, Esq., Thornhill. 21. Presbytery of Dumfries. - The Reverend Maxwell Hutchison, Kirkmahoe; Thomas Crosby, Lochrutton; Roger S. Kirkpatrick, Dalbeattie; Richard Simpson, Dunscore. Elders - George Shaw, Esq., and Alexander Thompson, Esq., Maxwelltown. Burgh Elder - John Luke Scott, Esq., Dumfries. 22. Presbytery of Kirkcudbright. - The Reverend A. D. Campbell, Kirkcudbright; Pirie Philip, Kells; John Lamond, Kelton; and Harvey Nichol, Parton. Elders - John Campbell, Esq., Castle Douglas, and Matthew W. Pollock, Esq., Rerrick. Burgh Elders. - (Kirkcudbright) - John Williamson, Esq. of Langlands; (New Galloway) - George Hamilton, Esq. of Ardendee. 23. Presbytery of Wigtown. - The Reverend Robert Paton, Kirkinner, and William Allan, Mochrum. Elders - James Dickson, Esq., Kirkinner. Burgh Elders: - (Wigtown) - William Mackie, Esq., Wigtown; (Whithorn) - Robert Conning Laurie, Esq., L.A., Whithorn. 24. Presbytery of Stranraer. - The Reverend Henry Gibson, Glenapp: Fergus John Williamson, Ballantrae; and John Balfour Robertson, Leswalt. Elder - Thomas Littlewood, Esq., Daljarroch. Burgh Elder - William Douglas, Esq., Solicitor, Stranraer. 25. Presbytery of Ayr. - The Reverend James Chrystal, D.D., Auchinleck; Thomas Dykes, D.D., Ayr; Henry A. Fairlie, Kirkmichael; John Spence Robertson, Old Cumnock; William Campbell, Craigie; Archibald G. Brown, South Church, Girvan; and Robert Stewart, Crosshill. Elders - The Right Hon. Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran, Bart., M.P.; Charles Howatson, Esq. of Glenbuck; and William Hamilton Dunlop, Esq. of Doonside. Burgh Elder - John Murray Ferguson, Esq., Ayr. 26. Presbytery of Irvine. - The Reverend James Somerville, D.D., Irvine; William Young Lindsay, Dreghorn; William Lee Ker, Kilwinning; and Alexander Inglis, Kilmaurs. Elders - James Mair, Esq., Dreghorn, and Andrew Speir, Esq., Kilwinwinning. Burgh Elder - John Wright, jun., Esq., of West Park, Irvine. 27. Presbytery of Paisley. - The Reverend James Fraser, Greenbank; Mungo Reid, D.D., Mearns; James Ingram, Levern; George Campbell, Eastwood; and Alexander Fyfe Burns, St George's, Paisley. Elders - James Dobie, Esq., Paisley; and Alexander Moffat, Esq., Paisley. Burgh Elder (Renfrew) - John Jack, Esq., Renfrew. 28. Presbytery of Greenock. - The Reverend James Murray, Kilmalcolm; Alexander Erskine Shand, North Church, Greenock; John F. Macpherson, South Church, Greenock; and Alexander Milne, Greenock. Elders - Peter Renwick Crawford, Esq., Greenock; and Robert Binnie, Esq., Gourock. 29. Presbytery of Hamilton. - The Reverend John Parker, Cleland; Alexander Watt, Harthill; John Downs, East Kilbride; W. O. Duncan, Clarkston; H. M. Hamilton, D.D., Hamilton; H. J. Wotherspoon, Burnbank; R. S. Hutton, Cambusnethan. Elders - D. G. Kemp, Esq., Bothwell; Thomas Swan, Esq., Airdrie; and Peter Macdonald, Esq., Langloan. 30. Presbytery of Lanark. - The Reverend Thomas Little, Lanark; Thomas Turnbull, Lesmahagow; and James Symington, Leadhills. Elder - James Duff, Esq. Burgh Elder - John Jack, Esq., Lanark. 31. Presbytery of Glasgow. - The Reverend F. L. Robertson, D.D., St Andrew's, Glasgow; John Murray, Calton; T. B. W. Niven, Pollokshields; W. F. Stevenson, Rutherglen; D. M. Connell, St Kiaran's; Donald M'Corquodale, Queen's Park; John M`Lean, D.D., St Columba's; John Watt,D.D., Anderston; Andrew Donald, St. Vincent's; James Wallace, Plantation; James Collier, Chalmers; David Hunter, St Mary's, Partick; John F. Anderson, Hogganfield; Robert Pryde, Townhead; Professor William Purdie Dickson, D.D., the University. Elders - Francis Walter Allan, Esq., Glasgow; Councillor Hugh Brechin, Glasgow; John Shearer, Esq. of Merrylee; William M. Dickie, Esq., Glasgow; Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson, Glasgow: Charles M. King, Esq. of Antermony; and John E. Watson, Esq., C.A., Glasgow. City Elder - Alexander M'Laren, Esq., Glasgow. University Elder - Rev. Professor Robert Herbert Story, D.D., Glasgow. Burgh Elder (Rutherglen) - Robert Lang, Esq., Glasgow. 32. Presbytery of Dumbarton. - The Reverend Alexander Cameron Watson, Renton; James Dick, Killearn; Morison Bryce, Baldernock; John Smith, Knoxland; and William Begbie Moyes, Strathblane. Elders - Donald M'Laren, Esq., Strathblane, and Walter Buchanan, Esq., Dumbarton. Burgh Elder - Robert Blair, Esq., Dumbarton. 33. Presbytery of Dunoon. - The Reverend Robert Craig, Ardentinny; John M`Corkindale, Lochgoilhead; and J. King Hewison, Rothesay. Elder - George Readman, Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh. Burgh Elder - William Miller Leckie, Esq., Rothesay. 34. Presbytery of Kintyre. - The Reverend James Curdie Russell, D.D., Campbeltown, and John Grant Levack, Saddell. Elder - Col. Smollett Montgomery Eddington of Glencreggan. Burgh Elder (Campbeltown) - Peter Mackay, Esq., Campbeltown. 35. Presbytery of Isla and Jura. - The Reverend John M'Gilchrist, Kilarrow,and John Barnett, Kilchoman. Elder - Colin G. Macrae, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 36. Presbytery of Inverary. - The Reverend Neil MacMichael, Craignish, and Neil Macpherson, Glenaray. Elder - Alexander Holm, Esq., Balliemore. Burgh Elder - John Macarthur, Esq. of Barbreck. 37. Presbytery of Lorn. - The Reverend Neil Campbell, Kilchrenan, and Malcolm MacCallum, Muckairn. Elder - Thomas J. Wilson, Esq., S.S.C., Edinburgh. 38. Presbytery of Mull. - The Reverend William Mackintosh, Torosay; William Sutherland, Tobermory, and Duncan M'Lean, Strontian. Elder - Sir Charles J. Pearson, Edinburgh. 39. Presbytery of Abertarff. - The Reverend Duncan M'Michael, Duncansburgh, and Malcolm Macintyre, Boleskine. Elder - George Malcolm, Esq., Glengarry. 40. Presbytery of Dunkeld. - The Reverend James S. Mackenzie, Little Dunkeld; James Fraser, Blair Athole; and Theodore Marshall, Caputh. Elder - Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie, Bart., Delvine. 41. Presbytery of Weem. - The Reverend Andrew Thomson, Innerwick - in - Glenlyon; Alexander M'Gregor, Braes of Rannoch; and George W. Mackay, Killin. Elder - Alexander Galloway, Esq., Aberfeldy. 42. Presbytery of Perth. - The Reverend Adam Milroy, D.D., Moneydie; Charles S. Adie, Tibbermore; James M. Strachan, Kilspindie; Thomas Brown Collace; and John Wilson, Methven. Elders - William Ogilvy Dalgleish, Esq., Errol Park, and Rev. Andrew J. B. Baxter, Perth. Burgh Elder - John Thomas, Esq., Perth. 43. Presbytery of Stirling. - The Reverend Robert Stevenson, Gargunnock; George Simpson, Airth; George Murray, Sauchie; and John M'Laren, D.D., Larbert and Dunipace. Elders - The Right Hon. Lord Balfour of Burleigh, and John Edmond, Esq., Bannockburn. Burgh Elder - William Monteith Brown, Esq., Stirling. 44. Presbytery of Auchterarder. - The Reverend John Robert Campbell, Monzievaird; John Macpherson, Comrie; and James Rankin, D.D.,Muthill. Elder - John M`Owan, Esq., Crieff. 45. Presbytery of Dunblane. - The Reverend John Johnston, Port-of-Monteith; John A. Macdonald, Buchlyvie , and James G. Mitchell, Norrieston. Elder - Duncan W. Currie, Esq., B.M., Tillicoultry. 46. Presbytery of Dunfermline. - The Reverend George Roddick, Aberdour; John Sinclair, Beath; and Robert Stevenson, Dunfermline. Elder - John Stevenson, Esq., Dunfermline. Burgh Elders: - (Culross) - James W. Barty, Esq., Dunblane; (Inverkeithing) - John Milligan, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 47. Presbytery of Kirkcaldy. - The Reverend Thomas Dewar, Lochgelly; Andrew Russell, Leslie; John Campbell, Kirkcaldy; and A. Aytoun Young, Methil. Elders - James Bissett, Esq., Burntisland, and Archibald Mackinnon, Esq., Dysart. Burgh Elders: - (Kirkcaldy) - John Gourlay, Esq., Kirkcaldy; (Kinghorn) - William Smith, Esq., Kinghorn; (Burntisland) - Alexander Waddell, Esq., Burntisland; (Dysart) - Andrew Terrace, Esq., Dysart. 48. Burgh of Cupar. - The Reverend Charles Fraser, Freuchie; John Duncan, Abdie; Æneas G. Gordon, Kettle; and John Henderson, Collessie. Elders - Robert Law, Esq., Freuchie, and John Jamieson, Esq., Solicitor, Cupar. Burgh Elders: - (Cupar) - James Fyfe, Esq., Cupar; (Newburgh) - John Livingston, Esq., Edinburgh. 49. Presbytery of St Andrews. - The Reverend A.K.H. Boyd, D.D., St Andrews; John Reid, Crail; Patrick Macfarlan, Pittenweem; James Ray, Cellar-- dyke; and Professor Alexander F. Mitchell, D.D., St Andrews. Elders - Charles Stewart Grace, Esq., W.S., St Andrews, and John Pentland Smith, Esq., Carnbee. Burgh Elders: - (St Andrews) - John Pitcairn, Esq., St Andrews; (Earlsferry) - Roderick Forbes, Esq., Solicitor, Edinburgh; (Pittenweem) - Professor P.R. Scott Lang, St Andrews; (Crail) - James Alexander Robertson, Esq., C.A., Edinburgh; (Anstruther Easter) - The Rev. William Robertson, Edinburgh; (Anstruther Wester) - James Gillespie, Esq., St Andrews; (Kilrenny) - Horatio R. Macrae, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh; (University Elder) - The Very Rev. Principal Cunningham, L.L.D. 50. Presbytery of Kinross. - The Reverend David Jamie, Ballingry, and Patrick D. Thom, Fossoway. Elder - William B. Ross, Esq., Portmoak. 51. Presbytery of Meigle. - The Reverend John Nicoll, Meigle; Charles Chree, D.D., Lintrathen; and James Fleming, Kettins. Elder - Major Peter Chalmers, Blairgowrie. 52. Presbytery of Forfar. The Reverend John Boyd, Kirriemuir; John Watt, Glenprosen; and George Johnston Caie, Forfar. Elder - Stewart Lindsay, Esq., Kirriemuir. Burgh Elder - John Peter Anderson, Esq., Solicitor, Forfar. 53. Presbytery of Dundee. - The Reverend Professor Allan Menzies, D.D., Abernyte; James Nicoll, Murroes; William Wright, Lochee; John Reid, Monikie; and James G. Young, D.D., Monifieth. Elder - John Banks, Esq., Lochee, and Robert O. Parker, Esq., Dundee. Burgh Elder - Peter Adamson, Esq., Dundee. 54. Presbytery of Arbroath. - The Reverend Andrew Douglas, Abbey Church, Arbroath; Alexander R. Gibson, Carnoustie; William Proudfoot, St. Margaret's, Arbroath; and Duncan MacArthur, Kinnell. Elders - Andrew Lowson, Esq. of Elm-- bank, and Andrew Bennet, Esq., Solicitor, Arbroath. Burgh Elder. - David D. Sandeman, Esq., Arbroath. 55. Presbytery of Brechin. - The Reverend James Landreth, Logie-Pert; John Archibald St. Clair, Melville; Alexander Gardner, Brechin; and Hugh Cameron, Montrose. Elders - James Alexander Campbell, Esq. of Stracathro, M.P., and Andrew Coupar, Esq., Logie-Pert. Burgh Elder - Charles Mitchell, Esq., Brechin. 56. Presbytery of Fordoun. - The Reverend William Anderson, Fettercairn; John Menzies, Fordoun; and Douglas G. Barron, Dunnottar, Elder - John Cook, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. Burgh Elder (Inverbervie) - Alexander Simpson, Esq., Advocate, Aberdeen. 57. Presbytery of Aberdeen. - The Reverend W.M. Wilson, North Parish; James Smith, St-George's-in-the-West; George Duncan, Maryculter; George Jamieson, D.D., Old Machar; Duncan Campbell, Rosemount; and Henry Rauken, Esq., John Knox's. Elders - Alexander Edmond, jun., Esq., Advocate, Aberdeen; William Burgess - Esq., New Machar; and John Whyte, Esq., Advocate, Aberdeen. City Elder - George Reid, Esq., Aberdeen. University Elder - The Rev. Professor Alexander Stewart, D.D., Aberdeen. 58. Presbytery of Kincardine O'Neil. - The Reverend Robert Neil, Glengairn; Gavin E. Argo, Kincardine-O'-Neil; and James Robert Middleton, Glenmuick. Elder - Alexander Millar, Esq., Torphins. 59. Presbytery of Alford. - The Reverend Alexander J. Anderson, Auchindoir; George G. Macmillan, Cabrach; and Alexander Milne, Tough. Elder - James Kennedy, Esq., Strathdon. 60. Presbytery of Ellon. - The Reverend Robert Ross, Cruden; and William F. Scott, Logie-Buchan. Elder - Thomas Henderson, Esq., Ellon. 61. Presbytery of Garioch. - The Reverend George Peter, Kemnay; William L. Davidson, LL.D., Bourtie; and William Greig, Rayne. Elder - James Diack, Esq., Pitcaple; Burgh Elders: - (Kintore) Rev. M.M. Ross, Elgin; (Inverurie) Rev. Professor William Milligan, D.D., Aberdeen. 62. Presbytery of Deer. - The Reverend William W. Wilson, Savoch; James Coutts, Ardallie; John Mitchell, St. Fergus; and M.P. Johnstone, Fraserburgn. Elders - Andrew Tarras, Esq., Fraserburgh, and William Leask, Esq. 63. Presbytery of Turriff. - The Reverend James M'Gravin Smith, Milbrex; William Hunter, Macduff; and Donald Stewart, King Edward. Elder - George Morrison Allan, Esq., Montbletton. 64. Presbytery of Fordyce. - The Reverend James Grant, Fordyce, and James Ledingham, Boyndie. Elder - George Stevenson, Esq., Fordyce. Burgh Elders - (Cullen) Lindsay Mackersy, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh; (Banff ) - Robert Duncan, Esq., Banff. 65. Presbytery of Strathbogie. - The Reverend John Barr Cumming, Mortlach; Alexander Youngson, Newmill; James Jolly Calder, Rhynie. Elder - Peter Galloway, Esq., M.B., Rhynie. 66. Presbytery of Aberlour. - The Reverend John Smith Sloss, Aberlour, and Charles Bruce, Glenrinnes. Elder - Charles Maitland Pelham Burn, Esq. of Pitcroy. 67. Presbytery of Abernethy. - The Reverend John Liddel, Advie, and James Anderson, Alvie. Elder - Alexander Macpherson, Esq., Banker, Kingussie. 68. Presbytery of Elgin. - The Reverend Charles Gordon, St Andrew's, Lhanbryde, and Alexander Lawson, Elgin. Elder - Robert Adam, Esq., City Chamberlain, Edinburgh. 69. Presbytery of Forres. - The Reverend William Henry Edie, Kinloss, and Robert Smith, Rafford. Elder - James A. Wenley, Esq., Treasurer of the Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh. 70. Presbytery of Nairn. - The Reverend James Burns, Nairn, and James Bonallo, Auldearn. Elder - Christopher Douglas, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 71. Presbytery of Inverness. - The Reverend Donald Murray Simpson, Moy, and Charles D. Bentick, Kirkhill. Elder - Captain Douglas Wimberley, Inverness. Burgh Elder - John Henry Forsyth, Esq., Inverness. 72. Presbytery of Chanonry. - The Reverend John Gibson, Avoch; and Robert M'Dougall, Resolis. Elder - Walter Malcolm, Esq., Edinburgh. Burgh Elder - (Fortrose) James T. Hutchison, Esq., Edinburgh. 73. Presbytery of Tain. - The Reverend Donald Stuart, Kilmuir Easter, and George Macdonald, Rosskeen, Elder - Charles Innes, Esq.. Inverness. Burgh Elder - William Mann, Esq., S.S.C., Edinburgh. 74. Presbytery of Dingwall. - The Reverend Alexander J.R. Macquarrie, Kilmorack; and William L.W. Brown, Alness. Elder - Thomas G. Murray, Esq. of Stenton. Burgh Elder - Alexander Dewar, Esq., Dingwall. 75. Presbytery of Skye. - The Reverend John Sinclair, Small Isles, and Alexander Cameron, Sleat. Elder - William John Menzies, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 76. Presbytery of Lewis. - The Reverend Donald MacCallum, Lochs, and Alexander Stuart, Stornoway. Elder - John Cheyne, Esq., Sheriff of Renfrew and Bute, Edinburgh. 77. Presbytery of Uist. - The Reverend Roderick M'Donald, South Uist, and Archibald M'Donald, Barra. Elder - Duncan Shaw, Esq., W.S., Inverness. 78. Presbytery of Lochcarron. - The Reverend Duncan Dewar, Applecross, and Angus J. Macdonald, Ullapool. Elder - John Baird, Esq. of Knoydart. 79. Presbytery of Dornoch. - The Reverend Gilbert Macmillan, Loth, and James M. Joass, LL.D., Golspie. Elder - A D.M. Black, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. Burgh Elder - John Arbuthnott Trail, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 80. Presbytery of Tongue. - The Reverend Alexander Crerar, Kinlochbervie, and David Lundie, Tongue. Elder - Sir Charles Dalrymple, Bart., Newhailes, Musselburgh. 81. Presbytery of Caithness. - The Reverend Hugh Mair, Keiss; W. Harley Anderson, Pulteneytown; and William M'Beath, Halkirk. Elder - Sir Douglas Maclagan, M.D., Edinburgh. Burgh Elder - (Wick) - Thomas Adam, Esq. of Lynegar, Wick. 82. Presbytery of Kirkwall. - The Reverend Oliver Scott, St Andrews, and James S.W. Irvine, South Ronaldshay. Elder - John Tawse, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 83. Presbytery of Cairston. - The Reverend David Johnston, D.D., Harray, and George R. Murison, Stenness. Elder - Edmund Baxter, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. 84. Presbytery of North Isles. - The Reverend Joseph Caskey, Stronsay, and George Grant, North Ronaldshay. Elder - Lewis Bilton, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. ELECTION OF MODERATOR. The RETIRING MODERATOR, then addressing the Assembly, said, - Fathers and brethren, - In the good providence of God, we have again met as the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland under happy circumstances. It is my first duty to return my grateful thanks to the Church for the high honour conferred upon me in electing me as its Moderator. This time last year I looked forward to the performance of the duties of the office with dread, feeling my manifold deficiencies; but the kindness and courtesy of the members of last Assembly dispelled these fears and imparted to me an unwonted confidence. I have to thank that Assembly, and especially those members of it who are also members of this Assembly, for their kind consideration and valuable assistance. A quietness, peace, and mutual forbearance pervaded all its meetings. So far as I can recollect, I never once had to interpose my authority in the maintenance of order. I can only wish for my successor that he may experience in this Assembly the same urbanity and kindness, and that he may find that its proceedings are conducted with the same calmness and dignity. And not only during the sittings of last Assembly, but throughout my year of office, in my official visits to many of your parishes, the same kindness has been shown. The peacefulness of last Assembly was but a prelude of the peacefulness to the year of my Moderatorship. Nothing of a stirring nature has to be recorded; the Church has been permitted to carry on its work in quietness, and without any disturbance from without. There has been no marked agitation for Disestablishment, no violent attacks made on our Church; rather such agitation and attacks have been discountenanced by the laymen belonging to our sister Churches. But still we cannot conceal from ourselves that this may be only the lull before the storm. There are undoubted symptoms that ere long our Church will be called to pass through a great crisis, and have to maintain a struggle for its existence as the national Church of Scotland. Our opponents are making their preparations, and we must also be prepared. Not that we should by any means be disheartened, or think that the time must inevitably come when the Church will be disestablished. For myself, I have sanguine hopes - I trust that they are not too sanguine - that the Church will pass uninjured through this coming crisis, and will be transmitted with its energies unimpaired to our children's children. But I must not enlarge. It is my privilege and duty to propose for your acceptance my successor in office; and it is a duty which I have the utmost pleasure in performing, as I am sure that the nomination which I have to make will meet with universal acceptance, not only in this Assembly but throughout the whole Church. I venture to propose, as a man in all respects eminently worthy of this office, the Rev. Dr Andrew Boyd, Senior Minister of St Andrews. There are three reasons which entitle him to your choice, any one of which would be sufficient. He is the accepted and respected Minister of one of the most important of our parishes - what I may venture to call the University town of Scotland. The other three Universities - Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen - are Universities in cities, whereas the town of St Andrews is a city in a University. It owes its existence to the University. The Minister of this town comes into direct contact with the youth of our country, many of whom will in after years occupy prominent positions. Besides, St Andrews is a place of summer resort, to which strangers flock from all parts of the country. It is of the utmost importance that such a parish should be well supplied. In Dr Boyd we have one who is in all points qualified for this important office - the eloquent preacher whose discourses are attractive to all classes, and the faithful Clergyman who performs with acceptance the duties of his ministry. But to the Church generally there is a still more important reason why Dr Boyd should be honoured by it. It is chiefly owing to his labours and patience and wisdom that we owe our Hymnal, the excellence of which has been so universally acknowledged. He has been for many years the Convener of the Hymn Committee, the labours of which have resulted in greatly improving the psalmody of the Church. He has, through his Committee, made a collection of the best hymns in the English language; and this collection has been sanctioned for general use in public worship by the General Assembly. But no one will forget that Dr Boyd is also an accomplished author. He has greatly enriched the literature of our Church and of our country by numerous publications. Indeed, the number of his works is so great that he is one of the most voluminous writers of our age. There is an excellence in his writings which has commanded general approbation. There is a freshness, a delicacy, a refinement, a naturalness, an idiosyncrasy about them which entitle them to high praise. Their popularity has been great; they have run through many editions, and have been received with much commendation. There are few libraries of any size on the shelves of which have not been found some of the writings of "A.K.H.B." Perhaps none of the ministers of our Church are so well known beyond its pale. In England his works are probably more read than in Scotland; and throughout America there is no name belonging to the Church of Scotland better known than that of Dr Boyd. In Dr Andrew Boyd qualifications meet which are seldom found united. I propose for your acceptance the eloquent preacher, the faithful Minister, the improver of our Church's Psalmody, the accomplished Essayist, and the distinguished Author. I propose one who occupies a high position in the Church of Scotland, and whose name is known wherever the English language is spoken. The Church will confer honour on itself by placing him in the Moderator's chair. I have then to ask, Is it the pleasure of the House that Dr Boyd should be called in and requested to take the chair? Dr Boyd was then introduced by the Clerks, and received the congratulations of Dr Gloag as he took the chair vacated by the retiring Moderator. The Principal Clerk then read the Royal Commission appointing the Marquis of Tweeddale Her Majesty's Representative to the General Assembly, and it was ordered to be recorded in the minutes. THE QUEEN'S LETTER. The Principal Clerk then read the Queen's letter, which was as follows: - "VICTORIA REGINA. "Right Rev. and Well-Beloved, - We greet you well. "We hail with satisfaction the prospect of the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and we willingly renew to you the assurance of our affectionate regard and support. "The proofs that you have always afforded Us of your loyalty and attachment to Our person and government, and the prudence that has marked your councils, inspire Us with the confidence that, under the blessing of Almighty God, your deliberations will be guided by a spirit of enlightened wisdom and Christian charity, such as will promote the best interests of Our faithful and beloved subjects of Scotland committed to your charge. "Having full reliance in the zeal and judgment of Our right trusty and entirely beloved Cousin, William Montagu, Marquis of Tweeddale, We have chosen him to represent Us at Our General Assembly, and We doubt not that the qualities which have commended him to Our choice will secure to him, in the discharge of his important duties, your hearty acceptance and support. "And so, commending your councils to Almighty God, We bid you heartily farewell. "Given at Our Court at St James's, the sixteenth day of May 1890, in the fifty-third year of Our reign. "By Her Majesty's command. (Signed) "LOTHIAN." The LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER then addressed the Assembly. He said - Right Reverend and Right Honourable, - You have heard with loyal satisfaction the words of the Queen's gracious message, of which I have the high honour to be the bearer. I am further commanded by the Queen to assure you of her uninterrupted confidence in your steady and firm zeal in her service, and of her resolution to maintain the Presbyterian form of Church government in Scotland. I have authority to inform you also that the annual grant of £2000 given by the Royal Bounty will be continued for the purposes of religious teaching in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and I am authorised to suggest the appropriation of a portion of the grant to the aiding and encouraging of young men to preach the Gospel in the Gaelic language throughout those parts where the English language is imperfectly understood. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, I am deeply sensible of the honour that has been conferred upon me in my appointment to represent the person of the Sovereign in this ancient Assembly, and I desire to express to you the feeling of pleasure with which I take up the duties of my office, and preside in the Supreme Court of that Church to which I am bound by family traditions and personal attachment. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, the matters that are to occupy your thought and time during the session of this Assembly are, I need not say, of great interest and importance; but none, I believe, are likely - and on this allow me to congratulate you - to give rise to heated debate, or to arouse painful feeling. But your proceedings will none the less claim all your wisdom, your earnest attention, and your enlightened zeal for the advancement of religion and the welfare of the Church. The interests of the Church at home and abroad are committed, under Almighty God, to your keeping, and these you will have to safeguard and to promote by your discussions and decisions. To stimulate the life of the Church, to secure her peace, to redress her grievances, to remove hindrances to progress, and to extend the sphere of her bounteous and benign influence are some of the duties that are before you, and these will require your patient industry and reverent care. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, allow me to give utterance to the confident hope that your deliberations in tone and temper will be worthy of the best traditions of this historic Assembly, and that your debates will be carried on in that spirit of calmness, courtesy, and mutual tolerance which should always accompany the full and free expression of opinion. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, I trust that your deliberations, conducted in this spirit and with these aims, may, under the Divine blessing, maintain the dignity and usefulness of this venerable Court, and serve the highest interests of the Church and of the people of the land. I have only to add that I am most anxious to do all that I can to contribute to the comfort and convenience of the members of this Assembly. This I regard as amongst the chief of my duties, and it is one which I shall always perform with the sincerest pleasure and to the utmost of my power. The MODERATOR, in reply, said - May it please your Grace, I desire, in name of the General Assembly, to express to your Grace our cordial welcome to your high office. It is specially pleasant to Scotsmen representing the Scottish Church to see in that dignified place one of our old nobility, bearing a name which has been historic in Scotland for centuries, and a title whose pleasant sound calls up before us that beautiful region and that fair river which the greatest of Scotsmen has made something far more than classical. We welcome you, furthermore, as the son of that grand old Field-Marshal who served his country nobly, both in war and in peace, and was nowhere more honoured than among his own people - as they have testified where all may see - and yourself, a Nobleman worthy of your race, and, as befits its good and kindly traditions, a faithful member of the National Church, setting the pleasing and touching example of daily worship in that sacred place where rich and poor of the parish most fitly meet together. But your Grace is specially the representative here of our good Queen - the representative of that long alliance between Church and State for which each is richer and better; and the representative of a Sovereign who for more than half a century has held the highest level of the nation's respect by a blameless life - and who, by touching and homely appeals to the sympathy of her subjects, has drawn throne and nation near, has made herself indeed the head and mother of the family; for the British nation, with all differences and divisions, is a kindly family after all. We have listened with no feeling of surprise to Her Majesty's gracious letter, wherein she expresses her fond attachment to the Church of Scotland, which indeed she understands as intimately and well as any. The Assembly thanks her heartily for the generous gift which has come as aforetime, and undertakes that it shall be faithfully made the best of. We thank your Grace for the kind promise to do what you may to further the work of the Assembly. We trust that your first experience of your high office may be a pleasant one, and that when our proceedings are brought to a close you may be able to render a favourable report of them to our Sovereign. A Committee was appointed to answer Her Majesty's most gracious letter, and also to name ministers to conduct public worship in the High Church on each Lord's Day during the sitting of the Assembly: - Dr Gray, Dr Scott, Dr Mitchell, Dr Cunningham, Dr Taylor, Dr Stewart, Dr Charteris, Dr Dykes, Dr Story, Rev. Jardine Wallace, Rev. John Kerr, Rev. David Hunter, Viscount Dalrymple, Sir William Baillie, Bart., Sir Alexander Kinloch, Bart., Sir C. Dalrymple, Bart., J. G. Baird Hay, Esq.,Sheriff Spittal, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Professor Scott Lang, John Cook, Esq., Sir Douglas Maclagan, John Livingstone, Esq., Lindsay Mackersy, Esq., James Alexander Campbell, Esq. - Dr Gloag, Convener. The General Assembly authorised the Procurator to draw from the Exchequer the royal grant of £2000; and instructed him to deliver the amount to the Finance Committee of the Royal Bounty. COMMITTEE ON COMMISSIONS. The AGENT of the Church gave in the report of the Standing Committee on Commissions. The report stated that the Committee had examined the Commissions transmitted to the Agent of the Church, and had found them in accordance with the laws and practice of the Church, with the following exceptions: - (1) The Commission from the burgh of Glasgow bore to have been granted by a minority, the motion which the minutes bore to have been carried being - "That the Town Council do not appoint a Commissioner to the next General Assembly of the Church of Scotland." (2) The Commission from Jedburgh bore to be the Commission of a minority granted in opposition to a resolution of the majority not to elect. (3) The burgh of Tain Commission was, "by a minority of six to seven, with the Provost's casting vote, against the resolution." (4) In the case of the burgh of Edinburgh, the minutes which had been transmitted with the Commission bore that a motion was made in terms of notice which had been given at a previous meeting that the Commissioners named in the motion be appointed. That motion was met by an amendment that the Commissioners named in the motion be not elected. Upon a vote being taken, eleven voted for the motion, and eighteen for the amendment, and the minutes bore that the motion was negatived, but that a dissent and protest was taken against the decision of the Council. In giving in the report, Mr Menzies said the case of Edinburgh was different from the others. They could hardly say it was an incompetent motion to move than two specific gentlemen should not be elected. If they wanted to perform their duties, it was their duty to propose the names of two other gentlemen, but this they had not done. Now, looking to the failure to make a motion to that effect, the committee were inclined to think that the motion that was made was proposed for the purpose of preventing the election being made. If the Assembly were satisfied on that point, they would be in a position to see an analogy with the cases already decided, and to sustain the commission. As this was a new point, he suggested that the commission be sent to a committee to be considered. He moved accordingly. "The General Assembly approve the Report and sustain the commissions from the burghs of Glasgow, Jedburgh, and Tain, appoint the following Committee - Dr Watt, Dr Dykes, Rev. David Hunter, Sheriff Cheyne, George Hamilton, Esq., George Readman, Esq., Walter Buchanan, Esq., the Procurator, the Agent, to consider the Commission from the City of Edinburgh, and to report. Farther, in respect that a dissent has been intimated against the decision of the Presbytery of Kincardine appointing their Commissioners, delay sustaining the Commission of that Presbytery until to-morrow to allow of the said dissent being transmitted through the Committee on Bills." The motion was agreed to. The General Assembly appointed the following Committee on Overtures: - The Commissioners from the Synods of Shetland, Merse and Teviotdale, Galloway, Argyll, Fife, Aberdeen, Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, the Committee to meet in the Assembly Hall to-day immediately after the rising of the Assembly, and to-morrow, in the same place, before the meeting of the Assembly, at 11.45. The General. Assembly appointed the following Committee on Bills: - The Commissioners from the Synods of Lothian and Tweeddale, Dumfries, Glasgow and Ayr, Perth and Stirling, Angus and Mearns, Moray, Glenelg, Orkney. The Committee on Bills to meet in the Presbytery Hall to-day immediately after the rising of the Assembly, and to-morrow, in the same place, a quarter of an hour before the meeting of the Assembly. The General Assembly appointed the following Committee for arranging the business of the house: - The Moderator, Dr Scott, Dr Gray, Dr Mitchell, Dr Cunningham, Dr Stewart, Dr Johnston, Dr Charteris, Dr Rankin, Dr Snodgrass, Rev. Theodore Marshall, Rev. William Robertson, Dr J.G. Young, Dr W.L. Davidson, Rev. T.B.W. Niven, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Viscount Dalrymple, J.A. Campbell, Esq. ; Sir A.M. Mackenzie, Bart.; Sir Alexander Kinloch, Bart.; T.G. Murray, Esq.; Sir J.N. Cuthbertson, Alexander Simpson, Esq.; James W. Barty, Esq.; Colin Macrae, Esq.; A.D.M. Black, Esq., and the Office-Bearers - Dr Scott, Convener. The General Assembly appointed the following Committee for nominating Members to serve on Special Committees instructed to report during the sittings of the Assembly - The Moderator and Office-- Bearers, The Convener of the Business Committee, Dr Johnston, Dr Jamieson, the Rev. Duncan Campbell, the Rev. T.B. . Niven, William Handyside, Esq. - The Rev. T.B.W. Niven and Dr Johnston, Joint Conveners. The General Assembly appointed the following Committee for revising the Record of the Commission and of the Royal Bounty - The Rev. James Grant, the Rev. James Smith, the Rev. Alexander Milne, the Rev. Malcolm M. Ross, and Captain Douglas Wimberley - The Rev. James Grant, Convener. COMMUNION SERVICE IN ST GILES'. The Rev. Professor STORY presented the Report of the Committee for arranging the celebration of the Holy Communion during the sitting of the Assembly. It recommended that the communion service be held in the High Church on Friday morning (to-morrow) at half-past ten o'clock, and he moved the adoption of the Report. Mr A.D.M. BLACK, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded. The Rev. ANDREW DOUGLAS, Arbroath, asked if the Kirk-Session of the High Church, or St Giles', or whatever name they might choose to call it, had given its consent to the Holy Communion being dispensed at the hour named in the Report. The Rev. Professor STORY said he should very much have preferred that the question had not been asked, as he did not think it relevant to the matter in hand. He would ask the Rev. Gentleman, unless he was extremely anxious about the information, not to press his question. He was quite prepared to answer it, but he thought the celebration of a service so solemn as that should not be made the subject of a discussion, which might become a heated discussion on the floor of the Assembly. THE MODERATOR - The Rev. Gentleman must have remarked that it was a member of St Giles' Kirk-Session who seconded the motion for the adoption of the Report. The Rev. A DOUGLAS said he had no desire to press the question if other members did not wish the information, but it appeared to him to raise constitutional issues of a very grave character indeed. The Rev. Dr SCOTT said Mr Douglas would have an opportunity of discussing the matter when the report on the celebration of the communion was laid before the House some time next week. The General Assembly adopted the Report and appointed in terms thereof. The Convener of the Business Committee proposed the order of business for to-morrow which was approved. It was agreed that next week the General Assembly shall, when an evening meeting is appointed, adjourn each day at 5.30, to meet again in the evening at 8.30. It was agreed to hold the Standing Orders as read. Leave was granted to the Kirk-Session of Lairg, Presbytery of Dornoch, and also to the Kirk-Session of Speymouth, to meet during the sitting of the General Assembly for the purpose of preparing the roll of the members of the congregation in each parish for the election and appointment of a Minister. Leave was granted to the Presbytery of Edinburgh to meet in St George's Church, Edinburgh, on Sunday the 1st day of June, for the Ordination of Mr Henry E. Scott, Missionary to Africa. The General Assembly adjourned at 2.40, to meet to-morrow at 12 o'clock. FRIDAY, 23rd May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last Sederunt being in the hands of Members, were held as read, and were approved of. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on Overtures, which was given in, read, and approved of. The applications from Ministers for admission to the Church, and from Students as to their status as Students of Divinity, were referred to a Committee to be nominated by the Committee of Nomination. Applications for Constitutions to Chapels of Ease were sent to the Standing Committee on Constitutions. TIIE ALLEGED POPISH IMAGES IN ST GILES'. Rev. JACOB PRIMMER was heard in support of his appeal from a decision of the Committee on Bills refusing to transmit a petition for the removing of images from the High Church of Edinburgh. Mr Primmer said the petition was signed by 40 Ministers and 198 Elders and Managers. Last year complaint was made that the Members did not know the grounds of the petition. He therefore wished to state its principal points. The Word of God, the Standards, and the existing laws and usages of the Church prohibited and condemned the introducing and setting up, or keeping and retaining in, or in connection with Churches, any images or figures or monuments of idolatry, and the having or using therein superstitious ornaments, structures, symbols, or devices, corrupting, or having a tendency to corrupt, the worship of God. Notwithstanding, there had been introduced into the Parish Church of St Giles various graven images, or figures of superstitious meaning and tendency. In particular, above the western or main entrance to the Church there was placed an image or sculptured representation of St Giles, formerly the so-called patron saint of the Church, in monastic habit, accompanied by a doe, and having two figures of angels underneath. At the sides of the said doorway are images or statuettes of, among others, certain bishops in sacerdotal vestments appropriate to their order. Within the Church, and near the said entrance, there was an image of a kneeling winged figure, holding a shell, which was used as the baptismal font. On a screen, or screen wall, within the Church, near the northern doorway, were placed ten images, which are reputed and intended to represent the so-called patron saints who were before the Reformation worshipped by the respective guilds of the city, viz.: - (1) Weavers - St Simon; (2) tailors - St Ann, with a child; (3) carpenters - St Joseph; (4) masons or architects - St John; (5) glovers - St Bartholomew; (6) skinners and tanners - St Clement; (7) butchers - St Anthony; (8) hammermen - St Elois; (9) shoemakers - St Crispin; (10) bakers - St Cuthbert, also in sacerdotal vestments. The Rev. Dr SCOTT rose to order, and objected to Mr Primmer entering into the merits of the case. What they had to consider at present was whether the appeal should be sustained, and that could be discussed without going into the body of the petition. The Rev. JACOB PRIMMER said this was the fourth time they had appeared before the Assembly. They believed that they were sincere. They stood there only for the glory of God and the interest of the Church. The Committee on Bills had refused to transmit the petition, on the ground that it had been already adjudicated upon by the Assembly; but he held that this Assembly was a different one from that of last year. He would also point out that last year Professor Story objected to him speaking, on the ground that the matter was res judicata; but the Assembly would not listen to that objection, and yet it was the principal ground taken by the Committee this year in refusing to transmit the petition. Their great desire was to have the question discussed on its merits; and as long as they had that case in the New Testament of the importunate widow going to the judge, they were entitled to come there each year and ask that the laws of the Church be vindicated. The Committee on Bills had refused to transmit his petition, but they had accepted a petition full of far stronger statements than were contained in his. He referred to the Manchester case. A MEMBER rose to order, and said the Manchester case had nothing whatever to do with what they were now considering. The Rev. J. PRIMMER said he only wished to show that the gnat of Scotland was not treated in the same way as the beam of Manchester. The Rev, Professor STORY said it was incom petent for a gentleman at the bar to introduce a petition in another case in support of his own. The Rev. J. PRIMMER said his object was to show that a petition full of libellous matter had been transmitted by the Committee on Bills. The petitioners had been told on a former occasion to go to the Presbytery of Edinburgh; but the minister of St Giles', speaking in Melbourne in 1887, said "the matter was brought before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and the Presbytery laughed it out of Court as utterly unworthy of notice." The petitioners, as loyal members of the Church of Scotland, and in the interests of purity of worship and of God's eternal truth, claimed that this matter should be discussed on its merits, so that the people might see that the Assembly was not acting contrary to the law of the State as well as the law of the Church. Professor STORY said he would venture to ask the House to decide the case in the same sense as before. Mr Primmer had quite unintentionally misrepresented the ground taken by the Committee on Bills. Although it would have been quite a tenable position, the Committee's decision was not arrived at on the ground that the matter was res judicata. The decision was come to on the strictly legal ground that the General Assembly was not a Court of first instance, but was a Court of appeal, and if - as the petition and assertions of Mr Jacob Primmer bore - a congregation or kirk-session within the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Edinburgh had erected superstitious images in their Church, and had thereby violated the law and practice of the Church, it was the duty of the Presbytery to take cognisance of the fact, and deal with the transgressors as they saw fit. But it was not the duty of the Assembly to take action on statements of a more or less random and exaggerated nature. They knew nothing of the merits of the case, except what was stated by Mr Primmer on his own authority, and although they might have a great regard for Mr Primmer's wisdom and inherent authority, they were not going to take it as law in this or any other matter. He moved that the appeal be dismissed, and the decision of the Committee on Bills affirmed. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, in seconding the motion, said the Assembly had a very wide door for the petitioners to pass through, and he was sure the Assembly would not wish to make that door wider than at present. Undoubtedly the petition contained statements more or less libellous, and anything in the nature of a libel should go before the proper Court, the Presbytery of Edinburgh. He could assure Mr Primmer that his case was not "laughed out of Court" by the Presbytery of Edinburgh. It was very seriously considered, and a decision was given in the usual way. The petitioners had the power of prosecuting their appeal before the Synod, and of carrying it to the General Assembly. They had never exhausted their resources, and until they did so, the Assembly had no right to listen to them. There being no counter motion Professor Story's motion was unanimously agreed to. ORDER OF BUSINESS. The Rev. Dr SCOTT gave in the report on the order of business so far as arranged, as follows: - Saturday - 1, Report of Jewish Mission Committee; 2, report of the Committee on Life and Work; 3, Report of Committee on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund; 4, Manchester case. Monday - 1, Education Report; 2, Report of Committee appointed by last Assembly to petition against the scheme laid before Parliament for altering constitution of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, along with the scheme which was now before Parliament, and which threw upon the Assembly the responsibility of electing three members of the new governing body; 4, Report of the Committee on Sabbath Schools; 5, St James's Church, Glasgow, Settlement Case; 6, Report of Committee on Collegiate Charges; 7, Duthil Case. Tuesday - 1, Report of Home-Mission Committee; 2, Report of Committee on Non-Church-Going; 3, Report of the Committee on University Bills - (l) Theological Tests, (2) General Question; with 4, Overtures X. and XI. on the Arts Course of Divinity Students; and 5, the Report on Students Engaging in the ordinary Ministry of the Word. Wednesday - Report of Endowment Committee - Report of the Committee on Church Interests, and the Report of the Committee on the Carsphairn Case. THE REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE BURGH OF EDINBURGH. The AGENT of the CHURCH (Mr W. J. Menzies) gave in the Report of the Committee appointed to consider the commissions from the burgh of Edinburgh. It stated that after the vote not to elect the two Commissioners named had been carried in the Town Council, the majority took no further steps to elect representatives to the Assembly. The Committee were of opinion that this motion was made with the view of preventing the election taking place. That was an improper motion, and the Committee were of opinion that it might be disregarded and the original motion, that the two gentlemen be elected, held to have been carried. The Committee, therefore, recommended that the Commissions of the two representatives be sustained, and the names of Councillors Miller and Macnaughton added to the roll of members of the Assembly. The Report was approved of, and the names of the two Commissioners from the Town Council of Edinburgh were ordered to be added to the roll. THE ELECTION OF ASSEMBLY REPRESENTATIVES. The Assembly next took up a dissent and complaint by the Rev. Dr Hutchison, Banchory Ternan, against a deliverance of the Presbytery of Kincardine O'Neil in regard to the election of representatives to the Assembly. At a meeting of the Presbytery on 26th March last, the Rev. Mr Neil, Glengairn; the Rev. Mr Middleton, Glenmuick, and Mr Argo, Kincardine O'Neil, were proposed as Commissioners to the Assembly, and Dr Hutchison was also nominated. Dr Hutchison moved that the roll be called, in order that the votes of the members might be divided among the several nominees, and that the three having the largest number of votes might be found to have been elected Commissioners to the Assembly. It was agreed, however, to take the vote between the two motions, and the three first-mentioned gentlemen were elected by 8 to 5. Dr Hutchison dissented, and complained to the Assembly on the ground that the vote was not taken in an equitable way, and he further protested that he should be found entitled to a seat in the Assembly, on the ground that the number of votes given in his support was such as would have secured his election if the vote had been taken in a proper way. Dr Hutchison also dissented from the resolution of Presbytery on 7th May, attesting the Commission. The Rev. Dr HUTCHISON appeared at the bar in support of his complaint, and the Rev. Mr Mackenzie, Aboyne, and the Rev. Mr Dunn, Birse, defended the judgment of the Presbytery. The Rev. Mr MACKENZIE, said he wished to be heard on the question of competency. He was speaking in so low a tone from the bar that he could not be heard, and the Moderator requested him to come forward to the table; but Dr Hutchison, amid much laughter, complained that under the new arrangement he was unable to hear, and he had some interest in the matter. The difficulty was got over by the parties in the case being accommodated with a seat near the centre of the House. Mr Mackenzie proceeded to say that the dissent from the decision of the Presbytery was taken on 26th March, and the Synod of Aberdeen, which met on 8th April, had been ignored by the petitioner. As that was contrary to the law of the Church, he asked that the dissent and complaint be dismissed as incompetent. The Rev. Dr HUTCHISON pointed out that as the Presbytery had acquiesced in his dissent and complaint to the Assembly, it was now too late for them to raise that objection to the competency. The reason why he took the complaint direct to the Assembly, and not through the Synod, was because the Assembly had a direct and immediate interest in the making up of the roll of its members. This was not, so far as he was concerned, a personal matter, but it was one of great interest and importance. It was now of very little consequence to him whether he was a member of Assembly or not. Time was when it was otherwise, but the election of representatives within the Presbytery to which he belonged was so utterly disagreeable that the position of a Member of that House had not the same attraction for him now as before. If the decision of the Presbytery was affirmed, it would create a precedent of a most unfair and prejudicial character. A MEMBER pointed out that Dr Hutchison was going beyond the question of competency. The Rev. Dr HUTCHISON said they had to consider whether this little technical objection should be allowed by the supreme Court of the Church to stand in the way of redress of what he was prepared to show was not only a grievous act of wrong, but a violation of the principle of righteousness. He therefore asked that the preliminary plea be not sustained, and that the Assembly should take up the case on its merits. The Rev. Mr DUNN, on behalf of the Presbytery, expressed regret that Dr Hutchison had introduced contentious matter into what was a purely constitutional point. There was nothing in the record to justify his tone and the unfair reflections he had made on his Presbytery, whose honour and good name he was bound, with the rest of its members, to maintain. The AGENT of the CHURCH said the acquiescence of the Presbytery in Dr Hutchison's complaint could not alter the law of the Church, and as Dr Hutchison had omitted to carry his appeal to the Synod, he moved as follows: - "That the General Assembly dismiss the appeal against the judgment of the Presbytery on 26th March, on the ground that the appeal should have been taken to the intervening meeting of Synod; further resolve to hear Dr Hutchison upon his dissent and complaint on 7th May." The motion was seconded. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON, Harray, did not think the motion of the Agent met the case, as it was only a dissent and not a complaint that was taken on 7th May. He moved that the Assembly find that the complaint ought to have been taken, in the first instance, to the intervening meeting of Synod, but as the Presbytery allowed the complaint to be taken directly to the General Assembly, the objection on the ground of incompetency should not now be entertained. The Rev. Dr M'LAREN, Larbert, seconded the motion. Mr JOHN COOK, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), said that they could not lightly pass over the irregularity that the appeal had not been taken to the Synod, and he moved - "The Assembly sustain the objection on the ground of competency, and dismiss the complaint." The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, seconded the motion. The Rev. THEODORE MARSHALL, Caputh, in moving that the objection be dismissed, said he was very doubtful whether the Synod had anything to do with the election of representatives to the General Assembly. The Presbytery was instructed by the Assembly to elect its representatives, and the Synod had nothing whatever to do with the constitution of the House. The Rev. Dr GLOAG, Galashiels, seconded. The AGENT in reply said they must take the law as it stood, and there was a decision which left no doubt in his mind that the appeal should have been taken to the Synod. It was agreed that the vote should be taken by standing up, and that in compliance with the standing orders the vote should be taken for each of the four motions in succession; when the vote being taken it appeared that there voted - Fourth motion, 17. Third motion, 116. Second motion, 18. First motion, 19. The third motion (Mr Cook's) having an absolute majority, thus became the judgment of the House, and the complaint was accordingly found incompetent. The Rev. Mr MACKENZIE, on the part of the Presbytery, acquiesced in the judgment of the General Assembly, took instruments, and craved extracts, which were allowed. Leave was granted to the Tolbooth Congregation to meet for public worship in the Assembly Hall, on the 25th May and the 1st June. At the request of the Rev. R.S. HUTTON, clerk of the Presbytery of Hamilton, leave was granted to the Kirk-Session of Garturk to meet during the sitting of the General Assembly, for the purpose of making up the roll of the Congregation for the election and appointment of a Minister of the Parish. PREACHERS BEFORE THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER. The Rev. William Lockhart, Colinton, and the Rev. David Hunter, Partick, were appointed to preach before the Lord High Commissioner in St Giles' Church on Sunday forenoon and evening respectively. Mr Lockhart and Mr Hunter being present had intimation made to them accordingly. The Rev. Professor STORY said that, owing to the strain on the voice of a preacher in St Giles', it had been customary for two clergymen to conduct the service at each diet, the one taking the devotional part and the other preaching the sermon. He thought the Assembly should itself appoint both of these gentlemen, instead of leaving the second minister to be chosen as at present, and he gave notice that to-morrow he would move that the Committee be instructed in their arrangements for the following Sunday to act on that principle. JOINT-COMMITTEE ON THE SCHEMES OF THE CHURCH. Mr T.G. MURRAY, Edinburgh (Elder), submitted the report of the Joint-Committee on the Schemes of the Church, which stated that 966 parishes had made collections for all the six schemes. There were 19 parishes which had contributed to none of the six schemes, 13 parishes had contributed to only one of the schemes, and 29 parishes had contributed to only two of the schemes. Of the additional collections ordered by the Assembly, 393 of the 1108 parishes reported upon had made a collection for each of the four, 329 had given to none, and the remainder had contributed to the funds Of one or more of the objects, but not to all. The Committee reported that under the will of the late Mr George Buist of Ormiston, Fife, the Church of Scotland had become entitled to about £2500 for the Propagation of Christianity in the Established Church of Scotland, and they asked to be authorised to report to next General Assembly a scheme for the division of the fund. Mr MURRAY moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, and thank the Committee. "The General Assembly commend the Mission Record and Morning Rays to the support of all the Ministers and Members of the Church, as a means of spreading intelligence regarding the Church's work at home and abroad, and so quickening interest in that work. "The General Assembly renew the injunction made by last Assembly, and quoted in the report, as to obtaining from Presbyteries information as to the collections made by appointment of the Assembly. "The General Assembly instruct the Committee to present to next Assembly a scheme for the division of the residue of the estate of the late George Buist, as proposed in the report." The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS seconded the motion, and suggested that the committee should print the names of the parishes which persisted in declining to make these collections. He saw no other way of reaching these defaulting parishes. He recognised the ability with which the Missionary Record was conducted, but thought it should take cognisance of the letters from the Female Missions, so that their Zenana work might be brought under the notice of the whole of the Church. He suggested that the Committee be instructed to consider the possibility of incorporating the publication termed "The News of Female Missions," in the Missionary Record, and to report, and he moved the following addition to the deliverence - " That the Committee be instructed to consider the possibility of amalgamating 'The News of Female Missions' with the Mission Record, and if it seem good, to effect the amalgamation," which was agreed to. REPORT OF COLONIAL COMMITTEE. The Rev. ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON, Edinburgh, submitted the report of the Colonial Committee, which mainly described in detail the work carried on under the Committee's influence in various parts of the world - Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, India, Ceylon, Cyprus, South Africa, the West Indies, and North and South America. In opening, it mentioned that while there was a decrease of £316, 6s. 4d. in the income of 1889 as compared with 1888 - largely due to the fact that an extra collection had been authorised by the Assembly in 1888 - the Committee had been able by reduction of expenditure to close the year with a credit balance of £137, 16s. 3d. In referring to Australia, it noticed the recent jubilee celebration of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and the commission which the Assembly last year gave to the Rev. Dr MacGregor, St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, to represent them not only in that particular Church, but also in the other Presbyterian Churches of Australia which he might be able to visit. The Committee felt that such visits as those winch had been paid by the Rev. Dr Cameron Lees, the Rev. Dr Marshall Lang, and the Rev. Dr MacGregor - together with the settlement in recent years of the Rev. Alexander Marshall, late of Inveresk, in the Scots Church, Melbourne, must contribute to draw more closely the Churches of Australasia to the National Church of Scotland. They were glad to know that the Rev. A. Wallace Williamson, St Cuthbert's, was about to proceed to Australia, and they meant to ask him to represent them, and convey their cordial greetings to the Presbyterian Churches he might visit. In alluding to the appointment of the Earl of Hopetoun as Governor of Victoria, the report stated - "The Committee cannot withhold an expression of their deep gratification that a Scotsman, not only highly respected for his character and administrative ability, but also deservedly popular with all classes for his kindness of heart, amiability of disposition, and courtesy of manner, should have been chosen for an office so important and responsible. Moreover, they rejoice that, for the first time in the history of the colony, an office-bearer of the Church of Scotland should fill the position of Governor - an office-bearer warmly attached to the Church of his fathers, zealous for her honour, and eager to promote her best interests. They are gratified to learn that he does not forget, in the distant land to which he has gone, that Church to which his ancestors belonged, and to which some of them on important occasions rendered signal service, and that he is a regular worshipper with the Scots Congregation in Melbourne." In connection with the New Zealand Presbyterian Church, the necessity of upholding the material support given to it from the mother country was insisted upon. The incorporation of the Church in the island of Fiji with the Presbytery of Melbourne was adverted to. Under the head of India, it was recommended that Quetta be adopted as one of the Committee's stations, in addition to Meerat, Mhow, and Rawalpindi, and that the Rev. James Shaw, now successfully labouring there, be taken over and recognised as a Minister of the Church of Scotland during the time he is in the employment of the Committee. Particulars were given in regard to the grants to British Columbia, Ceylon, Cyprus, Mauritius, South America, and the West Indies. Concerning the West Indies, the constitution of a Presbytery of Jamaica, including the island of Grenada, was noted. Later on it was stated that the Committee, having had laid before them the remit of the last General Assembly anent the English work at Alexandria, with all the documents and information which had been obtained from the Convener of the Jewish Mission Committee, after careful deliberation, came to the resolution that, while they recognised the great importance of the work, and felt that it was one which might reasonably be held to fall under the supervision of the Committee - yet, on account of the condition of their funds, the difficulty they experienced in meeting their liabilities, and also of the additional claims which they were aware would be made on them during the course of the present year, they deeply regretted that in the meantime they could not see their way to take it over. The opinion, however, was expressed that at some future period, if their income was larger, they would be in a position to reconsider their resolution. In drawing their report to a close the Committee stated - "The object of the Colonial Committee, from its establishment fifty-four years ago, has been to carry to Presbyterians, and especially to Scottish Presbyterians, in the far-off dependencies of the Empire, the blessings of the Gospel of grace, and to aid them in maintaining religious ordinances after the manner to which they and their fathers had been accustomed at home. That they have succeeded to a great extent in doing this, there is ample proof, furnished by the large, influential, and living Churches which, in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, have sprung into existence under their fostering care, and by the flourishing congregations in the scattered islands of the sea, and in the great continent of India - congregations which could not have been gathered together had it not been for the help afforded by your Committee." Mr Williamson, in submitting the report, went over the details it presented in reference to the various spheres of the Committee's operations. In alluding to the recent jubilee celebration of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and to the appointment of the Earl of Hopetoun to the Governorship of that colony, a nobleman whose name, he said, could never be mentioned without respect and affection in that Assembly, to which, for some years, he had been Her Majesty's representative, he remarked that he was sure it was their earnest hope and prayer that his lordship might long be preserved in health and strength, and that he might in after years be enabled to devote his great abilities to the service of his sovereign. Mr Williamson dwelt on the importance of the Colonial Scheme in all its branches, and in concluding said that if the Church of Scotland would rightly regard this Colonial Mission, it would see that it was of vast importance that it should be maintained, that its influence should be increased, that its usefulness should be extended, and that it should endeavour to meet the wants of their Scottish colonists in every part of the world. And if ever there was a time when it was necessary to bind still more closely together the Church at home to the Presbyterian Churches of the colonies, this surely was the time; for they had heard very recently strange and ominous words proceeding from a quarter that had hitherto maintained either a strict silence or given utterance to enigmatical sentences which no one could understand, telling them that there was danger before the old Church of Scotland, that Church which they considered the best and the purest, that Church on which the blessing of God had rested in the past as it rested in the present; and if the day of trial came, certain he was of this, that their friends in the colonies, the sons and daughters of the Church of Scotland, would not leave that Church alone to engage in the struggle, but would rise up to aid in defending the integrity of the National Church, and in transmitting it unimpaired to the generations that were to come. The Rev. Dr MACGREGOR, St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, then addressed the Assembly on the result of the mission deputed to him by last Assembly to represent the Church at the celebration of the jubilee of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria. One thing which struck him in regard to the people of Australia and New Zealand was their insatiable thirst for speeches. But he believed they were actuated in this by the desire to see the face and hear the voice of a man fresh from the dear old land. In New Zealand the Presbyterian Church held a very prominent place. There was a great future before that country if they would only not go further into debt. As to the jubilee proceedings in Victoria, he described that as no mere sectarian act of congratulation. It was a profound homage to Almighty God for all the goodness He had shown to them, and an expression of their determination to do their best in the future as they had done in the past, to make the continent of Australia from Cape York to Wilson Promontory the kingdom of God and of His Christ. And they made it no mere barren celebration, for in connection with the Jubilee, a sum of £120,380 would be raised for religious purposes. An impulse had gone from those meetings over the length of Victoria and to the extreme parts of the Australian Continent that would last probably for a generation. He was thankful to be standing there and to state his conviction, founded not upon mere observation but from a careful examination of statistics, that in that young land in Victoria, in all the Colonies, and in New Zealand, the religious sentiment ranked as high as it did at home. He had no fear of the future of these lands. Young nations were naturally inclined to take a materialistic view of life, but, among many other factors working for the public good, he was glad to think that religion and education stood highest. There were thousands of laymen in these young lands who realised to the full the responsibility lying on their shoulders as the makers of a new empire, and in a sense of a new race, to keep the nation in the formative period of its youth true to those unchanging conditions of righteousness and the fear of the Lord on which all solid national prosperity must ever depend. He might also be allowed to say one word expressive of his high admiration of the clergymen whom he met in that southern world, and not least of the race of young ministers, the native product of the soil. All the older and many of the younger ministers came from the old country, and from the three Presbyterian Churches of the old country. In all his intercourse with them he had never heard a single word that was not of profound respect for the dear old Church of Scotland. In this connection Dr MacGregor went on to say that he was sorry Dr Rainy had come back apparently not a bit better in his views on ecclesiastical polity. If those political Free Church and United Presbyterian ministers who were backing its opponents up in the endeavour to lay the Church of Scotland low with the ground, and to entail bitterness and misery in Scotland for another fifty years or more were transplanted to that southern world, and had a few years' experience of colonial life, he ventured to doubt if there was one who would lift his little finger in that direction. Alluding to the trouble through which the Victorian Church had recently passed, and which had been felt in the remotest hamlets in Australia, Dr MacGregor read the following letter from the Rev. James Lyall, an influential minister: - ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, 23rd September 1889. "MY DEAR DR MACGREGOR, - I cannot allow you to leave the Colony without expressing to you formally in writing what I have already said to you in private, as to my estimate of the exceeding value of the services rendered to the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and to the cause of evangelical religion in the Colony by the Church of Scotland. I do so all the more readily, that although I have watched the contendings of the Church in Victoria during recent years with the deepest interest and sympathy, I have in no way been mixed with its proceedings. I may further say that I belonged originally to the U.P. Church, and that, were I to return to the Motherland, I should undoubtedly seek my spiritual home within her bosom. "You will understand, therefore, that you have the testimony of a disinterested observer when I say that, in my opinion, the service which has been done by the Church of Scotland in sending out Dr Cameron Lees, Dr Marshall Lang, and (you will allow me to say) yourself, has been simply invaluable. It is a service which no other Church could have rendered so well; and in my opinion it is a service the beneficial results of which may last for a generation. "About four years ago I travelled a good deal in Victoria and had an opportunity of judging of the sentiments of a considerable number of people. At that time the tide of public opinion ran very strongly against the Presbyterian Church of that Colony, and the doctrines she maintains. Men, venerable for their character and ability, were held up to scorn by the leading organs of the press, as well as in private. "So far as I am capable of judging, the tide has completely turned the other way. The success of the Jubilee Fund, and the enthusiasm of the recent meetings, along with other things, may be regarded as proofs of this; and I do believe that this very pleasing change is, under God, largely owing to the influence exerted by the deputies from the Church of Scotland. "May our gracious Lord abundantly bless you and the venerable Church of which you and the two other men I have named have been such worthy representatives. - I am, yours truly, "(Signed) JAMES LYALL." The Rev. JAMES STUART, Jamaica, gave an account of mission work in that island. The Rev. Mr M'Leod, Little Narrows, Cape Breton, also addressed the Assembly as a representative from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The Rev. T.B.W. NIVEN, Pollokshields, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, record their thanks to the Committee and the Convener for their diligence; reappoint the Committee with the usual powers - Rev. Alex. Williamson to be Convener. The General Assembly further record their gratification that the work of the Committee has been most satisfactorily carried on during the past year. "The General Assembly rejoice that the visits of several prominent ministers to the colonies of Australasia have been productive of great benefit in drawing still closer the bonds of union between the Presbyterian Churches there and the Church of Scotland; and they learn with extreme gratification that these Churches are growing in prosperity and influence; that the number of their members is increasing; and that a large measure of success has attended their labours for the spread of the Gospel. The General Assembly approve of the institution of the Presbytery of Jamaica, and also of the appointment which the Committee have made to Quetta; and they are gratified that the Committee have been able to lay on the table a Report which bears ample testimony to the arduous, self-denying, and successful work of all their agents in the colonies and dependencies of the empire. "The General Assembly, considering that the funds of the Committee will not, at present, permit them to take over the English-speaking work at Alexandria, under the charge of the Jewish Mission, approve of the decision to which, in the meantime, they have come, in the hope at some future period they may be in a position to reconsider their resolution. "The General Assembly earnestly trust that all ministers will give their people an opportunity of contributing to the Colonial Mission, and that the members and friends of the Church of Scotland will aid the Committee to the utmost of their power in promoting the moral and spiritual welfare of Presbyterian colonists wherever they may be settled." Mr NIVEN, in speaking to this resolution, questioned whether the Church of Scotland could consider it did its duty in contributing a sum of £4500 or so annually in promoting the spiritual interests of their fellow Presbyterians in the colonies. The power of the Church of Scotland at the present day had never been adequately gauged. If 500,000 of the communicants of the Church would contribute a half-penny a month to the Colonial Committee's funds it would have £12,500 to give to colonial work, and that would leave between 80,000 and 90,000 communicants out of account altogether. He could not conceive that the present state of matters was owing to unwillingness on the part of the people to contribute; he considered there was a want of organisation somewhere. Mr W. OGILVY DALGLEISH, of Errol Park (Elder), in seconding the adoption of the deliverance, pointed to the special interest and importance of the work carried on by the Colonial Committee. The motion was adopted. At the request of the House the Moderator conveyed the thanks of the House to Mr Stewart and Mr Macleod for their interesting addresses. REPORT ON CONTINENTAL CHAPLAINCIES. The Rev. Dr MITCHELL, South Leith, presented the report of the Sub-Committee of the Colonial Committee on Continental Chaplaincies. It stated that the experiment which had been made of attempting to carry on the summer Chaplaincies by private contributions alone had proved that this was not sufficient to carry on that branch of their work with either satisfaction to themselves or a due regard to the wants of particular districts. With the exception of Homburg, which was occasionally self-supporting, every other station had hitherto needed large subsidies, and had for the time been abandoned. That these others were not the most suitable was evident from the fact that though the field was now open, other Churches have not stepped in to occupy them. The truth was, that stations which were at one time popular had ceased to be so, and other quarters had come to be frequented in large numbers, so that it would be necessary for the Committee to be in a position from time to time to make a trial for a season or two at some likely locality. But this could not be done without some funds in hand to enable the experiment to be made. In this way, it was believed, from the knowledge possessed by the Committee of the most crowded Continental summer resorts, the Church would be adequately represented, and the spiritual wants of her members sufficiently ministered to. One collection authorised by the Assembly, if at all liberally responded to, would enable the Committee to carry on the work at six different stations for several years, and it was just possible that the interest on the collection would be almost sufficient for their purpose. Apart altogether from the good work done by the Chaplains, it was not to the credit of the Church of Scotland, nor to her strength, that those of other communions who visited the Continent should find that she did so little by voluntary effort to provide for the spiritual welfare of her sons and daughters who were abroad. The report of the two permanent Chaplaincies at Paris and Dresden was of the most satisfactory character. Chiefly in consequence of the International Exhibition, the attendance and collections at the Church in Paris have been far in excess of former years. In Dresden throughout the past year, although the number of visitors was not so large, owing, it was supposed, to the Paris Exhibition, the collections at Church showed an increase on any previous year since Mr Bowden's settlement. Dr Mitchell, in presenting the Report, expressed the opinion that if they were to carry on this work in a manner worthy of the Church of Scotland they would require a somewhat more extensive sphere than at present in the way of stations. He thought it would be a great advantage if they had a couple of winter stations. The Rev. Dr GRAY, Liberton, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, reappoint the Committee as a subsection of the Colonial Scheme, and recommend the case to the favourable consideration of the Finance Committee." Mr A.D.M. BLACK, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the deliverance, which was adopted. ARMY AND NAVY CHAPLAINCIES. The Rev. THEODORE MARSHALL, Caputh, presented the Report of the Sub-Committee of the Colonial Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains, which stated that during the past year the work of the Committee had been carried on on the same plan, and, with one exception, in the same places, and by the same Agents, as reported to last General Assembly. Several matters, more or less directly affecting the welfare of our soldiers and sailors, had been brought under the notice of the Committee, and had formed subject of correspondence with the Authorities of the War Office and Admiralty. Among these matters might be mentioned the withdrawal, in the last issue of the Queen's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions, of the privilege formerly granted to Ministers of the Church of Scotland of celebrating marriages on board Her Majesty's ships. The attention of the proper authorities had been directed to the matter, and the Committee would endeavour to have the disability which had been occasioned, as they are convinced, through no hostility to the Church of Scotland, removed at the first opportunity. The Committee had again to express their sense of the courtesy of the Military and Naval Authorities, and of their readiness to consider any suggestions made by them, as representing the Church of Scotland, for the better supply of the religious wants of our soldiers and sailors. In tabling the report Mr MARSHALL mentioned that the withdrawal of the privilege of celebrating marriages on board Her Majesty's ships had reference purely to some question connected with the Civil Law of England, and in no way interfered with the rights and duties of the Church in ministering to Presbyterian sailors in the navy. He had no doubt that if the Committee received the authority and support of the General Assembly they would be successful in having the disability complained of removed. Passing to the main part of the Report, Mr Marshall stated that he was thankful to present to the General Assembly the record of much good work quietly but efficiently performed by a body of Chaplains well qualified for the duties entrusted to them, and who by the manner in which they devoted themselves to these duties won the confidence of both officers and men. He asked the Ministers and Members of the Church to interest themselves in the work of the Chaplains, and particularly requested them to try and enlist the sympathies of any of their friends who were officers at the Stations served by the Church in the work of the Chaplains. He concluded by moving the following deliverance: - " The General Assembly receive the Report of their Committee on Army and Navy Chaplains; express their satisfaction that so much efficient work is done among Presbyterian Soldiers and Sailors, and reappoint the Committee - the Rev. Theodore Marshall, Convener - with the powers conferred on them by former General Assemblies, with instructions to continue their endeavours to have the position formerly occupied by Ministers of the Church of Scotland in reference to the celebration of marriages on board Her Majesty's ships restored, and to use all the means in their power to promote and manifest the interest of the Church of Scotland in all that concerns the religious and moral welfare of Scottish Presbyterians in the Army and Navy." SIR WILLIAM BAILLIE of Polkemmet (Elder) seconded the deliverance, which was adopted. The General Assembly held a Diet of Prayer. The Rev. Dr. M'Murtrie conducted the Devotional Services of the Assembly. REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE. Mr EDMUND BAXTER, W.S. (Elder), submitted the Report of the Finance Committee, with which was submitted an abstract of their accounts for the year ending 31st December 1889, in which the accounts of the Committee on Psalmody and Hymns for the same period were incorporated. At that date there was a balance due by the Committee of £119, 11s. 5d., and as they had a credit balance of £246, 18s. 9d. at the beginning of the year, the Committee expended during the year £366, 10s. 2d. more than they received. The sum received by the Committee as royalties from the publishers of the Scottish Hymnal, after deducting the expenses of the Committee on Psalmody and Hymns for the year, amounted to £546, 12s. 4d. - being upwards of £300 less than was received during the previous year. It must be anticipated that these royalties would in future continue to diminish, and unless the Committee were to receive funds from other sources, it would be necessary that their expenditure be curtailed. They reminded the Assembly that eight years had elapsed since they had had the benefit of a general collection in aid of their funds. Having regard to the financial position of the Committee, and the prospective claims upon them, it was submitted that the Assembly ought now to authorise a general collection. In reference to last year's remit of Assembly "to ascertain to what extent glebes are burdened with a liability in respect of loans from drainage companies; how far this practice is consistent with the interests of the Church; and in cases where loans have been incurred by a previous incumbent, whether anything can be done to relieve the existing minister," the Committee reported that after a careful perusal of the information laid before them, they were of opinion that, except in one or two cases - such as Urquhart, where the transaction had been unfortunate and not for the benefit of the glebe - there were no cases of hardship, and that in many instances the money which had been advanced had been of the greatest benefit to the glebes. The Committee were of opinion that there was no occasion for further inquiry into the matter. In tabling the report, he moved the following deliverance: - " Approve the Report of the Finance Committee, and continue the Committee with all former powers. Further, the General Assembly resolve that in future they will not entertain any application for a grant from the funds of the Finance Committee, unless the application shall have been previously submitted to the Committee and reported on by them. Further, appoint a collection to be made in aid of the funds of the Committee, and remit to the Joint Committee on the Schemes to fix a suitable date for this collection." Mr Baxter, in speaking to the motion, indicated the opinion that the Finance Committee was not in a proper position, in having such limited funds at its disposal. The Rev. Dr GRAY, Liberton, seconded the deliverance, which was agreed to. REPORT ON PSALMODY AND HYMNS. The Rev. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, submitted the Report of the Committee on Psalmody and Hymns. The sales of the "Scottish Hymnal," he stated, numbered 181,000; of the "Book of the Psalms and Paraphrases, with tunes, 5000; "Children's Hymnal," nearly 17,000; "Anthem Book," 1400; "Prose Psalter," 2000, making the total sale 207,000 copies. This was the simplest and strongest testimony to the success of the work done under him who was at once the Convener of the Committee and Moderator of the Assembly. The total sales of the old Hymnal had been a million and a quarter. The sales since the new Hymnal was issued had been three-quarters of a million within a few years; so that it came near to an equality with the old Hymnal during the long course of twenty years. In this way they had the testimony of the Church in a simple arithmetical form to the success of the more recent work. The Committee had been engaged during the year solely in the preparation of the new Anthem Book, the completion of which they had hoped to be able to intimate to the Assembly. The whole work, however, had been beset with difficulty. It was found that, to render the collection first-class, many anthems of which the copyright belonged to Messrs Novello & Co., London, would require to be included, and accordingly for that purpose negotiations were entered into with these gentlemen. The only terms, however, such which Messrs Novello would agree were such as were practically prohibitive. The Committee, therefore, had had no alternative but to proceed with the selection of anthems other than those belonging to Messrs Novello, and they have nearly completed their work. The proof-sheets were now coming rapidly forward, and it was proposed that the book should be published at 4s. The book about to be issued, besides giving music for all the pieces contained in it, will give the full list of pieces originally selected by the Committee from Messrs Novello's publications, so that such congregations as desire can extend their choice. A great step in advance would be made, Dr Rankin said, if he could persuade Ministers and influential Elders to have done altogether with the old book, not that he wished to say one word unfavourable to it, but they could get, at a cheaper rate, the larger collection which contained all the hymns in the smaller book, and it would be unnecessary to give out the numbers in both books. Then, the Committee had got a version of the prose Psalms pointed for chanting, and an excellent selection of chants. Sir CHARLES DALRYMPLE, M.P., moved the following: - "The General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Committee for their diligence; reappoint the Committee as follows: - General Committee. - Revs. John Alison, D.D., Edinburgh; A.K.H. Boyd, D.D., LL.D., St Andrews; Robert Buchanan, Dunbar; James Cooper, M.A., Aberdeen; James Coullie, B.D., Pencaitland; Alex. Galloway, B.D., Minto; M.H. N. Graham, Maxton; J. Kemp, Blairgowrie; J C. Lees, D.D., LL.D., Edinburgh; Thomas Leishman, D.D., Linton; Geo. Marjoribanks, B.D., Stenton; J.R.M. Mitchell, B.A. Cantab., Aberdeen; Prof. Mitchell, D.D., St Andrews; J. Mackintosh, B.D., Uddingston; Donald Macleod, D.D., Glasgow; John Macleod, D.D., Govan; J. M'Murtrie, D.D., Edinburgh; J. Paton, B.A., St Paul's, Glasgow; J. Rankin, D.D., Muthill; A.F. Smart, Chirnside; R. N. Smith, Haddington; Prof. R.H. Story, D.D; E. Lytton Thompson, D.D., Hamilton; W. W. Tulloch, B.D., Glasgow; David Watson, Glasgow; J.G. Young, D.D., Monifieth; Thomas Young, RD., Ellon; Sir Alexander Kinloch, Bart.; J. M. Bell, Esq., W.S.; Lewis Bilton, Esq., W.S.; J.J. Richardson, Esq.; C. Baxter, W.S., Secretary. Editorial Committee. - Revs. John Alison, D.D., Edinburgh; A.K.H. Boyd, D.D., LL.D., St Andrews; Robert Buchanan, Dunbar; James Cooper, M.A., Aberdeen; James Coullie, B.D., Pencaitland; Alex. Galloway, B.D., Minto; M. H.N. Graham, Maxton; J. Kemp, Blairgowrie; J. C. Lees, D.D., LL.D., Edinburgh; G. Marjoribanks, B.D., Stenton; Prof. Mitchell, D.D., St Andrews; J.R.M. Mitchell, B.A. Cantab., Aberdeen; J. Mackintosh, B.D., Uddingston; Donald Macleod, D.D., Glasgow; John Macleod, D.D., Govan; J. M`Murtrie, D.D., Edinburgh; J. Paton, B.A., Glasgow; J. Rankin, D.D., Muthill; R. N. Smith, Haddington; Prof. R.H. Story, D.D.; E. Lytton Thompson, D.D., Hamilton; W. W. Tulloch, B.D., Glasgow; David Watson, Glasgow; Sir Alexander Kinloch, Bart.; C. Baxter, W.S., Secretary; - Dr Boyd to be Convener of both Committees: Instruct the Committee to complete and issue the Revised Anthem Book at their earliest convenience. The Committee is farther authorised to make small grants of their publications in special cases." He congratulated the Committee on the admirable collection of hymns they had prepared, which he knew was highly approved by many excellent judges. He wished to take the opportunity of referring to the loss which the Christian Church had sustained by the death of Dr Horatius Bonar. It was the greatest tribute to him that his hymns were on every one's lips. He did not believe that people either in England or Scotland were aware of the authorship of many of those hymns. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, in seconding the motion, expressed a hope that the Committee would endeavour to make room in the collection for one of the oldest hymns of the Christian Church - the Creed of Nicea. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, regretted that the arrangement proposed with Messrs Novello & Co. could not be carried out, as in consequence the anthem book would be deprived of some of the very best music. It occurred to him that by a simple method something might be done to retain some of the advantages of the former arrangement. He had no doubt that the Committee intended to print anthem books without music. Now, if they were to print the words of particular anthems, and indicate the source from which the music could be taken, that would enable individual Churches to acquire the music, and thereby to provide an enlarged anthem book for themselves. If that was not done there were Churches which would continue to do what was being done by Churches in Glasgow already, namely to draw up their own anthem book. Mr F.W. ALLAN, Glasgow (Elder), said he desired, on behalf of those interested in Sabbath Schools, to thank the Committee for having supplied in the children's hymnal a much-felt want. The motion was then adopted. AIDS TO DEVOTION. The Rev. JOHN PATON, Dumfries, submitted the Report of the Committee on Aids to Devotion, which stated that the Committee had revised the edition of "Prayers for Social and Family Worship" submitted to last Assembly, and had published an edition of 2000, together with a similar edition of "Prayers for Family Worship." The Committee; had substituted the word "debts" for "trespasses" in the Lord's Prayer, and had made a few alterations to meet suggestions by leading members of last Assembly, but otherwise the book was the same. The Rev. THEODORE MARTIN, Caputh, moved the following deliverance: - "Receive the Report, reappoint the Committee, with the addition of the name of Dr Gray - Dr MacGregor, Convener, and Mr Paton, Vice-Convener, with instructions to continue the work of revision and amendment of the Book of Devotion, and with permission, if they see fit, to publish the same, it being understood that in the meantime the books so published have only the sanction of the Committee." Mr TURNBULL SMITH, C.A., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion, which was agreed to. INDIAN CHURCHES. The Rev. JAMES WILLIAMSON, The Dean, Edinburgh, submitted the Report of the Committee on Indian Churches: - The Report began by expressing regret at the loss sustained by the death of Mr Jollie, Senior Chaplain of the Church of Scotland Madras Establishment. During his term of service he ministered at Secunderabad, with the 72nd Highlanders in the Afghan war, at Bangalore, and Madras, with the greatest acceptance. The Rev. Robert A. Stevenson, Assistant in St Stephen's Church, Glasgow, had been appointed by Lord Cross as Assistant Chaplain on the Madras Establishment. The other Chaplains are Rev. G.W. Manson, Rev. Alex. Ferrier, Rev. John Taylor, and Rev. Thos. Scott, and details were given of their work in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. It was impossible, the Report said, to overestimate the importance of the work of Ministers of our own and other Churches in labouring to bring our countrymen, who are living in the midst of the millions of Hindus and Mohammedans, to be earnest, godly Christians. It would be to the condemnation of our countrymen in India who professed themselves followers of Jesus Christ, if, by their ungodly conduct, there should be created a prejudice against Christianity in the minds of the natives of India which would prevent them from embracing our holy religion; but, on the other hand, if all our countrymen in India, in all professions, civil and military, in Government or private service, in presidency towns, military stations, on our railways, on tea and coffee plantations, indigo factories, &c., were living epistles of Christ, animated with His Spirit, following His example, endeavouring to advance His Kingdom, they would be well-pleasing to God; they would thereby not only bring the greatest blessings to themselves in the salvation of their own souls, but also to their heathen and Mohammedan fellow-subjects, in giving them this demonstration of the superiority of Christianity over their religions. If the 300,000 Europeans and Eurasians now living in India were devoted Christians, the evangelization of India would not be far distant; India would soon be "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God." The Rev. Dr HERDMAN, Melrose, moved the following deliverance: - " 1. That the General Assembly approve the Report, reappoint the Com.- mittee with the usual powers - the Rev. James. Williamson, Convener. 2. The General Assembly have heard, with much regret, of the death of the Rev. James Jollie, Senior Chaplain, Madras, and desire that an expression of their sympathy be conveyed to the widow and children of Mr Jollie in the bereavement which they have sustained. 3. The General Assembly have learned with much satisfaction that the former edition of the 'Prayers for Social and Family Worship,' prepared by the Committee on 'Aids to Devotion,' has been so useful to our countrymen in India when deprived of the services of a Presbyterian Minister. The General Assembly trust that the revised edition will be equally if not more useful, and commend it to our Chaplains and Acting-Chaplains for use among the Presbyterians 'scattered abroad,' and destitute of a fixed pastor, to enable them to have religious services in the form to which they have been accustomed. 4. The General Assembly renew the expression of their sense of the kindness of the Ministers mentioned in the Report, who have supplemented the labours of our Chaplains in affording divine service at stations not occupied by them, and are glad to learn that the Government of India continue to give grants-in-aid to those Ministers for their valuable services." Speaking to the motion, Dr HERDMAN said that looking at the whole field of India, he thought they had good reason for congratulation. He doubted if it was sufficiently known to what a great extent the Church of Scotland, by means of her regular Chaplains and a number of subsidised Ministers, met the spiritual destitution of Scotsmen in India. But with all their work there still remained ample room for such organisations as the Anglo-Indian Evangelisation Society, which had a large field of labour in the tea and coffee plantations, the collieries, and jute factories of India. Mr J.T. MACLAGAN, Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion, which was adopted KINCARDINE O'NEIL COMMISSION. The AGENT moved, as following on the decision of the General Assembly this forenoon, in the case of Kincardine O'Neil, "That the Commission to the Representatives of that Presbytery, already before the House, be sustained, and that the names of these Representatives be added to the Roll." The General Assembly adjourned at 5.35 P.M. to meet to-morrow at eleven o'clock. Saturday, 24th May 1990. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The minutes of last sederunt being in the hands of Members, were held as read, and were approved of. Synod books were called for, when the following were given in: - The Books of Perth and Stirling, Glasgow and Ayr, Fife, and Orkney. The following Committees were appointed to examine them: - Books of Perth and Stirling - Rev. Mr Hewison, Convener; Rev. James Dick, Robert Blair, Esq. Books of Glasgow and Ayr - Rev. Mr Reid, Monikie, Convener; Rev. John Watt, Andrew Lowson, Esq. Books of Fife - Rev. David Morrison, Convener; Rev. Jardine Wallace, and M.G. Thorburn, Esq. Books of Orkney - Rev. T.B.W. Niven, Convener; Rev. Robert Pryde, W.H. Dunlop, Esq. On the recommendation of the Nomination Committee, the following was appointed a Committee on Applications from other Churches and Students of Divinity: - Dr Gloag, Dr Dykes, Dr Snodgrass, Dr Menzies, Dr Young, Dr Joass, Dr Taylor, the Rev. Messrs D. Morrison, T.J. Marjoribanks, George Cook, Alexander Lawson, M'Kerron, Workman, Paton, Lee Kerr, J.F. M'Pherson, A. Watt, D. Hunter, T. Marshall, G. Simpson, H. Ranken, N. M'Michael, and W.D. Herald; the Viscount Dalrymple, James Wallace, Esq.; Alexander M'Pherson, Esq.; W.F. Allan, Esq.; Sheriff Cheyne, John A. Trail, Esq.; Professor Scott Lang - Dr Watt, Convener. REPLY TO THE QUEEN'S LETTER. The Rev. Dr GLOAG, Galashiels, on behalf of the Committee appointed for that purpose, submitted the following reply to the Queen's letter: - "May it please your Majesty, - We, your Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, the Ministers and Elders of the Church of Scotland, now met together in General Assembly, beg with all reverence and submission to acknowledge receipt of your Majesty's gracious letter. We have to return our most grateful thanks for the continued expression which it contains of your Majesty's attachment to the Church of Scotland, an attachment which has been shown not in word only, but repeatedly in deeds. We beg to assure your Majesty that you have not in all your dominions a more loyal and devoted body of subjects than the Office-Bearers and Members of the Church of Scotland. We render thanks to Almighty God for your Majesty's long and prosperous reign, and it is our earnest prayer that you may be spared for many years to come to be a continued blessing to this nation, with all its colonies and dependencies, and to the Empire of India. We hail with much satisfaction the appointment of the Most Noble the Marquis of Tweeddale as your Majesty's Representative to this General Assembly, and have to express our confidence that he will be able to report to your Majesty a favourable account of our proceedings. We accept with all thankfulness your Majesty's gift of £2000 for the diffusion of Christian knowledge in the Highlands and Islands, and beg to assure your Majesty that we shall expend it in such a manner as will secure your Majesty's approval." The Reply was adopted, and his Grace the Lord High Commissioner undertook, at the request of the Assembly, to present the letter to Her Majesty. The Rev. Dr STORY moved that the Committee be instructed in arranging for the Sunday Services in the High Church to nominate two Ministers for each diet - one to conduct the Devotional Services, and the other to preach. Leave was granted to the Committee to meet in the Business Room for this purpose at one o'clock to-day. The Rev. Dr STORY, at the request of the Moderator of the Kirk-Session of Mauchline, asked leave for that Kirk-Session to meet on Monday, which was granted. JEWISH MISSIONS. Rev. Dr ALISON, Newington, Edinburgh, gave in the Report of the Committee on the Conversion of the Jews. It stated that the numbers in attendance at the Schools were nearly as large as could be accommodated. There were 1761 children enrolled during the year, of whom 1165-361 boys and 804 girls—were Jewish, as compared with 1040 the previous year. The progress of the Sunday Schools at the several Stations was very significant and encouraging. They were well attended by Jewish children, and their attendance was solely for the purpose of receiving religious instruction. Many Jewish parents preferred the Christian Schools to their own, not merely because of their good general education, but because their children were religiously taught. The Medical Mission continued to be a popular and successful part of their operations, and nothing had tended more to gain the confidence of the Jews, who in large numbers availed themselves of the dispensary and the visits of the Missionary. The Agents of the Mission continued to tell of the increasing friendliness of the Jews - of their desire for the education given in the Schools, which they knew to be distinctively Christian; of their special evidence of willingness to receive Christian instruction in sending their children in large numbers to the Sunday Schools; of statements frequently made that they were already convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus, but were not prepared to break off from their people by submitting to baptism; and of increasing tolerance of the Jew who had become Christian. No baptisms of adults had been reported during the year. One family would have been baptised but for the absence on furlough of the Ordained Missionary, who intends to baptise them at an early date. By those who insist on measuring success by the number of baptised converts, the year might unwarrantably be described as one of failure; but to those who regarded the work as one the end and times of which were with God, the open doors and hearts that invited their Christian ministrations, and the great change in the spirit of the people consequent on the work of years past, were their tokens of blessing and calls to proceed. The Committee recommended that, in view of the altered circumstances of the Mission, arising mainly from its success in its distinctive purpose of gaining access to and influencing Jews, the policy of the future should be changed by eliminating English pastoral work, in so far as that could be done without injury to religious interests; and by giving more attention to preaching to Jews, and to following up the work of the Schools as well as of the Medical Mission by means of visitation of Jews at their homes, and other modes of evangelization. At Alexandria and Beyrout the Pastorate of the English congregations required most, if not the whole, of the time and strength of the Ordained Missionaries, to the neglect of the distinctive work of the Jewish Mission. At Alexandria, St Andrew's Church and the Harbour Mission should now be put by the General Assembly under some Committee charged with work among English speaking people. At Beyrout, notice should at once be given to the American Presbyterian Church Board of Missions that at the end of twelve months the Church's Ordained Missionary there would cease to act as Pastor of the Anglo-American Congregation. To enable the children to retain that which they had got at School, and to help them in their religious growth, their teachers, or others equally capable, should be put into a position to follow them into their homes and maintain friendly intercourse with them. The income for the year was £7803, 0s. 10d., but from that had to be deducted £601, 0s. 3d. of contributions for special purposes, and £73, 4s. 1d. of interest charged for over-drafts on the bank account, leaving the sum of £7128, 16s. 6d. applicable to the general or ordinary expenses of the Mission. This showed an increase in the funds contributed on behalf of the Mission of £2952, 7s. 2d. over the amount received last year, when the revenue was short of the expenditure by £845, 7s. 11d. From 154 Parish Churches no contributions were received, being 80 non-contributing Parishes less than last year. The expenditure of the Committee during the year amounted to £5470, 14s. 9d., being an increase of £448,17s. 6d. as compared with the expenditure of 1888. In regard to the Smyrna Medical Mission, which had been maintained by a separate fund, and had not shared in the general funds of the Mission, the Committee, while glad to be able to report an increase in the funds contributed, regretted that these had been quite inadequate for the maintenance of the Mission, even on the limited scale on which it had hitherto been prosecuted. The Report concluded by giving details of the work at the various Stations of the Mission. In speaking to the Report, Dr. Alison made a sympathetic reference to the late Rev. Dr Somerville and the great services which he had rendered to Mission work. He afterwards went over the principal features of the Report, which he regarded as satisfactory. The Rev. WM. KEAN, Alexandria, one of the Agents of the Church, gave an account of the work at that station, and in the course of his remarks said his experience was that as yet the Jew would not come to a meeting to listen to the Gentile; but he would listen to one of his own race. The Rev. Dr PRINSKI SCOTT, Medical Missionary at Smyrna, where he has been for nine years, described the work carried on there, and said he did not think Lord Beaconsfield had a memorial more useful and more calculated to benefit the poor than the hospital at Smyrna. They had about 12,000 patients per year, and most of these heard the Gospel preached. It was said that it took £1000 to convert a Jew. He could get them a hundred converts at that price, but they did not want to catch a Jew and label him a convert; they wished to teach him something of the true spirit of Christianity, and when he asked to be baptised and they were satisfied of his fitness, they would do so. It was also said that the Jews were rich enough to convert themselves, but they as Christians should do a little to give back something for what they had received from the Jews. If they read Scripture aright they were entitled to conclude that there was a glorious future for Israel, and it was the great privilege of the Church of Scotland to hasten on that day. The Rev. Dr CHRISTIE, Gilmerton, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve and adopt the Report. They are gratified to learn that the Committee have been able to provide for carrying on the work at all the stations with unabated strength and efficiency. They give thanks to God for the means which He has supplied, and for the various tokens of encouragement which He has given to persevere in the distinctive work of the Mission. They thank their Agents for their zealous and good services, and assure them of their wish to do everything in their power to help them. The General Assembly note with satisfaction the large increase in the number of Jewish children in regular attendance at the Mission Schools, and the eagerness of Jewish parents to avail themselves of the Christian education provided for their children, especially for their daughters. They approve of the policy of the Committee in gradually making room for more Jewish pupils, by reducing the number belonging to other races and creeds. They also approve of the proposal of the Committee to follow up the work of the schools to an increased extent by evangelistic visits to the homes of the Jews, and authorise the Committee to take such steps as they may find practicable and wise to this end. The General Assembly are pleased to learn that the Medical Branch of the Mission at Smyrna continues to be acceptable and useful; and agreeing with the view of the Committee, that the time has now come when it may with advantage be incorporated with the other agencies of the Mission, they authorise the Committee to arrange for such incorporation. The General Assembly continue to regard with deep interest the work which, for so many years, has been carried on by the agents of the Mission among English residents at the several stations. They recognise the necessity of seeing that the spiritual needs of such residents shall still be cared for. At the same time they recognise that when God has so opened doors of opportunity for distinctively Jewish mission work, that it is sufficient to occupy the whole time of their Ordained Agents, the work of English pastorates should be transferred to others. They therefore authorise the Committee to arrange for the withdrawal of their Ordained Missionary from the pastorate of the Anglo-American Church at Beyrout. In respect of the pastorate of St Andrew's Church, and the superintendence of the Harbour Mission at Alexandria, they resolve to appoint a special Committee to consider the mode in which the Jewish Mission Committee may best be relieved of this part of their responsibility, and to report to a future diet of this Assembly. The General Assembly regret that the Committee have not yet been successful in arranging for the services of a deputy to plead the cause of the Mission, and authorise them to continue their endeavours to make such an appointment. The General Assembly thank the Ladies' Association for the Christian Education of Jewesses, for the important help which they have continued to give to the Mission. They approve of the proposed change in the constitution of the Association, and trust that it may conduce to increased usefulness. "The General Assembly are pleased to learn that there has been an increase in the revenue of the Committee, and a marked decrease in the number of non-contributing Congregations. They regret, however, that there should still have been a considerable deficit at the beginning of this year, and they again commend the Mission to the Office-Bearers and Members of the Church. "The General Assembly record their thanks to the Convener, Vice-Convener, and Committee for the manner in which they have conducted the affairs of the Mission during the past year, and reappoint the Committee, with powers to sub-commit, to add to their number, and with all other usual powers - Dr John Alison to be Convener, and the Rev. Thomas Nicol, Vice-Convener. The General Assembly further resolve to appoint a Special Committee for the purposes asked in the foregoing deliverance with reference to the Pastorate of St Andrew's Church and the Harbour Mission at Alexandria - the Committee of Nomination to bring up list of Members of the Committee." After an allusion to his former connection with the Mission, Dr CHRISTIE, in speaking to the motion, said that the stations occupied by the Committee were places of great historic interest, which had been consecrated by the first footsteps of Christianity, and which were scarcely less interesting now as centres of Missionary activity. It would deserve to be regarded as something worse than a misfortune if, through lack of funds, the Committee were compelled to withdraw from any of these stations. He could not believe that the Church would suffer such a misfortune to fall upon the Mission. He believed that at the present crisis, when she was called upon to defend her interests at home, she would show that she was determined not only to strengthen her stakes, but to lengthen her cords, and to care for her Missions abroad. The success which had attended the educational work of the Mission was very remarkable. He remembered the time when all the pupils in their schools could have been accommodated in a moderately-sized room. That was the day of small things, but the Church had not despised it, and now she was having her reward in the highly prosperous condition to which these schools had attained, the number of pupils reported for the past year being no fewer than 1761, of whom 1165 were Jewish children, who were receiving a thoroughly Christian education, and who, in respect of Bible knowledge, would compare favourably with the children trained in Board Schools and in Sabbath Schools at home. It was not so easy to express in figures the results of Evangelistic work, but a great amount of such work had been done, and he confidently affirmed that it had not been done in vain. Meetings for the reading and exposition of the Bible and for Christian worship had been conducted; Sabbath Schools had been established, and had been well attended; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments had been put before the people in a language that they could read and understand; Christian literature had been prepared and widely circulated; prejudices had been removed, and a spirit of inquiry had been awakened in the Jewish mind. There were many who, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, carried in their secret heart the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah of whom Moses and the Prophets testified, while some had had the courage to confess their convictions, and had been received into the Communion of the Church. They were sometimes asked what were the results of all the money and labour expended on this Mission. He submitted that the facts which had been stated to them that day were most important and valuable results, of which neither the Church nor its Mission had any need to be ashamed. They were not, indeed, all that they hoped for, but they might accept them as a pledge of the better things that were sure to come, if they had the patience to wait for them, and the faith to work for them. The influx of Western ideas and civilisation was telling for evil as well as for good upon the minds of all the races in the East, and it was therefore the duty of the Church more than ever to preach to them the Gospel of Christ as the wisdom of God, and the power of God, unto salvation to every one that believeth - to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Missions were not a human experiment, but a Divine Institution, and surely the command to preach the Gospel to all nations had a special significance in reference to that nation of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, and whose reception into His Kingdom was associated in the predictions of Prophets and Apostles with all that was brightest and best in the future history of the Christian Church. He could not speak in too laudatory terms of the work that had been done by the Ladies' Association, which co-operated with the Committee that had charge of this scheme, and it was in great measure owing to their efforts that the schools had been so successful, and that the Jewish girls who had been educated in them might now be counted by thousands. It was to be hoped that they would soon be in position to send to each of the stations a lady who should devote herself to work among Jewesses, similar to that carried on by Zenana Missions in India. Mr J.T. MACLAGAN, Edinburgh (Elder), in seconding the motion, spoke of the claims which the Jews had upon Christians. The motion was agreed to, and the Moderator expressed the thanks of the Assembly to Mr Kean and Dr Scott for their addresses, and wished them all success in their work. At the request of the Rev. DUNCAN DEWAR, the Kirk-Session of Glenelg was allowed to meet on the 27th inst. for the purpose of revising the Roll of the Congregation for the election of a Minister of the Parish. CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS gave in the Report of the Committee on Christian Life and Work. Dealing first with the organisation of Women's work, the Women's Guild was reported to possess ninety branches, with a membership of 6018. And though, as regards numbers, the growth did not correspond to that of last year, the branches were in a more vigorous and healthy state, as Women were by degrees finding the possibilities opened to them by the banding together and training afforded by the Guilds. The Women-Workers' Guild was still, for the reasons given in last Report, an expectation rather than a realised fact; but it was hoped that by next year (when the prescribed term of probation was completed) Kirk-Sessions would be able to recognise and encourage members of that Guild. It was said that some Ministers were deterred by the difficulty, and thought it invidious to select some from among many. They might be recommended to invite the members of the Women's Guild to send in the names of those whom they wished to have as leaders. The enrolment of individual associates of the Women Workers' Guild in Parishes where no Guild existed had been quite recently but most satisfactorily begun, and sixteen names, excellently representative, had been enrolled. It was expected that ere long a large number would be added. Regarding the Deaconess Institution and Training Home, it was stated that the work had been steadily carried forward. The house at 41 George Square, Edinburgh, was sometimes scarcely able to receive all applicants for training, and it would in all probability be advisable soon to remove to a larger house. The present house had accommodation for eight residents, and was at this time fully occupied - in fact, at the present moment temporary arrangements had been made with difficulty in order to allow of one more lady than the stated number being received, thus making nine residents in the home. The practical mission work in connection with the institution had been carried on in the Pleasance district of Edinburgh, and the residents in the home acquired personal experience and practical training in Home Mission work. A tenement had been purchased to be altered for mission premises. A programme of study and work in the Deaconess Institute was appended. It could not be denied that the results of district visiting were not great throughout the cities and towns of Scotland, and it was more than probable that this was partly due to the want of system and method. The Committee suggested that in the institution the principles of the science and the practice of the art were taught by lecturers whose success in their own spheres showed that they knew what they came to teach. They appealed for a wider response from the Women of the Church to their invitation to the training home. They asked from the Assembly an expression of thanks to the lecturers and teachers. An arrangement was made last autumn for the delivery in Glasgow of a course of lectures similar to the courses which have been found so useful and acceptable in Edinburgh the previous winters, and several lecturers agreed to repeat in the West the lectures already given in Edinburgh. These were delivered to large and cordial audiences in the hall of the Christian Institute. It had been decided to have a home in Glasgow for such candidates for the female Diaconate as desired to learn nursing, and to take advantage of facilities afforded by the Royal Infirmary for their being practically instructed in its wards. Miss Davidson, the Deaconess-deputy, would make that her headquarters, without, however, abandoning or lessening her present work; and the members of the household would have the benefit of her counsel and care. Edinburgh and Glasgow would be branches of the one institution. An account was next given of deputations to fisher folk in various places in the North, the result of which had been frequent indications of the Divine blessing. Mission weeks had also been carried on in a number of districts. Coming to the Young Men's Guild, it was stated that seldom, if ever, had the Guild Committee to review a year so full of encouragement and of cause for thankfulness as the past. They had to record an increase in the membership of the Guild; increased evidences of an earnest spirit in its work at home; increased interest in and contributions to the mission-field abroad; an increase in the circulation of the "Guild Life and Work;" and increased facilities provided for the Guild-Brother finding a welcome and help when he came a stranger to the large city - London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, and Greenock having each instituted a Reception Committee to secure this. Since the date of last Report the Guild had furnished from the ranks of its active workers no fewer than four Missionaries to the foreign field. It was also gratifying to note that now, both in the Ministry at home and in the Eldership of the Church, men were found serving the Church with the same enthusiasm and devotion which they first began to manifest as workers in the Guild. The Guild had now 493 branches (including 659 sections), with an aggregate membership of 19,413, being an increase of 1163 over the membership reported to last Assembly, The number of new branches and sections formed during the year had been 35, with a united membership of 952. The Committee regretted, however, that against this encouraging increase in the membership there had to be set the fact that a considerable number of branches and sections had either suspended their meetings at present or ceased to exist. Although, of course, these have not been included in the above statement of membership, it was believed that in most instances the suspension would be only temporary. It was also a matter of regret to the Committee that there should still be twelve whole Presbyteries in the Church in which there is not one single branch of the Guild. The increasing use of the system of Letters of Commendation, and the inter-communication which they fostered between different branches and localities, was doing much to make the Guild an influence for good, and helpful to young Men. The Guild competitions had been continued, and out of 156 competitors 103 were awarded prizes or certificates. The local Councils continued their work of increasing the efficiency of existing branches and securing the formation of new ones. The Committee were keeping in view the gradual increase of these Councils, of which sixteen now existed. The Guild Magazine, a potent factor in moulding the life of the Guild, had now attained a circulation of 5860 copies per month, an increase of 1235 over last year. The Guild Mission at Kalimpong was going on well. £1000 had been raised to build a Church there. Dealing next with the Parish Magazine in this twelfth year of Life and Work the Committee were able to report that the large circulation had been more than maintained, and that financially the Magazine was more prosperous than at any former time; so that from its profits the considerable sum of £1308 was available this year for the encouragement of supplements and for the other enterprises of the Committee. The monthly circulation for 1889 was 101,000, against 100,000 in the previous year. A number of regulations as to supplements were given, and it was mentioned that foreign supplements were now a prominent feature. As to the year book, its sale had been rather disappointing. A Sub-Committee were now preparing a number of text books for Guilds and Bible-classes. After twenty-two years, the Convener of the Committee believed he ought to retire, but his colleagues had offered to relieve him of the strain of the actual supervision, by sub-dividing the whole of the operations into two branches, each under a responsible head, while he would still remain Convener of the General Committee. The balance-sheet showed the total charge, including £943 of credit balance, to be £3388, and the discharge less than this by the favourable balance of £1897. In giving in the Report, Professor Charters said, that in his opinion a Convener ought not to make a speech when laying a Report upon the table of the General Assembly. The Report itself is the Convener's speech; but if in course of discussion anything should arise requiring explanation or argument from him, he trusted to be allowed to use his privilege as a member, and to say a few words. He was little tempted to break his rule on the present occasion, for his valued friend and trusted Member of Committee who had, though burdened with recent sorrow, agreed to fulfil his promise of moving the adoption of the Report, would speak with full knowledge of the whole subject. The Rev. Dr M'LAREN, Larbert, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Committee for their diligence. Reappoint them with Rev. Professor Charteris, Convener; and Lord Polwarth, Vice-- Convener. The General Assembly are glad to hear of the progress of the Organisation of Woman's Work in the Church, and they recommend Ministers and Kirk-Sessions to use their endeavours to multiply the number of branches of the Woman's Guild, so that members of congregations being united together as associates in work, may have their power as workers increased; and further, to take steps as soon as possible, either by inviting the opinion of the members of the Woman's Guild or otherwise, to secure an increase in the membership of the Women-Worker's Guild. The General Assembly rejoices to hear of the success that has attended the work of the Deaconess Institution and Training Home. They highly approve of the course of study and instruction given in connection therewith, and recommend Ministers to make known the great benefits of such training in Mission Work as it affords, in order that full advantage may be taken of these. They are glad that a hopeful beginning has been made in Glasgow of a scheme for training women to be parish nurses, as part of the Home Mission agencies of the Church. The General Assembly approve of the two Homes being regarded as parts of one Training Institution, and recommend careful management with a view to developing simultaneously the two branches of the work. The General Assembly note with satisfaction that the funds needed for the Pleasance Mission Buildings are being quickly raised. The General Assembly receive with satisfaction the Report on Missions to Fisher-Folk, and thank the Deputies - both the Ministers and the ladies named in the Report - for their patient and hopeful labours. They empower the Committee, if it should see cause, to arrange for the continuance of the work of Missioners. The General Assembly rejoice to hear of the continued progress of the Young Men's Guild; of the successful Conference in Dundee; of the increased contributions to the ordinary revenue of the Guild Mission in Kalimpong; and of the liberal subscriptions for the new church. The General Assembly rejoice in the concurrent testimony borne to the fact that the members of the Young Men's Guild are taking an increasing part in Christian work, and affectionately urge upon them to be helpful to their Ministers, and to do their utmost to bring comrades and acquaintances into the fellowship of the Church. The General Assembly observe with satisfaction that the Life and Work Magazine continues to be successful, and anew commend it to the people of Scotland, thanking its conductors, Ministers, distributors, and other friends for the help they have given. They are glad to hear of local supplements in Asia, Africa, and America. The General Assembly impress upon Ministers and Members the importance of encouraging the circulation of the Year-book, with its valuable information on the work of the Church. The General Assembly desire the Committee to publish, with all convenient speed, the proposed Text-Books, which it is anticipated will be helpful in developing the intelligence, and strengthening the Christian principles of the youth of the Church. The General Assembly, believing that the work of the Committee entitles it to general support, appoint a collection to be made in aid of its funds in all the churches and chapels, on a day to be afterwards fixed by the General Assembly. The General Assembly approve of a Query regarding the methods of conducting and developing a Bible-Class. The General Assembly desire to express their grateful recognition of the service which Dr Charteris has rendered to the Church during the twenty-one years he has been Convener of the Committee, and cordially approve of the proposals made in the Report for carrying on the work of the Committee, and appoint the Rev. Dr Norman Macleod, and the Rev. Robert Blair. M.A., Conveners of the two branches by which the subdivided work is to be carried on." In supporting the motion, Dr M'Laren referred to the new arrangement suggested for the carrying on the work of the Committee. Since the time immediately after the Church was dismembered and almost destroyed, when Dr Robertson gave his life to build up the waste places of the Church, and succeeded so admirably as they had only to look around and observe - since that time no more noble, no more self-denying, no more successful work had been done for the Church of Scotland, than that which had been done by Dr Charteris and his Committee. He thought they would fail in their duty if they did not, at the close of twenty-one years' work such as he had rendered, give him the heartiest assurance that they recognised his work, and that it should never be forgotten by the Church. Going on to speak of the work of the Committee, Dr M'Laren remarked that in his early life the Parish Minister was lord of all he surveyed. He was Sir Oracle, and when he opened his mouth no dog barked. His lieutenant was the Parish Schoolmaster, and it was the Clergyman and the Parish Schoolmaster who made Scotland what it is. The young men would be astonished if they were told that in the majority of Parishes forty years ago there was not even a Sabbath School; the Ministers had no male assistance, either clerical or lay; while the idea of enlisting female aid was never dreamed of, and would have been abhorrent to most Parish Ministers. This Committee, he went on to show, had done a great deal to put an end to this condition of things. They would all allow that no better work could be engaged in than that of the Young Men's Guild, which gathered round the Parish Minister a band of young Men to be his fellow-workers. The membership of the Guild, though gradually increasing, was not so large as it ought to be. In connection with this work, he said there was one point on which he would like Ministers to exert their influence. No one would ever dream of frowning on innocent amusement or of discouraging the enjoyment of athletic sports on the part of young men. But he knew from his own experience that associated with them were evils that were fitted to sap the life-blood and strength of their young men. There were in his Parish science and art classes in connection with the South Kensington Department, and he had had during the past two years, when the time of examination came round, to deplore the fact that the attendance at these classes was kept down by too much attention being given to football and kindred sports. He did not complain of football. He played football at the High School of Edinburgh, and though they might think it impossible, he was the best football player of his day. What he complained of was that at those matches, which were advertised during the season to take place on almost every Saturday afternoon, an amount of betting and drinking was carried on which did much harm to the young men of the country. - One of the most important branches of the work of the Committee was the development of Women's work. Time was when woman was looked on as the inferior animal, and no more strange phenomenon had been presented than the change which had taken place in the manner in which Woman's position and Woman's influence were recognised. Woman was emphatically and deservedly coming to the front. There was no department in science, art, or literature in which woman was not taking a prominent part. When they thought of Mrs Somerville in the scientific world, and of Mrs Oliphant, who wrote so graphically and well the life of the noble man whom in his mind's eye he saw occupying the seat on which Dr Story at the moment sat, one of the best biographies of the day; when they thought of other female writers - of Lady Butler in the artistic world - were they not entitled to say that Woman was not inferior to Man? When, again, they thought of the work of Florence Nightingale and the many noble Women who followed her example, were they not bound to say that their footsteps were those of ministering Angels? Now, the Committee were wise enough to see that if the Church was to maintain its position, and to adapt itself to the necessities of the times, they must avail themselves of every means of help that could be rendered. They were not asking their Women workers simply to devote themselves to work among the poorer classes. Their first duty doubtless was to the needs of their poorer brethren; but if the work of their congregations was to be carried on, there was much need that the proclamation a the truth as it is in Jesus, of the necessity of self-denial, of a purer and holier life, was as much to be enforced upon the richer classes of the land as upon the poor. He had no doubt that those lady workers, those Deaconesses and other workers, would bear in mind that it was not the poor only who needed to be stirred up, but those who lived in luxury, surrounded by all that was calculated to minister to their material enjoyments. In closing, Dr M'Laren said that within the last few weeks their dovecots load been fluttered by a message from one whose words had a value attached to them, to which, he ventured to say, they were not entitled. But to the ears of a large body of the people of the land, these words canoe as an omen of woe to the Church. That man of whom they once thought as a great statesman, gifted by God to hold the helm of the State, that man ventured- to speak with a light heart of taking down the Established Church of Scotland, declaring that it would be merely the work of an hour or two to part among her enemies the raiment of her whom the Moderator lately so beautifully described as "the beloved, the mother of us all." He (Dr M'Laren) could remember that twenty years ago a Statesman in a neighbouring land spoke of going forward with a light heart to a different style of conflict, crying "A Berlin," without fear, and yet that Statesman found that his cœur léger landed him. and his country in a disaster beyond any that any country on the earth had witnessed for generations. He would not predict what would be the issue of a similar conflict in the Ecclesiastical domain of Scotland. But if he knew his fellow-countrymen aright, he believed that there was so much patriotism in them, even in the Sons and Daughters of that Mother of them all who had seen fit to wander from her fold; he believed that there was so true a recognition of the loving heart of the Mother that was willing and waiting to embrace them all, and to receive them back to her maternal bosom, that in every Parish of our country there was such a feeling of devoted love to the good old Mother that when the testing day came the people would so resent the foul insult that was put upon her, that they would rally round her and keep her intact. He would not have them, especially the younger brethren, to trouble themselves with political combinations. These too often deadened the affections of their people. They would find that their people regarded with the truest affection and respect the men who quietly devoted themselves to their Master's work, more truly respected them than they did those who felt impelled, from whatever motive, to adventure into the arena of strife, to stir up envy, malice, and all uncharitableness. He believed that in quietness and confidence their true strength lay, and that if they went forward in this spirit the Church would for many a day stand forth before the Churches and nations of the earth "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." Mr W. OGILVY DALOLEISH of Errol (Elder) seconded the motion. Mr JAMES WALLACE, advocate, Edinburgh (Elder), said he did not deny that there was a good deal of betting at football and other matches, but they must remember that the same evil was associated with other things. He was afraid it would be a very long time before the practice of betting was entirely put down. It seemed to him that a great deal of good might be done by Ministers and Elders themselves taking an interest in the athletics of their Parishes, and that there would be less betting and fewer evils at football and other sports if the Clergy and Elders themselves took an interest in these things. There were many Parishes in England where the Minister was Captain of the football team and cricket eleven. In Scotland, Clergymen were rather apt to stand aloof from these things, and he would like to see the younger Clergy especially interesting themselves in the games and athletics of their Parishioners. In that way, he believed, a great deal of good would be wrought, and that the evils deplored by Dr M'Laren would be lessened to a great extent. The Rev. Dr M'LAREN said in his own Parish he had for years supported all the innocent sports indulged in by the younger members of his flock. Never a word had been said by him in opposition to those innocent enjoyments until the question had been forced upon him by the way in which their work was being defeated, and their studies in the science and art classes hindered, in consequence of these things he had spoken of. He ventured to say that there was no Parish Minister in Scotland who had done more than he had to encourage healthy recreations, but surely Mr Wallace did not imagine that at that time of day he was to go down to the football field on Saturday afternoons and exhibit his own prowess at the game. That was for younger people. The Rev. ROBERT PRYDE, Townhead, Glasgow, said the whole life of the youth in the towns was getting corroded by the betting system. That was the case in many Parishes in Glasgow, where the tremendous desire for recreation was coupled with drinking and betting. Speaking of the work of Women, lie said they had now got a Home established in Glasgow to complete the training of Women for Parish work. The training for nursing would be got in connection with the Royal Infirmary. It would cost £600 to start the Home, and he had no doubt that when it was opened, and its purposes brought before the people, they would not only get the £600, but they would very soon be travelling in the footsteps of the Edinburgh people, and buying a property as a permanent centre for the work. They proposed to establish centres all over Glasgow in which training similar to what was given in the Home would be given to many of their consecrated women who might not have the means for residence in the Home. By that means they would get a class of women well up in the usual experiences of visiting and influencing people, and knowing something of nursing, who would go forth bearing a ministry of God to the needy and poor of the land. The Rev. Mr LAMOND, Kelton, spoke of the satisfactory results which had attended the work of the "Missioner" during the last two years, and asked why sufficient money should not be raised in the Church to carry on that work. They raised thousands of pounds for mission work among the heathen, in the colonies, and for the conversion of the Jews. He was thoroughly in sympathy with these schemes, but why, if they raised vast sums of money for the purpose of preaching the Gospel elsewhere, should they not raise sufficient money for the endowment of a " Missioner" for carrying on the work at home? The Rev. JAMES SMITH, St George's (West), Aberdeen, moved that the following clause be added to the deliverance: - "Authorise the Committee to inquire as to what special agencies are in operation among the children of the Church for the purpose of confirming the work of the Sabbath School and extending the influence of religion among the young on week days, and to report as to the formation of a new branch to be called the Children's Guild." The Rev. WM. GREIG, Rayne, seconded the motion. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS accepted the addition on the understanding that the Sabbath School Committee should be consulted. He recurred to the subject of the organisation of Women's work, saying that that matter had not yet cone before the Assembly in its full proportions. It was the largest undertaking which had been grappled with in this generation. He was afraid that many Ministers passively acquiesced in the Church's adoption of the scheme for the organisation of Women's work without realising this obligation resting on themselves to further it actively in their own Parishes. There was need of great labour, every stage of which would bear great fruit, in the training and organising Women's work throughout the whole Church; and that must mean earnest and patient work in every Parish. The first stage, the enrolment of all the Women of the Congregation who were either of age and experience qualifying them to exercise good influence on others, or who were desirous of having good influence brought to bear on themselves, was in itself a vast improvement on the widely prevalent notion that a congregation meant merely a concourse of hearers or even an assembly of individual worshippers. This enrolment - The Women's Guild - brought rich and poor, young and old, gentle and simple, into easy friendly relations, implying unnumbered opportunities of well-doing, both social and spiritual. The need of such relations was seen in the widespread and successful work done by the Young Women's Christian Association, the Scotch Girls' Friendly Society, and other societies of the same sort. Those had sprung up because the Christian Church, as such, was not supplying a felt want. They had done good service, for which he honoured them, but they only brush the surface as compared with the thorough cultivation of the field which a Congregational Guild made possible. The united worship, the seats side by side every Sunday, the Communion Table, the homeward walk from church - what a tie, what a power for good, was in this contiguity and union! He could speak from the testimony of many when he said that girls in domestic service or in shops found life made easier for them through the friendship, advice, and sympathy to which the Women's Guild had introduced them. And women who had fought life's early battle, and had attained to knowledge- what a path of quiet influence did the Guild open to them! Then the Women-Workers' Guild - the banding together of the experienced workers. He must express his amazement and regret that so little had been done in this. Friendly Societies and Young Women's Associations had their leaders; and yet the Christian Church was afraid of some lion in the path if the Workers' Guild were formed. Ministers were afraid of being invidious, of provoking jealousies, of giving offence, and so did nothing. It seemed to him that if work was being done its natural leaders were already known: the clearer eye, and the warmer heart, and the greater power, were of necessity recognised by the fellow-workers; and that a Kirk-Session, in living sympathy with active work, would have no difficulty in approving of those whose services entitled them to official recognition. But if a Minister and his Elders were afraid or embarrassed, then let them ask the members of the Women's Guild to nominate those to whom they had been most indebted. This corresponded to what was done in the early ages and for many centuries, and was an easy and obvious course to adopt. He begged to remind Ministers and Elders, as he had already reminded the Committee, that the Church of Scotland has a right to their active exertion in this matter. Deliberately, emphatically, and in four successive years the General Assembly had approved and commended this scheme, and he appealed to the loyalty of those who heard him to carry it into effect. If they valued the corporate Church let them do this as the due of their membership; if they were, as too many said they were, only congregational in their sympathies, let them at least organise their congregation for its work. This scheme contemplated the union, the organisation, the training of women-workers, so as to develop that work by which the activity of the membership of the Church was maintained: for women and Ministers did almost all the work; and surely it had a right to more help than it had yet got. One word on Deaconesses. He agreed with all that Dr M'Laren had said. He believed that the Church of Scotland had received a great blessing from God in her first three Deaconesses; each of them almost ideally adapted to her own sphere. He would be glad of some more: if a high standard were maintained: he would rather see a small number than a low standard. He believed - and now he would speak for himself alone as a member of Assembly - that it was a mistake to have them set apart by Kirk-Sessions. To have them set apart by Presbyteries would be more in harmony with the custom of the Church for centuries, which had assigned the ordination of Deaconesses to the Diocesan Bishop, while the minor sisters were ordained by the priest. Some were afraid that to ask Presbyteries to set apart Deaconesses would make them equal to probationers, and higher than Elders. This was very absurd, for the question was to what functions they were set apart: it was the function that would give them their true position. A Presbytery could choose a doorkeeper, or any other official; and that did not make them great people! An Elder was chosen by a Congregation to rule over it: a Deaconess was set apart not for rule but for service. He thought she would be more naturally certified as a servant of the Church wherever she might be needed in the Church when set apart by the Presbytery than when set apart by the Kirk-Session. The residents in the Training Home, for example, ought rather to be made Deaconesses of the Church than of the Kirk-Session in whose parish the Training Home chanced to be. As a matter of fact, he knew at this moment of two or three highly qualified women who desired to be set apart by a Presbytery to the service of the Church; and he did not know any who would prefer to take their commission from a Kirk-Session. As a matter of fact, too, some of his friends who had expected to find it easy to have members of their Congregation agree to be Deaconesses if their KirkSession were alone concerned, had been disappointed. He did not mean that this matter was vital, but he believed it to be expedient to follow the example of the Church of the first five or six centuries, which pointed to the Presbytery as the Court from which those to be sent to and fro on the Church's service could most naturally receive her commission. And he hoped ere long to see the day when the Minister of a populous Parish would have a Parish Deaconess not only herself nursing the sick and relieving the needy, but leading and guiding many willing helpers of less experience than hers or with less time to spare. The idea of the Parish Deaconess was rapidly growing in the Church, and he trusted it would ere long be rooted and fruitful. This scheme for training them he commended to the consideration and the support of the Church, which had sustained this Committee with marvellous willingness for two and twenty years. The deliverance with its addition, and the clause "and to communicate with the Sabbath School Committee," was then adopted. The Convener of the Committee for answering the Queen's letter, &c., reported that the Committee recommend that the Rev. John Cumming and the Rev. Dr Hamilton be appointed to conduct devotional services in the High Church on Sunday first, in the morning and evening respectively. The recommendation was agreed to, and intimation made accordingly. AGED AND INFIRM MINISTERS' FUND. Lord BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH gave in the Report of the Committee on the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund, which stated that the income for the year had been £3230, being a decrease of £20. In the two most important branches of revenue there had been an increase of £355, but there was a decrease of £376 in legacies. The number of Parishes contributing was 900, as against 869 the previous year. The Capital Fund at the end of 1888 amounted to £26,565; last year it was raised to £28,427; and since the close of the financial year the Committee had received intimation of a legacy of £2000 from the late Mr Taylor of Starleyhall. During the past year the Committee had voted eleven grants, and there had been five deaths of Ministers on the Fund, the presentnumber of Annuitants being thirty-seven. Of the eleven placed on the Fund, no fewer than six had been ordained prior to 1850, and one as far back as 1840; so that the Assembly would feel that they had well earned their repose. It was an interesting fact that the population of the eleven Parishes amounted to 34,000. Speaking of the state of the Fund, his Lordship said if the charge upon them for annuities was the same as last year, with the addition of those since placed on the list, the Committee would require for annuities a sum of £2200; for payments to Ministers whose retirement had been arranged, £750; for payments in respect of the law of " ann," £150; and for ordinary working expenses, £110 - or a total of £3210, which was about £900 more than the annual income of the Fund. The Committee proposed that the Assembly should authorise them to transfer what might be necessary this year from the collection to the Annual Fund. Even with the deduction of the £900, there would be such an addition to the Capital Fund as would raise it well over £30,000 before the close of the financial year. He suggested that they should, if not absolutely suspend the granting of fresh annuities during the present year, at least deal with them very sparingly, and that the Committee should bring up a report to next Assembly on the financial position and prospects of the Fund. There was an impression among some members of the Church that they were laying up for posterity too large a proportion of their funds, and the object of the present policy was to see whether with perfect safety they could give the Church the immediate benefit of a larger amount of the money placed at their disposal. This was a Fund which was growing in popularity in the Church, and he hoped members would keep it before them, and assist in raising the Capital Fund to £50,000. His Lordship concluded by moving the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, and gratefully record their satisfaction with the work accomplished by the Committee during the past year. The General Assembly being deeply impressed with the great importance to the Church of the operations of the Committee, authorise them in terms of the Report regarding the amount required from the General Collection during the current year, in order to meet the payments falling upon the Fund. Further, in view of the steady and growing increase of the work of the Committee, the General Assembly instruct them to consider, and report to next Assembly, as to the amount of capital required to absolutely secure the Annuities upon the Fund, in order that the Assembly may determine whether they should authorise the transference each year of a larger proportion of the General Collection to the Annual Fund. The General Assembly view with great regret the probable necessity laid upon the Committee by the state of the Annual Fund to stay their work for a time, and, in order to avert or shorten such a suspension, they would anew most earnestly commend the Committee's appeal to the liberality of every member and friend of the Church. The General Assembly reappoint the Committee with all the usual powers, and power to add to their number, - Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Convener." Captain C. M. P. BURN, Prestonfield House (Elder), seconded the motion, which was adopted. THE SYNOD IN ENGLAND. A letter was read from the Synod of the Church of Scotland in England by the Rev. P. Henderson Aitken, East Dulwich, Moderator of Synod, which expressed gratification at having received the letter of the Moderator of the Assembly, and reported a slight increase of the membership in England and a larger increase in the contributions. The letter concluded with good wishes for the prosperity of the Church. The deputation, which consisted of the Rev. P. Henderson Aitken, the Rev. James Hamilton, Liverpool, the Rev. W.C. Fraser, Newcastle, and Messrs Linton, J. Potter, and J. Gerard Laing, was introduced to the General Assembly by Dr Scott, Convener of the Business Committee. The General Assembly resolved to hear the deputation at a future diet of Assembly. PETITION OF MR JAMES M'COLL. The General Assembly had transmitted, through the Committee on Bills, Petition from Mr James M'Coll, praying that he be restored to the position of a Licentiate of the Church of Scotland, from the ministry of which he had been deposed by the General Assembly in the year 1884. On the motion of the Rev. Dr Scott, the Petition was remitted to a Committee for inquiry and report. THE MANCHESTER CASE. What is known as the Manchester case came before the Assembly on a reference from the Presbytery of Glasgow and by Petitions from members of the Scottish National Church, Rusholrne Road, Manchester. At last year's Assembly Counsel appeared for Mr Mackie and the Petitioners, and it was stated that the Petitioners withdrew their charges against Mr Mackie on condition that he should resign his connection with the Manchester Church. A statement, signed by Mr Mackie, was put in by his Counsel, admitting and expressing regret for certain unseemly scuffles in the Church, which he attributed to abnormal nervous excitement, and the Assembly disposed of the case by remitting it to the Presbytery of Glasgow to rebuke Mr Mackie. The agreement between Mr Mackie and the Petitioners was not implemented, and on Mr Mackie being cited before the Presbytery of Glasgow in August last he protested against the rebuke on the ground that the Assembly was in error in having received Petitions containing libellous matter, or matter which might become the subject of a libel, behind his back, such Petit ions emanating from persons not directly under the Assembly's jurisdiction, and who neither waited on his ministry nor contributed to his maintenance; and because the paper signed by him, on which the Assembly rested their instructions to the Presbytery, was submitted to the Assembly before the conditions on which it was contingent were fulfilled, and without sanction or authority from him, and it was not a "judicial admission and confession." In these circumstances, the Presbytery found themselves debarred from carrying out the judgment of the Assembly. The Rev. Dr F.L. ROBERTSON, Glasgow, submitted the Report on the case from the Presbytery of Glasgow, and said that as Mr Mackie had taken up the position that no Minister could be competently rebuked or subjected to punishment until he had been tried under a libel, the Presbytery were shut up to the course which they took, as they declined to censure a man under protest. On the motion of the PROCURATOR, the Report was received, and it was agreed to consider the position of the case as it was affected by the reference from the Presbytery. Parties were called - The Rev. James Mackie appeared for himself; Mr John Beaton appeared for himself and John Carswell and others, Petitioners. Mr William S. Gregory and Mr John Farish appeared for themselves and James N. Dawson and others, Petitioners, and claimed to be heard. The AGENT stated that Petitions in this case had been sent to him from Mr James N. Dawson and others, and Mr John Beaton and others, but that these Petitions had not been transmitted through the Committee on Bills; he moved the Assembly to dispense with transmission of these Petitions through the Committee of Bills and to receive them. Another motion was made and seconded - That the transmission of the said Petitions through the Committee of Bills be not dispensed with; but after some discussion, and Mr Mackie having consented to the Assembly receiving the Petitions, the second motion was withdrawn. The General Assembly, with consent of parties, then agreed to receive said Petitions. Mr Beaton, Mr Gregory, and Mr Farish were sisted as craved. The Rev. JAMES MACKIE, who was first heard, said they would excuse him if he said that he had a deep repugnance to overcome in addressing the House, for he was afraid that his presence had become more like the monster of the myth than anything else. He wished that he could dispel the prejudice which had been created against him. He could assure them that it was a terrible feeling which was begotten in one by appearing time after time in the Courts of the Church to whose service he had devoted his life, and in his native land, which one naturally loved more from living beyond its borders, while conscious that he was to the best of his ability faithfully fulfilling his ordination vows. That feeling was intensified by the knowledge that those who must be innocent suffered more than he did, in the loss of education and religious ordinances, for he had five children who ought to have been seated at the table of the Lord, and only one of them had been there, and admitted by other hands than his. Mr Mackie proceeded to read a long statement giving a history of the case from the time when he was Minister of the Church at Carlisle, working comfortably, contentedly, and successfully, till he was induced to go to Manchester, where, he says, the Rusholme Road Church was in wreck and ruin, the congregation having succeeded in banishing a Minister whom some of its members were pleased to describe as "a liar, a drunkard, and a brawler!" The Rev. Dr SCOTT interrupted Mr Mackie in the reading of his statement, and pointed out that the matter was utterly irrelevant to the Report of the Presbytery of Glasgow, which was what they were now dealing with. Mr MACKIE said he was sorry to encroach on the time of the Assembly, but as he had put his statement in print he would distribute it to the members, as he was thankful to escape from the misery of reading it. All he had to say was that he entered into no agreement before the Committee appointed by the last Assembly. He came to Edinburgh at the request of his friends, to be present with their Advocate, and keep him right as to matters of fact. He only attended one Meeting of the Committee, and he resolved not to attend another, because he saw it was in their minds that he was appearing for himself. Immediately after the first meeting he wrote a letter to the Procurator saying that he was not represented. He signed two documents to his friends very reluctantly, telling them that it was against his conscience, and it was only done on the faith that such an explanation would be given to the Assembly as would obviate the necessity of censure. These documents were given to Counsel at last Assembly, with instructions that they were not to be used until the terms of the other side had been submitted to his friend and were considered satisfactory. These terms were not submitted to him. He gave no authority for the minute which was laid before last Assembly by Counsel, and it was very far from his mind to imply that he had been guilty of something deserving of censure. The other parties at the bar stated that they had nothing to say in connection with this part of the case. No questions were put, and parties were removed. The PROCURATOR, after tracing from the Minutes the procedure followed in the case at last Assembly, pointed out that they bore that on the day the Assembly adopted the final deliverance remitting to the Presbytery of Glasgow to rebuke Mr Mackie, Mr Hay Shennan, Advocate, appeared for Mr Mackie, and read a statement on his behalf. The Presbytery of Glasgow had afterwards taken up that remit, and their report disclosed the fact that on the 7th August last, when they met to consider the matter, Mr Mackie stated, in answer to a question, that he was not willing to submit to the rebuke unconditionally, but only under protest. It was the second and third paragraphs of that protest which raised what he had called the preliminary question. In the first of these paragraphs Mr Mackie protested against the carrying out of the Assembly's decision, because the paper signed by him, on which the Assembly rest their instructions to the Presbytery, had been submitted to the Assembly before the conditions on which it was contingent were fulfilled, and without sanction or authority from him, and because, if it had been laid before them with his sanction and authority, it was not a "judicial admission and confession." He also protested on the ground that he had never been made a party in the case. These two matters were of vital importance to the deliverance of the Assembly of last year. As he understood it, Mr Mackie, contrary to what the Minutes bore, denied that Mr Hay Sherman appeared as his Advocate to represent him at the Bar of the Assembly. The Rev. Mr MACKIE - Yes. The PROCURATOR, continuing, said that was a contradiction of the Minute of the Assembly in a most vital respect, the more so because Mr Mackie had not been present at the judgment in question, but was then represented by a gentleman of the Scottish Bar of good standing, who came and said "I represent Mr Mackie." The second point had reference to the paper signed by Mr Mackie and Mr Hay Sherman, which was incorporated in their Minutes, and upon which the judgment of the Court proceeded. That paper did not bear that it was only to be used under conditions. It was unconditional on the face of it, but Mr Mackie now told them that he only signed it on the distinct understanding that Counsel was not to use it unless under conditions which had not yet been fulfilled. These were most vital and important matters which must necessarily be the subject of preliminary investigation. If Mr Hay Sherman did not appear for Mr Mackie, then their Minutes did not say truly what parties were present when the deliverance was pronounced; and if the paper was only delivered to be used sub conditione, the basis upon which last Assembly proceeded was taken away, and the deliverance of the Assembly fell. The matter was a most serious one. The repudiation of a Counsel was a thing almost unheard of. Where a Counsel came before a Supreme Court and said he represented a certain person, who afterwards disputed that Counsel had any authority to represent him, they had a position of matters which almost superseded inquiry; but on the whole lie recommended that a Committee should be appointed to enquire into the facts. He moved as follows: - "In respect that the Report of the Presbytery of Glasgow discloses that Mr Mackie, on 7th August 1889, stated to that reverend Court that he was not prepared to receive unconditionally, but only under protest, the rebuke referred to in the deliverance of last General Assembly, and handed in a protest which is now before the Assembly, and in respect that Mr Mackie states at the Bar that he adheres to the protest, and in particular to the second and third paragraphs thereof, appoints the following Committee to inquire into the matters dealt with in that protest and to report to a future Diet of Assembly, with power to confer with the deputation from the Synod in England. The Committee to be as follows: - the Rev. Dr Milroy, Moneydie, and Theodore Marshall, Caputh; Sheriff Cheyne; James Wallace, Esq.; A.D.M. Black, Esq.; and the Procurator, Convener. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, seconded the motion, which was agreed to. On this deliverance being intimated to parties at the bar, Mr FARISH, Manchester, one of the Petitioners, said he had been in Manchester for upwards of five years, and during five Meetings of the Assembly he had done what he could to have that matter brought to some sort of crisis. He felt now that it would simply be hung up for another twelve months, and that it would go on for years. The MODERATOR pointed out that Mr Farish was not speaking to the point before the House. Mr FARISH - The matter is simply this, Is anything to be done for our Church or not? The MODERATOR again intervened, and intimated that the case would be taken up again next Saturday afternoon. Mr MACKIE acquiesced, took instruments, and craved extracts, which were allowed. It was resolved to resume consideration of this case on Saturday the 31st inst., at 2 P.M., and parties were cited apud acta. The General Assembly adjourned at 4.45 P.M., to meet on Monday next at 11 A.M. SUNDAY, 25th May 1890. His Grace the Lord High Commissioner and the Marchioness of Tweeddale attended Divine Service in St Giles' Cathedral forenoon and evening. In the forenoon the preacher was the Rev. William Lockhart, M.A., Colinton, and in the evening the Rev. David Hunter, B.D., St Mary's, Partick. MONDAY, 26th May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last Sederunt being in the hands of Members, were held as read, and were approved of. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee of Overtures, which was given in, read, and approved of. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on Bills, which was given in, read, and approved of. The Convener of the Committee of Nomination suggested the following Committee on the Pastorate of St Andrew's Church and Harbour Mission at Alexandria: - The Rev. Drs Gray, Christie, and Hamilton; the Rev. Messrs Niven, Pryde, Martin, and Marshall; the Rev. Professors Mitchell and Stewart; Robert Miller, Esq., H.R. Macrae, Esq., Lindsay Mackersy, Esq., John A. Trail, Esq., John Tawse, Esq.; Rev. Dr Herdman, Convener. The Convener of the Committee of Nomination suggested the following Committee on the petition of Mr M'Coll: - The Rev. Drs Gloag and Jamieson; the Rev. Professor Taylor (Convener); the Rev. Drs Leishman and Snodgrass; the Rev. Messrs Milne and Carrick; Lord Dalrymple, Sheriff Spittal, and T.G. Murray, Esq. Synod Books were called for. The following were given in, and Committees appointed: - Books of Caithness and Sutherland - The Rev. John Campbell and Patrick Macfarlan; Charles Greer, Esq. Books of Argyll - The Rev. M.P. Johnstone and John Mitchell; Andrew Tarras, Esq. Books of Aberdeen - The Rev. John Gibson and Mr Bentick; J.T. Hutchison, Esq. Books of Lothian and Tweeddale - The Rev. James Landreth and William Proudfoot; Charles Mitchell, Esq. Books of Ross - The Rev. George Peter and James Grant; Robert Duncan, Esq. ORDER OF BUSINESS. The Convener of the Business Committee reported certain changes on the business for to-morrow and the business for Wednesday. The Report was agreed to. The Rev. Mr MENZIES, Fordoun, said he was sorry that the first time he opened his lips in the House it should be as a Dissenter, Complainer, and Protester. His complaint was that the business of the Assembly was so arranged that Members had very little opportunity to express their views on questions which they considered important. He was exceedingly anxious to say a few words in favour of the Jewish Mission Committee. But as it had been arranged that the discussion should be closed at one o'clock, and as forty minutes of the time allotted was occupied by the Convener and other two gentlemen, he had to go away with his wisdom or unwisdom unuttered. In the interest of suffering humanity he strongly deprecated long speeches by Conveners when presenting printed reports, as well as by the Gentlemen selected to move and second the deliverances, so that time might be left for remarks by outside Members. The Rev. Dr SCOTT said this seemed not to be a complaint against the Business Committee but rather against the way in which the debates were conducted. He sympathised with Mr Menzies' remarks as to the way in which the reports were introduced. He thought when the reports were printed that Conveners might take it for granted that Members had read them, and that they should confine themselves to what was necessary in the way of supplement or elucidation. He thought movers and seconders might also leave something for other Members to say. In this way the discussion would be more distributed, and would excite greater interest. The MODERATOR said he hoped Mr Menzies would be satisfied with what had been said, as he had evidently carried the House with him. TIIE CELEBRATION OF THE COMMUNION IN ST GILES'. The Rev. Professor STORY reported that the Holy Communion was celebrated in the High Church on Friday last at 10.30, that the Moderator officiated, and that there was a large attendance of Members. The Committee, confident that future Assemblies would desire to repeat this celebration, suggested that the Committee should be appointed to make the necessary arrangements. He moved the adoption of the Report, and the reappointment of the Committee. Mr A.D.M. BLACK seconded the motion. The Rev. A. DOUGLAS, Arbroath, said he looked upon this as a very grave step for the Assembly to take. He entirely disputed the right of the Assembly to celebrate the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in St Giles' Church or in any other Church in the Church of Scotland without the consent of the Kirk-Session of the parish. He understood that the Kirk-Session of St Giles' had entered a protest against this action of the Assembly, and he asked the House to take it into their serious consideration, because it seemed seriously to affect the rights and privileges of Parish Ministers and Sessions. He had no great sympathy with the movement of his old fellow-student, Mr Jacob Primmer; at the same time he should like to keep up the true Protestant tradition of the Church of Scotland, which was that it was a spiritual democracy; that the Minister of the Church, as such, could not take action in administering the sacrament without consultation with the laity. He knew that the General Assembly had considerable powers inherent in itself, but he held that the General Assembly could not enter any Parish Church their own motion, and he moved that the celebration of the Sacrament should only be held in cooperation with the Kirk-Session of St Giles'. The Rev. JOHN BARNETT, Kilchoman, seconded the motion. The Rev. Dr SCOTT said this was about as unconstitutional a proposal as was ever placed before the Assembly. It meant that they were to put the lowest Court of the Church over the highest Court. It supposed the highest Court could do nothing for their own spiritual comfort or edification without first asking the Kirk-Session. He did not think when he stated the proposal in that way that he need discuss it seriously. The General Assembly had power to take possession of any Parish Church for carrying on its own work during its sittings, and it had power to make what arrangements it pleased for its own spiritual comfort and edification. The General Assembly did not propose to go into St Giles' and celebrate the Holy Communion for the parishioners of the High Church, but for the benefit of its own members, and he denied that anyone had the right to complain. The Rev. Professor STORY emphasised what had been said by Dr Scott. In all such matters as these under consideration the Assembly was supreme within the bounds of its constitution. By immemorial usage from the days of the Reformation, the Assembly had had the use of St Giles' Church for the conduct of its public worship, and it had always been in the way of regulating the worship held there during its sittings. It had made alterations again and again, according to its needs and the fitness of things, without the slightest reference to the Kirk-Session. Mr Douglas had said that the Kirk-Session had laid a protest before the Committee against the celebration of these services. The Kirk-Session did nothing of the kind. They forwarded a letter stating that they declined to cooperate with the General Assembly in carrying on these services. He had his own opinion of the good sense, the courtesy, and the constitutionality of that course. But it was simply a refusal on their part, and the kindness and better feeling of the Kirk-Session of another Congregation prevented the Assembly from being put to any inconvenience. The Rev. Professor MITCHELL, St Andrews, expressed concurrence in what Dr Story had said. The action of the Kirk-Session was not only discourteous, but unconstitutional. The Rev. Mr DOUGLAS, with the consent of his seconder, withdrew his motion, and the Report was adopted. EDUCATION COMMITTEE'S REPORT. The Rev. Dr WEBSTER, Edinburgh, submitted the Report of the Education Committee, which stated that during the past year the Training Colleges in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen had continued to do their work with great efficiency, as shown by the results of the Christmas Government examination, there having been no failures and no passes so low as the fourth class. The total number of male students was 149. Of these 61 were receiving the benefit of University as well as Training College instruction, and under the new article of the Code, which enabled the Committee to arrange for a third session at the Universities in the case of the abler students, 22 in addition to the above had been sent. There seemed to be, in the opinion of the Committee, no good reason why the Universities themselves should not be encouraged by the Department to prepare its graduates for public schools, and for this purpose to be more closely allied with the Training Colleges. The Departmental Committee had reported about two years ago in that sense, and the Committee would gladly cooperate in any such movement. The Committee thought there could be no doubt that the new Code, if honestly carried out by teachers and inspectors, would have a marked effect on the education of Scotland, giving a more intellectual character to the work of every school, and the Committee recorded their unqualified satisfaction at the step taken by the Marquis of Lothian and the Secretary of the Scottish Department, Mr Craik. As regarded "specific subjects," the Committee felt that were the particular article by which 10s. per pupil might be earned in such subjects as Latin, Mathematics, French, &c., provided "the teacher was a graduate in arts or science of some University of the United Kingdom," and adequate assistance was provided, extended to all the counties of Scotland instead of being confined, as at present, to the Highlands and Islands, a powerful stimulus would be given to advanced instruction in the rural parochial schools. With regard to higher education in public rural schools, the Committee did not propose unduly to foster "the University subjects." All they desired to see was a provision for teaching them, and adequate encouragement to the teacher. So long as boys had an opportunity of obtaining the necessary instruction, the end of a national system was attained. In purely rural schools there could, however, be no doubt that the opportunity was passing away. It seemed hopeless to expect that in every parish opportunities of obtaining higher instruction would ever be provided, but if County Councils were at any time to be charged with the organisation of the education in their several districts, a sufficient number of conveniently - situated public schools might be selected to place the higher instruction within reach of the great majority of rural scholars who had exhausted the means of education in their own parishes. There was a general movement throughout Scotland at present for the better equipment of secondary or high schools, but these would necessarily be limited to towns. The question was a much larger one; secondary education, not secondary schools alone, should be kept in view. As to the Universities Executive Commission, and with regard to the institution of an entrance examination, the report emphasised the necessity of avoiding any step which would tend to dissociate the Universities from the people by lifting them up to a higher social platform; and, dealing with the work of the Educational Endowments Commission, the opinion was expressed that the Commissioners had undoubtedly rendered great service to education in Scotland, and, above all, to the higher education of those who were unable to pay for it. It was reported that the funds of the Committee were in a satisfactory state. In the Edinburgh Training College the charge showed £7227, 19s. ld., and an overdraft at the end of the year of only £82, 12s. 10d. In Glasgow the charge showed a total of £6893, 19s. 5d., and at the end of the year a sum of £95, 6s. 8d. to credit. In Aberdeen the charge showed a total of £4049, 7s. 2d., and a favourable balance of £361, 2s. 2d. Except in the case of Aberdeen, the state of the account of the practising schools in connection with the Training Colleges was not so favourable. The reserve fund was in a satisfactory state, the balance in its favour being £978, as compared with £809 the preceding year. In submitting the Report, Dr Webster indicated its chief points, and expressed his firm conviction that the Church's Training Colleges were doing a good work, not only for the Church, but for the country. It was true that the Church was not now so intimately connected with the education of the people as it once was, but they, as a Committee, were glad to represent a Church which, notwithstanding that, had never relaxed her efforts, and would never relax her efforts, to make that education as efficient as possible. He assured the Assembly, from personal knowledge, that in their Training Colleges thorough work was being done in the matter of religious instruction. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER, Partick, asked what steps had been taken to fill up the vacancy in the examiners of Glasgow Normal College caused by the death of the Rev. Dr Crombie? The Rev. Dr WEBSTER replied that at the request of the Committee he himself had agreed for the present to undertake the duties of an Examiner. The Rev. Dr JOHN WATT, Glasgow, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly having heard the Report, approve of the same, and record their thanks to the Committee and the Convener. They are glad to learn that the Training Colleges continue to maintain a high reputation for efficiency among similar institutions, and that the Committee have received the continued aid of the Department in further promoting the University instruction of Queen's Scholars. They direct the Committee to continue to encourage the University instruction of intending Teachers, and to be open to consider any proposals that may be submitted for the higher training of Schoolmasters generally. The Assembly record their satisfaction at the changes introduced by the new Code, believing that they will contribute to the sound education of the people; and they would express the hope that the Scotch Department may be able, ere long, to introduce measures for giving more direct encouragement to the higher subjects in rural schools. The Assembly reappoint the Committee - Dr Webster, Convener, with all the usual powers." In speaking to the motion, Dr Watt said the educational sphere of the Church had certainly been narrowed, and a disposition was shown in some quarters to make it still more narrow. It was said that in the present position of matters it was an anomaly that the Churches should undertake the training of teachers, but inasmuch as he had never seen it hinted that the School Boards themselves should undertake the duty, he did not see how the anomaly was altogether to be removed. It had been suggested that the Universities rather than the Churches should undertake those duties, and he was not sorry to see that that view had found expression in a motion to be submitted. He did not know that it was surprising that notice of motion in that strain should have been given, because he also found that notice of motion had been given to the effect that the Divinity Hall of the Church, too, should be liberated from Church control. There seemed to be an opinion held that academic influence was something sweeter, brighter, and more invigorating than any influence emanating from the Church. At the present moment there was a Departmental Committee considering the very subject of how best they could train teachers for public schools. On the part of the Church there was a desire for full co-operation with the Universities in order that by any scheme that could be devised the very best teachers possible might be turned out to do the educational work of the country, and, in these circumstances, the Assembly might well pause before it gave effect to the drastic motion of which notice had been given. His own view was that the direct charge of any corner of the educational field left to the Church should not be surrendered until the Church was actually driven from it. There were good reasons why the present system of training colleges should be maintained. Under it there was no ecclesiastical gain or loss incurred by either of the Churches taking part in the work, the students evidently not laying their plans from any considerations appertaining to ecclesiasticism, and no doubt, on neither side, neither receiving any harm by training at what might be called the rival institutions. He granted that no Church could secure a right religious tone in all the teachers of youth, but care could be taken to decline all candidates for training who showed by the manner in which they underwent the entrance examination that they were without the knowledge upon which an intelligent hold of religious principles depended. The educational scheme had now ceased to be a standing agency of the Church in the sense that no money had to be asked for it from the Church, and therefore it did not bulk so largely in the view of the Church as it ought to do. During the past year Presbyteries had been exercising themselves at the bidding of the General Assembly as to how best combined religious and secondary education could be imparted to young Hindoos in Calcutta and Bombay. He did not wish to press any one scheme of the Church against any other scheme, but he was unable to see the propriety of allowing the main stream of their sympathy and energy to run in the direction of that far distant land, when at their doors - in their country parishes and in their large cities - they had teaching institutions amply provided for so far as one side of their activity was concerned, but inadequately provided for in respect of the other. It would not be altogether to the credit of the Church if she allowed herself to lose her interest in education, mainly for the reason that the Convener had not to stand up every year and ask a collection on behalf of the Committee. Sir J.N. CUTHBERTSON, Glasgow (Elder), seconded. The attention of the country could not, he thought, be too often called to what that Church, and especially the Ministers of it, had done for the cause of education in past centuries; and it was still the duty, as well as the privilege, of the Church to show its interest in the education, and especially in the religious education, of the people. He distinctly held it to be the case that the people of Scotland wanted religious education in their schools. It was very gratifying that Parliament had shown such a deep interest in the primary education of the country of late years, for there had been a time when, had a member of that Assembly been bold enough to express the opinion that Parliament would in a single session vote half a million of money to primary education, he would not have been believed. He was not disposed to minimise the importance of the work yet left for the Committee to undertake. The most practical matter in which the Committee was interested was the maintenance of the training colleges. The Committee had always expressed itself as desirous of promoting the connection between these and the Universities, but he demurred to the idea that the Church was to give up entirely the management of these Colleges into the hands of the Universities. Even if the Church was willing to hand them over, were the Universities prepared and willing to accept of them? As to their willingness there might be less doubt, but he denied the ability of the Universities to exercise any serious control over the training of teachers. And even if the Universities were entrusted with that work, what guarantee could they offer for the religious training or the moral character of the students to be trained for the education of the people? They could offer none. He was of opinion that the amendment to be proposed would be made without the full knowledge of the facts. The Rev. W. HARLEY ANDERSON, Pulteneytown, moved the amendment, of which he had given notice, as follows: - "That since, from the altered circumstances of the country, the Education Committee has no business to perform, save the inspection of religious instruction in the Normal Schools, and the disbursement of the Government funds for the maintenance of the Colleges, and the payment of bursaries, it is no longer necessary nor advisable to continue the Committee in its present form; that in the opinion of the General Assembly, the training of teachers should be handed over to the Universities; therefore the General Assembly reappoints the Committee, thanks them for past services, and instructs them to use all diligence during the year for the carrying out of the necessary transference, with full power to wind up the present operations of the Committee, and to realise the funds and properties under their charge, and to report fully on these subjects to next General Assembly." Speaking to the amendment, Mr ANDERSON said he had no intention to belittle or disparage the past labours of the Committee, nor had he any sympathy with the cry of denominationalism which was sometimes raised against the Normal Colleges. But those who had perused the Reports of the Committee of recent years found out two things - that this was a Committee which had little or no income, and that its work was no greater than its income. It might be asked how that could be the case when the Committee actually disbursed every year £25,000. The explanation was simple. That sum was produced independently of the Committee, and it would continue to be disbursed even if the Committee were out of the way. It consisted exclusively of Government grants, fees, &c., but the income of the Committee, as derived from the Church, was on an average for the last ten years below the sum of £150 annually. The Education Department of the Government had expressed a strong desire that the Churches should give up their hold of the Normal Schools, and that desire was largely supported by the public, the press, the Universities, and the more enlightened of the teachers and inspectors in the country. It seemed to him that in certain circumstances the Church might be justified in saying to the Government - "We desire to cling to whatever remains of our former power in the matter of education, because it enables us to see to the religious instruction of the future teachers of the youth of the country." He could understand that if these young men and women had not been religiously educated before entering the College, but it was not so. Use and wont, however inconsistent it might be in the opinion of many, was the rule throughout Scotland, and so there was no need for any anxiety on that ground. But apart altogether from the interest which the Church had in the matter, he held that the Normal Schools had now no true raison d'être. The University was the true place where the teachers of the country should be trained. The teaching profession was now more honourable, and was held in higher respect, and was much better paid than it ever was. The time had come for education to take its stand with the other professions of the country, and be trained along with them at the national Universities. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER, Partick (interrupting), pleaded that the Assembly might be delivered from the terror of the bulky MS. which Mr Anderson held in his hand. Mr ANDERSON - I object altogether to the gag being put in my mouth. The MODERATOR said Mr Anderson had been speaking to the point, and had not repeated himself; but he hoped he would not presume too much on the indulgence of the Assembly. Mr ANDERSON (proceeding with the reading of his speech) said what he desired was not the destruction of the Normal Colleges, but their amalgamation with the Universities, so that a more perfect training might be secured for them. Fifty years ago, when the Committee began its labours, the only trained teachers were the Parochial Schoolmasters. Mr Anderson was proceeding to give an historical sketch of the progress of the teaching profession, when A MEMBER rose to order, and asked if it was in accordance with the forms and practice of the Church for Members to read their speeches? The MODERATOR - I think a young Member may be showing his respect for the Assembly by preparing what he has to say, and there are those who feel quite at ease on their legs while others do not. Mr ANDERSON laid down his MS. amid much laughter, and proceeded to urge some considerations in support of his motion. He held that in the interests of the students themselves the change which he proposed was imperatively called for. It would put a cope-stone on all that the Church had done for education if it finished its connection with it voluntarily and utilised its funds for making preparation within the Universities for the education of their teachers. However much the Assembly might have ill-treated him on the present occasion, the time would come when what was asked in his motion would be an accomplished fact. The amendment was not seconded. The Rev. NEIL MACPHERSON, Glenaray, Inveraray, moved an addition to the deliverance that the following words be added to the original motion at the words "rural Schools," viz., "And to the longer continuance of children at School." It was, he said, a deplorable fact that the children left Board Schools at an age so tender that it was highly probable that the education they received at these schools would evaporate. Some children left school at as early an age as twelve years, and at that age the human brain was in a very immature state. They were simply deceiving themselves if they imagined that the present generation was receiving a sound and valuable education. The Rev. Dr. WATT said that to save the time of the House the Committee were willing to accept Mr Macpherson's addition to the deliverance. Mr MACPHERSON was proceeding to speak, when The MODERATOR said his motion having been accepted, there was no need to argue further, as he had got all he wanted. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, complained that a vacancy in the number of Examiners in Religious Knowledge had been filled up without any reference being made to it in the Report. He might also say that in appointing an Examiner to the Glasgow Normal College the Committee (lid not seem to think there was any one in Glasgow or the neighbourhood who could discharge the duties, although they had Dr Watt, whose authority as an Inspector was known all over the country. Dr WATT said it was quite an inadvertence that the filling of the vacancy had not been mentioned in the Report. The Rev. ALEX. MACQUARRIE, Kilmorack, bore testimony to the great value of the Committee's work. He urged the Assembly to hesitate before depriving the country of one of the most solid guarantees they had for the good and sound teaching of the masses. The original motion as thus amended was then adopted by the General Assembly, and the name of the Rev. Dr Watt, Anderston, was added to the Committee. SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. Mr J. TURNBULL SMITH, C.A., Edinburgh (Elder), submitted the Report of the Committee on Sabbath Schools. It stated that they had now 2094 Sabbath Schools, or nine more than last year; 216,980 scholars, an increase of 534; 170,871 in average attendance, an increase of 921; and an army of 20,589 teachers, an increase of 84. There were 38,883 young persons attending Bible Classes in addition to those at Sunday Schools, being an increase of 1519. The collections amounted to £5359, being £695 above the contributions for the previous year. There were a good many non-- reporting parishes, and some without Sabbath Schools, but the results were, on the whole, very encouraging. The most important matter that had engaged the attention of the Committee during the past year was the preparation of the Books for Teachers authorised by last Assembly, and which he now laid on the table of the House. He did not venture to think that in every particular the books would commend themselves to everyone, but after having had an opportunity of carefully examining the work as a whole, the Committee had no hesitation in saying that in their opinion the books did credit to the Church, and would be found eminently useful in enabling the teachers in the future to perform their duties much more satisfactorily than it was possible for many of them to do in the past. The amount which the Committee required from the Church, in order to place the books in the hands of teachers at the lowest possible price, was £1350. The Rev. Professor STORY moved the following Resolution: - "Approve of the Report. Record the thanks of the General Assembly to the Committee, to the Convener, to Conveners of Synod and Presbytery Committees, and to the Superintendents and Teachers for their valuable services. Renew the General Assembly's former directions to Synods and Presbyteries to appoint annually a Committee on Sabbath Schools, with a Convener. Earnestly commend to the fostering care of Synods, Presbyteries, Kirk-Sessions, Ministers, and Members of the Church generally, the whole subject of the Religious Education of the Young, with special reference to strengthening the hold of the Church upon the senior scholars. Authorise the Committee to publish the three books for Teachers which have been prepared under the authority of last General Assembly. Record the thanks of the Assembly to the Editors, Assessors, and Writers of these books. Renew the injunction that a Special Collection should be made to meet the expenses connected with the Teachers' Books, in those parishes where a Collection has not yet taken place, on any convenient Sabbath during the present year. Reappoint the Convener and the Committee, with power to add to their number." He said the point which he wished to emphasize was the scheme of lessons which had been drawn up by the Committee. He had looked through the books with some care, and he had no hesitation in saying that they were the result of a great deal of thoughtful and scholarly work, deserving the confidence of the Church. He did not say that with all the details of the expositions he found himself in accordance, but that was a small matter. A scheme of lessons was more valuable when it stimulated thought and suggested study than when it sank to a dead level of commonplace. The lessons were of a progressive character, so that the youngest child was led on until he reached the point when he was ready for the more advanced instruction. It was too generally assumed that any one who had the zeal to teach in a Sunday School was endowed with the requisite knowledge, but there could be no greater mistake. The best-intentioned person was often the least capable of intelligently teaching children, but any one taking these lessons and assimilating them was sure to be guided in a line of instruction profitable to the children. He should have liked if some short service for the children had been prepared, especially in the way of short prayers, and he suggested to the Committee that they should take that into consideration, because the devotional exercises, as they were called, in Sunday Schools were often very much below the mark, and did not leave the impression they ought to do. The statistics given by the Committee were particularly gratifying. With the exception of a single blank in the old town of Edinburgh - which he did not think should exist - there were Sunday Schools in all the Parishes of the Synods of Lothian and Tweeddale, Merse and Teviotdale, Dumfries, and Glasgow and Ayr. Indeed, there were almost no blanks until they got into the Highlands, and, as they knew, there were some districts in the Highlands which were exceptions to all rule. There were no returns of Sunday Schools in five Parishes in the Presbytery of Tongue, and there were in that Presbytery only six elders and seventy-nine communicants. But even in that unfortunate and benighted Presbytery, if the Church was to live, it was incumbent on the remnant to get hold of the children of the Church. If the Parents would not go to the National Church, there was always some way of getting at the children and producing in their minds a religious impression by a living illustration of the Scriptures, which was not more needed anywhere than in the Presbytery of Tongue. Mr COLIN G. MACRAE, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion. Mr STEWART LINDSAY, Kirriemuir (Elder), said it was very gratifying to find in these days of religious indifference that the Committee had been able to report such successful results, and that the Church was not only maintaining but improving her position with regard to Sunday Schools. He firmly believed that very much of the abounding religious indifference was attributable to the want of religious instruction; and, notwithstanding the efforts of Christian parents and Sunday School teachers, the evil had been greatly aggravated since systematic religious teaching had been shoved aside in the day schools. It was very sad to see Statesmen and Doctors of Divinity advocating a divorce between religious and secular instruction; but the neglect of the State only added to the responsibility of the Church in this matter, and rendered it more imperative that the teachers should not only have the will, but have some aptitude and training for the work. He did not think the National Church was yet to go down, but if it was to die, a hundred thousand Scotsmen, and he hoped two hundred thousand Scottish women, would know the reason why. The Rev. J.A. IRELAND, Whitburn, said he could not express unqualified approval of the Report. He thought it would have been more desirable if the Committee had begun the work which they proposed to leave to a future Assembly, and had prepared a suitable Bible for children. His idea of religious instruction was that there should be portions of Scripture selected and put in a handy form for children. He saw in the Books for Teachers the story of the Angel delivering St Peter from prison, and the comment on that passage, which they were instructed to give to children, was that there were Angels, and that they might do such work as the opening of prisons; but that children ought not to speak to Angels, and ought not to address themselves to Angels. He (Mr Ireland) would say that if there were Angels, and they were to teach that to children, they should speak to them as often as they could. He believed if such a publication as he had suggested were issued by the Assembly there would be nothing more popular in the homes of the Scottish people. The report was then adopted, THE SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, AND THE EDUCATIONAL SCHEME FOR THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, in absence of the Rev. Dr MITCHELL, South Leith, reported that the Committee had fulfilled the instructions of last General Assembly, and petitioned Parliament against the scheme of the Educational Endowments Commission for dealing with the funds of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. The Agent laid on the table a copy Scheme which had received the approval of Her Majesty, incorporating "The Governors of the Trust for Education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland," under Section 3 of which the Assembly are empowered to elect three members of the governing body. On the motion of Dr SCOTT, the following were appointed Governors of the Trust for Education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland: - The Principal Clerk of Assembly, Professor Milligan; the Convener of the Royal Bounty Fund, Dr Norman Macleod, of St Stephen's, Edinburgh; and the Convener of the Highland Committee, Professor Malcolm C. Taylor. THE ST JAMES' CHURCH, GLASGOW, DISPUTED SETTLEMENT CASE. The question of the regularity of the election of the Rev. David Cathels as successor to the Rev. John Henderson in the parish of St James', Glasgow, was brought before the Assembly by Appeals of Mr John M. Barr and others against a deliverance of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, of 9th April last, dismissing an Appeal by them against a previous decision of the Presbytery of Glasgow sustaining the appointment of Mr Cathels. The minutes of the meeting of the congregation on 27th May last bore that the Rev. Alexander Loudon, Galashiels, the Rev. J.R. Macpherson, Kinnaird, and the Rev. D.S. Cathels, Kirkton, were each nominated for the vacancy in the parish, but that, owing to the supporters of Mr Macpherson being so few, they went over before the voting commenced to Mr Loudon's party or to Mr Cathels' party, so that only the names of Mr Loudon and Mr Cathels were voted on - the result being that 179 voted for the latter and 177 for the former. The election was taken exception to by Mr Barr and other members of the minority, on the ground that undue influence had been used to prevent supporters of Mr Loudon attending the meeting of the congregation and voting in his behalf, that the meeting in question was characterised throughout by irregularities, that the division was taken part in by persons not entitled to vote, and that a just enumeration of the qualified electors gave Mr Cathels no majority. After hearing proof on these points, the Presbytery, in respect that the charges had not been substantiated, sustained the appointment of Mr Cathels. Appeal was taken to the Synod by the Rev. T.B. W. Niven, Pollokshields, for himself, and by Mr Barr and others, against this judgment of the Presbytery, with the result that it was unanimously resolved to dismiss both Appeals and to sustain the decision of the inferior Court. At the bar of the Assembly Mr Ure, Advocate, appeared for the Appellants; Mr Cowrie Thomson, Advocate, for Mr Cathels and his supporters; the Rev. T.B.W. Niven for himself; and Dr F.L. Robertson and the Rev. Mr Hutton for the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Mr URN first stated the case for the Appellants. He argued that from the beginning to the end of the proceedings in the settlement, the Regulations of the Assembly, under which the right of election was exercised by members of congregations, were utterly disregarded. There was no Roll of the congregation, and if there was no Roll the whole foundation of the election was gone. There was no certified copy of the Roll in the hands of the Presbytery, and at all the meetings in connection with the vacancy the Moderator had not in his hands, as enjoined by the Regulations, the Roll of the congregation - necessarily in this case, because there was no Roll. He also contended that there were irregularities in the counting of the votes at the meeting where the election took place. Had the division been less narrow, serious importance might not have been attached to these irregularities; but in such an extremely narrow state of the division as they had in this case - 177 to 179 - he attached great importance to them. He quite understood that the General Assembly would be exceedingly unwilling to disturb an election which had proceeded so far as this one had, especially when there was the possibility, if the proceedings were to be begun de novo, that there might be to some extent a repetition of those scenes of high excitement and high feeling which had undoubtedly been displayed, and that there might be a repetition of the exceedingly narrow vote which all must deprecate on the part of a congregation met for the duty of electing a minister. But, unless the Assembly were to set aside entirely its own clear and simple Regulations, it must set aside the election and must direct that the proceedings should be begun de novo. This he concluded by moving the House to do. The Rev. T.B.W. NIVEN, on his own behalf, said he had felt it necessary to press his Appeal simply on the ground that in considering an appointment of this nature the Presbytery were precluded from sustaining the appointment unless they were satisfied that it had been made strictly in accordance with the Regulations of the Assembly, and particularly that the appointment bad emanated from the persons legally entitled to vote. It seemed to him that in the course of the investigation it had been distinctly proved that the Regulations of the General Assembly had been violated in respect that a document seemed to be entirely awanting - namely, the electoral Roll of the congregation. It had also been proved by the evidence led before the Presbytery that certain parties, from the irregularity of the proceedings, had been prevented from taking part in the election who desired to do so, and that certain parties had also been permitted to take part in the election who had no legal title to do so. Mr COMRIE THOMSON, for the Respondents, contended that it was entirely out of order to ask the General Assembly to pronounce a decision upon the question of the regularity or irregularity of the Rolls referred to, and that by an arrangement, acceded to by both sides before the Presbytery, it had been resolved that the question was not to be gone into except for certain practical ends. The real question was whether the unanimous judgment of the Synod and the decision of the Presbytery - to the effect that the charges of undue influence, bribery, and intimidation had not been substantiated - arrived at by twenty-seven votes to five, should be overturned on account of simple fault-finding as to the manner in which the Rolls were kept. Assuming that there had not been literal compliance with all the Regulations of the Assembly in the election, what relevancy was there in that plea when the question for the House was simply whether or not Mr Cathels was duly elected? That was the only question they had to try, and he maintained that the legality of the election was clearly established by the evidence led before the Presbytery. The objection to the legality of the election on the ground that no electoral or congregational Roll other than the Communion Roll had been made up was purely technical, and it lost its force in respect that the irregularity was followed by no evil consequences. It would, he reminded the Assembly, be a very serious thing, after more than a year had elapsed since the election, to reopen the case on a matter which had been entirely within the cognisance of the Appellants months before they led evidence before the Presbytery. But even if the House doubted his assurance that the slight irregularity in regard to the electoral Roll had led to no evil consequences, he maintained that the time had gone past for taking exception to the election on that ground. From motives not only of justice to his Clients, but from motives, too, of expediency affecting the whole Church, he maintained that it would be a most serious thing, at that time of day, to allow that purely technical objection regarding the regularity of the Rolls to be gone into. He urged the Assembly to affirm the judgment of the Presbytery and Synod. The Rev. Dr F L. ROBERTSON was heard for the Synod, but had only commenced his address when the hour of adjournment arrived. Leave was granted to the Committee on Bills to meet to-morrow at 10.55 A.M. The Assembly adjourned at 5.30, to meet again at 8.30 P.M. EVENING SEDERUNT. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, at 8.30 P.M., and was constituted. The Rev. Dr F. L. ROBERTSON resumed his address, and after going over the evidence in the case, he said he had not the slightest hesitation in asking the Assembly to affirm the decision of the Synod. The only question that emerged was this - Was the Roll, except for the gravest reason, after it had been adjusted, certified, laid on the table, and used as the instrument of election, to be overturned in order to allow the defeated party to make good their point, and to prevent the man who had been chosen being admitted? He maintained that it was not, and that it would be disastrous if such a thing were to be allowed. He argued that where there was no congregational Roll, the Communion Roll became de facto the Roll of the congregation. No objection had been taken by the Appellants to the Communion Roll when it was exhibited for public inspection, so that it must be held to have been homologated by the congregation. He concluded by noticing the charges of undue influence and bribery, which, he said, ought not to have been made against persons holding positions of importance, unless they were well founded, and could be proved. The facts founded upon were, in his view, exceedingly trivial, and could not by any reasoning bear the interpretation sought to be put upon them. Mr URE, in reply, said the addresses on the other side had been devoted to answering arguments which he had not used. The Regulations of the Assembly laid it down that the Roll of a congregation was entirely distinct from the Communion Roll. The former was defined as a list of names made up from the Communion Roll, and the claims of Communicants and Adherents. He also challenged the position that the matter might be decided by the question of whether or not any harm had resulted. Unquestionably there was a mistake made in the counting. The proceedings were not in accordance with the Regulations of the Assembly, and should not be given effect to. Mr COMRIE THOMSON shortly replied, urging that there had been an absolute failure to show that that election had been in the slightest degree affected by any of the alleged informalities in the Roll, or the mode of voting. In reply to a question by Dr SCOTT, it was stated that if three Communicants, who, it was said, wished to vote, and were prevented, had voted, the numbers for Mr Cathels and Mr Loudon would have been equal. Parties were afterwards removed. Sir CHAS. PEARSON (the Procurator) said the first thing they had to consider was the accuracy of the electoral Roll. Now, lie would certainly never be accused of underrating the importance of the accuracy of the Roll, but at the same time he was equally convinced that it would never do to go finically to work upon such a subject; and unless they were convinced that substantial injustice had been done, and that the mind of the people had not been ascertained, the election should be sustained rather than set aside by the Court of Appeal. Something was said, he thought, rather in the way of unduly minimising the importance of having a list distinct from the Communion Roll in a case where there were no Adherents. He disagreed with that. He thought it was quite wrong to work as the Moderator and the Clerk worked upon an ancient Communion Roll, full of blanks and deletions, for the purpose of fixing the electoral body. It was clear that the proper course would have been to have copied out the Roll, and to have had it attested by the Moderator. But he was not prepared to say that the course adopted was so incompetent as to void an election, though he was most unwilling to advise the Assembly to any conclusion which would appear to justify such a slovenly way of making up a Roll. There was no necessity under the Regulations for there being a separate list from the Communion Roll. It appeared to him there was no sufficient doubt thrown on this Roll to enable them to arrive at the serious conclusion that there was in law no Roll, and therefore no basis for this election. Further, the Appellants entirely failed until far too late to take the objections they might have taken on this point. On this matter he was inclined to advise the Assembly that, although for the purpose of scrutiny it was most inexpedient that the Communion Roll should not have been copied, it was not a nullity. It was on the face of it a Roll attested by the Moderator and the Clerk, a copy of which was sent to the Presbytery. Coming next to the objections urged by the Appellants, he said the first was that undue influence was used. Now, canvassing was not yet contrary to the law of the Church. Canvassing or persuasion may sometimes come very near to undue influence, but if the acts complained of were brought within the category of canvassing, it was not against the law of the Church, although he might be allowed to say in anticipation that if the thing went much further it would very soon be against the law, because he thought the Church had precisely the same inherent power that the State had when it passed the Corrupt Practices Act, making illegal certain acts in themselves perfectly unblamable, merely because they had become so common as to be a public abuse. The other objection he thought had been unduly minimised by the Respondents. He thought more seriously than they did of giving a florin instead of a penny to a little boy, or 2s. 6d. to a poor person, when the act coincided with recommending a particular candidate. At the same time he did not say that a single instance, even of bribery, when it was not traced to the candidate himself, should void an election. As to the third and fourth objections, if it could be clearly made out that the majority had been added to by the intrusion of persons who were not entitled to vote, or that the minority had been detracted from by the exclusion of persons who were entitled to vote, he would be very much inclined to say that the thing must be done over again. But he did not think any one was counted who should not have been included; and when they came to exclusion, he held that every one who had a right to vote ought previously to have ascertained that his name was correctly on the Roll; and it seemed to him that a person who appeared at the door who had a prima facie right to be admitted could not be held to be wrongfully excluded if he left the door before the matter of his right to be admitted was cleared up. He did not think it could be held that the doorkeepers excluded any of the persons named. He therefore moved that the Assembly dismiss the Appeals and affirm the judgment of the Synod; and with reference to the question raised as to the validity of the electoral Roll, find that no case has been made out for the interference of the Assembly. Mr CHARLES INNES, Inverness (Elder), seconded the motion, his contention being that the Roll on which the election took place must be held to be the Roll of the congregation. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTONE, Harray, moved as an amendment - "The General Assembly find it proved, as averred by the Appellants, that the congregational meeting of 27th May last year was characterised by irregularity and disorder; that in consequence of grave irregularities and discrepancies in the electoral Rolls or lists on which the election proceeded, members of the congregation who had a right to vote were refused admittance to the meeting; that motions for delay and scrutiny of votes were improperly refused; that a protest against the whole proceedings was not recorded; that it was impossible for the members reasonably to deliberate and determine the matter before them, and that no adequate opportunity was allowed for correcting the mistakes complained of. The General Assembly further find that the taking of the vote by merely counting the persons in the two groups respectively was insufficient; that in view of the dubiety of the enumeration and the smallness of the majority announced, the names and votes of the voters ought to have been recorded; and that in the circumstances of the case, as disclosed in the evidence, the election is irregular and invalid. The General Assembly therefore sustain the Appeals, recall the judgments appealed against, and remit the case to the Presbytery of Glasgow, that the necessary steps may be taken for a new election." The Rev. JAMES LANDRETH, Logie-Pert, Brechin, in seconding the amendment, said he thought it had been clearly proved, even by the speech of the Procurator himself, that there had been gross irregularity, not only in the meeting and in the voting, but in the canvassing. If the House condoned irregularity in a case where the successful condidate had such a small majority, it would set a precedent for disorder throughout the Church, and would shake the confidence of members in the wisdom of the Assembly. Mr WILLIAM M. DICKIE, Glasgow (Elder), supported the amendment, and urged that purity of election was one of the most fundamental doctrines of the Church. If that were departed from, the great doctrines of the Church might soon go to the wall. The Rev. Dr SCOTT supported the motion of the Procurator. There was, he said, a tendency to over-regulate elections, and this tendency was calculated to make it more difficult than it really was for congregations to get the Minister whom they might choose. In this case they must lay sentiment aside. It was because of the smallness of the majority that they had this agitation. If they sent it back to the congregation, did they imagine they would have anything else than agitation? A majority of two, if they were acting lawfully, were entitled to the support of the Assembly as much as if they were a majority of two hundred. He emphasised the remarks of the Procurator upon the slovenliness with which the election had been carried through. It would do good if the Assembly were to express its displeasure at such slovenliness. He was of opinion, however, that no substantial injustice had been done to any of the parties in the case. The Rev. Professor STORY rose to support Dr Johnstone's amendment. It must be obvious, he said, to any one who had attended to the argument of the Procurator that he throughout hesitated, and assented to what had been done by the Presbytery and Synod with great reluctance. He stated that he recognised in the proceedings the greatest slovenliness, and to that he made the strongest objections; but it was only from motives of his own that he consented to overlook these, and agree that the proceedings should be sustained. There seemed to have been no electoral Roll in the sense intended by the Regulations of the Assembly. It was all very well to talk of this botched and amended and re-amended Roll of Communicants being a qualified electoral Roll, but it was not so in a legal sense. Another thing was the presence at the door of this Cerberus, who admitted or turned back at his discretion. He turned back persons according to a copy of a Roll which he held in his hand. There was no such arrangement known in the Church in the election of a Minister. The election in his mind was invalid. How did they know that substantial justice would be done if they confirmed the proceedings? Here was a majority of two, a majority obtained on an illegal Roll, and by the action of the Cerberus at the door. He thought that after the speech of the Procurator, which had a great effect upon his (Dr Story's) mind - different from what his learned friend intended- in view of that speech, they should be excessively careful in sanctioning the irregularities which their learned legal adviser acknowledged were gross irregularities, for the sake of avoiding a future undesirable repetition of a contested election. Let them have any number of contested elections rather than in any degree infringe what they regarded to be the law of the Church, which should be administered with the The PROCURATOR, after characterising in strong terms the proceedings before the Synod, and expressing his regret that the Assembly could not deal exhaustively with the case in consequence of the shape in which it was presented to the House, said he would make a motion which would at least put it on the rails, so that a decision might be pronounced. He moved: - "That the Assembly find that the only matters competently before the Synod were (1) Mr Bain's Dissent and Complaint against the deliverance of the Presbytery, of date 26th June 1888; and (2) the relative Petition by Mr Bain, of date 25th September 1888: sustain the Dissent and Complaint, and remit to the Synod to recall the sist of the procedure granted by the Synod on 25th September 1888, and to hear parties on the Dissent and Complaint taken by Mr Bain on 26th June 1888, and on the relevancy of the said Petition." The Rev. Dr SCOTT seconded the motion, which was agreed to. Parties were recalled and judgment intimated. The Rev. Mr Lawson, Dr Mackenzie, and Mr Macdougall acquiesced, took instruments, and craved extracts, which were allowed. OVERTURE ANENT REPRESENTATION OF KIRK-SESSIONSAND COLLEGIATE CHARGES. The Presbytery of Dundee overtured the Assembly to declare that it was in accordance with the constitution and law of the Church that every Kirk-- Session should, with regard to the representation of Kirk-Sessions in Presbyteries and Synods, send to the Presbytery and Synod the same number of ruling Elders as there were Ministers of Pastoral Charges (collegiate or separate) having seats in the Kirk-Session. The Rev. JOHN REID, Monikie, briefly supported the Overture. It was agreed before disposing of the Overture to call for the Report of the Committee on Collegiate Charges. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTONE, Harray, submitted the Report by the Committee on Collegiate Charges. The Committee, after obtaining full information from Ministers and Session Clerks of Collegiate Charges, concurred in the conclusion come to by a similar Committee in 1879, that the benefits derived from the Collegiate system were more than counterbalanced by the evils which accompanied or flowed from it, and that in at least the great majority of cases it was desirable that it should be superseded by other arrangements. The hope was expressed that should the General Assembly continue the Committee and authorise it to promote, should opportunity offer, the introduction of a Bill on the subject, the object aimed at would be ere long gained. What was proposed was merely a permissive measure, making disjunction, where expedient, easily attainable. The quoad sacra Parishes Act of 1884 had largely promoted the prosperity of the Church, and an Act dealing with the case of Collegiate Charges might likewise prove highly advantageous. The Rev. Dr SCOTT moved as follows: - "The General Assembly receive the Report, continue the Committee, authorise them to confer with the Presbyteries specially interested as to the expediency of inaugurating measures designed to secure the ends contemplated, and instruct the Committee to report to next General Assembly the result of their inquiries. Also - That the Overture be referred to the Committee, and that the names of Mr Gardner, Brechin, Mr Reid, and Captain Wimberley be added to the Committee." The General Assembly adjourned at 12.45 A.M., to meet again at 11 A.M. TUESDAY, 27th May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The minutes of last sederunt being in the hands of Members were held as read, and were approved of. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on Bills, which was given in, read, and approved of. The Petition of Mr A. S. Stewart was remitted to the Committee on Admission of Ministers. THE CARSPHAIRN CASE. The Rev. J. BALFOUR ROBERTSON, Leswalt, drew attention to the Carsphairn case, which comes before the Assembly on a reference from the Synod of Galloway, and which is down for consideration tomorrow. He asked that the Assembly should appoint a Committee to confer with parties in the case. In the interests of the Church, he thought that was the only way in which the case could be satisfactorily wound up. It was a serious and a peculiar case, requiring peculiar treatment, and if discussed on the floor of the House before attempting to arrive at some agreement, no satisfactory arrangement was likely to be made. Sir ALEXANDER MUIR MACKENZIE Of Delvine (Elder), seconded the motion, which was agreed to, and a Committee was appointed to meet parties in the Carsphairn case, and to report to the General Assembly when the case is called. The Committee to consist of Dr Scott (Convener), Dr Story, the Rev. T.B.W. Niven, the Rev. Theodore Marshall, and Sir A. Muir Mackenzie. HOME MISSIONS. The Rev. WM. ROBERTSON, Edinburgh, Home Mission Deputy, in the absence of the Convener, the Rev. Dr Donald Macleod, presented the Report upon the Home Missions of the Church. It stated that last year had been characterised by steady progress. The only branch in which there was a decrease was that of Church Building, for while in 1888 there was an expenditure of £2077 for the enlargement or building of 16 places of worship, adding thereby 4691 sittings, in 1889 only 3272 additional sittings were provided at a cost to the Committee of £1835. The Committee had been able to meet all the requirements of this branch and to pay every grant that became due. There was an increase of 7 Mission Churches, although 3 of those formerly connected with the Home Mission had been removed in consequence of endowment. There were also 2 more Stations supplied by Licentiates, and an addition of 2 to those supplied by Non-Licentiates: in all, an increase of 11 Agents over the number employed during the previous year. There was a similar increase in the funds placed at the disposal of the Committee, the total income for 1888 having been £8959, 0s. 4d., and for 1889 £10,042, 5s. 9d. The operations of the Committee are divided into three branches - (1) Mission Stations, (2) Mission Churches, and (3) Church Building. There were 75 Stations connected with the Mission branch during 1889, and of these 27 were supplied by Licentiates, and 48 by Non-Licentiates. Grants were given amounting to £1050 for the support of the Licentiates, and £934 for Non-Licentiates - or in all, £1984. The total expenditure for salaries at these Stations was £3811, £2184 of which was in salaries paid to Licentiates, and £1627 in salaries paid to Non-- Licentiates. The average attendance at all the Stations was 6821. The largest number of Communicants who actually partook of the Lord's Supper during the year was 1969. There were 80 Mission Churches which fell to be reported upon this year, the average attendance at which was 15,467. The number of persons who actually communicated during the year at these Churches was 9569. The grants voted by the Committee in connection with this special work amounted to £3185, while the total sum expended upon salaries was £8359. There were 23 cases dealt with under the head Church Building during 1889, involving an expenditure in grants of £1835, whereby 3272 additional sittings were supplied for Church accom-modation at a total cost of £14,620. The following table shows the condition of the funds for 1889 as compared with 1888: - 1888. 1889. Church-door Collections and Parochial Associations, £6,949 8 2 £7,066 1 1 Donations, 193 12 8 199 8 0 Associations, &c., 12 10 6 Interest andFeu-- Duties, 620 1 9 603 17 1 Legacies, 1,183 7 3 2,172 19 7 £8,959 0 4 £10,042 5 9 The Committee suggested, for the approval of the Assembly, the formation of a new branch, to be called Parish Missionaries, which should not interfere with any of those existing, and should be devoted to securing additional aggressive work in Parishes, the necessities of which cannot be overtaken by the Parish Minister. It was recommended that an annual sum of £250 be applied in furtherance of this proposal. The Committee believed that, if sanctioned, this new departure would in the course of a few years become the means of vastly increasing the efficiency of the Church in dealing with the many problems that affect non-church-going in Scotland. Finally, the Committee rejoice that there is everywhere manifest an increasing interest in the social, as well as spiritual, condition of the people. They recognise every movement in the direction of improving the housing of the industrial classes, of preventing debasement through evil environment, of dealing with intemperance and its causes, of supplying healthy amusements and all similar undertakings, as matters in which the Church of Christ ought not merely to have a lively interest, but in the advancement of which she ought to take the leading part. And they are glad in this connection to point to the excellent work fulfilled by the Commission of the Presbytery of Glasgow appointed to inquire into the housing of the poor in that great city. The income of the Home Mission Scheme from all sources for 1889 was £10,142, 5s. 9d., and the expenditure £8968, 13s. 11d., including grants paid to 149 Churches and Stations, £4814, 19s. 6d. and £3159, 5s. for building operations, leaving the sum of £16,691, 6s. 8d. in hand at the close of the year." Mr ROBERTSON, in presenting the Report, expressed the regret the whole House felt that Dr Donald Macleod was not able himself to be present that morning and submit the Report. He was sure that nothing would elicit a more cordial response from that Assembly than the expression of the Committee's very earnest hope that, after a short rest, Dr Macleod would return invigorated for the many labours of which the Assembly and the Church had so grateful an appreciation. Since entering the Assembly that morning he had received a message from Dr Macleod, who was in Italy, "Feel ever so much stronger. As I look out on Vesuvius, pouring forth fire and smoke, I could scarcely believe that there is another possible volcano on the Castle Hill." The new proposals which the Committee put before the Assembly were the outcome of the wisdom of Dr Macleod. While it was a new departure, it was eminently a new departure along the lines on which the Committee had for years been working. The Church of Scotland's principle of government was the territorial principle. It was agreed that was the only successful method by which work of that kind could be overtaken. It was also one of the principles of the Church of Scotland, that in a Parish the Parish Minister was the Parish Missionary; and, in the third place, it was one of the principles of the Church that in such a Parish as that where Mission work was required, the centre of Mission operations was, and must be, the Parish Church. The proposals of the Committee were intended to conserve, and to give expression to, these principles. Not one of these principles was new, but a new point was that, in the opinion of the Committee, the Church should by a certain change in its machinery - in some respects a comparatively small change - come to the help of those who were being overburdened and broken down by an honest and earnest attempt to be faithful to responsibilities which were greater than they were able to bear. The tendency of the Committee's policy was not to increase unnecessarily the number of places of worship, but to turn to the fullest account the services of the Ministry at present existing. The work of supplying the spiritual wants of the crowded districts of our large cities was being more and more left to the National Church year by year, and such a departure as that which the Committee asked the Assembly to take was but another evidence of the National Church standing to her own principles, and straining her utmost effort to meet the spiritual necessities of the people. These were the proposals of a unanimous Committee, and he trusted the General Assembly would cordially adopt them. The Rev. Dr SCOTT moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, record their thanks to the Convener and the Committee for their labours on behalf of the Scheme, and reappoint them with the usual powers - Dr Macleod to be Convener. The General Assembly learn with regret that, owing to the state of his health, Dr Macleod has not been able to present the Report in person, and they desire to express their sympathy with him, and their earnest hope that, by the blessing of God, a short period of rest may enable him to return strengthened and reinvigorated for the many labours of which the Assembly and the Church have so grateful an appreciation. The General Assembly note with satisfaction the increase of the Committee's revenue, as well as the steady progress of Missionary operations during the year. They observe that the Committee have been able considerably to extend their operations, and in view of the increasing demands made on the Committee for aid, the Assembly earnestly renew their exhortation that adequate funds be furnished by means of the regular and systematic contributions of the members of the Church, so that the Committee may be enabled to discharge the responsibilities laid upon them. The General Assembly receive, with much satisfaction, the Report submitted in compliance with the direction given to the Committee last year, to consider any alteration or modification of the Rules hitherto observed in the management of the Home Mission Scheme, which they might have to suggest for the increase of its efficiency. The Assembly approve of the new branch to be called Parish Missionaries, and of the Regulations suggested in the Report for its administration; and they further approve of and adopt the Committee's recommendation that, in the meantime, till experience shall have shown the practicability and usefulness of this department of work, an annual sum of £250 be applied in furtherance of the proposals now submitted. In connection with this matter, the General Assembly desire to impress on the Ministers and Members of the Church that, inasmuch as it is not contemplated that this New Branch should curtail the work hitherto carried on by the Committee, it can only become effective if it secures the hearty sympathy and adequate support of the Church, and to these the General Assembly cordially commend it. The General Assembly are pleased to learn that the trustees of the Dr Phin Memorial Fund were able during the past year to apply the first half-year's income to the purpose for which the Fund was established, and feel assured that in time to come the Fund will prove to be a distinct boon to the Missionaries among whom the revenue may be distributed. The General Assembly having learned that it has been found necessary to rebuild the Church of the quoad sacra Parish of Renton, authorise the Committee to receive an application for aid, and to make such a grant towards the new Church as they may deem suitable, having regard to all the circumstances of the case." Speaking to the motion, Dr Scott said the Report was one of the most interesting and encouraging that was ever presented to the Assembly, and the Committee from whom it came deserved the heartiest sympathy and strongest support of the Church. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the labours given to this branch of Church Service by the Convener. The General Assembly should emphasize its expression of regret that we lacked to-day his powerful presence, very much on account of the strain upon his health which this additional duty involved; and of its sympathy with him in the illness which has necessitated his temporary retirement. Thanks are also due to the Deputy whose practical sagacity and unwearied devotion were a great strength to the Church, and a bright example of the willing service which every Minister should render to her. The Report was the record of an enlarging and advancing mission. Its figures were very interesting, and the facts which they covered more interesting and encouraging still. The energies of the Committee were not expended in pushing the interests of a denomination in promising quarters where adherents and proselytes could be gained for it. They were expended, to a very considerable extent, for the benefit of the poorest and most struggling of the population of Scotland. To the fishermen along the coasts of the Hebrides, to the crofters of Orkney and Shetland, to scattered families of ghillies and shepherds in secluded fastnesses of the Grampians, to the toiling masses gathered around the centres of our great oil and mining industries, and the denizens of the poorest Parishes in our great cities, the Home Mission carried the benediction and the succour of the Church. When one considered what this Mission aimed at, what it was, what it ought to be, and could easily be made to be, if we each did our duty by it, one felt that there was in it the materials for a great epic. It appealed both to the imagination and the conscience. He did not envy the man in whom the reading of the Report stirred no enthusiasm, and he had nothing but pity for the man who could be so apathetic in regard to the work reported upon, that from the beginning of the year to the end of it, he would not give either a prayer or a penny in support of it. Special attention was directed to the résumé of the various methods that had been adopted in recent years for the enlargement of the Mission, and the sketch of the proposals now submitted for a further advance in its operations. One principle had hitherto governed the policy of the Committee, viz., that they should not tamper with the responsibilites nor diminish the labours of Parish Ministers, but should endeavour to increase, if possible, the amount of work actually and effectively done. The grants were administered not to provide substitutes for Ministers, but to meet necessities beyond the power of the most laborious Ministers successfully to grapple with. Again, the aim of the Committee has been the gathering and the establishing of new, and eventually self-sustaining, congregations to be permanently connected through endowment with the parochial organisation of the Church. Now that policy had worked splendidly, and it would be a pity if it were in any way interfered with or restricted. It could be seen from the sketch, however, that the ideals of the Committee had been modified, as the ideals of every living and growing cause must be modified, by the discovery or the emergence of new necessities; and that since 1884 the sense had been deepening that additional provision should be made for certain districts where no new Parish need be allocated, and no additional Church need be erected. The idea was that the Parish Churches should be utilised where conveniently situated in relation to the people, and where it would be unwise to insist upon the erection of a new building. That surely would commend itself to them as a very good idea. Churches were very costly to produce and to maintain - very costly indeed, when they considered the very scanty uses to which they were put. We sometimes blamed a working man for the large sum of money he had invested in a grand family Bible which was kept carefully hidden in a drawer as too good for daily perusal; but we were more to blame for building our costly Churches and only using them one day in seven, and on that day only an hour-and-a-half out of the twenty-four. These things surely ought not to be. In how many cases could the Churches be utilised to the great advantage of the poorest parishioners, without in any way putting the present congregations to the least inconvenience. In how many instances were the poor parishioners severed from the congregation to the detriment of both. The congregation supported a Missionary, paid the rent of some dingy and wretched hall for him to gather the poor into for worship, and there was an end of it. They never come into sympathetic touch with the parishioners, yea, seldom into any touch with the Missionary, who was labouring as their deputy among the parishioners. He had to labour under all the disadvantages of isolation, and therefore with very little success. Now all this must be changed, and the poor parishioners must be put in regard to their Parish Church more on an equality with the comfortable congregation in possession of it. Instead of the miserable Mission premises so often deemed sufficient, the poor parishioners should be invited to enjoy the provision which ordinary church-goers enjoyed. If any generous friend would intrust him with half a million or a million of money to be expended for the good of the Church of Scotland, he would spend it in building magnificent Churches for the poor. Splendid edifices like St Giles' or St Mungo's might be out of the question, but Churches like those of Govan and the Barony were surely within their power. He would put them down in the poorest districts, so that the people there might be trained to understand they were really the brethren of the rich. Well, if they could not build them new Churches, they could utilise the existing, and in many cases magnificent and costly ones. The effect of it would be to bring the Parish Minister into closer contact with the people most in need of his ministry. At present, in too many cases, he was practically severed from them and was the Minister only of the congregation, and the intention of these new proposals was to help him to be what he ought to be, and must desire to be - the Minister of the Parish as well. It meant the strengthening of the ministry, and the increasing of the services in the Parish Church. This, of course, involved more Ministers, who would be assistants, not substitutes, of the man responsible for the duties. He had no fear of its being abused by making Ministers more idle and lazy, but he was sure that it would lighten the anxieties of many laborious Ministers, and immensely increase their usefulness. A really good Assistant always made work for the Minister, but in adding to his work he relieved him of the worry, which makes a free, large-hearted, and successful ministry simply impossible. And all this needed more money, and he might be expected to conclude with the usual hackneyed appeal for more funds. He did hope to see the times when Dr Macleod would have four or five times ten thousand pounds to administer; but the way to secure that was not so much to ask for more money, as to labour and pray for the consecration and sanctification of the Church. If we utilised the resources we had, more would be given to us. In regard to money, we may have all that we have really the strength to use. Well, the strength of the Church was its faith; its faith was surrender to Christ; and in proportion to the Church's surrender to its Head would be the amount of its resources. There was a mighty work to be done in the Church before much could be done through it. Once that it was really and lovingly subject to Christ, He would endue it with victorious power. Sir ALEXANDER MUIR MACKENZIE (Elder) seconded the motion. At that critical juncture in the Church's history it was well to remind themselves that it was their duty to see that every branch of the Church was equipped and in good working order. There was no doubt a difference of opinion as to the meaning of the language which had been used in other places. There were those who thought it did not mean anything, but he was one of those who thought it meant a regular advance all along the line. To use a military phrase, there had been a mobilisation of forces over against the frontier of the Church. When that took place in a neighbouring land, it was well for our Statesmen to see that their forces were in good order, well equipped, and thoroughly provisioned. In the same way it was necessary that in the present juncture of affairs they should see that the Home Mission, which was after all the Church, was thoroughly supplied; and how imperative it was that these supplies should be forthcoming, the Church and the country knew better than he could tell them. He claimed that whereas the Home Mission work of other denominations was only partial, and was carried on in the very nature of things for their own adherents and subscribers, their Home Missions were to the whole people of Scotland - a National Mission, in fact. That was the superiority of position which he claimed for the Church of Scotland. That Church might be on its trial, and if it was, this was the time to show that the duties which the Church claimed to be hers were exercised through their Home Missions right well and gloriously. The Rev. CHARLES FRASER, Freuchie, suggested that the General Assembly should recommend the Home Mission Committee, when a vacancy occurred in any of the Stations presently supplied by Divinity Students, to fill them up by the employment of Licentiates of the Church. From a recent "YearBook" he noticed that there were sixty Licentiates of the Church who had no employment except occasional preaching, and it was not creditable to the Church that those they sent out should be left in the cold, while employment was found for Divinity Students and others of whom they knew very little. They should in the circumstances dispense so far as possible with the services of Divinity Students and others - with Divinity Students particularly, inasmuch as they had other work to do. The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, said he differed from the last speaker that it was a mistake to engage Divinity Students in any part of Church work, holding that it was a very good training indeed for the Student to be occupied at a Home Mission Station in the summer time. It would be a great mistake on the part of the General Assembly at the present time to interfere with the Committee's method of operations, unless it had better evidence before it than it yet had that it was unwise to use the Agents they now used. The enlargement in the scope of the Committee's work he looked upon with satisfaction, believing that a wide field for the employment of the Licentiates of the Church would thereby be opened. The Rev. Dr M'LAREN, Larbert, said that in no possible circumstances did the Home Mission Committee make an appointment, but they uniformly left it to the districts asking for spiritual aid to suggest the Agents they desired. He could imagine nothing more disastrous than that it should be thought the Home Mission Committee was a patronage Committee. With regard to the employment of Licentiates, they must obey the law of supply and demand. In small districts they had not the means of employing Licentiates, for they could not expect a Licentiate to go to Acharacle, in Mull, for £10 a year, or to work in many other Highland Parishes for the small salaries paid. The Rev. WILLIAM LEE KER, Kilwinning, said what Mr Fraser wished to emphasize was that, whenever possible, Licentiates should be appointed under the new scheme, so that in the congested districts of large towns they might assist the Minister in his Sunday work. The Rev. W. ROBERTSON said the new scheme would apply almost entirely to Licentiates. They had one Missionary whose whole salary was £16 a year. It would be impossible to get a Licentiate for that salary, and if they did get him he would be utterly useless, for he was employed in a wild and scattered Parish of crofter townships where the whole work was that of a catechist. It had been said that there was a plethora of Licentiates; but he might mention that during the last few months he had been applied to again and again by Ministers who had found it impossible to get Licentiates to undertake the duty required of a Missionary. The Rev. J.A. ST CLAIR, Montrose, said the tendency of most of their large quoad sacra Parishes was towards Congregationalism. The Minister was to a great extent tied down to congregational work, and his true position as a Parish Minister was often left out of sight. If they could be relieved, under the new scheme, of the various meetings which they had to attend - such as boys' brigades, kinderspiels, and classes of all kinds - they would be able to devote themselves to the work of the Parish, and that would be for the good of all concerned. With regard to the employment of Students, he was himself, when only nineteen, appointed by the Highland Committee to a Highland Parish. He did not know that the people complained of his services, and he was sure he was very much benefited by the experience he had obtained. He would not hesitate himself to employ a Student if he was a good preacher. It was good for the Student, and it was as legal as could possibly be, although not actually legalised by their own laws. Mr FRASER withdrew his amendment, and the deliverance was agreed too. NON-CHURCH-GOING. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, submitted the Report of the Special Committee on Non-Church-- going, which opened with the statement that reports had been received from eighty Presbyteries. Many of the causes for non-church-going alleged in the Reports became causes only at a certain stage of the case, for even religious indifference, like poverty and intemperance, so often advanced as an outstanding cause of non-church-going, was really in many cases the result of it. Indifference to the ordinances of religion, where not hereditary, represented a habit which most people had to acquire, and under which for long they were very uneasy. This was one of the hopeful elements in the difficult problem, for in prosecuting any well-devised and energetic efforts to solve it, they might reckon upon having the better nature of the non-church-going on their side. Many causes had unhappily combined to produce the evils complained of, and it would be manifestly unjust to throw responsibility for them wholly or even chiefly on the Church. It was too readily assumed that they were all traceable solely to Christian neglect, while it was as frequently forgotten that improvidence and indolence and vice had in many instances reduced multitudes to their pitiable condition. Out of the many contributing causes, the Committee gave prominence to the great increase of Sunday labour in recent years, which they said had very injuriously affected the religious and social condition of many of the working classes. Not the necessities of trade, but its keen and avaricious competitions were more and more encroaching upon the working man's Divine heritage of one day of holy rest in seven. While Sunday labour threatened to spoil the Divine heritage of the working classes, among the middle and upper classes not a few were tempted in Sunday desecration to fritter it away. Again, for the domestic arrangements and physical environment of so many thousands of people the Church could not be held directly responsible, but the Committee had not felt itself called upon to discuss this important question, chiefly because an independent and thorough investigation was being made by a Commission of the Glasgow Presbytery into the circumstances connected with the housing of the poor in that city. The Committee felt warranted in referring to the Commission as a commendable instance of the interest taken by the largest Presbytery of the Church in a matter of immense public importance. Among the chief factors to be taken into account in endeavouring to solve the problem was the great strain put upon the present organisation of the Church by the rapid increase of the population and the unequal distribution of that increase. Very many families who were in full communion with the Parish Church in the country fell away from Church attendance upon removing to town; not from poverty or from indifference, but from shyness, a sense of strangeness, ignorance as to where to go, and for lack of some one to take them by the hand and guide them and help them. Many other families, again, who were constant attenders in one part of the city, somehow slipped from the good habit upon changing to another quarter. It was evident that had they everywhere a territorial organisation by which all incomers to a district could early after arrival be visited and kindly influenced, they would prevent many of them from lapsing. There could be no denying the fact that for years in very many instances they had neglected to apply, or had not sufficiently or had wrongly applied, the parochial principle which lay at the foundation of the Church, and that it was there, as far as the action of the Church was concerned, that they must look for another chief cause of the evil complained of. Their ministerial efforts for years past in very many cases had been far too congregational both in aim and method, the seat-holders having been chiefly, and in not a few cases, exclusively attended to. Another factor might be found in the numerical strength of the congregations, for while the Communion rolls all over the Church were increasing, the number of Ministers who were expected to serve the enlarging congregations continued very much the same. But while admitting the existence of these evils, and the great extent to which they prevailed, the Committee submitted that the Church should confront them in a spirit of hopefulness. It was not as if they had been doing nothing, for they had really been doing much, and to very good effect, in recent years, but evidently they had not done enough, and their methods of doing might require alteration and improvement. In view of all the circumstances the Committee recommended as a basis essential to any really remedial measures, that all the available forces in the Church should be utilised and combined in an effort to secure the vigorous application all over the country of the parochial system. It was not true that the system had broken down in the Church, but it was true that in many places it had not been sufficiently taken advantage of. It most break clown in many Parishes, if only a Minister and his Assistant were expected to work it, for no two men could do the work which many people were required to do; and two of the most zealous and able of men must fail if in the work of evangelising a district the only appliance available was a Parish Church with only a few free sittings in it. They should endeavour to make the Church in each Parish in reality, or so far as they could make it, the Parish Church. In many cases at present it was not so. It was occupied by non-parochial persons who had rented their seats, and whose rights of property till the congregation could do without the pew rents must be respected. In the great majority of cases it was believed that seatholders would not object to, but would cordially approve of, an injunction by the Presbytery that in every Church within the bounds there should be at least one service every Sunday at which all the sittings should be free to all who attended. The Minister in each Parish should really, or so far as he could, be the Parish Minister. Congregations should be trained to acknowledge that the poor and needy and nonchurch-going among the parishioners had a larger claim on the Minister than non-parochial attenders of the Church. For the relief of congested Parishes or of very necessitous districts the Presbyteries within whose bounds they lay should share the responsibility with the Ministers and Sessions that served them. The Church could not be properly governed and properly served except with faithfulness in the administration of Presbyteries. With the view of furthering this the Committee suggested that the Assembly should appoint a Commission, to be called "The Commission on the Religious Condition of the People " - a Commission essentially for assistance and not for superintendence, and which should co-operate with Presbyteries and Synods in ministration, but which was in no way to interfere with their government. The Rev. Dr GRAY, Liberton, moved the following deliverance: - "That the General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Committe for their diligence, and discharge them. The General Assembly learn with regret that, in recent years, Sunday labour has greatly increased, and believing that this is most detrimental to the best interests of all concerned in it, the General Assembly enjoin all Ministers and Elders not only to protest against this encroachment on the rights of labour, but also heartily to co-operate in every well-devised effort to protect the working classes in the enjoyment of their Divine heritage of one day of holy rest in seven. The General Assembly having learned with approval the action of the Presbytery of Glasgow in relation to the Housing of the Poor, do advise and encourage all the Presbyteries of the Church to be actively interested in the improvement of the physical and social conditions of the people. They also exhort Ministers while carefully refusing to be judges and dividers between classes, to be faithful in preaching the Gospel law of righteousness and love, according to which each man shall render to his brother his due, and all shall work together as those who serve the Lord Christ with whom there is no respect of persons. The General Assembly believing that Presbyteries have ample powers to secure the vigorous application all over the country of the Parochial System, resolve to transmit this Report for their consideration, authorising them to adopt such changes in the present arrangments for the times set apart for public worship and for instruction in religion as appear to them expedient and calculated to diminish the evils of non-- church-going complained of. The General Assembly especially recommend that in all Parish Churches the sittings at one service at least should be free to all who come; and in regard to Parochial Ministrations that Kirk-Sessions should recognise the work of other Churches, and co-operate with them as far as practicable in supply of religious ordinances to all who need them. The General Assembly, in consideration of the difficulties with which some Presbyteries have to contend, on account of the vast and rapid increase of the population within their bounds, and with the view of promoting the unity of the Church, and of rendering its work more effective by bringing the strength of the whole to support the individual, approve of the recommendation that a Commission upon the religious condition of the people be appointed. The General Assembly resolve accordingly, and appoint the following Members, viz.: - Dr Gray, Dr Gloag, Dr M'Laren, Dr Charteris, the Rev. Mr Hutton, the Rev. Mr Hunter, Sir J.N. Cuthbertson, Sir A. Muir-Mackenzie, T.G. Murray, Esq. - Dr Scott, Convener - to submit to a future diet of Assembly the names of Ministers and Elders to be elected as Commissioners, and also a draft of instructions to be given to the Commissioners. In framing these instructions, the General Assembly enjoin the Committee to bear in mind the recommendation of the Report, that 'the Commission is to be essentially a Commission for assistance, and not for superintendence,' and to be careful that nothing be submitted which is in any way calculated to infringe the rights, or tamper with the responsibilities, of the subordinate Courts of the Church. "The General Assembly authorise the Home Mission and the Finance Committees to defray the expenses referred to in the Report." In moving this deliverance, Dr Gray said the subject was one which had very wide aspects. There were, it must be admitted, very many who were not in connection with the Church - who had now lapsed and had fallen away from ordinances altogether - and he suspected most Ministers knew that there were very many who had a very loose connection with the Church, and who were what might be called Sacramental Communicants. He knew, too, that there were some who said that church-going was not the same as religion. It was not. There were many good people who were not church-goers for satisfactory reasons; but all of them must feel that church-going - public worship where properly conducted - was of very great importance for strengthening religious faith, and giving knowledge of religious truth. Therefore they must feel that it was a very serious thing indeed, if it was true - as it was true - that in the country there were a great number who were not in the habit of going to Church at all. In respect of the Sunday labour referred to in the Report, the Church had a twofold duty. The Church should carry the ministrations of religion to those persons who were unable to go to Church, and it should do what it could to give them opportunities for church-going. They did not believe in the Jewish Sabbath, but they did believe in the Son of Man, who was Lord of the Sabbath, and who had declared that the Sabbath was made for man, and was fitted to promote his welfare in body and soul, and they had the testimony of Christendom to show what an inestimable boon it was, especially to the working classes, who were thus given a day for bodily rest, for spiritual instruction, and for public worship. Reference had been made to existing poverty as a cause of non-- church-going, and here again, Dr Gray pointed out, the Church had a twofold duty. It had not only to try to relieve that poverty, and to enable the poor to go to the House of God, but it had the greater duty of endeavouring to remove as far as possible the cause of that poverty. He did not think the Church should confine itself altogether to the spiritual side of things, because the material and spiritual acted and reacted upon one another, and the surroundings and the environments told upon the character of the people. If Ministers were to be successful in promoting the spiritual welfare of the people they must attend to these social and sanitary matters, and if the Church had attended to these things sooner perhaps non-- church-going would not have been known as the evil it was to-day. He was glad that the deliverance gave powers to Presbyteries to make such changes in the present arrangements for the times set apart for Public Worship and for instruction in religion as appeared to them calculated to diminish the evils of non-church-going, so that all the Parishioners might feel that the Church doors were open for them. He was not one of those who thought that the Churches should be altogether free. They must consider the classes as well as the masses, but he agreed that there should be large portions of every Church perfectly free, not for paupers but for all Parishioners who might come, the same as if they were paying for their seats. In regard, too, to those who did not believe in church-- going on account of intellectual difficulties, he thought the Church could do more than it did. In their more advanced Bible Classes there should be classes for the examination of evidences oftener than there were, because the consequence of means not being taken to instruct the youth of the Church in Christian evidences was that young men went into society - into the midst of infidels it might be - without a knowledge of these evidences, and gradually dropped off from church-going. He heartily approved of the appointment of the proposed Commission, and he was only sorry that the appointment should not be for five years. Without anticipating the discussion of the following day, he must say that there would have been an advantage other than that which continuity in their work would have afforded in electing a Commission looking forward to a five years' lease of life. They knew what must happen before these five years passed. Another Parliament would be elected, and that new Parliament would bring momentous issues to the Church of Scotland. They knew what had been threatened, and if the threat was carried out, and the Church was disestablished, he ventured to say that that Commission would have such a work as never Commission had before, for the non-church-- going that now existed among the people of Scotland would be as a drop in the bucket compared with what it would be if Disestablishment came to pass. He hoped a wave of patriotism would rise and roll along their rocky shore, and that their political and ecclesiastical adversaries would be - he would not say submerged beneath the waters, for he did not desire that - but would be driven from their position and left with their Disestablishment banners and drums ecclesiastic so tattered and battered by the waters that they would be useless for at least many days to come against the National Religion and their Scottish Church. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER, Partick, in seconding the motion, said there was a tone of hopefulness in the Report which he considered was the proper way to approach that great problem. He thought the numbers of non-church-goers were greatly exaggerated. In his own Presbytery of Glasgow it had been affirmed that at least 120,000 people in Glasgow never darkened a Church door; but his own opinion was that that statement was not sufficiently substantiated. He had heard a gentleman from London last week say that there were three millions of people in the Metropolis who had no connection with any Church. He felt that these statements were made by gentlemen who desired to introduce something in the nature of panic among members of the Churches. They knew that matters were bad enough, but he thanked God they were not so bad as the statements to which he had referred would make out. He did not regard non-church-going as being the same as irregular church-going or religious indifference. He often asked himself the question, What proportion of the people had they a right to expect in Church each Sunday? He thought the number usually expected was far too large, and he would like to see that point receive far more consideration, and far saner consideration, than it had yet received. He was further convinced of this, that the number of church-goers in Scotland was steadily increasing. Taking the number of Church members as an accurate index, he found that the increase in the membership of the Churches was far more than the increase of population, and that increase could only come from inroads made on the non-church-going. Occasionally one heard it said in connection with this question that Presbyterianism was on its trial. He reminded them that non-- church-going was not confined to Scotland, for the same difficulty was experienced in England; and on the Continent it existed in a way that made church-- going the exception, and non-church-going the rule. He ventured to say that there was no country in Europe - except, it might be, Wales, and perhaps Brittany - where church-going was in such a good state as in Scotland. But this had to be borne in mind that, while the numbers of non-church-goers was not increasing, the interest in the non-church-- going had very greatly increased. Not long ago there was a feeling that the church-going were the elect, and the non-church-going the non-elect, who should be allowed to go their own way; but that feeling had entirely disappeared. The Church members no longer hugged themselves in self-- complacency over their own privileges, but felt a debt towards those who stood without. The question of non-church-going bulked far more largely in the eyes of them all than it ever did before. He believed that when the history of the last decade of this century came to be written, the historian would point to the vigorous philanthropy and missionary enterprise as the distinguishing features of that period. A distinction should be made in the causes of the evil. There were some causes of non-- church-going which could not fairly be laid at the door of the Church. After all, people would exercise their freedom of will, and it was sometimes exercised in choosing the worse part. He did not know that they could compel anyone to go to Church, and that when they had got him there they could secure his continuance at Church. There were other causes - such as drunkenness, profligacy, and bad housing - for which the Church could not be directly blamed. But there were flaws in their organisation which required to be remedied. There was a very unequal distribution of work over the Church, some Ministers having too much to do and some too little. The question of seat-rents also presented a perpetual practical difficulty; and in towns it must be confessed that congregations tended to drift into Congregationalism. He looked for good results from an improved children's service and well-equipped Sabbath Schools. This too must be said with all frankness, that the question of non-- church-going was largely connected with the question of Ministerial efficiency. He knew it to be the case that, even in circumstances that seemed unlikely, a vigorous and healthy Ministry secured a good attendance at Church, and that a lax, indolent Ministry, even where the circumstances were favourable, would inevitably repel the people. He could point to cases where two Churches stood not far from each other, the one full and the other nearly empty, and it was simply because in the one there was a vigorous Ministry and in the other there was not. If the Church could do anything to secure Ministerial efficiency, it would go a long way to solve that most vexatious problem. He approved of the recommendation of the Committee to make their Parochial System more vigorous and more effective than it had hitherto been. The Parochial System had not broken down, but, on certain points, it needed re-adjustment. If the Church set herself to find out remedies for the present state of matters, she would do much to show that what was said recently in high quarters was not true, and that the Church was endeavouring to meet the spiritual needs of the people. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS moved the following addition to the deliverance: - "That the original motion be adopted, with the following change, viz., that for the words beginning 'The General Assembly resolve accordingly,' down to the words 'given to the Commissioners,' there be substituted the following: - "The General Assembly resolve accordingly, and appoint the Home Mission Committee and the Endowment Committee to meet together and submit to a future diet of Assembly the names of Ministers and Elders to be elected as Commissioners, and also a draft of instructions to be given to the Commissioners - the Commissioners to hold their appointment till next General Assembly. In framing these instructions," &c. In supporting the general purpose of the motion, he said that the system of what were called with deplorable accuracy "disjunction certificates," was much to blame for the lapsing of migrating Members from all ordinances. It was entirely contrary to the spirit of the Christian religion, and to the brotherly relations between Members of the Church, that it should be left to an official to disjoin Members while no one took the trouble to commend them to the Minister, or any Member of the Congregation to which they were about to go. In the Young Men's Guild there was regular use made of Transference Certificates, and some years ago the Committee on Christian Life and Work prepared forms for Transference or Commendation of Communicants and Adherents, which could be had from Messrs Blackwood, and which, if used, would do much to meet the evils of migration. It might be said that when congregations were very large such personal care was impossible; but in a large and living congregation there ought to be plenty of volunteers helping the Minister in this great function of commendatory letters. Furthermore, however, he thought it was about time for the General Assembly to enquire into the effect of overgrown congregations. Congregations ought to be organised and trained to work. As a matter of fact, the greater congregations were an unorganised multitude of hearers. The Minister could not possibly have personal knowledge of many hundreds of those on his enormous Communion Roll, and those Members came to have very easy notions of their personal obligation to service. There ought to be some regard to the capacity of the Church, and to the ability of the Pastor, in admitting Communicants; for great evils were flowing from the utter disregard of them. There were other features of the Report inviting remark. He wished to say, in a word, that he was entirely in accord with it in all its leading features, and was glad of the attention its subject was now securing from the Church. He did not, however, like the idea of appointing these Commissioners for five years. It was an unnecessary and anomalous provision. He objected to it as contrary to the practice of the Church. Dr Gray had said that their work would not be done in one year, and that therefore they ought to be appointed for a longer period. He did not believe it would be finished in five years. And, besides, if they were doing good work, they would be reappointed. Time Home Mission Committee had existed for more than half a century, and the Endowment Committee for five and forty years, and their respective plans had been continuously followed, but their tenure all the time had been from year to year. H would not like to see any Delegates of the Church not amenable to public opinion, the bearing of which would be seen when they reported on their work, and asked to be reappointed each year. Furthermore, he was not of opinion that circumtabular election at the Assembly was the best way to get the best men, and he therefore suggested that the Home Mission and Endowment Committees, already engaged in this work, should meet and select their best men, and nominate them for approval by the Assembly at a subsequent diet. Hence his friendly amendment, which he begged to move. The Rev. Dr F.L. ROBERTSON, Glasgow, said he was glad to say from his knowledge that he did not take the gloomy view of the increase of Sabbath desecration which was taken in the Report. It was a matter of great thankfulness that the Sabbath, at all events in Glasgow, was fairly well observed. He did not think there ever was a time when the Sabbath was more observed than it was now, or more jealously guarded. The great masses of the industrial population clung to it, even the non-church-- goers clung to it, as a blessed heritage which no power on earth would induce them to part with. He thought it was a hopeful sign that in the recent Labour Congress in Berlin one of the proposals submitted, and which received great favour, was to dispense with Sabbath work on the Continent by international arrangement. He thought that exceedingly wholesome and encouraging. No doubt, men's opinion as to the best way in which the Lord's Day should be observed had varied, and did vary. He thought it was a subject for thankfulness that the industrial classes themselves valued the day as a day of rest, and the tendency at present was not to encroach on holidays, but to increase their number. There was a strong feeling pervading the whole mass of the industrial population to lighten the hours of work, and he was glad to know that the time was approaching when the great mass of the toiling population should have some higher ideal to live for than merely to labour from early morning to dewy eve, until weak, worn out, and exhausted they reached a premature grave. They were learning to know that they have homes to be enjoyed, and that, equally with the classes, as men call them, they were entitled to share in all the vast bounties and rich treasure with which God had been pleased to bless mankind. The non-church-going population might be divided into three classes. There were those who were estranged from the Ministry of the Church; there were those who were prevented from Church attendance by reason of their poverty; and there were those who were estranged from the Church by reason of their vicious habits. It appeared to him that the organisations necessary for those three classes must be adapted to the conditions of each class. One set of agencies would not be suitable for all. When he said there was a certain class estranged from the Church by intellectual doubts in regard to the Bible and orthodox opinion, he meant that those persons were not restricted to what were called the industrial class. There was a large number among the well-to-do and the highly cultured who refrained from attending Church. He did not much concern himself with them. The responsibility rested with themselves; but there were many who were estranged from the Church, having the notion, rightly or wrongly, that the Church did not sympathise with their social position. They had the notion that in the far past, when they had to battle for their rights, the Church did not take them up as she ought to have done. What they desired was not merely that the Church should tell them all about another world, however fair and pleasant that world might be. What they wanted was a power to solve present difficulties, to put down present wrongs, and to make the world that now is sombre, pleasanter, more beautiful, and less dull. The Church, he took it, should let these men understand that she was prepared to take her share in solving the most difficult problems of a social kind. A remedy had been suggested in the Report - that there should be a free service in every Church. He disliked that very much. In the country the services were practically free. He had the strongest possible objection to having one service in the Church for superior people - for men and women with their ringed fingers, and another service for the men and women with their poor apparel. Men and women should come and worship on a common ground. To open every Church in Glasgow and hold a free service would be, in this opinion, entirely futile. He suggested that services should be held for all classes of the community. In their larger and finer Churches the services might be held at three o'clock, and those services should consist not of the regular commonplace preaching, but burning questions, full of interest to thinking men and working men, should be taken up and discussed; and especially in the evening, the services should be of a kind to attract men, to awaken their intelligences, to cultivate their faculties, as well as to instruct their understandings. For the second class - the industrious poor - he had the tenderest pity. He had been brought into very close contact during the last winter with those. In Glasgow there were no fewer than 50,000 adults whose wages were considerably under a pound a week; and it was pathetic to converse with the great multitude of the poor people, poor women and sempstresses, who earned with difficulty from 2s. to 5s. a week. It was not sufficient that they should be given some blankets and a little help. Some people never got a single step towards higher things, never became more intelligent, and never got out of the difficulties that they were burdened with when they began. It was their duty to create social Missions to reach those people, the Church to be the centre. With respect to the third class - the dissolute and criminal population - he said that the estimates of the vagrants in the country was 130,000 persons, who crowded into the poorhouse and shelters in winter, and went forth in summer to steal and plunder as best they could. What was worse, they bred children, and so created a second army of vagrants to continue following the same course of life. That sore problem was hard to solve, and he was certain that the ordinary Ministrations would never solve it. Ten times better, in spite of the violation of the decencies and conventions of the ordinary forms of the Church, to go in for something even like the Salvation Army - the Salvation Army, minus its ignorant fanaticism, but retaining its enthusiasm, using their means and adding to the use of those means the preaching of simple truth in common sense words with an appeal to higher principles and better hopes. It was a perfect shame and disgrace for the Church to say that, bad and wicked and abandoned as those persons were, that they should be left to their ways without the Church devoting a single effort to raise them to a higher status; because within the soul of the blackest and basest of them all there lay the germ of a higher and purer life, which if touched and quickened by the Spirit of the living God, would grow up and flourish, and fill the face of the world with fruit. The Rev. ALEXANDER WEBSTER, Edinburgh, submitted that many had been repelled from Church by harsh theological dogma, and closely connected with that, every indulgence in the exciting game of heresy-hunting. Another repelling influence was the denominational rivalry which had so long converted all the Churches in the country into competing religious shops. What many of the non-- church-goers had become dissatisfied with was not Christianity itself, but the forms under which Christianity had been presented by many of the Churches as they were at present constituted; and he thought some arrangement might be made for holding friendly conferences with the non-church-- goers. It would be respectful to invite them - of course they might not accept the invitation - to state their case against the Church. He believed that such a conference would be of great advantage to both sides, and might bring to light something that was not dreamt of or had been heard of in the General Assembly. The Rev. J.S. M'KENZIE, Little Dunkeld, asked leave to refer to a class known only in the country districts - namely, the tinkers. It was a shame, he thought, to the Church of Scotland and to the British nation that so many of these people were left to wander through the country without any one doing a single thing to bring them any help. There were three or four thousand of such people in Perthshire, and they had about eleven hundred children under fifteen years of age. He had spoken to a girl of about fifteen years of age who knew nothing about God or of prayer. It was strange if the Church was doing its duty in raising funds to send religious instruction to India, and yet remaining utterly forgetful - he would not say utterly regardless - of a large class of people in our own country districts. He had proposed to some of them that, if they would remain with him for a week or so, he would have them proclaimed with a view to their being married. If they did so, it would have a splendid bearing upon the registers of the country. Their children remained illegitimate, but these were moral people. They were not thieves. They came to him with their infants a few days or hours old that they might be baptised; he felt that all they knew of religion was that there was One in whose name they ought to be baptised, and to whom they would give their children if they died - indeed they were deeply concerned lest any of their children should die without being baptised. He besought the Assembly to consider this class of people wandering over the country, and neglected by the Church, not recognised by the nation, and especially not recognised by our School Boards and Educational Committees. The motion, with the change introduced into it by Professor Charteris, was then agreed to. PREACHERS BEFORE THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER. The following were appointed to preach in St Giles' Cathedral on Sunday, 1st June: - Forenoon - The Rev. Dr Dykes, Ayr. Evening - The Rev. J. A. Burdon, Lasswade. THE UNIVERSITIES ACT AND THOLOGICAL TESTS. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN submitted the Report of the Committee on the Universities Bill. It narrated the steps that had been taken by the Committee to lay the position of the Assembly as regards University education before the Universities Commision; and, with reference to Theological Tests, mentioned the following as changes on the existing law that had been mooted in various quarters: - "1. That the Divinity Faculties should be abolished, or, in other words, that the teaching of all the different branches of theology should be withdrawn from the Universities and left wholly to the different Christian denominations of the country. 2. That, while the Divinity faculties were continued, the Tests should be simply and unconditionally swept away. 3. That the Tests might be removed from some of the Divinity Chairs, but not from others. By this proposal it seemed to be generally meant that the existing subscription ought to be demanded in connection with the Chair of Systematic Theology alone. 4. That the Chair of Hebrew might be transferred to the Faculty of Arts, and perhaps also the Chair of Ecclesiastical History. 5. That all branches of Theology should continue to be taught in the Universities, so far as they could be taught historically and objectively, no Tests being in that case necessary. Each Church would thus provide for its own students teaching in the different branches of Pastoral Theology, and in the particular phase of doctrine or Church government constituting the note of the denomination. 6. That of the two parts of the present subscription, the part requiring submission to the Church of Scotland might be removed, and the part requiring subscription to the Westminster Confession alone retained. 7. That instead of the present subscription to the Confession of Faith, subscription to the Apostles' Creed, or to the Nicene Creed, or to a new and brief Declaration of Faith, might be required. 8. That the Tests might be removed if their removal were accompanied by the fulfilment of two conditions - first, that the patronage of the Divinity Chairs should be placed in a Board so constituted as to reflect the Christian convictions of the country; secondly, that means of discipline should be devised by which a Professor who had forfeited the confidence of the Christian community might be removed from his chair. 9. That, following up the clause of the Act regarding affiliation, the Divinity Halls of other Christian bodies, if fully equipped, might be incorporated with the Universities, so as to have the same status as the present Faculties of Divinity, which would remain in connection with the Church of Scotland." In submitting some considerations for the Assembly, the Committee expressed their conviction that the General Assembly, while still animated by the spirit of its resolution of 1883, would acquiesce in no arrangement which did not afford a satisfactory guarantee for the Christian faith of those who might be appointed Theological Professors in the Universities, or which did not promise to keep the Divinity Halls in a close and confidential relation with the Church. Should that be admitted, several of the above proposals must be at once dismissed. Others of them appeared to be impracticable. There was no reason to think that the Legislature would sanction a new Test, even supposing that it could be devised. No indication had been given that a modification of the present tests would prove satisfactory to those who were not in communion with the National Church. The difficulties of the question were greatly increased by the state of the Divinity bursary system in the different Universities. Similar remarks applied to a large proportion of the funds with which the existing Divinity Chairs were endowed. With regard to general education, the Committee mentioned the following provisions of the Acts: - 1. The institution of an entrance or matriculation examination for all who propose to be regular and not private students, thus increasing the efficiency of the Universities, and doing justice to the secondary schools. 2. The institution of summer sessions, care being at the same time taken to make it possible for a student, by prolonging his stay at the University, to dispense with these. 3. The provision by means of options of different paths to the M.A. degree, without sacrificing that basis of general culture to which the Church has always attached so much importance. 4. Increasing the number of teachers, partly by new chairs, partly by lectureships qualifying for degrees, so as to secure greater and more varied activity of intellectual life. The General Assembly resolved, in the first instance, to direct its attention to that part of the Report relating to Tests for Theological Chairs in the Universities. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, moved the following resolution: - "The General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Committee for their diligence. The General Assembly being strongly convinced that the dissociation from the Universities of the Divinity Faculties would be detrimental alike to the Universities and the study of Theology, resolve to do their utmost to secure the retention of the said Faculties in the Scottish Universities. In view of the paramount interest which the Church of Scotland has in the Divinity Faculties, and of the substantial gains which the Universities have enjoyed from their long connection with the Church, the General Assembly would strongly deprecate any action which would infringe the security that the Theological teaching shall continue to be in harmony with the Standards of the Church of Scotland, which are incorporated in the law of Scotland as the same are interpreted by Act XVII. of Assembly, 1889. In regard to Tests for Professorships in the Faculties of Divinity, the General Assembly have seen no scheme for their modification which, while opening the Chairs to members of other Churches, would secure that the Theological teaching shall continue to be in harmony with the Standards of the Church, and the convictions of the people of Scotland. The General Assembly have reason to believe that any such modification would not prove satisfactory to the other Churches in Scotland. The General Assembly, therefore, are of opinion that the combination of Scottish Churches in Theological teaching, and in the University system, would be best brought about by a measure which, following up the clause of the Universities Act (No. 15), regarding affiliation, should provide that the Divinity Halls of other Christian bodies, if duly equipped, may be made to form part of the Universities, so as to have the same status as the present Faculties of Divinity, these Faculties remaining in connection with the Church of Scotland." This was, he said, a great national question, and it was not to be approached in any selfish or exclusive spirit. The Universities were called into existence, or greatly fostered into importance by the Church; though they were Ecclesiastical institutions in their conception, and for a long time were under the control of the Church, they must recognise that all that had been altered, and that now the Universities did not exist for the Church, but for the nation. Yet, just because of their nationality, the reform of the Universities would very powerfully affect the work of the Church. It was the Church's concern to see that her Ministers were being properly trained in adequately equipped Universities. While endeavouring in this discussion to keep free from the Ecclesiastical bias, they should also try to keep free from the Academic bias; otherwise they would find themselves quite unable to apprehend the situation and grapple with the real difficulties which it presented. In many of the proposals referred to in the Report of the Committee he thought they would find abundant evidence of the mischievous workings of both the Ecclesiastical and the Academic bias. To the Ecclesiastical bias he attributed the proposal which had been made that the Faculties of Theology should be dissociated entirely from the Universities. He thought that was one of the strangest proposals that ever could be made in this year of grace and at this stage of our civilisation. Let them imagine any nation at all interested in the higher education of its people, and having such Faculties in their Universities, setting itself to abolish them! Let them imagine a nation throwing the supply and control of such an important element of national well-being as the teaching of Theology entirely into the hands of the Churches! It had been said that we might safely leave the teaching of theology to the Churches. Well, why in the same way should they not leave the supply of medical teaching to the doctors, and of legal teaching to the lawyers? If free trade was to be considered good for one profession, then why should we not have free-trade in all the professions? They might be sure they would have plenty of the article to be supplied. Competition in trade tended to multiply the supply, but he thought it would easily be proved that the inevitable tendency of competition was to increase adulteration. If they left the teaching of Medicine to the doctors, the result would be the introduction into the Medical profession of a race of quacks; if they left the teaching of Law to the lawyers, they would soon have the country flooded with a race of pettifoggers; and if they left the supply of the Theology to the Ministers, they would very soon have the Churches filled by a race of bigots. In regard to all these disciplines they must have a high national standard, and such a standard was even inure essential in regard to Theology than it was in regard to Medicine or Law. The dictum of Renan was a sound one, that any Government that thought the nation would outgrow its Religious Institutions would commit a very grave political blunder. The religious instinct in mankind was the strongest of all instincts, and for any Government to ignore that instinct, or refuse to listen to it, was to doom itself and the nation to destruction. The religious instinct was the most powerful of all instincts that sway men, but to be beneficial in its sway it must be educated and purified; otherwise it would degenerate into fanaticism, and that was one of the worst foes that could assail any Government. All our Governments that had recently dealt with this University question had committed a very great mistake in not plainly grasping the situation, and declaring that there should be Theological Faculties. Instead of enacting that these Faculties should not participate in the grants, they should have accorded to them an equal share in all national subsidies. Well, if the Faculties were to be retained they ought to be reformed. No one who had thought about this matter wished to maintain the status quo in regard to their Theological Faculties in the Universities. First of all, they were most inadequately equipped in regard to the number of Chairs, and the existing Chairs were most miserably endowed. Their Scottish Theological Faculties might be said to be skeleton Faculties. That was greatly to the discredit of Scotland, and future historians who came to deal with this century would find it a very dark blot in her record, that for thirty or forty years the Ministers and professional men of Scotland had had to go to the Continent in order to find sufficient Theological teaching. The reason why they were driven to the Continent was not because their Professors are behind the Continental ones in attainments, but simply because we have not enough of them. It was not because the Continental Professors had more freedom, but because the Scottish ones were too few; the restriction was not in the teaching of Theology, but solely in its supply. They had only a few Chairs in the Theological Faculties, instead of the nine, ten, eleven, twelve, and even more, that were to be found in several German Universities. Well, seeing they had so very few Chairs, it would be a most unwise proposal to take the Hebrew Chair and the Ecclesiastical History Chair and put them in the Arts, or Philosophical Faculties, because it was said they belonged to philology and history. They knew, however, that these Chairs were practically exegetical and theological; but even if they were not, why should they still further starve their Theological Faculties? It was a strange way to reform an attenuated Faculty by depleting it still further. Moreover, if they did not keep these Chairs in the Theological Faculty they would be of very little use to the Church; while, if they put them into the Arts Department, they would find that they would be of as little use in the University to the country at large, as was, unfortunately, though through no fault of its talented occupant, the Chair of Sanskrit in the University of Edinburgh. The Academic bias, again, was sufficiently shown in some of the proposals referred to in the Report. The makers of these proposals did not recognise the actual relations of the Universities. They did not distinguish between what was theoretically best and what was the best possible in the circumstances. They were not discussing a constitution for a new University in a new country; they were considering what changes might be made in the Universities of an old country, with which the Church of Scotland had all along been most intimately connected, which might be said to have been conserved for Scotland through the action of the Church, and whose Theological Faculties, if there was no Church of Scotland at the present day, would be comparatively useless to the nation. Did the Assembly realise how close had been the connection since 1688 between the Church of Scotland and the Theological Faculty? Its raison d'être was the training of the Ministers of the Church. Its Professorships had been endowed out of Church property, and additional endowments had been given by Ministers and Members of the Church because of this connection. The Report discloses remarkable facts as to the bursaries attached to the Faculties in virtue of this connection, while the incomes of the Professors are largely dependent on the fees of the students of the Church who have been hitherto required to attend their classes. In adjusting the relations of the University to the country, all that must be borne in mind. The Church had not dwindled into such proportions that they could deprive her without loss of what was essential to the proper discharge of her functions in the country. Another thing for them to consider was that the Church was not yet abolished or disestablished, and they were not free to lay hold of these endowments of the Church and appropriate them to other uses. The Church was using the Universities more than ever. Her present interest in the Theological Faculties was vital and paramount. Of that interest she could not be deprived without gross injustice to her, and very serious injury to the Universities. He said frankly that this proposal to abolish the Tests in the Theological Faculties would have the inevitable result of dissociating the Theological Faculties from the Church of Scotland. He could understand how the Dissenters made that demand, though he considered it a very inequitable and a very unreasonable demand, seeing that while they were demanding that, they were taking very good care to inform others that they meant to keep up their own Tests, and that unless they had tested Theological Professors, they certainly would not avail themselves of their teaching in the University or anywhere else. The abolition of Tests was a catching popular phrase, as meaning the removal of a restriction on freedom; in this case it meant the partial disestablishing of the Church. What was a Test and what was the use of it? The existing Tests, as he understood them, were the strongest security the State could give that the Theological teaching in tire Universities should be in harmony with the Standards of the Church; and when they were asked to consent to the abolition of Tests, they were asked to consent to the Church's parting with this. It had been said that these Tests did not bind the disloyal. But they were not, he would point out, dealing with the disloyal. They were supposed to be dealing with loyal men; and he maintained that in these Tests they had the most substantial security that the teaching of the Universities was in harmony with the National Church. It had secured that the Chairs shall be occupied by the Ministers of the Church, or by those in whom the Church had confidence, or over whom, directly or indirectly, she had control. The best proof that it was a security, and a very strong security, was that the Church, so far as he could recollect, had never instituted a process against any of its Professors in any of the Universities. That was surely a pretty good illustration that they had secured to them something by the existing Tests. Now why should this security be disturbed? Well, it was said that the Test was in the nature of things a hindrance to the free prosecution of theological study in the Universities. He was there to say that if he were assured that the Tests were such a hindrance, he should be among the first to demand that they be swept away; holding, as he did, that Theology should be earnestly and inexorably prosecuted in the interests of the Christian Church. But it was denied, on the very highest authority, that the Test was any hindrance to the study of Theology in the Universities. In the statement laid before the Commission by the three Theological Professors of Edinburgh University, it was said, "We cannot affirm that subscription to the formula as it exists renders a scientific treatment of Theology impossible, or that it interferes everywhere with the independence of research and theological opinion - the philological and historical departments being scarcely affected by it. We are, however, convinced that the existence of the formula tends to engender a belief in the public mind that the Professors of Theology cannot be independent inquirers, and are simply retained to defend a traditional system of belief." Mark that. Now, if that was a good argument why the formula should be abolished entirely for the Professors, he held it to be a good argument why the formula should be abolished in the case of all the Ministers of the Church. The averment was often blatantly made that neither Professors nor Ministers were free to prosecute theology, because they had to adhere to traditional beliefs. Their reply was that neither Ministers nor Professors who held by the essential verities of the faith were in any way hindered from prosecuting the study of theology so long as they prosecuted it reverently and thoroughly. Could any man prosecute science of any kind if he abandoned the basis of what he knew? Could any man teach theology, or any ology, unrestricted by previous conclusions, which simply meant the experience of humanity? The most unrestricted Professor of theology must have some faith; and if that be so, why should he not avow it? Moreover, Professors who are intrusted with the training of the Ministers of the Church must have the same faith as the Church, or they would be of little use to the Church. Let us never forget that the Faculty of Theology was, as was the Faculty of Medicine, a Faculty for training students for a profession, and it would be of no use to the Church unless they had such confidence in it that they were able to say that their students obtained in it the training they were expected to get. It was a discipline as professional as that of Medicine or Law, and, in fact, as scientifically free. It was said there was no formula in the Faculties of Medicine and Law. Well, if none was expressed, certainly in both one was implied. Who ever heard of a Homœopathist being appointed to an Allopathic School of Medicine? or of a Socialist or Jacobin being appointed to a Chair of Scottish Law? Not because we punish the Homœopathist or Socialist, but because the Chairs in these Faculties to be useful must be filled by men in harmony with the national convictions. Now, a Divinity Faculty to be useful must be in harmony with the national faith. Unless there was confidence in the Faculty, the Faculty would be deprived of its Students. This was clearly made out by the dissenters, who plainly and properly told them that the Professors in the Theological Faculties must be in touch with themselves before they would send their Students to their classes. If the Faculty of Theology in any Scottish University was not in touch with the Church of Scotland, her Students would not avail themselves of the teachings of the members of the Faculty. No Tests, no Students. That they might assume to be the practical outcome of the abolition of Tests. There was another aspect of the question. All agreed that they required additional Chairs and endowments in these Faculties. Who would supply them? Not the State; certainly not the dissenters. And how could they expect the members of the Church to supply them if they cut the living connection between the Church and these Faculties? He knew of some money intended to be destined for this purpose, but were this change effected, he felt sure that the destination would also be changed. But worse than that. If they dissociated these Faculties from the Church, they would render them comparatively useless even as Chairs of Research, which some of the Theological Professors evidently desired to make them. If so, they who prosecuted the researches might make up their minds to be almost without resources. If they would speculate, they would have to do so at their own expense, and at the risk of no other souls than their own. But even were endowments for research in theology provided, Professors who were dissociated from the life and work of the Church would not speculate to much advantage. Science of any kind has never thriven unless in close contact with the arts and practical industries of a nation; and theology would never prosper as a science unless in close and living contact with the practical Christianity of the country. In conclusion, Dr Scott maintained there was no grievance in the existing condition of things which the proposal in this motion would not remedy. If carried out it would secure to other denominations advantages which the Church would not enjoy, but it might conduce to a better distribution of the teaching power which would then be at command; and the advantage of this to the Church and to the Universities would be unquestionably great. We could not expect, however, that other denominations would consent to affiliate their Halls with any Hall in which no security was given that the theological teaching would be in accord with the faith which they believed. If the Church were really in earnest, they might hope to have this matter settled in such a way as to keep faith both with the Church and with the country. To settle it in the way proposed by the counter motion of Dr Story would mean gross injustice to the Church, and serious injury to the Universities. That method, therefore, he felt compelled to resist to the uttermost. They must, with all their desire for conciliation, take their stand at some point. He took his stand at this, demanding that the Theological Faculties in their Universities should be continued, and so continued as that the Church shall have full confidence in the teaching of the Professors. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER, St Mary's, Partick, seconded Dr Scott's motion. No one, he said, could regard the present state of theological teaching in Scotland with satisfaction. There were too many teachers and not enough taught. What he would like to see would be the abandonment of the denominational Halls and the scientific training of the Students for the Churches, which professed a common faith, entrusted entirely to the Universities. He ventured to think that, if the practical limitation of the Theological Students to the Church of Scotland came to an end, the legal limitation of the Theological Chairs to the Church of Scotland would not continue a day longer. Unhappily, the other Churches had not indicated their willingness in any circumstances whatever to give up their separate Halls, or permit their Students to attend University classes in theology; and he was not prepared to accept for the Church a Free Church Professor to whom possibly the Free Church would not send her Students. Then with regard to the theological Tests, he felt bound to say that the removal of them would give satisfaction neither to the Church of Scotland nor to any of the dissenting Churches, and for his own part he felt that, so long as Ministers were bound, Professors must accept the same bonds in order to be in harmony with the general church-- life of Scotland. Whether subscription to the Confession of Faith was in all respects a bondage, he took leave to doubt; he would rather himself be bound by a document which could be legally and definitely interpreted, than be subject to a popular vote in an Assembly swayed by the feelings of the hour. And certainly the bondage in which Theological Professors in the Scotch Universities were, was very gentle, since no charge of heresy had been raised against any one since the famous case of Simpson at Glasgow in 1720. There were, however, certain grievances which might reasonably be urged. The outside Theological Schools had no position in the Universities. They were allowed by courtesy to send up their students for examination and graduation, but they had no part in examining them. They received honorary degrees, but had no share in bestowing such degrees. These, he considered to be real grievances. They could be removed by affiliating these outside schools to the University, by affiliating them on favourable conditions. If such affiliation took place, he believed all just grievances would be removed; the study of theology would still form an integral part of the work in the Universities; and he thought it not impossible that the Churches would come to recognise each other's teaching and thus take a long step towards the Church-union which every true Scotchman and Presbyterian so greatly desired. The Rev. Professor STORY made the following motion: - "That in the opinion of the General Assembly the removal of the Tests at present connected with the Chairs in the Divinity Halls would tend to promote the interests of Theology and of the Church; and, farther, that the Assembly ought to regard favourably any scheme for the affiliation of properly equipped and endowed Theological Seminaries to the Universities." He quite agreed with Dr Scott as to the desirableness of approaching this question with one's mind purged of Ecclesiastical bias; but it had seemed to him as Dr Scott proceeded, that his own mind had not altogether undergone that expurgating process, because there was a certain leaven of Ecclesiastical bias, at all events, in some of the arguments he had adduced. For example, Dr Scott had said that if the teaching of religion were left to the sects, the result would be a race of bigots; and yet in the same breath he had advocated the retention of a very exacting and restricting Test, whose natural operation was to foster sectarianism. It seemed to him that the argument to be drawn from Dr Scott's statement was that the teaching of Theology should be made free and open - delivered from all sectarian and restrictive Tests. Dr Scott had also mentioned that a great many of our Scottish students went to study Theology in Germany in order to supply there the deficiencies of the Scottish Divinity Halls, and he had not seemed to anticipate any harm to the students or ruin to the Church from that practice. But Dr Scott had subsequently told them that no Test meant no students, whereas in these same German Colleges to which our students went, there were practically no Tests, and yet the German Universities had not only their own students, but attracted Scottish students too. Speaking more directly to his own motion, Professor Story referred to the long connection which had existed between the education of the country and the Church of Scotland, and said it was for that reason that the Church, apart from the Test question, should welcome the present University Act, seeing that it put it in the power of the Commissioners, and so far in the power of the Church acting with them, to raise the general standard of education. It put it in their power to vary and enlarge the preliminary curriculum, so that no student should enter the Divinity Hall without a wider and more varied course in Arts than was at present required. Their more special interest in the Act, however, was the position of the Theological Faculty, and the Tests connected with it. He was not one of those who called the relation of the Church to the Universities, in respect of their Theological Halls, untenable. It had become a kind of current slang to say that the position of these Halls was untenable. The same thing had been said about the Church itself for many years, and yet the Church still held its position, and never held it by a firmer grasp than it did that day, as those who were trying to loosen that grasp would probably find to their cost. But while it was not an untenable position, but one perfectly tenable, when viewed in the light of the Church's history and constitution, all of them knew that as time went on, although a position might not be untenable, it might be one which it was desirable to change. He thought the position of the Divinity Halls was one which it was desirable to change. It was said by some that the best policy was to turn the Divinity Halls out of the Universities altogether; but he did not believe in this country, divided as it was by sectarian feeling, that a remedy for any difficulties that existed such as that would be listened to for a moment. Along with this policy they heard, from certain quarters, the advice that separate Divinity Halls should be set up for each denomination, but this seemed rather inconsistent as coming from a party which assured them that the one desire and aim which occupied their hearts by day and their dreams by night was the union of all the Churches - a union to be promoted by that Church, which alone of all the Churches had hitherto had no sectarian element in the Theological training of its students, being driven by force of circumstances into erecting a little denominational seminary for itself. If the Church of Scotland were forced into this position of agreeing to the withdrawal of Theology from the curriculum of the University, and of founding a little school of its own, it would be contributing, for the first time, its share to the creation of a false opinion as to what Theology really was. There was also a proposal to remove the Ecclesiastical Test without removing the Theological Test. He did not see that there was any reason for that, unless it lay in the vain hope that this might bring Presbyterian dissenters into line with the Universities, and lead them to abandon their present denominational position, and to join in supporting one greatly enlarged and enriched Theological Hall. The fact was that there was nothing in the position or practice of the Presbyterian dissenters to lead to the belief that they would have anything whatever to do with any arrangement of the sort, because there were four or five denominational Halls, at least, in Scotland, in each of which no Professor was ever appointed except on signing a very rigid test, and binding himself to submit to the discipline of the Church to which the Hall belonged. If the other Presbyterian denominations believed in the principle of the Divinity Halls being thrown open, they ought to set the example first of all in their own case. And even supposing the Church were to entertain proposals for the abolition of the Ecclesiastical Test, why should they stop at Presbyterian Nonconformists? Why relax a restriction so as to admit the Presbyterian dissenter, but yet retain it so as to exclude the Episcopalian or the Independent? As to the proposal contained in his motion, contrary to the opinion expressed by Dr Scott, he did not anticipate that, were they to remove the Tests, no one would attend the Divinity Halls. The attendance would depend very much upon who occupied the Chairs. He did not hold that the Test was any guarantee of a man's soundness, even at the time he signed it. The value of the Test altogether depended upon what the man was in himself. They would find a much higher guarantee of the soundness and efficiency of the men appointed to the Theological Chairs, than that afforded by the restriction of the Test, in the constitution of a board of patrons by whom the Professors should be chosen. If the Universities had these Tests removed, and were governed as they ought to be, there would be at the head of the whole patronage of the Universities a Board of men chosen with the utmost care, and having the universal confidence of the country in the discharge of the great trust reposed in them. These men would be certain to select the very best men wherever they were to be found. They did not always get them under the present system, because the existing Test might secure a man's orthodoxy, but it did not by any means secure his ability; and he thought that that ability in a teacher, which stimulated thought and helped to form the character of his pupils, was of a great deal more importance than his conformity with this or the other symbol of statutory religious belief. The idea that if these Tests were removed they might have a Positivist, or an Atheist, or that most fashionable form of religious aberration at present - a Buddhist - appointed, was just one of those extraordinary bogies which troubled none but the people who believed in ghosts. Would not the same thing be seen if the Tests were removed from the Universities as had been seen when they were removed from the Parish Schools of the country? The schools, which used to be guarded by a stringent Test, were now under no Test whatever, and yet religion was taught in them as before; and according to the old "use and wont." The religious convictions of the people would of necessity represent themselves in the Universities just as they had done in the schools; and a Board of Patrons would be absolutely failing in their duty and flying in the face of the best interests of the country if they set themselves in any way against the regular current of that feeling. As to affiliation, if these outside Colleges were doing honest work and communicating a Theological education with which their respective denominations were satisfied, he thought it only fair they should be admitted to the Universities; and he did not understand how Mr Hunter could represent the proposal of affiliation as a proposal to "level down." On the contrary, he proposed to level up, because he proposed to bring up sectarian seminaries, by affiliating them, to the level of the Universities. But he thought the great point was to get rid of Tests, and to put their National Halls on a thoroughly national basis. He did not believe in the impending imminence of Disestablishment, and be refused to contemplate possibilities which merely hinged upon it. He refused to look on this question as in any way connected with that of Disestablishment, although Liberationist agitators might choose to look at it in that light. What they had to think of was their duty to the Church and the country; and their duty as custodiers of the national education was to open the Divinity Halls, like the rest of the Universities to all and sundry, without restriction of creed, or Test of any kind. The Very Rev. Principal CUNNINGHAM, St Andrews, said he had the good fortune to agree to some extent with all the three motions, and he would like first of all to say how far he agreed with the motion made, and so forcibly urged upon them by Dr Scott. First, Dr Scott had declared that he was "strongly convinced that the dissociation from the Universities of the Divinity Faculties would be detrimental to the Universities and the study of Theology." He (Principal Cunningham) agreed thoroughly with that, and supposed that all agreed with it, and therefore when Dr Scott "resolved that they should do their utmost to secure the retention of the said Faculties in the Scottish Universities" with that again he (Principal Cunningham) thoroughly agreed, though he thought his idea of "utmost" was different from Dr Scott's. In fact, he was much inclined to think that Dr Scott's "utmost" meant doing nothing at all. He was led to that belief by looking to the second clause of the motion, in which Dr Scott spoke of the "paramount interest which the Church of Scotland has in the Divinity Faculties." He granted that the Church had a paramount interest in the Divinity Faculties, but he did not think that in any sense the Divinity Halls could be said to be the property of the Church, or that they belonged to the Church. They were part of the Universities, and the Universities were national institutions. But, again, he agreed with Dr Scott when he spoke of the substantial gain which the Universities had enjoyed from their long connection with the Church. The Universities had got not only so many Church Students, but so many guineas from those students. But in this there was a quid pro quo, and if the Universities had benefited by the Church, the Church had got some benefit from the Universities. The Church, he thought, had not had the worst of the bargain. Dr Scott "deprecated any action which would infringe the security that the Theological teaching shall continue to be in harmony with the standards of the Church of Scotland;" but in saying so, he did not say that he would do anything to strengthen it. He (Principal Cunningham) was not content with a negation, he believed his plan would not weaken but rather strengthen that security. There they differed. He was pleased immensely with Dr Scott's words, "standards of the Church of Scotland which are incorporated in the Law of Scotland as the same are interpreted by Act XVII. of Assembly 1889." He (Principal Cunningham) had something to do with the framing of that Act, and therefore he was proud to see it quoted by Dr Scott as the very palladium of the Church of Scotland, the palladium of its orthodoxy; and if his memory did not deceive him, he remembered that for two long years Dr Scott persistently and almost bitterly opposed it. Now Dr Scott came before them as a penitent and as a convert, and instead of his now seeing in the Act something disastrous to the Church, they saw him respectfully quoting it as the very bulwark of the Church. That led him to hope that before another year had gone he (Dr Scott) would see cause to change his opinions again, and openly declare that the abolition of the Tests had been the salvation of the Divinity Halls. He would come in sackcloth and ashes confessing that in these matters others had been at least as wise as himself. It was well that the General Assembly should know that Dr Scott's motion had been so popular that it had already passed through two editions, and that the edition of that day was an enlarged and improved edition of yesterday. Dr Scott told them to-day, though he did not yesterday that "in regard to Tests for professorships in the Faculties of Divinity the General Assembly have seen no scheme for their modification," and saw no reason to believe that any modification would prove satisfactory to the other Churches in Scotland. Dr Scott now took both the Established and the Dissenting Churches under his wing. He became at once both Esau and Jacob - a hairy man, and a smooth man - speaking with ambiguous voice words which meant nothing, and could certainly lead to nothing. Then came the last clause of the motion, which showed that since yesterday Dr Scott had been keeping company with prudent men. Instead of the dissenters being repelled, they were now gently patted on the back. The clause pointed to possible affiliation; but so long as Dr Scott maintained the uncompromising attitude which he maintained in his speech affiliation was impossible. So long as lie maintained the Theological Tests in their integrity, and the Ecclesiastical Tests in their integrity, he would never get any Dissenter with any respect for himself to seek admittance to the Universities or association with the present Divinity Halls. What Dr Scott apparently meant was that four men of like mind with himself, and other four men of like mind with Principal Rainy and Dr Hutton, should all be placed in the same University to teach the same subjects. It was no more possible than it would be to have four cats and four dogs put into the same cage, in order that they might live there as a happy family, and provoke one another only in love and good works. Dr Scott would thus see that he agreed to some extent with three of his clauses, but that there was an important fourth on which he disagreed with him altogether. He would now pass to Dr Story's motion - the motion he supported. In trying to understand why he wished to abolish Theological Tests, they must consider the situation in which they were placed. The General Assembly must bear in mind that a Universities' Bill was passed in last session of Parliament, and a very good Bill upon the whole it was. In this Bill there was voted something like £12,000 a year to the four Universities of Scotland in addition to the public money they already posessed, but there was a very ugly clause in which it was declared that not one penny of the £12,000 should go to the Theological chairs. Why was that? The present Government was not unfriendly to the Church. Very much the reverse. It was not unfriendly to their Theology. Quite the opposite. He asked them why it was then that it gave money to everything else, and refused to give anything to the teaching of Theology. That problem was explained by the clause which instructed the Commissioners to take evidence as to "whether any and what changes as to the subscription of tests by principals, professors, and other University officers are necessary and expedient." From that it was quite clear that it was the Tests which stood in the way of the Government giving the theological professors their due share of the money so granted. Now, it was not merely the losing of the money - although it looked like semi-disendowment - but it was the reproach that was thrown upon every theological professor by this exclusion. Every teacher of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Gaelic, Music, Medicine, Mathematics, got his portion of the grant, but not one penny went to Theology. It was quite certain that it was the Tests alone that prevented the Government from doing what otherwise they would have done. They felt that they dare not propose to Parliament to give a proportion of that grant to chairs which only Members of the Church of Scotland could fill; that they dared not, even looking to their own party, vote money to the teaching of a Theology which was restricted to the Confession of Faith. For himself, he continued, his Commission was simply to teach Divinity, by which he understood was meant that he should teach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in matters theological. But here from another quarter the Westminster Confession came in, and now he was expected to teach his Divinity not according to its last and highest utterance in the present day, but as it was believed and held 250 years ago. Dr Scott had referred to the medical chairs, and said that if a homœopathist were to get into one of them he would ruin the school, and from that he argued that if a Theological homœopathist, by which he supposed he meant all agnostic, or atheist, or something terrible of that kind, were put into a Theological chair, he would ruin the Hall. Now, Dr Scott must know that the medical school was not bound by Tests, and that it could not have flourished as it had, if it had been so bound. Suppose the medical professors in the University of Edinburgh at present taught their respective subjects not according to the lights of the present day, but as they were taught in 1647, would they have many admiring students? Let them suppose, if they could, a Professor of Chemistry teaching, not the chemistry of the present day, but the chemistry or alchemy which was known and believed in in the 17th century. He asked if such a Professor as that would be likely to get any new Government grant? Would he not stand in great danger of having taken away from him any endowment which he already possessed? The argument of Dr Scott was that Theology should be a fixture, fixed to the Theology of the seventeeth century, and never to move one step from it. Another thing that was conspicuous in Dr Scott's speech was that he fancied that if the professors in the Theological Faculties were emancipated from the Tests they would all at once rush into the most horrible heresies. Upon what he founded that conception he (Principal Cunningham) could not say. His argument led to the opposite conclusion. Dr Scott had told them that never in his recollection had there been a Professor prosecuted for heresy. Did not that prove how sound in the faith they all were? Dr Scott should have remembered that in the present day the most destructive attacks upon the Church were coming not from the Divinity Professors, but from metaphysicians and men of science. The Professor of Theology, who was really sceptical, was as weak as water in his scepticism compared with the scientific or the philosophical Professor of a sceptical turn of mind, and yet for many years all those men had been freed from all Tests whatever, and to their great honour had it to be said that they never used their influence to undermine the faith of their pupils. They had men in the Universities who were sceptics, who believed very little; but these men were men of honour, and he had never known one of them employ his power to overthrow the hereditary faith of his students. It was not long since every man in the country was required to take a Test of some kind. It was not only the dignified Provost or Bailie; the humble tax-gatherer and tide-waiter were required to do the same. It was not only the Principal and Professors in the Universities, the poor Dominie in the parish school, and the private teacher in a family were all alike required to subscribe the Confession of Faith. He would ask if those methods had succeeded? Dr Scott seemed to argue that Tests had been a great success in keeping men square, so to speak. Were there no rebellions or heresies in those days? The truth was, that since almost all the University Professors had been relieved from Tests, not a single Professor had been called upon to answer a charge of heresy. If history proved anything, it seemed to prove that Test oaths had made men rebels in the State and heretics in the Church. Stolen waters were always sweet. But again, if the Universities were national institutions, why should their Patrons be restricted in their freedom of choice? Why not take the very best man they could get, wherever he could be found? It was objected that there would be no security for these men's teaching. There would be the same security as there was for the teaching of science and philosophy. In reply to that it was sometimes said that if philosophy or science were taught badly, it did not matter so much as if the teaching was bad in religious matters. He demurred to that. Morality was as sacred as Religion. How would they regard a man who in teaching Moral Philosophy taught false morality - if he taught, for instance, the morality of Ireland, that boycotting was highly commendable, and that to pay no rent was deserving of praise? If they had men teaching those doctrines, the effects would be more disastrous than if they had men teaching a little Arminianism or denying the Descent into Hell. The truth was, there was very little chance of the one thing or the other. They must confess that hitherto the patronage of the Government had not always been exercised with due regard to the best interests of Science or Theology, and he could conceive of a Government coming into office (such was the present abasement of morals and religion) who would, if not checked, abuse their patronage more than had ever been done in the past. But in the Universities Act there was a clause which rendered that almost impossible, and from the present time they might have every confidence that no one who would seriously offend the religious feeling of the people of Scotland would ever get into a University Chair. Some objected to the door of their Divinity Halls being thrown so open as to receive their brother Presbyterians. They forgot that some five or six years ago the doors of their Parish Churches were thrown wide open to every Presbyterian Minister in Great Britain and Ireland. But as he thought they should go beyond Presbyterianism in this matter, and take even an Episcopalian, a Congregationalist, or a Methodist, if one of these stood above all other competitors in the field, and was, moreover, the fittest man to teach the students in his class, the great majority of whom for many years to come would no doubt be students in training for the Church of Scotland. But more than that, he should greatly like to see some of the Nonconformist Colleges linked with those of the Church of Scotland. That would be a better remedy for the present state of things than the banishment of Theology from the University altogether. If such a thing were done it would be a black disgrace on the civilisation of the nineteenth century; but he did not believe it would ever be done. Though a majority of Free Churchmen and of United Presbyterian Churchmen were clamouring for it to their everlasting shame, there were noble men amongst them who were determined to resist it to the last. There were Professors Calderwood and Crum Brown, and Dr James Brown, who boldly stood up in the United Presbyterian Synod and declared that if such a thing were done they would have no part in it. There were many like-minded men in the Free Church who would never consent that that science which was called the queen of all the sciences should be driven out of the Universities. Much better, surely, that their Halls should be affiliated to those of the Church of Scotland; but so long as Dr Scott maintained an uncompromising position, it would not and could not be done. It has been urged that the Nonconformists refused to be affiliated. That might be the opinion of the Clergy, but he knew it was not the opinion of the laity, for they in their thousands would gladly welcome such a result. But better and further, just as they had seen Dr Scott undergo a process of change in his views, he thought it was possible they might see such a change come over the Clergy of the Dissenting Churches. But however this might be, let them in that Assembly do their duty, and leave the rest to God. The Rev. Professor DICKSON, Glasgow, then moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly, gladly recognising that amidst the minor differences in matters of Church government or Church order that keep the several Protestant Churches in Scotland apart, the great majority of the Scottish people are substantially at one in the profession of a common Christian and Protestant faith, and further acknowledging the importance in the common interest of placing Theological training on such a basis of joint action or co-operation as may admit of its benefits being largely shared by all, express their readiness to consider any suggestions that may be made for attaining that object, with due security for the character and the acceptance of the teaching; but in the absence of any evidence that a readjustment of the arrangements for Theological training is at present desired, or likely to be taken advantage of, deem it inexpedient, hoc statu, to entertain any proposal for altering the basis of the close relation that has hitherto subsisted between the Theological Faculties of the Universities and the Church of Scotland, which has entrusted the entire training of its students to their hands." In speaking to his motion, Dr DICKSON said he agreed with Dr Story that there might be great advantage in the removal of Tests. He did not regard them as a very desirable thing, but he could not take up the position that the Church was able to dispense altogether with any security for the teaching of Theology. Dr Story could not tell what was to follow the abolition of Tests. It seemed to him a leap in the dark, and no one could tell to what they were going. The other motion submitted to the House did not tell what the proposed affiliation would lead to. It was a question which had been raised by the Church, and was one purely for the Church to determine. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN seconded Professor Dickson's motion. He said that whatever the Assembly might do as between that motion and Dr Scott's, he thought it would feel that it could not possibly accept the motion of Dr Story. In the first part of his motion Dr Story proposed the entire removal of Tests, which was a quite intelligible proposal, and in the second part of his motion he introduced the question of affiliation, which, taken by itself, was also perfectly intelligible, but how these two things could be combined he was quite at a loss to understand. If the motion were carried out, they would first have, so far as the Divinity Faculties connected with the Church of Scotland were concerned, no Tests at all. In the next place, they would call into the Universities men who they knew had not only signed a Theological Test, but one perhaps even more severe than that which was presented to their own Professors. The Church of Scotland, under this proposal, would be the only body that would have Professors without Tests, and it came simply to this that, if it were adopted, they would turn out of the Universities one set of Tests by one door, while at the same time they opened three or four other doors for three or four other Tests to walk in. Dr Story had told them of a Board of Election that was to be introduced. He did not know that such was to be the case, but if it were so, it altered the whole complexion of the case. Mr Hunter had also spoken of the influence that would be exercised by the general opinion of the country upon those to whom the election of Professors would be confided. But if this electing Board was really contemplated, and if its existence constituted so material a part of the views of those by whom Dr Story's motion was supported, why did that motion make no mention of it? There was nothing there said about a new board or any other check whatever. The motion simply stated, and that in the most unrestricted form, that the removal of the Tests would tend to promote the interests of Theology - that was to say, they would take off the present clothing, but would not put any other clothing or protection in its place. If he could get such a Board as Dr Story had referred to, and could get it to reflect with clearness and purity the Christian consciousness of the country, he would put confidence in it. The present system of patronage in too many of their Divinity chairs was highly unsatisfactory, and might well awaken in their minds both anxiety and alarm. He would ask the Assembly to consider the modes of thought that were exercising influence in the country at the present moment, and whether there might not in the near future be great danger to the truth which they upheld. Might they not have as Secretary for Scotland and administrator of their Theological patronage one who might either be indifferent to their great doctrines, or who might even feel that he had a Missionary impulse to pull down the old traditions by which they had lived, and in which they still believed? Like Dr Story, he did not believe much in Tests. It was quite true that they did not keep out those who did not believe in the doctrines which they subscribed. That was the result of his experience, and probably it was an experience that would be repeated while the world lasted. He hoped the Assembly would also stand by another condition, and if it should ultimately accept the idea of a Board of Patrons, would see that there was also provided some simple and easy way of getting rid of a man who had proved faithless to his trust. He thought many of those who objected so keenly to Tests took a very one-- sided view of them. A Test was not merely a subscription, but a protection and a safeguard. A man was entitled to appeal to the Test if he was accused of violating it. If they did away with Tests, they could not apply the letter of the Test, but must live by the spirit, and every one knew that, however much one might trust the Spirit at one time, it was a very variable thing. Something had been said about the bearing of this upon Scientific Theology. He ventured to say for the relief of the minds of his friends, that they need not distress themselves with the thought that they were not permitted by reason of these Tests to pursue Theology in its most scientific form. The Church of Scotland was waiting for the solution of those questions which were rending the hearts and wearing out the lives of many in these days. He believed that the man who would plainly and fully clear away some of those mists that were at present encompassing the minds of many, would never be blamed by the Church of Scotland, or checked in the scientific studies which he pursued by the fact that he might not in all respects conform to a document which, as Dr Cunningham had said, belonged to an age so entirely different from the present age, and to modes of thought in many respects so entirely alien to their own. The Rev. Professor MENZIES, St Andrews, in supporting Dr Story's motion, urged the desirableness of free Theological teaching being carried on at their Universities, not only in the highest interests of the Church, but of the country at large. One reason that we were under the dominating influence of another country in this respect was because our teachers of Theology had to take these Tests. He had the strongest conviction that one of the great wants of the country at present was a native Theology, and if there was to be a native growth of Theology it must be free. This involved firstly that the Patron must be at liberty to select the best man for a Chair, no matter to what Ecclesiastical body he might belong; and secondly, that the Professor once appointed should be responsible to the University alone for the manner in which he discharged his office. With regard to the first of these two points it was no less than a national injury for a man to be appointed to a University chair of Theology if others of qualifications equal or superior to his were precluded from competing with him because they belonged to another Ecclesiastical body. The system of free Theological teaching existed on the Continent, and no doubt it might be said that it was under that system that such great teachers as Kuenen and Tiele lectured to a mere handful of students. But the Theological faculty of Weiden taught a much wider circle than the students attending the lectures, and represented a system of Theological research which could only flourish where the professors were free. He did not think the Assembly would say that a man who had a gift for Theological study was to be debarred from pursuing his researches at the University because his views were not those of the dominant Churches. They looked forward to getting more Chairs than they had at present, and then should one professor be unacceptable to the Churches others would be there in whose way there was no such obstacle, so that while one man might be working at the University chiefly in writing books, the others might be working chiefly in teaching the students, and thus all the different parts of Theological study would be going on together. He hoped that whatever was done it would be made plain to their neighbours of the other Presbyterian Churches that they wished their help in building up the Theology of our country, whether it was done in one way or another. He wished, however, that the Assembly would see its way to a declaration that a free, unrestrained Theology should be taught at their Universities. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS, Edinburgh, in supporting Dr Scott's motion, said he could not understand how a Board of Election was to work. The Board was credited with every virtue under the sun, and then we were assured that such a Board would select only the very best Professors. But when one tried to ascertain the principles or the process to be followed in selecting the members of the Board itself, there was nothing but darkness. In fact, when one began to recount the qualifications of a member of the Board, his knowledge and sympathy and fearlessness and independence of all parties and Churches, and his skill in doing all that was best, and nothing else, in the case of every election to every Chair, it was obvious that it would be far easier to find a reasonably good Professor on the present system than to constitute such a Board! So much for the Board, of which he would only further say, that those who proposed it must also propose some really workable plan for its constitution; and not forget that human nature would probably be found in every one of its members. Then as to affiliation. Principal Cunningham had spoken of affiliated Faculties of Theologians as cats and dogs in one cage. He apparently did not recognise the fact that the cages would still be separate on any intelligible theory of affiliation, but that all would be under University influence. Besides, even ecclesiastical theologians are not cats or dogs. The affiliation contemplated in Dr Scott's motion is of a different kind. It proposed to follow up the Act, and go a little further, so that affiliation should take the form of admitting the thoroughly equipped Faculties of other Churches into the Senatus, and making them part of the University. Dr Story said be did not believe in the impending imminence of Disestablishment; but he had actually proposed a motion for Disestablishment, as far as the University was concerned. Professor STORY - I do not disestablish the Hall. Professor CHARTERIS - But you disestablish the Church of Scotland in the Hall. Principal CUNNINGHAM - The Church of Scotland is not established in the Hall. Professor CHARTERIS - I think it is. There were, he proceeded to say, various forms of Disestablishment advocated in regard to the Faculties of Theology. One was to disestablish the whole Faculty of Theology in the University, and drive the teaching of religion outside. That is mainly a supposed logical outcome of the Voluntary principle. The University is regarded as a part of the State, and the idea is to banish the teaching of theology from the University, and, it may be presumed, to confiscate its revenues for some secular purpose. To drive all the teaching of religion outside of all Universities is so contrary to the feelings of the great majority of thinking men, that he was sure the proposal would not be entertained. The next form of Disestablishment was to disestablish the Church and creed, but to keep the Faculty of Theology. It was said that they had no Tests in Germany, but he believed the state of the case was that no man was a Professor of Theology in a German University unless he was an ordained Minister of the Church. He was made a Doctor of Divinity when he was appointed to his Chair, and he believed that in almost all the Universities he had to take an oath or vow. The fact that he must be an ordained Minister of the Church showed that he was not altogether free from Tests. Suppose they abolished University Tests to-morrow, were they free from the clerical Tests of the Church to which the Professors belonged? No Minister need apply for a Chair of Theology in future, because he would be a man who had a Test applied to him in his Church. Aye, more, they would arrive at this wonderful conclusion from the abolition of Tests - that a future Professor of Theology must not have a Test as Professor, as Minister, or as Member, and therefore the ideal teacher of Theology in that blessed future to which they were coming was a man who had been able to withstand the claims of Christianity upon him throughout his life. But, be it observed, there must still be left some creed. The creed of the proposers of this is, that Students and Churches shall believe that the Professor is to be always trusted whatever turn he may take. This is a creed very concrete, very simple, and, he must add, very simple-minded; just trust in a man. The next - the third - form of Disestablishment was to disestablish the Church and to keep the creed. It was to bind a man to the Westminster Confession of Faith, but to allow him to be of any Presbyterian Church. If this came either as the result of co-operative union among the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, or as a means of bringing about such union, it would be well worthy of favourable consideration. But every other Church in Scotland had taken pains to scout it; not one of them would send their Students to such a Hall; they all believe that a Divinity Hall must be an integral part of a Church for the training of its Students; and so this plan would reconcile nobody now outside. But the Church of Scotland would no longer have any control over the Professors or the Students in the Divinity Hall of the University; and she would in all probability be compelled by self-respect, and from regard to efficient training, to establish an outside Hall of her own. In such a case, as in all those other ways of Disestablishment, the Church ought to take out with her the Bursaries, which are now very valuable, and many of them quite recently gifted to the Students of Divinity. In Edinburgh, during his own tenure of his Chair, about £1000 a year had been given, not for behoof of Theological Students in the abstract, but for the benefit of Students for the Ministry of the Church of Scotland. If the Chairs were separated from the Church of Scotland, were those Endowments for her Students to remain in attachment to the separate Chairs? Certainly not; and yet for the difficulty thus arising, the Disestablishers to whom he referred made no provision. So much for the three forms of Disestablishment. The fourth plan, which was proposed in the motion, was not Disestablishment but Affiliation. In Scotland there were nine or ten Halls, independent of each other, in which Theology was taught. Seven of these were teaching substantially the same doctrine, and since it was a fact that those men teach it in a truly academic spirit, there ought to be a generous recognition of the fact that there they had a fully equipped institution for Theological training, an institution which, by an unfortunate and untoward accident, was separated from the University system of the land. He proposed to incorporate all these in the Universities, allowing them to maintain their individual action and their separate funds, but putting them on the same footing as the Faculty of Divinity. He would deal with them as Dundee had been dealt with in the old University of St Andrews. That was a large national view of the case, and it would bring all these Divinity Halls into connection with their University system. He saw from a published statement that all the three Free Church Theological Halls had told the Universities Commission that a true affiliation would be the solution of the problem. Unfortunately they all wanted a little Disestablishment, but not more than Dr Story, who proposed to put the Church of Scotland out of the University, and then let all the others in. He (Dr Charteris) thought the bringing in of those other Halls to the University would do a great deal to sweeten the breath of Scottish society. The next thing would be to recognise each other's classes, and then by-and-bye ere long there would follow on that a re-arrangement of the men and of the classes, so that each man, if he had a speciality, would be told off to lecture on the subject on which he was best qualified to instruct, and so by a process of selection they would become a much better body of teachers than at present. Let them, therefore, forward that scheme of affiliation, bringing the Theological Halls to the same level as the Faculty of Divinity in the Universities - let them do that in a generous spirit, and then would come a better day for the Churches. The General Assembly adjourned at 5.30, to meet again at 8.30 P.M. EVENING SEDERUNT. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, at 8.30 P.M., and was constituted. The Rev. Dr WATT, Glasgow, resumed the debate on the Report of the Committee on the Univer sities' Bill, with special reference to the motions regarding Theological Tests. The Tests at present imposed, he said, put no restriction upon the honest thinking of any man in the matter of religion. The proposals for the abolition of Tests had been advocated, so far as he had seen, by Professors alone. It happened that the public had had an opportunity of knowing what kind of men the Senatus of the University would offer for the position of teachers of Theology. There had been the Gifford lectures and, so far as he could see, the Senatus had been left a perfectly free hand as to whom they might appoint. He had listened with interest and profit to the lectures of Professor Max Mũller, but he would put it to any Minister of the Church whether he would be satisfied with such lectures as a preparation for the Ministry, that the students of the Church should be sent to such a lecturer, and that attendance upon his lectures should count as part of their training for the Ministry. If Dr Story got his way in carrying the opinion of the Church with him, he would influence the University Commission, who would possibly give effect to it. In the present state of public opinion the only result would be that the Church would have to set herself immediately about instituting training colleges for those who were to be Ministers of the Church. So long as the Church was established in this country it was entitled to have a department of the National Universities, a department in which the Church should have confidence. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR, Edinburgh, said he could not agree in the view that while the teaching of Theology should be retained in the Universities it should be retained with the present Tests attached to it. The Universities Bill had removed all Tests from every non-Theological Chair in the Universities, yet it had left the Theological Chairs just as they were. This made a great change. The subjects connected with those Chairs were so differentiated from all other departments of human knowledge, that they must be taught in some other way than every other department of human knowledge - that was to say, that they could not teach these subjects applying to them the ordinary rules of criticism. The effect would be to degrade Theology, or to drive it out of the Universities altogether, and hand it over to the tender mercies of the sects. He had no regard for the opinion that if Tests were abolished there would be no students. Dr Milligan had said that extraordinary precautions must be taken if the Tests were removed, and that an easy way must be found for getting rid of the men. He should like to ask if there was an easy way of getting rid of them now, and, if not, why should it be necessary to get rid of them in an easy way? Even in present circumstances they had not the securities in the matter of adherence to doctrine which some of the speakers seemed so anxious to obtain. It would be a mistake to think that they who advocated the abolition of Tests were not equally loyal with their neighbours to the best interests of the Church. They were in that matter pursuing different ways but striving to attain one and the same end. Were he not himself personally of the earnest belief that the Church would be doing a wise thing if she stood courageously through the present crisis and agreed to the removal of these Tests he would not be present to support the motion. The Rev. Dr JAMIESON, Old Machar, in supporting Dr Scott's motion, said he was as far as possible from being a bigot. At the same time he could not reconcile himself to the idea that, so long as they were the Established Church of the land, they could get rid of Tests. Progress had always been his feeling in respect to the true interpretation of God's Word. It might be necessary that they should modify their views greatly, but, at the same time, they must have some Tests in connection with the Professorships of Theology. They were, he thought, indispensable. The Rev Dr GLOAG said the proposal, as he understood it, was to remove the restrictions which preserved the Theological Chairs in connection with the Church of Scotland, and throw them open to those of other denominations. The reason assigned was that, under the present restrictions, there was a certain degree of unfairness shown to the dissenting brethren. The question arose, Where were they to stop? If they restricted the Chairs to Presbyterians, would not other denominations have a similar reason to complain of unfairness? Why not throw them open to Congregationalists, to Baptists, and to Episcopalians? And why stop there? Why not permit openly avowed Agnostics? Why restrict them to Ministers? and what assurance could they have that Theological Professors taught Christianity at all? If there were no Tests there could be no certainty as to teaching. If, on the other hand, there were to be some Tests, they must be made so comprehensive and indefinite as to embrace all denominations, and, if so, to whom could such Professors be responsible for their teaching? At present the Theological Professors were responsible to the several Churches to which they belong, but if the doors were open to all Churches, such a responsibility could not exist. They might find Professors calling in question or denying the great historical fact of the resurrection of Christ, explaining away the supernatural, and thus overturning the foundations of the faith. No Church which had regard to the orthodoxy and soundness of its students would recognise such teaching. The separate Colleges would still continue, the Theological Chairs in the Universities might be filled with earnest Professors, but they would have no students. They would lecture to empty benches, like the distinguished Hitzez, who lectured in Heidelberg to only one student. He cautioned the Church against giving the slightest countenance to the severance from it of the Theological Chairs. The Rev. Mr LEE KER, Kilwinning, said he had changed his mind in the course of the debate, and was convinced there must be Tests of some kind. Dr ROBERTSON, Glasgow, supported Dr Story's motion. There were, he said, only two alternatives - either to modify the Tests, or to sweep them away altogether. He preferred the latter. He did not believe they had ever been of the smallest benefit. The teaching in the Theological Faculty was very much in accord with the religious life of the country. When the religious life was strong, the religious teaching in the Universities was also strong and wholesome. Sir JAMES FERGUSON (Elder), was against the abolition of the Tests. It was an error, he said, to suppose that the Church had no interest in the kind of training its students might receive. The examination of students was held to be a sufficient security that adequate learning had been acquired, but he did not know that it was of a very searching character. If the Theological Chairs were to be held only by those who were searchers engaged in scientific inquiry, these men would not be the best trainers for those who were to be charged with the mission of being interpreters of the Christian faith according to the Standards of the Church. He should support Dr Scott's motion. The Rev. JOHN GLASSE, Edinburgh, said if they were to be so careful in regard to the teaching of their Professors, they would have to be equally careful as to the books which their students read. If they were to strictly apply a Test to their Professors, they should also have a Censor and an Index Expurgatorius for their students, and he was sure the Church would not willingly sanction that. They were all agreed, he was glad to say, in their desire to see Theological Chairs maintained in their Universities; but they found that the other two Presbyterian bodies were prepared to sweep away these Chairs, and if Dr Scott's motion passed it would give a reason to many in their own Church for sweeping them away. If they insisted on applying that rigid Test to the Professors they would alienate to a large extent the sympathy of even the members of the Church of Scotland. He was not going to attack the Confession of Faith, but it was a notorious fact, known to everyone who had studied Theology, that the Church now took up an entirely different attitude to the doctrines contained in the Confession of Faith. Dr SCOTT congratulated the Assembly on the manner in which they had discussed this very important question. In no ecclesiastical Assembly in Christendom could such divergence of views and opinions be more frankly expressed or more tolerantly and kindly received. In the brief reply which he had to make he would endeavour to maintain this disposition. He was always pleased to have his friend, Principal Cunningham, as an opponent in a debate. His opposition was generally jocular, and in this case his jokes were better than his arguments. At anyrate his arguments, like his jokes, did not hurt the point assailed. There was, as he admitted, an amount of solid consensus between them; and he hoped that after reflection his friend would become penitent and be converted. If next year he returned as unconverted and impenitent as he himself was in regard to the passing of Act XVII. 1889, he was sure that he would as loyally bow, as he had done, to the decision, and carry out the mind of the Church. Well, their friends in their motion were very liberal, yes, exceedingly liberal to Dissenters, but very illiberal to their own Church. Now, in his motion he was liberal to Dissenters, but he wanted to be just to the Church. To abolish the existing securities would be most unjust to the Church; it would, in effect, disestablish the Church on this side of her many relations. That is the plain significance of the abolition of Tests. The enemies of the Church see that, and clamour for their abolition. Drs Story and Cunningham don't see that. They are helping the enemies of the Church as catspaws, and we are bound to save them from the consequences of their own ingenuousness. Now, their great reason for getting rid of Tests was because they restricted Patrons in the choice of Professors; but plainly, from their speeches, they would only abolish one Test to establish a new one. There are various kinds of Tests. There are written and formulated Tests, and there are unwritten and traditional ones. He preferred a written to an unwritten Test, and he would certainly rather be tried by the written than the traditional one. Moreover, he would rather be a tested Professor than an untested Professor, appointed by a traditionally tested Board. Now, upon such a Board our friends evidently rely, a Board that shall inform Patrons of the fitness of candidates for vacant Chairs. Under that rule of fitness Dr Cunningham told us that only Ministers of the National Church would be selected if Dissenters refused to send students to the Hall in the Universities, for the Professor must be fitted to teach students of the Church. Practically, therefore, Dr Cunningham would abolish the doctrinal Test but retain the ecclesiastical. He would rather do the opposite; he might modify the ecclesiastical if he saw a readiness on the part of Dissenters to have it so, but he would retain the doctrinal. That would be consistent with our position. It was the national faith that was established in the Universities, and it is that we would maintain. To widen and broaden as far as the national faith may be politic, yea, wise and just; but to widen the teaching indefinitely would be to destroy the Faculties. To have a Theological Faculty, we must have a theology to teach. The simplest theology will be sectarian against some one else, and no substantial harm would be done in this instance, where the theology was that accepted by nine-tenths of the nation. A practical Test cannot be got rid of unless we destroy the usefulness of the Chairs. He did not know in the morning that for his prophecy of "No Test, no Student" he had the very strong support of Principal Cairns. Of course he was most thankful for it, and it confirmed him in the conviction that it was our duty to conserve the advantages we have. Let us conserve that we be able to share them. There may be no disposition to accept of our readiness to share them as yet, but we do not know how soon there may be, and we ought to have something conserved and ready to meet it. The Rev. Professor STORY asked and obtained leave to alter his motion so that the clause "And, further, that the Assembly ought to regard favourably any scheme for the affiliation," to "And, further, that the Assembly regards favourably the provisions available in the Act for affiliation," &c. Professor MILLIGAN said Dr Dickson, who, being absent, had left the motion proposed by him in his hands, would have liked that his motion should have been amalgamated with Dr Scott's. He was not, however, disposed to press the matter, and, seeing that an expression of opinion had been obtained in regard to it, he withdrew Dr Dickson's motion. The third motion (Professor Dickson's) was, with consent of the House, withdrawn; and it was agreed to take the vote between the first and second motion. It was farther agreed that the vote should be taken by the doors, when, the vote being taken, it appeared that there voted - First motion, including tellers, 135; second motion, including tellers, 32. The first motion thus became the judgment of the House. It was agreed that consideration of that part of the Report of the Committee on the Universities Bill relating to General Education, together with Overture No. X. on the Arts course of Divinity Students, and the Report of the Committee on the Education of Ministers, should be deferred. STUDENTS PREACHING. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR, Edinburgh, gave in the Report of the Committee on Students engaging in the Ministry of the Word. It stated that the practice of Students officiating as preachers appeared to have originated in the exigencies of the Church created by the events of 1843, and that its marked increase in recent years might partly be traced to the legislation of 1874. In 1854, and again in 1883. the Assembly passed an enactment prohibiting Ministers from giving countenance to Students engaging in the public Ministry of the Word before being licensed, but the practice had not been perceptibly restrained. The Committees recommended that after completing two sessions at the Divinity Hall, Students might be allowed to occasionally exercise their gift in preaching and leading the devotions of the people in the congregation, the consent of the Presbytery having previously been obtained. The Rev. Dr GRAY, Liberton, moved - "The General Assembly approve generally of the Report, and remit to the Committee, with additions, to frame Regulations on the lines suggested by the Committee, and to report to a future diet of this Assembly, with a view to these Regulations being embodied in an Overture, and sent down to Presbyteries for their consideration and consent." The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON, Harray, seconded. The Rev. Dr WATT, Glasgow, assured the Assembly that the reply of Presbyteries would take the form of congratulation, and he expressed his pleasure at the conversion of Dr Taylor and Dr Gray on the subject. The Rev. Professor STORY said instead of the deliverance proposed regulating this utterly illegal practice of the employment of Students in conducting the ordinary work of the Church, it would be regarded as simply giving it the sanction of the General Assembly. Nothing could be more subversive to the proper respect congregations ought to pay to the public worship of the Church, and to the public instruction of the pulpit. He looked upon the arrangement as one fraught with mischief for the future. Instead of being a progressive measure, it seemed to him reactionary in the worst degree. The Rev. ALEXANDER YOUNG, Westerkirk, spoke in the same strain as Professor Story, and after some further conversation the motion was agreed to. The following were added to the Committee: - Professor Scott Lang, Dr Johnston, Dr Rankin, Dr Leishman, James Wallace, Esq.; Professor Taylor, Convener. The General Assembly adjourned at 11.20, to meet again to-morrow at 11 A.M. WEDNESDAY, 28th May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last sederunt, being in the hands of Members, were held as read and approved of. THE ENDOWMENT COMMITTEE'S REPORT. Mr T. G. MURRAY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), submitted the Report of the Endowment Committee, which stated that during the past year the following new Parishes had been erected and endowed - viz., Maud, in the Presbytery of Deer; St Andrew's, Perth; and Stonefield, Blantyre, in the Presbytery of Hamilton. The completion of these brought up the number of new Parishes erected and endowed under the operations of the Endowment Scheme to 366, provided at a total cost of over £1,320,700, while in addition 40 Parliamentary Churches had been erected into Parishes quoad sacra, without the aid of the Committee - making the total number of Parishes in Church of Scotland now 1330. The Committee regretted that there had not been a larger number of new Parishes erected during the year, for they were aware that that number was not sufficient to meet the demand made on the Church by the increase of the population and the rise of new localities. They had hoped to report at that time the erection of five Parishes, and the funds at their disposal would have enabled them to pay their promised grant in that number of cases. In that expectation, however, they had been disappointed, owing to the difficulty which those promoting new Parishes had found in raising the local proportion of the sum required to secure endowment. The General Assembly were aware that the standard of endowment having been raised from £120 to £160, involved the raising now in most cases of £4000, instead of £3000 as formerly. Unfortunately, too, in consequence of a recent change in the constitution prescribed for quoad sacra Parishes, the difficulty of local promoters had been still further increased by its having become necessary for them to raise locally an additional £500 in lieu of the sum which, under the old constitution, was usually received from the funds of the Baird Trust. The result had been that in the case of several Churches which the Committee had hoped to see erected into Parishes endowment has been indefinitely postponed. Attention was called to the serious effect which these circumstances were having on the progress and work of the Church. It was estimated that the erection of from five to seven new Parishes annually was required to keep the organisation of the Church equal to the demand that was being made upon it. If that rate was not maintained, and the parochial agency was not extended to meet the demand for it, the Church could not hope to continue that system of endowed territorial work which was her grand distinction, and which it was her special responsibility both to defend and to extend. The Committee therefore called the attention of the Assembly to the fact that for two years past the rate had not been maintained - not from any lack of Churches seeking endowment or effort on the part of the Committee, but from the increased difficulty of the task which those promoting new Parishes had now to undertake. The amount received for the Scheme during the year throughout the various sources of income had been £10,715, as compared with £9773 for 1888, each of the sources of income showing an increase over that of the previous year. The number of non-contributing Parishes last year was 117, as against 139 in 1888. The number of Churches endowed as at Whitsunday 1887 was 355, receiving £23,487, whereas the number now was 365, and the amount £24,156. In concluding the Report the Committee gave expression to the anxiety they felt lest through any slackening of effort now the ground gained in the past should virtually be lost. It would be a poor recognition of the work of those who had gone before them if they either left unprovided with the means of Grace the new communities which were now arising or allowed the people of Scotland to be alienated from the National Church for want of adequate opportunity of worshipping within her walls. Consideration of a special Report explaining why the number of Parishes reported to be endowed during the year was less than what might have been expected was delayed till to-day. In presenting the Report, Mr Murray drew attention to the figures which it contained. The number of Churches now endowed was 366, at a cost of over £1,320,700. They had heard something lately about the Church of Scotland being merely a shadow. The Endowment Scheme was only a part of her operations, but the figures he had given showed that she was a pretty substantial shadow. He alluded to the large business concern, on the one side, of this Committee. They had to collect nearly £30,000 a year from investments payable by about 3000 people, mostly half-yearly, and with other sources they had thus an income of £40,000, which was paid out to upwards of 400 Ministers again by half-yearly payments. He had calculated that the expense of management was about 3 per cent., which he thought those who were conversant with the expense of management for such institutions as Heriot's Hospital, which had about the same revenue, would find very economical. The Report of the Endowment Committee might not now be received with the same enthusiasm as formerly, but, nevertheless, the duty was laid on the Church to continue the work of this Committee in order to provide religious ordinances for a largely increasing population and a shifting population. The Rev. Dr H.M. HAMILTON, Hamilton, moved the following deliverance: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, reappoint the Committee, - Mr T.G. Murray to be Convener, and Rev. Professor Cowan, D.D., Vice-Convener, - with all the usual powers. The General Assembly are pleased to learn of the increase in the income of the Committee during the past year, and anew commend the Scheme to the united and cordial support of all the Ministers and congregations of the Church. In view of the fact that the standard of endowment has been raised and that larger demands are now made upon the resources of the Committee, the General Assembly earnestly trust that these will be met by a corresponding increase in the liberality of the members of the Church, so that the growth and extension of the Church may not be impeded through lack of the funds needed to provide the religious ordinances required by the people of this land. The General Assembly specially commend the subscription toward the endowment of 50 new Parishes to the support of all the friends of the Church, and express the hope that as these Churches become ready for endowment, the Committee may on their part be in a position to contribute the proportion of the funds required which it falls to them to provide. The General Assembly regret to hear that the number of Parishes erected during the year has been smaller than could have been desired, and that the endowment of some Parishes has been indefinitely postponed in consequence of the increased difficulty now experienced by local promoters of new Parishes in raising their proportion of the funds necessary for endowment, but they trust that the present difficulty may prove to be of a temporary character." He remarked that the Endowment Scheme had always had an important place amid the Schemes of their Church, and it had ever inspired in their Convener and Deputy a life-long and most lively interest and attachment. There was no wonder it was so when they considered how closely the work of this Scheme was connected with the recognition of their Church as the National Church of their country. He fancied that the first thought that inspired all, after the remembrance that they were serving their Master and glorified Saviour, was the thought that they were serving in the Church their Queen and country, and in close and friendly alliance with the State. It was just because they recognised their position as the National Church that they felt it to be their bounden duty to go down to the people and to bring to them the ministrations of their Churches and the advantages of their parochial system. The history of their Endowment Scheme was one of which they must all be proud; and he sincerely trusted that the Baird Trust, which had hitherto taken so great an interest in, and liberally subscribed to, the Endowment Scheme would not withdraw their grant, because the Church might feel it right to adhere to a constitution which on three separate occasions had been already deliberately adopted. He hoped this difficulty might be overcome, but if not he was sure they had only to appeal to their people to get a liberal response. He suggested that something should be done towards giving grants to the endowment of Assistants working under the Parish Ministers, and to the Endowment of specially gifted men for Mission work. In conclusion, he remarked that it had been said that Disestablishment was a mere financial question, but he thought the noble work of their Endowment Scheme was one good answer to such a fallacy. He hoped the people would be raised to a sense of their responsibility, and to do what they could to prevent so great a disaster as was threatened to them. Mr W. OGILVY DALGLEISH, of Errol Park (Elder), in seconding the adoption of the Report, impressed upon the House the importance of the Scheme under notice. It was, he thought, the primary duty of the National Church to provide the means of Grace in those localities where it was most urgently needed, and to seek to keep pace in some measure with the growth of the population and with the religious necessities of the country. That duty the Church of Scotland had been discharging well, and it was most earnestly to be desired that the hands of this Committee should be strengthened, so that the Church might continue to discharge that duty in the future. Handsome as was the figure which the ordinary income of the Committee represented, he hoped it would be largely augmented in the near future. A very gratifying feature in connection with this Scheme was the steady and gradual increase which had been shown in the income of the Committee during the past three years; and that increase, he considered, might fairly be accepted as a proof of the growing recognition by the people of the importance of the Scheme. There was, indeed, no better way of strengthening and benefiting the Church than by strengthening the funds of the Endowment Committee. In concluding, Mr Dalgleish endorsed the sentiments to which Dr Hamilton had given expression as to the signal service which Mr Murray had rendered and was rendering to the Church in his capacity of Convener of this Committee alone. The motion was agreed to. The Convener further reported - "That the Endowment Committee, in conjunction with the Procurator and Principal Clerk, had revised, adjusted, and approved of a Constitution for the following chapel: - Glencoe, Presbytery of Lorn. And he now specially reported this Constitution to the General Assembly, in order that the same may be inserted in the Records of the Church, and a regular extract thereof given in common form." The General Assembly approved of the report, and instructed in terms thereof. The Convener further reported - "That there were several Churches for which endowments have been provided, or are in progress, the Constitutions of which it may be necessary to prepare, alter, or remodel, before the meeting of next General Assembly, with a view to proceedings for having them erected by the Court of Teinds into Churches quoad sacra; and he craved the Assembly to remit to the Committee on the Endowment of Chapels of Ease, in conjunction with the Procurator and Principal or Depute Clerk, or either of them to prepare, alter, or remodel, adjust, and approve of the Constitutions of these Churches, in conformity with the model deed approved of by the Assembly, and in conformity with the requirements of the Act of Parliament, 7 and 8 Vict., c. 44; and on such Constitutions being so prepared and adjusted, to authorise the Principal, whom failing, the Depute Clerk of Assembly, to give certified copies thereof of the dates of which they were approved; provided always that such Constitutions have been previously sanctioned and approved of by the Presbyteries of the respective bounds, and that these Constitutions shall be specially reported to next General Assembly, so that they may be inserted in the Records of the Church, and regular extracts thereof given out in common form." The General Assembly agreed to remit, and authorise as craved. Intimation was made that the Kirk-Session of Jedburgh had met yesterday for purposes connected with the vacancy in that Parish. The General Assembly did not think it necessary to interfere. CHURCH INTERESTS COMMITTEE. Lord BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH submitted the Report of the Church Interests Committee. The following are the more important passages in it: - For some years past your Committee have not been obliged to ask for the special attention of the General Assembly to the great interests committed to their charge. Meantime the Committee have endeavoured to maintain, strengthen, and extend the organisations of the Church to resist the attack which it has been obvious would be renewed at the first suitable opportunity. In doing so the chief difficulties with which your Committee have had to contend have not been any want of enthusiasm in the cause, but the absence of direct attack, and the reliance of the Members of the Church upon the assurances they believed themselves to have obtained that due notice would be given before the movement for Disestablishment would be regarded as within the sphere of practical politics by the leaders of the liberal party, and even then that the question would be submitted as a distinct and separate issue. During the past year, however, the agitation for Disestablishment has attained to a new position, and one which, in the opinion of your Committee, calls for prompt attention and vigorous action from every loyal Member of the Church. In illustration of this the Committee refer in detail to Mr Gladstone's speech at St Austell shortly after the rising of last Assembly, in which he declared, "I confess that I am of opinion that the time has come when the sense of Scotland (on the question of Scottish Disestablishment) has been sufficiently and unequivocally declared;" and to the correspondence which followed between Mr Gladstone and Lord Balfour of Burleigh. Commenting on the correspondence referred to, the Committee say: - "The correspondence left it still in doubt in the minds of some whether Mr Gladstone would speak and vote for a resolution in favour of Disestablishment, though it was perfectly clear that a determined attempt would be made by a dominant section of the Gladstonian party to deny to the people of Scotland that distinct issue and fair trial which had been so emphatically and repeatedly promised in 1885 and earlier years; and it gradually became certain that at next general election an endeavour would be made to unite the question of the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Church of Scotland with those affecting the government of Ireland and other leading political questions of the time. If positive proof of this determination were needed, it was soon afforded by the action of the Scottish Liberal Association, the central organisation of the Gladstonian party in Scotland, which at a meeting held at Glasgow during November formally adopted the subject of the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Church of Scotland as a part of their political programme; while their action was adopted and approved by politicians holding a prominent place in the councils of the party, who addressed meetings in Scotland about the same time." Lord Rosebery's speech at Glasgow and Mr John Morley's address at Dundee are next referred to, and the Committee say: - "It appeared to your Committee that these declarations marked, and were intended to mark, a new departure on the question of Disestablishment on the part of the leaders of the Gladstonian party, and that, in consequence, the time had arrived when the work of preparation and of organisation for the contest, which was being forced upon the Church, should be pressed forward with increased vigour. Your Committee have, therefore, urged the friends of the Church to lose no time in taking the necessary steps for completing their organisation in those districts where it was necessary; and they are glad to report that both in this respect and in the provision of funds to meet the necessary expenditure their efforts have met with a satisfactory response; and your Committee believe that recent events will still further stimulate the efforts which have been made, and which with the sanction of the Assembly it is proposed to continue." Reference is next made to the debate in the House of Commons on Dr Cameron's resolution upon the 2d May, and to Mr Gladstone's speech and vote thereon; and the Committee say: - "Whatever view may be taken of the altered circumstances as above indicated, there can be no doubt that these have placed the Church of Scotland in a position which demands the earnest attention of all her members and friends. The Church of Scotland has never been, and it is earnestly hoped will never be, a political Church, or allied either to one party or the other in the State, and it must be the earnest endeavour of those who act and speak for the Church to prove the truth of this. It is well known that a large portion of the laity and many of the Ministers of the Church adhere to that political party from whom the attack has now come, and it will be for the General Assembly, through your Committee or otherwise, to declare with no uncertain voice that the Church even now does not wish to interfere with any man's political opinions. But, on the other hand, it ought to be shown to the people of Scotland, and especially to the members of the Church of Scotland, that if their Church is to be saved from destruction, it can only be by all who value and wish to preserve it placing their Church above their party, and refusing to support any political candidate who has voted, or will vote, for its overthrow. Taking the whole circumstances into consideration, your Committee do not see how they can now decline the conflict which has been forced upon the Church. It has been obvious to all for some years that sooner or later the challenge would be given, and if there has seemed to some a reluctance on the part of the Church to allow the issue to be joined, that reluctance has proceeded from the consciousness of strength, and from a real desire to avoid the interruption to regular work, and all the heat and bitterness attendant upon it, rather than from any doubt as to the mind of the Scottish people upon the questions to be submitted to them. Your Committee therefore respectfully place these facts before the Assembly, and request now to be furnished with such instructions as will enable them to appeal in its name to the Scottish people upon these great issues which so deeply and vitally concern the highest interests of the nation. The opposition to any appeal being made directly to the people, which would admit of their pronouncing on this question apart from other questions, is, in the opinion of your Committee, a very significant fact. If the promoters of Disestablishment are a majority of the people, they need not fear the result of such an appeal. It can only be because they know themselves to be in a minority that they take such pains to ensure that this question shall be submitted, not by itself, but along with others which they seem to believe to be more likely to win the support of the people. It will be the duty of the Church of Scotland, at every step of her progress in the work of defence, to show conclusively to the people of Scotland that she has always been, and is now, ready at any sacrifice - save the abandonment of her national position or the imperilling of the religious advantages secured to the people of Scotland by the Revolution Settlement and the Treaty of Union, or by anything which might be construed into willingness to throw away the heritage of the Scottish people - to enter into such arrangements as may secure that those now separated may be able to share in the enjoyment and improvement of that heritage. Your Committee have to report that, in compliance with the instructions of last General Assembly, they sent to Her Majesty's Government a representation asking for the insertion in the schedule to be used in taking the Census of the population in 1891, of a statement of the religious denomination to which those enumerated belong; and they have respectfully to suggest that, in view of recent events already referred to, the application should be renewed and pressed upon the Government, and that the General Assembly petition both Houses of Parliament to that effect. "BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH, Joint-Convener. " WM. JOHN MENZIES, Vice-Convener." Lord BALFOUR then said - Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren, - In rising to discharge the duty which lies before me, I appeal with confidence for that indulgence which this Assembly never denies to those of its Members upon whom there is laid any task of exceptional importance or difficulty. I have now enjoyed the privilege of a seat in this Assembly for seventeen consecutive years, and I can truly say that I have never risen to speak under a sense of anything like the same responsibility as that of which I am conscious on the present occasion. You have now for several years entrusted me with the charge of the Committee which has to look after the interests of the Church in all matters which are brought before the Legislature. During most of those years this task, while important and demanding both energy and care, has not been one of the great responsibility which it promises to be in the near future. For some years the Committee has not had much to say upon the floor of the Assembly, and has not had to ask either for special instructions from this General Assembly, or for any special effort on the part of the Church at large. True, we have seen forces gathering against the Establishment of the Church; we have known that the attack must come, and that the only question left in doubt was the time which would be chosen by the adversaries of the Church for delivering the attack. I am glad to say that we have not been idle during these years. We have been endeavouring to prepare and to organise the forces at our command. We have met with a very considerable amount of support and a very great deal of kindness from all with whom we have been brought in contact. One thing has to some extent stood in our way, but it has not been that there is any want of enthusiasm in the cause. We have been always met by the allegation that there was no real danger - that promises and pledges had been secured, which at any rate made it certain that due notice would be given before the question would be regarded as one properly within the sphere of the Imperial Parliament and of practical politics. A change has come over the state of flatters during the last twelve months. I am far from wishing to make too much of that change - it would be easy to make too much of it, such as it is, - but at the same time it would be very dangerous to minimise its importance. I think, if we may trust the newspaper reports of some meetings of those who are most forward in attacking the Church, the change has almost turned their heads, and they do not know exactly where they stand. They talk about being near the end of the conflict; my belief is that they are at the beginning, and only at the beginning, of it. There is really nothing new, and except for one circumstance there is scarcely anything unexpected in the forces that are arrayed against us at the present time. We have always known that we should have to fight for the historical position which our Church occupies, but I venture to say that the manner in which the attack has recently been developed has come with a shock of surprise to many who thought they could trust pledges distinctly and repeatedly given. Let me turn very briefly to a history of the events which have taken place during the past year. Very soon after the rising of last Assembly, a speech was made by Mr Gladstone at St Austell, in which he claimed that the sense of the people of Scotland had now been clearly and unequivocally declared on the question of Disestablishment. That seemed to us to be a statement proceeding from the most erroneous information, and it was one which we thought should not be allowed to pass altogether unchallenged. The Committee, therefore, at their next meeting unanimously passed the resolution which will be found in the Report. That resolution was printed at the time in all the Scottish and in many of the leading English newspapers. A copy was sent to Mr Gladstone by Mr Menzies and myself; we did so in the hope that we should be able to get from him some statement of the evidence and of the grounds which had led him to commit himself to the position that the opinion of Scotland had been clearly and unequivocally declared. I do not think it can be said that we failed from any lack of courtesy upon our side. I only, however, allude now to this correspondence, and it is only printed in the Report because, in the opinion of the Committee, it is their duty to lay before the Assembly everything that has taken place during the past year in connection with the matters committed to our charge. The interest attaching to the correspondence, such as it was, has passed away, and has been superseded by subsequent events. But, sir, it seems to me to be absolutely beyond dispute that the declaration made at St Austell by Mr Gladstone was part of a preconceived and preconcerted plan. Let us see what were the events which followed. The central Association of the Gladstonian Liberal party held a meeting in the autumn at Glasgow, and passed certain resolutions for the purpose of putting Disestablishment in the forefront of their political programme. I am bound to admit there is nothing particularly new in that; the men who are most anxious and most energetic in the work of that Association have long been committed to that plank in the platform. But the resolution to which I have alluded was adopted and indorsed, in words which must be fresh in the minds of many, by other leaders of the Liberal party, and I think there can no longer be any doubt that if they can manage it they mean to put themselves in such a position that they shall be able to say, after the next election at any rate, with less absolute want of candour than they can at the present time, that the sense of the people of Scotland has been taken upon the question. Our position is, that the resolution passed on that occasion, and these other declarations, may commit the official Gladstonian party, but they do not commit, and must not be held to commit, loyal sons of the Church, - provided they have given no mandate for or consent to these resolutions. There are many such men - men who hitherto have been loyal alike to the Liberal party and to their Church. Even after the correspondence with Mr Gladstone, there was still a doubt in my mind, and in the mind of others, whether, in respect of the facts and evidence which we put before Mr Gladstone, he would still persevere in the course which he seemed to have marked out for himself, in the event of Dr Cameron's resolution being brought forward. Early in the present month Dr Cameron secured a place on the notice paper of the House of Commons, which enabled him to bring on his motion as an amendment to the proposal for putting the House into Committee of Supply, and a division was taken upon it. I hardly like to turn aside from the consideration of that discussion and division to interpose anything else, but I think it right to call the attention of the Assembly to the sort of tactics which were pursued, and the policy which we have to meet in this matter. It is no unusual thing, when such motions come on for discussion, that statements bearing upon them should be circulated by the friends of one side or the other. But it has usually, at least in my experience, been regarded as a matter of fairness, or at least of common courtesy, that the one side should know the facts and arguments which were being circulated by the other. That course was not followed on the present occasion. A statement was circulated by the Disestablishment Council for Scotland to their own side only - that is, to those members believed to be favourable to Dr Cameron's resolution. We only became aware of it by the courtesy of one member, a personal friend of Mr James A. Campbell, who lent him for a few hours a copy of the statement. Mr Campbell was good enough to show it to me, and it seemed to us of so much importance, that we thought it right to circulate on our side a refutation of some of the strangest misstatements made by our opponents. I frankly confess that when I saw the statement that had been circulated, I no longer felt any surprise that they should wish to keep it to themselves; I do not know whether it is weaker in the tribute which it pays to candour or to logic. In one of the opening paragraphs it says that the "friends of religious equality are demanding a measure of Disestablishment." Towards the end of the statement the Council do me the honour of a personal reference, and they say that "Lord Balfour and the Church of Scotland are forcing Disestablishment to the front." Now both of these statements cannot be true. If the friends of religious equality are appealing for a measure of Disestablishment, then it is not Lord Balfour and the friends of the Church of Scotland that are forcing on this question. If it lies at the door of Lord Balfour and the friends of the Church, then where is the enthusiasm and the demand for it which our opponents plead as one of their strongest arguments for the measure? Again, our opponents say that "the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church, while reasonably maintaining that they represent the majority of the Presbyterian Church members in Scotland, receive no share of the public endowments." I venture to say that this statement, that. the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches are in a majority in the country, is never put forward in Scotland. It is kept for consumption in England, where the people do not know the facts. I say without fear of contradiction, that if we take any return which can be got which has any approach to accuracy, then the Church of Scotland may claim over the other Presbyterian, indeed over all other Protestant denominations, that it has a large majority of the people. If there is any doubt about it, who is it that prevents the truth from being ascertained? The friends of the Church are not afraid to appeal to the people themselves. We are anxious that the appeal should be made, and we will use every effort in our power to get the facts and figures from the people themselves, and so establish the facts in a way that they cannot be questioned. Once more, our opponents' statement says that "they and other Nonconformists in Scotland protest against the injustice involved in the State continuing to endow one section of Presbyterians." There is no evidence to support that statement. The Nonconformist Churches are not unanimous in their protest against the present condition of affairs. Did the writer of that document not know of, or did he choose to forget, the protest signed only the other day by five hundred of the leading and most representative laymen of the United Presbyterian Church against the action of their Church Courts? There was a division in the Edinburgh United Presbyterian Presbytery on the subject a short time ago. I believe there were thirty-six members present, and the resolution in favour of Disestablishment was only carried by a majority of twenty-three to thirteen. It is not for me to praise these men. They did not act from a desire to gain praise from us. I am sure they were acting from a conscientious desire to do what they thought best for the cause of Christ and of religion in Scotland, and perhaps from an earnest yearning for a return to those times of peace which seem only too certainly passing away from us. There are many other things of a similar kind in the statement, which I will not put off time by commenting upon at present. We have, however, thought them of sufficient importance to print them in an appendix to our Report, together with our refutation of them. I will only add that I have even yet been unable to get a copy of the statement as it was circulated, and I am still dependent for my information regarding it on the last issue of a periodical, to which I have no objection to give a gratuitous advertisement - the Disestablishment Banner of the present month. I venture to say that the chief interest of the debate which took place in the House of Commons attaches to the speech made by Mr Gladstone on that occasion. We did hope that we should be able to get some information from him as to the grounds on which he had changed his opinion, and on which he declared that the opinion of Scotland had changed on this subject; in that we have been disappointed. But on other grounds we are so satisfied with that speech, and with the discussion as a whole, that we intend to print and circulate it, to show the people of Scotland the sort of arguments that are thought good enough to put before the House of Commons, and to lead the House of Commons and the people of Scotland to make a breach in the religious history of the country, which, we say, is second in importance to none that they have been asked to make since the time of the Reformation. Any one who pays careful attention to Mr Gladstone's speech will see, that although he was going to vote, and did vote, for the Disestablishment of the Church, he is not a convert to any great principle upon which that measure can be justified. Nay more, he went out of his way to say so, and the reason of it is pretty obvious. The reason is, that there is no single principle which can be applied to the Disestablishment of the Church of Scotland which is not equally good for the Disestablishment of the Church of England; and although he wants the votes of those who are in favour of Disestablishment in Scotland, he does not want to alarm the members of the larger and more powerful corporation south of the Tweed. Mr Gladstone deliberately passed by the question of principle. He said: "I will not argue the matter on the ground of general principle. I leave that principle apart without either affirming or denying it." I wonder how far that is a declaration which is gratifying to those who have forced him into the position which he has now taken up. Will they venture to lecture him as they lectured Lord Rosebery a short time ago? But Mr Gladstone went on to lay down what I venture to think is a most extraordinary proposition - that the onus of proof in this matter lies upon those who want to maintain, and not upon those who want to change, the existing order of things. I have always been under the impression that if a state of things has endured for some two hundred years, it is surely incumbent upon those who want to make a violent change to bring forward the arguments upon which they rely. Mr Gladstone tries to lay upon the members of the Church of Scotland the onus of proof, and he took four grounds, on every one of which he said that we in the Church of Scotland must make good our position, and on none of these, according to him, were we able to do so. Now, if the Assembly will bear with me for a short time, I will endeavour to go through these as briefly as possible. The first is that the "Church must be performing some special religious work in the country - for instance, such as the care of the poor - which no other body could perform." The second, that it must be "testifying to the maintenance of certain truths and doctrines which no other religious body could so effectually maintain." The third, that it is "the Church to which the decided majority of the people belong;" or, fourth, that "without belonging to it, the majority wish to maintain it in the position of the National Church Establishment." Now Mr Gladstone, as I understand him, denies that the Church of Scotland is in any special way the Church of the poor. I venture to assert the direct contrary. I affirm that the Church of Scotland is the Church of the poor, in the rural districts, in the mining districts, and in the congested centres of population in our large towns. And it is becoming more and more the Church of the poor. It is becoming increasingly so as the years go on. Does this Assembly know that in Edinburgh and Glasgow alone there have been sixteen Voluntary Churches removed from the centres of the poorer population and taken to the suburbs? I do not blame them for that; they are but following the irresistible and unalterable law of their being. They must go because the people from whom they draw their revenues have gone. But it is none the less a significant fact that as years go on the Church of Scotland is being left more and more to the charge of and the responsibility for the crowded districts of our large cities. The matter, however, does not end there. In Edinburgh the fifteen Free Churches which are either in the Old Town or in the populous working-class suburbs have decreased in the last ten years by 1443 of their members. I believe the same process to be going on in the United Presbyterian Churches of Edinburgh, but I have not been able to get facts and figures with sufficient accuracy to put them before the Assembly. In Glasgow the Free Church has hi like manner twenty-five Churches, in the thickest parts of the city, that have decreased by 2265 members. In Dundee seven Free Churches have decreased by 674 members under similar circumstances. The total increase of the Free Church in Dundee has been 513 members during the ten years; while the total increase of membership in Dundee of the Church of Scotland has been 3359. In Aberdeen eleven Free Churches have in the last ten years decreased by 1488; but during all this time and in all these places the population has been growing. A great deal is sometimes made of the fact, and it was mentioned in the same statement to which I have already alluded, that the Free Church has set a high aim before it, and has put down Church for Church with the old Church of Scotland; in fact it is claimed that while there are only 925 old Parish Churches in Scotland, the Free Church has put down 1030 within the last fifty years. Now I hope it will be understood that I do not want to decry for one moment the value of the work which has been done by the Free Church, but what I say is, that it is founded upon principles which prevent its doing all the good that the principle of endowed territorial work, which is the foundation of the work of the Church of Scotland, has enabled it to do. But because the Free Church had got in many instances, as they say, Church for Church with the Church of Scotland, it does not follow that they are among the same class of population. The Free Tolbooth Church in Edinburgh is in St Andrew Square; the Tolbooth Church of the old Church of Scotland is at the top of the High Street: and I venture to say that if any one had time to do it, many instances in which the name has gone with a Church which has been removed from its place could be found, and that such a list could be made as would startle, not only this Assembly, but some of the adherents and members of other Churches. It is commonly said that the Voluntary system would prove sufficient for the wants of the people of Scotland. If there is one monument of its skill of which the Free Church has a right to be proud more than another, it is its management of finance; and yet at this moment it is a fact, that out of its 1030 Churches, only 298 are self-supporting. That is only 29 per cent. of the whole: 731, or 71 per cent., are thus dependent, to a greater or less extent, on the wealthy charges, for the barest subsistence. I venture to say that if it were not for the endowment which the Church of Scotland enjoys, there are many of our congregations which would be in the same position, perhaps even in larger proportion; but if we find there would be a larger proportion in that condition, then I say that it adds point to what I have already urged, that our Church is the Church of those who are not able to provide Churches for themselves, and that is one of the reasons why the endowments should be preserved for religious purposes. If it had not been for the endowments, our wealthier congregations would during the last fifty years have had to do their best to supply the wants of the poorer localities; and if that had been so, they could not have built up the splendid monument to the Church which we possess in the Endowment Scheme, the report of which for the past year you have just had before you this morning. Now I come to the second of Mr Gladstone's four points, that the truths and doctrines of the Established Church could not be so efficiently maintained by other religious bodies. Here again I shall not say one word to discredit the work of other Churches. I will say, if you like, that I believe it to be as good as our own; but be that as it may, it would be an extraordinary breach in the national, historical position of Presbyterianism, if at this time of day the work of 1690, to which all of us can appeal, were to be undone and pulled down. Surely that will not be urged as a triumph for the Presbyterianism to which the other Churches claim to be as loyal as we are ourselves. Again, is, or is not, our Church the Church of the majority? I have said nearly all that it is necessary for me to say on this point already, but I do maintain that we are the Church of the decided majority of the Protestant part of the population, and I can only say, as I have said before, and as I will repeat again as often as is necessary, that if our opponents are going to lay stress on the point as to who is in the majority, or as to the amount of the majority, let them cease from preventing us from ascertaining the real state of affairs. Now, as to the last of the four points, whether or not the maintenance of the Church of Scotland is or is not desired by the majority of the population, that, I say, is what we shall have to find out in the near future. We demur altogether to the position taken up by Mr Gladstone, that lie can infer the wants and wishes of the majority of the people by means of the votes of the Scottish members. Our position in regard to that matter is, that in this Parliament the votes of the Scottish members are the votes of individuals and nothing more. We claim that they have no mandate whatever from the people of Scotland to express any opinion on this matter. The majority is apparently the test to which many are in regard to this controversy chiefly content to appeal. As long ago as 1875 it was said by Lord Hartington that if the majority of the people of Scotland should make up their minds and declare their wish for Disestablishment, that it should be given effect to. I do not know that we have any objection to that. I think I may say not only that we have no objection to it, but I am certain that we never have objected to it; but we have always said that, in a matter of this importance, the existence of the majority must be carefully and accurately ascertained and put beyond all matter of doubt. In some of the years which followed, a certain amount of agitation went on, and it gained more or less strength before the year 1885. I believe there was in some of those years a sort of desultory agitation, conducted by Principal Cairns and some others whose names I have forgotten; but the chief weapon then used against the Church was its want of orthodoxy and the heresy which was said to be its chief characteristic. That argument did not seem to have much weight with the people of Scotland, and I am confident that it is not an argument that, considering the existing state of matters over the way, could be used now, with any greater amount of force. Undoubtedly the question did make progress between the years 1875 and 1885, and as the election of 1885 drew near, the anxiety of the Church of Scotland was roused. Yes; but her spirit was also roused, and in no small degree, by the noble stand and the noble speech made by him with whom I had the honour at that time of being associated in the Convenership of this Committee. At any rate, the result of the agitation which was then carried on, and to which we at least have no need to look back with shame or searching of heart, was, that for the sake of securing a unanimous Liberal vote, Mr Gladstone was obliged to give us certain promises and certain pledges. These promises and pledges were repeated again and again, and their terms, I have no doubt, are present to the minds of all of you. These were the words of Mr Gladstone: "We" (that is, the Liberal party) "ought to labour for a state of things in which every Liberal Churchman shall feel that in voting for a Liberal candidate he is in no way voting for, or giving an opinion on, the question of Disestablishment, though that candidate may be favourable to Disestablishment." Again he said, with great emphasis, and with all the rhetoric of which he is so consummate a master, that "no advantage should be filched from the Church of Scotland;" and again, that any reference that should be made to the people of Scotland must be "a real reference, for a real consideration, and for a real decision." Sir, these were not pledges asked for by the friends of the Church. They were pledges voluntarily given, and given not for our purposes, but for the purposes of the leader of the Liberal party. He selected his own time, he spoke in his own words, and he chose his own manner of making the terms. I venture to say that terms deliberately given in such a way cannot be departed from without a greater and grosser breach of faith than has yet been known in the annals of British politics. It would, perhaps, be very convenient to forget all that now, and to quote as conclusive a majority of Scottish members who have recorded their votes in the House of Commons, - some of them against their pledges deliberately given over and over again to their own constituents. This is not the place to deal with them. We shall ask our friends in their own constituencies to do it in their own proper time and in their own proper way. Again, we hear about a truce, and that the truce was broken by the introduction of Mr Finlay's Bill in 1886. That fallacy has been exposed over and over again, and I do not think I need go into it at length at this time; but I may just say this, that I was then Convener, as I am now, of this same Church Interests Committee, and I state to this Assembly, as I have stated before, that until that Bill was introduced and laid on the table of the House of Commons, I myself, and I believe all those concerned in the management of the Committee, were absolutely ignorant that any such movement was intended; but as we believed that it was an honest attempt on the part of some, separated from the Church, to find a means of reconciliation and reconstruction, we could not turn a deaf ear to the proposal, and we passed a series of resolutions upon the subject. We adhere to those resolutions, and they are reprinted in the form in which they were approved by the Assembly of that year. We would have been lacking in our duty, considering the profession that we made during the previous autumn, if we had not sought to give a helping hand to any one who was not only willing but anxiously desirous to find a way of reunion in the present trouble, but our action was in no sense, and could not be fairly said to be, a breach of any truce; and if my memory serves me right, those were the first to condemn and to break any truce that did exist, who have been loudest in their objections to us for having departed from it. A great deal is made of the bye-elections that have taken place since the year 1886. It is said that there have been some twelve or fourteen bye-elections, and that in every case, almost without exception, a candidate favourable to Disestablishment has been returned. Well, in the last two or three of these - since the Church became alarmed - this has not been the case; but has Mr Gladstone forgotten, and has this Assembly forgotten, the transaction which took place at Nottingham, I think in 1886? We know that shortly before the Nottingham gathering a resolution had been passed, somewhere down in the south-west of Scotland, to the effect that the time for Disestablishment had come. We know also, from the usual channels of information, that the gentlemen who fathered that resolution had an interview with Mr Gladstone before he spoke at Nottingham; we know also that when Mr Gladstone did speak, he referred to this matter and said - "Let Scotland imitate Wales, and send up a good batch of Home Rulers, and their reward will be assured." Now, take notice of this, a "good batch of Home Rulers," not Disestablishers, but they are to receive Disestablishment. I ask, was there ever a more complete instance in political life of the old bargain, "You claw me, and I'll claw you"? you vote solid for Home Rule, and I will see what I can do for Disestablishment. Even then Mr Gladstone had not departed from the position he took up in 1885, that they ought to labour for a state of things in which every Liberal Churchman should feel that in voting for a Liberal candidate he was in no way giving an opinion on Disestablishment. They were still to vote for Home Rule as the main question, and to say nothing about Disestablishment; and now, after there have been several bye-elections on that footing, Mr Gladstone turns round and says the voice of Scotland has been declared in favour of Disestablishment. If our opponents really believe that Scotland is so anxious for Disestablishment as they say, why, I ask, are they so determined to pursue tactics which prevent a clear and direct appeal to the people? They have captured the organisations of the Gladstonian party; they have got their Church courts and their Disestablishment associations and committees to pass any number of resolutions. Our proposal is to appeal, past these packed political associations, past these Church courts, which we do not believe to represent the real solid feeling of Scotland, and we propose to appeal to the people themselves. There are ways of testing the feeling of the people of Scotland. Let the adversaries of the Church raise their banner throughout the country; let them hold public meetings in favour of Disestablishment. We will hold meeting for meeting upon our side. Let them undertake a canvass of the electorate, and we will help them. We will join with them in any fair way of taking the opinion of the people which they may choose to name. If they prefer to petition, let them do so - we will petition too; until they do, we think it right to rest upon the petitions we obtained on the former occasion. But it seems that our opponents are determined to force this Church into a Parliamentary conflict. They ridicule the idea of a real reference and of a general election upon this question. We claim such a reference upon two grounds. We claim it on account of the intrinsic and transcendent importance of the issue to the people of Scotland; and we claim it, because the position of our Church is embedded in the Act of Union, and it cannot be disturbed or dislodged without a most distinct and overwhelming consent on the part of the descendants of those who were parties to that union. We say further, and we will continue to say, that no election which does not take place upon that question, and upon that question alone, would in our opinion be really decisive of the wishes and feelings of the people of Scotland. Some will say that we shall have difficulties to encounter; I do not deny it, but I put it to this Assembly, what are difficulties made for? Are we, on account of difficulties, to turn aside from the path, which to us is the path of justice, righteousness, and honour? Difficulties, in the path of honest and energetic men, are made for those men to meet and to get over. There may be some who will shrink from the contest, but I can tell this Assembly that there are others who mean to fight. I think it was Cobden who said that no surgical operation could put a backbone into a man who did not possess one; and I do not suppose that if there are any who mean not to be true to the Church of Scotland in this crisis, that their default will be of much importance. We mean to take up the contest, and to put before the people of Scotland the issue of which they must be the arbiters. We will take no decision but theirs; they and they alone shall decide the case which supremely concerns them. Sir, some proposals have been made in the course of the year, upon which had there been any chance of their being accepted by the other side, it might have been worth while to bestow a certain amount of consideration. I believe these proposals, from whichever side they came, and on whichever side they have found favour, came from those men, and found favour in those quarters, from a conscientious desire to see if any method of agreement, and any means by which a contest could be avoided, could not even yet be found. But it seems to me, at least, that they were wanting in one important point; in other words, they asked us to give up what I regard, and what I believe many in this Assembly regard, as the chief, if not the whole, matter in dispute. I observed that one speaker at a Disestablishment conference the other day, stated that there must be either Establishment or Disestablishment, and that between these there could be no compromise. I am inclined to agree with that statement as far as it goes; and I must add that if our friends on the other side are going to attempt a compromise, they must give up Disestablishment. If what they want is the paltry remnant of the liberality of former ages which the Church now enjoys, or the miserable pittance doled out from the Exchequer, the amount of which was far exceeded by Church revenues in the hands of the Government, I say I would rather give them up, and trust to the liberality of future generations, than give up our noble position and the freedom which we now enjoy, a position which has gained from Mr Gladstone himself the testimony that we are now the freest Church in Christendom. I believe the Christian liberality of the Scottish people to be equal to that, but if we once give away our position, we can never regain it. One of the appeals that is constantly put before the people by our opponents is something like this - I believe they are the very words taken from the last report of the Disestablishment Association - they appeal to the electorate for "a measure of religious equality which shall do justice to all and harm to none." I cannot help wishing sometimes that they would make it a little more definite. We have all got equal justice and perfect toleration, and there are none of us at any rate who would desire the right to either of these things to be diminished; but beyond that, what is a religious equality? It seems to me, as far as I can gather, that there is not much equality, and very little religion, in the phrase. Does religious equality mean the same thing to the Free Church as that for which Dr Hutton is asking? Does the religious equality which they are asking mean the same thing as that of their political allies, with Sir George Trevelyan and Mr John Morley at their head? Do they mean that religious equality would be accepted by the people of Scotland as a convertible term for the Disestablishment of the Church? I once heard a Free Churchman say, at a meeting against Disestablishment, something which I thought very appropriate, I should not have ventured to say it myself, but as he said it, I see no harm in repeating it; he said the spirit manifested by some was not unlike that expressed in the old Jacobite song: - ''Geordie sits in Charlie's chair, Deil tak' me if he sit there." The fact is, that no one who holds the principle of religious equality, in any sense that it can be understood, will be content or satisfied by the Disestablishment of the Church. Awkward questions will at once be raised as to the position of the State as regards education, - as regards religious education especially, - and as to the present position of the Training Colleges, the success of which has recently been the subject of congratulation elsewhere; and there will be questions asked about the laws for Sunday observance, about the laws which relate to the Protestant succession to the throne, and about the appointment of chaplains to the Army and Navy, and to our prisons. All these are offences against the principle of "religious equality," if it has any meaning at all. All these questions must be put before the people for decision, and I know well in what way they will be decided. But, sir, we in the Church of Scotland have an equality amongst ourselves in religious matters, and I say there is no Church in Scotland in which the vote and opinion of the poorest, and of the humblest, have anything like the same relative value to the vote and opinion of the richest as in the Church of Scotland. For my part, I believe that the humbler classes of the Scottish people will be very slow indeed to give up the position of advantage which the democratic constitution of the Church so happily gives to it and to them. Ah! but our opponents prophesy smooth things; this measure of religious equality is to do "justice to all, and harm to none." It will be so good for the Church! We shall be relieved of fetters which are now galling us; at least, if we are not being galled by them, they tell us that is our fault, and that we ought' to be suffering. We do not know how well we shall feel when they have stripped us of our endowments. They are to do harm to none? But has this Assembly forgotten the provisions of Mr Dick Peddie's bill? We know nothing of Disestablishment in the concrete except as it was contained in that most instructive document. By the provisions of that bill our congregations were to have no right to the services of their Ministers after a stated day; upon that day the doors of our Churches were to be locked against us. A bribe was thus offered to the Ministers, who were to have their interests preserved, whether they continued to do the work which they had contracted to do or not; the heritors were bribed by the prospect of relief from some of the charges which they now pay; the taxpayers were offered the prospect of relief from the payments, to the extent of some £40,000 or £50,000, now given out of the Exchequer. The provisions of that bill have never been disavowed, and until we see a measure drawn up in equal detail which would realise the anticipations held out to us, we shall be wise to trust to the definite knowledge we possess rather than to the vague and uncertain promises of irresponsible agitators. With regard to union, we can get no answer to the oft-repeated question, why union would be more probable on a basis of Disestablishment than on a basis of Establishment. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that we shall be beaten, do our opponents imagine that our principles would be cast aside and would go for nothing? Would we look for union with those who, after a bitter struggle, had just succeeded in consummating the greatest injury that can be done to the Church of Scotland? In this matter it is we who stand on the historic ground of Scottish Presbyterianism, and we cannot desert our position. Lamentable and melancholy as have been the secessions from the Presbyterian Church, from the Church of Scotland, - never a single one has taken place from any disagreement with the principle of an Established Church. There is no body of Presbyterians represented in Scotland at this moment, save the Reformed Presbyterian Church, who have any right to say that they are separated or that they stand aloof from us on account of any disagreement with the principles of the settlement of 1690, and I say that I have never yet been convinced that there is a greater inherent difficulty in securing union by reconstruction and upon the basis of Establishment, than there is by Disestablishment and the pulling clown of existing institutions. I am bound to add, and I will say that I at least deeply regret it, that at the present time I can see no hope of any real and comprehensive union, either upon one basis or the other. I hope I shall not be understood to mean that I would say or do anything which would make union more difficult of accomplishment. I can conceive no higher obligation lying at this moment upon any body of Christian men in Scotland than to labour for the reunion of the scattered fragments of Scottish Presbyterianism; moreover, T believe it to be consonant with the wishes and aspirations of the people. Certainly I, if I could see the slightest prospect of bringing it about, would gladly sacrifice every prospect I have in life, and esteem it to be an object worth living for, to devote the whole of the time that is left to me to advance a work of that kind. I pledge not only myself, but the Church Interests Committee, and I believe I may say this whole Assembly, that if any proposal can be put before us by any section of our fellow-- countrymen which we can entertain consistently with the dictates of honour, and with the preservation of the heritage of the Scottish people, those who have that proposal to make may come first to our Church, or they may come last to our Church, but whether they come first, or whether they come last, they will come to those who will not turn a deaf ear to the proposals they may have to make. Sir, I have almost discharged the duty which has been laid upon me. There remains only one thing more to say. If we mean to be successful in the contest which lies before us, we must make up our minds to abandon reliance upon any one but ourselves. If the Church were to form an alliance with the political party to which I myself belong, it would not rest with those by whom we are opposed, to throw stones at us. They at least have not shrunk from making their Churches the centres of political activity and organisation. But I have more respect for this General Assembly, and for the Church of Scotland, than to ask any such thing. Our policy has been this, and the policy which we ask you to sanction for the future is this, that we should go to our own people, and to our friends, and should say to them, "Your heritage is attacked; you must organise yourselves regardless of your political combinations; and when organised, and when occasion demands, you must meet in your own districts, and settle each for yourselves, according to your own inclinations, according to the necessities of the time and of the place, what is to be the policy that you shall pursue in the interests of the Church." I pledge myself, and I know it to be the unanimous wish of the Committee, that nothing done by us should be capable of being interpreted as in the slightest degree an attempt to interfere with the political opinions of the humblest member of our Church. But if we, as a Church, take that position, I venture to say that a corresponding obligation lies upon those who really wish to defend the Church in the present crisis, not to allow a desire for harmony, or the mere passing success of their political party, to stand in the way of their speaking out fearlessly and continuously and energetically until they gain their point. I can conceive nothing more disastrous than that any policy that we may pursue should be held as committing us, as a Church, to the support of one political party more than another. But the circumstances of the time - the political conditions now prevailing - are so difficult, and so various in different parts of the country, that I venture to say, neither the Committee nor this Assembly can lay down any principle which will be of universal application, for the guidance of the people to whom we are about to appeal. We must urge our friends to organise ourselves into Church Defence Associations, because no majority, however great, can put forth its power unless it is organised; when organised, our friends can meet together and consider for themselves the means by which they can best turn their strength to practical purposes. This brings me to the last point with which I shall trouble the Assembly. It is one personal to myself. I have now been for some six or seven years one of the Conveners of this Committee. In the course of this spring I intimated to the Committee that it was my desire to be relieved from the duties and from the work inseparable from those duties. I did so on two grounds - first, because the cares and occupations with which I am charged are growing more and more onerous, and I honestly felt that I could only with great difficulty give the constant time and attention which the work was likely to demand; secondly, I am bound to say that I have sometimes feared that my known connection with the political party now in power might be adverse to the best interests of the Church, so far as my efforts at organisation are concerned. I therefore told the Committee that I should ask them at this time to look out for a successor in those duties which I have endeavoured to discharge. I frankly say I found a certain amount of unwillingness on the part of the Committee to entertain that proposal, but I should have persevered in it, if it had not been for the fact that the call to arms has come in the way and at the time that it has. It is because I feel that if I were to resign at the present moment my conduct and motives might be misconstrued, that I again offer to place my services at the disposal of the Assembly. May I add that in doing so I look forward with pleasure and hope to being able to do something for the cause which we all have at heart. I do not, however, feel that it is possible for me to go on alone, and the question has been anxiously discussed as to who should be asked to associate himself in the work. After careful consideration a name has been suggested for the approval of the Assembly. I venture to say that it will be consonant with the feelings and wishes of this Assembly that Dr Scott should be unanimously appointed Joint-Convener of the Committee. It is not for me to say anything about his qualifications, because he is known and respected by all of us. He is not regarded as the especial property of any party in the Church; he is resident in Edinburgh, and is accessible to all, and he is one to whom we now look to help us and guide us in any difficulty we may have to face. In conclusion, I say that if you are pleased to give us the instructions contained in the Deliverance which I now move, we will do our best to render you hearty and loyal service; but we can do no real good unless we are made to feel that we possess the confidence of the Church, and unless our efforts are supported by those who in the daily round of their occupations, be they Ministers or Elders, are enrolled in the service of the Church of Scotland, and are prepared to devote themselves to her cause. The following is the deliverance moved by Lord Balfour: - "The General Assembly approve of the Report, and gratefully record their sense of the energy of the Committee's action during the past year, and of the wisdom of their proposals. The General Assembly, in view of the altered circumstances disclosed in the Report, and deeply impressed with the importance of the new departure as tending to consolidate the forces which are acting in antagonism to the Church of Scotland, and further, recognising the urgent need of preparation for the contest which is now being forced upon her, resolve - That the time has come when the Church of Scotland, as well in her own interests as in those of the whole Scottish nation, ought to bring clearly home to every member and friend of the Church the momentous issue which has been raised, and hereby authorise and instruct the Committee to take such action as may seem to them best for the purpose - (1), Of informing the people of Scotland upon the subject, by public meetings or otherwise, so as to evoke from them a real and adequate expression of their opinion as to the proposal for the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the National Church; (2), Of providing in every district of the country the defensive organisations indicated by the Committee, in a form best suited to counteract the designs of the opponents of the Church; (3), Of appealing to the members and friends of the Church for an ample supply of funds, so that they may be able adequately to carry out the important duties they are now enjoined to discharge. The General Assembly anew record their hearty sympathy with any movement which has for its object an effort to facilitate the reunion with the Church of those at present separated from her. The General Assembly reappoint the Committee, with all the usual powers, and power to add to their number - Lord Balfour of Burleigh and Rev. Archibald Scott, Joint-Conveners, William John Menzies, Vice-Convener." The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, seconded the motion. He said: - "Mr Moderator, you may be sure that I am most unwilling to minimise, in the slightest degree, the effect of the noble speech to which it has been our privilege to listen. You will also sympathise with my desire that the debate upon the motion now before us should be very freely distributed among the representatives of the Church here present. If, therefore, I endeavour briefly to discharge the honourable and responsible duty assigned to me, it is solely for these reasons, and from no misapprehension of the real gravity of the situation in which we find ourselves placed. I trust that I have a due appreciation of its significance. The situation is unquestionably grave, but in my opinion it is not so dangerous to-day as it was twelve months ago. The events which have recently happened will prove of advantage to the Church, and tend to the furtherance of her cause. The debate in the House of Commons, and the division which followed it, ought surely to break any apathy or false security concerning this matter which may have prevailed in some quarters; while the speech of Mr Gladstone on that occasion ought as surely to open the eyes and free the hands of multitudes who hitherto averred that he could and should be trusted to act very differently. Hitherto we have been hampered in doing our duty to the Church by the engagements which he had entered into with the people. Promises never exacted, but freely and repeatedly given, in language whose meaning to every holiest man was unmistakable, made them sure that he would not deal with this great Scottish question, nor regard any vote upon it in Parliament as of any significance or moment, until the mind of the people in reference to it had been fairly appealed to, and clearly and adequately elicited. The eyes of many good Churchmen must now be opened as to the value of these promises; and yet we should be thankful that whatever may have been his motives, Mr Gladstone, by this recent declaration, has rendered impossible any further misapprehension as to his real position and purpose. We believe that he has been misled by political and ecclesiastical intriguers, who have miscalculated the situation and their own strength; but we are truly thankful that he has at last freed the hands of masses of the people to do their duty to the Church, while he has set free all of us who have been entrusted with the defence of the Church to do our duty to the people. Now what is the duty of the Church in this grave crisis? I hold that it is not our duty to give any reply to the utterances of Mr Gladstone. In this issue he is not entitled to a reply from the Church of Scotland. He has made many a noble speech in support of many a noble cause, which compelled even his opponents to respect and admire him; but I venture to say that no British Statesman ever made a meaner speech in support of a more unworthy cause than he made on the 2nd day of this month. It was not the Church, represented by her Ministers, Elders, and Members, that he flouted, - he affronted and insulted the whole people of Scotland. Sir, ours may be a small land, but it is the home of a high-- spirited people. Scotsmen are proud of their land, and they are especially proud of the institutions that have made the country and themselves what they are to-day. Mr Gladstone poses as a Scotsman upon proper occasions, and therefore on the occasion referred to he must have known that he was speaking of the oldest outgrowth of Scottish Christianity, - of that institution which has exercised the most powerful and beneficial of all influences in elevating the Scottish life and moulding the national character. In it have been nursed, or by it have been trained, the long succession of Scottish men who, as British heroes, have in every department of enterprise made the United Kingdom to be respected all over the world. As a Scotsman Mr Gladstone must have known, if he knew anything at all, that the old Church of the land was not antiquated - that it was never more living and healthy, more serviceable and fruitful of good, more tolerant of other Churches, more observant of her personal duty, than at present. Yet he dared in effect to say that this old national institution, which every Scotsman should hold sacred, and which the great majority of Scotsmen do hold very dear, was a matter of such trifling importance that he could accomplish her Disestablishment and Disendowment more easily than he could pass some Roads and Bridges Bill. The discussion of some petty measure of purely local importance would involve the House of Commons in much more difficulty than the settlement of the great national question as to the maintenance of the old and still powerful and vigorous Church which is embedded in, and intertwined with, the very constitution of the State. The country need not be put to any inconvenience or delay by any more voting about it, for Mr Gladstone, when he comes to power, will get through the business of Disestablishment and Disendowment in some two hours' sitting of the House of Commons. If Mr Gladstone does seriously attempt this, he will find it a much longer and tougher job than he reckons. I venture to assert that the old Church, old though it is, may outlive the political career and outlast the political renown of any British statesman who violently assails her. I go further, and assert that if our opponents do really push this movement to which they have committed themselves, they will find that the Church which, as an antiquated encumbrance and petty obstacle, they hope to sweep away in the onward rush of their party to power, is really so firmly rooted in the hearts and consciences of the people that they will be dashed into spray against its impregnability. That is the reason why we will not appeal for the help of any political party in this crisis of the Church's history. I hold it to be the duty, and that it will be found to be the interest, of all political parties, to defend an institution like the Church. The party that stands by her in her time of need will find sufficient reward in the gratitude of the people of Scotland, while the party that assails and attacks her will be shattered into fragments in the conflict. It is our duty, as defenders of the Church, to avoid all political alliance; to go straight to the people whom we serve, and in whose behalf we are acting. We must tell them plainly to what extent this movement has grown, what it is really aiming at, what great national and religious interests will be imperilled if it be allowed to proceed, and will be certainly wrecked if it be punished with success. As Ministers and Elders of the Church, we can do this with clean hands. We have no selfish motives to urge us to do so, nor any personal ambitions to further. The question at issue is not whether we, as Ministers and Elders, are to retain the advantages of the National Church for ourselves, but whether we are to have in our land a National Church at all. We are not much concerned as to the men who shall occupy the manses and serve in the Parish Churches of Scotland, but we ought to be very greatly concerned about the conservation of the religious rights which the Parishioners have in their Churches and Manses. Are they to be maintained as the symbols of national indebtedness to Almighty God for His great and manifold kindnesses to the country? Are they to be used as the means of discharging the obligation resting upon the British State of training the people in the righteousness that exalteth a nation? Or are the endowments to be secularised to relieve personal and private burdens? and are the Churches to become the property of any sect or any individual who may give for them the highest price, and use them for any purpose they please? It is not our vested interests that are at stake, but the sacred rights of the people in their religious inheritance. It is not our position as Parish Ministers that is assailed, but the independence and religious equality of the Scottish nation. Are we willing to be treated as if Scotland were a mere province or appanage of England, in defiance of the Treaty of Union? Are we willing to have that which is most distinctive in our national life swept away, and to have as the dominating form of religion in the land that one which is represented by the hierarchy established in England? We have no dislike to the establishment of Episcopacy in England. We stand up for the maintenance of the Church in England just as we do for the maintenance of our Church in Scotland; but as long as Episcopacy is established in the South, we are surely entitled to have Presbytery established in the North. These are the questions which we must place frankly and fully before the people. We must thoroughly inform them as to the situation and as to their own responsibility; and when we have done our duty by them, we shall leave them to answer Mr Gladstone for themselves, while we will proceed with our work. What, again, is the attitude we ought to assume towards other Churches, and especially towards those Churches whose courts by large majorities have done their utmost to force this conflict upon us? I have said that we should not answer nor argue with Mr Gladstone and his party; and I think we should keep clear of all communication or negotiations with them. They have taken up their position, and negotiation is useless. They certainly are not entitled to a reply. Let me say in passing that I am not in the habit of reading what is said of the Church of Scotland in the courts of the dissenting Churches, for the simple reason that among the Ministers of those Churches I have many personal friends, and I have no wish that those friendships should be broken or impaired. Yet the things which have been said of us in the courts of other Churches, the things that have been written and published by their members, have often made me very uneasy as to my relations to these Ministers. For if these things be true, they ought to have nothing to do with us, and if they be not true, we ought to have nothing to do with them. Having heard, however, that there was a change in the tone of the speeches delivered at the last U.P. Synod, I did read the reports of them, and I was glad to find in all of them expressions of great brotherly kindness toward the Church. Indeed the speakers most hostile to the Church were almost effusive in their expressions of kindness, and most persistent in their endeavours to assure us that it was for our good, and for our good alone, that they were taking all this trouble to disestablish and disendow the Church. Well, I do not challenge their honesty, nor do I question the reality of their kindness, but beyond challenge and question this kindness is finding a very serious expression. I do not think I could look a man in the face if I were to say to him, My beloved brother, out of my great interest in you, my regard for your personal welfare, I am resolved to do my utmost to get you put out of your house, to have you robbed of your property, stripped of your very clothes, so that you may be able to see whether you can survive the experiment of doing without them. Would any of my dissenting friends embrace me were I to propose that this experiment should be tried upon themselves? Were I to make that suggestion, I would doubtless be told to stand out of the way, or to find some less insane mode of expressing my favour for them. No; the person who proposes to express his kind interest in me in this way, if honest, must be a fanatic, or he must take me to be a fool. Therefore I say, let us have no parleyings with them. Let us pass them by with their over-effusiveness of kindly feeling, and appeal straight to the people whom, I believe, they thoroughly misrepresent. In attacking our Church they are not expressing the real feelings and wishes of very many of those whom they ought to be serving in their own. No better indication of this can be got than the document to which the noble Lord referred. The protest was signed by 500 gentlemen against the action of the United Presbyterian Church in regard to Disestablishment. These gentlemen are chiefly in the West of Scotland - all of them well-known and esteemed, and many of them most influential. Well, do not let us mistake the meaning of that document; do not let us conclude from it that these protesters are quite at one with us, or that they entirely approve of the Church. They do not entirely approve of the Church, or they would not be United Presbyterians, and loyal United Presbyterians we must conclude that they are. But though they do not approve of the Church, they far more strongly disapprove of what is going on in their own, because they see that the pushing of this agitation is seriously injuring their Church; and that if this agitation be successful, it must grievously impair, and perhaps destroy for many years to come, the usefulness of the Church of Scotland as one of the branches of the Church of Christ. They see that if it be pushed to the bitter end, the union of all the Presbyterians, which every ecclesiastic professes to desire, and every really religious man in Scotland prays for, would be completely wrecked. Let Disestablishment of the Church of Scotland take place, union will be impossible for many generations, while the immediate effect of it will be to make the miserable disruptions that now exist more miserable and manifold still. Let us deal cordially and frankly with all who in other Churches are taking that stand: let us show them that we are not contending for our personal rights and privileges, but for the religious rights of nine-tenths of the people of Scotland; that we are not striving to maintain a sinecure for a favoured denomination, but are endeavouring to secure for generations to come the transmission of that common heritage which was gained by the blood of the martyrs of the past. If we do so, we can fight this battle, which, with Lord Balfour, I believe to be not very far off; with hopefulness. His lordship is prepared to fight; well, so am I. And fight this battle I shall, as long as I have the strength to do it. We accept Mr Gladstone's challenge. He has flung it not against us, but against the people of Scotland; and he has flung it down haughtily, superciliously, with all the disdain of a man to whose high Anglicanism a Church like ours is an affront, because it is founded in toleration, and proclaims the equality in the one Church of Christ of every Nonconformist who holds the essential verities of the faith. Without the slightest tremor or trepidation as to the result, we ask the people of Scotland to take up this challenge. He is coming against us strong in the prestige of his great name, and fortified with what he regards the invulnerable forces of the mighty party which he leads. And yet what are these forces upon which he relies for success in this fight? They are English secularism, Irish Romanism, bitter Scotch sectarianism. Let him come on with such forces. We will meet him, depending not on any political forces, or carnal weapons of intrigue, or alliance with the enemies of all Churches, but solely on loyalty to our great King and Head. We will go forth in His name, and we will wait and be ready to catch and obey the intimations of His will alone, and we will leave the defence of our old National Church in His once crucified but all-powerful hand. The Rev. Professor STORY said, as one who a few years ago took some part when the Church was exposed to a violent attack, which was defeated by the public enthusiasm which the Church was able to call forth, and who, besides, belonged by sympathy to the political party which on this subject, as on some others of late, had gone so far astray, and who had neither sought nor found salvation - he might be permitted to say a few words before the debate closed. It was impossible in doing so to avoid reference to statements made, not there, but in another place, and in many other places. He would, however, confine himself to statements made by two right hon. gentlemen, both of them Scotsmen, both of them members of past Governments in this country, and both of them, by the position they held, regarded outside of Scotland as speaking with especial authority. One of these was Mr Campbell-Bannerman, a member of the late Government, and connected by closer than political ties with a gentleman near him (Mr J.A. Campbell, M.P.), who looked with as much disapprobation as he (Dr Story) did on the present political convictions of his distinguished brother. Speaking the other day - not addressing a gathering of Scotsmen, but in the congenial company of Cockneys - who knew nothing whatever of the constitution of the Church of Scotland or of the history of Scotland (and if they wanted to find blank and absolute ignorance upon any subject connected with Scotland they had to go to a Cockney) - speaking there, Mr Campbell-Bannerman said that in Scotland the State had selected one out of three Presbyterian denominations for its favour and affection. He (Dr Story) said that a more egregious misstatement of the plain facts of Scottish history was never made, even by a Scotsman addressing a Cockney audience. Selection implied rejection of some and choice of others. When did the State select the present Church of Scotland? Well, the first occasion connected with the establishment or endowment of the Church when the State intervened, was in the year 1560, when the Legislature ratified and approved the Confession of Faith drawn up by the representatives of the Church. Again, in 1590, the Church received the sanction of the State for its constitution and the jurisdiction of its Courts. And again, in 1690, and in 1692, certain Acts of Parliament were passed forming the basis upon which the Church was established after the Revolution. Since 1690 or 1692 the State had never in the remotest way interfered with the constitution of the Church, either to establish or to confirm it, or to touch it in any way. Well, in the years 1690 and 1692, where were the United Presbyterian and the Free Churches? How was one selected, to their exclusion and to their prejudice? Why, they were not known or thought of. And if one looked to their origin there was a very lurid light thrown upon another statement of Mr Campbell-Bannerman's, that these two bodies represented the traditions and the principles of the Presbyterianism of the true Church of Scotland. That was a statement that might be suitable to an assembly in Cockayne, but not to such an Assembly as the present. If they read the "judicial testimony" of the Seceders who were tire first to leave the Church before the middle of the eighteenth century, they would find that the grounds on which they left the Church were the most extraordinary farrago of fanatical dislikes to the existing state of matters within the Church. Its authors talked of violated covenants, of the abolition of laws against witchcraft, of a general toleration, of an infamous agreement to recognise what they regarded as pernicious and heretical teaching in the Church. He said, with all respect for the highly conscientious character of the men who bore that testimony, that their attitude had no relation whatever to the historical basis upon which the Church stood. If they came to the year 1843, and examined the Claim of Right which the Free Kirk seceders, before they left the Church, laid upon the table of the Assembly, what did they find there? They found a claim for certain prerogatives, veiled under the name of "Spiritual Independence," as high as ever Hildebrand or any other pope advanced for the Church of Rome - they found that that claim constituted the ground upon which the Free Kirk left the Church of Scotland. And this was the point. The fact that they did go out of the Church merely emphasised the anterior fact that that claim had been pronounced by the highest legal and ecclesiastical authorities in the Empire, to be absolutely inconsistent with the traditions and the constitution and the history of the Church of Scotland. Had it not been so, there would at this day have been no Free Church whatever; and yet they were told that the Dissenting bodies, and especially these two - the United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church - represented, as the Church of Scotland did not, the principles and the constitution and the traditions of the national and historical Church of Scotland. Well, he did not say that these misrepresentations were intended to poison public opinion, but they certainly had that effect. And men went down to English constituencies and said - "The Scottish Church question is coming up at the next Election; and this is the Scottish Church question: the selection by the State in an arbitrary manner of one out of three contending Scottish sects, their endowing and protecting it, and showing it all the State favour they can, although all the time it is not the real representative of traditional Scottish Presbyterianism." He said that a more gross, a more misleading, a more malignant misrepresentation of the true facts of the case could not be conceived. There was a great deal of the same tendency in the talk which one often heard about these Dissenting Churches being their sister Churches. He had always objected to that upon genealogical grounds. But there were stronger objections; for if these bodies, as their apologists represented, were the true representatives of the traditions and principles of the Church of Scotland, then they in the Church of Scotland were rank impostors. If the endowments they held were national property, which they were not entitled to hold, and which they were wrongly and greedily holding, then they were thieves and resetters of theft, and so far from being the sister of the dissenters, the only relationship which they could pretend or hold to have, in the existing facts of the case, would be that of an old and very disreputable mother. This talk about sisterhood was meant to Mislead; it was meant to impose upon the public mind, the idea that there was a rich and inexhaustible fund of Christian charity in those Churches which stood outside the pale of the Church of Scotland, which was wasting itself upon her irresponsive bosom, and that Churchmen were meeting those dear, affectionate, loving, truth-speaking brethren with coldness and repulsion. Speaking for himself, he could understand a man who said, "I have the greatest possible personal dislike to you and to your position, and do not wish to see you enjoying the possessions, which I would rather have in my own hands; and therefore I am going to knock you down, and rob you, and kick you out of doors." He could understand that. One had often been exposed to misunderstanding and dislike, although one might not often feel one deserved it ; but he could not understand the man who came to them and said, "You are my very dear brother, you are my beloved sister; for the love of you, and for the good of your immortal soul, I am going to treat you as a brigand treats his victims." He could not believe in that. That sort of thing seemed to him nothing but unctuous cant. The only reply which he thought it was possible for any man who respected himself to make to it, was the interjection which Mr Burchell always interposed to the high-flown conversation of Lady Blarney under the roof of the Vicar of Wakefield, when at the close of every paragraph in her discourse he merely ejaculated the monosyllable "Fudge!" In regard to the feeling of the disestablishing Dissenter towards the State Church, as far as candour was concerned, "dear old Scotland" was left lamentably behind "gallant little Wales." He occasionally read a very interesting selection of literature - the disestablishing literature of the Welsh press. It was by no means ill-conducted - he meant as regarded ability; it was ill-conducted as regarded principle - but it was specially marked by an engaging candour. Here was an extract which he would give them from the Celt, a Welsh paper - he did not think they had any such Celtic papers in the Highlands: - "There is an angel standing in the sun, and that angel is William Ewart Gladstone. And he has begun to cry with a loud voice to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come to the supper of the great God, and the end will be that all the fowls will have their fill of flesh by the wealth of the State Church being used for national purposes." There was no mistake about that. There was no unctuous talk about brotherhood, or sisterhood, or motherhood there. There was a candid confession that the "mighty angel standing in the sun" was to slay and destroy, and that all the fowls of the air were to go and consume the carcases. He would rather have this sort of thing than respectable twaddle about brotherhood and union. There was a greater than Mr Campbell-Bannerman before their mind's eye to-day, and that was this mighty angel "standing in the sun" - the author of the salvation which Mr Campbell-Bannerman has found. Referring to Mr Gladstone's speech in the House of Commons, he said there were two points about it that struck him strongly. The one was its extraordinary dexterity, or, if one were not speaking of a man who had occupied the proud position of Premier of the Empire, one would say its excessive cunning; and the other was its very great meanness of sentiment. The cunning was seen in the way which Mr Gladstone kept open a loophole of retreat from the position his disestablishing friends might expect him to occupy when they came to speak of the Disestablishment of the English Church, which, on every principle of logic, ought to take precedence of the Disestablishment of the Scottish Church. Mr Gladstone, as they all knew, had exhibited a great flexibility of conviction in recent years. He had changed most of his opinions, but when they got to a certain stratum in his mind, that fundamental stratum in which were embedded his ecclesiastical and theological opinions, they found he had changed nothing. Mr Gladstone had learned nothing and he had forgotten nothing. He was where he was forty or fifty years ago; and although metamorphosed in all other opinions he was the bigoted, Anglicised sacerdotalist that he was in 1844. In 1874, Mr Gladstone published a book in several volumes - Mr Gladstone was always diffuse - called "The Gleanings of Many Years." In these "Gleanings," here and there at the bottom of a page there appeared a footnote indicating a change of view or of opinion or of conviction; but he appended no footnote to those passages in which he expressed his contempt for Scottish Presbytery, to those passages in which, in one of the articles he printed in that volume, he lamented the void made in the religious system of Scotland, by utterly sweeping away the "divine office of the historic Church" - that was by the extinction of the bishops in 1690; passages in which he commented on the appeal of the Free Church, which at that time was appealing in all directions for money, as not having the Divine authority which they knew to belong to the body of Christ; passages in which he described Free Kirkism as being a human system of narrow and econdary origin; and passages, finally, in which he uttered his earnest longing for the time when the Free and all other Scottish kirks should be supplanted by what be called the restoration of the Lord's own House - the restoration of the disestabished, disendowed, discredited sect of Scottish Episcopalians to the position of the National Church of Scotland. In the light of these utterances they read a special meaning in Mr Gladstone's assertion in his speech in the House of Commons that it was necessary that the Established Church should, first of all, as a ground of its being maintained as an Established Church, uphold a special principle. That was a statement Mr Gladstone would recall when the question of the Disestablishment of the Church of England came up. He would be able to say that when he tried to disestablish the Church of Scotland he always reserved the question of a Church like this, which maintained a special principle. Mr Gladstone's special principle was the divine office of the Bishop - the maintenance of that Prelacy against which it was one of the great duties of their fathers in their fight for liberty of conscience and life to protest to the shedding of blood. It was special principle against which the Scottish nation, before the Gladstonian delirium had corrupted its conscience and unhinged its intellect, used to testify. When Mr Gladstone said that, he had no doubt forgotten, because his memory must be heavily charged with a number of very contradictory statements, that he had himself already testified to the fact that the Church of Scotland had a special principle or characteristic of her own. In the Anti-Patronage debate in 1874, Mr Gladstone, who now said that there was nothing that could be grasped, or weighed, or measured, belonging to the Established Church, except the very substantial advantage of the endowments, said on the floor of the House of Commons that the "Church of Scotland possessed powers not possessed by any voluntary communion in the country." Was that special possession not a special principle and a special characteristic? Was the possession, in union with the State, of an autonomy fuller and freer than that enjoyed by any other communion not a fact differentiating The Church from all the other Churches? Certainly it was. Again, Mr Gladstone was never tired of boasting that he was a Scotsman. He always said that every drop of blood in his veins was Scottish, and he believed there was historical evidence that this statement was a great deal more veracious than many Mr Gladstone made. But if every drop of blood in his veins was Scottish, no man had ever shown less understanding of the character of the Scottish people. This was, no doubt, owing to the fact that the Anglicised Scot was always estranged from the national sympathy and aspiration. That fact was even admitted in the chosen oracles of his own circle. In the columns of a paper which was called the Scottish Leader - he did not know on what grounds that paper was so called, but it called itself the Scottish Leader, and he was perfectly willing to follow it on this point - in that paper it was stated, "Even of Mr Gladstone we may say without risk of misunderstanding that he belongs heart and soul to a Church quite alien in its principles and traditions to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland." He thought the Scottish Leader was singularly true for once; for, as had already been pointed out in the course of this debate, Mr Gladstone in the British Parliament spoke of the oldest and most sacred institution of his native country with unveiled scorn. Mr Gladstone admitted that the alien Church in Ireland had required a special appeal to the country before it could be attacked in the way of Disestablishment, but it seemed that if the Church of Scotland was to be attacked no such preliminary was necessary. Mr Gladstone had asked if they were to expect the forty millions of the British Empire to go to the trouble and to the expense of a General Election in order to settle a matter which only involved the question whether a few Scotsmen were any longer to have possession of a paltry sum of £300,000 a year. Mr Gladstone appeared to think there was no other question than that in Disestablishment. 'Was that, he asked, the language - he did not say of a Scotsman born with no blood in his veins but Scottish blood - but was it the language of a British statesman? Was it not more like the language of a Jew pedlar, or of a broker cheapening wares in the auction room? What was a paltry sum of £300,000 to the haughty autocrat who had spent eleven millions in playing the game of bully and scuttle on the Afghan frontier, and in leaving Khartoum to its fate? What was the use of bothering the British Parliament over the question whether a few Scottish Presbyterians, professing a religion not fit for a gentleman, were to own and enjoy £300,000 for a few longer or shorter years? These Scottish Presbyterians had no national history, no national traditions; they had no memories of fathers who fought and bled and and died for the faith which they still professed. Let them have a couple of hours' debate in the British House of Commons, and then let the British Senator pass on to the light railways in Ireland, or the drainage of the river Suck, or to some more or less ingenious preliminary to the disruption of the Empire. Would those who were backing Mr Gladstone in this bad business venture to corroborate him here? Was it all a mere question of money? He should like to know whether this view as to the position of the Church would be endorsed by the admirers of Mr Gladstone throughout the country. In face of the present prevalence of drunkenness, vice, and infidelity, were they to be told that the one barrier to good work being done in the cause of Christ, the removal of which would set them all at peace to fight their battle against the devil, the world, and the flesh - was merely the question of the use of £300,000 a year, and that unless that sum was taken from the Church nothing was possible - no union, no co-operation, no evangelising work? Would Mr Gladstone's admirers degrade themselves by admitting that they refused to have anything to do with the Established Church, even in the way of negotiation for union, except there was first a settlement of that question of pounds, shillings, and pence? He (Professor Story) did not believe, whatever present Seceders might do, that the old Seceders would have admitted so degrading a charge as that the whole matter could be settled by the transference from one hand to another of that sum. Instead of believing that that was the view shared by the people of Scotland at large, he ventured to say that the poorest ploughman in a Scottish field — the raggedest outcast upon a Scottish highway - if every drop of blood in his veins was Scottish, would repudiate it with an emphasis which it might not become him to rival in that House. He would rather be "a dog and bay the moon," than the Scotsman who would own it. He did not wish to enter upon the question of union, except merely to say that supposing they entered upon negotiations for a union with the dissentient Churches, they knew the one basis upon which these Churches would treat with them, and it was the basis of Disestablishment. In other words, the dissentient Churches asked them to surrender what was one of their vital principles — that of national religion. Until the dissentient Churches abandoned that altogether selfish and untenable position, the talk of union had no more substantiality in it than the talk of Christian charity and loving brotherhood and sisterhood had. Their Church had no right to enter into negotiations of that kind — they were only the trustees for that great national trust which they administered for the good of the people of Scotland, and which they were bound to hand on to their children's children for their good. Surrender of the endowments of the Church would in no sense whatever promote union, and neither would Disestablishment. The Church of Scotland testified, as no other Church did, to the possibility of the combination which was spoken of by the great Italian statesman, Cavour, when he said — "A free Church in a free State." The Church of Scotland testified to the possibility of reconciling Ecclesiastical autonomy with civil order and freedom. They maintained that, in strong distinction to the abject submission to the State and to the civil Courts which marked the administration of the Church of England, in distinction no less to the Popish claim of Rome, and to that which, as far as Ecclesiasticism was concerned, was the representative of Rome in this country, with its Roman claim of "spiritual independence." Disestablishment would imply the surrender of this testimony. Having quoted the late Principal Tulloch to show that the National Church was absolutely defensible on an ideal and not a material basis, and the words of the late Dr Phin to the effect that it was the duty of the State to recognise the Christian Church, and that if he were asked whether he would sacrifice the endowments or the principle of the Established Church he would give his preference for retaining the Established Church, Dr Story went on to say that these sentiments were not extinct in the Assembly, and Mr Gladstone would find that it would take more than the two short hours which he had allotted in his imagination to settle this question. He would find that the Scottish mind loved ideas, and the idea of testimony to a National religion was one of which Mr Gladstone would not himself have been unconscious had he not forgotten the rock from which he was hewn and the hole of the pit from which he was dug. He had read in the newspapers of late that there was a party in the Church itself favourable to Disestablishment and Disendowment. He had no objection to men in the Church forming their conclusions on political and Ecclesiastical questions; but what he thought they were entitled to object to was that men holding office in the Church, and who had vowed to uphold the Church as at present established in its doctrine and its discipline, should give support to a measure of Disestablishment. He had read a letter by one who seemed to be a Minister of the Church, and who wrote that "he for one was tired with the warfare, and longed for peace and rest." He (Dr Story) would ask who began the warfare and forced it on the Church, and refused all reasonable conditions of peace, and were now propagating and defending their crusade, not only in the press, but in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday? Were there men in the Church tired of the warfare thus forced upon them and who wanted to rest? It was a new thing to hear such frank announcement of disloyalty and cowardice in defence of the Church. Tired of warfare when the assailants were at the door! Tired of duty when the duty had become hazardous! The peace which such men desired was the peace of the traitor, and the rest was the rest of the sluggard. If there were men in the Church — he did not believe there were any who would venture into that Assembly — with such sentiments hidden in their hearts, he could but say of them, "Oh, my soul, come not into their assembly; to their counsel, mine honour, be not thou united." Omitting three letters from what was said by the gentleman who moved the deliverance on theDisestablishment report in the United Presbyterian Synod, he would adopt his sentiment. That gentleman said, "We know nothing" — the United Presbyterians knew nothing — "about Conservatives, Unionists, or Gladstonians. We are for Disestablishment — (Establishment) — fighting for Christ's crown and kingdom. We want justice, and we would take it from any political party." That exactly described the position of the supporters of the Church of Scotland. They were for the Church, and they would use whatever political combinations they found available for preserving that great institution. The accusation that they were making the Church a party came with an amusing absence of any sense of humour from the lips of those who made it. What right had they to object to identifying ecclesiastical bodies with political parties? But the charge was unfounded. The Church threw itself into the arms of the Tory party! The arms of the Tory party, or of any other party, were not wide enough to receive it. The Church was of no party, but would use whatever political combinations were available for its support. As for seeking alliances with political parties, they found Scottish dissent as it now existed in close alliance with the party of Anglican sacerdotalists, in which the leading spirit was Mr Gladstone ; the Atheists, with Mr John Morley at their head ; and those whom he might call, without using a term at all uncomplimentary from their own point of view, the Irish plotters. When these gentlemen came to Scotland there was never wanting a Free Churchman or a U.P. who, making broad his phylacteries, and raising his eyes to heaven with an air of adoration, implored the Divine blessing on the beneficent errand on which these gentlemen had come — an errand which, in the name of religious equality, sought to level one of the purest Curches of the Reformation. In that alliance they had Mr Gladstone, who did not believe that Scottish Presbyterianism was a branch of true Christianity at all. He looked upon it as a fungus that had sprung up at the Reformation. They had Mr Morley, who probably would have the reversion of Mr Gladstone's position on the day when Mr Gladstone vacated his position as leader — though, as far as Mr Gladstone was personally, while not politically, concerned, they all wished that might be a distant day — they had Mr Morley, who looked upon all Churches as engines of superstition, and Christianity as a rank imposture, hostile to the progress of civilisation. They had Mr Parnell, who was the head of a party which, after the most prolonged investigation, had been pronounced by the highest authority to be guilty of seditious combination against the authority of the Government and. the unity of the Empire. Well, in close alliance with, and following faithfully the steps of these gentlemen, they had the great bulk of the dissenters of Scotland, as far as these were represented by those whom they were bound, or were accustomed, to take as their representatives, namely, by the members of their Church Courts. He affirmed that this combination of the Scottish dissenter with the Anglican sacerdotalist, with the anti-Christian unbeliever, with the Irish plotter, was a combination of very dire conjunction and ominous augury. And yet he would venture to say also that it was one that would not overawe them. In the face of it, or of any combination that might be brought against them — and he thought this was the message that they should from that hall send out to the people of Scotland — they should hold their place, the place given to them by the people of Scotland, and held by them at the popular will and for the popular good. They were ready to enter into any reasonable and honourable negotiations for union or for anything else that would advance the spiritual welfare of the country; but they were not ready to give up the position which had been given to them by God. They were not ready to enter into any negotiations which pointed towards cowardly compromise or towards dastardly surrender. And if, while this warfare upon which they were now engaged, which they had not provoked, but from which they would not shrink, was still going on, the summons should come to them to go hence, to where, beyond these voices, there was peace, they should carry with them into the world unseen the honest consciousness of a covenant faithfully kept, of a duty boldly done, of a trust never even in thought betrayed, of an honour unsullied by a single stain, and they should lay that as their life's last offering at the foot of the throne of God. At this stage (2.15) the Assembly adjourned for a quarter of an hour. On the House resuming, The Rev. A. DOUGLAS, Arbroath, rose to speak with reference to the following motion, of which he had given notice: — "That the General Assembly receives the Committee's Report; gratefully recognises in the increasing prosperity and spiritual vitality of the Church of Scotland the favour of Almighty God; and, regarding these blessings as largely dependent, under God, on the national recognition of His rightful authority, and on the happy union between Church and State, declares that all political measures hostile to the Church, as at present constituted, are contrary to the Word of God; and threaten the most sacred rights of the Scottish people, and instructs all Ministers and inferior Courts to employ all competent means to defend the Church." This motion, he said, was in no sense of the word, and never was intended to be, in antagonism or in rivalry to that proposed by Lord Balfour. He had a very strong conviction that the Church of Scotland had not yet, as a spiritual body, taken up its proper position in this matter. His own position was this, that they should stand before the people of Scotland and say that they did not defend the Church merely for selfish interests, but in the interests of Divine truth. If they took any lower ground, and advocated their cause on the mere principles of expediency, then, considering the vast number of hostile forces, atheists and materialists and recreant Presbyterians and others, gathering around the Church, the armour of their defence was not equal to the work to their hand. If, on the other hand, every Parish Minister could go into the homes of his Parishioners, and, with the Bible in his hand, say that a certain great party in the State was advocating views that were in clear defiance of Scripture and of truths that lay at the very heart and essence of Scripture, then their position was impregnable and their victory was secure. They were contending for a Church that was consecrated by the holiest and the most blessed memories, a Church that was gradually and increasingly, in its ritual and its doctrine, commending itself to the approbation of the people of Scotland, a Church that enshrined and expressed a truth of the utmost value — the truth that the State as well as the Church was a Minister of God, and that the State as well as the Church was an instrument for the expression of the mind of their Lord and Saviour. He was delighted to hear Dr Story's denunciation of those Ministers of the Church of Scotland who plumed themselves, and who rather thought they were superior persons, in being treacherous to the principles of their Church. Let them stand up on the floor of that House and give a reason for the faith that was in them, or let them be for ever dumb. He moved the motion that stood in his name, and lie understood his Seconder as well as himself placed themselves in the hands of the leaders of the House. The Rev. Dr JAMIESON, Old Machar, said it must be gratifying to the Assembly that the Reverend gentleman had withdrawn his motion. All the three great speeches delivered had taken into account the argument put forth, and it would be a great pity indeed that a seemingly counter motion should be submitted to the excellent motion proposed. The Rev. A. DOUGLAS observed that the deliverance did not contain any reference on the lines of his motion; but in deference to the opinions expressed he would not move the motion. The Rev. Dr SCOTT said Mr Douglas would do a greater service by not proposing the motion. The CLERK (Professor Milligan) asked if Mr Douglas did not propose his motion? The Rev. A. DOUGLAS replied that that was so. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON, Harray, moved - That for the last sentence but one in the motion approving the Report, the following sentence be substituted: — "The General Assembly anew record their hearty sympathy with any judicious movement for promoting, on sound principles, reunion of Scottish Presbyterians;" and that the following sentence be added to the motion: - "And whereas the main object of the Committee is the same as described in the instructions yearly given by the Assembly to its Commission — namely, 'to advert to the interests of the Church on every occasion, that the Church and the present Establishment thereof, do not suffer or sustain any prejudice which they can prevent,' and it is expedient, in view of the work of the Committee, that these instructions be revised, and so adapted to present circumstances that they may more adequately express the mind of the Church on the objects promoted by the Church Interests Committee, the Assembly remit the instructions to a Committee to be revised and reported on." Dr JOHNSTON was speaking in support of the proposal, when Professor STORY rose to a point of order, and said that the second portion of the motion was incompetent. Besides, it broke the continuity of the debate. Professor MITCHELL, St Andrews, was also of opinion that the second portion of the motion interfered with the debate. Dr JOHNSTON held that his motion was competent. Professor STORY maintained that the second portion of Dr Johnston's motion was incompetent. The MODERATOR ruled that the second part of the motion was incompetent. Dr JOHNSTON subsequently withdrew the first part of his motion. The Rev. JAMES LANDRETH, Logie-Pert, Brechin, said he had intended to second the motion which had been brought before the House by Mr.Douglas. Now, however, he only desired to make one or two remarks with reference to the question of Presbyterian Union, as it was called, and especially as to whether it might be promoted or hindered by their actively prosecuting the defence of the Church. He did not believe that this Church should put itself much about as to the injury to the cause of union, for he held that if such a disastrous event as Disestablishment were to come, this Church, if well led, ought not to enter into any Union with the so-called Presbyterian Churches in Scotland. For he could tell the House, from a very considerable experience of what sort of Presbyterianism that was, that it was not Presbyterianism at all, but a peculiarly vulgar Congregationalism, which tended more and more to complete Americanism in their ecclesiastical life and spiritual disintegration. These were strong words, but many of them did not know what Presbyterianism was when divorced from the legality and substantial ground of reason which were secured to it in the Established Church. He regretted very much that he should have heard that day expressions that bore to reflect too much upon the Church of England — that great and noble Church, that great branch of the Catholic Church to which this Church also belonged; because he was sure of this, that if Disestablishment were to come, this Church would find it more possible to preserve its own life, and all its most characteristic traditions, by union with the Episcopal Church in Scotland rather than by union with the other Presbyterian Churches. He thought also it would be a pity if this House were to show too much hostility to individual statesmen. There had been rather too much of that element in the debate that day. They ought to remember that they were there to protect the Church, which was greater than any man, and which could do without assaults upon any man; for if the Church of Scotland fell, far more would fall than her opponents or false friends thought. The Rev. Dr F. L. ROBERTSON, Glasgow, said: — "I venture to present myself partly on the ground that I have the honour to represent, in part, one of the largest and most important Presbyteries in the Church, but chiefly on the ground that I happen to be a liberal, perhaps of a somewhat advanced type, and also a strong and loyal Churchman. I mean to speak with that frankness and plainness of speech, which, to its honour, this House permits to its Members, so long as that speech is calm and respectful. I think I may venture to say, without presumption, that I represent the opinions, not merely of some of my friends who are Ministers and Liberal Churchmen, but of many of the laity of Glasgow, who are liberal Churchmen, with whom it is my pleasure to consort daily. At first sight, no doubt, it may appear that the position of a Liberal Churchman is somewhat incongruous. I demur to that notion. The Church of Scotland is a democratic Church. It is more democratic now than ever. It is a Church which was created by the will of the people, and established by the Liberal party of the day; and it is a Church which, if anything I can do will prevent it, shall not be razed to the ground except by the will of the people, and by the will of the people expressed in an unmistakable and deliberate manner. We are entering on this conflict without fear. The auguries are in our favour. It has been remarked in high places that the "sacred principles of political economy have been banished to Saturn." I am hopeful that the sacred principles of Voluntaryism are about to be banished to the same quarter. I have no quarrel with those who, as an intellectual conviction, maintain the principles of Voluntaryism. I wish to speak of those who are opposed to me with the utmost respect; but I must freely confess that I would entertain a higher opinion of their intellectual capacity, if they were to apply Voluntary principles in their integrity. rather object to persons holding these principles applying them only to one institution, and not only not applying them in other matters, but applying principles the reverse of those principles which, as Voluntaries, they are supposed to hold. I may refer to three points in illustration. The principle of Voluntaryism, if it be possible to define it, may be formulated in these words, — That it is no part of the function of the State to interfere in the province of religion; and I am free to admit that the position is quite an arguable one. But the leaders of this movement, who are opposed to the Church, in their practice only apply the principle to the Church of Scotland. For instance, in the matter of Sabbath observance, we find them without dubiety or hesitation going to the State, and imploring it by many petitions to protect the institution of the Sabbath day, and that, not on grounds of utility, but upon the ground that it is a sacred institution, based upon one of the Commandments. On other occasions they approach the State, and, with equal pernacity, plead with the State to interfere to prevent a man marrying his dead wife's sister; and they do so, not on rational, physiological, or social rounds, but on the strength of their interpretation of certain vague and ambiguous phrases in the Old Testament, which they insist on the State accepting as infallible. My last illustration has reference to the subject of education. It is a hopeful sign that the great mass of the people of Scotland have at heart, and are strongly in favour of, the establishment by the Government of religious teaching. Few people are aware of the large amounts which are devoted to the endowment of religion in schools, which are given not only with the concurrence of the people, but with the strong concurrence of those gentlemen who are opposed on principle to the establishment of the Church, and who are now endeavouring to compass its Disestablishment. The school day consists of six hours, and in almost all schools forty minutes of the school day are devoted to the teaching of religion and to "use and wont" teaching the catechism. A ninth part of the school day is thus devoted to religious teaching, and therefore a ninth part of the whole of the money contributed by the state for education is a direct endowment of religion, and to a large extent the Presbyterian religion in our schools. The total amount devoted to education (including grants, rates, and probate duty) is £1,300,000 a-year, and a ninth part of that is £144,000 a-year. You would be amused to see how the figures work out in Glasgow. The total raised in Glasgow from all sources for education is £170,000, and a ninth part of that is £19,000. While therefore £19,000 is the sum devoted to the establishment of religious teaching in the schools in Glasgow, the whole amount from the common good and from the teinds for the endowment of the Church in Glasgow proper is £5000 a-year. I wish to ask, Why is it that these gentlemen, capable men, for whom I have the highest respect, act so inconsistently? There are only three possible reasons which can be given. The first is, that their religious instincts gain the mastery over their speculative theories, and they feel that it would be disastrous to the well-being of Scotland if religion were discarded and ignominiously driven out of the public schools of the country. That, I think, is the most charitable view to take of their conduct. Another reason which can be given is, that they dare not run counter to the opinions of the people. The opinion of the people of Scotland has been pronounced in so unmistakable a manner in favour of religious teaching in schools that they dare not run counter to it. The third reason may be, that they find the voluntary principle unworkable when applied in its integrity to common affairs. Having dealt with the position of these gentlemen, I shall in a word or two define the position which a the present crisis of the Church, and in view of the approaching conflict, I hold as a Liberal and as a Churchman. I hold to the idea that the Church exists by the will of the people. I do not hold to the divine right of the Church to be established. I admit that with perfect frankness. I hold that the Church exists by the will of the people; and I value the Church in respect of its utility and the good offices which it has rendered, and is still rendering in larger measure than ever, to the whole people of Scotland. I affirm, therefore, as strongly as any Tory Churchman can affirm, that the Church of Scotland shall not, if we can help it, be razed except by the will of the people, by whose will and for whose weal, spiritually and temporally, that Church has existed. The question is not as to the necessity of organising for defence; the question is, having organised, having created our Church Defence Associations, how are Liberals as members of Church Associations to act? How does the Church expect them to act, and to what extent do we wish to call upon them to subordinate their political creed in the interests and in the defence of the Church? It is with reluctance that I am driven to take up the position, that, as matters now stand, they have no alternative but to subordinate their political creed. I was associated in 1885 with gentlemen in Glasgow, Liberals of position and ability, and in that year we succeeded in effecting our purpose when we insisted with those then leading a united Liberal party, that it was but just and reasonable, not only to us as their supporters, but that it was just and reasonable in the interests of the whole community, that they should enter into a solemn compact on behalf of the Government that they would not interfere in the way of disestablishing the Church until they had submitted the question as a practical and distinct issue before the people of Scotland. They, not the Liberal Churchmen, have broken the compact. The Liberal Churchmen, so far as I am aware, have acted honourably in carrying out that bargain. There are times and occasions which occur in the history of all nations when men of all parties feel themselves bound, for the sake of the higher good, to subordinate meaner and lower aims. A noble instance of that has occurred within the last year or two in the history of the political affairs of the country, and I am prepared to maintain that if a man is honourably acquitted for doing that for the sake of maintaining the union of the nation, surely men, in supporting a Church which is dearer to them than their lives, are not to be charged with being untrue to their convictions or traitors or cowards to their party because, for the time, they rally with those whose political views are not the same as their own, round the Church for its defence. In fighting for the Church, I do so because I believe it to be the sacred possession of the people of Scotland, and I am greatly misled in my convictions if the people of Scotland, apart from their clerical leaders, are not heart and soul attached to the Church. And well they might be, for the revenues of the Church derived from the teinds are the last remains of the heritage in the soil of Scotland which belong to the people of Scotland. And I hold that that heritage never could have been dispensed in a wiser and more beneficent fashion. We talk about free education for the people, but is it nothing that there should be free worship? And I take it that the people themselves realise that fact. Is it a small matter that in every Parish, however remote and sequestered, the Church and Manse stand centres of light and cultured influence, to which every Parishioner, however humble, has access, his intercourse unrestrained by any sordid monetary consideration ; and is this beneficent arrangement to be discarded merely to appease the fancied grievances of the leaders of rival Churches? And is it not something in these times when grave problems are pressing for solution, which may unhappily strain the relation between class and class, to have one man trusted by all, whose independence is protected, and who, acting fearlessly and justly, may exercise amongst them a ministry of reconciliation A high and beneficent vocation is open to the Church of Scotland in the position she occupies, to stand forth as the leader of the people in those great social problems which are coming up for discussion in the near future. In these problems the great mass of the people are deeply interested, and if wisely solved in accordance with justice and truth, they may be fruitful in blessings to the whole land, and may tend to distribute with a little more equal fulness the enjoyment and comforts and leisures of life among those of our poorer brethren who are driven hard often by sore toil, and have little to brighten or colour fairly their lives. These men now possess, and are now beginning to use, the powers entrusted to them. Surely, for the wellbeing of the commonwealth, wise and patriotic statesmen will hold it right that the Church should still continue to do faithful service by teaching these men to use their newly-acquired powers, and to use them fairly in accordance with justice and truth. Great masses of our fellow-countrymen in the cities and in the large manufacturing centres, labouring both above and under the ground, are longing for deliverance, — not for deliverance to be won by, unjust means or by plundering their neighbours, but still they do long and hope, like the old Israelites in Egypt, for the day of relief; and, I say, if the Church will now awaken to this high ideal of what a Church should be, — will awaken to the higher conception of Christ's kingdom, that it is not a kingdom which determines their destinies only in the infinities and in the unseen, but that it is a kingdom actually existing on the earth, founded for the purpose of bringing about the golden day full of promise and rich in power, then I believe the Church will live still to discharge all the high offices discharged by the great legislator and leader of old; that she will yet be to the people a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day, leading them through the mazes of the wilderness, until at last in triumph the brings them into the Promised Land. The Rev. Dr JAMIESON, Old Machar, said a great deal depended on the crisis now coming on. They all knew that before long a new election must take place, and it would take a wise man to find out precisely what was to be the character of the Government that was to take the place of the present. However that election might result, it would be their duty as Churchmen to support only those who really came forward to help in maintaining the Established Church. A great deal had been said about Religious Equality, but was there after all such a thing as equality on the face of the earth? There was inequality in every individual and also in all communities, and there was no such thing as Religious Equality even in their congregations. The Very Rev. Principal CUNNINGHAM said this was a great crisis in the history of the Church and in the history of the country, and he was glad that the Assembly had realised it and risen to the occasion. The truth was the tug-of-war had come, and they must now do or die. At the same time he had no sympathy with the alarm some of his brother Ministers evidently felt. There was no occasion for it. When the Church of Scotland died, as it might do at some distant time, they might depend upon it, it would die hard. They were strong in the righteousness of their cause, in the affections of the people, and in the numbers of the people, and it was the big battalions that won. Their bulwarks would not be thrown down by any blast even of Mr Gladstone's trumpet. Mr Gladstone had indeed pronounced the Church's doom, but he (Principal Cunningham) was as certain as anything that the people of Scotland would not help him to carry it out. But seeing that there was a crisis — seeing that they were threatened by such a man as Mr Gladstone — they must be up and doing if they would save their Church, for to save their Church was to save themselves. Perhaps too much had that day been said about Mr Gladstone. The truth was, in one sense at any rate, it did not much matter now what Mr Gladstone said, for Mr Gladstone was no longer himself. Mr Gladstone was no longer what he had been. There were some men who died too young — and that was always sad — but there were other nice who lived too long, and that was sadder still — and it was a sad sight to see that great man having now evidently outlived himself, unsaying almost everything he once said, and undoing almost everything he once so nobly did — among other things, notwithstanding his repeated promises, doing what lie could to pull down the Church of Scotland, not only not in accordance with the wishes of the people, but clearly contrary to their wishes. That was not Liberalism as he (Dr Cunningham) once understood it. He understood that the very foundation principle of the Liberalism with which he was acquainted was in all such cases to make a direct appeal to the people. So much, then, for Mr Gladstone. He (Dr Cunningham) entirely agreed with the saying of Lord Hartington, which Mr Gladstone quoted with approval not many months ago, that the Church of Scotland, which was based on the will of the people, must stand or fall according to the will of the people. He believed the Church was more in accordance with the inclinations of the people of Scotland than any other Church; but if it ever should be clearly proved that the people were against the continued existence of the Established Church, he would agree that it should fall. But he did not think that ever would be proved. The Church of Scotland, as all the world knew, was growing in greatness and in strength. Shirking a direct appeal to the people, as he formerly promised there should be, Mr Gladstone said now that the feeling of the Scottish people was clearly indexed lay the vote on Dr Cameron's motion. How did that vote stand? There were, he was sorry to say, 38 Scottish members who had voted in favour of Dr Cameron's resolution, while 23 voted against it. Taking these figures, he asked if any person in his senses believed that the Disestablishers in Scotland were in the proportion of 38 to 23? Did Mr Gladstone himself believe that? Mr Gladstone was taught better by his own constituents in Mid-Lothian at the last election, when a most careful enumeration of the people — an enumeration which could not be disputed or denied, as the signatures were in black and white — proved to demonstration that upwards of 70 per cent. of his own constituents were dead against Disestablishment. And yet Mr Gladstone, remembering that — if he remembered anything — said in his place in the House of Commons that he believed that 38 to 23 was the proportion of persons in Scotland in favour of the Disestablishment of the Church of Scotland. But there was another enumeration which proved more clearly the numerical proportion of the Church and the non-conforming bodies. Statistics had been carefully gathered from the authorised documents of the three Presbyterian Chunches, and these showed that in forty-two of the Scottish constituencies there was a majority of Members in the Church of Scotland over the other two Presbyterian Churches taken together. In only twenty-seven constituencies was there a majority of Members in the Free and United Presbyterian Churches over the Church of Scotland. This summed up all the constituencies but two, and he believed they had not yet been numbered. And, as they well knew, if the evil day were to come, and they were required to fight for their Church, there would be found on their side not merely the Members and Communicants of their own Church, but many others. He believed that almost all the Episcopalians would be with them, and a vast number of the Free Church and the United Presbyerian Church would also support them. He knew the feeling among the laity of these Churches, many of whom had told him that they would be the very last men to lift their hand against the Church of Scotland. Then there was a countless crowd of people not closely connected with any Church at all, not seat-holders or Communicants in the Established Church, but who, all the same, were strongly attached to it. If they had a death in their house, a marriage to perform, or a child to baptise, they sent for the Parish Minister, as they counted him their Minister, and he believed that almost the whole of that class — a very large class, he was sorry to say — would support the Established Church, if only as a recognition of their indebtedness to it. He thought all that proved very clearly that the people would be with them, and it was their duty, therefore, to throw themselves upon the people. They must not only educate them, but rouse them. He knew many Churchmen up to this time had voted at the polls for Dissenters — first, because the Church was never in the issue to be determined; and second, because it was a hard thing for a man to break off from his political party. Down to the present time he had never himself been called upon to vote for a Tory. And he was thankful for it, for it was a sore thing to part with old friends, even though they had swerved very far from the old lines. When he was in Perthshire he found a very good Liberal Churchman in Sir Donald Currie, and when he went to St Andrews he found another in Mr Anstruther. But if he had never voted for a Tory, neither had he ever voted for a Disestablisher, and he hoped he never would. The people of Scotland were strongly political, but he thought they were still more strongly religious; and while their political feelings had been roused, and their political intelligence to some extent educated, they had never seen thoroughly educated or aroused in regard to what was involved in the Disestablishment of the Church. And this was what must now be done from that very day. Let them consider how the people were educated and aroused before the Disruption. At first they knew of nothing but some saw pleas in the Court of Session about patronage and the erection of new Parishes. They were educated to believe that the Headship of Christ was concerned. They were educated to believe that the Court of Session was wishing to hurl Jesus Christ from the mediatorial throne. The thing was preached about, and prayed about, in Church, in school, everywhere, and after a very short time, as they all knew, the people of Scotland were worked up into a white heat, and the disastrous Disruption happened. But he did not wish the same tactics in all respects to be followed in this case; but they must explain to the people the great issues that were at stake, and make them understand clearly what would be the consequence to the country and themselves of the Disestablishment of the Kirk. Having educated them, they should rouse them. They knew there were more than 300 Parishes where there was no Free Church; that there were some 700 Parishes where there was no United Presbyterian Church. They must tell their Parishioners. further, there were more than 700 congregations in the Free Church which were not self-- supporting, and having told them these little facts, they must ask, who was to support the Ministers of the Established Church after it was disestablished and disendowed? Many of them knew better about the Parishes than he did, but he felt certain there were 500 Parishes that would not be able to support a Minister as an educated Minister should be supported. He thought there were 500 Parishes in which it would be impossible to raise £150 a-- year. They might, perhaps, get a Minister at £50, but he would say that these Ministers at £50 would not be worth £50. Than such a man, better no Minister at all. They must have an educated Minister, and they must have a Minister who could live in such a way as a Minister should live. Of course it was said the stronger would help the weaker — the towns would send contributions to the country; but why should the country be made a pauper on the towns when every rural Parish in the land had teinds provided by the piety of the past to supply religious teaching to the people? Why throw these teinds away and then go a-begging? That would be one of the most palpable results of Disestablishment; and he believed that if the people understood that, they would rise in their masses and vote against it. The people, again, should be made to understand that the next election would be the battlefield of the Church of Scotland. The battle must be fought out at the polls; and just as some great battles had been called "soldiers' battles," so this forthcoming battle might well be called "the people's battle." Every man must be made to feel his responsibility in the matter. Whatever his political opinions might be, he must lay them aside for the time, and give no vote, in any single instance, for any man who would lend a hand or give a vote for the destruction of the Church. Their Church was a Church well worth preserving. It was the Church of Knox and Melville, of Henderson and Rutherford. It was the Church of their martyrs and their saints. It was emphatically, at present, the Church of the poor. It was open to all, and the friend of all. If it were destroyed, there was almost a certainty that large districts of the country would lapse into heathenism. Disestablishment must, therefore, be held as a thing accursed, and driven from the thoughts of every honest Churchman. If they could get the people to see that, he thought, from the statistics, that the Church was absolutely safe. When the day of struggle came, let the Church only give as its watchword the word which was given by Nelson on the eve of his greatest battle - "Scotland expects that every man this day will do his duty;" and if their members were loyal and true, the victory would be theirs. The Rev. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, said he desired to try to set before them the want of straightforwardness and the want of consistency that characterised the arguments, the facts, and the position of those by whom the Church was assailed. He did not do this for the purpose of discrediting their friends, but for the purpose of a quiet and friendly analysis of them, to show them their own likeness, and to show them their own face. In the first place, one branch of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland thought that its principal characteristic was Voluntaryism. When they went back and traced, as a man like Principal Cunningham had done, the origin of a Church like that, they found that it had absolutely nothing to do with this Voluntaryism that they brought forward and made so much about in their contention with the Established Church. The foundation of that Church was a charge of laxity of discipline made against the Church of Scotland as it was at that time, and they left the Church for the purpose of having greater freedom, which with them meant greater severity in point of discipline, but it had nothing whatever to do until many years had passed with this new discovery of theirs of the Voluntary principle. They had had two stages of thought already. They started with the blaming of the Established Church for too great laxity, and then followed their second thought for the purpose of self-defence, and the maintenance of a separate position to justify that. What the Established Church had to do in arguing with them was to ask them to think a third time, and to think in a more fair and quiet way, just by looking back over their own history, and looking at the Established Church as that Church stood now. Another Church alleged that it was not able to join them on account of the principle of spiritual independence. Spiritual independence had two very distinct meanings. One meaning it had which was thoroughly applicable to themselves there. There was another wider sort of meaning which was not consistent with any very definite civil government at all. Many were now coming forward and asking that they should go back into the history of the Church of Scotland, and point out the meaning of, and distinguish its proper principles, and interpret these, as containing a thorough spiritual independence. Unfortunately those who were against them resisted that. They resisted it apparently lest they in the Church of Scotland should have the benefit of being clearly proved to possess one of the things for which their opponents contended fifty years ago. The very same thing applied to the principle associated with patronage. That was the other great argument maintained at that time, which issued in the formation of the Free Church, some considering that they had a great grievance in it. They went out thinking that that was a remedy for their grievances, and those who remained in, who, many of them, did not like patronage particularly, contended until they got the difficulty over; and now, in a legitimate and proper way, they had got the thing that was so earnestly contended for at that time. In that way they in the Church of Scotland were at liberty to appeal to the whole body of the Free Church on these two great principles, which were the two foundation principles of their denomination — for they had the principle of spiritual independence, and they had the freedom from patronage; and when they suggested to the Free Church anything associated with union, they were not asking the Free Church to desert their proper position, but were simply asking them to go back to the origin of their strife. These two branches of the Church were clamouring terribly for the Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Church of Scotland, maintaining that if this were effected the way would be paved for union with the Disestablished and Disendowed Church. But there was a certain hollowness in that argument winch was proved by a simple matter of fact in connection with themselves. The position of those two other Churches in opposing the Church of Scotland would be a great deal better and stronger if these Churches themselves were first united. They were for ten years working at union, and they had miserably failed; and what reason was there to expect, if those who might be said to have a common interest in opposing the Church of Scotland were not free to join among themselves, that after the Church of Scotland was grievously injured and insulted it would join with those two other Churches, and those two Churches join with one another? There could not be a greater piece of illogicality and absolute madness than to suppose that Disestablishment would in any way whatever help union. As regarded the Church of Scotland in particular, it would be the greatest hindrance to union. The eagerness of their opponents in clamouring for what he might call the double mischief of Disestablishment and Disendowment, he took to mean simply a desire not only to overcome them, but to deal them a death-blow, so that the Church of Scotland might be removed out of the way of competition altogether, and their opponents have to themselves the whole Scottish field so far as Presbyterianism was concerned. The utter refusal of their opponents to have anything to do with Disestablishment separated from Disendowment proved that they were not acting on principles that any Christian Church could properly defend. Another feature of this whole controversy was what Dr Story had spoken of as the assumed sisterhood of the Scottish Presbyterian Churches, but what he preferred to describe as the proportion or relation of the three Churches. That relation they found concerned three dates. Their own date they might put at 1560 or 1690, preferably the former; the date associated with the first portion of the United Presbyterian Church was 1733, and with the second portion 1761, and the joining of the two portions was brought about as the United Presbyterian Church in 1847; and the date associated with the Free Church was its formation in 1843. It was nonsense, therefore, to speak of people separated by all these years standing in the relation of sisters to one another. The thing was historically ridiculous. Another aspect of the relation of the three Churches regarded statistics. Unquestionably the Church of Scotland had a majority of above 60,000 members over both those other two Churches put together; and their Churches as buildings outnumbered thoseof the other two Churches by seventy-five. In these circumstances it was not reasonable to ask them to obliterate themselves for purposes of union or connection with those who were thoroughly, by a multitude of tests, in a considerable minority. Another element to be considered was the internal condition of those other two Churches. Nothing was further from him than to speak disrespectfully of those Churches; he was only directing attention to what stared every newspaper reader in the face each morning. They saw recently that in one of those Churches the students, as a body, were in a state of revolt. They complained of being fed day by day with the same broken-biscuit fare instead of with proper theological lectures. In connection with the other Church, again, there were troubles as to heresy. He did not say that disparagingly; his aim was to show that by union with the Church of Scotland they would unite with strong orthodox people. The real difficulty in the way of union came, however, out of external Church framework and Church finance. Nothing seemed to him to be madder than, where there were difficulties associated with finance, to propose to. begin by casting away the most solid piece of finance in Scotland. This brought him to his main point. The real remedy for the state of things which they all deplored was Lord Hartington's remedy of reconstruction — the remedy of friendly reconstruction on sound principles applicable to the conduct of ordinary business questions. But unfortunately they needed to fight their way towards that peace. What they had to do now was to plead their cause with the whole people of Scotland. First, they had to stir up their own people, and bring them to understand the real issue before the country. Then they might make an appeal to the sensible portion of both of these other Churches, not for the purpose of putting mischief between them, to separate them from the leaders, but simply an invitation to exercise their reason, their common-sense, and not be led like flocks of sheep by clerical misleaders and clerical demagogues. If they did exercise their own minds, he was absolutely certain that there would be a very large proportion of the laity of both of these Churches with them. Regarding the means of defence, one of the first was to print a good deal of honest matter — not one-sided representations — but the simple facts of the case, and he never saw those facts presented better than in one or two portions of the Report that was before the House. He would suggest, therefore, that that should be very extensively circulated. Another means was to hold meetings everywhere. He had not subscribed to the fund that had been started, but he wished to put his subscription in the best form of all. He was prepared to go to the extremest part of Shetland, or to Dumfries, or to the west or the east of Scotland, entirely at his own charges as often as meetings were held. He was perfectly certain that with their case, they did not need to fear public meetings; but rather, he intended, if permitted, to enjoy a good holiday in going here and there. Mr J. A. CAMPBELL, M.P. (Elder), said he thought it was time that some laymen should express their concurrence with the Report of the Committee, and with the speeches which had been made in support of it. He had listened with great admiration to Lord Balfour's speech. He trusted the Assembly would carry out the suggestion of one of the speakers, to have it printed and widely circalated throughout the Church. He had nothing of importance to offer to the House in addition to what had already been said, having expressed his views on this subject in another place. Even since the speech had been delivered on the 2nd of this month, to which reference had been made by previous speakers, it might be said that something had happened. Mr Gladstone had made some use of the statistics of the previous votes in the House of Commons. He put before the country something like a picture of an advancing wave of opinion in favour of Disestablishment, and quoted the votes of the Scottish members in confirmation of what he said. Since he spoke, however, they had had the division on the 2nd of this month; and he (Mr Campbell) did not know what use Mr Gladstone would make of the figures on that occasion. In some respects those figures were disappointing to the friends of the Church, and in others they were not. On this occasion the Scottish vote was better than before. In 1888 twenty members voted against Disestablishment, and thirty-eight for it; and in 1890 twenty-three voted against and thirty-eight for it. On the occasion of the vote this month, the other side was uncommonly well whipped up. He saw one or two familiar faces in the lobby of the House of Commons for a good week before the vote came up, and he knew what these gentlemen were doing. Then a good many members who would have voted against Disestablishment, had they been present, were absent. He thought their English friends required a little education on this subject. They had not yet fully realised that their interests were concerned with those of the Church of Scotland, and that any blow aimed at the Church of Scotland was a menace to the Church of England. There were upwards of thirty supporters of the Government absent from the division and not paired, so that he looked upon them as delinquents on the occasion. He did not think that would happen if Dr Cameron's motion came again before the House of Commons. He thought their English friends were now much more alive to their interests in this question, and they were now feeling that it was not a Scottish question exclusively. The Report of the Church Interests Committee must meet, as it had done, with the thorough approval of the Assembly. He thought the recommendations were wise, judicious, and quite necessary. Their people required to be informed on the subject. He believed a great deal could be done by organisation and information. As to what was to be done when an election came, his feeling was that it was too soon to consider that, and that when the time came it would have to be left very much to the people themselves. He did not think anything that could even look like dictation would be wise ; but if they got the people informed as to the merits and importance of the case, they need scarcely seek for anything else. He hoped, however, that there would be no slackness in seeing that in all their Parishes there were Church Defence Organisations, and that information was given on the important interests connected with the maintenance of the Established Church. It must be remembered that what they required to show was not what membership they had compared with the other Churches, but what support the Church had amongst the people of Scotland. An enumeration of the people with a record of their religious denominations, as was recommended in the Report, was important, and he hoped they would have no hesitation in petitioning for it. Such a census would show what number declared themselves to have some connection with the Church. That, however, was not enough. There were many dissenters who would refuse to assist in Disestablishing the Church, and therefore, if they could have all over the country some such canvass as there was on this question in the county of Mid-Lothian, that would really give them the best criterion. Some reference had been made already to that Mid-Lothian canvass, and it occurred to him to point out a curious inconsistency of Mr Gladstone in asking them to accept the votes of Scottish members as necessarily representing the opinion of Scotland, when Mr Gladstone himself went into the lobby in direct contradiction to the opinion which he had received from his constituents. If the other Scottish members were no better interpreters of the opinion of their constituencies than Mr Gladstone himself was, there was not much to be argued from their votes. It had often been said, and he thought it was one of the points that perhaps was pressed with most success in places where the circumstances were not fully known, "Why should our endowments be confined to only one branch of the Presbyterian Church when the other branches so thoroughly agree with us in all matters of most essential importance?" The answer was that it was not their fault that their Presbyterian neighbours in other Churches had no share in the endowments. One of the good features of the position was that the Church had always held out an invitation to the other Churches to come and share that responsibility, in so far as that could be done consistently with their position as a National Established Church. Referring to Mr Finlay's bill, which had been reintroduced, he pointed out that in the appendix to the Report the resolutions were given of the Church Interests Committee in regard to this bill when it was before the country on a previous occasion. It would be seen that the Committee's opinion of the bill was of a friendly character, and while they tacitly acquiesced in it, they did not feel it was for them to go further. He had much pleasure in supporting the bill when it was before the House of Commons, and he was sorry that the bill met with so little success. When Mr Finlay reintroduced his bill the other day, he asked him to give him his name, and had no hesitation along with others in doing so. Mr Finlay felt that it would be of importance that he should not stand alone, and as they had given their sympathy before, they felt that they could not withhold it now. That measure, whatever might be thought of its details, was calculated, as it was intended, to open a way towards a reconstruction of the Churches. He thought that they should do everything in their power for that reconstruction, if they could do so consistently with their duty to the Church. Sir ALEXANDER KINLOCH, of Gilmerton (Elder), said, in order to explain the position which he himself took up, he should like to emphasise what Dr Scott and Principal Cunningham had said — that they should not regard with alarm their present position. He for one had no fear whatever of an immediate attack. On the contrary, he thought what had occurred had placed the defenders of the Church in a better position than they were before, in consequence of their opponents having been obliged to divest themselves of that disguise in which they had hitherto been masquerading. Giving his reasons for saying that they should not regard the present position with alarm, he asked the House to assume that at next general election Mr Gladstone was returned to power backed by an overwhelming majority. Mr Gladstone would then enter upon office obliged to deal with the question which he had told the country was nearest his heart — viz., the granting of a measure of Home Rule to Ireland. Though Mr Gladstone might be quite prepared to deal with the Disestablishment of the Church, when he undertook it, in a couple of hours, even he could not expect to pass such a measure as he proposed of Home Rule for Ireland in less than a whole session. At the end of that session his measure might perhaps have passed the House of Commons, but it had still to stand the ordeal of a debate in the House of Lords, and it was not assuming too much to suppose that when the House of Lords found itself face to face with the question whether or not they should approve or disapprove of dismembering the British Empire, they would stand to their guns, and would refuse their consent to that measure, even if they did so at the risk of their own existence. In that case a dissolution of Parliament would follow, and the Government of the day would go to the country upon altogether a new issue — asking the country to give them a mandate to abolish the House of Lords, and then to proceed with the measure of Home Rule for Ireland. No one could suppose for a moment that these two little bits of constitutional change could be undertaken and dealt with in less than another session; consequently it was only at the beginning of the second session of a second Parliament that the Radical party, who might be supposed still to be in power, would find themselves in the position of being able to make a beginning with the paying of those bribes by which they had collected under their banner the mixed multitude which supported them. Even then he doubted if the Disestablishers would be the first to receive their share of the bribe. Undoubtedly the questions he had indicated would be the first to be taken up, and it was quite possible that by the time the Church of Scotland was really attacked, the party of destruction would find out the grievous mistake they had made in trying to destroy an institution whose strength lay in the hold she had upon the affections of the country. He was glad that in the deliverance no approval was given for a certain line of action followed in the past with regard to Church Defence. There was no expression of approval of utilising the Church Courts for that purpose. He held firmly that it was the duty of every friend of the Church of Scotland to do Ins best in her defence, but he held equally firmly that it would be a fatal thing for Ministers and Elders of the Church qua Office-bearers to take part in the organisation of a system of defence which was, and which must be more and more every day, purely political. He therefore rejoiced to find there was no suggestion in the Report for utilising the Church Courts for Church Defence. He was also very glad to find it was not suggested that they should go to the people of the Church and try to pledge them not to vote for any particular candidate. In his mind that was most important. They had a right to be proud of the fact that their main strength lay in the fact that the majority of the people of Scotland did not wish for Disestablishment ; but they must remember that the great majority of the people of Scotland were Liberals — that they were more, that they were idolators, and that their idol was not an abstract idea. It was a personal idol. They worshipped Mr Gladstone; and, therefore, he said, it would be fatal for any of the Church Defence Associations to try to pledge any of its people not to vote for a Gladstonian candidate. What they had to do was to point out to the people what was the real danger and the real issue at stake, and to leave them to form their own conclusions, above everything avoiding to the utmost anything that would have the appearance of driving those who would never be driven. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN said he felt it necessary to say a word as to the clause in the Report in which notice was taken of the introduction into the House of Commons of a Bill called generally Mr Finlay's Bill. He did not understand, in looking at that sentence in the Report, that there was embodied in it any such approval of the principles of Mr Finlay's Bill as would entitle it to be said that the General Assembly, in approving of the Report as a whole, approved also of that measure. Since, therefore, he did not think that the words in the Report necessarily bore that interpretation, he did not feel called upon to take up time in discussing the measure. He desired only to say in passing that when the proper opportunity occurred, and when Mr Finlay's Bill was before the House, he should feel called upon, even although he stood alone, to protest against that Bill as a delusive and misleading measure — as one compromising the position which had been occupied by the Church of Scotland since the year 1843. He regretted that reflections had been made on the motives by which those engaged in this struggle were actuated. Some very hard things had been said against the other Churches of the country, and he could have wished that many of these had not been said. He could have wished that his reverend friend (Dr Rankin) had not alluded to the unfortunate position in which the Church over the way was placed at this moment. That Church had done noble things, and she deserved the warmest sympathy in the struggle in which she was engaged. He would ask those outside their own Church, who were influenced in their crusade against the Establishment by a desire to promote that great reorganisation which had been so often spoken of, to consider calmly and deliberately whether they were really likely to effect that object by first of all disestablishing the Church of Scotland? There were two possibilities before the Church of Scotland in the present struggle. In the first place, no man could venture to deny, even if he were beyond the pale of the Established Church, that it was possible that in that struggle they would be victorious. When, four or five years ago, Mr Dick Peddie's Bill was introduced into Parliament, it had the effect of kindling the enthusiasm of the Church of Scotland throughout the whole land. No man could remember that enthusiasm without feeling that, let the people of Scotland once again have Disestablishment before them as a thing that they could see and touch and taste and handle, the same fire which had been slumbering during the past four or five years would be rekindled, and the same enthusiasm awakened on behalf of the Church of Scotland. He thought that in that case the position of affairs would not be favourable to the cause of union. On the other hand, there was the possibility that they might be beaten, although he did not think it in the least likely. He thought the people of Scotland would respond to the call made to rise in defence of the Church of their fathers. But he would like to ask those who were opposed to them if, when the Church was defeated, they thought that was the time to ask them to go in for union, when they had been disheartened, disappointed, and disorganised, and had had all the life and spirit taken out of them by the contest through which they had been passing? When they wanted unity with a mall, they wanted it when he was in the fulness of his manhood and of his hope, not when they had first laid him postrate in the dust. Could they then go to him and say with any effect, "My good friend, let us love one another"? If they were to have anything that could be called union, the effort ought to be made for it now. This was the time to take steps for it, and not when one of the parties that desired, as they said, to be united had come out of a struggle in which it had been disorganized and defeated. Any union of that kind would be a union, not of life, but of death. There was one other point not spoken of that day on which he desired to say a word — viz., the question of disendowment. It seemed to be generally supposed that because £300,000 or £350,000 a-year was involved in this struggle, therefore they were mainly united to put forth an effort to maintain those funds. He believed, looking at the large spirit of liberality which had marked the other Churches of this land, that £350,000 could be easily made up. But it was not the money itself that was at all in their mind. It was the fact that the money was left for religious purposes in their care, and he felt that it was a duty binding on them to see that the money was not alienated from its right and proper purpose and secularised. Therefore, it was in vain to tell them that this money would soon be made up. It was not the money they were thinking on, but the principle upon which it was to be preserved. He had just one word more, and that was in reference to some remarks which fell from Dr Story, and were reverted to by another gentleman on the same side of the House. Dr Story objected to some letter or other that he had seen in the newspapers apparently, as he (Dr Milligan) understood him, which had been written by a Minister of the Church of Scotland. He (Dr Milligan) did not know what were the exact sentiments expressed, but it appeared that this Minister had expressed the idea that there might be something higher than the Church of Scotland worth fighting for. The Rev. Dr STORY said the letter he referred to said nothing about anything either higher or lower; the gentleman wanted rest and peace, apparently, with reference to personal fatigue undergone in the controversy. Professor MILLIGAN said that altered the position of matters. He had referred to it because he thought it concerned the liberties of a Minister of the Church of Scotland. He had no sympathy with a man that wanted rest and peace. There was no rest on this side of the grave. One must wait until they rested from their labours before they got the peace they would fain possess. But he claimed that the Ministers, Elders, and Members of the Church of Scotland should be allowed to think, and should be allowed to say out what they thought — that high as they valued the Church of Scotland, precious as they esteemed her and her past history, and ready as all were to sacrifice themselves and all they possessed for her sake in the struggle before them, they should be allowed to say that there was something higher than the Church of Scotland for which they would fain be more content to labour and to suffer. He said that unless they started from that religious ground they would fail of their efforts. He felt these words were true when he thought of the Church of Scotland and of the Church of Christ - "I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more." He could not love the Church of Scotland as he did, or be ready as he was to suffer for her, were it not that he saw in her the image of something higher and greater, far nobler than she could ever claim herself to be in this present world — the bride of Christ; not as a reverend brother opposite had spoken about it — as a mere Church of the people, a mere thing made by the people for the people's good. No; it was because she was made by a Divine hand — it was that which gave her all her strength, and made the Church of Christ most worthy of the warmest affections of their heart, and which should stir them to the most ardent zeal in her defence. He hoped they should resolve to go into the contest before them not only with unwearied zeal, but with a lofty religious spirit which alone deserved, and which he at least thought alone could command success. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS said it was known to his friends that he did not intend to take part in the debate, and he would not have spoken but for remarks made by the two last speakers. Sir Alexander Kinloch and Dr Milligan had said one or two things which, if he were to be absolutely silent, he might be supposed to accept as expressing his opinion. He felt that the discussion had taken a turn with which he could not agree. He did not want to make a note of discord in this unanimous, enthusiastic meeting. He should be sorry, indeed, if one word of his were to detract from the enthusiasm with which every one had spoken and had listened to the speeches, from the magnificent opening speech of the noble Lord. As regards Sir Alexander Kinloch's speech, he would only say that it underrated the gravity of the Church crisis, which could only be met by outspoken enthusiasm. The point that occurred to him to refer to further was with regard to what Dr Milligan had said on Mr Finlay's Bill. Dr Milligan said that Bill was not before them ; that at some other time he would explain his views upon it, but meanwhile he pronounced it "misleading." Now, that put their friends in Parliament in a very awkward position. He read on the back of the Bill such names as those of Mr Mackintosh Mr James Alexander Campbell, Mr Parker Smith, Sir Charles Dalrymple, Mr Thorburn, Colonel Malcolm, Mr Hozier, Mr Mark Stewart, and Mr Baird; and he heard that day of another well-known M.P. and friend of the Church who was very sorry that his name was not included in the list. It was a very awkward thing indeed if their friends in Parliament were to be told by their friend Dr Milligan that the Bill was a misleading and delusive Bill. It occurred to him (Professor Charteris) that his friend ought to have said either much less or a great deal more. He had read that Bill, and he had read it again since Dr Milligan had spoken of it. He was at that moment, however, entirely unable to understand upon what he placed that great charge that it was a misleading Bill. He drew attention to its principal operative clause — that which provides for the erection of new Parishes by the General Assembly instead of by the Court of Session — and said that while this was a change which few within the Church had originally thought of, it was one which none of them need make it a matter of conscience to resist, and which had its special value in the eyes of many outside the Church who were at one with us in vital questions. The Auchterarder cases sprang from Patronage, and they and all that came of them before 1843 were swept away by the Act abolishing Patronage in 1874. But the Stewarton case in 1842, which decided that the Church cannot by its own power change a Chapel of Ease into a Parish Church, was a great blow in its day to Church extension. Sir James Graham's Act in 1845, by providing for the erection of new Parishes through the Court of Session, had made the great Endowment Scheme possible, and the Church of Scotland might well be grateful for it. Yet after all, the Church might do the work as well as the Law Courts, and the General Assembly could be trusted to act with proper precaution, and to pronounce the decree by which a new Parish would be founded; and when many friends in the Free Church greatly desired to see the Church exercising such power, it would say little for our love of union if we objected. Professor Charteris briefly pointed out the other main objects of the Bill, and as he was concluding this a Member asked him to call attention to the preamble. Professor Charteris, turning to the preamble read it to the Assembly — "Whereas it is desirable to remove obstacles to reunion of the Presbyterians of Scotland." The resolutions of the Assembly of 1886 with reference to the bill remained, he proceeded, and, as he understood, the Bill was the old Bill brought back again. The old opinion of the Church remained therefore to this day. He merely wished at present to say that the General Assembly had expressed in those resolutions its opinion favourable to Mr Finlay's Bill. As to the question of union, they there were keeping in their mind their past history. The Assembly, with due sense of the gravity of the proceeding, offered in 1878 to consider with the other Churches the terms of union. From each of them they got a most courteous letter. Their hopes were, however, virtually terminated, and in the year 1879 the Assembly accepted that fact, stating that further correspondence would not lead to immediate results, but recording in the minutes of the Church that they continued their willingness to take all possible steps to promote reunion consistent with the maintenance of the establishment of religion. With the Churches, therefore, their duties were at an end in the meantime, but still there remained that record of their willingness to terminate the present divisions. Could any man who was bound by the record of his willingness to "take all possible steps towards reunion, consistent with the maintenance of an Establishment of religion" — and all loyal Churchmen were bound by that record — could any loyal Churchman in such circumstances refuse to accept Mr Finlay's bill if it would really promote reunion? For his own part he could not hold such refusal consistent with true patriotism. It had been said, he proceeded, that they were the only rallying place of the people of Scotland. He thought they were. They should intimate to Scotsmen that in this attitude of the Assembly they represented the opinions of the whole body of the people of the Church, and he trusted their membership throughout the Church would do nothing to alienate those who were so near akin to them in feeling in many respects, and whom they expected to help them in this very fight for their life on which they were about to enter. If the statement of Mr Gladstone that the existence of the Church of Scotland was such a little thing were true, then the contests about the mode of that existence, which had rent Scotland for so long, must be a still more little thing, and therefore their friends of other Churches were charged with leaving them for the very shadow of a shade. If the existence of the Church of Scotland was a small thing, what did the followers of Chalmers say about his struggles to secure what he believed to be its true position? What did they say, those of them who could go back to James Robertson, who spent his life in extending the Church? It was not a little thing; it was a very great thing. It was said the Church had no secular power. They had great secular power, of which an obvious proof was seen in this right to the common aid of the civil Courts to follow up the statutory decisions of their own Courts. In conclusion, he said it was proposed that their life interests were to be preserved. He wondered what those were, and if they thought their life interests could be valued at so much cash. Their life interest was the interest in the work they did. It was not only their life interest in their work as being their own, but it was their life interest in the people of Scotland, from whom politicians would wrench away the heritage of service from the Parish Minister without making any provision at all in its stead. He trusted that the Committee would be supported as enthusiastically throughout the Church as they had been that day in the Assembly. Mr CHARLES INNES, Inverness (Elder), said it was desirable on the occasion of a great debate involving national interests, that voices representative of all parts of Scotland should be heard. He rose to say that, while thoroughly approving of the Report as a whole, and especially of the steps proposed to be taken in defence of the Church, he was greatly disappointed to read the terms in which, both in the Report and Deliverance, the action of Mr Finlay and the Members who backed his Bill was referred to. The purport of the Bill was declared in its preamble: "It is desirable to remove obstacles to the reunion of the Presbyterians of Scotland." A perusal of the clauses shows that what the draughtsman had in view was the removal from the way of those Free Churchmen who still loyally follow in the footsteps of Dr Chalmers, that stumbling-block which the decision in the Stewarton case undoubtedly created. Though never appealed to the House of Lords, the decision has been hitherto recognised by the Church as authoritative and binding. Many, however, do not so regard it; hence a doubt still exists, and the object of the bill is to remove that doubt, and so pave the way for the reunion of all the Presbyterians in Scotland. In the Highlands the feeling in favour of the bill is very strong. Now, Presbyterianism in the Highlands occupies a very unique position. The services of the Church of Scotland are attended by a minority of the people, while at the same time the majority believe in and advocate the principle of a national recognition of religion. When Mr Finlay first introduced his Bill in 1886 a conference, attended by about 150 Constitutionalist clergymen and elders of the Free Church, was held at Inverness, and at it unanimous resolutions were passed in support of the proposed legislation. In the evening of the same day, a public meeting was held in the largest hall in Inverness. It was full to overflowing, and was presided over by the late Rev. Dr George Mackay, a pre-Disruption Minister, and one of the leaders of the Free Church Constitutionalist party, who declared, amid loud and enthusiastic applause, that "the Bill made provision for all the privileges he and others claimed before the Disruption." Resolutions to that effect and generally in support of the Bill were, amid a display of the utmost enthusiasm, carried with unanimity. A few days afterwards another public meeting was held in the same hall, and presided over by an ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Dr Mackenzie of Ferintosh. To it came the Rev. Dr Macdonald, Parish Minister of Inverness, arm in arm with the Rev. Dr George Mackay. Ministers and laymen from various parts of the country, and belonging to the various Presbyterian bodies, also attended. As at the former meetings, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and unanimous resolutions were carried in favour of Mr Finlay's Bill. Within a fortnight petitions in its support were presented to Parliament bearing 156,832 signatures. The petitions against the Bill were signed by only 1941 persons. Had time permitted, the numbers in favour could have been largely augmented. In these circumstances, something more than a simple expression of sympathy on the part of the Church was looked for. In regard to Professor Milligan's allusion to the Bill and his description of it as a delusive measure, he expressed regret that such a term had been applied to the Bill. Professor MILLIGAN said he had not ventured to say that the Church would not approve of the Bill, but that it was not distinctly before them as a Bill. Mr INNES hoped it was distinctly before them, with a view to its being distinctly approved. He thought it would be a terrible grievance if it were not distinctly understood, not only by Mr Finlay, but by the country and Parliament, that the Church of Scotland did not only sympathise with, but cordially approve of that Bill. He thought they should have added to the Deliverance a few words to that effect, and also promising that they would give it their active support, and he would tell why. The Bill would help to remove the only scruples on the part of the loyal descendants of Dr Chalmers; it would remove the only obstacle and stumbling-- block which was in their way towards reunion. He had that very morning sent to him a letter from a prominent Free Churchman in the Highlands, and he would take the liberty to read it to them, so that they might see how this Bill was at present regarded by the Constitutionalists: "If Mr Finlay's Bill is to do any good, it must be frankly accepted by the Established Church, not thrown merely as a sop to Free Churchmen. The practical results would not manifest themselves at once. The first result would be to create good feeling — to do away with the conviction that there is something unsatisfactory in the constitution of the Established Church. If that were realised, the rest would come in time. It is a matter, however, largely for the Established Church itself. You may expect the Constitutionalists to be friendly, but not active. Their minds at present are filled with other things, such as the Dods and Bruce cases. The Members of the Established Church, as a whole, do not, it appears to me, take that interest in this question which they ought to do. It is to be hoped they will not begin to do so when it may be too late." That told exactly what the Constitutional party of the Free Church thought, and if they were, during the coming struggle, to expect any support from that party — and they were the great majority of the Highlands — then it would not do for the Established Church to merely say, "We sympathise with Mr Finlay's Bill." The Established Church must do more. It must give it active support. Lord BALFOUR replied. He said the first motion, of course, was not proposed, and he thought the object of the mover was attained by his bringing his views before the Assembly. The second part of the motion he 'could have hardly accepted, because he had great dislike to even suggesting that the views of their friends were not even in accordance with God's Word. If his deliverance offended his reverend friend, Mr Douglas, by looking too much at the things which were expedient and things which were at discussion between them, it was not that he doubted that he was right in the views which he indicated, but it seemed to him (Lord Balfour) most necessary to state the opinions of this Church, which they regarded as right. With regard to Dr Johnston's motion, he did not need to allude further to it. Lord Balfour proceeded to say that one matter had been somewhat prominently alluded to by various speakers. Some had gone so far as to say that pressure should be brought upon those who were conscientiously attached to one party in the State, to desert their party and to throw in their lot with another, and that it they did not do so they would be regarded as traitors. Those were hard words. Now, he was very anxious, Conservative though he was, to avoid any possible risk of misconception. And what was the policy of the Committee? Their policy was to lead, to persuade, to advise, to educate, to instruct. But he hoped they should know their position better than to endeavour to threaten or to coerce. He wanted to raise enthusiasm for the old Church. And he would leave the facts and the results to the good sense and the patriotism of his fellow-countrymen. He could conceive, as he had said in his opening speech, that the circumstances of different parts of Scotland were so diverse that neither the Assembly nor the Committee could lay down any general regulations as to what was the proper policy for the friends of the Church to pursue. The Committee's policy was that the friends of the Church should be organised, and that when organised they should be called together for the free discussion and debate of the subject under the circumstances then presented to them. Concerning the allusion made in the report to Mr Finlay's Bill, he thought in drawing up the Report that the most judicious course was to leave matters exactly as they stood on a former occasion when the Bill was before the Assembly. He could not agree with the contents of the letter which Mr Innes had read. He did not think that Mr Innes' correspondent at all appreciated the right position for the Church of Scotland to take up in regard to that matter. The writer might very likely be a proper exponent of the party to which he belonged; but he (Lord Balfour) was not prepared without further information, and in all the changed circumstances of the time, to take up any other attitude at this stage in regard to the Bill than was foreshadowed by the Supreme Court of their Church on a former occasion. He thanked the Assembly very deeply for the reception which they had given him, and for the course which the debate had taken. The duty which they were about to lay upon the Committee was an arduous one, and it could only be discharged satisfactorily so long as they felt that they enjoyed the confidence of the Church. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON having stated his readiness to withdraw the second part of his motion, and to allow the first part to be negatived without a division, this was agreed to, and the second part of the motion was withdrawn and the first part negatived without a division The first motion was then adopted, and became the judgment of the House. OVERTURE ANENT A RELIGIOUS CENSUS. An Overture was taken up from the Synod of Aberdeen, asking that the Assembly should petition Parliament to take the necessary steps for ascertaining the religious connection of the people in the census of 1891. The Rev. Mr Mitchell, St Fergus, who represented the Synod of Aberdeen, moved the adoption of the Overture, and that the Assembly petition Parliament in favour of such a census. Lord DALRYMPLE (Elder) seconded the motion, which was agreed to, and a Petition adopted — the Petition to the House of Commons to be intrusted to Mr James A. Campbell; that to the House of Lords to Lord Balfour of Burleigh. Item No. 4 of to-day's billet of business was ordered to be taken to-morrow morning. The Report of the Committee on Classifying Returns to Overtures, it was resolved, should be postponed to a later diet, and a Committee was appointed to consider certain verbal alterations on Overture No. 1. The Committee to consist of the Rev. Theodore Marshall, Rev. Dr Rankin, Mr Mackersy, Mr John Milligan, and the Agent — the Agent Convener. PETITION FOR DISJUNCTION OF PARISH OF LAGGAN, &C. The Rev. D. S. MACLENNAN, Laggan, appeared at the bar to support a Petition to have the Parish of Laggan disjoined from the Presbytery of Abertarff and Synod of Argyle, and placed under the Presbytery of Abernethy and Synod of Moray. It took him, he said, three days from home when he went to a Presbytery meeting. The meetings were held at Fort-Augustus and Fort-William. When the meeting was at Fort-Augustus — it was on a Wednesday they met — he had to leave home on Tuesday at 8 o'clock in the morning, drive to Kingussie, go north to Inverness by the railway, and south to Fort-Augustus by the boat, involving a journey of over 100 miles. In that journey he passed through four Presbyteries before getting to the one with which he was at present associated. The Presbytery of Abernethy met at Grantown, and that for him would involve his absence from home of only a few hours. The Presbytery of Abertarff, the Synod of Argyle, and the Kirk-Session of Laggan concurred in the Petition. In reply to a Member, who asked if there was no nearer way from Laggan to Fort-- Augustus, Mr Maclennan said there was, but it was not always available, as the Pass of Corriegairach was between 3000 and 4000 feet high. But even that way was 40 miles. The AGENT of the CHURCH (Mr Menzies) moved that the prayer of the Petition be granted, and the motion was unanimously carried. THE CARSPHAIRN CASE. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN submitted the Report of the Committee appointed to confer with parties in the Carsphairn case. The Rev. Mr Allan and the Rev. Mr J. Balfour Robertson appeared for the Synod, the Rev. Mr Campbell and the Rev. Mr M'Conachie for the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, and Mr Salvesen, advocate, for certain Elders and Parishioners. The Report of the Committee was to the effect that statements on the part of representatives from the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright and from the Synod of Galloway had been made. After consideration it was agreed that on the reference from the Synod of Galloway being stated to the House, it should be moved that the General Assembly having learned (first) that Mr Findlay has agreed to reside out of the Parish, the sole charge of the Parish being committed to an Ordained Assistant; (second) that the Petitioning Heritors and Parishioners have agreed to pay Mr Findlay £400 to meet his legal expenses on Mr Findlay giving a bond for repayment of the same should he, on his own initiative, disturb any part of the arrangement with the Parishioners; (third) that Mr Findlay has agreed to contribute the sum of £60 per annum towards the Assistant's salary, and to give up to him the use of the Manse; (fourth) that the Parishioners have intimated that they are prepared to take the furniture now in the Manse, the property of Mr Findlay, at a valuation to an extent not exceeding a certain amount, and also to provide a supplement to the £60 provided by Mr Findlay to the extent of £20 a year; and further, having learned that the Heritors, at their meeting, have expressed concurrence in these arrangements, and that there is a reasonable prospect of the above annual sum of £80 as a salary for the Assistant of the Parish being still further supplemented, and that it is agreed that the formal agreement between the parties shall bear that it is entered into by Mr Findlay entirely ex gratia, and from his desire to do what appears to be best in the circumstances for the interests of the Church and Parish — the General Assembly, in the circumstances, authorise the Presbytery to proceed to the settlement of an Ordained Assistant in the Parish of Carsphairn with all convenient speed. The reference having been stated, Dr SCOTT moved that the Report be approved of, and that the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright be authorised to give effect to its provisions including the settlement of an Ordained Assistant in the Parish of Carsphairn with all convenient speed. Mr JAMES WALLACE, Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion. The motion having been adopted, the decision of the Assembly was intimated to parties, and they Acquiesced. The Committee of Bills was authorised to meet to-morrow at 10.50 o'clock. The Assembly adjourned at 6.20 P.M., to meet to-morrow at 11 o'clock. Thursday, 29th May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last sederunt, being in the hands of Members, were held as read, and were approved of. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on Bills, which was given in, read and approved of. The Petition of Mr John Macaulay, Carinish, was remitted to the Highland Committee. The Convener of the Business Committee reported the arrangements for to-morrow, Saturday, and Monday, which were approved of. Synod books were called for. The following were given in, and Committees to revise them were appointed: — Books of Galloway — The Reverend Messrs Lee Ker and George Campbell ; and Robert Binnie, Esq. Books of Angus and Mearns — The Reverend Messrs Gilbert M'Millan and Alexander Stuart; and Duncan Shaw, Esq. Books of Moray — The Reverend Messrs Campbell, Monzievaird, and James Fraser; George Malcolm, Esq. STATISTICS OF THE CHURCH. Mr J. A. CAMPBELL, of Stracathro, M.P. (Elder), gave in the Report of the Committee on the Statistics of the Church. This Report states that a complete return has been received from every Parish except St Luke's, Edinburgh; Gaelic Church, Cromarty; Strathy, Tongue; Trutnisgarry, Uist; Birsay, Cairston; Whalsay, Olnafirth. (1) Liberality. — The contributions for 1889 amount to £354,480, 11s., as compared with £304,783, 1s. in 1888, and £322,058, 9s. 11d. in 1887. These figures are exclusive of seat rents, which last year were £64,814, 17s. 8d., or fully £1000 more than in 1888. The Committee do not regard seat rents as "liberality," and seek a return under that head, chiefly for the purpose of comparison with previous years. The total of £419,295, 8s. 8d., including seat rents, is the largest ever reported to the General Assembly, and it is gratifying to find that it arises from an increase nearly "all along the line." Ordinary collections have risen fully £2000, while the contributions are higher than in 1888 (1) for Church or Manse building and repairs (altogether exclusive, of course, of assessments) by upwards of £32,000; (2) for general Church objects by almost £9000; and (3) for other Church and charitable work by more than £9000. The amount of the legacies for the schemes of the Church is also larger by over £2000. There is, on the other hand, a fall of £6000 in the aggregate gifts for Parish or local missions, Sabbath Schools, local endowment, and local augmentation of stipend. Every Synod reports an increase for the past year except Merse and Teviotdale, Perth and Stirling, Aberdeen, and Sutherland and Caithness, but the entire decrease is under £800. (2) Congregational Statistics. — The Committee have an equally satisfactory Report to make with regard to the number of Communicants on the rolls. For 1889 the number actually reported is 587,291, as compared with 581,568 — an addition of 5723, independently of five non-reporting Churches. If the previous figures for these five Churches be taken into account, the total number of Communicants on the rolls, as at the 31st December last, is 587,954, an increase of 6386. The number of Communicants is larger than last year in the following Synods-viz., Lothian and Tweeddale by 1320, Merse and Teviotdale by 319, Dumfries by 56, Glasgow and Ayr by 1882, Argyle by 134, Perth and Stirling by 669, Fife by 526, Angus and Mearns by 1097, Aberdeen by 488, Moray by 38, Ross by 29, and Orkney by 18. In the following Synods the number has decreased - viz., Galloway by 54, Sutherland and Caithness by 26, Glenelg by 16, and Shetland by 94. The number who communicated at least once during the year was 435,617, being 13,124 more than the number reported for the previous year. There is an increase in the number of persons admitted for the first time to Communion. In 1888 it was 24,821, in 1889 25,824. In 1888 the number of Baptisms reported was 49,944. The number reported for 1889 was only 40,355. The Eldership has increased from 8558 last year, to 8658 in 1889. The Diaconate for the same period has decreased from 757 to 720. The Communicants admitted during the year (a) communicating for the first time were 25,824; (b) by certificate or special admission, 31,461; together, 57,285. The Communicants removed from the roll by death were 7707, and by certificate or otherwise 34,164; together, 41,871. The Communicants on the roll at 31st December 1889 were 587,954. The increase on the year is 6386. The number of Baptisms reported during the year were 40,355. (3) Contributions. - The following are the Presbyterial returns of contributions, shillings and pence omitted:- 1889, 1888. Edinburgh (1) £63,120 £54,59 Linlithgow 5,719 4,74 Biggar 1,438 695 Peebles 4,315 1,767 Dalkeith 6,376 4,663 Haddington 1,527 1,462 Dunbar 913 913 Duns 637 562 Chirnside 1,124 976 Kelso 938 1,009 Jedburgh 2,982 3179 Earlston 891 1,048 Selkirk 6,333 6,399 Lochmaben 1,495 1,361 Langholm 1,493 2,189 Annan 984 1,213 Dumfries 6,347 3,950 Penpont 1,306 1,283 Stranraer 1,593 1,737 Wigtown 1,235 1,155 Kirkcudbright 4,132 2,187 Ayr 13,373 11,084 Irvine 9,239 10,738 Paisley 14,552 13,716 Greenock 12,076 17,467 Hamilton 19,414 15,449 Lanark 2,725 1,963 Dumbarton 9,489 9,080 Glasgow 76,413 63,447 Inveraray 949 946 Dunoon 4,687 4,571 Kintyre 2,569 2,389 Isla and Jura 356 283 Lorn 1,798 1,225 Mull 394 361 Abertarff 597 565 Dunkeld 2,159 2,023 Weem 978 1,216 Perth 4,517 4,871 Auchterarder 2,126 1,822 Stirling 5,753 5,263 Dunblane 6,608 7,168 Dunfermline 1,775 1,799 Kinross £757 £691 Kirkcaldy 5,269 5,104 Cupar 3,526 2,793 St Andrews 3,654 3,257 Meigle 1,778 2,033 Forfar 1,795 1,666 Dundee 17,981 12,039 Brechin 3,832 3,511 Arbroath 4,252 3,545 Fordoun 1,390 1,862 Aberdeen 15,719 13,640 Kincardine O'Neil 1,646 1,943 Alford 763 664 Garioch 1,307 1,094 Ellon 1,083 1,137 Deer 2,633 2,937 Turriff 1,917 3,471 Fordyce 1,119 1,513 Strathbogie 2,780 3,290 Aberleur 640 802 Abernethy 902 947 Elgin 791 756 Forres 520 603 Nairn 508 508 Inverness 2,460 980 Chanonry (1) 228 231 Dingwall 1,407 673 Tain 380 442 Dornoch 366 306 Tongue (1) 49 58 Caithness 796 937 Lochcarron 519 335 Skye 210 173 Uist (1) 58 70 Lewis 66 107 Kirkwall 361 375 Cairston (1) 276 252 North Isles 158 125 Lerwick 362 292 Burravoe 134 121 Olnafirth (1) 103 115 Total reported by schedules £391,962 £349,973 Sums paid direct to the General Collector for the Schemes, and not reported through parishes 27,332 18,617 £419,295 £368,590 (4) Membership of the Church. - The following is a comparative statement of the Membership in the different Parishes of the Church for the years 1888 and 1889: - SYNOD OF LOTHIAN AND TWEEDALE, 1888 1889. Edinburgh 50,518 51,295 Linlithgow 12,284 12,570 Biggar 1,968 1,027 Peebles 3,817 3,687 Dalkeith 10,649 11,229 Haddington 5,842 5,653 Dunbar 2,882 2,855 87,960 89,280 SYNOD OF MORSE AND TEVIOTDALE. Duns 2,220 2,225 Chirnside 3,876 3,865 Kelso 3,191 3,204 Jedburgh 6,250 6,504 Earlston 3,003 2,923 Selkirk 6,876 7,014 25,416 25,735 SYNOD OF DUMFRIES, Lochmaben 4,217 4,125 Langholm 2,246 2,225 Annan 9,533 2,482 Dumfries 7,766 7,980 Penpont 2,723 2,729 19,485 19,541 SYNOD OF GALLOWAY. Stranraer 4,858 4,608 Wigtown 4,706 4,751 Kirkcudbright 5,744 5,395 15,308 15,254 SYNOD OF GLASGOW AND AYR, Ayr 20,991 21,552 Irvine 14,412 14,484 Paisley 15,032 15,592 Greenock 9,403 9,378 Hamilton 22,108 22,640 Lanark 6,610 6,710 Dumbarton 11.776 12,000 Glasgow 66,138 66,076 166,550 168,432 SYNOD OF ARGYLE. Inverary 1,009 1,091 Dunoon 3,471 3,440 Kintyre 2,920 2,889 Isla and Jura 710 722 Lorn 1,398 1,518 Dull 1.291 1,321 Abertarff 527 479 11,330 11,464 SYNOD OF PERTH AND STIRLING. Dunkeld 4,122 4,206 Weem 2,049 2,017 Perth 10,461 10,831 Auchterarder 4,907 4,935 Stirling 11,937 12,125 Dunblane 5,777 5,808 39,253 39,922 SYNOD OF FIFE. Dunfermline 5,866 5,935 Kinross 2,410 2,338 1889. 1888. 1888. 1880. Kirkcaldy 13,964 14,186 Cupar 7,437 7,457 St Andrews 9,97(1 10,189 39,599 40,125 SYNOD OF ANGUS AND MEARNS. Meigle 5,373 5,405 Forfar 8,837 8,737 Dundee 23,267 23,861 Brechin 8,439 8,380 Arbroath 9,694 10,032 Fordoun 7,948 8,042 63,358 64.455 SYNOD OF ABERDEEN. Aberdeen 30,177 30,642 Kincardine O'Neil 7,386 7,181 Alford 4,999 4,994 Garioch 6,049 6,030 Ellon 5,769 5,790 Deer 13,939 13,926 Turriff 9,886 10.134 Fordyce 4,918 4,894 83,123 83,611 SYNOD OF MORAY. Strathbogie 6,729 6,706 Aberlour 2,227 2,203 Abernethy 1,094 1,116 Elgin 2,984 2,876 Forres 843 859 Nairn 685 723 Inverness 1,200 1,311 15,762 15,800 SYNOD OF ROSS. Chanonry 296 299 Dingwall 425 444 Taira 417 454 1,138 1,107 SYNOD OF SUTHERLAND AND CAITHNESS. Dornoch 314 317 Tongue 66 61 Caithness 884 860 1,264 1,283 SYNOD OF GLENELG. Lochcarron 287 292 Skye 393 399 Uist 196 190 Lewis 148 127 1,024 1,003 SYNOD OF ORKNEY. Kirkwall 1,656 1,685 Cairston 1,781 1,751 North Isles 822 841 4,259 4,277 SYNOD OF SHETLAND. Lerwick 2,886 2,911 Burravoe 1,345 1,385 Olnafirth 2,508 2,349 6,739 6,643 In giving in the Report, Mr CAMPBELL said that the Report was a favourable one, the contributions, which amounted to £354,480, showing an increase over the previous year of nearly £50,000. He reminded the Assembly and the public that these figures only represented contributions given during the year, and did not include general revenue, such as interest on investments, Government grants, grants from the Baird Trust and Ferguson Bequest, or legacies and other moneys for charitable purposes not directly bequeathed to the Church. The Report as to Congregational Statistics was also very favourable, there being an increase in the Membership of 6386, the total Membership of the Church being 587,954. In giving that number the Coinmittee had included the old figures for five Parishes from which returns had not been received. He regretted that any Parish should fail to make such a simple return as that, and said it was very desirable that full returns should be received from all Parishes. The number of persons who actually communicated at least once last year was 435,617. They had no statistics of the Adherents of the Church, and he could not say that it would be very easy to get an accurate statement of the number of Adherents, because no roll of them was kept. That fact had to be borne in mind when the statistics of the Highland Parishes were being considered, for, as was known by the Assembly, the Membership of the Highland Parishes was no true criterion of the strength of the Church there. Last year the Committee, by orders of the Assembly, sent down queries on behalf of the Committee on Intemperance, and received replies which they handed over to that Committee. His Committee were, however, strongly of opinion that it was not desirable to have their inquiry burdened with anything else than the statistics which properly belonged to them, and they suggested that if any further inquiry was to be made, it should be done by another Committee. The Rev. Dr DYKES, Ayr, moved the following deliverance:- "The General Assembly approve of the Report, and reappoint the Committee with the usual powers — Mr J. A. Campbell, M.P., to be Convener, and the Revs. Dr Dodds and John Brownlee, Vice-- Conveners. The General Assembly are gratified to learn the marked increase alike in the Contributions and the Membership of the Church during the year now reported on. "The General Assembly, recognizing the importance of the greatly extended inquiry now conducted by the Committee on Statistics, empower the Finance Committee of the Church, besides providing for the printing and distribution of this Report, to make a grant towards the Committees' other outlay, in so far as that is not already met out of Kirk-Session Contributions and Donations from individuals." He was, he said, far from thinking that the mere matter of the money which the Church contributed should be taken as a sufficient test of its condition, but when they found that both Contributions and Membership had increased during the year, he thought it was matter for congratulation and satisfaction. Mr ALEX. MACPHERSON, Kingussie (Elder), in seconding the motion, pointed out that, including seat rents, the total of the liberality reported by the Committee for the past year was in round numbers £419,300, giving an average of £315 over the 1328 Parishes of the Church, and an average over the 587,954 Communicants of 14s. 3d. per Communicant. Excluding seat rents, the average per Parish was £266, 18s. 3d., and the average per Communicant 12s. As stated by Mr Campbell, the sums reported on by the Committee did not embrace the interest or other revenue derived from the investment of capital funds, previously reported, but simply the voluntary contributions of the Church for the past year and nothing more. He had looked into the items of interest or other revenue derived from the investment of capital funds, and he found that they amounted to £141,200. He had reason to believe that the voluntary liberality of the Church as reported from year to year by the Committee, was often brought into unfavourable comparison with the total yearly income or revenue of the Free Church. Were the Committee to include in their Report the total sums raised by the Church, as was done by the Free Church, the total they would be able to show for the past year, independent of their old endowments, would, instead of £419,300, be £560,500, giving an average of £422 per Parish, and 19s. per Communicant. The annual value of the endowments, as stated by Mr Gladstone, was about £300,000. It would thus be seen that the Church annually gave back, as it were, for the benefit of the people of Scotland no less a sum than £260,000 in excess of these endowments. The Committee in their Report stated that the activity of the Church had not been confined to any particular district, but had extended over the whole country. It was gratifying to find that this healthy activity had not been altogether wanting even in the Highlands and Islands. There could be no doubt that the condition of the Church in many districts of the Highlands was very unsatisfactory, and called for more attention on the part of the Church at large in the way of strengthening the position and stimulating the life and work of the Church there. Taking the four northern Synods of Moray, Ross, Sutherland and Caithness, and Glenelg, where the Church was admittedly very weak, it was clear that upon the whole she was making slow but steady progress, even north of the Grampians. In 1873, when the last Parliamentary return was made, the number of Communicants in these Synods was 15,931, while at the present time, as shown in the Report, the number was 19,213, being an increase of 3282, or 20 per cent. The amount of the Christian liberality of these Synods for 1873 was £6494, and for last year it was £12,680, being an increase of £5166, or 79 per cent. The AGENT of the CHURCH (Mr Menzies) pointed out that it would be inconsistent with a former resolution of the Assembly to instruct the Finance Committee to make the proposed grant to the Statistics Committee. The matter must first be brought before the Finance Committee, and he promised that it would receive their attention. The Rev. WM. ALLAN, Mochrum, asked whether, under the term "membership," the Convener included the 40,000 baptisms that had taken place? Mr J. A. CAMPBELL replied that only Communicants were embraced in the return, neither adherents nor baptisms being recognised by the Committee. Sir ALEX. MUIR MACKENZIE of Delvine (Elder), asked if the Convener saw any great difficulty in getting a list of the adherents of the Church? He was a Member and Elder of the Church, and he knew there were a number of landed proprietors in Scotland who were not Communicants, but who would be very glad at this juncture to become Adherents. Mr CAMPBELL said it was rather a question for the Parishes, or for the Assembly, to say whether it was possible to have a roll of Adherents. The work of the Committee lay in arranging the returns sent in. Mr T. G. MURRAY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), said a roll of Adherents would be very defective, because Adherents were only called for when a Parish was vacant. The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, said their desire was to have an opportunity of comparing the number of Adherents of the Church of Scotland in the Highlands with those belonging to other Churches. It had to be remembered that their method of enrolling Adherents was very different from that followed by the Free Church. They enrolled as Adherents persons who would be capable of being admitted to the Communion, while the Free Church returned as Adherents all who were upwards of eighteen years of age, no matter what their character was. The Rev. WM. LEE KER, Kilwinning, thought they were passing the Report over without sufficiently congratulating themselves, and testifying their approval of the manner in which their Congregations had been acting during the past year. He did not think they could over-estimate the improvement that had taken place in the contributions of the Church. It was not very long since their people were taught to contribute towards the collections. In his own Parish twenty years ago the contributions came from three sources — a noble Lord, a rich gentleman in the district, and the Parish Minister — but now they came from the Congregation in general. He thought the Assembly should testify its appreciation of the results that had been obtained during the past year. The deliverance, with the omission of the instruction to the Finance Committee, was then agreed to. FOREIGN MISSIONS. The Rev. Dr M‘MURTRIE submitted the Report of the Foreign Mission Committee, which stated that 1146 persons were returned by the Missionaries as having been baptised during the year 1889. It was thought possible that Mr Youngson, through misunderstanding the schedule, had entered some of the Panjab baptisms twice. In that case, the number of baptisms in 1889 would approach 900, and would still be the highest reported in any year since the Church of Scotland entered on the Foreign Mission field. (Dr M`Murtrie has since learned from Mr Youngson that the lower of these estimates is the correct one.) Of this number 700 or 712 were reported from Panjab, while in the threefold Darjeeling Mission there were 119, in Africa, 18, and at other stations 39. The marvellous work continued in the Panjab during the current year, and cheering tidings had also arrived from China. At this time the Mission staff consisted of 46 Europeans and 201 Christian natives. Christian instruction was given to 407 students, and 6241 younger scholars, in all 6648. The fears of the Committee regarding the African Mission, which had last year been threatened with extinction under the rule of a power hostile to Evangelical Missions, had been in a great measure dispelled, and the Committee had not been slow to thank the Government, and particularly Lord Salisbury, for the firm stand by which he Portuguese invasion had been driven back. In regard to finance, it was reported that the direct giving of the Church at home to the Foreign Mission (not including the Ladies' Foreign Mission) in 1889 was £22,421, as compared with £16,049 in 1888 — being an increase of £6372. This included an effort made to clear off debt, which realised upwards of £3000, and if the debt — Mission debt, which no Church should tolerate — had not been wholly rolled away, it had been reduced during the year by the considerable sum of £2090 — that is, it had been reduced from £4854 to £2764. The Church was asked to add this year, and for all time coming, at least £5000 to the ordinary income of the Committee. The Assembly were asked to say whether they approved of the Committee having taken no step to fill up the place of Mr Melvin, the headmaster of the Institution at Bombay. The Committee could not contemplate without regret severance from the Bombay Institution, which was one of the oldest Missionary enterprises of the Church. At the same time they had to face such facts as these. Mr Melvin himself had advised the giving up of the Institution, and Mr Wann had concurred in the recommendation. Never within the memory of any of their number had the Committee had funds to develop the Evangelistic side of the work, neither had they now any prospect of being able to do so. The opinion had been expressed with some emphasis throughout the Church that whether they were to have many or few Educational Missionary Institutions, if they had any at all, they should be those only which they were able to maintain in thorough efficiency. The Committee had no intention or desire to leave Western India unless they should be so instructed by the Assembly. To meet the crisis in Calcutta, where it would be disastrous to open the new session on 20th June with only two Europeans, they had been compelled to request Mr Wann to leave Bombay for some months and give aid in the General Assembly's Institution at Calcutta. They trusted they would soon be back to Bombay Presidency, where the choice of the Church seemed to lie between two plans of Evangelical Work. One was to concentrate upon Poona, which was in the Bombay Presidency, and was becoming one of the most important cities of India. A weighty consideration in favour of that course was that the Poona Mission of the Church of Scotland Ladies' Association had grown greatly in strength and usefulness, and if this Mission was also placed in Poona, the two would be mutually helpful. The other plan was that Mr Wann should take up Evangelistic Work in Bombay itself — work for which he had to some extent laid a foundation — and should assist the ladies' work in Poona by visits from time to time. Two Sub-Committees of the Foreign Mission Committee had conferred with a Committee appointed by last General Assembly in regard to alleged anomalies in the Mission at Calcutta, and their Report was as follows: — "The Sub-Committees met with the Committee appointed by last General Assembly on this subject, and made full explanations on all the points brought before them, which were considered satisfactory by the General Assembly's Committee." Dr M'Murtrie also gave in the Report of the Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, which stated that during the year three new Missionaries had been added to the European staff in India and Africa. The Committee had much satisfaction in reporting that though there had been a decrease in the Association's income for the past year as compared with the previous year, that decrease was due to the smaller amount received from legacies, and there was an increase of subscriptions, which formed the vital test of the Association's growth and progress. On the other hand, the increase of subscriptions had not been proportionate to the increased expenditure, which was nearly £100 in excess of ordinary income. In submitting the former Report, Dr M'Murtrie spoke of it as on the whole decidedly of a more hopeful character than those the Committee had been able to bring before the Assembly for several years — both in respect of the number of baptisms which had taken place during the year, and in respect of the state of the finances. The Assembly would, he said, be asked to give the Committee guidance as to the Bombay Mission. It was in the knowledge of the General Assembly that for many years back — he believed almost from the beginning of the Mission, certainly from the year 1843 — that Mission had not been distinguished by any great success. The reason was that from the beginning till now they had been compelled as a Church to starve the Mission. His own opinion was that their Foreign Missions had been extended too rapidly for the pecuniary strength of the Committee and the growth of liberality in the Church. He concluded by expressing the hope and the confident expectation that they would regard the progress made not as something to be satisfied with and to rest upon, but as a step in advance upon which they might now go forward. Dr PIERSON, Philadelphia, who explained that his visit to Scotland was that day at an end, then addressed the Assembly, urging the claims of Foreign Missions upon the whole Church. In the course of his address he said they — the Ministers of the Church — should not look upon themselves as beggars. If there was any foundation for the Establishment, it was in the Levitical system. It was simply contemptible to speak as if the stipend that came to the Minister of Christ was something which paid him for the obligations the people were under to him. There was no class of men that gave back to the community more for all that the community gave them than the Ministers of the Church, and therefore he looked with profound contempt on anything that tended to put the Minister in the position of a fawning servient man at the foot of the pulpit, asking from the people a subsistence. From what they heard occasionally from some supporters of Disestablishment one might think that Ministers were in danger of starvation; but looking to that Church which had left the Establishment, and had gone, so to speak, into the wilderness — looking upon their rotund forms in the Free Church Assembly — he had quite made up his mind that they were in no more immediate danger of dying of starvation than some of the brethren he saw in the Established Church were. Dr Pierson mentioned that he hoped to return to Scotland two years hence to deliver the course of lectures of the Duff foundation. The MODERATOR conveyed to Dr Pierson the thanks of the Assembly for his presence, and for his work during the seven months he had been in Scotland, and Dr Pierson took his leave with the Assembly upstanding. The Rev. A. TURNBULL, one of the Church's Missionaries at Darjeeling, afterwards spoke. He gave an interesting account of the geographical features of the province in which the Mission was situated, and of the characteristics of the natives, but in particular he called attention to the imperative necessity of having new mission buildings at Darjeeling. Owing chiefly to an immense landslip, which threatened the very existence of the present Mission premises, money was required to provide new premises, unless the Church wished also to have to provide a new Missionary, not to speak of a whole host of smaller personages. To provide these new premises would involve the expenditure of £13,000, owing to the great expense of a new site, and for this sum he appealed to the liberality of the Church. The Rev. Dr HERDMAN, Melrose, proposed the following deliverance: — "The General Assembly approve the Report, record their thanks to the Convener, the Sub-Conveners, and other members of the Committee, and specially to the Missionaries in India, Africa, and China. They also thank those Ministers and Members of the Church who, by their labours as deputies and otherwise, or by their liberal offerings, have done much to promote interest in Foreign Missions during the past year. They reappoint the Committee, with the usual powers — Dr M'Murtrie, Convener. The General Assembly record with deep thankfulness their sense of the goodness of God in so greatly blessing the labours of their Missionaries during the past year that, while 775 persons were baptised in the Mission in 1888, that number was exceeded by several hundreds in 1889; and though 600 converts in the Panjab have recently been transferred to the Mission of the United Presbyterian Church of America, there remain, in their various Mission fields, nearly 4000 who have been gathered in from heathenism. The General Assembly have heard with regret of the deaths of Principal and Mrs Smith, Calcutta, and Mrs Paterson, Madras, and record their sympathy with the sorrowing relatives, and their sense of the special loss which the Church sustained by the demise of Mr Smith, who discharged every duty of a difficult post with devotedness and ability. They thank for their good services Mr Dowsley of I-Chang, Mr Melvin of Bombay, Mr Sinclair of Madras, and Dr Milne of the African Mission — Missionaries who have retired during the year past; they trust that Dr Milne and Mr Hamilton of Calcutta may soon be restored to health; they are glad that three new Missionaries have gone to Darjeeling, I-Chang, and the Panjab respectively, and that other two will soon proceed to Africa and Calcutta. In the whole circumstances of the Bombay Mission, the General Assembly approve of the Committee's having taken no step to fill up the place of Mr Melvin, and are of opinion that the Institution ought not to be reopened, and that the premises might, with advantage, be sold. They further think it very desirable that an Evangelistic Mission should be maintained within the Bombay Presidency, in Bombay or Poona, or both, as the Committee may find expedient, after full consideration of the claims of each, and of the resources available. The General Assembly renew their recommendation to the Foreign Mission Committee, in conjunction with the Ladies' Association, to take into consideration the Parel Mission at Bombay, with a view, if they see fit, of bringing it within the organisation of the Church, and giving it some material aid. The Assembly are glad to hear that the contributions of the Church at home in 1889 have exceeded, by £6372, those of the preceding year; and to learn from the Report and accounts, and from the supplementary note approved by Mr Turnbull Smith, that debt has been decreased by £2090. They trust that the remaining debt of £2764 will now be cleared off; and they commend to the whole Church the effort of the Committee to increase the ordinary revenue at least £5000, by obtaining larger collections, by Congregational Associations which may benefit all the Schemes, by gifts and thank-offerings, and by developing the Missions Aid Society. The Assembly, recognising the importance of co-operation with other Churches in the Mission-field, authorise the Committee to continue the communications with the Free Church referred to in the Report. The Assembly again recognise gratefully the service rendered by the Universities' Mission, which is not only doing valuable work in the threefold Darjeeling Mission, but calling forth among those to whom the Church is looking forward as its future Ministers a greatly deepened interest in the extension of the kingdom of Christ. And they warmly recommend to Ministers and Kirk-Sessions the providing of facilities by which the members of the University Missionary Associations may plead with their congregations the claims of their Mission. The Assembly congratulate the Young Men's Guild on their vigorous prosecution of the Guild Mission throughout another year, and on the success which has attended their efforts to provide funds for the Macfarlane Memorial Church at Kalimpong. The General Assembly are grateful to Almighty God that their African Missionaries, during a period of prolonged anxiety, have been enabled to carry on their work successfully and without interruption. They are gratified to learn that their Mission-field in Africa has now been delivered from Portuguese encroachment; and they approve of the Committee's having tendered prompt and hearty thanks to Her Majesty's Government. The General Assembly receive and approve the Report of the Church of Scotland Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, now submitted to them by the Foreign Mission Committee. They are thankful for the growing prosperity of the Association, and the increasing recognition throughout the Church of the great value of woman's work to the cause of Foreign Missions. They renew their instructions to the Committee to give every encouragement and help in their power to the Association; and they commend the Association to the continued confidence and support of the congregations of the Church. The Assembly commend to Almighty God the whole Foreign Mission work of the Church; and they appoint Sunday, the thirtieth day of November next, or such other Lord's Day as may be found suitable, to be observed as a day of special intercession on behalf of all the Missions of the Church." In supporting the resolution, Dr HERDMAN spoke of the brightening prospects of their Missions in China and Africa, and asked the Church to respond to the appeal of the Committee, if the Indian Missions were to be placed on a proper footing, and increase the ordinary income of the Mission by £5000 a year. The impressions winch he had brought home from India were not altogether cheering. Speaking of the Bengal stations, he was disappointed that the progress of the native Church had not been greater. It was not merely that their Educational Missions had failed to gather in numerous converts, but that all Missions had failed to effect great results in the direct manner of conversions to Christianity. In dealing with the Hindus and Mohammedans of the plains of India, Missions of late years had not been the means of bringing over many to Christianity. The native Church in India had been recruited from an entirely different quarter — from the aborigines and the lower castes; and they had now also opened wide a door which had been barred for generations by which to carry Gospel truths into the Zenanas. He was not of the opinion that the Brahmo Somaj or the Aryo Somaj had helped conversions, his belief being that they had hindered progress. In old times, when young men had their consciences touched and their eyes partially opened, they could find no halting place but in the Gospel and the Church of Christ. Now, when they were searching for a higher system of creed and a purer morality than their own, they were satisfied with what they found in these Deistical and Unitarian movements. There was a widespread desire after a better and purer morality, and a higher faith than Hinduism and Mohammedanism, and although those who had forsaken everything for Christianity were few, there were many signs of preparation for a great, general, and national revolution. Mr. J. A. CAMPBELL, M.P., in seconding the resolution, pointed out that the European and native Christian agents employed by the Assembly's Committee, together with those of the Ladies' Association, made a total of 75 European agents and 299 native Christian agents or in all, 374 Christian agents connected with the Church in the Foreign Mission field. With the exception of the Bombay Mission the details of the work were favourable. Although there seemed to be reason to discontinue the Bombay Mission in its present form, he hoped the Assembly would encourage the Committee to continue it in some form or other. It would not be creditable to the Church, and it would be a great discouragement to their Missionaries if they were to restrict their operations and cease to have a Mission at Bombay. It was suggested as an alternative that they should transfer the Mission to Poona. Let them hope there would be a Mission established at Poona in connection with the Ladies' Association, but let them also hope that there would be a Mission continued in the great field at Bombay. The contributions from the Church at home to the Foreign Mission Fund amounted to £22,421, and the contributions to the Ladies' Association were £5910, making altogether, exclusive of interest from invested funds and of receipts from abroad, £28,331. That was not as large a sum as they ought to have, but it was the largest that had ever yet been reached. When they analysed these contributions, the impression left on the mind was not so favourable. He found that a considerable number of Parishes had not sent anything to the Foreign Mission Fund. It would be a hard thing to say that there could be no Missionary interest in these Parishes; but he confessed that it was a little difficult to understand how there could be much Missionary interest and no proof whatever in the shape of a contribution. It might be possible to give a congregation information about Missions withovt asking for any money, but he could not understand how a congregation could get Missionary information and not wish to give contributions. He did not think it satisfactory that there should be 214 Parishes that did not send as much as 20s. each to the Foreign Mission Fund, while there were 73 Parishes that did not send as much as 10s. a piece. He did not ask where the Minister was, but he would ask where were the Elders of these congregations that they did not give as much as half a sovereign to the fund? He was afraid there were congregations in Scotland where a Missionary sermon was not preached even once a year. If their congregatious were to be interested in Missionary work, they must hear of the subject a greal deal oftener than once a year, when the collection was asked. The Rev. MALCOLM Ross, late Senior Chaplain at Bombay, said as one well acquainted with the history of Bombay during the last thirteen years he might assure them that they were now at a crisis in regard to their Bombay Mission, for if the proposal to transfer the Mission to Poona was carried out they bundled up and left the Presidency altogether. The five years' system, as it was called in the army, had nearly ruined their Missions. Unless the Church sent out Missionaries who knew the vernacular, satisfactory work could not be done, and moreover, he held it to be a mistake to engage any Missionaries to go out to India without first letting them know that the work was to be their lifework, and that when they were no longer able for it they would be provided for. Like the man who had tried to make his horse live on a straw a day, they had for the last twenty years starved the Bombay Mission. It had always been an understood rule that in the Presidency towns no Mission was placed in a district where another Church had previously gone, and at present there was a Free Church Mission at Poona. He had received a letter from the Missionary in charge of that Mission expressing himself against the proposed transference of the Church of Scotland Bombay Mission to Poona, and neither the Chaplain there nor Mr Wann, their own Missionary, was in favour of it. After labouring in Bombay since 1843, it would be a great blow to the prestige of the Church as a Missionary Church, if they now gave up their Mission there. Mr Ross concluded by moving, as an amendment to the Deliverance moved by Dr Herdman, as follows: — "That the Foreign Mission Committee be instructed to carry out the proposal of our Missionary, Mr Wann, of date 15th July 1889, at page 618 of the Report. That our Mission in Bombay be moved to the northern suburbs; that there a house be acquired or built as a Mission House, from which our Missionaries could operate not only on Bombay, but also on the villages along the two railway lines in the direction of Khundalla. That the Institution be sold, and the money placed in Government securities, till it be ascerained whether a new High School could be advanageously started, and thus the fatal blow to our prestige as a Missionary Church, that would be caused by our retiring from Bombay, would be warded off, and time given to consider upon what new lines we might again start our Institution." The Rev. Professor STORY seconded the Amendment. The proposals in the Deliverance in regard the future of the institution at Bombay and to the proposed transfer of the Mission to Poona were both points which seemed to be open to very great desideration indeed. By the proposed extinction of the Mission at Bombay they ran the risk of very serious loss of prestige, and to his mind the proposed transfer to Poona was one of very doubtful policy. As he understood the matter, there was already at Poona a Free Church Mission, and it had always been their Missionary policy in India not to trespass upon an area fairly occupied by the Missions of any other Church, especially when that Church was a Presbyterian Church, and the present transfer seemed to be proposed in the teeth of the wishes of those connected with the Free Church Institution at Poona. To his mind the weight of evidence was strongly against the transfer of the Mission to Poona, and he had not heard any reason put forward for the total extinction of their Institu tion at Bombay. The maintenance of these higher educational Institutions was a question to be discussed later, and upon it a great deal could be said; but seeing that they did exist at present he did not see why that at Bombay in particular should be abolished, or why it should be transferred to Poona. In the circumstances the proposed change was one of very doubtful expediency, and, so far as Mr Ross' motion controverted the proposal of the Committee, he seconded it. The Rev. Dr SCOTT at this stage mentioned that there was on the table a Petition signed by 375 native inhabitants of Bombay against the closing of the Institution there. The Petition stated that the Petitioners, although heathens, could perfectly recognise the advantages which Missionary Institutions had over Government ones, and, therefore, in such a Presidency town as Bombay they saw the necessity for the continuance of these Missionary Institutions — the Government Institutions perfectly ignoring the idea of introducing the religious element into their Educational Institutions. Secular and religious education were, in the opinion of the Petitioners, so linked together that the success of the former presupposed the strength of the latter. The Rev. Dr HERDMAN pointed out, in reference to what Mr Ross had said, that the Free Church Institution at Poona had been closed last year, and that there was no intention of re-opening it. There was no proposal on the part of the Committee to transfer the Bombay Institution to Poona. The alternative was to go on with the work on an Evangelistic basis. The Rev. Mr Ross said from the information he had received from the Free Church Missionary at Poona that Church was about to send out a new staff to Poona to carry on the work there. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER, Partick, said he had moved in the Foreign Mission Committee that steps should be taken to close the Institution at Bombay, and in doing so he had expressed the general opinion in the Committee. The opinion had been slowly forming in the course of years, and the matter had come to the point that some one only required to express it. Mr Wann had reported that the premises were no longer suitable, and that the only thing to be done was to transfer the whole building to some other place. They had the other fact before them that Mr Melvin was returning home, and that if the Institution was to be continued the Committee had then and there to find out some one who would go out in his place. In addition to these two important facts, the Committee had also this before them, that success had not attended the work of the Bombay Institution. He did not wish to discuss the question of Educational Missions, but in regard to the Institution at Bombay, as business men doing a piece of business work they ought to look facts straight in the face; and he thought these facts pointed to the giving up of the Institution. They had been spending money year after year which had not been yielding the results they would have liked it to yield, while they had other branches of the Committee's work succeeding admirably — for example, the Darjeeling Mission — which required funds urgently. As to the Petition which lay on the table, he had only to say that if it was stated to him that the men signing it were men or influence and men who had claims to be heard, he might alter his opinion of the matter, but he frankly confessed that a Petition signed by 375 inhabitants of a city which might rival Glasgow in point of population did not carry with it much weight. Mr JAMES WALLACE, Edinburgh (Elder), asked whether it was a fact that the Free Church had a Mission at Poona? Several Members replied in the affirmative. Mr WALLACE — Then I think it would be a mistake to carry the Bombay Mission there. The Rev. DAVID HUNTER said, though they transferred the Bombay Mission to Poona, they were in no sense setting up a rival institution to the Free Church there. Poona was the centre of a very large district, and it was quite conceivable and proper that more than one set of Missionary enterprises might be carried on in that district without it being said that the one was a rival of the other. Mr WALLACE said in the circumstances he agreed with Mr Hunter that the money spent on the Bombay Mission might better be spent on other branches of the work, especially when the requirements of Darjeeling were so urgent. The Rev. JAMES S. MACKENZIE, Little Dunkeld, said he hoped it would never go forth from that Assembly that Bombay, which was the centre of a million inhabitants was to be abandoned as a field of Missionary work because they had not had success in the past. He would rather see the Church put forward greater energies than take that retrograde step. The Rev. Dr M‘MURTRIE explained that the Free Church had had a Mission in Poona for a long time. It had had a native Congregation with a native pastor. The Church of Scotland had had a Female Mission there, but never a branch Mission under the Foreign Mission Committee. The Ladies' Mission had grown in Poona until it was one of the very best Female Missions in India; and those connected with that Mission had the natural desire to obtain the assistance and advice they would receive if the Foreign Mission Committee had an Ordained Missionary on the spot. He wished, however, more particularly to say, that some years ago a deputation of the Foreign Mission Committee had waited upon the Free Church Committee to ask that the native Congregation at Poona might be changed into a union Congregation, jointly governed by the two Churches. At that time the Free Church had not seen its way to accede to that request, but quite recently the Convener of the Free Church Committee had approached them with the same request. These proposals were, however, not quite a fortnight old, and it was impossible for some little time yet to hold a conference with the Free Church Committee. He regarded Mr Ross's action in having read a private letter from the Free Church Missionary at Poona as having complicated matters. After some further conversation, Dr M'MURTRIE said he had the permission of Dr Herdman to delete the word "Evangelistic" as describing the Mission to be continued in the Bombay district in the Deliverance. The Rev. Mr Ross, however, said he was not prepared to withdraw his motion even although that change were made, and a vote was taken by a show of hands between Dr Herdman's motion as altered and Mr Ross's, with the result that the former was carried by a large majority. It was agreed to add a clause to the Deliverance commending the Darjeeling Mission to the liberality of the Church. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN, Pollockshields, said he had no wish to ask the Convener of the Special Committee which had conferred with a Sub-Committee of the Foreign Mission Committee as to. certain anomalies in connection with the Calcutta Institution, to make a formal Report. He wished simply to say that it had been found necessary to take the action they had last year in appointing that Sub-Committee, in consequence of there being an impression abroad that there had been a certain very serious breach of Ecclesiastical order in connection with the Calcutta Institution. The Committee had ascertained that that breach of Ecclesiastical order had entirely ceased, and had ceased for a considerable time. He thought it due to the House that that statement should be made, in view of the action he had taken last year. He added that he would have been glad had the Committee seen its way to endeavour to do something to obviate the strained relations which had existed for some years past between a Court of the Church in Calcutta and a Gentleman who was distinguished as having done noble service in the cause of the Church. Apparently the Committee had not felt that to be part of the remit made to them, and he could only express the hope that in the course of time their strained relations might pass away. EDUCATIONAL MISSIONS IN INDIA. The Rev. G. S. SMITH, Cranston, submitted the Report of the Special Committee appointed to consider the replies of Presbyteries on the subject of Educational Missions in India. Of the replies received from seventy Presbyteries, sixty were in favour of the continuance, in present circumstances, of the Church's Educational Missions in India, five held that a change should now be made, but not suddenly; three did not see their way to express a decided opinion on the subject; one held that further investigation should be made by the Committee, or by a Special Committee; and one held that the time has now arrived when the Church should contemplate the discontinuance of the higher secular education in its institutions in India. The Committee gathered from the large body of evidence laid before them that these Educational Missions had all along, from the time they were commenced, sixty years ago, to the present day, been "a great blessing to India, and that the good which they have done could not have been accomplished in any other way." The Church, indeed, had at no time doubted the wisdom of the methods originally adopted in the special circumstances of India, under the guidance of the late Dr John Inglis, Dr Thomas Chalmers Dr Alexander Brunton, Dr Robert Gordon, with other eminent and revered men of their time, and carried out with distinguished ability and zeal by Dr Duff and his companions and successors. The Presbyteries had been strongly moved by the consideration that the Educational Institutions of the Indian Government were unsatisfactory, not only in the opinion of the Missionaries of the Churches at work in India, but also in the opinion of the natives and of the Government itself. Those Institutions gave no instruction in the principles of any religion whatever. They were conducted most strictly on what was called the principle of religious neutrality. But they were not really neutral. The gigantic system of Hindu superstitions, by which the minds and lives of the natives had been enslaved for ages, was essentially bound up with gross errors in history, geography, and science, so that the teaching of literature and science in the Government Institutions was daily destroying in the minds of the native youth all confidence in the teaching of the religion of their fathers. It was strongly urged that in these circumstances it would be a great mistake to close the Church's Institutions. The conversions made and avowed in the Institutions had not been many. But the Presbyteries had heard with satisfaction the assurances given by those who had the best opportunities of judging, that the good influences produced upon the young in their institutions had shown themselves very decidedly in all parts of the laud. The Presbyteries had taken special notice of the fact that the expenditure upon their schools and colleges in India was met to a large extent by funds contributed in India itself. The full sum spent on education in their schools and colleges at Calcutta in 1888 was £4101, and the fees and grants-in-aid amounted to £2944, leaving the sum of £1157 to be contributed by the Church at home. But of that sum £563 was spent on elementary mission schools, and £594 on the higher education. Of the £2188 spent on education at Madras, the fees and grants made up £1803, and of the remaining £385, only £66 was spent on the higher education. The total cost, therefore, to the Church at home for higher education at these two centres, where alone the higher branches were taught, was £660. The Committee made the following recommendations: — "That in present circumstances their Missionary Educational Institutions in India be continued, and be conducted upon the same principles as heretofore; that the utmost care be taken to uphold their Missionary character; that the instruction given in them be made at all times thoroughly efficient by the providing of a sufficient staff of labourers in the field; that, with a view to efficiency and economy, any of the Institutions which were undermanned and could not be strengthened, be united with others in the same locality if practicable, or be closed; that, while it appeared that the expenditure required for their maintenance was largely met by funds provided in India, in the form of student's fees and Government grants-in-aid, efforts be put forth to make the colleges as nearly as possible self-supporting; that the employment of non-Christian teachers in secular branches be dispensed with as soon as possible; and that communications be opened with other Protestant Churches that had Missionary schools and colleges in India, with a view to co-operation or union wherever that might be found desirable for greater efficiency and economy." In speaking to the Report, Mr Smith said the main question upon which the Presbyteries were called upon to give an opinion was whether, in the altered circumstances of India, the Educational Institutions should be continued as part of the Missionary organisations there. They had given an almost unanimous opinion that at present the Institutions should be continued. The evidence on which that opinion was founded was in the hands of the members. The Presbyteries were of opinion that not only had the Institutions done great good in the past, but that it would be a calamity if they were withdrawn. These opinions were given in full view of the fact that more than thirty years ago the Indian Government set up and maintained Schools and Colleges for the education of the people of India. And it might have been calculated that as the Government had taken the matter of education in hand the Church might properly have withdrawn from it. But the Government itself still thought the Church should hold its ground, and it was willing to aid the Church in doing so. The Government Institutions gave no instruction whatever in religious knowledge. They confined themselves most strictly to secular instruction, holding that as they were constituted they could not do otherwise. The fact was that the teaching of the literature and the science of this country was undermining that of the most sacred books on which the religion of the natives of India was founded. They were in consequence beginning to despise these books, and that without knowing what Christians regarded as the impregnable rule of faith and duty. The evils flowing from this were great, and were complained of in all quarters. The Government, instead of being hostile, was quite ready to aid in the work. They gave the educational institutions grants in aid, and these went a long way towards their support. Mr Smith read from the Report the opinions of various Educational and Civil Authorities in India of the value to the progress of civilisation of the Educational and Religious work of the Church Institutions in India. It might be said that now, if ever, was the Church's opportunity. The Institutions were so nearly self supporting that the Church at home was called on to contribute only £660 towards them. The Rev. Dr SCOTT moved: "That the General Assembly approve of the Report, and remit to the Foreign Mission Committee to consider, and, where practicable, to carry out the recommendation which it contains. The General Assembly thank the Special Committee for their diligence, and discharge them." It was lamentable, he remarked, how much ignorance prevailed in Presbyteries and Congregations as to the spheres and methods of the Missionary work of the Church. The consequence of that was the very feeble support which the Church of Scotland was giving to those Missions. If there was no information regarding Missions in Congregations there were no funds forthcoming. As to the question at issue, a Christian Mission to be successful must be an Educational one. The uneducated Convert became a discredit to Christianity. He moved that effect be given to the opinion of the Presbyteries, by handing it over to the Mission Committee to carry out the recommendations it contained. Dr Scott concluded by intimating his willingness to accept an addendum of which Dr Gloag had given notice, and which was as follows: — "The General Assembly, while highly approving of the recommendations that efforts be put forth to make the higher Missionary Education given in our affiliated Colleges of Calcutta and Madras selfsupporting, and that the employment of nonChristian teachers be dispensed with as soon as possible, instruct the Foreign Mission Committee to make more direct efforts toward the training of a native Ministry for India, and to consider what measures would be most helpful to that end." Viscount DALRYMPLE seconded the motion. He was able, he said, to bear testimony to the advantages offered by the Educational Institutions in Madras. The deliverance, with the addition, was agreed to. OVERTURES ANENT THE REGULATIONS FOR THE ELECTION OF MINISTERS. The Presbytery of Ayr overtured the Assembly with reference to the election of Ministers — (1) that a uniform system of vote by ballot be adopted in the election of Ministers to vacant Parishes; and (2) that it be made obligatory on the Kirk-Sessions of all Parishes to make up annually a Roll of the Congregation for election purposes, and to submit the same annually to the Presbytery of the bounds. The Rev. Dr DYKES, Ayr, suggested that the Overture be remitted to a Committee for consideration, and report to next Assembly. Mr T. G. MURRAY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), held that it was perfectly illegal to do what the Overture proposed in regard to the making up of the Roll. Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH (Elder), said if there was to be a Committee appointed, be hoped they would not confine their attention to the points in the Overture. He would mention another matter of extreme interest and importance — the making of better provision for the election of the Congregational Committee. The present system was the origin of much evil, and there should be a distinct injunction laid down in the selection of a Committee that it should be really representative, and not confined to the first dozen or fifteen whose names were mentioned. The Overture was sent to a Committee. The following Overture was taken up on the same subject from Members of the House :— "The Venerable the General Assembly is hereby humbly overtured to remit to a Special Committee the Regulations for the Election and Admission of Ministers, with a view to having them fully considered before next Assembly, and also amended during the present Assembly if it appear that, in some particulars, such amendment is urgently needed. — Peter Adamson, e.; Wm. H. Anderson, m.; John Barnett, m.; Alex. Bayne, m.; Jas. Alex. Campbell, e.; J. B. Cumming, m.; Duncan Dewar, m.; R. G. Fraser, m.; A. Gardner, m.; Henry M. Hamilton, m.; J. M. Joass, m.; Michael P. Johnston, m.; David Johnston, m.; John Lamont, m.; P. R. Scott Lang, e.; Alexander Lawson, m.; Thomas Leishman, m.; Geo. M'Donald, m.; R. M`Dougall, m.; Jas. Mackenzie, m.; Lindsay Mackersy, e.; Gilbert Macmillan, m.,' A. C. M'Phail, m.; A. Macpherson, e.; Neil Macpherson, m.; A. J. Macquarrie, m.; H. Mair, m.; John Mitchell, m.; George R. Murison, m.; T. B. W. Niven, m.; R. Rankin, m.; John Reid, m.; Oliver Scott, m.; Duncan Shaw, e.; Alex. Webster, m.; H. J. Wotherspoon, m." The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON, Harray, supported the Overture. He condemned the present system and especially the calling of the Roll, which he described as one of the most perplexing, confusing, and irritating things that could be done to a Congregation. He concluded by moving:- "The General Assembly receive the Overture, and resolve to remit to a Special Committee the Regulations for the Election and Admission of Ministers (namely, the Election Regulations adopted by last Assembly, and the Act of 1878 on the induction of Ministers) for the purpose of having them revised and reported on to next Assembly. The Assembly further direct the Committee to give special attention to the suggestions contained in the Overture from the Presbytery of Ayr, to receive and consider such further suggestions as may be offered to them, to obtain if possible serviceable information with reference to the past working of the Regulations, and to lay before next General Assembly a Report of the result of their inquiries, and also a statement of the conclusions at which they arrive with reference to the matters hereby remitted to them. The Assembly further authorize the Committee to report to the present Assembly such proposed Amendments of the Regulations (if any) as may appear to them to be urgently needed." Captain WIMBERLEY, Inverness (Elder), seconded the motion. Mr T. G. MURRAY, Edinburgh (Elder), moved that the Overture be dismissed, and in doing so took exception to the invariable practice which pre. vailed at present of selecting for the position of Moderator of Session during a vacancy the neighbouring Minister, who might not always be a competent person. He also favoured the holding of Congregational meetings during the day instead a in the evening, so that persons in infirm health might be able to attend them. The Rev. Dr JAMIESON, Old Machar, seconded the amendment. Lord BALFOUR of BURLEIGH said he had the uncomfortable feeling that some of them, himself among the number, had been caught in a trap on this occasion, and that the trap had been set by Mr Murray. He had been told by Mr Murray that the suggestion which he had thrown out would come up on the next Overture; but he now found that his friend was going to oppose the appointment of a Committee to consider the general points, and that only the one contained in the Overture from Ayr was to be taken up. He agreed with Mr Murray that, having got regulations which on the whole worked well, they should be very careful to avoid making any general or structural changes upon them likely to confuse the mind of the Church; but he hoped the door would be opened somehow to the consideration of points such as he had indicated. He thought the Committee to be appointed should be charged with the duty of keeping a record of all the points which had caused dispeace and difficulty, and the manner in which they were disposed of — whether by the Assembly, the Synod, or the Presbytery — so that they might have, so to speak, a handy manual of what was the law and practice of the Church in these matters. In his opinion, the large majority of the difficulties that arose in the selection of Ministers were caused by want of initial care in getting a Committee thoroughly representative of the Congregation. Mr MURRAY explained that it was perfectly open to Lord Balfour to move that a particular matter be sent to the Committee; but what he (Mr Murray) objected to was that the whole Regulations should be put into the crucible. Mr J. H. FORSYTH, Inverness (Elder), agreed that they should not be constantly putting the Regulations into the melting-pot; but there were always cases of difficulty arising, and he thought the Assembly should not rest until they had made the Regulations as perfect as possible. He therefore recommended that the Overture should be sent to a Committee. The Rev. H. J. WOTHERSPOON, Burnbank, Hamilton, moved as an amendment: — "The Assembly recognises and deplores the evils referred to in the Overture; and instructs any Committee appointed that they inquire into the operation of the system of Regulations for election of Ministers adopted by the Assembly of 1875, and since from time to time modified, and to report to next Assembly." The Regulations, he said, had worked in many directions in a manner most hurtful to the life of the Church. He specially objected to the present system of competitive preaching, which travestied the Ministry of the Word of God, and turned their Churches into hustings. His desire was to refer to a powerful Committee, not trifling changes in the mode of voting, for these were not causes but effects. They were tumours which had broken forth on the surface of the Church's life, and which bore testimony to a deeprooted disorder and corruption. He did not wish to see the Church at that time of day exercising any coercive control over Congregations; but she had absolute power to stop that evil of which he complained. She could speak a guiding word to her people such as she had never hitherto addressed to them. They were sheep without shepherds in this matter, and who could blame them if they sometimes went astray? From the moment that the Church Court appointed the Moderator of a vacant Parish until the time when he reported that the Congregation was ready for the induction of a Minister, the Church left a hiatus in her Regulations, which were Regulations planned not to regulate. They had the Church during that interval winking elaborately, or like little children with their aprons over their faces asking if it was time to look. That was not a dignified position for the Church. He suggested that the Church should address some words of Pastoral advice to her young Ministers and her people in the management of elections. The Rev. JOHN KERR, Dirleton, seconded the Amendment. The Rev. WILLIAM ALLAN, Mochrum, expressed the hope that Dr Johnston would stand by his motion. He thought the Regulations should be shorter and fewer in number, and also be made clearer, as they were very difficult to understand. The Rev. THOMAS AITON, Livingston, Linlithgow, wished to bring before the Assembly the matter of canvassing in the election of Ministers; but The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, rose to order, and pointed out that the Regulations did not countenance canvassing at all. The Rev. JAMES MURRAY, Kilmalcolm, suggested as an addition to Dr Johnston's motion that the Committee be authorised to consult Presbyteries before bringing up their report to next Assembly. Dr JOHNSTON accepted Mr Wotherspoon's suggestions. The third motion was, with the consent of the House, withdrawn. The vote was taken between the first motion (Dr Johnston's) and the second motion (Mr Murray's), when it appeared that the first Motion was carried by a large majority. It was remitted to the Committee of Nomination to bring up the names of a Committee in terms of the motion carried ; and it was agreed that the Overture from the Presbytery of Ayr should be referred to the same Committee. THE CONSTITUTION OF QUOAD SACRA PARISHES. Mr T. G. MURRAY submitted a Special Report by the Endowment Committee in regard to the revision of the model Constitution for quoad sacra Parishes, and he moved as follows: — "The General Assembly having had under consideration the Special Report of the Endowment Committee, remit to the Delegation Committee, appointed in the Deliverance on the Endowment Committee Report yesterday, to revise the Model Deed of Constitution for Churches and Parishes quoad sacra, instructing them to alter the existing Model Deed of 1885, so that the Minister of a new Parish shall not be ex officio a member of the Committee of Management, but that the Kirk-Session shall elect three of their own number members of the Committee of Management in addition to those elected by the seatholders; and in the Minister's option, he shall, if he so desires, be one of the Kirk-Session Representatives; and providing that at any meeting of the Committee of Management at which the Minister, being a Member, is present, he shall be chairman, with a casting as well as a deliberative vote." The motion was seconded and agreed to. Changes were made on the order of business. The General Assembly adjourned at 5.40 to meet again at 8.30. EVENING SEDERUNT. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, at 8.30 p.m., and was constituted. THE MEETING-PLACE OF THE SYNOD OF GLENELG. The Rev. A. CAMERON, Sleat, who was accompanied by the Rev. Mr Dewar, Applecross, appeared at the bar on behalf of the Synod of Glenelg, asking that the Assembly should allow that Synod to change its place of meeting from Kyleakin to Strome Ferry and Portree alternately, beginning next year at Strome Ferry. On the motion of the Rev. DONALD STEWART, Kilmuir, the application was granted. CORRESPONDENCE WITH FOREIGN CHURCHES. The Rev. P. M'ADAM MUIR, Edinburgh, gave in the Report of the Committee on Correspondence with Foreign Churches. The Report stated that the accounts for the year had closed with an available balance of £352. The grants voted, amounting in all to £292, included £122 to the Waldensian Church, £100 to the French Central Society and Interior Mission, and smaller sums to Religious Societies in France, Belgium, Geneva, and Prague. Reference was made to the celebration of the return of the Waldenses as the most interesting event of the year. The Church of Scotland was represented on that occasion by Dr Mitchell of South Leith, who, it was understood, was the first Foreign Deputy who had ever addressed the Waldensian Synod in Italian. The Report went on to give a favourable report of the work carried on by the Interior Mission and the Central Society of the Reformed Church of France and of the Missionary Christian Church of Belgium. The great loss which the Reformed Church of France had sustained in the death of M. Eugene Bersier was sympathetically referred to. In submitting the Report, Mr M'Adam Muir incidentally mentioned how very little was known in many parts of the Continent regarding the ecclesiastical conditions which prevailed in Scotland. A German pastor writing home from this country last year described the Established Church of Scotland as the Church of the landlords and of those who could not afford seat rents. Among other and more correct information the pastor also stated that Patronage was still maintained in the Church, and that in the number of its Communicants it did not come nearly up to the Free Church. He (Mr Muir) thought that possibly that description bore internal evidence of its origin. For such misconception, however, the Church was herself largely to blame, as her contributions to Foreign Churches were so small, and as she so seldom sent deputies to their Synods. So long as this lasted, Foreign Churches might be pardoned for thinking the Church of Scotland a small and feeble institution. In concluding, he appealed for larger contributions and the outflow of greater sympathy to the Reformed Churches of the Continent. The Assembly was afterwards addressed by Pastor MOURON, of the Evangelical Society of France; Pastor BROCHER, of the Belgian Missionary Church; and M. A. H. DE ROUGEMONT, from the Interior Mission of France. The Rev. Dr MITCHELL, South Leith, gave an account of his visit to Italy in September last, on the occasion of the celebration of the Bicentenary of the historical event in the Waldensian Church. He was very glad of the opportunity he had enjoyed of conveying to the Waldensian Church the hearty greetings and warmest wishes of the Assembly. In reference to the interest which was taken in the Waldensian Church, he mentioned the fact that a recently deceased member of the Church of Scotland had left a sum of money to be paid yearly in aid of the Missions of that Church. It was not a large sum, but it would form a perpetual link between that Church and the Church of Scotland. As to the Waldensians themselves, he did not know any population among whom there was more sincere, genuine, and unaffected piety. Their Religion pervaded their whole life. While they seemed every year to apply for money, it should be remembered that they never applied for money for the support of their own Ministers. It was spent by them in missionary work in the Evangelisation of Italy, and they of all the Churches in Italy were, in his view, best qualified for that work. It was also worthy of note that the Waldensians had been a most powerful lever in securing the freedom of Italy. Dr Mitchell made a warm appeal for increased interest in the welfare of Italy, as a country to which Britain had very great obligations, and which, he hoped and believed, had a great future before it. The Rev. W. CLARKE, Bangor, Moderator of the Irish Presbyterian Assembly, next addressed the Assembly. He said — Mr Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren, I count myself happy in being the medium of conveying the filial greetings of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to her mother Church of Scotland. We rejoice that after a season of estrangement mother and daughter have been reconciled, and that the relationship which existed before Disruption days has been re-established, and our sincere desire is that the causes which led to our parting company so many years ago may issue in the same happy result as the quarrels of lovers - namely, the renewal of love. Long may mother and daughter continue to cherish mutual esteem, respect, and good-will. It will not, I venture to assure you, be the daughter's fault if the friendly intercourse lately renewed is not continued. Fathers and Brethren, we are deeply interested in your spiritual welfare and your temporal prosperity. We are delighted to see that your Church has put on her strength and clothed herself with zeal as with a cloak to cultivate the waste places of your native land, and to gather into the fold of the Good Shepherd of the sheep those of your countrymen who have drifted away from Gospel ordinances, and are wandering on the bare and barren common of the world. It is gratifying to us to observe how in these later years your Church is vindicating her right to be in reality as in name the Church of Scotland. Long may she bear the honoured historic name, and prove by her holy activities that she is worthy of it. For our part we have no desire to see her Disendowed and Disestablished. Although we have no State connection ourselves, we do not join in the cry, as affecting the Church of Scotland, "Delenda est Carthago." We are not voluntaries, for we still believe in the endowment of religion by the State, and we have no intention of renouncing our ancestral faith because we have been deprived of State Endowments. For my friends and brethren's sakes I'll say, "Long live the Church of Scotland, which has done so much to make intelligent, educated, and religious Scotland what she is." Palmam ferat meruit. Fathers and Brethren, if you will bear with pardonable egotism, I shall speak of ourselves, and in doing so shall endeavour to tell you how we are and how we do. For several years there has been a violent political shaking of our poor distracted country; but notwithstanding the tornado which has swept over it we have not been paralysed nor hindered in our work as a Church. The whole land has been open to us, and open as it never was before. In not a solitary instance has any of our Ministers been unkindly treated when attending to pastoral work, and our Colporteurs, who have traversed the whole island without let or hindrance, declare that they have freer access to the hearts and homes of our countrymen than at any previous period of our history. The good hand of God is upon us for good, and His blessing is resting on our work. The little hardy Scottish exotic planted in our soil by wise and loving Scotsmen over two hundred years ago has grown so well that its boughs give promise of one day filling all the land. The first Congregation formed at Carrickfergus has multiplied six hundredfold; the first Presbytery has grown into, thirty-six. Whereas we were then, like the conies, a feeble folk, we are now strong with all the vigour of manhood and the consciousness of numbers and success. At the present time we are busily engaged in making preparation for celebrating in July next the Jubilee of the formation of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland by the union of the two Synods — of Ulster and the Secession. Before the Union we had not a single Missionary either in the foreign or the Jewish field; now we have fourteen in India and China, and five to the Jews on the Continent of Europe and in Syria. We have our Colonial Mission ministering to the wants of our people who have gone to the colonies and dependencies of the Empire; and our Continental Mission, which extends a helping hand to Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain. Last year our people contributed £168,000 for Church purposes, and since 1874 they have laid the handsome gift of £3,600,000 on God's altar, exclusive of what has been raised for the building of new Churches and Manses and the renovation and repairs of old ones. I should like, but for my desire not to unduly encroach upon your time, to advert to some of the difficulties with which we are grappling. With one of these you are yourselves familiar, and can therefore all the more heartily sympathise with us, and correctly estimate its magnitude. I refer to the indifferentism of large numbers of the working classes, and the formalism and hollow-hearted religion of not a few of those above them in the social scale. We are in open conflict with the ever vigorous and vigilant Church of Rome on the Ecclesiastical and Educational arena. The former is carried on uninterruptedly, but the latter is intermittent. And, as it has lately assumed a new phase, I would like to say a few words about it in order to enlist your sympathies and engage your friendly services against the time of our greatest need — I mean when the battle will be fought out in the House of Commons. For long years we have carried on this conflict. From the day, I might almost say, when the system of National Education was given to our country by the late Lord Derby, we have resisted with varying degrees of success the efforts of the hierarchy of the Church of Rome to secure a sectarian and purely denominational system which should supplant the present non-sectarian and non-denominational system, which has been like the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the sectarian wounds and bruises of our distracted country. But, unhappily, we have not succeeded to the extent we would wish. Despite our most strenuous endeavours the bishops and priests of the Latin Church have all but succeeded in denominationalising primary and intermediate education, and, growing confident by the success they have hitherto achieved, they are clamouring and working for the establishment of a purely denominational university or college, to be amply endowed and fully equipped by the British Government. With a display of seeming liberality and even-handed justice they propose that in return for the boon they seek the Belfast Queen's College should be handed over to the Presbyterians, because they think it is a Presbyterian College. This proposal has a show of fairness about it, but when weighed in the balance it will be found wanting. It covertly assumes that the proposed Roman Catholic College and the Belfast Queen's College as a Presbyterian institution would be placed on exactly the same footing. But this way of putting the case is altogether misleading. The existing system of education in the Queen's Colleges is by no means sectarian or denominational, as they afford to all classes and denominations, without any distinction of religious creed whatsoever, an opportunity for pursuing a regular and liberal course of education. Every Professor is prohibited from giving in his class room any sectarian or denominational instruction — nay, he pledges himself at his installation to his office to carefully abstain from teaching or advancing any doctrine or making any statement derogatory to the truth of revealed Religion or disrespectful or injurious to the religious convictions of any portion of his class or audience. The education imparted in the Queen's Colleges is, by the very nature of their constitution, unsectarian and undenominational. It was because it was unsectarian and undenominational that the Colleges were called "Godless" by the parties who are now clamouring for a denominational system. Mark the contrast between the system asked for by the hierarchy and the system existing in the Queen's Colleges: - 1. The governing body in these colleges consists of different denominations ; the governing body in the proposed Roman Catholic college would consist of Roman Catholics exclusively. 2. The Professors in the Queen's Colleges belong to different denominations ; the Professors in the proposed college would be all Roman Catholics, seeing that the hierarchy demand that the teaching of Catholics shall be altogether in the hands of Catholics. 3. The Queen's Colleges are intended to be for the education of all classes and denominations, without any distinction of religious creeds. The proposed Roman Catholic college is intended to be for the education of Catholics solely. In the Queen's Colleges the teaching of the Professors must be in all subjects free from any denominational tinge, and no denominational emblems are to be exhibited in the class-rooms, whereas in the proposed college for Roman Catholics, history, mental and moral philosophy, law, and other subjects having a special bearing on religion, will be treated in a denominational sense, and denominational emblems will be used. In the Queen's College, Belfast, Presbyterians have no rights or privileges that are not common to all other denominations, and the only ground our opponents have for calling it a Presbyterian College is that the members of that creed are more numerous than those of any other in Belfast and neighbourhood. So far from Presbyterians having any pre-eminence over others as to offices or emoluments in connection with Belfast College, they have much less than their fair share of such offices, only seven Professors out of eighteen being Presbyterians, and in the Arts department only three out of nine being Presbyterians. In Galway College, where nearly half the students are Presbyterians, only two of the Professors belong to that faith, and in Cork there is not a solitary Presbyterian Professor. The only Presbyterian College in Ireland having a literary and scientific department is Magee College, Londonderry, which had last year seventy-one matriculated students, and which, like the Catholic University, is under the control of one denomination, and is a College of the Royal University of Ireland. There is this very marked difference between them, that, whereas sixteen Professors of the Catholic University College are Fellows or Teaching Examiners of the Royal University, and receive from the State £6400 annually, only one Professor of Magee College is a Fellow of the Royal University, and receives £400 per annum. Fathers and Brethren, I have detained you too long, but not longer, I hope, than the importance of my subject justified. I have not been able to do more than to touch the fringe of it. If the conscience clause, which is our only safeguard at present, is removed, our whole Educational System will be revolutionised, and our primary, intermediate, and higher education will become purely denominational; sectarian differences, sufficiently pronounced already, will be accentuated; the different denominations will become more and more denominational as the years roll by, and will oppose each other with more rancour, and the last state of ill-fated Ireland will be worse than the first. We deprecate the ceaseless aggression of the Church of Rome, and her persistent efforts to gain unfettered control of the education of the children and youth of the country; and, therefore, we invoke your aid in our endeavour to prevent the British Government from yielding to her demands, because we believe she has no grievance that we have not in common with her, and that the changes which she seeks to effect would be prejudicial to the best interests of our common country. We strive not for ascendency, but for equality and fair play, and therefore do we all the more confidently claim your help. Brethren, withhold it not. Giff gaff, you say in Scotland, makes good friends. The day may come when we in your calamities shall pray to God for you. The Rev. SAMUEL PRENTER, M.A., Dublin, said — Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, I shall not detain your Venerable House many minutes in discharging the duties which devolve upon me to-night. I conceive these duties are mainly twofold — first, to express the love and loyalty which your Irish daughter still cherishes for you; and secondly, to describe in a few sentences the position and prospects of the Irish Presbyterian Church, and to bespeak for her afresh the sympathies and love of the Scottish mother. I feel to-night very much like a man born abroad who has returned on a brief pilgrimage to the home of his ancestors. A dream of life has been realised. I thank God that the dear home still stands. It is not a deserted and venerable ruin. It is a home still, strong in life, strong in hope, strong in position and prospects, as well as strong in its glorious history. Thank God for that. Therefore I do not come here to weep. I come to rejoice. I love the history of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. I love the imperishable achievements of the past which have filled the world with fame. I love the sepulchres of our fathers. I love the vigorous children whom you have sent out into life all over the world. I love the men who now occupy the ancestral seat: the theologians, scholars, preachers, and statesmen who to-day direct the destinies and maintain the honour of the parent Church. I believe it is a fact that the Church of Scotland never in all her history was more worthy to be loved than at the present moment. God has sent her a period of progress and prosperity. He has placed her in a position of complete ecclesiastical freedom. He has manned her ramparts with a race of watchmen and warriors, as vigilant and as brave as ever adorned her history. He has rooted her in the affections and good-will of the Scottish people more widely and deeply than ever. Throughout the world Presbyterians who speak the mother speech turn to her with loyalty and admiration. It is not too strong a way of putting it to say that God has granted to you in the present generation a great revival of spiritual and intellectual life, and with that revival there has sprung up in the Presbyterian Churches of the world a corresponding revival of esteem, and love, and regard. Nowhere has that revival of love towards you been more genuine than in Ireland. I state a fact when I say that throughout the length and breadth of our Irish Church to-day the name of the Established Church of Scotland has taken a fresh hold upon the heart and on the convictions of our people. I believe that that circumstance is due not to any political bias or mere ecclesiastical consideration. But it arises from the belief that you are ringing true to the great Reformation principles and Pauline theology with which your history has been interlaced in the past. You combine breadth with depth; you reconcile freedom with order; you unite orthodoxy with progress; you carry veneration for the past into the enthusiasm of the present; you link a beautiful ritual with a perfervid spirit; you weave together light and heat; you cultivate at once a noble type of Christian character and the energies of the Christian Missionary; you are able to preserve a just equilibrium and balance amidst the forces of advanced Christian scholarship which, I take leave to say, is the admiration of all that is best in the Presbyterianism of the world. Your Irish daughter then has good reason for loving you. She loves not only with the natural instinct and devotion of the child, but with the complacency and admiration of a matured reason. One other word on this subject and I pass on. We in Ireland have heard with the deepest concern that the Church of Scotland is threatened with the attentions of a great politician, who is famous according as he has lifted up axes on the thick trees. He says that Scotland has now with sufficient clearness signified her desire that he should level to the ground her historic national Church ; and that accordingly he is ready to enter upon the work of Disestablishment. I do not doubt the perfect readiness of that politician — at present out of employment — to bargain for this or any other undertaking that might restore him to power. But I do most sincerely question his interpretation of the mind of Scotland in reference to her own national Church. This Reformed Church was built on solid Scriptural foundations. The Crown rights of the Redeemer have been most jealously guarded by her in early times when others entered upon perilous compromises. She has kept herself free from Sacerdotalism, and has ministered to the wants of the people. More than any other institution she has made Presbyterianism what it is to-day throughout the world, and moulded the Scottish people into the freest and most religions people on the face of the earth. Even the two other Presbyterian Churches of Scotland are to-day what they are because of your productive energy. The Erskines in the last century founded the Secession Church. But who trained and made the Erskines? Chalmers led the Disruption in 1843. But who produced and educated Chalmers? The Erskines and Chalmers both drank their inspiration at the wells of your spiritual life. And it is as true as anything can be that if there had been no national Church of Scotland, with her free, strong, pure Gospel life, there would not exist to-day either a Free or a United Presbyterian Church. Why should that Church now be handed over to the axe of the politician? In degrading her you promote no good object, and you wound Presbyterianism, not only in Scotland, but throughout the world. The Scottish nation, however, has not given the mandate, and we cherish the hope that it will never do so — that some way may be discovered for adjusting conflicting Ecclesiastical claims and conserving Presbyterian energies in Scotland other than the delirious one of destroying the Church which is rooted most deeply in Scottish history and is regarded with filial affection by so many of the scattered Presbyterian Churches of the world. I now ask the indulgence of this House while I attempt to tell you something of the fortunes of the Church to which I have the honour to belong. It is sometimes forgotten that Ireland has a religious problem, and that the religious problem is most probably the kernel of the political. With your permission I want to tell you a little of that religious problem. In the first place, you are not to imagine that Romanism in Ireland is on the decline. I affirm, without fear of refutation, that Romanism as a system never was so strong in Ireland, so hopeful and so ambitious as it is at the present moment. It is educated, organised, ably manned, and, above all, it is throughout the country almost perfectly identified with nationalism. In the second place, you are not to imagine that Protestantism is on the decline. On the contrary, it is progressive, aggressive, and hopeful. You are aware of the two strands into which Irish Protestantism is almost equally divided — the English and the Scottish, the Episcopalian and the Presbyterian. It is a fact that in all that constitutes true Church power both are growing. The Methodists, also, who are a very earnest Church in Ireland, are advancing. Apply any test you please to the Presbyterian Church — statistical, moral, spiritual — and you will conclude that she is a healthy, sound, living Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Her Ministers never were better educated or more laborious. Her people never were more united and compacted. She never more clearly realised what was the character of her mission in Ireland. What I say of the Presbyterian Church is, I believe, true of both the Episcopalian and Methodist. Therefore, I am of opinion that Irish Protestantism as a religious force never was in a sounder or more vigorous condition than at present. A third fact is of importance. The various sections of Irish Protestantism were never on more cordial or friendly terms with one another. There are here and there outbreaks of Ritualism, but I believe they are sporadic. Irish Protestantism in all its sections is truly and vitally evangelical. Every year is seeing them approach more closely to one another. The spirit of union is in the air. There is co-operation, and a desire for unity; and that unity will come — not in our time, perhaps, but our children will see it. And now I come to the last fact, which I shall put in the form of a question — What are the relations between Romanism and Protestantism in Ireland? I answer frankly, they are not now nearly so strained as they were a few years ago. Seven years ago Ireland was in the crisis of a political agony. During the last two years the acuteness of the crisis has disappeared. You could easily restore it if you tried; you can easily avert it also, if you try. There is one word which will kindle the fires of religious animosity and wrap Ireland in a blaze, and that is the word "ascendancy." Put either adjective before it — Protestant or Romanist — it matters not which — it will act like a spark to gunpowder. There is one other word which will establish concord and perpetuate peace. It is the word "equality"; and if that can be maintained, then in Ireland there will be a future of progress and prosperity. Ireland is to be saved, not by politics, but by the grace of God. It is the belief of many that we are on the eve of great events in that most interesting and delightful of islands. Amongst Roman Catholics there is a wide-spread dissatisfaction with the empty sacerdotalism of their Church. They are educated; but they hate Protestantism with a concentrated and a revengeful hatred. God knows they have had good reason for so doing in the past. The veil is upon their hearts still. But by innumerable agencies the Word of God is being scattered amongst the homes of the people. They are reading that Word. I do not expect that Irish Roman Catholics will ever in large numbers enter the communion of any of our existing Protestant Churches, but I do expect that Jesus will reveal Himself to the Irish people, and that they will form an Evangelical. Church of their own which will accurately express and embody the enthusiasm and love and devotion of the Irish heart. You sent Patrick over to Ireland to convert us. We sent Columba to Scotland to convert you. In the time to come the Church of Patrick and the Church of Columba will see eye to eye, and unite into one their characteristic enthusiasm and strength. Mr JAMES MORELL said — Moderator and Friends, I feel much pleasure in being privileged as a deputy from the Irish Presbyterian Church in appearing before this Assembly, and in bringing with me, as I do, from my old Church at home a message full of brotherly kindness and best good wishes towards you and yours. We are a small Church in Ireland and a poor one, but not a feeble one. We are very dogged and persistent, we hold on to our work, and, with the blessing of God, we are getting on fairly well. Much of our Church work may be expected to be a good deal uphill, for, as you know, sir, our poor country is in a state of much civil and social unrest. Looking at our Church work around, I think I may say it is in a fairly forward state. I will not trouble you, sir, with many statistics; for figures, though they may be facts, are often, in unskilled hands like my own, uninteresting and misleading. Besides, sir, I have not got any to give you, a reason, whatever the Scots may think about it, which satisfies us in Ireland. Our home schemes are many and various. Indeed, I am afraid we have too much work on hand. God in His goodness is opening up to us many doors of usefulness, and in our anxiety to overtake the work we sometimes go in not properly equipped, and we have to come out, if not utterly discomfited, at least discouraged, and not with that amount of success that we might otherwise have looked for. Many of our schemes, notwithstanding, are doing well. Our Sabbath-- school Society is a fine institution and doing noble work. There are now somewhere about 1000 schools in Ireland, 10,000 teachers, and over 80,000 scholars, a goodly number, considering our reduced population. But the noblest and by far the most successful of our Church schemes is our fine Orphan Society. It stands head and shoulders above all others. From the very first it took with the hearts of the people, and when, sir, you reach the hearts — and I suppose it is the same in Scotland — you are within measureable distance of their pockets, an end much to be wished for. The society has gathered around it an amount of sympathy and support which none of our other schemes has attained. This is no doubt mainly attributable to the good cause itself, but unquestionably much of its success is also due to its Convener, the Rev. Dr Johnston, of Belfast — or rather, I should say, to its Conveners, for the doctor is a wise man, and, knowing the worth of his good wife, he has associated her with him, and those two true, loyal servants of God, in season and out of season, in health, and I am sorry to say, too often out of health, with busy brains, ready pens, and loving hearts, are ever at work in carrying on the labour of love, and God the Father of the orphan and widow is abundantly blessing their work. Against intemperance, the great curse of our country — the curse of all countries, but somehow I think it has a special liking for Ireland, or the Irish may have a special liking for it - against it we are fighting strongly, and will continue to fight to the bitter end. In this work we are getting much encouragement from our Roman Catholic friends. The Roman Catholic Church has got some hard hits to-night, but it is only right to give everyone, no matter what his colour may be, his due. This is the centenary of the great apostle of temperance, Father Mathew, and right worthily the Roman Catholic Church is celebrating it. Bishops and Priests are taking off their coats and going to the work with a will. Lately two of the leading Archbishops had issued Pastorals to the clergy of their Dioceses. In these Pastorals the Clergy are enjoined to establish temperance societies in each of their Parishes, and they are to set their faces as flint against the drinking customs that prevail at Funerals and Marriages, Baptisms and fairs, and markets; all very drouthy occasions. All this, sir, looks bright and hopeful. And now, in closing, what shall I say of our Sustentation Scheme, the backbone of our Church structure, upon the success of which, under God, the very existence of our Church depends? While, sir, I cannot, I am sorry to say, speak of it so hopefully, it is dragging its slow length along, sometimes uphill, but oftener downhill. At first it made a firm rush up the hill, and we had hoped it would have reached the standard aimed at — £30,000 a year — but it never did reach that amount, and for years past it has, with an occasional spurt up, been coming down, and now the barometer stands (I believe, Mr Clarke) at £22,000 or thereabouts. We hope this is low-water mark with it. Lately the Church has appointed a very able Convener, the Rev. Dr Whigham, a gentleman of untiring energy, of much tact and Christian courtesy, and, what is rare in Ireland, a man of good common sense, in whose hands the exercise of authority, while effective, will never be offensive. As the Doctor has now his strong shoulders to the wheel, we hope he will get the machine uphill again. Many changes, sir, during late years have come over our country. Not so very long ago much literary darkness hung on the land ; now there is no lack of light and learning. We have our Universities, Queen's Colleges, our own fine College of Magee, the Intermediate system of education; while, above and beyond these, we have our fine system of National education. As I have been for many years officially connected with that system, I can say from personal knowledge that with all its drawbacks, it is a great boon to our country and a great blessing to our Church. It is a great network spread over the entire country. There is not a nook or corner in Ireland in which a National School is not to be found. The old hedge school has died out, and the Church education schools are fast disappearing. Of the 5,000,000 of our reduced population over 1,000,000 of pupils are on the roll of our schools. Of Presbyterians, between 100,000 and 120,000 and the educational results as returned in the Blue-- Book submitted to Parliament can stand comparison with those in England, Scotland, and Wales, and in all the schools under Presbyterian management and in many others daily instruction in Bible or Catechism is given to the pupils of our Church. In the South and West, where there are but few scattered Presbyterian families, the conscience clause in the Board rules guarantees that the faith of the pupil will not be tampered with. In the entire history of the system there has never been an instance of proselytism carried out in any of the National schools. But, Moderator, in all seriousness and sorrow, I must say a heavy cloud is resting over our poor country, heavier than ever hung over your noble Scotch mountains and valleys. But, sir, we are in no way disheartened. We fear nae ill. The foundation of God standeth sure. Our Church has troubles without, but there is peace within. Every one of her timbers is sound from stem to stern, and in all time of trouble we can lift our eye to the hills, and we know that God in the midst of our darkness will lift upon us the light of His countenance, and He will make all those things, whether they may be civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical, what we think to be against us and crushing us to the wall — He will make them all, if we only let Him and trust Him and love Him, work together for His own glory and for our good and the good of our country, and the work of our hand, the little it be, He will, in His own good time, extend and establish. Mr COLIN G. MACRAE, Edinburgh (Elder) moved the following Deliverance: — "The General Assembly receive the Report, and re-appoint the Committee with the usual powers — the Rev. P. M'Adam Muir, Convener. The General Assembly are gratified by the assurance given as to the progress of those Churches and Societies which the Church of Scotland has been privileged to aid, and they instruct the Committee to take advantage of every fitting opportunity of expressing the warm regard of the Church for the other Churches of the Reformation. The General Assembly have heard with lively satisfaction the Report which Continental Deputies have given of work done by their several Communions. The General Assembly desire to express special gratification at again receiving a Deputation from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and would assure them of continued sympathy and regard. The General Assembly remit to the Joint-Committee to arrange a suitable day for the biennial collection for the funds of the Committee." The Rev. D. CAMPBELL, Rosemount, seconded the motion. With others who had spoken, he felt the incongruity of receiving Irish deputies under the cover of a Committee on correspondence with Foreign Churches, but begged to assure them that there was no political significance in the conjunction. The Church of Scotland was bound to the Irish Presbyterian Church not only by ties of faith but by ties of kindred — they were blood relations. With regard to the other Churches mentioned in the Report, though there might be no tie of blood, there had been a giving and getting between them for long. One link consisted in the contributions of the Committee, though he could hardly venture to call these Golden links. Gold could be beaten thin, drawn fine, but it would be a very slender thread indeed that would be got to stretch from the Castle Rock to Prague out of fifteen sovereigns. The £100 given to France was a more substantial cable, but even in this case an attenuating process was going on, double the amount having been formerly given. After some remarks as to the needs and prospects of the reformed Church in France, he went on to speak of the debit side of the account. They had given something to these Foreign Churches, but they had got more than they gave. Not a few Scottish Ministers owe inspiration to the leaders of their thought. The names of Godet and Naville, of Monod, De Pressensé and Bersier were familiar names in many a Scottish manse. He never had had the opportunity of hearing Bersier on one of those great occasions which led to his being ranked among the foremost orators of France, but he had often heard him address meetings in connection with the M'All Mission. He considered it was a tribute alike to the esteem with which that Mission and its Founder were regarded by the leaders of the French Church as well as to Bersier's self-denying labour when he mentioned that Bersier was accustomed every Monday evening to place his services at the disposal of Mr M'All. All would feel that for one of the foremost orators of France, with enormous claims on his time, to tie himself down to conduct a Mission meeting every week was most significant. It had often been said that Norman M'Leod was seen at his best addressing working men. Very much the same might be said of Bersier. But many in the Church of Scotland were linked to the Churches of Italy, Switzerland, and France who never read a line of Godet or Bersier. They might have forgotten dates and even names, but they were conscious that the story of the conflicts and persecutions of the Vaudois and the Huguenots had gone to the making and moulding of what was most strenuous and robust in their religious life. As to the collection, he hoped it would be granted cheerfully, that indeed every collection asked for this year would be granted by the Assembly. When the King of Babylon besieged Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah bought a field in Anathoth as a sign and token of his belief that the evil days would pass and that God would deliver his people. He hoped that the Church of Scotland would show a like confidence in the issue of the struggle before her by responding heartily and hopefully to whatever calls might be made upon her not only for maintaining but extending her work at home and abroad. The Moderator, at the request of the House, conveyed the thanks of the General Assembly to the various Deputies for their addresses. The General Assembly adjourned at 11.50 P.M., to meet to-morrow at 11 A.M. FRIDAY, 30th May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment and was constituted. The minutes of last sederunt being in the hands of members were held as read and were approved of. Leave was granted to the Committee on Overtures to meet to-day during the sitting of the Assembly. Thereafter the Report of the Committee was given in and approved of. The Committee of Nomination proposed the following as a Committee for the purposes referred to in the Overtures on the election and admission of Ministers — Rev. Dr Dykes, Convener; Rev. Dr Johnston, Vice-Convener; The Procurator, James Wallace, Esq., Rev. Dr Charteris, Rev. Dr Scott, Rev. J. C. Carrick, Sir Alexander Kinloch, Rev. Dr Gloag, W. H. Dunlop, Esq., Rev. J. Smith, Aberdeen, J. G. Baird Hay, Esq., Rev. Theodore Marshall, Sheriff Cheyne, Bailie Shearer, Sir John N. Cuthbertson, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Rev. Dr Mair, Rev. H. T. Wotherspoon, Rev. T. B. W. Niven, Rev. Dr Jamieson, Rev. M. P. Johnston, F. W. Allan, Esq., Captain Wimberley, Professor Scott Lang, Rev. Dr Story, Rev. Dr Watt, Rev. Mr Murray, Calton. The General Assembly called for the Reports of Visitors of Synod Books. The following were given in and approved of: — Perth and Stirling, Glasgow and Ayr, Fife, Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland, Argyll, Aberdeen, Lothian and Tweeddale, Ross, Angus and Mearns, Moray. The General Assembly ordered these Records to be attested in the usual form. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee to Revise the Records of the Commission, and of the Royal Bounty Committee, which was given in by Mr James Grant, Convener. The Report was agreed to, and the Records ordered to be attested in the usual way. PATRONAGE COMPENSATION. Mr T. G. MURRAY gave in the Report of the Committee on Patronage Compensation, from which it appeared that there was a slight increase both in the number of Parishes collecting and the amount collected. In 1888, 611 Parishes and Churches collected, as against 617 in 1889, while the amount collected was £1262 in 1888, as compared with £1282 last year. The Committee by special subscriptions were able to start the current year clear, but they could not, in the first instance, pay more than one-- half of the deductions for the year until the result of the Church collections for the year was known. The total number of Parishes for which compensation was claimed in 1874 was 242, and of these 139 were now off the roll. The Committee reiterated the hope that the regular income of the fund from Parish collections might be somewhat increased, so as to enable them to meet the annual repayments of each year as they occurred. Mr Murray then moved the following deliverance: — "The General Assembly receive the Report, thank the Committee, and renew the order of previous Assemblies enjoining a collection for the Fund to be made throughout all the Churches within the bounds. The General Assembly again specially enjoin each Minister to give his congregation an opportunity of contributing. The General Assembly are pleased to learn that, through the exertions of the Committee, all arrears up to and including the deductions of 1889 have been met, and they trust that increased collections may enable the Committee to meet all future claims without falling into arrears. The General Assembly reappoint the Committee with power to add to their number — Mr T. G. Murray, Convener." They had now, he said, got through about one-half of the claims. The yearly demand, however, did not diminish in the same ratio, because, though the number of claims became less year by year, the ages of the Claimants became greater. If Ministers really gave their people an opportunity of contributing to the fund, he thought they would be able to meet all the claims. Mr C. M. P. BURN, Prestonfield (Elder), seconding the motion, said nothing could have tended more to make the Church the Church of the poor than the abolition of patronage, and he thought they would concur with him that this debt was one they would like to see wiped off as speedily as possible. At the time of the passing of the Abolition of Patronage Act it had been said by the then Lord Advocate that the opponents of patronage were the opponents of all Establishments, and the necessity for clearing off the debt of the Committee was the greater at a time when the enemies of their Establishment were bestirring themselves, and when one of their leading statesmen was labouring under the delusion that he was a divine person who expected in a couple of hours to overthrow the fabric of centuries. The motion was agreed to. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN ENGLAND. The Rev. WILLIAM DOBIE, Ladykirk, submitted the Report of the Committee on Correspondence with the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in England, which stated that the Committee had directed the attention of the Church of Scotland to the Synod's scheme for establishing a fund on behalf of the Aged and Infirm Ministers in connection with the Synod. The Committee were deeply impressed with the necessity of maintaining a more intimate relationship between the Ministers of the Church of Scotland and their brethren of the Synod in England than had subsisted for some time past. In addition to a system of inter-communication - by which Deputies would be sent to any Congregations that might wish for them to help at Communion seasons, or to conduct special services — the Committee recommended that a Deputation should be appointed to visit the Synod of the Scottish Church in England on the occasion of its Annual Meeting. Funds were asked to enable the Committee to carry out its suggestions, and for this purpose the General Assembly was recommended to appoint a Collection to be taken throughout the Church. In submitting the Report, Mr Dobie mentioned that the result of the special appeal made by the Committee last year for funds had been more than consumed by the cost of the circular sent out. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN, Pollokshields, introduced the deputies from the Synod — viz., the Rev. P. II. Aitken, Dulwich, Moderator; the Rev. James Hamilton, Liverpool; the Rev. M. C. Fraser, Newcastle; and Messrs J. Linton, Liverpool; J. Gerard Laing, London; and John Potter, London — elders. The Rev. P. H. AITKEN, in addressing the Assembly, said the destinies of the Church of Scotland were to a great extent at the mercy of the Londoners, and their legislators, who lived there for the most part, took their cue from the opinion found in London. They would be none the worse therefore, of a few Congregations such as that presided over by Dr Donald M'Leod, in the West End, for if they had twenty or thirty such Churches over the great City, an influence would be exercised both directly and immediately upon the legislators which would be very much to their help at that time. Mr J. GERARD LAING, who next spoke, said if in the coming struggle they could not fight side by side with their friends in Scotland, they could hold the outposts in London and the great cities in England, and they could show by their actions that they in Scotland had no sons of the Church more true or more loyal than those whom the deputation represented. Mr ARTHUR ROBERTSON, Secretary of the Caledonian Christian Club, London, afterwards addressed the House. He said that it had long been felt by the Churches in London that many young men and women from Scotland going to London were lost to the Churches from lack of a Scottish Club there. The Caledonian Christian Club, Southampton Street, Bloomsbury, was an institution where all young men and women from Scotland were heartily welcomed, lodged, directed, and helped in securing situations, and as soon as possible associated with some of our Churches. The Club was a most valuable link between the Churches and friends in Scotland and the Churches in England. The Club was most attractive. It was decidedly Scottish and decidedly unsectarian and non-political. Mr Robertson asked for the co-operation of the Churches in making the Club known. The Rev. Mr NIVEN moved the following Deliverance: — "The General Assembly receive the Report of the Committee, return thanks for their diligence, and reappoint them with the usual powers; Mr T. B. W. Niven and Mr William Dobie to be Joint-Conveners. The General Assembly approve of the means taken by the Committee to awaken an interest in the Scheme for raising a fund in aid of the aged and infirm Ministers of the Synod in England, and of new commend the said Scheme to the sympathies of the Church. The General Assembly approve of the suggestion of the Committee that a close relationship should be maintained with the Brethren in England, and instruct them to take all available measures to promote such close relationship by sending deputies to visit the Congregations who may desire to receive them, and by such other means as to the Committee shall seem right. The General Assembly are gratified to learn that, in the opinion of the Committee, the usefulness of the Church in England is capable of being increased, and will gladly receive such suggestions in this direction as may be made at some future time. They recognise also the hindrance to that usefulness in the present inadequate incomes of the Clergy, and record their readiness to consider any suggestion upon the subject which may hereafter be preferred. The General Assembly appoint the following deputation to the next meeting of the Scottish Synod in England: The Moderator, the Joint-Conveners, Professor Story, Lord Balfour, Mr J. A. Campbell, M.P. Finally, in respect the work of the Committee cannot be carried on without adequate funds being placed at their disposal, the General Assembly agree to appoint that a collection be made on their behalf throughout the bounds of the Church on such a day as shall be fixed by the Joint-Committee on the Schemes." He thought something in the way of endowment might be done for the smaller Congregations of the Synod, as it was not creditable that poor Churches in England should be allowed to struggle on without the aid which, with very little effort, the great Church of Scotland could give them. Mr J. A. CAMPBELL, M.P. (Elder), who seconded the motion, gave testimony to the work which the Church which the deputation represented was doing in England. The Deliverance was adopted, and the MODERATOR expressed to the deputation the interest and sympathy which the Church of Scotland had in their operations and welfare. SMALL LIVINGS. The Rev. Dr BARRY laid on the table of the House the Report of the Committee on Small Livings. The Committee reported that 316 grants had been voted. The total sum distributed amounted to £8476, being an increase over the former year of £408. Of this sum £4179 was contributed by the Assembly's Committee, and £4297 by the Church of Scotland Association for augmenting the smaller livings of the Clergy. The joint income of the Committee and the Association at present available for distribution in July next was £245 more than it was at the corresponding period of last year. The Committee had received notice that a sum of £2000 has been bequeathed to the Small Livings Scheme by the late Mr James Taylor, of Starleyhall. In acknowledging with gratitude this most acceptable gift, the Committee could not help remarking that the amount of money accruing to the Small Livings Fund from legacies had hitherto been comparatively small. The Committee proposed to apply this sum to the object of the New Branch of the Small Livings Fund. This New Branch of the Small Livings Fund, which was the joint creation of your Committee and the Committee of the Association, and which was instituted for the purpose of securing the permanent augmentation of Small Livings, had been successfully started. Subscriptions to the New Branch, intimated up to date, amounted to £11,622, of which £1560 was subscribed by Ministers. Subscriptions paid in whole or in part up to date, amounted to £3163. The larger part of these subscriptions was given on the footing of so much to each of the first fifty Parishes which should avail themselves of the terms offered. In this way there was at present a sum of £178 available for each of five Parishes annually for ten years. The subscriptions, which are unconditional, and distributable at the pleasure of the Joint-Committee, amounted at present to £2349. The object and methods of this new effort towards supplementary endowment were brought by the Convener under the notice of the Trustees of the Baird Fund, and after conference and correspondence he was informed that "the trustees approve of the scheme, and are disposed to consider favourably every case which has received the promise of a grant from your Committee." That the movement has to this extent secured the approval and assistance of the Trustees would in no small measure promote its success. In connection with the New Branch, a circular and schedule of application were sent to the Minister of every Small Living Parish, to which upwards of forty replies had been returned; and it was estimated that there are at least twenty Parishes in which steps will be taken without delay to raise local contributions with a view to take advantage of the New Branch. Your Committee had again been called upon to consider, as they had previously had occasion to do, whether they could recommend the General Assembly to remove or modify the resolution adopted by the General Assembly of 1883, in virtue of which Small Living Parishes, erected and endowed since 1881, were excluded from participation in the annual distribution of grants. So far as the Committee had been able to ascertain, it appears that out of 58 Parishes erected and endowed since 1881, there are 32 in the position of Small Livings. While desirous to meet the wishes of those who objected to a resolution, which the circumstances of the case appeared to the General Assembly to render necessary, the Committee could not recommend that in the present state of the funds any large number of Parishes should be taken in hand at once, or in any one year ; and they begged to suggest that, if the General Assembly should be disposed to alter the resolution referred to, it might be to the effect of allowing the Joint-Committee of Distribution to deal with six of such new Parishes, in the order of their erection, annually, until the number at present in existence be exhausted, and thereafter to take on not more than three new Parishes in any one year. The Committee in offering this suggestion, had in view that it is desirable to remove, as far as possible, any cause of friction or dissatisfaction which might now exist, and which pro tanto might interfere with the success of the scheme; that under the operations of the New Branch they anticipated a gradual diminution in the number of Small Livings; and that there was now a fair prospect that the amount of the divisible fund would be increased. In submitting the Report, Dr Barty said that especially in these days they ought to show greater zeal and liberality in the maintenance of their great schemes. He trusted the present aspect of affairs in the Ecclesiastical world would not have the effect of paralysing their efforts for the Schemes of the Church, but that they would maintain them in full operation and vigour, and so prove that the Church of Scotland was both able and willing to do its best, and better than it had ever yet done, in the interests of Religion in the old land. Mr J. A. CAMPBELL, M.P. (Elder), proposed in the following deliverance: — "Approve the Report (reserving the suggestion on page 7 for separate consideration after this Deliverance has been disposed of); reappoint the Committee with the usual powers — Dr Barty, Convener. The General Assembly have learned with satisfaction that the amount available for distribution in July next shows an increase as compared with last year; and they are pleased to know that the New Branch of the Small Livings Fund has been successfully established, and is likely to be of great service in accomplishing the object of the Scheme. The General Assembly trust that in earnestly prosecuting the important work with which they have been charged, the Committee will secure the active and cordial support of every well-wisher of the Church." In doing so he said he thought the improvement was very much owing to the special Mission of Dr Barty two years ago. The results of that Mission were not to be expected all at once, but now he thought they were beginning to recognise them. The full explanation he had given of the objects and workings of this Scheme must have familiarised the minds of Elders and members of the Church in regard to what was doing as to the smaller livings, and they were now reaping the benefit of the information he then gave. He hoped that by another General Assembly the Committee would be able to report considerable progress as to supplementary endowments. The Committee were desirous to have suggestions from Ministers and Elders of the Church of friends to whom application might be made direct by the Committee for assistance in this object. It was an object that might be supported by men who were not connected with the Church, but had a deep interest in the Parishes. They had had assistance from gentlemen who were not living in Scotland, but who had in this way testified to their interest in the Parish of their birth or boyhood. He hoped members would remember, if there were respectable and well-to-do people connected with their Parishes, but no longer living in Scotland, that it was their duty and privilege to report such, in order that application might be made direct to them. Sir ALEXANDER MUIR MACKENZIE seconded, and in doing so said that this was one of the most important Schemes which came before them. This was a practical Report. It was not so romantic as others that came before the Church, but it related to practical work to which they ought all to give their adhesion and support. He wanted in this respect to see the Church thoroughly equipped. His friend the Convener, Dr Barty, and Sir Alex. Kinloch, representing the Committee and the Association, had some small difference of opinion, and he was not to become buffer between them. He should rather recommend them to go into a small room down stairs and have the doors locked, and that they should not come out until their differences were settled. He would not use hard language, for there were none who had the interests of the Church more at heart than these two hardheaded gentlemen, but he hoped their differences would soon be adjusted, and they would do their utmost to assist them. He was reading a Report of a meeting the other day at which one of the Rothschilds was advocating charity, and saying they ought to put their hands into their pockets, when a voice was heard saying, "Why not take it out of the till." That was all very well. They might say that he and others should take it out of the till — out of their own pockets, but he was sorry to tell them that the till was nearly exhausted, for stipend and rent were getting on together to a small and diminishing quantity. The Committee told them there were funds available for five small livings; he understood steps were being taken to ensure that before next Assembly at least two would be taken out of that list. That had been done very largely by energetically obtaining local resources. In that way difficulties vanished, and he hoped efforts would go on until every one of their livings had at least £200 a year. The deliverance was adopted. THE RESTRICTIONS ON THE FUND. Overtures were then submitted from the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale and the Presbytery of Dalkeith, suggesting the removal of the restriction imposed by the decision of the Assembly in 1883, whereby Parishes erected after 1881 are excluded from the benefits of the Small Livings Scheme. The former represented that this decision operated injuriously on the Scheme by preventing or decreasing general interest in it; and the other Overture bore that the present system on which the Scheme was wrought did not seem to inspire such general interest or to command so much support as such a Scheme deserved. The Rev. J. A. BURDON, Lasswade, and the Rev. J. C. CARRICK, Newbattle, supported the respective Overtures. The Rev. Dr BARTY said he was aware that the recommendations of the Committee as to the excluded parishes did not meet with the approval of the Association. But for this he would have had no difficulty in recommending them to the acceptance of the House. The operation of that restrictive resolution had kept out of the benefits of the fund about thirty Parishes. He was far from disapproving at the time of the resolution of the Assembly of 1883; indeed, it was come to on his own motion. The very fact that such a Resolution had to be passed by the Assembly showed that these new Parishes had claims on the Committee. It might appear as if he were acting inconsistently in moving the modification of a resolution which he proposed in 1883, but he thought the circumstances had changed since then. The resolution was adopted with great regret, and on the understanding that it would be allowed to stand no longer than was necessary. The Association and the Assembly were bound to modify or remove that resolution at the earliest possible opportunity, and it was for them to consider whether the time had not now come when they ought to make some change. He believed that time had arrived, and that it would be a greater mistake to unduly postpone the change than to unduly hasten it. When the resolution was passed, the number of Parishes being added to the list of small livings was so great that the Committee, in the circumstances, thought it wise to deal with no more for a time. He thought the passing of the Resolution had had an important effect on the policy of the Endowment Committee, and had strengthened their hands by enabling them to insist upon a higher endowment for new Parishes. It had, however, effected all the objects it was likely to attain, and he did not think it would be wise to continue the resolution. He believed that the exclusion of these thirty Parishes from the benefits of the Small Livings Fund was operating injuriously. It was causing a feeling of soreness in these Parishes, and that feeling communicated itself to the Subscribers to the fund and would become more and more intensified. As to the cost of carrying out the recommendation, he found that, of the Parishes endowed and erected since 1881, there were thirty-two in the position of small livings, and if they were placed on the fund they would cost the Committee, according to the present rate, upwards of £700. In all probability, however, the list was considerably in excess of the number that would actually require grants; and in any case, as they would be spread over five or six years, the additional expenditure would only be about £120 a year. The chief consideration which weighed with the Association was that the proposed change might have the effect of reducing the grants to those at present on the list. He hoped that not only would that not be the case, but that they would be able, by the increase of contributions to the fund, to deal more liberally with the parishes. If they were to calculate on disaster and failure, they might as well give up the thing altogether; but he thought they were more likely to secure success by a liberal and generous policy. He did not believe that the ministers at present in receipt of grants would allow themselves to be looked upon as an obstacle to the carrying out of the Committee's recommendation, but would rather be willing to incur the risk, whatever it might be estimated at, of having their grants slightly diminished in order that all those excluded should be taken in. They could not tell what might happen in the future. It might be that the quoad sacra Parishes might be the strongest parts of the Church. At any rate, it was not desirable that they should perpetuate a distinction of that kind any longer than was necessary. However much they might dispute the wisdom of the Endowment Committee in erecting particular Parishes, they could not fail to see how greatly they had increased the strength of the Church of Scotland, and what noble work they had done. He desired that they should put themselves in line with that movement, and go forward shoulder to shoulder. The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, moved that the Assembly approve of the Overtures, and instruct the Committee to remove the restriction which excluded Parishes quoad sacra erected since 1881 from participating in the grants given by the Committee. In speaking to the motion, Mr Martin said he thought Dr Barty had made it perfectly plain that the reason why that restriction had first been placed on quoad sacra Parishes in 1881 was that the Church had imagined that if the endowment went on at the same rate, they would never be able to overtake the work they formerly overtook. Since the Endowment Committee had laid it down as a condition of endowment that the local promoters should guarantee £140 and a Manse, or £160 without a Manse, there was very little likelihood of any small livings being added to the Committee's lists on account of new endowments. Having acknowledged that the difficulty that first led to the restriction had been removed, and that injustice had been done to the Parishes shut out from the grants, the straightforward policy on the part of the Committee was at once to take steps to remove the injustice, and instead of attempting to reduce it gradually, it was only fair that the restriction should be removed at once, and the thirty-two Parishes at present left out placed on the same level as the other Parishes participating in the Scheme. Even although the Parishes presently on the list had to forego a little in order to allow the others to be placed on an equal footing with them, it would only be to the extent of £2. The Rev. W. LEE KER, Kilwinning, seconded the motion. He emphasised the importance of the latter portion of the Overture from the Presbytery of Dalkeith, making it requisite that applications for grants should receive the approval of the local Presbytery; but said, while the sending of the names of the applying Parishes to the Presbyteries was a step in the right direction, it would be well that a step were taken to have the names of the Parishes receiving grants better known in the Church. If that were done, many Parishes now on the lists would be affronted at the position in which they stood before the Church, and would make a special endeavour to assist their own minister, and thus other really poorer Parishes might participate in the scheme. Sir ALEXANDER KINLOCH of Gilmerton (Elder), moved: — Dismiss the Overtures, and disapprove of the suggestion contained in the Report at page 195 in the volume of the Reports. In speaking to the motion, Sir Alexander Kinloch said — It was with great reluctance that the Association for which he spoke opposed the recommendation of a Committee with which hitherto they had acted so harmoniously; but in the interest of the incumbents of the small livings already on the list, i.e., the old Parishes and the quoad sacra Parishes erected before 1881, he had to ask the Assembly to maintain the principle adopted in 1883, confirmed in 1887, and successfully defended, whosoever challenged it, in intervening and subsequent Assemblies. The recommendation of the Committee being a distinct departure from present practice, the "onus" rested upon them of proving, either that the Church had changed her mind as to what should be the scope of the Scheme's operations, or that circumstances had emerged justifying this sudden change of front; and he ventured to think they would find it difficult to maintain either proposition. The Association contended that the opinion of the Church had never varied, and that the same reasons exist to-day which influenced them when they supported Dr Barty's own recommendation to the Assembly of 1883, to the effect "that no new quoad sacra living be taken on to the list in the meantime." Had the opinion of the Church undergone any change, it would have been exhibited by Overtures sent up to the Assembly, praying that effect might be given to such change; but, as a matter of fact, only five Overtures had been sent up since 1883, two of which had fallen to the ground in consequence of no one being found to support their prayer; the others being all rejected by different Assemblies. If, then, there had been any decided change of opinion, expression had not been given to it in the usual manner. Dr Barty being urged to take up the case of the quoad sacra livings excluded from the list, was easily understood; but what else could he, as Convener of the Small Livings Committee, have expected? Doubtless it was this importunity which accounted for the passage in the Report, which said, "that it is desirable to remove as far as possible any cause of friction or dissatisfaction which may now exist," — a pleasant-sounding generality, quite as applicable to the position taken up by the Association as it is to that of the Committee; for, allowing the existence of a certain amount of dissatisfaction, the result of giving effect to the recommendation of the Committee would be, to shift it from those who at present entertained it, on to the shoulders of those who would suffer loss, viz., the Incumbents of the livings already on the list. For, given a certain sum to be distributed among a certain number, then add to the number among whom the sum is to be distributed, and the result must be, that the dividend to be paid to the original number is diminished. The Report of the Committee goes on to give a second reason in support of this recommendation, "That under the operations of the New Branch, they anticipate a gradual diminution in the number of Small Livings; and that there is now a fair prospect that the amount of the divisible fund will increase." Let us test this by the experience of the past year. Reference to the Report of the Association will show that it is calculated that by the operation of the New Branch we shall effect a saving of £60 per annum; but, on the other hand, the proposal to take six new Parishes on to the list will entail a charge of £120 on the fund for the first year; and if the recommendation is fully approved of, the charge for these new Parishes will increase every year, till at the end of the fifth year an addition of £600 per annum will have been made to our expenditure. As a matter of fact, our income may be regarded as a fixed income, having for the last seven years only fluctuated between £8000 and £8500 per annum. It is difficult to understand upon what the Committee found their hopes; but allowing, for the sake of argument, that there had been some slight increase in our funds, they are still far too small for our present need; and who will venture to say that in agricultural depression, which affects so many of the livings with which we have to deal, we have yet "touched bottom"? This then is not the moment to add to our responsibilities, but it is the time to redouble our efforts on behalf of those for whom we are already working. The Committee's proposal is excused as being "such a very little one," but it will grow; indeed, provision is made for its growth. If adopted, all hope of making progress with the Scheme may be abandoned. In arguing, as he had done, against the recommendation of the Committee, he must not be supposed to be out of sympathy with the Incumbents of the quoad sacra livings, erected since 1881, who find themselves excluded from the benefits of this Scheme. He could understand their feeling sore; but there was no reason for such soreness being entertained towards this Scheme, for the promoters of these Parishes had been distinctly warned that they were to receive no benefits from this Scheme; but he did not say that it might not be fairly exhibited towards another Scheme of the Church which had aided and abetted the formation of these livings without giving due regard to a sufficient income being provided for their Incumbents. There was no unfairness in continuing the restrictions adopted by the Assembly of 1883, and confirmed by that of 1887, after the question had been fully discussed in all its details in conference between the Members of the Home Mission Commiitee, the Endowment Committee, and the Small Livings Committee, but to yield a principle which had been approved of so lately, without other cause than had been shown, would not only be unfair to the upholders of the present practice, but would take all heart from those who for the last twenty-five years had been striving to accomplish the object for which their Association had been founded. Mr JOHN E. WATSON, Glasgow (Elder), seconded Sir Alexander Kinloch's motion. He held that in the operations of the Scheme no injustice had been done to anyone or to any Parish. The principle the Association had wished to carry out was that after a grant had been once made it should be continued, as long as circumstances required it, without any diminution. He thought it would be a very odd thing if the Assembly gave such instructions as made it certain that the existing grants would be reduced. He could understand an appeal being made to the Church for increased subscriptions to admit of the new Parishes being placed on the list. The Rev. Dr RANKINE, Muthill, moved that the Assembly "approve of the suggestion in the Report, at page 195 in the volume of Reports, and refer the Overtures to the Committee for consideration." It would be a most lamentable thing, he thought, to have any difference of opinion or any feeling between the two sections of the Committee, which had worked together year by year with the most perfect harmony. But there they had thirty Parishes suffering from the loss of what they might otherwise obtain a share of. These Parishes were no doubt discontented. They were not in sympathy with the Scheme, and no doubt the revenue of the Scheme suffered from the existence of that discontent. He would be sorry to see the whole thirty-two Parishes put on the list at once, for that would involve a very large additional responsibility being laid on the Committee. The easier way was to spread the work over a series of years, and by the mode suggested in the Report. This could be done by an additional expenditure of £120 a year. He did not contemplate that in this way one penny would be lost to the old Parishes which were on the list previous to 1881. The Rev. D. M. CONNELL, St Kiaran's, Govan, seconded Dr Rankine's motion. He asked if it was natural for a Mother to forsake her younger and more infirm children in favour of the older ones? Would it not be better and more natural that the Mother should care for the younger rather than the older that were able to do something for themselves? The Rev. Dr M'LAREN, Larbert, supported Sir Alexander Kinloch's motion. He declared that it was the old Parochial charges that were suffering most grievously at the present day. In the course the Report proposed they were simply making the fund a mere supplement to the Endowment Committee, which was never the intention of those who originally promoted the Scheme. If the Committee were asked to adopt the thirty-two livings which had been added to the Church since 1881, it simply amounted to this, that they were inflicting another grievous wrong upon the poor men whose wants should have been first considered. The Rev. Mr MARTIN agreed to withdraw his motion in favour of Dr Rankine's. With the consent of the House the first motion was withdrawn. It was agreed that the vote should be taken by standing up, when, the vote being taken, it appeared that there voted — third motion, 84, second motion, 59. The third motion thus became the judgment of the House. THE CONDUCT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. The Rev. Dr SPROTT, North Berwick, gave in the Report of the Committee appointed at last Assembly to report as to the practice throughout the Church in Public Worship and in the celebration of the Sacraments. The answers received from Ministers showed plainly, the Report stated, that within recent years many changes had been introduced in the celebration of Divine Ordinances, and the want of uniformity in the services of the Church was probably greater than at any former period. The Committee were decidedly of opinion that the time had come when the Church should fully consider the whole subject of the celebration of Worship and of public ordinances by her Ministers. It was almost universally acknowledged that the Church had been greatly strengthened by the improvement in her Worship during the last thirty years, but there were many quarters which that wave had not yet reached, and whatever diversity of opinion there might be on the subject of uniformity, it was certainly far from satisfactory that there should be so much variety as now existed in the method of celebrating Divine Service and the Sacraments in the same National Church. The Committee were of opinion that the law and practice of the Church should be brought into closer harmony, and that if that was not done, the divergence between them was likely to become wider than it was. The returns showed that there were 422 Churches in which there was only one regular service on Sunday, but in 230 of these cases there was also a service in a mission hall or school, and in 378 Churches there were two regular services. There were 14 Ministers who read all their prayers, 13 who read them generally, 43 who read them sometimes, 28 who read them partly, 26 who read on special occasions, and 1 who occasionally reads a part of a prayer that he is particularly anxious to render with accuracy. A few emphatically repudiated the idea of reading prayers, while a considerable number expressed a strong wish for a partial liturgy. There were 70 Churches where the old practice of standing at prayer and sitting at praise was retained. Silent prayer on entering and leaving Church was very general, and there was a general feeling in favour of responses. Instrumental music had been introduced into 426 Churches. With regard to marriages, the returns showed that there are 194 Ministers who marry in Church, more or less frequently, the rest always in the house. In most of the Church cases the practice had been recently revived, and was still uncommon; but there were some Parishes in the Highland and north-eastern counties where marriage in Church had been the usage from time immemorial. From one Parish the answer was, "Most frequently in Church, on account of a special money bequest to the tallest, smallest, youngest, and oldest brides there married during the year." In speaking to the Report, Dr SPROTT stated that while all the Members of the Committee were satisfied that the liberty enjoyed by the Church to amend her Worship covered any changes that had been introduced, or that it was desirable to introduce, some of them were of opinion that she was bound to nothing more definite than the observance of the principles and rules of Worship contained in the Confession of Faith, and that the uniformity referred to in the Act of 1693 meant merely such uniformity as the Church herself might require and enforce. The returns showed that there were some men who appeared to object on principle to anything like a regular order of Worship, and to think that thanksgiving, supplication, and confession should appear in all Prayers. Some Ministers also seemed to scruple at using the Lord's Prayer, which, so far as appeared from the returns, was seldom or never used in the Gaelic-speaking charges. On the subject of Baptisms, the Committee found that the practice of celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism in private was increasing, and that Ministers were generally of opinion that the time had come when the Assembly should deal with this matter. There was great variety in the professions and promises exacted. From the Reformation till 1645 the sponsor was made to repeat the Creed. The Scots Commissioners at Westminster were anxious to have this retained in the Directory, but instead of it questions were substituted. These questions were, however, struck out by the English Parliament, at the request of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order that her Ministers might be free to impose the Creed as in Knox's Liturgy. After 1688 the professions and promises required were of a much more exacting character. Some years ago overtures were sent to the General Assembly on this subject, and in 1871 the Assembly sent to all Ministers Baptismal Forms prepared by a Committee. These Forms had to some extent affected the practice since. Great changes had taken place in connection with the administration of the Lord's Supper in recent years. The practice of simultaneous Communion had been very generally introduced, week-day services had been given up, and he regretted that these changes had not resulted in the greater frequency of the celebration of the Holy Communion. The Committee felt that the diversity was far greater than it ought to be, and that it was unsatisfactory that the few laws in force for regulating the conduct of Public Worship should be so largely disregarded. Two of these Acts — those prohibiting simultaneous Communion and the reading of prayers from a book — were ignored by the General Assembly itself. It was two hundred and forty-five years since the Church of Scotland had turned her attention to the conduct of Public Worship, and all she did in 1645 was to part, somewhat reluctantly, with her own Liturgy, for the Westminster Directory to carry out the plan of a covenanted uniformity between the Churches of the three Kingdoms — a scheme which was shattered to pieces by Cromwell and his troopers five years afterwards on the bloody field of Dunbar. This whole subject had been prejudiced by the despotic and insane interference with the rights and liberties of the Church. If the Church had been left alone by King James and King Charles, there was no doubt their worship would have been different from what it was to-day. In later times the people had mistaken certain Cromwellian innovations for the ideas of our Covenanting fathers, and this, too, had had a very disastrous influence. After nearly three hundred years, he thought the Church might calmly take up the subject again. During the last twenty-five years there had been a great movement towards improved worship in many of the Reformed Churches. The Australian branch of their own Church was revising the Directory, and it was the intention, he believed, to provide specimen forms for the better guidance of the clergy. In a paper recently read before the Australian General Assembly, it was stated that in a mixed community, where members of other communions are present at marriages and burials, it was most important that Ministers from Scotland and Ireland should have specimen forms put into their hands, that the services they conduct might be decorous and impressive, and compare favourably with the liturgy of the Anglican Church. In the Mission field, also responses and the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer were being everywhere introduced. They should, he thought, proceed slowly and deliberately, and do nothing to shock the prejudices of the people. They should refrain from attempting to enforce uniformity in things indifferent, and nothing should be done to interfere with that simplicity which had hitherto characterised their Worship. He did not think there was the slightest fear of the Church of Scotland ever running into any excess in ritual. The old Scots sergeant who used to say when turning out his regiment for church, "Presbyterians to the right, fancy religions to the left," interpreted pretty accurately the national sentiment in that respect. It would be observed that in the returns frequent reference had been made to the Church Service Society, and as one of those who were chiefly responsible for the origin and work of that Society, he wished to say that it had been their aim to be true to the Faith once for all delivered to the saints, that they had kept constantly in view the laws and better traditions of the Church, that they had sought to diffuse a knowledge of the history and true principles of Divine service, and to check unwarranted innovations, that they had devoted their surplus funds to the purchase of devotional books for the Assembly Library, and that they would be glad, he felt sure, to place the whole results of their labours at the disposal of the Church. The Rev. Dr LEISHMAN, Linton, moved the following deliverance: — "The General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Committee for their diligence. Reappoint the Committee with power to add to their number, and instruct them to bring up this Report along with a Report to next General Assembly on the measures which, in their opinion, it is advisable for the Church to adopt in the circumstances. The Committee of Nomination to bring up names to be added to the Committee to-morrow morning." In speaking to this motion, Dr Leishman said: - The instruction given to this Committee by last Assembly was a threefold one, bearing on the Church's past, her present, and her future. The earlier part of the Report contains the result of their inquiries into the law and practice of the Church, keeping always in view the conditions of her alliance with the State. Everyone who has read it with attention will acknowledge the thoroughness and fairness with which this first part of their work has been done. As to the second, the enquiry into the present practice of the Church, success did not depend on the Committee alone. More than a third part of our Ministers have not yet sent replies to the queries, and in many cases the answers sent might have been much more exact and complete. The facts, such as they are, have been tabulated with very great care. But it appears that the Committee are not prepared, without fuller returns, to face the third and most delicate duty laid upon them. Instead of offering now definite suggestions as to the Church's course in the future, they ask for a remit, believing that if this crave is granted, the ends aimed at will neither be harmed nor hindered. One conclusion we may draw for ourselves from these statistics, partial as they are. They seem to prove that your action in appointing such a Committee has not been taken one moment too soon. The details scattered through these pages show a wide, must we not say a widening, divergence in the practice of our Ministers. For a long time the Church has shrunk from limiting the large measure of liberty which they have enjoyed. But it appears as if the time had now come when this ought to be controlled by some distinct utterance from herself. No doubt many say that there is no need for the Church to speak, because the path of duty is so clear that every man ought to be a law unto himself. We have only, they say, to keep to the good old ways of our fathers. But when we ask to be directed to those old ways, we find that they are merely thinking of their own childhood, and assuming that what they saw when they were first taken to Church, had been the unbroken usage of centuries. They forget that their immediate fathers had entered on an inheritance of innovation to which every age since the Reformation had contributed its proportion. In those early years to which they themselves look back, old customs that are now forgotten were slowly dying; new ones were coming in that are now old; and the patriarchs of that time were sighing over the indifference of the new generation to the good old ways of their fathers. We cannot perpetuate the customary worship of any moment sixty years since as an instantaneous photograph catches and fixes the whitening curl of an advancing wave. Still it must be owned that change is going on with a faster and more irregular movement in this restless age of ours than in many that lie behind us. The Committee quote a report laid before the Assembly of 1864, which says, "The uniformity in the mode of administering public worship in the congregations of the Church is very striking," and that the same order is followed "almost invariably." Our Committee adds, "This is certainly not the case now." How is this growing divergence of practice to be accounted for ? It is because there is among us more than the old counteraction between the man who conserves things as he found them and the man who wisely or wantonly devises innovations for himself. We have both of them still with us. But a new and growing force has come into play, largely modifying the general resultant. Men have been setting themselves in good earnest to go back on the track of history, and find what the old ways of the Reformed Scottish Church really were. They have not been content with their own juvenile reminiscences. They have looked behind the cold and meagre worship which expiring moderatism left in possession of the land. They have found little to be learned from the days after the Revolution, when the ranks of the depleted Church had to be filled up with any material that came to hand, and the ministrations too often reflected the ignorance and roughness of the ministrant. Study of the Commonwealth period has shown how much that had been characteristic of Scottish religion then disappeared, and how many elements, foreign to its spirit, were then introduced from without. They believe that they have found the most faithful type of our native worship in the preceding years, when the fresh life of the rejuvenated Church was remoulding the national character, and, not yet busied exclusively with insular friendships and feuds, she held a prominent place in the large sisterhood of Reformed Churches that had changed the face of Western Europe. Believe it, that it is in no spirit of reckless innovation that these enquirers have been trying to correct, according to the ancient pattern, our existing worship wherever it seemed unlovely or deficient. Their ambition has been to rally to the old centre from which their fathers were driven in days of anarchy. And they hope that they have had some success in restoring what had been effaced, and in strengthening the things that remained that were ready to die. The effect of all this for the moment is that, as the Report shows, variation of worship is much greater than it ought to be. To some extent the evil is beginning to correct itself. The renovations are making way among those who at first angrily withstood them. Assertions that were common twenty years ago are not heard now. The most confident consuetudinary does not now connect the Communion Fast Day or the standing attitude in prayer with the Reformation. But what is most to be desired with a view to the restoration of uniformity is that the Church herself should give to these sons of her the support and guidance which they have been seeking for themselves in a fraternity of their own. The ecclesiastical disorder at the period of the great Rebellion was largely owing to the suppression of the General Assembly with other ancient liberties of Scotland by Cromwell, and evils, less in degree perhaps, but the same in kind, may be occasioned by the silence or indifference of the Assembly of to-day. If the Church does take action, it is to be hoped that it will be in a spirit of reverence for her own past, and especially for the post-Reformation era, which in this matter is her best past. Should the Assembly grant the crave of the Committee, and be ready twelve months hence to take further steps, she ought to keep in view the general principles of her earlier Directory, the Book of Common Order. One of the most obvious of these is, that in the ordinary worship of the sanctuary there ought to be a combination of free and liturgical prayer. Free prayer corrects the tendency of the soul to be passive in devotion under the restraint of a service which is strictly and solely liturgical. Even the most extreme ritualists in the south are seen to strain after novelty as a relief from the monotony of a too uniform worship, making trial of every conceivable variation of detail which they conceive to be within their right. Liturgical devotion, on the other hand, is a standing protest against all that is coarse in prayer, or that seeks rather to reach the ears of fellow-suppliants, than to seek the face and favour of God supreme. It is sometimes said that these two forms of prayer cannot co-exist, because the one always tends to destroy the other. This conclusion seems to be drawn from a hasty and narrow induction. If we confine our observation to our own island, this has undoubtedly been the result in the two National Churches. But the fact may be sufficiently explained by local causes. In England, liturgical prayer has made free prayer impossible. In theory, the clergyman when he enters the pulpit has a right to pray in what words and at what length he pleases. But the privilege has been practically surrendered, because when that part of the service is reached the liturgical worship has already been unduly prolonged. For a long time an unhappy usage has pieced together three separate services at the chief assembly for worship, and to add a fourth in the form of free prayer would be impossible. When worship has lasted continuously for more than an hour, the people wish no other prelude to the sermon than a collect or a fourth repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Certain things that jar on the feelings of Scotsmen when they attend an Anglican service are probably tacit admissions of the fact that there is too much liturgy — the hurried reading of prayers, the irreverent rush of words on the first note of chants, by which one of the simplest and most solemn forms of praise is robbed of its impressiveness, and which some Scottish choirmasters seem to think it rather a fine thing to imitate, and the scantiness of the pulpit teaching which follows all. In Scotland the process has been reversed. Free prayer has suppressed liturgical. But for this, also, there has been a special reason. After the readers of the Reformation era, who were, as a rule, ecclesiastics, had passed away, the common prayers and Scripture were read by a lay person of subordinate rank. The Minister reserved himself for the free, or, as it was called, conceived prayer, with which he prefaced his sermon. He did not even come into Church to join in the prayers of the Common Order and hear the lessons of Scripture. He thought that he did enough if by-andbye he came in among his flock that they might listen to him as he uttered his own prayer and spoke his own word. Was it strange that the people came to have no more respect for the Church's prayers and for Holy Scripture than their pastor had, and that the reader's service and reader's congregation dwindled till they disappeared? If the Church of Scotland were now to revive a service such as she had in the days of Andrew Melville, with liturgical and free prayer in measured and moderate proportion, but with the Minister responsible for both, I believe that these two modes of serving God, so far from hindering would sustain and elevate each other. The framework of the Book of Common Order might be retained, though much of its material would have to be omitted, considerable variation and addition provided for, and the antiquated phraseology of what remained cast in a modern mould. When a return to the Common Order is spoken of, uninstructed people airily dispose of the question by saying that it was a temporary provision for the deficiencies of an unlearned ministry and ignorant people. It will be difficult for them to reconcile with this position the fact that in its general form and great part of its language, it was the service-book of the Reformed in France, in Switzerland, in the Rhineland, in Holland, and down to the earlier part of the seventeenth century of our own Channel Islands, and that in some of these lands certain of its prayers are still to be heard word for word, Sunday by Sunday. It is to be hoped that regard will be had to another principle of our earlier worship, that in sacramental and occasional services the fixed element ought to predominate more fully than in the ordinary worship of the Church. These services do not occur so often as to make liturgical language monotonous or unmeaning, but they occur often enough to invest it with those solemn associations which are so fruitful of blessing to the soul. When an Englishman speaks with fervent admiration of his Communion Office or Burial Service, we may not be able to rise to the measure of his enthusiasm. We may wish that certain turns of phrase were altered, and certain deficiencies supplied. But if we do not quite share his feelings, we can perfectly understand them. To him the words are almost divine, because as often as they touch the chords of memory they recall moments of sacramental blessing or sanctified sorrow. We, too, have our tender remembrances, but they belong to the individual only. Fellow-- churchmen have no reminiscences in common, or if they have, they gather round words of song, not words of prayer. Another reason against varying the language of these services is that in some of them the soul enters into solemn covenants with God. How often is it the case among us that the terms, and even the extent of these obligations, is unknown to those who take them on their consciences till the moment when they are asked for a word or gesture of assent. Those of the clergy whose enquiries have led them to such conclusions of these, and who have acted on them in the belief that they were not abusing the discretionary power allowed to them, are often charged with being mere imitators of English fashions. If any religious usage seems likely to promote more fully the glory of God and the good of souls, is it a sufficient reason for casting it aside, that it is of English origin? After all, the Church of England is our Church's lawful sister, though they differ considerably in features, as sisters often do, and though the other can at times make herself somewhat unpleasant. Now and then she has been adopting customs that have been long familiar to us. Why should not we do the like in return? But in reality a great part, and certainly not the worst part of her Prayer-book is not English at all, but the common heritage of Christendom, our property as much as theirs. From the tone in which some people speak, S. Chrysostom might have been a London rector, or the Te Deum the composition of an Elizabethan bishop. The appropriation of what is English and English only has been much less than cavillers assert. And of that some part might well be dispensed with, as for instance the superfluous information sometimes given to our flocks, that "here endeth the first lesson." Not from Englishmen, but from our Scottish ancestors, we have learned to join formulated to free prayer, and to offer both on bended knees, to read Holy Scriptures in regular order and sufficient measure, to use the Master's Prayer, and the Church's Creed, to have marriage rites performed in God's house, and more numerous services, and more frequent communions there. We have not refused, even at this late day, to associate ourselves with the great family of Continental Presbyterians in using aids to devotion — which our own Reformers regarded with suspicion, suspicion which the experience of these countries has shown to be groundless. They have taught us to tolerate instrumental music. They are teaching us to commemorate yearly the great facts on which rests the whole fabric of the faith, the Incarnation, the Death, the Resurrection, the Ascension of our blessed Lord, and the coming of the Holy Ghost to be with the widowed Church till the Bridegroom shall appear again. Shall we refuse to adopt these for no better reason than that England ever since the Reformation has been at one with these foreign Churches in retaining them? We have learned not a few lessons from early Christianity, some of them lessons which England has missed. When all these things are winnowed from the heap, the residuum of things distinctive of Anglicanism that are in use among us will be found to be very small. But though that were granted, which we deny, that we are mere mimics of England, let me ask, did this begin with us? There was a time when the Scottish Church gave up her Confession of Faith, her Catechisms, her metrical Psalter, her manual of Church service, everything that embodies a Church's belief and worship, and accepted at the hands of England a substitute for every one of them. Not that she was weary of them. Not that she thought the new were better. She loved them all dearly. She parted with them with a sore heart. There can be no better illustration of the feelings of Scottish Churchmen at that time than the story of how David Calderwood, when, in the Assembly of 1645, some Anglified Scots would have abolished by statute the use of the metrical Doxology after Psalms, cried out, "Leave that alone, for I hope to sing it in glory." But Scotland had before her a vision of imperial unity in religion, and in the hope of realising this, she was willing to surrender much that was distinctive of her own past, and to take a new departure. She alone of the three kingdoms observed the compact. Times of trouble followed, and quiet did not return till her lost treasures had been forgotten, and the new forms had filled the vacant places in the nation's heart. She gave them letters of naturalization, and now they hold their place by right. But that age has transmitted to us other badges of English supremacy. Many of the peculiarities of the southern sectary were brought across the Border by the booted evangelists of Cromwell, and adopted by Scotsmen who were not ashamed to fawn on the victorious autocrat. A virus was taken up into the system of our Church which has been breaking out in successive eruptions from that day onwards, and is not yet cleared from her veins. Even things that Henderson and his colleagues preserved at Westminster have been sacrificed to this spirit, some at the time, some not till ages had past. They believed that they had saved the Baptismal Creed, English diplomacy deprived them of it at once. The Lord's Prayer was sanctioned by the Directory, but the fatal '49 that brought the destruction of the monarchy, and saw the last free General Assembly, silenced that divine form also. In spite of the English Independents, the Scots had their native custom of marrying in Church guaranteed to them. Nearly a century had to pass before the silent working of the English leaven was able to put it down, and there are remote districts of rural Scotland where it has never died out. Not till our own day has another English custom established itself against which the Scottish commissioners fought through weeks of stiff debate at Westminster, and which our own Assembly formally repudiated thereafter. I mean the custom of receiving the Eucharist not at the very table of the Lord, but in any place throughout the Church, even in its remotest corner. These are but specimens of the traces left by our English conquerors when at their work of destruction. It is this foreign seed, whether blossoming early or late, that some of us would fain see weeded from the soil of Scotland, and the true apes of England are those who would shelter and disseminate the noxious plant. Sir ALEXANDER KINLOCH (Elder), seconded the motion, which was supported by Dr Scott and Professor Charteris, and agreed to. OVERTURE ANENT AN OPTIONAL AND PARTIAL LITURGY. The Rev. THOMAS BROWN, Collace, appeared in support of all Overture from the Presbytery of Perth asking that a Special Committee should be appointed to consider the subject of an optional (or permissive) and partial liturgy for the use of the Ministers and people of the Church in all their services, Sacramental and other, and to report to next Assembly. The object the Presbytery had in view in the Overture would, he said, be fully accomplished if the Assembly remitted it to the consideration of the Special Committee appointed to report on the proper conduct of public Worship and Sacraments. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — Remit the Overture to the Committee on Worship just reappointed. HIGHLAND COMMITTEE'S REPORT. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR gave in the Report of the Committee in aid of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Committee reported that the ordinary income from all sources for the year ending 31st December last (£1818, 18s. 8d.) had fallen short of that of the previous year (£1862, 17s. 5d.) by some £43. The demands on the funds had been more numerous and more urgent than ever. To such an extent had this been the case that whereas the balance in favour of the Committee at the end of 1888 amounted to £590, 14s. 4d., it fell to £166, 10s. 5d. at the close of 1889. It followed that their actual outlay for the year had exceeded the year's income by £424, 3s. 11d., obtained from the balance of the previous year, and that it has reached a total sum of £2243, 2s. 7d. The main cause of this comparatively large expenditure has been the exceptionally large scale on which the Committee have apportioned their grants for building and repairs, amounting in all to £1021, 19s. 6d. As in former years summer and autumn services have been provided during the season at Kingussie, Lochawe, Lochranza, Port-Bannatyne, and Strathpeffer; while in addition occasional services were arranged for in the new church at Connel Ferry. All these places are much frequented, as centres resorted to by tourists and temporary residents from all parts of the United Kingdom. The total outlay for the year under this head has been £206, 11s., from which must be deducted £45 collected at Lochawe, and some other smaller collections elsewhere. At Strathpeffer a handsome Church had recently been erected and would be opened in the course of the summer. The cost had been about £2500, towards which the Committee promised a grant of £100. The Committee had good grounds for their belief that the assistance which they provide in connection with the celebration of the Holy Communion in remote Parishes is much appreciated, and is attended with excellent results. The amount expended had been £69, 10s., thirty-two Parishes having been assisted in this way. Grants for the improvement of psalmody had, as was anticipated, increased both in number and amount. Beginning with £3, 1s. 6d. in 1887, they had risen to £33, 14s. 11d. in 1888, and £43, 3s. 6d. in 1889, in the course of which year fourteen grants had been made. The Rev. Dr RUSSELL, Campbeltown, moved the following deliverance: — "The General Assembly learn with satisfaction that so much has been done during the year to meet the various requirements of the more remote and destitute Parishes in the Highlands and Islands, and cordially commend the appeal which the Committee make on behalf of their operations to the support and liberality of Ministers and Congregations. They approve of the efforts of the Committee to restore, with as little delay as possible, the fabrics of Parliamentary Churches and Manses to a satisfactory condition; and, with a view to these buildings being systematically inspected and maintained for the future with a due regard to efficiency and economy, instruct Presbyteries to appoint one or more of their number to make annually careful inquiry into the condition of all Parliamentary Churches and Manses within their jurisdiction, and to require that an annual report on the state of each such structure be laid before them for their consideration. They further encourage the Committee to continue to prosecute their labours in an energetic and conciliatory spirit; and again confide to their care the many and important interests of the Church in the Highlands, in the belief that these interests will not fail to receive their most earnest attention. The General Assembly reappoint the Committee with the usual powers — Dr Taylor, Convener; and remit to the Joint Committee on the Schemes to make arrangements for a collection in aid of its funds during the current year." Speaking to the motion, Dr RUSSELL said — I beg to move the adoption of the Report now submitted by the learned Convener. The General Assembly owe Dr Taylor grateful thanks, not only for the fulness and clearness of the Report, but also specially for the wisdom, sympathy, and consummate tact with which he guides the operations of the Committee, It may be asked, Why are these operations necessary? Some in answer, might point to the sturdy Conservatism of the Celtic race, which venerates the old, and suspects the new; others to the native contentment, which is slow to complain of discomfort and inconvenience. But more than all else, we must point to that grand old language which they love so well, and which, by its fulness and power to meet all the demands of head and heart, to express all the movements of intellect and feeling, has rendered them independent, perhaps too independent, of outside influences, and indifferent, perhaps too indifferent, to the rising tide of new ideas and life flowing towards them from the south. But though they have so greatly resisted the current, and though the outward aids to life and progress are so slender, yet so sound-hearted are they as a people, that you will nowhere find a better instance of "the practical service of imperfect means." The operations of the Committee are varied in character, and all of very great importance. They are so very fully detailed in the Report that no further reference to them is necessary than to state that they concern themselves with the maintenance of Mission Stations during the summer months in the most remote portions of extensive Highland Parishes, with assisting to build and repair Churches where other sources fail, and with the improvement of Psalmody, both in its Highland and English aspects. The Highland Committee may be regarded as the fourth wheel, which helps to bear up and further the progress of the Chariot of the Home Church in its beneficent Mission. The Endowment Committee, the Home Mission Committee, and the Life and Work Committee, have done, and are doing noble work; and I am confident that to all who read this Report, it must be evident that the Chariot could neither move so smoothly nor advance so rapidly, were the fourth wheel of the Highland Committee awaiting. The aim of this Committee is to encourage and cheer Ministers and people in the Highlands, and to do all that may appear to be necessary to bring the Church in the Highlands into line with the other portions of the National Church, and thereby to increase the strength of both. I say the strength of both; for if the Church in the Highlands be in any respect weak, that weakness must affect the Church generally. And at the present time the Church cannot afford to he weak at any point. When the stately ship, riding quietly at anchor, is suddenly struck by the blast, and made to toss and strain at her moorings, her power to weather the tempest lies, not in the strongest, but in the weakest link of the chain that holds her. Your Committee have been working on that weakest link for fifteen years and more, and deserve well of the Church for what they have accomplished. They have welded and strengthened, and even polished this link; and when the strain of tempest comes, it will be found as true and reliable as the strongest. Moderator, the Church in the Highlands is worth strengthening; worth all the care and pains you can bestow upon it. While I speak of its weakness, however, I dare not use the term in any absolute sense. It is not weak in any real inward sense. In all the true and lasting elements of a Church, it is as strong as the Church in the Lowlands, or anywhere else. The so-called weakness is external only, and not of the life or essence of the Church. That cannot be weakness which supplies four foremost city pulpits, as well as the Highland pulpits, with gifted and faithful Ministers. That cannot be weakness that came out first in the recent Exit Examination in two Universities. They were Students under the jurisdiction of the Synod of Argyll, who took that distinguished position, the one in Edinburgh and the other in Glasgow. Can any Lowland Synod point to a similar result? And, especially, that cannot be weakness that so reverently regards the Sabbath, and reveals so deep a religious spirit. The Highlander, it may be said, cannot help being religious. His environment and his nature compel him. Naturally devout, he sees God everywhere. The mountains of his native land are as the temple steps of the Almighty, and the Gills that meet him on every side, all bearing the names of saintly Apostles of the early Christianity, remind him that he walks on holy ground. Where, too, can be found a more law-abiding, a more moral, a more naturally dignified, a more courteous people? And where, especially, will you find a deeper or truer, or stronger attachment to the principles of the National Church? True, the numerical success of the Church in the Highlands may not have been all that could be desired; but even in the Highlands there are instances of success that may be placed side by side with the best the Lowlands can show. A congregation could be pointed to which, after the outflow of 1843, consisted of some five members, locally spoken of as the five Alexanders, no one of whom would have claimed to be great, but all of whom you will allow to have been true. These have passed; but the congregation of which they were the post-disruption nucleus, numbers to-day upwards of nine hundred Communicants. I repeat, Moderator, that the Church in the Highlands is worth all the pains the General Assembly can bestow upon it, and all the help you can render it. The Committee appeal to Ministers and Congregations to supply them with means to carry on the work. The income was £43 short last year. The expenditure was upwards of £2240; and they can assure the Assembly that they have a sphere for the profitable use of double that amount. Many of the Ministers and Congregations to whom the appeal is made cannot speak the old language, but they are reminded that money speaks all languages, and their generous contributions will be interpreted in the North as practical expressions of sympathy and brotherly regard. There was a time when Highlanders in their occasional visits to the South may have been in the habit of using and applying a Formula equivalent to "Your money or your life." The Highland Committee come before the Church with the more comprehensive Formula of "Your money and your life" — your best and highest life. They will value the money, and use it to the best of their ability for the good of the Church and the glory of God. But they will value still more highly its living sympathy and consideration for a noble race, who, though hitherto they have not received more than justice from either Church or State, stand ready to do yeoman's service to both Church and State, and who, under ordinarily favourable circumstances, are capable of rising to the highest levels of intellectual and moral culture; capable, as few are capable, of realising the loftiest ideals of Christian life and character. Mr HORATIO R. MACRAE, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion. The Rev. JAMES FRASER, Blair-Athole, spoke of the excellent work which the Committee were doing in the Highlands and Islands, and expressed particular satisfaction at the recommendation to the Committee to continue to prosecute their labours in an energetic and conciliatory spirit, deploring as he did the lamentable fact that recently there had been heard from many Ministers the assurance that the trumpet of war would be sounded through their Parishes. The old feeling of bitterness among the Ministers and among the people in the Highlands had almost altogether disappeared — had entirely disappeared so far as the people were concerned — and he, for one, while he was ready in the proper place and when necessary to stand up in defence of the principles of the Church, would never lift up his voice in the pulpit, so long as he could help it, on controversial points. Pointing out the difficulties which Highland Ministers had to encounter in the discharge of their duties, Mr Fraser mentioned that on a particular occasion while Dr Scott was attending to one Baptism in one part of his Parish, he himself had to drive a distance of fifty-nine miles to another. In connection with the work of the Committee towards the improvement of the psalmody in Highland congregations, Mr Fraser said they might endeavour to improve the psalmody as much as possible ; but he warned them that they must not touch the old Gaelic tunes. The Rev. A. J. MACQUARRIE, Kilmorack, also reviewed the principal features of the Report, and, after some further conversation, the deliverance was adopted. GAELIC-SPEAKING CHARGES. The Rev. THEODORE MARSHALL, Caputh, submitted the Report of the Commissioners appointed by last Assembly to inquire as to the Parishes in which it was expedient that a Gaelic-speaking Minister should be appointed in the case of a vacancy. The Commissioners reported that there were 143 Parishes in which it was expedient that, in the case of a vacancy, such a Minister should be appointed. In regard to Parishes in which it was desirable that a Parish Minister should have a knowledge of Gaelic, the Commissioners submitted that it would be very inexpedient to interfere with the discretion of congregations in the election of Ministers, unless the want of Gaelic on the part of the Minister to be appointed would be clearly detrimental to the spiritual interests of the people, or prevent him ministering satisfactorily to the Parishioners at large — although in applying this principle, the Commission pointed out that a distinction must be drawn between different classes of Parishes. In those Parishes in which Gaelic had practically ceased to be the spoken language of the people generally, the congregations might safely be left to determine the expediency of requiring a knowledge of Gaelic on the part of a Minister to be appointed in the case of a vacancy. But in the case of those Parishes in which Gaelic was still commonly used by the people in the intercourse of daily life, and where Gaelic was still the language best "understanded of the people," the Commission were of opinion that the Church should use all the powers it possessed to prevent the settlement of Ministers who, from their ignorance of Gaelic, could not in the truest sense be Ministers of the Parish. In conclusion he moved the following deliverance: — "The General Assembly approve the Report; reappoint the Commission, with power to prosecute their inquiry so far as they may think necessary, and to consider and report to next General Assembly in what manner the Church can most conveniently and effectively exercise its power of determining in what cases a knowledge of Gaelic should be regarded as essential in the appointment of Ministers in case of vacancy." Mr ALEXANDER MACPHERSON, Kingussie (Elder), in seconding said that if the Church desired to retain a firmer hold over her Highland Parishes it was, in his opinion, of the utmost importance that, so far as practicable, no Ministers should be settled in such Parishes who did not possess a competent knowledge of the Gaelic language. The Church in the North owed a deep debt of gratitude to Mr Marshall for the great amount of trouble he had taken in connection with the Gaelic-speaking charges, and for the very satisfactory interim Report he had presented to the Assembly. He had every hope that the labours of the Commission would be productive of good results. The Report was adopted, and the Commission was reappointed, with power to prosecute their enquiry. Item No. 9 of to-day's Billet of Business was transferred to Monday next, to be then taken early in the day. CHURCH RECORDS. Mr NENION ELLIOT, S.S.C., Edinburgh (Elder), save in the Report of the Committee on Church Records. The Report, after referring to the Report last year — which showed that there were no returns from 286 Parishes in regard to Session Records — and the Deliverance thereon by the General Assembly, proceeds to mention that the Committee had prosecuted their work through the Clerks of Synods and Presbyteries, and that a Special Appeal was made in February last to the Ministers of all Parishes from which the returns in regard to Session Records had not been made. The information obtained was classified in the Appendix, but the returns were not complete. From the returns made by Presbyteries which were imperfect, it appeared that they had resolved to retain their Records, and in some instances fireproof safes had been ordered. No Records of date prior to 1700 had been transmitted for repair and safe custody along with the Records of the Church. Under the superintendence of Dr Christie, the Librarian of the Church, and a Member of Committee, valuable work had been done. Dr Christie had examined the parcels of Assembly papers for the years 1742-1843, and these had been bound up in ninety-four large volumes. Those for the years 1718-1741 remain to be dealt with in a similar manner. Regret is expressed that many important documents which should have found a place in the bound volumes are not extant. References were furnished to the Committee of inquiries by the late Principal Lee, about the years 1820-21, into the Records of the Church. No documents have been found shewing the nature and extent of the inquiries. If Principal Lee's Reports could be recovered, they would be of immense service to the Church. That the preservation of National Records had only received careful attention from about the beginning of the present century. That State Records, like those of the Church, were, from want of suitable accommodation, to a considerable extent kept in the private houses of the keepers. They were thus exposed to risk of loss by fire, and other accidents, and on the death of the keepers they frequently fell into private hands. The General Register House had removed the reproach of want of accommodation, and has also obviated the other risks of loss. The Particular Register of Sasines, &c., for the district or shire in which the subjects were situated has been wholly transferred to the General Register House under an Act of Parliament passed in 1868. The Church had as yet made no adequate provision for its Records, with the result that many have been lost from the various causes set down in last Report to the General Assembly. Reference is then made to the question between the Presbytery of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh, and to the relation which had subsisted between them from the appointment of Principal Rollock in 1587 down to 1858, as set forth by the late Principal Sir Alexander Grant in his "Story of the University " (Vol. I., p. 156). The right of the General Assembly, as the Supreme Court of the Church, to regulate and supervise the manner of keeping the Church Records had been frequently exercised, and, it was hoped, would be exercised again with effect as regards the older Records. That those of date prior to 1700, if collected, would be more serviceable to the Church than in their present position. In the words of Mr Peterkin, "No time should be lost in securing for the remaining Records of the Church a place of safe deposit. This, surely, is attainable in the metropolis of Scotland." The various returns as to Synod, Presbytery, and Kirk-Session Records are being bound up, and will be deposited with the Assembly Records for future reference. The volume of New Kirk, Edinburgh, Session Records, 1704-5, has been so deposited, as will also be a volume of Session Records of Evie, 1725-56, when duly repaired, as requested by the Minister. The Appendix contains returns as to the Records of Kirk-Session of 193 Parishes, and is blank as to 93 Parishes, chiefly quod sacra erections under the Act of 1844. In giving in the Report Mr ELLIOT said the Report contained a record of what had been done, and also some indication of what remained to be done. There were still a number of returns to be got, which it was hoped might be got in another year. Good work had been done under the superintendence of Dr Christie, the Librarian, in binding up the Assembly Papers — a work which might be completed in another year. The returns in regard to the Records of the Church had already been bound up, and formed eleven volumes. He suggested, in regard to future work, as he could not take charge of the whole of it, that Dr Dodds should be associated with him as Joint-Convener. The Rev. Professor STORY, in moving the adoption of the Report, said there was no part of the business of the Assembly which, fifty or a hundred years hence, would be looked upon as more important than the work Mr Elliot had done. It was much to be regretted that nearly 300 Parishes had sent in no return to the Committee. He moved as follows: — "The General Assembly approve generally of the Report, and thank the Committee for their labours; and in respect there are still certain Parishes from which there is no return in regard to Session Records, renew the order on Presbyteries to furnish the necessary returns; reappoint the Committee — with Dr Dodds, Joint-Convener, along with Mr Elliot — with instructions to communicate with Presbyteries, and ascertain from them what steps are being taken (1) for the recovery of Records known to be amissing and in private hands; (2) for the repair and improvement of existing Records; and direct the Committee to arrange for the repair of such Records as are in bad condition, and for binding such as should, in their opinion, require it." The motion was seconded and agreed to. THE WIDOWS' FUND. Mr J. T. MACLAGAN, Edinburgh (Elder), submitted the Report of the Trustees of the Widows' Fund, from which it appeared that 11 Ministers were translated from one benefice to another during the year; 34 Ministers were admitted to benefices, and 6 Professors to offices, all of whom had become contributors to the Fund. Of these, 28 were bachelors, and only 5 were above forty years of age. Seven Assistants and Successors had succeeded to their Charges, 6 owing to death, and one to the resignation of the senior Minister; and 12 Ministers and 4 Professors resigned their Charges. Thirty Ministers and 1 Professor married during the year, and 28 Ministers and 7 Professors died, one of whom had been on the Fund for forty-nine years, and twelve of whom had been Contributors for over forty years. Eight of these did not leave widows or children. The number of Contributors on the list at 22nd November last was 1479. Twenty-four widows came upon the Fund during the year. The total number of annuitants is 462, and the amount payable £18,724. Five families of children under eighteen years of age receive annuities, in consequence of their fathers having died without leaving widows. The Trustees presented a copy of the Bill now in Parliament for the purpose of regulating the rights and liabilities as Contributors to the Fund of Ministers of quoad sacra Parishes, who were appointed to their Charges prior to the dates of erection. Mr T. G. MURRAY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), in the absence of Mr J. A. Robertson, the Convener, submitted the Report of the Committee on the Position of Ministers who do not Participate in the Widows' Fund. It stated that the Committee had met with the Trustees of the fund as to the Bill which they were promoting in Parliament, and had made a number of suggestions, to which, however, the Trustees did not accede. The Bill proposed that first Ministers of Parishes quoad sacra and quoad omnia who had been already translated or appointed to offices, and thereupon placed on the fund, should be discharged from all claim for contributions due by them before their translation or appointment. The Committee approved of that proposal, but they suggested that first Ministers who had not been translated, or who might wish to become contributors, should also receive some concession. The Bill as framed proposed to allow them to become Contributors on payment only of the fullest sum (both in contributions and interest) that could at present be claimed from them. The Committee expressed the hope that the Trustees would see their way to restrict the interest on arrears already incurred, both in the case of such Ministers, and in all cases to which the Act applied to a rate not exceeding four per cent., and that they would limit their claim to arrears to a period of ten years before the passing of the Act. The Committee called the attention of the Trustees to the position of Ministers of Parliamentary Churches, and begged their consideration of the question whether the same privileges should not be given to them as to the first Ministers of Parishes quoad omnia and quoad sacra. The Committee further requested the Trustees to consider whether it would not be right and proper that all Assistants and Successors appointed after the passing of the Act should have the privilege of being Contributors to the fund. The Trustees in answer had expressed their regret that they could not, as advised, give effect to the Committee's objections, and must adhere to the terms of the Bill as they stood. In the circumstances, Mr Murray moved that the Committee be discharged. The Rev. JAMES SMITH, Aberdeen, moved: — "That the Assembly disapprove of the terms reported to them, in which first Ministers of quoad sacra Parishes who have not been translated, or who may wish to become Contributors, are proposed to be admitted to the benefits of the Widow's Fund — viz., only on payment of the fullest sum in contributions and in interest that can be claimed from them ; and the General Assembly continue the Committee, with instructions to take such steps, either by conference with the Trustees, or by action in Parliament, as may secure a more equitable treatment of said Ministers." He said the proposed Bill would affect about 122 Ministers, and it would also affect in a very substantial way the widows of Ministers who might have been in quoad sacra Parishes and had died before the passing of the Bill. The Bill proposed that Ministers who had remained in their quoad sacra Parishes since the date at which they were erected, and who desired to become Contributors to the Widows' Fund, were to be fined not only the whole of their arrears, but either three or four per cent. of interest. That would be, in the case of many Ministers, a very serious matter. He would remind them that a large proportion of the quoad sacra Ministers of the Church were much poorer than many of the Ministers of the old Parishes. Another hardship was that if they did not apply for admission to the fund within a year from the passing of the Act their right to do so would lapse, and they would have no opportunity of applying at a future time when they might be translated to another Parish, and be in a better position to contribute. What they asked was that the Bill should wipe out all the arrears, or, at any rate, limit them to a period of five years. The Rev. Dr JAMIESON, Old Machar, seconded. Mr MACLAGAN said the object of the Trustees in promoting the Bill was to bring the funds into conformity with the law as declared by the Court of Session. With regard to Assistants and Successors, they were at one time admitted to the fund; but under more recent Statutes they were not permitted to become Contributors, the reason, he supposed, being that it was not desirable that there should be two Contributors from one Parish. Mr Smith had spoken of doing justice to those in positions similar to himself, but he seemed to forget that justice had also to be done to those now on the fund, and to the widows who were drawing annuities. The Trustees were in a position which prevented them from acting otherwise than was at present proposed. If Mr Smith or those who thought with him were to go to Parliament with the view of placing any impediment in the way of the Bill becoming law, they would simply wreck the measure, and the Widows' Fund would be placed in a position from which no one could extricate it. The Trustees would be obliged to come down on every Minister, whether he liked it or not, and force him to pay up all the arrears, and they could even arrest their stipends, and prevent them receiving a penny until the arrears had been paid up. Mr JAMES A. WENLEY, Edinburgh (Elder), said the leading principle of the Widows' Fund was that every Contributor should be placed on a perfect equality. He did not mean to suggest that the Trustees had not been guided by actuarial principles, but in order that they might have an opportunity of again considering the matter, he moved—" Reappoint the Committee with instructions to confer with the Widows' Fund Committee with a view to put quoad sacra Ministers on a footing of equality with Ministers of Parishes, so far as consistent with actuarial principles." The Rev. WILLIAM GREIG, Rayne, seconded. The Rev. Dr SCOTT said Mr Maclagan had shown that if the law were to be strictly applied it would be a very severe application, and would bring them into endless litigation. It was a mistake for any one to suppose that the Trustees had not proceeded upon actuarial principles, for they had been strictly followed throughout. The result of the compromise was really to put quoad sacra Ministers—who were not compelled to come into the Fund unless they pleased—in a much better position than those who had contributed to the Fund for thirty or forty years. On the suggestion of Mr MURRAY, Mr Smith agreed to delete from his motion the reference to Parliamentary action. A vote being taken, there voted, for the first motion (Mr Murray's), 24 ; for the second motion (Rev. Mr Smith's), 6 ; for the third motion (Mr Wenley's), 12. The first motion thus became the judgment of the House. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to :—" The General Assembly receive the Report, and thank the Trustees and Officers of the Fund for their diligence in the management of its affairs. The General Assembly are glad to hear that the Bill promoted by the Trustees in Parliament has passed through the House of Lords, and hope that it will pass also through the House of Commons. The General Assembly warmly commend the Supplementary Orphan Fund to the Ministers of the Church and other Contributors of the Fund, who may by a single payment of one guinea secure for their children the benefits arising from this Fund, should they be left in circumstances entitling them. to participate. They recommend that in every Synod a Committee should be appointed to bring the matter under the consideration of those Ministers who have not yet contributed to it, and they request the Trustees and Officers of the Ministers' Widows' Fund, who manage gratuitously the Supplementary Orphan Fund, to give these Committees such assistance by supplying them with information regarding it, and otherwise as may be in their power." The General Assembly adjourned at 6.15, to meet to-morrow at 11 o'clock A.M. SATURDAY, 31st May 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last sederunt, being in the hands of Members, were held as read, and were approved of. The General Assembly called for the Reports of the Visitors of Synod Books. The Book of the Synod of Galloway was given in and approved of. The Assembly ordered the Record to be attested in the usual form. The Convener of the Committee of Nomination suggested the following additional names for the Committee on the Proper Conduct of Public Worship :—Professor Mitchell, Dr Scott, Dr Charteris, C. M. P. Burn, Esq., T. G. Murray, Esq., Dr Boyd, Dr Gloag, Dr Leishman, Dr Mair, Rev. J. C. Carrick, Rev. Mr Murray, Sauchie ; Dr Johnston, Rev. Mr Cooper, Lewis Bilton, Esq., Dr John Macleod, Bev. J. Brown, Dr Jamieson. ADMISSION OF MINISTERS AND STATUS OF STUDENTS. The Rev. Dr WATT gave in the Report of the Committee as follows: - I. Students. 1. James Duncan Anderson attended Divinity Classes at the University of Aberdeen during sessions 1885-86, 1886-87, 1888-89, and 1889-90. He passed the Synodical examination for entrants, however, only in October 1889. Has satisfied examiners in entrance and exit Synodical examination. Craves that his sessions be taken as regular, and that he be taken on trials for licence by the Presbytery of Aberdeen. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was agreed to, and the crave granted. 2. Mr John Easton Black, M.A., Glasgow. Mr Black, who till 31st March 1890 was a member of the Free Church, graduated M.A. 1889 with second-- class honours in Philosophy. He attended the classes of Divinity, Church History, and Oriental Languages in Glasgow University in session 1888-- 89, and produces satisfactory testimonials from the professors. He craves to be allowed to present himself at the entrance examination in autumn, and on condition of passing to be allowed to enter the Hall as a second year's student. The case is strongly recommended by the Presbytery of Greenock. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was agreed to, and the crave granted. 3. James J. Haldane Burgess, M.A., Edinburgh University, 1889. In October 1889 applied for an oral examination to Presbytery of Edinburgh, as on account of weakness of eyes could not undergo a written examination. Request granted. Examination passed, and certificate in accordance obtained. A similar examination was refused by the Synod Board as incompetent without permission of the General Assembly. Entered Divinity Hall as student of first year, of which attendance the necessary certificates are produced. Craves that said session be sustained as a regular part of the Divinity course, on condition of his passing the Synod Board examination before entering on his second session. Committee recommend that the petition be remitted to Edinburgh Synodical Committee, with powers. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — that the recommendation of the Committee be adopted, and the petition remitted in terms thereof. 4. Mr John S. Clark (referred to in some of the certificates as M.A.) attended the Divinity Hall of United Presbyterian Church from 1st November 1887 to 11th April 1888. On 13th November 1888 he informed Perth Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church that he could not attend the Hall during that session from ill health. On 27th February 1889 he applied to the Presbytery of Perth to recognise him as a second year's student of Divinity, which the Presbytery did, subject to the decision of the General Assembly in the circumstances. He attended during session 1889-90 the Classes of Divinity, Church History, and Hebrew in the University of St Andrews. On the 30th October 1889 the Presbytery of Perth resolved to give all possible help and countenance to Mr Clark in preparing, forwarding, and promoting his petition to next General Assembly. He craves to be recognised as a Divinity Student of the Church of Scotland, and that his sessions at the United Presbyterian Church Hall and at the St Andrews University be reckoned as regular sessions of his Theological course. Committee recommend that crave be granted, on his producing to the Presbytery of Perth original certificates. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted on the condition mentioned. 5. William Crockett has attended the first year in Divinity Hall in Edinburgh: certificates produced. Failed to pass entrance examination, but was advised to enrol in the Hall. Is willing to undergo the ensuing entrance examination. Craves that session 1889-90 be sustained as a regular part of his curriculum. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused. 6. John Edgar, M.A., Edinburgh University, 1889. Passed examination of Presbytery of Edinburgh. Failed to pass the Board examination. States that owing to misunderstanding as to time of meeting of said Board, he was forty minutes late, and attributes failure to annoyance and excitement because of misunderstanding. Attended the Divinity Hall as student of first year, 1889-90: certificates produced. Craves said session be held as regular part of Divinity course, on condition of passing the Board examination in October 1890. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused. 7. John Reggie has passed examination of Presbytery of Kirkcaldy for first year's students. Owing to illness (medical certificate produced) could not attend Synod Board examination. Applied for another examination on recovery, which could not be granted. Entered the Divinity Hall, St Andrews, as first-year student, 1889-90, and took prizes. Craves that said session 1889-90 be sustained as regular part of the Divinity course, on condition that he passes the Board examination in October next. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted. 8. Peter R. Landreth (Logie Pert) states that he attended a full Arts curriculum in Edinburgh University: that during sessions 1887-88, 1888-89, 1889-90, he attended a full Divinity course at Edinburgh University and two courses on Elocution: that while attending the Synodical entrance examination at St Andrews in 1887, and again in 1888, he was compelled by illness to withdraw: that in October 1889 he passed said entrance examination at St Andrews. That he was permitted to present himself for the next examination in Edinburgh, April 1890, but was, from dangerous illness, unable to appear. He now craves that sessions 1887-88 and 1888-89 shall be counted along with session 1889-90 as regular sessions, and that he shall be granted an exit examination during the present year; or that the Presbytery of Brechin be empowered to hold an equivalent examination previous to taking him on trial for licence. Committee recommend that crave be granted to the extent that his course be held as regular, and that the Edinburgh Synodical Committee be empowered to examine him next October. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the recommendation of the Committee be adopted, and the crave granted to the extent recommended by the Committee. 9. Archibald James Miller has passed entrance examination of Presbytery of Arbroath for first-- year's students. Owing to illness, could not sit at Synod Board examination. Attended at University of Edinburgh session for first-year students of Divinity, 1889-90 (certificates produced). Craves that said session be held as regular part of his Divinity course, on condition that he presents himself before, and passes, the Synod examination in October 1890. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted and the crave refused. 10. P. A. K. Mackenzie, M.A., has finished the three years' course of study in Divinity, to the satisfaction of Presbytery of Inverness: was prevented coming before the Exit Examination Committee through illness, as duly certified in April of this year: is recommended by the Presbytery of Inverness to be taken on trials for licence. Craves special permission to be taken on trials for licence by the Presbytery of Inverness. Committee recommend that crave be not granted, but that the Edinburgh Synodical Committee be empowered to examine him next October. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused; but power granted to the Edinburgh Synodical Committee to examine Mr Mackenzie next October. 11. Thomas G. Taylor, 14 Great King Street, Edinburgh, states that he graduated M.A. in April 1887, and thereafter, at his father's desire, prepared himself for the study of Law. Having decided to enter the Ministry of the Church of Scotland shortly before the Presbyterial and Synodical Examinations in October 1889, he had devoted his attention to preparation, and at the examination failed to pass. That he attended classes in the Faculty of Divinity in Edinburgh University during the winter session of 1889-90. Craves that said attendance may be counted as a regular session in his Divinity course, provided he pass in October next the entrance examination prescribed by the Synod. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused. 12. Alexander K. Watt has passed the entrance examination for first-year students before the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1889. Owing to illness (medical certificate produced) could not present himself to Synod Board at Edinburgh. Entered as student of first year in 1889-90 the Divinity Hall at Edinburgh: certificates produced. Craves thatsaid session be sustained as regular part of his Divinity curriculum on condition of his passing the Synod Board examination in October next. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted. 13. Mr John Hay Mackenzie Frazer, at present Royal Bounty Missionary at Lochgair, petitions the General Assembly to be admitted to the status of a Licentiate. Mr Fraser appears to have received some desultory theological and literary training from clergymen of the Church of England, and to have been for a time at a Theological Hall of the Church Missionary Society at Reading. Thereafter he was licensed, 25th September 1875, by the Bishop of Sierra Leone, on the application of the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, to "read morning and evening prayer in the Church, and to deliver a plain discourse to the people." On returning to Scotland in 1878, when he did mission work among seamen, he officiated in the Gaelic Church at Greenock during a vacancy, and thereafter he worked in connection with the Gaelic Church at Rothesay. At both these places strongtestimony was borne to his character and success as a preacher in Gaelic. In 1879 he presented a petition through the Presbytery of Dunoon to the General Assembly praying to be recognised as a licentiate. The finding of that General Assembly was to this effect — that his petition that his College course might be shortened was granted, provided he passed the Presbytery and Synodical Examining Board. There is no appearance that he has passed either examination. During the session 1879-80 Mr Frazer attended the private Logic and Moral Philosophy Classes in the University of Glasgow while still working in connection with the Gaelic Church at Rothesay, at which place he received further literary instruction from the Rev. Robert Thomson, now Minister of Rubislaw, Aberdeen. After labouring in Rothesay for five years he became Missionary at Lochgair in the Presbytery of Lochgilphead: that Presbytery transmits his petition, and testifies "to the excellence of his moral character, and to the faithfulness in the performance of the duties at present assigned to him." The reason given by Mr Frazer for renewing his application for licence is, that it will greatly increase his usefulness in ministering among the Highlanders. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused. 14. David S. Richardson has duly completed his studies in accordance with the laws of the Church, and passed the exit examination in Glasgow, but through an oversight his application to the Presbytery of Peebles to be taken on trials for licence was not submitted in time to the Synod meeting in April last. Craves that authority may be granted to the Presbytery of Peebles to take him on trials for licence. Committee recommend that crave be granted The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted. II. Licentiates and Ministers. 1. George Bell is M.A. of Royal University of Ireland, Doctor of Music of Trinity College, Dublin, and a licentiate of Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Is recommended by Committee on Admission of Ministers from other Churches and by Presbytery of Edinburgh: has passed a sufficient course (certificates produced). Craves to be admitted as licentiate of the Church. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted. 2. The Rev. Robert Howie, Baptist Minister in Glasgow, and for the last five years at Peterhead, states in his petition that "more mature study of baptism, and observation of the religious wants of Scotland, have led him to depart from his former views, both as to baptism, and as to the government of the Church of Scotland." Student at Glasgow: has satisfactory certificates of attendance at Lower Junior Humanity Class, session 1880-81, Senior Humanity Class, 1881-82; Junior Greek Class, session 1881-82; Junior English Literature, session 1882-83; Moral Philosophy, session 1883-84; Logic and Rhetoric, session 1882-83; Junior Hebrew, 1883-84; Divinity and Biblical Criticism, 1884-85; Senior Hebrew (for a short time), 1885-86; and also satisfactory certificates from various teachers and tutors in connection with the Baptist denomination. Produces also certificates and recommendations from various Ministers. States that he is now in hearty accord with the doctrine, government, and discipline of the Church of Scotland, and craves to be admitted to the Ministry. Committee by a majority recommend that crave be not granted. The Rev. Dr WATT moved that the recommendation of the Committee be adopted and the crave be refused. He mentioned that the Committee had resolved upon their recommendation by eleven votes to six. They would observe that Mr Howie had not completed a full Arts course, and this had weighed with the Committee in coming to their decision. The Rev. WILLIAM WORKMAN, Stow, seconded Dr Watt's motion. He had, he said, no objection to any man applying for admission to the Ministry of their Church, but they had a duty towards their own Licentiates and Probationers with whom they were dealing with the strictest and most evenhanded justice. This was the case of a gentleman who told them that he had gone through a certain curriculum of studies. An examination of the classes which he had taken showed, however, that many classes which they insisted on their own students taking were entirely awanting, and they should do nothing which might seem to lead to the assumption on the part of any of their young men who wished to shirk the Board of Examiners, that they had only to become Baptist Ministers and take a session at the University in order to get into the Ministry of the Church without trouble. The Rev. Dr GLOAG, Galashiels, moved as an amendment that the crave of Mr Howie be granted on the condition that he should attend two years in one of our Divinity Halls, and pass the exit examination before he can be admitted as a licentiate of the Church of Scotland. They in the Church of Scotland should, he thought, open their doors as wide as possible, as they were no mere sectarian Church. He quite recognised that Mr Howie's College curriculum was defective, but he thought the ends of the case would be met by Mr Howie taking two more years in the Hall, and passing the exit examination before he was admitted as a licentiate. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, said the recommendation of the Committee left the applicant free to proceed with his studies if he thought fit, while Dr Gloag's raised him to the status of a second year's student. There was in his mind no real inconsistency between the two motions. The Rev. JOHN MITCHELL, St Fergus, seconded Dr Gloag's motion. Mr Howie, he thought, would be a distinct gain to the Church, but at the same time he could not get over the fact that his Arts curriculum was not completed. All the circumstances seemed to point to their adopting a kindly method of dealing with Mr Howie. The Rev. Dr LEISHMAN, Linton, supported Dr Gloag's motion. On a division, Dr Watt's motion was carried by a large majority, and Mr Howie's petition was accordingly refused. 3. The Rev. James Gall Robertson, an ordained minister formerly connected with the Free Church of Scotland, was twelve years missionary in Kaffraria, South Africa; has twice before, in 1881 and 1883, been recommended by the Standing Committee, but on neither occasion was his petition presented to the Assembly. Mr Robertson gave to the Standing Committee reasons why this was not done. Since then most favourable testimony is borne by many Ministers and others in favour of Mr Robertson. Is again recommended by the Standing Committee, and strongly by Presbytery of Dundee. Craves to be admitted to the status of an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland. Committee recommend that crave be granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave granted. 4. Rev. Alexander S. Stewart, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, was sent out by General Assembly's Colonial Committee to Halifax in 1874 as a catechist and student of Dalhousie College; was licensed by the Presbytery of Sydney, Cape Breton, in 1879; inducted to the charge of Belfast, Prince Edward Island, where he laboured for eight years, transferring to West and Clyde Rivers; and after twenty-one months became minister of Mosa, in the Presbytery of London, Ontario. He is now desirous of returning to the service of the Church of Scotland, and craves to be admitted. Committee recommend that crave be not granted. The recommendation of the Committee was adopted, and the crave refused. 5. Rev. W. Hood Wright was licensed by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Kilmarnock on 11th June 1878. He thereafter held a charge in the Presbyterian Church of England, which he demated in February 1884. On 2nd June 1884 he was admitted to the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland, and for some months took charge of one of the congregations belonging to the Free Presbytery of Dumbarton during the temporary absence of the minister. In the end of 1886 Mr Wright was appointed to a Mission Station at Craigneuk, near Wishaw, in connection with the Free Church, and appears to have laboured there with acceptance. He states that lie has always had a warm feeling towards the Church of Scotland, with whose doctrine and government he entirely agrees, and now craves to be admitted as a minister therein. He adds that the majority of his congregation at Craigneuk have already joined the Established Church. Letters of recommendation are submitted by him from the Established Church ministers of Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Motherwell, and Dumbarton, and an extract minute of the Committee on Admission of Ministers from other Churches, held at 22 Queen Street, Edinburgh, on 14th February 1890, recommending his admission. Committee, by a large majority, recommend that crave be not granted. The Rev. Dr WATT, moved that the recommendation of the Committee be adopted, and the crave refused. He explained that only himself and another member of the Committee had voted in the minority when the decision was come to in Committee. The Rev. Mr LAWSON, Abernethy, who seconded Dr Watt's motion, said Mr Wright appeared to be so unsettled in his mind that a little period of reflection would be very advisable before he was received into the ranks of the Clergy of the Church of Scotland. Mr Wright's application had, he admitted, many things to recommend it, but they would be justly blamed by the other Churches if they were a little too warm in their enthusiasm to welcome every gentleman who did not seem to get on with the other bodies to which he had formerly belonged. The Rev. R. S. HUTTON, Cambusnethan, moved that the General Assembly grant the crave of Mr Hood Wright. He pointed out that the Committee had not brought before the House the fact that the Presbytery of Hamilton, after careful inquiry, had resolved to recommend Mr Wright's admission to the ministry of the Church. A petition had also been signed by 123 members and adherents of the Mission Station at Craigneuk asking that the Mission should be recognised as a Congregation of the Church of Scotland, and that they should have the benefit of the Ministry of Mr Wright, who for two years had been labouring there with great acceptance. Mr Wright had appeared before the Committee on the Admission of Ministers from other Churches on 14th February last, when the Committee had resolved to recommend his admission. There was, in his opinion, no reason why a man should not pass from one of the other Presbyterian Churches to their Church or from their Church to these Churches. The Rev. Professor STORY said at first sight there seemed to be something in the variableness of conviction referred to by Mr Lawson, but it was well to see where the variation began. He held that a man who began as a United Presbyterian Minister — who passed from that Church to the Communion of the Presbyterian Church in England, and then into the Free Church — and ultimately sought to be admitted to the Church of Scotland, was pursuing a course of upward progress. He had begun at a low point and ascended to the highest he could get. The Rev. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, said this was a very good case for proceeding contrary to the recommendation of the Committee. There was no hindrance in point of study, there was no hindrance in connection with Ordination, and, as Professor Story had said, it was perfectly clear Mr Wright was going on improving. In answer to a Member, Dr WATT stated that Mr Wright had been a Baptist Preacher before he became a United Presbyterian. Dr Watt went on to say that Mr Wright's case had been before the Standing Committee several years ago, when the Committee had decided that he should go back and take a three years' course, and then renew his application. In reality Mr Wright had gone to the United Presbyterian Church, where he had got off with one year. After some further conversation the House divided, when 57 voted in favour of the adoption of the Committee's recommendation, and 64 for Mr Wright's admission to the Ministry of the Church. His petition was accordingly granted. REGULATIONS FOR THE ADMISSION OF MINISTERS. The AGENT (Mr Menzies) said for some years before the passing of the Barrier Act the Assembly had found applications for admission to the Church coming up from gentlemen whose qualifications and period of study were not at all equal to those of the students of Divinity and Licentiates of their own. He thought the time had now come when they might with propriety remit to a Committee to report to next Assembly whether any changes were called for in the procedure of the Church in regard to the admission of Ministers of other Churches. He moved — "That the whole arrangements for the admission of Ministers be remitted to a Committee for consideration, to report to next General Assembly." The Rev. Dr SCOTT seconded the motion, which was agreed to. THE UNIVERSITIES ACT AND EDUCATION. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN submitted the Educational part of the Report of the Committee on the Universities Act, which mentioned the following provisions: 1. The institution of an entrance or matriculation examination for all who propose to be regular and not private students, thus increasing the efficiency of the Universities, and doing justice to the secondary schools. 2. The institution of Summer Sessions, care being at the same time taken to make it possible for a student, by prolonging his stay at the University, to dispense with these. 3. The provision by means of options of different paths to the M.A. degree, without sacrificing that basis of general culture to which the Church has always attached so much importance. 4. Increasing the number of Teachers, partly by new Chairs, partly by Lectureships qualifying for degrees, so as to secure greater and more varied activity of intellectual life. And he moved — "That the Assembly receive the Report, thank the Committee for their diligence, and discharge them." This motion was seconded and agreed to. It was also moved, seconded, and agreed to — "That the following Committee be appointed to support the resolution of the General Assembly in regard to the Theological Tests before the Universities Commission, and to watch over the progress of the measure: — Dr Mitchell, Dr Charteris, the Rev. Mr Hunter, Dr Scott, the Procurator. OVERTURE ON DIVINITY STUDENTS' ARTS COURSE. The Presbytery of Glasgow overtured the Assembly to make a representation to the Universities Commission of the urgent need that exists for the institution of an effective Matriculation Examination for the Divinity Hall, so that students who had defective attainments in the subjects taught in the Faculty of Arts might not be allowed to spend several years in attendance upon University classes with a view to the Ministry before being made aware of their deficiencies. The Rev. Dr WATT, Glasgow, moved as follows: — "In view of probable changes in the Curriculum of the Faculty of Arts, the General Assembly deems it desirable to state its views regarding proposals that may affect students preparing for the Ministry, and remits the whole subject to the Committee on the Education of the Ministry, with additions, instructing it to take into consideration the various points raised, and to make representations to the Universities Commission in accordance with the views now stated. 1. The General Assembly is of opinion that, in the interest both of secondary instruction and of higher education generally, an Effective Entrance examination as a preliminary to proceeding to a Degree in Arts is called for. 2. The Assembly deems it desirable that options should be given in the studies leading to the Degree of M.A. after such an examination has been passed. 3. While looking forward to a time when the possession of a Degree in Arts shall be held to be an essential condition of beginning a regular course of Theological study, the Assembly is not at present prepared to exclude from the list of Divinity Students those who, having given the requisite attendance, have not graduated in Arts. 4. The Committee is further instructed to represent to the Universities Commission the need of arrangements whereby junior classes may be maintained at the Universities for the preparation of students for any preliminary examination that may be instituted as qualifying for beginning a graduation course, and to consider and report on methods by which students intending to enter the Ministry of this Church may be encouraged and helped to pass such examination, and also upon the means of exercising supervision over students during their Arts course. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, in seconding the motion, said he thought an addition might have been made to it, to the effect that the Assembly was of opinion that the staff of teachers in the Universities should be increased, as the classes were so large that the personal influence of the teacher was greatly lost upon the students. The new Act promised very valuable reforms in their Universities in the way of promoting higher education in Scotland. Their Universities had done noble work, but not all that could have been expected of them. For many years it had not been supposed that a man ended his education in the Scottish Universities. Their best men went to Germany and England to complete their education, and he could not regard as perfect an educational system which did not complete the education of its own students. For the last thirty or forty years it had been almost impossible for a Scottish student to expect an appointment as a Professor in the Faculty of Arts in a Scottish University. The fact that they had to go across the Border for their teachers created a wide gulf between the teachers and the classes, and caused a certain warping of their work. Another point of great importance was that in Scotland they had never yet had a distinct system of secondary education, and if they were to obtain that, it must be by drawing some line of distinction between secondary schools and the Universities, which could only be done by the institution of an effective entrance examination. They had an excellent primary system of education, now that the objectionable practice of payment by results had been largely abolished in the Board schools, but what they wanted was an efficient system of secondary education. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN said the Church had as deep an interest in the general education of the youth of the country as in the education of her own Students. The Church of Scotland, throughout her whole history, had taken the warmest interest in University as well as primary education. She had been the earnest and devoted, although in these later years the unthanked, friend of the Universities of Scotland. They had always felt in the Church that learning and Religion should go together, and ought to be most firmly united. He cordially adopted the first part of the motion, but he entirely differed from the view of Dr Watt as contained in the second paragraph. There was no questioning the fact that, considering the enormous growth of the sciences in our day, and the amount of knowledge connected not only with the sciences in general but with every individual science, it was absolutely necessary that options should be introduced in their Universities, but he deprecated most strongly that these options should be allowed to come in before a basis of general education and general culture had been laid. If there was one thing more than another distinguishing the Universities in the past, it had been the mode in which they had laid that basis of general education and general culture. It was in danger of being surrendered to the desire of those individual lines of education by which a man should be enabled to earn his bread. If there was a danger of that kind in Scotland, it was even greater in England. It was a positive fact that at some of the large schools in England there were large scholarships and bursaries founded for young boys in one particular department of knowledge, and the consequence of that was that from his very earliest years a boy was encouraged, not to go in for general education, but to confine himself to the narrow grooves of one particular subject. He hoped the Assembly would say that, while they conceded the principle of options, they would insist, above and beyond everything else, that these options should rise up or diverge from the basis of a good general education. All he objected to in the third paragraph was the statement that there might come a time when they should not admit any student to their Divinity Halls who had not taken the M.A. degree in his Arts course. It seemed a very fair proposition; but it put the Church of Scotland into the hands of the Universities, and to that he objected. He would always protest that they were an independent body, capable of judging for themselves what kind of men should be allowed to enter into the Church. He would not concede anything that would put the Church into the hands of foreign bodies over whom they had no control. Dr Watt's motion also failed to supply some of the things that were absolutely necessary. He thought the time had come when they must have summer sessions in their Universities, for it was a very great hardship to many parents to have their sons thrown on their hands for seven months out of the twelve, and it was by no means favourable to the proper training and discipline of the youth. These sessions should be introduced in such a way that they would not be absolutely imperative, but would be ready for those wishing to avail themselves of them. Their University system was defective in the number of its teachers and in giving a monopoly of great subjects to a single man. They must open up these subjects to other teachers, and it should be their aim to introduce young men as teachers, so that when a vacancy occurred there might be an ample field of choice. He moved as an amendment: — "Remit the overture and the suggestions in the Report of the Committee on the Universities Bill (p. 210) to the Committee on the Education of Ministers for their consideration, and instruct the Committee to watch over the procedure of the Universities Commission in reference to this matter." The Very Rev. Principal CUNNINGHAM seconded Professor Milligan's motion, but explained that he did so on perfectly different grounds from those urged by the mover. For example, as to the proposed summer session, he should like Professor Milligan to remember that, while a summer session would be very convenient for Arts students, it was questionable whether it would be a benefit to Divinity students. It would be almost impossible to get their students to attend for nine months in the year, because the majority of them, like certain animals of the lower orders, gathered honey in the summer time and stored it up for the winter time. There were to his mind great difficulties in the way of having such a summer session as Professor Milligan's motion contemplated, but he was quite willing that that and other subjects should be sent to a Committee to be fully considered. Therefore, while he did not agree with Professor Milligan's speech, he was happy to second the motion. The Rev. Professor DICKSON, Glasgow, said he objected to the motion of Dr Watt on the ground that it dealt with a great many subjects not touched by the Overture, and he had a further objection to it because it differed from the terms of an Overture which Dr Watt had himself brought up from the Presbytery of Glasgow. The evil at present was that many of their students came to the University in a state of poor preparation. They began their Arts studies in that state, and after passing through the Arts curriculum they found themselves checked at the moment they were about to enter on the study of Divinity. He had always maintained that the only proper remedy for that state of matters was to insist on an entrance examination. He desired to cut out from Dr Watt's motion everything that appertained to subjects not included in the Overture, and he accordingly moved: — "Remit the Overture to the Committee on the Education of the Ministry, instructing them to make a representation to the Universities Commission, that it is desirable to institute an effective matriculation examination applicable to all ordinary students." The Rev. Dr SCOTT pointed out that there was no collision, so far as he could make out, between the motions before the House, and there was no reason why they should not be incorporated with the motion of Professor Milligan. They would all, he thought, be at one with Dr Dickson as to the importance of an entrance examination, and it might be an instruction to the Committee to lay the suggested representation before the Universities Commission in the name of the Assembly. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN said he had no objection to accept Dr Dickson's motion in the sense that it should be referred along with the other to the Committee on the Education of the Ministry. The Rev. Dr WATT then withdrew his motion; and Professor Dickson's being also withdrawn, Professor Milligan's became the finding of the House, it being at the same time resolved that the first and third motions should be remitted to the Committee. THE EDUCATION OF MINISTERS. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, gave in the Report of the Committee on the Education of Ministers, which contained the following suggestions: — The desireableness of widening and modernising the course of study for the Ministry, by recognising the options laid down, or to be laid down, under the Universities Act as regards the degree examinations for M.A., B.D., and B.Sc.; the desirableness of an entrance examination for students in Arts; if the M.A. degree be not made imperative, that mere certificates of attendance in Arts or Divinity classes should not be accepted as valid unless they certified proficiency to some reasonable extent. The Cornmittee asked authority to petition the Universities Commission in favour of a compulsory entrance examination, and also of wider options. The wider options, Dr Rankin said, were undefined, and so far as he understood, the Commission were already prepared to move in both of the directions indicated by the Committee. It could do no harm to make the representation, even if the suggestions were not acted upon. He moved "That the Assembly approve the Report, and grant the authority requested to petition the Universities Commission in favour of an Entrance Examination, and of wider option in subjects of examination for the M.A. degree." The Rev. Dr GRAY, Liberton, seconded the motion, winch was agreed to. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — "That the Committee on the Education of the Ministry be enlarged, Dr Rankin and Professor Dickson, Joint-Conveners; and the nominating Committee be instructed to bring up additional names on Monday." It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — "That Dr Dickson's name be added to the Committee appointed to support the resolution of the Assembly before the Universities Commission in the matter of the Theological Tests." PETITION OF MR JAMES MACCOLL. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR submitted the Report of the Committee appointed to consider the Petition by Mr James MacColl, late Minister at Kilchoman, asking to be restored to the status of a Licentiate of the Church. From the Report it appeared that the Presbytery of Islay and Jura had in 1884 found four out of seven charges of drunkenness proved against the Petitioner, and that the General Assembly of that year had deposed him from the office of the Ministry of the Church. Mr MacColl stated in his Petition that he was sincerely penitent for those acts, and that by prayer to God, by strong resolution, and by continual watchfulness, he had been able to lead a strictly sober life since. The Petition came to the Assembly with the cordial recommendation of the Presbytery of Glasgow, in whose bounds Mr MacColl had been residing since he left Kilchoman, and the Committee also recommended that Mr MacColl's request should be granted. Professor Taylor moved that Mr MacColl should be restored to the status of a Licentiate of the Church, and this was agreed to. THE MANCHESTER CASE. The Assembly, at half-past two o'clock, took up the Manchester case, which was continued from Saturday last. The case, it will be remembered, came up this year on a reference from the Presbytery of Glasgow and by Petitions from Members of the Scottish National Church, Rusholme Road, Manchester. At last year's Assembly Counsel appeared for Mr Mackie and the Petitioners, and it was stated that the Petitioners withdrew their charges against Mr Mackie on condition that he should resign his connection with the Manchester Church. A statement, signed by Mr Mackie, was put in by his Counsel, admitting and expressing regret for certain unseemly scuffles in the Church, which he attributed to abnormal nervous excitement, and the Assembly disposed of the case by remitting to the Presbytery of Glasgow to rebuke Mr Mackie. The agreement between Mr Mackie and the Petitioners was not implemented, and on Mr Mackie being cited before the Presbytery of Glasgow in August last he protested against the rebuke on the ground that the Assembly was in error in having received Petitions containing' libellous matter, or matter which might become the subject of a libel, behind his back, such Petitions emanating from persons not directly under the Assembly's jurisdiction, and who neither waited on his Ministry nor contributed to his maintenance; and because the paper signed by him, on which the Assembly rested their instructions to the Presbytery, was submitted to the Assembly before the conditions on which it was contingent were fulfilled, and without sanction or authority from him, and it was not a "judicial admission and confession." In these circumstances the Presbytery found themselves debarred from carrying out the judgment of the Assembly. When the case was before the Assembly on Saturday last, Mr Mackie stated that he gave no authority for the minute which was laid before last Assembly by Counsel, and it was very far from his mind to imply that he had been guilty of something deserving of censure. In these circumstances a Committee was appointed to inquire into the matter, and report to a future diet of Assembly. On the case being called, there appeared at the bar the Rev. James Mackie, for himself; Mr Gregory and Mr Farish, Members of the Manchester congregation, asking that the trust should be administered; and Mr Beaton, Manchester, for himself and other Petitioners. The Rev. Mr MACKIE objected to Mr Beaton appearing, on the ground that he was not a Member of the Rusholme Road congregation, and his Petition had not been read. The AGENT of the CHURCH (Mr Menzies) read the Petition, which set forth that the arrangement sanctioned by the Assembly last year had not been carried out ; that the circumstances of the congregation were the same as disclosed in former years; and that there had been no meeting of Kirk-Session and no celebration of the Communion for upwards of four years; and they asked the Assembly to deal with these matters. The Rev. JAMES MACKIE again objected to Mr Beaton appearing. He had, he said, been only once at the Communion since he became Minister, and that without a certificate, and for the purpose of getting up these disturbances. He had been a member of the Congregation under his predecessor, whom he had driven by his conduct to All Saints' Episcopal Church. He also objected to Mr Beaton that he had called meetings in his (Mr Mackie's) schoolroom to form a Committee for the purpose of building a new church and calling another minister; and these parties had cut his gas pipes, destroyed the organ and heating apparatus, and caused other disturbances. Men who had formed themselves into a nucleus of a Congregation were not entitled to appear against a clergyman from whose ministry they had withdrawn, and for whose maintenance they were not paying one penny. Mr Core, another of the petitioners, was an official in the English Church. These gentlemen were the causes of the facts in the petition of which they complained. There had been no meetings of Session, because Mr Carsewell and other Elders refused to meet with him. On the motion of the PROCURATOR, it was agreed to receive the petition. The PROCURATOR then gave in the Report of the Committee appointed on the previous Saturday to consider the position of matters. The Committee had held several meetings, and had laid before them the various documents bearing on the case. Mr Mackie had also attended meetings of the Committee when required, and was present when the Committee conferred with the Deputation from the Synod of the Church of Scotland in England. The Committee had, in presence of Mr Mackie, examined the Counsel who represented Mr Mackie at last Assembly and gave in the document, signed by Mr Mackie, on which the deliverance of the Assembly proceeded, and they had also examined Mr Mackie himself in connection with the list of documents. They held it to be clearly proved that it was on Mr Mackie's instructions that Counsel appeared before the Committee of the Assembly last year, and that these instructions had not been withdrawn when the document referred to was handed in at the bar of the Assembly. Mr Mackie, however, stated that the document was delivered to Counsel only to be used in a certain event — namely, if Mr Mackie was satisfied with the terms of the withdrawal of the complaints made in the petition then before the Assembly. The complaints were withdrawn, subject only to the proviso that Mr Mackie should undertake to withdraw from his charge of Rusholme Road Church within a month, and as it had been brought to the knowledge of all concerned that Mr Mackie had, only a few days previously, signed an agreement undertaking to resign his living in Manchester, it appeared to the Committee that Counsel was justified in laying the document before the Assembly as he did. It might further be remarked that the deliverance of the Assembly bore that the charges had been judicially withdrawn, and that parties were recalled and the deliverance read over to them without objection. The Committee were, however, of opinion that as Mr Mackie alleged that he was under some misapprehension in the matter, he should have an opportunity of stating at the bar whether he desired to withdraw his signed confession contained in the document before mentioned, or whether he adhered to it, and was prepared to submit himself to the judgment of the Assembly The Procurator concluded by moving the approval of the Report. Mr A. D. M. BLACK, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion, which was agreed to. The MODERATOR then asked Mr Mackie whether he withdrew or adhered to his signed confession embodied in the deliverance of last Assembly. The Rev. Mr MACKIE — Before answering that question, I should like to know whether the House has passed judgment on the point whether the Advocate was within his right in laying that document before the Assembly? The MODERATOR — The House has approved of the Committee's Report. The Rev. Mr MACKIE — My answer, then, is this — If the Assembly have found that the Advocate was within his right in laying that document before the House, I bow to any judgment on this submission that they are pleased to give. The MODERATOR repeated the question, and asked for a categorical answer. The Rev. Mr MACKIE — I desire to submit myself to the judgment of the Assembly on that submission. Being further pressed to answer categorically, Mr Mackie replied, "I adhere and submit." On the motion of Mr JAMES WALLACE, Advocate, Edinburgh (Elder), the CLERK read the terms of Mr Mackie's confession as follows: — "I, the Rev. James Mackie, humbly desire to admit and to confess to the General Assembly that in the course of my Ministry in the Scottish National Church, Rusholme Road, Manchester, I have taken part in unseemly scuffles within the Church on three occasions, specified in the petition presented to the General Assembly of 1887, which, I confess with pain, was conduct unbecoming and reprehensible in a Minister of the Gospel. With full expression of my penitence, I humbly and unreservedly place myself in the hands of the General Assembly to deal with me as seems just. I crave the General Assembly to give due weight, in considering my case, to the unfortunate circumstances in which I was placed, and the provocation to which I was subjected. I crave this, not as justifying my conduct, but on the ground that these circumstances explain the abnormal state of nervous excitement in which I was at the time when the acts took place to which I now confess, and which I sincerely and unfeignedly regret." The other parties at the bar having been asked whether they had anything to say, Mr BEATON said he had only to remark that their withdrawal of the charges against Mr Mackie was subject to Mr Mackie's withdrawal from Rusholme Road Church. Failing that, their charges against him stood. Parties were then removed. The PROCURATOR briefly recalled the history of the case since it first came before the Assembly on petition in 1887, and said they had now Mr Mackie submitting himself in, he believed, a most loyal spirit to the judgment of the Assembly. The charges against Mr Mackie were withdrawn on the footing that he was to retire from Rusholme Road Church within a month. He had not retired from the Church; but, of course, a stipulation or negotiation such as that was not a thing to which the Assembly could possibly be a party. On the whole, he thought the Assembly had touch of thesecharges so as to justify it in dealing with them as it pleased; and without going into the details of this painful case, he would submit the following motion: — "The General Assembly, having considered the Report of their Committee and the whole proceedings, and Mr Mackie having, as recommended in the Report, had an opportunity of stating whether he now adheres to or withdraws from the signed document submitted to last General Assembly and embodied in their deliverance; and Mr Mackie having now stated at the bar that he adheres to the said document and submits himself to the Assembly, resolve that the justice of the case will be met by rebuke and admonition, and that Mr Mackie, being at the bar, be rebuked and admonished accordingly from the Chair." The Rev. Dr SCOTT said he had no desire to press heavily on a man on whom many misfortunes had pressed very severely, and he would certainly like to see one whom he could call his old friend, Mr Mackie, removed from his most unfortunate position. He thought Mr Mackie had done right in submitting himself to the Assembly, and they should meet him generously; but they must remember that there were other things at stake, and he would like if the Procurator would add to his motion something like the following: — "The Assembly find, in the circumstances disclosed, that the connection of Mr Mackie with the Rusholme Road congregation should terminate as speedily as possible, and inform the Synod of the Church of Scotland in England of this deliverance." The PROCURATOR suggested that that might form a separate motion, and his resolution as proposed was then agreed to. Parties having been recalled and judgment intimated, Mr Mackie, standing at the bar, was addressed by the MODERATOR as follows: — My Brother, you and I in our long Ministry have had painful duties to do, but I do not think that to either of us anything ever came heavier than what has been appointed to both of us to-day, for I am commanded to censure you in the name of the Supreme Court of the Church, which I must do, though knowing well that you have had a heavy trial, that you have had more than your share of human anxiety and misfortune, and that all that you have said as to how those troubles might have affected you is perfectly true. You have done well, I am sure, in adhering to that confession, and in submitting yourself to the General Assembly. There is not a man here who does not feel for you; there is not a man here who would bear hard upon you; there is not a man here but will firmly believe that a man of your great ability, going to a new sphere and turning a clean page where all these things may be forgotten, will do good work for the Church and for the Saviour. We know well, my Brother, in ourselves, that God could only know what such troubles might have made of any of us, and for that and other reasons we desire to speak to you in the kindest way. I have to convey to you the censure of the Assembly, which you will receive in the spirit in which it is given, and we wish most heartily that, beginning afresh, you may have a day of usefulness and happiness such as it is impossible you could have had all these past years. The PROCURATOR next moved the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the matters contained in the Petitions, and to confer with the parties and the trustees of the Church, and to do all in their power to arrange things satisfactorily. The Rev. Dr SCOTT moved as an addition that it be intimated to the Synod of the Church of Scotland in England that, in the opinion of the Assembly, it was highly desirable in the interests of all concerned that Mr Mackie's connection with the Rusholme Road Church, Manchester, should cease. The Rev. Dr F. L. ROBERTSON, Glasgow, suggested the addition of the words "on fair and reasonable terms," which Dr Scott accepted. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN, Pollokshields, said he failed to see what object was to be attained in conveying that intimation to the English Synod, as they had already informed the Assembly that their jurisdiction over Mr Mackie was at an end. The Rev. Dr SCOTT — The object is a goal which all parties are anxious to reach, and I believe it will be a blessed consummation to Mr Mackie himself. On the suggestion of Sheriff CHEYNE (Elder), the motion was ultimately adjusted as follows, and was unanimously agreed to: — "That the General Assembly find that it is desirable that the connection of Mr Mackie with the Church in Rusholme Road, Manchester, should be terminated on fair and reasonable terms as soon as possible, and with this finding remit the Petitions of Mr Beaton and others and of Mr Gregory and others, to a Committee to confer with the Petitioners, the Trustees of the Church, and all others concerned, and do all in their power to arrange matters satisfactorily in Rusholme Road Church, Manchester; further, remit to the same Committee the letter laid before the General Assembly from the Scottish Synod in England for consideration and advice. The Procurator to bring up the names of the Committee on Monday morning." EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR LICENCE. The Rev. Dr WATT gave in the Report of the Committee containing a revised scheme of Regulations, and a recommendation that Act 20, 1889, be altered as follows: — At line 9, for "before applying to any Presbytery to be taken on trial for licence," read "before being taken on trials for licence by any Presbytery." The revised Regulations are as follow (1.) The examination of all Students who shall have finished a regular course of study in theology in 1889-90 and following years, shall be held annually in April or May at each University seat, on a day or days to be fixed by the Committee acting there. The time and place of meeting, with any other necessary information, shall be published in the October number of the Mission Record. At least ten days before the date so fixed intimation of intention to appear for examination must be made to the Convener of the Committee before which a student intends to present himself. (2.) In selecting the subjects of examination each Committee shall keep in view the subjects prescribed to candidates for the B.D. degree at the University at which it acts. The subjects of examination as settled by each Committee shall be intimated annually in the July number of the Mission Record. (3.) Students who appear at this examination must satisfy the Committee first that they have passed the examination required of Students entering the Divinity Hall, and, second, that they have attended a full and regular course of theological study, as prescribed by the laws of the Church. In the case of those who have passed for the B.D. degree, certificates to this effect, or a diploma, must be produced ; and in any case where there may have been a departure from the law of the Church as to the date of passing the entrance examination, or as to the subsequent curriculum, an extract deliverance of the General Assembly sanctioning such departure must in like manner be produced. (4) Each Student whose examination has been sustained by the Committee shall receive a certificate to that effect, showing also the estimate that has been formed of the appearance made by him in the several subjects in which he has been examined, which certificate, signed by the Convener or Vice-- Convener, shall be presented by the Student to the Clerk of his Presbytery, as a condition of his being taken by them on trials for licence. The Convener of each Committee, if requested to do so by a Presbytery, shall remit to them the papers of any Student who has applied to them to be taken on trials, and who has passed the Committee's examination. (5.) The Committee shall give to the theological Professors at the respective Universities opportunity for advising as to the scope of the examination. (6.) The Committee as formed at present shall act till they have completed the work of the exit examination in 1891. At the first meeting of the several Synods in 1891 and thereafter rienially, successors to existing Committees, shall be appointed, and the period of their holding office shall date from the completion of the work of the exit examination in the year of their appointment. The number of members to be appointed by the several Synods for the purposes of both the entrance and the exit examinations shall be as is shown in the schedule annexed to the regulations. Vacancies that may occur shall be filled up in accordance with the provision of Act IX., 1874. (7) The provisions of Act IX., 1874, relative to the mode of conducting the examinations, communication between the Conveners, reporting to the Assembly, submitting proposals to the Assembly, and such like, shall apply to the exit as well as to the entrance examinations. Dr WATT concluded by moving the following deliverance — That the Report containing the Regulations be approved of, and the Regulations adopted, and it be remitted to the Committee to prepare an Overture to be sent down to Presbyteries to amend Act XX. of last General Assembly, in terms of the Report; and further, that it be remitted to the Conveners of the four Synodical Committees to consider how far the Certificates should be issued on a uniform method. The motion was seconded and agreed to. OVERTURE ANENT THE FINAL EXAMINATION IN THEOLOGY. The Synod of Perth and Stirling overtured the Assembly to the effect that, as the degree of B.D. practically exempted Students applying for licence from the final examination in Theology by the Examining Committees of the Church, the regulations should be so altered as to make the examination obligatory on all candidates. Dr MILROY, Moneydie, appeared in support of the Overture, and he concluded by moving that the Overture be remitted to the Committee on the Education of Ministers, which was seconded. The Rev. Dr WATT, Glasgow, moved that the Overture be dismissed, on the ground, as he said, that it had been brought forward under a total misconception as to the provisions of the Act; and this second motion the House adopted by a large majority. REPORT OF UNIVERSITY EXAMINING BOARDS. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, in the absence of the Convener (Dr Dykes), gave in the Report of the Examining Boards at University Seats. The Report stated that the total number of graduates presenting themselves during the year for the entrance examination into the Hall had been 39, of whom 3 had failed. The non-graduates had numbered 50, and of them 21 had failed. The total number passing last year was 65-36 graduates and 29 non-- graduates. Edinburgh had the pre-eminence of presenting most graduates, while Glasgow had the pre-eminence of "plucking" most non-graduates. More than half the students entering the Divinity Halls last year were graduates in Arts. For the exit examination, 32 bachelors of divinity and 48 who were not graduates in divinity — 80 in all — had presented themselves, and either owing to the leniency of the examiners or to the extraordinary state of preparedness in which the candidates were, all of them had passed. Edinburgh had presented most graduates in divinity, and he was sorry to say the proportion in Glasgow was smallest. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Report be approved of, and the Committee continned, and Dr Watt appointed in room of Dr Dykes, as Convener of the Glasgow Synodical Committee. The General Assembly recorded its sense of Dr Dykes's valuable services as Convener. PROBATIONERS. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick (in the absence of the Rev. Dr Alison, Edinburgh) submitted the Report of the Committee on Probationers, which stated that of the 310 Probationers and unattached Ministers reported to last Assembly, 37 had been settled in charges, and 8 had gone abroad. The number at present was 336, being an increase of 26, and of these 242 were employed, About 530 pulpit supplies were provided, being an increase of 134 over the previous year. The Rev. THOMAS MARTIN, Lauder, moved, and the Rev. J. C. CARRICK, Newbattle, seconded the adoption of the Report, both speaking to the usefulness of the work which the Committee undertook. The Rev. ANDREW DOUGLAS, Arbroath, asked if the Committee could not take into consideration the question whether Probationers might not be allowed, to some extent at least, to occupy the pulpits of vacant Parishes, as was the practice in the United Presbyterian Church. It was with the view of making some such arrangement as that that the remit had been made to the Committee some ten years ago. The Rev. Mr HUNTER replied that the Committee had no power from the Assembly to act in the way suggested. Were the Committee to take the responsibility of supplying Probationers to vacant charges, it would mean that it had absolute control over all unemployed Probationers. At present the Committee had no power of that kind, and until they had power to act with jurisdiction over all the Probationers of the Church, Mr Douglas's object could not be attained. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Report be adopted, and the Committee continued — Dr Alison, Convener. EFFICIENT SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE MINISTRY. Professor MILLIGAN gave in the Report of the Committee on Efficient Superintendence of the Ministry. The suggestions made by the Committee to last Assembly were sent down to Presbyteries for their consideration. Of the 55 replies received, 41 disapproved of the suggestions, and only 9 approved generally. In view of the decided disapproval of the plan, the Committee said it would obviously be both impolitic and useless to urge upon the Church the proposals made last year. These must be set aside as impracticable, and the Committee asked that they be discharged. In presenting the Report, Professor Milligan defended the spirit of the plan which the Committee suggested to the Assembly of last year, and said, now that the General Assembly, met in Presbyteries, had exhausted all the follies of their proposals, the Committee were desirous of being discharged. He moved accordingly. The Rev. THEODORE MARSHALL, Caputh, seconded the motion. The Rev. Professor STORY said he much regretted that this subject should have come before so small a House, because it was a most important one, and one the Church would have to face in a serious way before long. The question was how the Presbyterian government of the Church was to be rendered effective and efficient throughout the Church. It was quite evident from the fact of the General Assembly appointing the Committee that it recognised that greater efficiency was required in the abstract, but the Church did not seem to have liked the proposals of the Committee in the concrete. He thought that was only an argument for the question being firmly faced again. Much of the cause of the rejection of the proposals of the Committee was due to the fact that they implied a measure of supervision not agreeable in certain cases. It seemed to him that the remedy for the existing state of things was not the introduction of any novelty in the Constitution of the Church, but only a return to one of the first and most constitutional methods in the Reformed Church of Scotland immediately after the Reformation — the institution of the office of Superintendent. Until this was done he did not believe the Presbyterian government would be as effective and as efficient as it ought to be. The Rev. JAMES LANDRETII, Logie-Pert, said he took a different view of the matter. He believed that the Ministers of their Church were more efficient than any others at that moment, because they enjoyed a measure of independence which others did not. He for one questioned if the superintendence suggested by Dr Story would be any improvement on the Presbyterial Committee. There were several men in the House and among those round the table who would not make exactly the kind of Superintendent he should like to see. He thought it would be wrong at that time of day, when the Church of Scotland was so manifestly strong, because her Ministers had such a strong position, to try and fetter them and to try to bring to exercise over them the superintendence, it might be, of men essentially small — essentially busybodies — who would be more successful in worrying the Ministers with whom they came in contact than in promoting real ability. The Rev. Dr YOUNG, Monifieth, expressed his regret that a subject of that kind should have been brought before the Assembly on a Saturday afternoon, when it was practically impossible to discuss it. He hoped the Church would not lose sight of that matter. It would, he thought, be well for the same Committee to be reappointed to consider the best way of supervising and superintending the Presbyteries of the Church, and he hoped the matter would reappear in another shape on a future occasion. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN, Pollokshields, agreed with Dr Young that it would be a pity if the Committee were discharged. The Presbytery of Glasgow, he added, had petitioned against the Committee's plan, not because they did not approve of superintendence of some kind, but because they took exception to certain of the proposals made and to the mode suggested. He had no doubt other Presbyteries had gone on the same lines. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, said it seemed to him that, as the Convener desired it, the Committee should be discharged. They might very well grant the request, knowing that the Commissioners to enquire into the religious condition of the people, to be appointed on Monday, would keep that question well in life, and would probably be able to make recommendations such as might find adoption in the Church when other suggestions had not been taken up. The Rev. J. S. MACKENZIE, Little Dunkeld, supported Mr Niven's suggestion that the Committee should be continued, with instructions to bring up a Report to next General Assembly. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN, speaking at the close of the discussion, said it was a fact that could not be denied — and ought not to be denied — that there were many Parishes in the Lowlands and in the most central parts of Scotland at the present moment where, it was well known, the duties of the Ministry were not discharged as they should be, and it was a shame and a scandal that, at a time the Church was wakening day by day to a deeper sense of her obligations to God and to those to whom she was called upon to minister, there should be any attempt to check her in the revival of that spirit. Let all those who were interested in the welfare of the Church join — he did not say in any scheme suggested by that Committee — but join heartily in the aim which the Committee proposed to carry out in some way or other, in the resolution that so far as possible there should not be one Minister left as a drone and as a burden in the Parish in which he had been placed to serve. He thought it would be better, if the Assembly took the matter up again, to make a new beginning, and he therefore hoped they would assent to his motion for the discharge of the Committee. Dr SCOTT said the Assembly was not done with this question, nor was the Church. It was very prominently brought before the Church in the Report on non-Churchgoing submitted on the previous day, which had been sent down to a Commission. The motion was agreed to — That the Committee be discharged, and the thanks of the Assembly offered to Dr Milligan for his efficient services as Convener. COMMITTEE ON PLURALITES AND THE BETTER ENDOWMENT OF THEOLOGICAL CHAIRS. The General Assembly called for the Report of this Committee. There was no Report. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Committee be instructed to report on the general subject and the amount and disposal of their funds to next Assembly. COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTIONS OF CHAPELS OF EASE. The General Assembly called for the Report of the Committee on the Constitutions of Chapels of Ease, which was given in by the Agent for the Procurator, the Convener, who moved — That the various Constitutions mentioned in the Report — viz., Thornleybank, Ruthrieston, Craiglockhart, St Matthew's, Garnethill, Elder Park — be granted, and that the Principal Clerk of Assembly be authorised to issue extracts of the same, but that in the cases mentioned in the Report — where a title has not yet been produced — that the issue of extracts should be superseded until a title satisfactory to the Agent has been produced. PETITION OF REV. DUNCAN M`DOUGALL. The Rev. DUNCAN M'DOUGALL, Assistant Minister of the Parish of Cross, Lewis, petitioned the Assembly to nullify the terms of agreement imposed upon him by the Presbytery of Lewis, on the ground that they were not consistent with the terms on which he was offered and accepted the appointment, and were illegal and unconstitutional. It appeared that the Clerk of the Presbytery wrote Mr M`Dougall on 2nd July 1888, offering him, on behalf of the Presbytery, the office of Assistant during the two years' suspension of the Minister. His salary was to be at the rate of £70 10s., which was to be supplemented from other sources so as to reach at least £100 per annum. He accepted the office, and was appointed on 2nd August, but the minute of the Presbytery bore that the emoluments of the office should be "at the rate of £70 10s. per annum, supplemented by such aid as the Presbytery may be able to obtain from other than the statutory sources, but the Presbytery do not guarantee the certainty of such supplement to any amount." Mr M'DOUGALL appeared at the bar in support of his petition, and was entering upon a lengthened statement of his case, when Mr LINDSAY MACKERSY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), rose to order. He was sorry to prevent the reverend gentleman stating fully his grievance, but it was manifest from the Prayer of the Petition that the Assembly was asked to review a deliverance of a Presbytery, and he pointed out that the Presbytery whose deliverance they were asked to review was not at the bar of the Assembly. It was, therefore, simply wasting the time of the House to go on with the Petition in its present shape, as without citing the Presbytery the Assembly could not decide the case in the Petitioner's favour. In reply to questions, Mr M'DOUGALL said the resolution of the Presbytery was come to in his absence, and as he was not a member of that body the way of appeal to the Synod was barred against him. When he received a copy of the minute of Presbytery, he wrote them that he would not hold himself bound by the new terms. The Presbytery had not resiled from the original conditions, and had always promised to do their best to implement them. Over the the two years there was a deficit of £8 on his salary of £70 10s. Mr A. D. M. BLACK, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), while sympathising with Mr M`Dougall, moved that the Petition be dismissed as incompetent. The AGENT of the CHURCH, in seconding the motion, said they could not but feel sympathy for Mr M'Dougall, who was thrown out of employment by the suspension of the Minister of Cross coming to an end; but the question of terms was one for the Civil Courts to decide. The motion was agreed to, Professor MILLIGAN (who occupied the Moderator's chair for the time) expressing his deep regret that an old Preacher in the Church, and one who had a wife and family, should not have received in full his miserable salary of £70. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR said Mr M‘Dougall's salary, miserable as it undoubtedly was, was supplemented last year to £100. Mr A. D. M. BLACK, said that he had no doubt that individual members of Assembly would make up the deficiency of £8 to Mr M'Dougall, and he would do what he could towards that end in the lobby on Monday. The General Assembly adjourned at 5.45 P.M., to meet on Monday at 11 A.M. SUNDAY, 1st Jane 1890. His Grace the Lord High Commissioner attended service in St Giles Cathedral, forenoon and evening. In the forenoon the Preacher was the Rev. Dr Dykes, Ayr ; and in the evening the Preacher was the Rev. J. A. Burdon, Lasswade. MONDAY, 2nd June 1890. The General Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of last sederunt being in the hands of Members, were held as read and were approved of. The Conveners of the Committee of Nomination suggested the following names to be added to the Committee on the Education of the Ministry: — The Professors of the Theological Faculties, and the Synodical Examinators who are not already Members of the Committee, with the Rev. Dr Scott. The Procurator suggested the following names to be a Committee on Rusholme Road Church, Manchester — Dr F. L. Robertson, Dr Milroy, Rev. T. B. W. Niven, Rev. Theodore Marshall, James Wallace, Esq., A. D. M. Black, Esq., The Procurator, Convener. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Committee on the arrangements for the Admission of Ministers be a Standing Committee on that subject, with the addition of the Special Committee appointed on the same subject by this General Assembly. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the following Committee be appointed to draw up a tribute to the Memory of Mr Smith, late Principal of the Institution at Calcutta, to be inserted in the minutes of the House: Dr M'Murtrie and the Rev. Theodore Marshall. A DONATION FOR CHURCH DEFENCE. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, Edinburgh, intimated that a lady who had been present at the debate in the Assembly on the Church Interests Report last Wednesday, had given a donation of £100 towards a Church defence fund. RETURNS TO OVERTURES. The Agent of the Church (Mr Menzies) gave in the report of the Committee on Classifying Returns to Overtures. There were six Overtures sent down to Presbyteries by last Assembly, and returns had been received from almost the whole of them. With regard to the formation of a Benefice Register, 71 Presbyteries approved and 6 disapproved of the Overture, and 5 had suggested alterations. Returns, 82. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Overture anent the formation of a Benefice Register with relative schedule, having been approved by a majority of the Presbyteries, be now converted into a standing law of the Church, with the alterations suggested in the schedule. The Assembly further appoint the following Committee to issue the schedules, and to co-operate with the Presbyteries who may desire assistance — Dr Scott, Dr Story, Dr Rankin, Dr Mair, Dr Dodds, Dr Johnston, Dr Hamilton, Rev. Theodore Marshall, Caputh, Rev. T. B. W. Niven, Dr Lang will, The Procurator, The Agent, Mr L. Mackersy, Mr Nenion Elliot; Rev. W. F. Low, Kilmarnock, Convener. The Committee reported on Overture No. 2, on the Representation of the Church in the General Assembly, that Presbyteries had approved, 19; disapproved, 62; suggested alterations, 1; returns, 82. The Rev. Dr Johnston moved — That the General Assembly resolve to remit the Overture to a Special Committee to consider and report to next Assembly. The motion was not seconded. The Overture No. 3, on the Representation of Kirk-Sessions in Presbyteries and Synods, asking that the practice should be assimilated to the method of electing representatives from Presbyteries to the Assembly, was disapproved by 61, approved by 20 Presbyteries, and 1 suggested alterations; returns, 82; and was accordingly rejected. The Overture No. 4, and Declaratory Act anent Subscription was approved by 75 Presbyteries, disapproved by 4, alterations suggested, 2. Returns, 81. It was passed into a standing law of the Church. The alternative Overtures No. 5, as to expenses of Trials by Libel had both been disapproved of by 60 and 49 Presbyteries respectively, approved of by 10 and 21 respectively, alterations suggested on second, 5. Returns, first, 70; second, 75. Both Overtures accordingly were rejected. The Overture on Presbyterial Superintendence, which prescribed a number of queries to be sent to Parishes, was approved by 46 and disapproved by 32, alterations suggested, 2. Returns from Presbyteries, 80. The AGENT of the CHURCH moved, and the Rev. Professor MITCHELL, St Andrews, seconded, that the Overture, having received the approval of a majority of the Presbyteries of the Church, be now converted into a standing law of the Church. The Rev. JAMES LANDRETH, Logie-Pert, moved — Do not convert the Overture into a standing law of the Church. He thought they should be very careful, in a thin House like that, in enacting these Regulations. The Rev. J. A. ST CLAIR, Melville, Montrose, seconded. The Rev. WM. GREIG, Rayne, said he had no objection to the Regulations, but he would like that they should be dealt with by a larger House, and not by their circumtabular friends. On a vote being taken by standing, the motion of the Agent was carried, and the Overture was converted into a standing law of the Church. THE REGULATIONS FOR THE ELECTION OF MINISTERS. The Rev. Dr DYKES, Ayr, gave in the interim Report of the Committee on the Election and Admission of Ministers, which recommended that the following alterations on the Regulations were urgently needed, and should be sanctioned by the present Assembly: — That in Regulation V. it should be provided that the Congregational Roll should be made up in alphabetical order; and that in Regulation IX. the following words should be deleted: — "In case of a division on the question 'Yes' or 'No,' if the Moderator see reason to have the votes counted, or on the demand of any elector present, the roll shall be called, and every vote marked." Dr Dykes said one reason for their first recommendation was that in the Kirkoswald election the names, about 600 in number, were not arranged alphabetically, but were put down "higgledy-piggledy." That was one of the causes of the disturbance which followed. As regarded the second recommendation, there were at least 100 Congregations of the Church with memberships varying from 1000 to 3800, and it would be absurd to call the roll and mark every vote in Congregations of that magnitude. The present method was calculated to muddle an election and set a Congregation by the ears, and in asking that the provision be deleted, they were simply going back to the Regulation as it existed before last Assembly, when it was altered in a thin House. He moved the adoption of the Report. Mr T. G. MURRAY, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON, Harray (Vice-Convener of the Committee), who had given notice of a motion on the Committee's Report, moved that the General Assembly, while approving of the amendments and the recommendation proposed in the Report, resolve to consider the motions of which notice is given in pages 7 and 8 of to-day's List of Business. The Rev. Dr DYKES said Dr Johnston had brought his motion before the Committee, and they were quite prepared to give him the fullest opportunity of discussing it there, but they did not consider that the matter which it contained was urgent. The Rev. A. DOUGLAS, Arbroath, seconded Dr Johnston's motion. Dr MURRAY questioned its competency, as the Committee had not reported on the Regulations, and the House could not take up a general motion on the subject. On a division, Dr Johnston's motion was defeated by a large majority. Dr Johnston dissented, and afterwards left the House. The CLERK (Professor Milligan) said Dr Johnston had left a letter with him to be communicated to the House. Was it the pleasure of the Assembly that he should read it? The Rev. Dr Scow said Dr Johnston was a Member of the House and of the Committee, and was present a minute ago. The Rev. Professor STORY said it was most irregular for a Member of the Assembly to walk out of the House, leaving a statement in the hands of the Clerk to be read. In that way they might have a multiplication of speeches. If the letter was a repetition of that which had appeared in the newspapers, he thought it was altogether irregular. He moved that the letter be not read. The Rev. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, seconded. Some discussion took place as to whether the receipt of the letter should be minuted. The PROCURATOR said it was quite out of the question to minute anything about the letter. It was entirely irregular that any Member of Assembly should be allowed to table what might be a written speech, when he himself had been on the floor of the Assembly within a minute or two previously. He thought they should take no notice of the letter. This was agreed to. The Rev. Dr DYKES pointed out that the Assembly, by refusing to read the letter, had placed him in an awkward position. If the letter was similar to the one that had appeared in the newspapers, it meant that Dr Johnston had resigned office. He wished to know if he was still to regard Dr Johnston as being a member of the Committee? The MODERATOR - You must find that out. OVERTURE ANENT THE FURNISHING OF ELDERS WITH DOCUMENTS. The Rev. H. J. WOTHERSPOON submitted an Overture from the Presbytery of Hamilton asking that Ruling Elders representing Kirk-Sessions in Presbyteries should be placed on the same footing with regard to documents as the Clerical members of these Courts. He moved that the Overture be received and remitted to the Joint-Committee on Schemes to give effect to its crave. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS complained of the delay as to the issue of the volume of the Assembly Reports to the Church at large. Mr MENZIES, the agent, said the issue of that volume was in the hands of Messrs Blackwood, the publishers. As to the documents for elders in Presbyteries, these would be sent out if notice were given to him of the number of copies required. Mr Wotherspoon's motion was adopted. THE INTEMPERANCE REPORT. The Rev. HENRY DUNCAN, Crichton, submitted the Report of the Committee on Intemperance. From the returns received from Presbyteries it appeared there were 222 Church Temperance Associations, of which 74 were adult Associations, 25 on the dual basis, with a membership of 652, and 49 on the total abstinence basis, with a membership of 3742, and 148 Bands of Hope with a membership of 18,426. But as a good many Parishes did not specify numbers, it might be assumed that there were 20,000 children in Bands of Hope specially connected with the Church, and about 5000 adults in Church Temperance Associations. The Committee desired to repeat what had been stated last year — that the existence or non-existence in a Parish of a special Church Temperance Organisation could not be uniformly taken as a gauge of the interest of that Parish in the cause of Temperance. Many causes existed which rendered it difficult or impossible, or even unnecessary, to form and maintain in certain Parishes such special organisations; but, while making due allowance for the work done by Ministers and members of the Church in undenominational Associations, the Committee could not help regretting that the recommendation of the Assembly as to the formation of Parish Associations, repeated again and again, had not been more widely acted upon. On the legislative aspect of the subject the Committee had nothing special to report. They, however, gladly noted the fact that both political parties were committed to early action regarding it, and that it was now all but universally admitted that something must be done in the direction of increased popular control of the drink traffic. The Committee recognised the benefit that had accrued from the Early Closing Act, but regretted that the large towns were still excluded from its operation. In speaking to the Report, Mr Duncan said the Committee could not help expressing regret that there were not a larger number of Temperance Associations connected with the Church of Scotland. Referring to what other Churches were doing in this matter, he said the Free Church had nearly 700 Temperance Associations, with a membership of 80,000. The great Church of England Temperance Association had a vast organisation, comprising about 350,000 members, and there was nothing that was giving her so much power over the masses of the people as the work she was doing in the cause of Temperance. He implored Ministers and Officebearers of the Church to throw themselves with greater energy into this work. They did not wish the Church to occupy the position of a political engine; they believed that she should rather deal with the spiritual and social aspect of the question; but if legislation in the cause of Temperance was proposed, they asked authority to support it. He concluded by referring to the liquor traffic among the native races, which he said was a scandal to Christianity, and he urged the Church to do what it could to aid in removing that blot from our civilization. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS moved the following deliverance: - The General Assembly receives the Report, thanks the Convener and the Committee, appoints the Committee as named in the Report, with the usual powers. The Rev. Henry Duncan, Convener; the Rev. George Wilson, Vice-- Convener; and the Rev. R. Menzies Fergusson, Logie, Secretary and Treasurer. The General Assembly regrets that there is not a larger number of Temperance Associations and Bands of Hope strictly connected with the Church. And, while fully recognising the fact that a large amount of temperance work may be done, and is being done, where no such special organisation exists, and while heartily approving of the action of many ministers, elders, and members of the Church who are carrying on Temperance work in connection and co-operation with undenominational Associations, again, in view of the enormous evils that exist, very earnestly impresses on Ministers and Kirk-Sessions the importance of taking such steps as they may think right towards the formation of such Associations, and specially the importance of taking special measures for the instruction of the young on this important subject. The General Assembly approves what has been done by the Committee in regard to the Liquor traffic among native races, and renews its instruction to the Committee to co-operate with other Churches, Missionary bodies, and Temperance organisations in their endeavours to secure, as far as possible, the removal of this great hindrance to the cause of Christ. The General Assembly learns with satisfaction that the Young Men's Guild has assumed Temperance work as part of the work of the Guild, and commends it very heartily to the attention of the young men connected with the Church. The General Assembly renews its instruction to the Committee to watch carefully the progress of legislation on the Temperance question, and to take such steps regarding said legislation, in harmony with the instructions of the Assembly, as may tend to promote the objects for which the Committee has been appointed. The General Assembly is glad to learn that "the Church of Scotland Women's Association for the promotion of Temperance and Home Mission work" continues its efforts to enlist the sympathies of the women of the country in the cause of Temperance, and again commends it to the sympathies of the Church. The General Assembly, in view of the deplorable extent to which drinking and drunkenness are hindering the cause of Christ at home and abroad, again commends the whole subject to the earnest attention of the office-bearers and members of the Church, and specially recommends Ministers to bring the subject before their congregations on the 28th day of December, or on some other day that may be more suitable or convenient. Speaking to the motion Professor CHARTERIS said the Committee would be glad if their title were changed from the Committee on "Intemperance" to the Committee on "Temperance." The growth of the Temperance movement was now shown in the fact that it turned Parliamentary elections, and even affected the stability of Governments. The Church, however, had not looked this matter in the face, for either they should do nothing at all, or a great deal more than they were doing. A Temperance Union unconnected with a Church was secular, was apt to become political and to lend itself to partisanship, and was not unfrequently blighted by intolerance. The Church must carry on this work through its own unions — non-political, non-partisan, and not intolerant. To do that work effectively, Ministers were almost under the necessity of themselves becoming total abstainers. He said this with sincere respect for those who stopped, where he had long stopped, short of total abstinence. He was little likely to judge or condemn them: but as he freely allowed their right to decide for themselves, he claimed the right to say why for several years he had gone further. The times are out of joint: the people are borne down with drinking: strong steps are needed to bring about a better time: and he knew no step comparable to the promotion of abstinence. When they wished to elevate those victims of drink, he assured the Assembly, from his own experiences of working among the poor, that there was a mighty difference between being only able to say "go" and being able to say "come." Christianity is the religion of self-sacrifice; but a man who drank moderately was not making any sacrifice for the sake of others, but was only keeping himself sober for his own sake. He found that he got on better when he was able to tell the people that he could do without drink, and could ask them to do as he did. He was not going to enter into the question of compensation, but if a man carrying on a legal business had his licence renewed year after year, and it was suddenly taken away by a board, not elected to represent the people, he could not say that it would be morally wrong to grant compensation. If, however, the people of a district said they no longer wished those temptations to drink in their midst, he did not think compensation should be given in such circumstances. If they, as a Christian Church, could lessen the appetite for drinking, they would lead to a solution of the question without the great payment of compensation. It had to be remembered, that even if a thing were iniquitous the claim to compensation was not therefore wrong. They abolished slavery in the West India islands with a payment of, he thought, thirty millions. The claim of the slave-owner was admitted, though the claim to own human flesh was not admitted. Therefore, he thought their friends who were Total Abstainers should remember that though they did not admit that a thing was a good thing in itself, if by national custom it had become in a manner established, they were not free to disregard it. If, on the other hand, they could but raise the tone of society — of that class so much under the influence of drink — then he thought they would bring about a brighter day. Every one admitted that there was much less drinking now than formerly among respectable people: a man who was even occasionally drunk was not regarded as respectable in an upper and middle class of society, and one could scarcely imagine what a moral revolution would be accomplished if working men and the lower classes everywhere came to adopt a similar social text. But many thousands of these people did not believe that a sober life was possible: they regarded it as a kind of necessity to take too much drink on pay days, in family festivals, and, above all, at the New-- Year. It seemed to him that Christians had to convince such unhappy people that it is possible and easy to deny oneself to this ungodliness and lust of drink: and that they who did not need it for their own sake were willing to practise this self-denial for the sake of their brethren's good. It seemed to him that the claim of Abstinence was thus a powerful one; for it said to strong men that in this way they could bear the infirmities of the weak. He had already expressed his scorn and dislike of political teetotalism, and he need not say more on the other side than that Temperance ought not to be advocated by itself, but as a branch and outcome of the Law of Christ. Better times might come when it would not be needed, but he thought the Church was in these days called upon to invite the members to abstain for their brethren's sake from the drink, which made so many to offend. Gospel temperance was what, he thought, they were called upon to follow. The Rev. J. C. CARRICK, Newbattle, seconded the motion. He said he for one, though strong in the principle of teetotalism, and though representing a very large and powerful Society in this county, would regret the day when even Temperance should be elevated to the same position as any one of the articles of the Holy Catholic Faith, or receive greater honour and a greater respect than the other virtues of chastity, purity, meekness, and honesty. He could not close his eyes to the fact, however, that it was a great stigma on the National Church that they did so little in the Temperance Cause. Was it not the case that in almost every large Temperance organisation it was a dissenting Minister who took the lead, and that the Parish Clergyman, who in other respects was put first and foremost, was generally relegated to a secondary position or was left out in the cold altogether? That was not what ought to be, and that was not what should be in their National Church. He would be sorry, at the same time, to go the length of the Evangelical Union Church, which made it incumbent upon a Church member that he abjured strong drink in every respect. The Rev. Dr RANKIN, Muthill, supported the motion. He said he had read the Report with considerably more satisfaction than he had listened to the two speeches in which the adoption of the Report had been moved and seconded. His satisfaction with the Report itself had this foundation, that the Report was exceedingly cautious and judicious and thoroughly worthy, he thought, of this Church, and in thorough consistency with the principles of this Church, but in both the speeches a number of things outside had been brought in that were undoubtedly controversial and less judicious in their introduction than the Report itself. For one thing, the Report did a right thing in saying nothing about the Compensation question, which was a hot and difficult question between different kinds of politicians. He was quite sure the whole Temperance Cause would proceed a great deal better by allowing politicians to fight their own battles of that kind. The real work, Dr Rankin continued, that they had to do was to take up this question as a Religious question, and to push it on thoroughly Scriptural grounds, and to take care in dealing with the Scriptural ground that they did not twist Scripture at all. In Scripture they had unquestionably a reasonable freedom. There was room in Scripture for Total Abstainers, and there was room also within the same Scripture for the freedom which many of them thought was the right course. He wished to say in the most friendly spirit that he thought the Committee would do the Church of Scotland a great service, and represent the Church they were associated with, if they were to endeavour to hold the balance a little more evenly between the two branches which were prosecuting the one great, good work, and not to speak in a slighting way of those who took a glass of anything that was good when it was going. He made a principle of doing that himself. He did not think he was any the worse for it, and he thought the man who gave an example of that sort of self-restraint was as thoroughly and solemnly in the Scriptural line as a man who totally abstained. As to the nature and method of work, he favoured the cooperation of those connected with the Parish Church with any Temperance Association in the Parish, whether it was mainly Free Church or United Presbyterian. He thought the greatest hindrance in connection with this cause was that it had been allowed by religious people of different branches of the Christian Church to be grabbed, monopolised, and dictated to by the very lowest classes of Radical politicians. Until they changed that they would not have this cause exercising its full spirit. Regarding the question of unfermented wine, he was quite sure the Committee were acting prudently in avoiding it. His own private opinion was that the Committee would do still better if they were in a quiet way to express disapproval of it, and to recommend their neighbours not to stir this question as to fermentation at all. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN said that while he to a certain extent sympathised with what had fallen from Dr Rankin as to the tone of the speeches, yet he made no great complaint. Regarding Professor Charteris's remarks as to total abstinence, he (Professor Milligan) had tried the power of that position. For a whole year he joined the Total Abstinence Society in the hope of adding to the strength of his ministry, and he was bound in honesty to say that that year, instead of being the strongest, was what he felt to be the weakest in his ministry. As to what had been said about self-- sacrifice, he wanted to call the attention of the Assembly to this, that the inference drawn from such words as those of the Apostle Paul was altogether false. "I will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my brother to offend" meant to say, "I will not offend him so long as he remains the weak brother that he is; but the sooner that my brother is strong to eat flesh along with me so much the better." The position that ought to be taken up by total abstainers was this — "Come along with as now, and we will drink no wine while the world standeth lest we make our brother to offend; but, at the same time, we will frankly and freely acknowledge to the world that the sooner our brother and we can take wine together the better." The Rev. J. S. M'KENZIE, Little Dunkeld, moved that the following should be added to the deliverance: — "And the Assembly further instructs the Committee to send down again to Presbyteries the queries of last year." Alluding to compensation, he held there was no parallel between the compensation now proposed and the compensation given to the slave-owners. Mr STEWART LINDSAY, Kirriemuir, (Elder), seconded. The Rev. J. LAMOND, Kelton, suggested that the National Church, as claiming to be responsible for the moral and spiritual Interests of the people, should take a more prominent position with regard to the temperance movement. The Rev. Professor CHARTERIS, in reply, said if he had stated anything which appeared to speak of moderate drinkers with anything but respect, he was extremely sorry for it. He was quite certain he meant to say he respected the moderate drinker's position. As to the passage quoted by his friend, Professor Milligan, while he accepted his ingenious reading, he begged him to note it was entirely upon his (Professor Charteris') side, because "so long as drink is making my brother to offend, so long must I abstain." Professor Charteris remarked upon the difficulty of speaking upon such matters without being misunderstood, and he held that Professor Milligan himself might be misunderstood when he said that the year in which he abstained was the weakest in his ministry, inasmuch as that might be interpreted to mean that the success of his ministry was due to something strong. The deliverance, with the addition proposed by Mr M'Kenzie, was then agreed to. OVERTURE ON INVENTORIES OF SESSION RECORDS. The Rev. GEORGE DUNCAN, Maryculter, was heard in support of an Overture from the Presbytery of Aberdeen, craving a direction to Presbyteries to see that Kirk. Sessions within their bounds caused Inventories of all Records and Documents to be made out, compared, and engrossed in the Session Records; another to be repeated whenever a new Session Clerk is appointed, and that no Presbytery should be at liberty to attest Session Records without this rule being strictly complied with. Mr Duncan moved the adoption of the Overture, and the motion being seconded, was agreed to and the Overture was ordered to be transmitted with the Deliverance thereon along with the Act appointing collections, to the Ministers of the Church. OVERTURE ON KEEPING REGISTER OF BAPTISMS. The Rev. GEORGE DUNCAN, Maryculter, was heard in support of an Overture from the Presbytery of Aberdeen. The Overture proposed the rescinding of that portion of Act VII. of Assembly 1856, anent keeping Registers of Baptisms, which enjoins that the names and designations of two witnesses should be inserted in the Register. Mr Duncan concluded by moving the adoption of the Overture, and this being seconded, was agreed to, and the Assembly enacted accordingly. OVERTURE ANENT A CHURCH CONGRESS. The Synod of Dumfries overtured the Assembly to take steps to institute a Church Congress, to be held at yearly or longer intervals at various centres of importance throughout the country. The Rev. M. HUTCHISON, Kirkmahoe, in supporting the Overture, said that such a Congress as was proposed would bring into activity in their midst many powers at present lying dormant, and it would stimulate interest in Religion in the various parts of the country. He moved that the Assembly receive the Overture and appoint a Committee to consider the subject and report to next Assembly. Mr JAS. TOD, Edinburgh (Elder), seconded the motion. The Rev. GEORGE GREIG, Rayne, in supporting the motion, said they must move with the age and keep themselves in evidence before the public, and it was well that they should invite their people to discuss questions bearing on the interests of the Church. A Congress was a step in the right direction, and only good could come of it. Mr HORATIO R. MACRAE, W.S., Edinburgh (Elder), reminded the Assembly of the most successful conference held at Inverness a few years ago, which was attended with excellent results. The Rev. Dr SCOTT agreed that only good could come out of the Congress, and he suggested that Mr Hutchison should ask the Assembly to remit to the Synod of Dumfries to make arrangements for the first Church Congress. The Rev. M. HUTCHISON said he was not prepared, on the spur of the moment, to accept that responsibility on behalf of his Synod. The Rev. D. HUNTER, Partick, said if this Congress was so much desired in Dumfries, it was evidently the very spot where it should begin, and that Synod was the very body to take it up earnestly. Mr HUTCHISON accepted the suggestion of Dr Scott, and it was agreed to remit to the Synod of Dumfries to make arrangements for holding a Congress within its bounds. COMMITTEE ON STANDING ORDERS. The AGENT gave in and read the Report of this Committee. By deliverance of last Assembly a remit was made to the Committee to consider whether the Committees on Overtures and Bills could be made standing Committees with the view of preparing the business prior to the meeting of the Assembly. There was also remitted to the same Committee an Overture proposing certain changes in the Standing Orders. To the Report there was annexed the following memorandum by the Agent of the Church. MEMORANDUM BY THE AGENT OF THE CHURCH FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON STANDING ORDERS. The General Assembly remitted to this Committee to consider whether the Committees on Overtures and Bills can with advantage be made Standing Committees, with a view to preparing the business prior to the meeting of the General Assembly. As matters at present stand, the Committees on Overtures and Bills are appointed by the General Assembly and cannot meet until after the first diet of Assembly, as no business can come before the Assembly until it has passed through one or other of its Committees. It follows that the Committee for arranging the business of the House cannot meet until the morning of the second day of the General Assembly, as, previous to that, they can have no business before them. This practically means that no business can be put down by the Business Committee for the first Friday. That day has for years been taken up by the Colonial Committee's Report, and with the hearing of deputies, and owing to the number of Committees which meet in the morning, it is generally found inconvenient for the General Assembly to meet before twelve, and it does not as a rule meet on the evening of that day. Now, if the business of the Assembly were arranged a little sooner, there is no reason why important business should not be taken up upon Friday and an evening sitting held on that day. This would be a very great convenience when the amount of business before the House is unusually large. I. The Committee of Bills. I think it best to consider, first, whether any changes might be made on the Committee of Bills. Under present arrangements, the Committee of Bills meets for the first time immediately after the rising of the General Assembly upon Thursday. Parties having business to bring before the Assembly attend the Committee of Bills and transmit their papers through that Committee. At the first meeting of the Committee there are generally from twenty to twenty-five petitions before it, and as some of these may ask for the transmission of a large number of documents, it is obviously quite impossible that the Committee can properly discharge what are its supposed functions — viz, seeing that documents coming before them are regular and in order. The officials have no notice beforehand of what documents are to be transmitted, and unless there is opposition to the transmission of documents, they go through as a matter of course. Under the procedure of the Civil Courts there was fifty years ago a proceeding analogous to the Committee of Bills: a summons was not then signeted except upon the presentation of a petition to the Bill Chamber asking that leave be granted to signet the summons. Upon this petition the Bill Chamber clerk was in the habit of writing "fiat ut petitur," and this formed the warrant for the signeting of the summons. Other documents also required a Bill to be presented to the Bill Chamber but these bills in civil court proceedings have long since been abolished as serving no good purpose; and it may with great propriety be considered whether the Committee of Bills and Overtures may not now be abolished and something analogous to the proceedure in the civil courts substituted in their stead. At present the Committee of Bills does not deal with the merits of a case, but merely with questions of competency. When opposition is made to the transmission of any papers, an appeal is almost invariably taken, and this carries the question of competency from the Committee to the Assembly itself. Appeals from the Committee of Bills are heard upon the Report of the Committee; but if the case is to be heard upon the merits at a subsequent time, the question of competency is generally reserved to be disposed of along with the merits. I have only known one case in an experience of twenty-one years where a decision of the Committee of Bills was acquiesced in without an appeal being taken to the Assembly. That was a case in which certain parishioners petitioned the Assembly in regard to certain pecuniary transactions in which their Minister had been engaged; the allegations of the petition amounted to a libel. The Committee refused to transmit the petition, and no appeal was taken. If the Committee were abolished, there would be nothing to prevent proceedings of this kind coming before the Assembly; but it is thought that the interests of private parties might be safeguarded to some extent by giving the office-bearers a certain discretion in the matter of printing. If papers were lodged which they thought were not competent, it might be left with them to decline to print until the question of competency had been disposed of by the General Assembly; and the question of competency would of course be heard at the first or second diet of the Assembly. If it were resolved to abolish the Committee of Bills, a Standing Order might be passed providing that in all matters intended to be brought before the General Assembly the papers should be lodged with the Agent of the Church at least one week before the meeting of Assembly; or where the judgment of the Court appealed from was later and did not permit of this, then within three days of said judgment. Time would thus be afforded to examine all papers at leisure, and to judge whether they were in proper form. The Agent would also be able to inform the Business Committee of the business coming before the General Assembly, and business could be put down for Friday morning and evening, and intimation made to parties when their business might be expected to be taken up. Objection is frequently made to taking up important items of business in the first week of the Assembly, on the ground that the attendance is then small; but as long as the present system continues, the business for the first week being unimportant, the attendance will naturally be small. If, however, important business were put out for the first two days, the attendance would no doubt be larger. II. Committee on Overtures. In my experience, only two Overtures have been rejected by the Committee on Overtures — one of them calling attention to the terms of the Baird Trust, and the other to a volume called "Scotch Sermons." In both of these cases an appeal was taken to the General Assembly against the deliverance of the Committee, and a long debate took place upon the competency. That debate might just as well have taken place without the intervention of the Committee on Overtures. At present an Overture can only come up from an inferior court, or during the sitting of the Assembly from Members of Assembly; and if all Overtures were lodged a week before the Meeting of Assembly, the discussion of them could be put down for the first Friday. The AGENT moved the following deliverance: - The General Assembly approve of the Report, and in view of the importance of the question remitted to the Committee by the last General Assembly in regard to the Committee on Bills and Overtures, instruct them to communicate this Report, and the Memorandum appended, to the Presbyteries of the Church, inviting an expression of their opinion on the subject, and asking that their approval or disapproval of the Committee's recommendations should be intimated not later than 31st March 1891. In regard to the matters referred to in the Overture, it was again remitted to the Committee for consideration, when it is seen whether any more extensive change is to be made on the Standing Orders. PETITION-ANGUS MACDONALD. A Petition was presented to the Assembly by Angus Macdonald, Student, Iona, asking that an inquiry should be made into the conduct of the Synod of Argyll, and of a Committee of that Synod, in the administration of the funds of the Gillian MacLaine bequest for Educational and Ecclesiastical purposes. Mr LYELL, Advocate, who appeared for the Petitioner, said he was one of the competitors for one of the MacLaine Bursaries, but he was not preferred, and he alleged that the Bursary was awarded to a student who was not qualified to compete under the conditions of the trust-deed. Although the matter was before the Court of Session in an action raised by the Petitioner against the Synod of Argyll, he held that there was a prima facie case for an investigation by the Assembly. After some discussion, Mr LYELL stated that he departed from the first part of the crave, viz., that the action of the Synod of Argyll was illegal, and its award null and void, and that Mr MacMichael was not entitled to the Bursary. The PROCURATOR moved the following deliverance: — The General Assembly, being informed that the allegations contained in the Petition, which are personal to the Petitioner, are the subject of judicial inquiry at his instance elsewhere, dismiss the first part of the prayer; but in respect that the more general allegations of the Petition make it desirable that the Assembly, in the exercise of its power under the trust-deed of the deceased Angus MacLaine, should ask information from the Synod of Argyll as to the working of the Trust, require the Synod to lay before next General Assembly a Report on the subject, more especially as to the qualifications of candidates, the place, time, and conditions of competition, the mode of conducting the examination, and the steps taken to give notice of it to those who may be concerned. The motion was seconded and agreed to. CROMARTY GAELIC CHURCH. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR gave in the Report of the Commission appointed to visit Cromarty Gaelic Chapel, and, in accordance with their recommendation, he moved the following deliverance: — The General Assembly receive the Report; thank the Commissioners for their diligence; find that, having regard to the fact that a considerable number of the parishioners of Cromarty desire the continuance of Gaelic service, and to the purpose for which the chapel mentioned in the proceedings was originally built, it is expedient that meanwhile the chapel should be continued under the charge of a Gaelic-- speaking Minister or Licentiate; recommend the case to the favourable consideration of the Highland Committee; and instruct the Presbytery of Chanonry to take what steps may be necessary for securing the proper oversight of the chapel in accordance with the laws of the Church. In moving this deliverance, Professor TAYLOR stated that there were 30 Communicants and 118 Adherents connected with the Chapel. The stipend was £50 a year, derived from Government, and the Congregation had in the last incumbent's time contributed from £50 to £80 a year in addition. The deliverance was adopted. APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSION ON THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. The Rev. Dr SCOTT, for Mr T. G. Murray, the Convener, gave in the following Report by the Home Mission and Endowment Committees as to appointment of a Commission on the Religious Condition of the people: - The Committee beg to recommend as follows, viz.: — (a) Constitution of Commission. 1. That the Commission should consist of Fifteen Members, of whom Ten should be Ministers and Five Elders. 2. That, as it will not be possible for the Commission to overtake the work throughout more than a part of the country in one year, and as it is desirable that attention should, in the first instance, be directed mainly to the populous mining and manufacturing centres in the West and South of Scotland, the Commissioners elected now should include a number of Members specially qualified by experience for the particular work of these districts. 3. That, in view of this, the Committee beg to submit the names of the following Ministers and Elders for appointment as Commissioners, viz.: — Ministers — Rev. Donald Macleod, D.D., Glasgow; Rev. John M‘Laren, D.D., Larbert; Rev. John Macleod, D.D., Govan; Rev. Henry M. Hamilton, D.D., Hamilton; Rev. James Rankine, D.D., Muthill; Rev. Robert S. Hutton, M.A., Carnbusnethan; Rev. Theodore Marshall, M.A., Caputh; Rev. Thomas Martin, M.A., Lauder; Rev. J. Mitford Mitchell, B.A., Cantab, Aberdeen; Rev. W. Lee Ker, M.A., Kilwinning. Elders — Sir John Neilson Cuthbertson, Glasgow; John Stevenson, Esq., Coalmaster, Dunfermline; W. Ogilvy Dalgleish, Esq., of Errol Park; Thomas Jackson, Esq., Edinburgh; Alex. Macduff, Esq., of Bonhard. (b) Instructions to Commissioners. 1. To communicate with Synods and Presbyteries, with all convenient speed, the Deliverance of the General Assembly. 2. To visit and confer with Synods and Presbyteries, with a view to aiding them in ascertaining the extent to which spiritual destitution exists within their bounds. 3. To visit, when desired, in conjunction with Presbyteries, necessitous Parishes or Districts, and to assist the Presbytery and Parish Minister in devising and putting in operation proper measures for supplying the religious wants of the people of such localities. 4. To take such steps as may seem best fitted to aid and encourage Presbyteries in their endeavour to support and strengthen the work of the Church in weak or in overgrown Parishes, so that the legitimate demands on the National Church may be adequately met. 5. To report to next General Assembly regarding the work they have accomplished, and make any practical recommendations on the subject which their experience may suggest. 6. To fill up vacancies in the Commission. 7. Generally to have in view, in arranging their procedure, the facts and considerations contained in the Report on Non-Church-Going submitted to this General Assembly. The Committee further recommend that the Commissioners be appointed to meet in Glasgow on Tuesday, the 17th June — inter alia, to elect a Chairman and Secretary. — In name of Committee, T. G. MURRAY, Chairman. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — The General Assembly adopt the Report, with the substitution of the name of Charles Howatson, Esq., of Glenbuck, for that of Mr W. Ogilvy Dalgleish, and the addition of the names of the Rev. Dr Young, Monifieth, and Mr R. O. Parker. COMMITTEE ON MINUTES OF WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. The Report was given in. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — Receive the Report and re-appoint the Committee. Professor Mitchell, Convener, with the addition of Dr Story and Dr Taylor. Authorize the Committee to continue the publication of the Records of the Commission between 1646 and 1660, in as far as the Scottish History Society are willing to do so. Farther, the General Assembly resolve to record their thanks to Dr Mitchell for his valuable services in this connection. REPORT ON LIBRARY, ETC. The Rev. Professor MILLIGAN reported that the Assembly papers for 102 years — from 1742 to 1843 — forming ninety-six large volumes, had been placed in the record-room. He also intimated a number of donations to the Library, including the first volume of a work by Dr Story on "The Church of Scotland," and two works, "The Servant of the Lord" and "The Book of Psalms," by Dr John Forbes, Aberdeen, who was now in his eighty-- seventh year. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — That the Report be adopted and the Committee continued, and that the thanks of the House be conveyed to Dr Forbes and Dr Story for the gift of their works. MEETINGS OF KIRK-SESSION DURING ASSEMBLY. On an Overture, signed by thirteen members of the House, supported by the Rev. D. Hunter, Partick, it was agreed, in order to remove the uncertainty which at present exists, that, with regard to the question whether Kirk-Sessions had the right to meet during the sittings of the General Assembly without permission asked and obtained, it was declared that such permission was necessary only when the Moderator of Kirk-Session, or a member thereof, was a constituent member of the sitting Assembly. PASTORATE OF ST ANDREW'S CHURCH AND HARBOUR MISSION AT ALEXANDRIA. The Rev. Dr HERDMAN, Melrose, gave in the Report of the Committee on the Pastorate of St Andrew's Church and the Harbour Mission at Alexandria. The Report stated (1.) That the Congregation at Alexandria desired a separation between the Consular Chaplaincy and Sailors Mission, and the Jewish Mission Committee. (2.) That the Jewish Mission Committee also wished the separation. (3.) That the General Assembly of 1889 gave powers to the Jewish Mission Committee to arrange with the Colonial Committee for transference, and (4.) That the Colonial Committee was willing, but regretted want of Funds. The Report recommended that the Colonial Committee take over the work, and that the Jewish Mission Committee supply the funds for this year, and if necessary, for next year also. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — Adopt the Report and enact in terms thereof. SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT ON STUDENTS PREACHING. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR gave in this Report, which stated that the Committee had prepared the following Overture containing the proposed Regulations for allowing Students to engage in the Ministry of the Word, and which, if approved of by the General Assembly, would be sent down to Presbyteries for their consideration. OVERTURE. Whereas it is expedient to provide for authority being granted by Presbyteries to Students of Divinity to take part in conducting the public services of the Church in a regular and constitutional manner, and to enact regulations for the guidance of both Presbyteries and Students in this matter, the General Assembly, with consent of Presbyteries, hereby enact and ordain the following Regulations for the attainment of this object: REGULATIONS. 1. Students of Divinity may officiate as Readers of the Holy Scriptures in the public services of the Church. 2. After a Student of Divinity has completed his second full Winter Session, but not before, he may occasionally exercise his gift in preaching, and lead the devotions of the people in the congregation, the consent of his Presbytery having previously been obtained in the manner hereinafter provided. 3. The delivering of addresses during public worship by Students of Divinity on subjects connected with Missions shall not be regarded as a violation of Church order, provided that on these occasions the service is conducted by a Minister or Licentiate, or by a Student of Divinity who is authorised to officiate in virtue of the preceding Regulation. Provided always 1. That the consent of the Presbytery shall, when given, be recorded in their minutes. 2. That this consent shall be valid for only one year, and shall, in no case, be renewed after the expiry of three years from the date of the first application. 3. That it shall in no case be granted unless certificates are laid before the Presbytery by the applicant, showing that he has passed all the examinations required of Students down to the date of his application. 4. That every Student who has received the consent of his Presbytery occasionally to preach and lead the devotions of the congregation shall be required to furnish yearly to his Presbytery a list of the occasions on which he has thus officiated. 5. That every instance of a Student engaging contrary to these Regulations in the public ministry, either of the Word or of prayer, or of a minister conniving at the same, is declared to be a violation of Church order, which Presbyteries are enjoined to take notice of, with a view to the exercise of discipline on the offenders, both Ministers and Students. 6. That a Presbytery shall not grant the initial consent to any Student who has previously violated any one of these Regulations; shall withdraw their consent from any Student who violates any one of these Regulations, and take such violation into account when the Student applies for Licence, with a view to the postponement of his Licence. 7. That no Student shall be entitled under these Regulations to form such an engagement in connection with the practical work of the Church, or otherwise, as shall involve frequent preaching on his part in the same church. 8. That Presbyteries shall retain, and, if they see fit, shall summarily exercise their right to restrain any Student of Divinity who is resident within their bounds, at whatever stage of his theological curriculum, from engaging in the public ministry either of the Word or of prayer. 9. That the Regulations of the Assembly on the subject shall invariably be read over in the hearing of all Students who present themselves before a Presbytery as applicants for admission into the Divinity Hall. Professor TAYLOR moved — "That the proposed Overture and Regulations he transmitted to the Presbyteries for their consideration." This motion was seconded and agreed to. REPORT ON PETITION AS TO MR JOHN MACAULAY, MISSIONARY AT CARINISH. The Rev. Professor TAYLOR presented a Report of the Highland Committee with regard to the Petiof Mr Macaulay, Royal Bounty Missionary, Carinish, North Uist, asking the removal of a former Assembly's restrictions on his licence, by which he was not to be held qualified to hold any other charge than that of Missionary at Carinish without the leave of the Assembly. At first the Committee refused the request, but at a subsequent meeting held on Friday last, when a petition signed by 255 Parishioners of Carinish was before them, stating that the removal of the restrictions would increase Mr Macaulay's usefulness, the Committee agreed to recommend the Assembly to remove the restriction. The Rev. PROFESSOR STORY, in the peculiar and exceptional circumstances of the case, moved"That the Report be adopted, and the restriction on Mr Macaulay contained in it be removed." The motion was seconded by Mr A. D. M. BLACK, Edinburgh (Elder): Mr CHARLES INNES, Inverness (Elder), moved - "Disapprove of the Report, and decline to grant the crave contained in the Petition," and stated that Mr Macaulay had never passed an ecclesiastical examination, and that it would be unfair to place him in an equal position with their best students. He did not agree with Dr Story that they should have one class of Ministers in the Highlands and another in the Lowlands. The Rev. JAMES BONALLO, Auldearn, in seconding the amendment, expressed the hope that the Assembly would never draw any distinction between Highland and Lowland Ministers with regard to education. The Rev. JOHN BARNETT, Kilchoman, said he had heard Mr Macaulay preach both in Gaelic and English, and he possessed a fair share of Celtic fire and fervour, qualities which always commended themselves to a Highland audience. The Rev. WILLIAM ROBERTSON, Home Mission Deputy, opposed Dr Story's motion, which, he said, was the result of lobbying that was not creditable to the way the business of the House was conducted. The Rev. T. B. W. NIVEN, Pollokshields, moved — "That the Petition be remitted to the Presbytery of Uist and to the Minister and Kirk-Session of North Uist for their consideration, with instructions to report to next General Assembly. This was seconded by the Rev. J. S. M'KENZIE, Little Dunkeld. On a vote being taken, by standing up, there voted for the first motion (Dr Story's) 29. For the second motion (Mr Innes') 12; and for the third motion (Mr Niven's) 12. The first motion having an absolute majority, became the judgment of the House. ROYAL BOUNTY. The Rev. Professor STORY, for Dr Norman Macleod, Convener, gave in the Report of the Committee for Managing the Royal Bounty. The Report of the Royal Bounty Committee stated that thirty-five stations had been supplied during last year. It was moved, seconded, and agreed to — Approve of the Report. The Act was passed appointing a Committee to manage the Royal Bounty. NEXT MEETING OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY. The Act was passed appointing the next meeting of the General Assembly to be held on Thursday, 21st May 1891. ACT ON COLLECTIONS. Mr T. G. MURRAY, Edinburgh (Elder), said that, owing to the good-natured character of this Assembly, they had so added to the number of collections that there was one for every month of this year, and one for the first eleven months of next year. The following Acts were passed authorising the collections for the Schemes and other objects: — "The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland sanction and approve of the following days appointed by last Assembly for collections: — (1) The third Sabbath of June 1890 for the Endowment Scheme; (2) The second Sabbath of October 1890 for the Colonial Scheme; (3) The third Sabbath of November 1890 for the Jewish Mission Scheme ; and also appoint the following days for Collections throughout all the Churches within their bounds, viz.: — (4) The third Sabbath of February 1891 for the Home Mission Scheme; (5) The third Sabbath of March 1891 for the Foreign Mission Scheme; (6) The second Sabbath of May 1891 for the Endowment Scheme; (7) The second Sabbath of June 1891 for the Colonial Scheme; (8) The second Sabbath of October 1891 for the Jewish Mission Scheme; (9) The third Sabbath of November 1891 for the Small Livings Scheme: Provided always, that whenever any of the said days shall be unsuitable, the Collection shall be made on another Sabbath. The General Assembly earnestly recommend that when the Collection is made by Schedule, the Congregation be furnished with the information usually afforded by the Pew notices immediately before the Contributions are applied for. The General Assembly, having been informed by the Joint-Committee on the Schemes, that in all Parishes and Congregations in which the Collection is regularly taken at several stated periods throughout the year by means of Schedules and Collecting Cards or Books, the result has been a large increase in the amount of the Collection, and an augmented interest on the part of the people in the Missions of the Church — recommend to all Ministers and Kirk-Sessions to try this method, instead of leaving the Collection to be taken at the Church-door, subject to the vicissitudes of weather or other accidents. The General Assembly further recommend that, when the Collection is taken by Schedule, intimation shall be made from the Pulpit, that any one who has not contributed in this form will have an opportunity of doing so through the Collection in Church. The General Assembly regard it as extremely desirable that all Presbyteries should have at least one service each year in every Parish within their bounds in support of the various Schemes of the Church. The General Assembly enjoin every Minister, on the Sabbath preceding that on which the Collection is to be made, to give due intimation thereof, and to explain and enforce it. The General Assembly direct the several Presbyteries to require of all the Ministers within their bounds a distinct report whether the Collections appointed by the Assembly to be made during the year ending 31st December 1890 have been made by them and on separate days, and to record the said Report in their Presbytery Books. Further, the General Assembly enjoin the several Presbyteries to report to the Joint-Committee on the Schemes of the Church, not later than the fifteenth day of April 1891, particulars of all cases of failure to make Collections for the six Schemes, with the reasons offered for such failure; and, separately, how many of the additional Collections ordered have been made in each Parish, that the same may be duly reported to the General Assembly; and likewise ordain the several Synods to take a similar account annually of the diligence of their respective Presbyteries in this matter, and to enter the same in their Synod Records; and instruct the Committees appointed to revise the said Synod Books to specify in their reports whether the said Synods have obeyed this instruction. The Assembly earnestly and affectionately urge on their faithful people to consider, each one for himself, what he can do to promote the spread of the Gospel at home and abroad, and to remember that most of them have no means of obeying the Redeemer's last command, except by giving of their means, and by offering up prayers in behalf of those who go forth to teach the nations. The General Assembly order this Act to be printed separately, and a copy to be transmitted to every Parish Minister, and to every Minister or Probationer officiating in a Chapel of Ease in connection with the Church of Scotland; and they ordain the said Act to be read from the Pulpit on the Sabbath appointed for the next Collection. "The General Assembly sanction and approve of the Collection appointed to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, on the second Sabbath of July 1890, in aid of the Aged and Infirm Ministers' Fund; and the General Assembly further appoint a Collection to be made for the same object on the second Sabbath of July 1891. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, in aid of the funds of the Committee for Increasing the Supply of Religious Ordinances in several parts of the Highlands and Islands, on the fourth Sabbath of August 1890; and the General Assembly further appoint a Collection to be made for the same object on the fourth Sabbath of August 1891. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, on the third Sabbath of September 1890, in aid of the Funds of the Committee on Correspondence with the Synod of the Church of Scotland in England. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, in aid of the Funds of the Finance Committee, on the second Sabbath of December 1890. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, on the third Sabbath of January 1891, on behalf of the Committee on Correspondence with Foreign Churches. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, on the second Sabbath of April 1891, in aid of the Funds of the Committee for providing Compensation to Ministers for the money drawn by the former Patrons out of the stipend of recently vacant Parishes. "The General Assembly appoint a Collection to be made throughout all the Churches within their bounds, on the third Sabbath of September 1891, in aid of the Funds of the Committee on Christian Life and Work." MEETING OF KIRK-SESSION. The General Assembly, with reference to that part of the Assembly's proceedings of 28th May touching a meeting of the Kirk-Session of Jedburgh, hereby dispense, in the special circumstances of the case, with the leave which ought to have been obtained for that meeting, and declare the said meeting to have been valid, notwithstanding that one of the Ruling Elders of the said Kirk-- Session is a Member of this Assembly. CORRESPONDENCE WITH FOREIGN CHURCHES. The General Assembly instructed the Committee on Correspondence with Foreign Churches to nominate a Deputation to the Irish Presbyterian Church. APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSION OF ASSEMBLY. The General Assembly passed the Act appointing the Commission of the General Assembly. All the Members of the General Assembly were appointed Members of Commission, with the addition of the Rev Dr Anderson, St Andrews, for the Moderator. A Committee was appointed to revise the Minutes of the General Assembly, consisting of the Principal Clerk, the Depute Clerk, the Procurator, and the Agent — the Principal Clerk, Convener. Overtures not disposed of were deferred. PROTESTATIONS. Protestations were taken — (1) That Appeal taken by Mr John Davidson, Bank Agent, Maud, against a judgment of the Synod of Aberdeen in the Maud case, had been fallen from. (2) That Protest and Appeal against the judgment of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, in the Kirkoswald case, had been fallen from. (3 and 4) That Appeals by the Rev. Gavin Lang, against judgments of the Synod of Moray in the Inverness Election case, had been fallen from. The General Assembly adjourned at 5.45, to meet again at 10 o'clock. EVENING SEDERUNT. The Assembly met, pursuant to adjournment, and was constituted. The Minutes of the day's proceedings were held as read. The Rev. Dr JOHNSTON gave in his reasons of dissent from to-day's procedure in reference to the Interim Report on the Regulations for the Election and Admission of Ministers. The Rev. Dr MC'MURTRIE gave in the following tribute of respect to the late Mr Smith, Principal of the General Assembly's Institution, Calcutta: - "The General Assembly, having been informed by its Foreign Mission Committee of the death, on 21st October, of the Rev. Wm. Smith, M.A., Principal of the General Assembly's Institution, Calcutta, desires to record its profound sense of the loss which this Church and the cause of Missions have sustained." Mr Smith was educated for the teaching profession, and served as a schoolmaster for some years, but after a distinguished career in the University of Glasgow he was ordained to the charge of Forth, in the Presbytery of Lanark, in 1878. In 1884 he was appointed Acting Principal, and in the following year became Principal of the Missionary Institution in Calcutta. At a time when duties of peculiar delicacy and difficulty devolved upon the head of the Mission, Mr Smith, by his ability, devotedness, and prudence, and by a rare combination of firmness, with a humble and conciliatory spirit, rendered invaluable service. While fully discharging scholastic duties of a high order, he also gave great prominence to the more evangelistic side of the Mission both in the Institution and at the outstations, one of which he retained under his own charge. He was always ready to assist the Kirk-- Session of the Native Church, and, along with his wife — a greatly esteemed lady, who died about half a year before her husband — he was very helpful to the work of the Ladies' Associations in Calcutta. With reduced strength he set out on an autumn holiday, from which he hoped to return reinvigorated for work; but he died at Keadum, among the Himalaya Mountains, of fever and weakness of the heart. He was only forty-four years of age. Mr Smith is sincerely mourned, not only here but in Calcutta, and by Christians of every communion. The General Assembly expresses its deepest sympathy with his widowed mother, and commends to God Mr Smith's only child, a boy now about nine years of age. CONCLUDING ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. RIGHT REVEREND AND RIGHT HONOURABLE; - The time has come for the closing words, as of old. Not to-night of exhortation: for to offer that I do not presume; and it is not needed. The work of the Church, in my experience, tends in these days to be done with a feverish earnestness, by most. Not of what may be called the secondplane work of the Church: the work of the engine after the primary effort of keeping itself in energetic motion has been successfully made; the Church's Missions and Schemes: for all details of these have been spread out before you during our meetings by experts; and their cause has been urged by the most competent men in our vocation. Nor am I to venture on political prophecy or warning. For though we know whence the storm may come, and though our hearts must needs be sometimes anxious for the venerable Institution which has mainly made Scotland what Scotland is, I turn instinctively away from strife, present or to come; as knowing how well and thoroughly our defence will be undertaken (when the day comes) by brave and strong men whom God has called to such a task by making them magnificently fit for it. Rather I purpose to offer you some kindly words of things much in our minds and hearts: of dear old ways of the Church; and of the growth and tendencies of Church life in these last days. Turning away from controversy, I desire to keep to our real life: which I understand and know; and which touches nearly. The days lengthened, as of old. There was parish work, and home care: and May at length brought us here. The time has gone over, not without the occasional conflict of opinion, expressed with a keen ability: but now we reach the solemn end, which has so touched many of us heretofore. All contentious voices have ceased. And there remains only this needful parting word; in speaking which every right-minded man must remember that it cannot be replied to here; and must endeavour so to speak that, in the main, we may all be able kindly to assent to what is spoken. It has been the use of all who have been placed in this Chair, to express their thanks to this Venerable House for the high honour conferred upon them. It is indeed a high honour to be called to this Chair with the general approval of one's Fathers and Brethren. And no words that I can find could express my sense of the extraordinary kindness with which my .nomination was received by very many: a thing never to be forgot; and a warm tie where the tie was warmest already. All the more was this so, because like my predecessor Robert Blair, minister of St Andrews two hundred and fifty years since, I had ever felt as if I "could do more good among my Flock than in the Assembly:" and while thankful that we have among us men whose vocation is to serve the Church in her Courts, lesser and greater, I have been mainly a preacher and a pastor, a hard-working parish minister like most of my honoured brethren; and so am here as, in a humble sense, the representative of that quiet earnest work from week to week, the Sundays coming back so startingly fast, which I venture to think the Church's mainstay. All the more, too, that I have taken a share in work which does not yet commend itself to every one of us. I know there are those who do not wholly approve the Scottish Hymnal, wide as the acceptance of that book has been: still less, the Book of Common Order. But though there be these lesser divergences, I know there is a far wider field where I am in perfect and heartfelt sympathy with every loyal son of the Kirk. And I know how kindly my brethen interpret the methods of ministers faithfully seeking the good of the Church, even in exceptional ways. Your placing one in this Chair does not mean that all of you assent to all his views and methods. But it does mean your belief in his honesty and faithfulness; and in his heartfelt desire to serve the Church of our fathers to his level best. Twelve years ago, many of us heard our dear and never-forgotten friend Principal Tulloch say, in his closing address, that he was the first moderator who had not finished his studies till after the disastrous '43. But now, so does time go on, a younger generation is here. And the office has been held for the first time by one who at that time had not even entered the University: and by one ordained in the second half of the century: in one of the closing months of '51. Yet even the gathering of the storm, for years before, was in young memories. I remember, vividly, a good minister saying in my father's manse, when I was a little boy, that he would not be surprised though the result of all this controversy should be that the Church was rent asunder. All held up their hands in wonder. Such a thing was inconceivable. Ah such a thing was to be. And the sad story is an old one now. Times without number, since I was a youth, I have sat down at the accustomed table to write what, in God's Election, found many readers, while as good or better did not: and never anywhere have I found kindlier welcome than when, with a somewhat wearied pen, I came home to address oftentimes through our own Parish Magazine the reticent people of our own Communion. I have no more prized possession than the pathetic letters of very many unknown friends, each a kindly Scot. But it is very new and strange, after all these years, to address thus formally so many brethren set in places of anxious trust, and tried in divers ways I know so well. When first, ages ago, a member of Assembly, not a thing is so vividly remembered as how one looked along the rows of men, each one placed in this life where good sense and right feeling are just as much needed as they can be in any human vocation; and thought how if the more outstanding, and the less outstanding too, would each just tell one exactly how he does his work! To really know the methods of any one hard-working soul, the actual way and feeling in which the day's work is done, — would be profoundly interesting and helpful. But, with a certain pathetic pudency, men keep their little ways to themselves. Then, specially at the beginning, much of the duty of the ministry is done under a heavy strain upon brain and heart: a strain which no worthy man would wish ever to wholly cease: the conduct of God's public worship must never be taken lightly. But, thirty years since, over all the land, and even yet in various places, that strain has been intensified to a breaking pitch by requirements which could add nothing to the edification of the flock, or to the beauty of holiness in the house of prayer. And yet, with it all, the plain church was the centre of all the interest of life. It was touching to hear a minister of the older generation, asked where he had been ministering on Sunday, reply At Home. That meant in his own pulpit, at his own communion-table, in his own church. And many of us have never felt so much at home as there. Not in Church Courts, where, even in such as the brotherly and beloved Presbytery which ordained me, there must needs be sharp and lawyer-like ways that seemed just a little inconsistent with our holiest services and sacraments. Not even in this Chair, which your brotherly sympathy has made so pleasant and easy (for we come to the battle-field, and the enemy we are afraid of is not there): but rather sitting by the little fireside under a cottage roof, learning from some tried and aged pilgrim twenty times more and better than we ever taught him or her, and going away richer and stronger for such a one's solemn blessing: rather in the least æsthetic kirk of Kyle, where you learnt that the grand thing about a church is the living congregation: where the fragrance of the July clover came through the opened windows, and the air was freshened with sweet herbs: where a simple gospel was preached, and neither preacher nor hearer had ever doubted: and where better praise by far than that chilly Jubilee orchestra in Westminster went up in O God of Bethel. We have all worked, hard, to serve the Church, Fathers and Brethren: None harder, none better, than our quiet country ministers. Such as talk of the abounding leisure of a rural charge, surely forget that to prepare a sermon, to one's best, for a small congregation, costs exactly as much time and pains as to prepare a sermon for a large congregation. Likewise that if you are resolved that your congregation shall listen with fixed attention to every word of the sermon (and you must be so resolved if you are a preacher), it is a far harder thing to write a sermon, which shall be followed with the audible hush you all know, in a country church, than to write one which shall hold that unmistakeable grip of a city congregation. And if pastoral work be done as it ought to be: if the minister makes his presence felt in every corner of the parish: the eight miles which part some sick-bed from the manse many times, make that one continually-repeated visit cost as much wear as to visit ten sick in the close proximity of the town. I do not deny that there are compensations, very real to some men. Some will never forget what it was to ride up the parish on such duty: to pass out from the thick woods into bare and lonely tracts: where, ten miles from home, one would dismount from one's horse, and sit down on a grey stone by the wayside, and look for an hour at the heather at one's feet, and at the sweeps of purple moorland far away. But I must not recall such pictures, or I should never be done; they are too touching and dear. Only let me say to my brothers how well I understand the life. Et in Arcadiâ ego. I was once a Country Parson. And in such peaceful charges, withdrawn from the temptations as well as from the stimulus of the crowded congregations of the great city, you may find some of our most learned, devout, and cultured ministers. If ever the miserable blight of Disestablishment should befall, one of its sorest results would be the loss of such men: men for whom the Church is beyond calculation richer, men who hold the highest level of the respect of rich and poor around them: though possibly they never were endowed with the gifts of popular oratory which can hold a crowd of thousands; or, just as likely, never having been called upon to do such work (which no doubt is very grand work), have never had powers developed which might have ranked them high as any of you. I fancy there is no more famous line in Sir Henry Taylor's famous Play, than that which assures us that "The world knows nothing of its greatest men." That may be, or not. But I am perfectly sure the Church knows little of many of her best men. And I am thinking not merely of devout learning, content to prosper in the shade: Through the press, that can now find its access to the cultured world. I am thinking of men with great makings in them: with the potency of the most charming eloquence: but they never were called upon, never spurred to their utmost exertion: or circumstances held them down, circumstances in which no mortal could be orator or poet and so the undeveloped capacity year by year dwindled: till you could but think of them, old and gray, as men of whom incomparably more might have been made, churchmen who never got their due. Let me say too (and the most successful among you know it best), that men need the fostering warmth of encouragement to bring out what is in them. And to some, that genial sunshine never comes. It is not true, unless in some very non-- natural sense, that everything comes to him who knows how to wait for it. No, not any more than that a man makes his own luck: that favourite axiom of the wonderfully - successful. Six - and twenty years since, I was sent by the Home Mission Committee along with my dear and honoured friend Dr Nicholson of St Stephen's to visit various struggling chapels. We came to one where was a poor brother, well-advanced in years, older than either of us, who was broken down into utter failure by the environment: who had quite lost heart. In those days Dr Nicholson and I ministered in two Edinburgh churches where the sun shone very warmly upon us, by God's goodness. Coming away from witnessing a painful squabble in that poor chapel, I could not but say to my friend, just as honoured and useful a man as was then in the Church, Do you think you or I should have done a bit better there ? I never forget the sorrowful face with which his answer came: No, we should not The City, after all, with all anxieties, overwork, nervous strain, has both the best and the worst of the Race: and some of us are humbly thankful that courage was given us to face its ceaseless wear. But it is you who minister in beautiful country parishes who hold the prizes of the Church. Perhaps it is the Mirage when one looks back: but one's own country parish, and far more one's Father's, in these latter days show like Paradise. Every Sunday, with its crowded church and its uplifting praise and its quiet evening of perfect peace: and far more, the unutterable sanctity and hush of the old Communions, when anxious souls did of a surety go up to the Mount of Ordinances, and found all they hoped there: the white-haired Elders, — we have the best of Elders yet, but oh, those saints departed! — then the setting the face with fresh heart to the way: ah, there was something to be said for those rarely-coming Communions, though doubtless the balance of reason is all on the other side. One sees the snow bending the overgreens in Winter round the manse: the roses covering the house in July: the blossoming apple-trees in the garden: the hawthorn in glory making the countryside fragrant: the atmosphere of those departed days comes back, and old faces come life-like to us from where they went, long ago. Everything that is good in us, Fathers and Brethren, is a link to our Church. Everything good in us, under God's grace, we owe to the Church, and to the Children. You will pardon it, I know, in a Son of the Manse; but my heart flies to my head at the mention of the old ways of the Kirk: and it will be so till heart and head turn cold together. We know well, most of us, the ways of other Communions, and we feel their charm: notably the half-inspired beauty and felicity of the prayers of the greatest of National Churches, so near us, yet in sorrowful truth so far from us. But we come back, with a warm heart, the warmer for absence, to the Church of our fathers. That, after all, is to come Home. She is the Mother that took us in her arms in our Baptism. She has fed and comforted us, all our days, at the Holy Table. And with wise restoration of the grand words of Christian hope, she will lay us in our grave. It is the way, with the outer world, to say that ours is a quiet unanxious life, that glides away in a singular freedom from the buffets of the terrible struggle for existence which is all around us. And, God be thanked, there is truth here. We are, in the main, ministers of peace: and are not very often called to meet our fellow-men in the severities of wordly business: which often develop a hardness. a rigour of the game, a cynical unconcern for others, startling and unpleasing to see. But, putting quite aside the matter of the heavy pull on nerves and heart with which our public duty is done, — and one of the greatest of living preachers once said that if he left off preaching for six Sundays he would not have courage to begin again, — the life of such as serve the Church in her ministry has it many cares. Only a sentence of what has been not less than tragic in these last years, though borne with little complaint, by husband and wife under the roof of many a country parsonage, ivy-clad or rose-entwined. To bring the income down by something like half, while expenses tend ever to grow, means deepening lines on the once-hopeful minister's face: means a heavy heart to the faithful companion of many anxious years. And the burden tends to grow weightier as we grow less equal to the bearing it. But, even from the first, Worry has to be, even in Arcady. One has walked through the golden harvest-fields in the September sunshine with a very anxious heart and bewildered head. No one, too, ever came into close and continual contact with some hundreds of our countrymen, without meeting the necessary percentage of the wrong-headed and cantankerous. It is our duty to make crooked sticks serve. And there is such a thing as ill-luck: specially in the first inexperienced days. For the difference is vast, between skilled labour and unskilled. You used to fancy, at your first start, that you would be able to please everybody. You would be so considerate, so diligent, so modest, so kind to all, that nobody could find fault. Ah, there are those who will find fault with anything. I never heard any charge brought against a young minister with more intense bitterness, than that he was always kneeling and praying in the vestry before service. The Beadle and others did not approve of this. And a warm-hearted youth set in charge of a parish is quite certain to make many mistakes at first : mistakes for which we who are old not unfrequently love him the better. An extraordinarily-- old head on young shoulders is not a loveable thing. It has seemed a hard thing, ever since this generation has known the Church, that, entering the ministry, a man's university standing goes for absolutely nothing. We have no Fellowships, to which scholarship is the passport; and from which men advance to pleasant livings in the gift of their Colleges; the souls in the parish acquiescently accepting the minister sent them. The people of a Scotch parish never could have liked that fashion: and now Patronage is gone, and the law gives them their choice. The question is now mainly one of attractive power in the pulpit. I never knew a very eminent student go into the Church, who did not prove a good and thoughtful preacher: specially if his eminence was less in pure scholarship than in Philosophy. But I have several times known such fail utterly of being popular preachers. The ipsissima gift of interesting in all they said, had not been given them; and what Sydney Smith said of literature in general is specially true of the literature of the pulpit: that every style is good, except the tiresome. And there are physical gifts too: the sensitive nervous temperament of the orator: the powerful and pathetic voice: even the beaming face we remember, and still sometimes see. Ah, the born preacher cannot publish the first, second, and third thing which gave the unmistakeable charm to his sermon. You needed the actual presence of Tulloch, of Guthrie, of Macleod. It is pleasant to remember that the most popular Scotch preacher of the last forty years was likewise the first student of his time. Nor can I say that Patronage did a whit more to foster scholarship than popular election does. All unpopular orators are not necessarily great scholars. As the rule, the brilliant student is the likeliest to be an attractive preacher too. And I have great faith in the popular judgment: if you can get at it, and keep it unaffected by irrelevant considerations. The people who are to go to a church every Sunday surely intend to get the minister who will make it pleasant and helpful to go there. They may make mistakes; and have sometimes done so. But men must be educated up to the worthy exercise of their new privileges. And after what was substantially a Revolution, it may take many years before things right themselves. Most regrettable scandals, degrading to the Church, have followed the introduction of the popular election of our ministers. But these cases have been exceptional. No system was ever devised by man, which had not its disadvantages. And the change had to be. It is simply a question of time, till it shall come on the other side of the Tweed too. Bishops as well as incumbents will be popularly elected, some day. The flowing tide must flow. Looking back, as one does tenderly, on the old ways and the devout worship of the Kirk, nothing is more borne in upon us than how that dear old order has changed in these last days: say in the last thirty years: notably in the serious matter of the public worship of God. The old order changes, we know. That must needs be. We should like to keep things as we have come to know and love them: but that is as vain as to wish that the children should never grow older, and that nobody should ever die. And one is not thinking of lesser matters: as that good people who once never failed of being in church twice each Sunday now think they do well if they attend a morning service: or how the afternoon service, which was the great one in my student days, the time when you heard a great preacher at his best, has in most places dried up: or how the fashion of morning and evening service is becoming general, a fashion which has much to recommend it; I am thinking of the actual character of the worship which one finds everywhere, even in country churches; and of the architecture and arrangements of the churches themselves. The restoration of St Giles', and the erection of such stately and beautiful churches as those of Galashiels, of Govan, and of the Barony at Glasgow, are signs of a greatly-changed way of feeling. These churches were costly, indeed: but not more so than certain built fifty years since, which are a bitter grief to any man with even a rudimentary knowledge of ecclesiastical art. Even Glasgow Cathedral, a structure which may be called magnificent, was arranged forty years since in a fashion which would not be tolerated now. And it is a historical fact, which you may regret or you may approve, that the worship has changed in quite as marked a measure as the buildings. It has not changed essentially, indeed: still praise, and prayer, the reading of God's Word, and the communication of Christian counsel and experience in preaching: chiefest of all, the solemn sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, the centre and crown of all our worship; and the solemn admission of our children in holy Baptism to the Church of Christ, which by most lamentable and irreverent use has in too many places been taken away from the house of God. But though the worship is vitally the same, and must needs abide the same till Christ comes back, the surroundings and details have greatly changed from what we knew as children. Let it be said here, for it is certain fact, that the Church of Scotland does not by any means stand alone in this matter. The other National Establishment of Britain is in precisely the same position. The severest rubrics cannot prevent alteration, any more than traditional usage can. Very many Anglican churches now, fabric and service, are not recognisable as the Anglican church of fifty years ago. Our changes, compared with those of England, are "as moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine." It is twenty-one years since Norman Macleod, speaking from this chair, made a frank declaration of his approval, in the main, of the line the Church has taken. And in these years there has been no reflux of the tide. Just the other way. And other Communions around us, I do not say have followed our example; but doing what they for themselves judged right, have moved in the same direction. It would not be treating this Venerable House with candour did I not state that all I have often said elsewhere as to the worship of an Ideal National Church I firmly believe: the more firmly for advancing years. I am proud to have a wide acquaintance with the younger ministers of the Church: I know what are the views which (with rare exceptions) they hold. I have seen many of the wisest and best of our ministers and elders gradually moving in a direction which I should be sorry indeed to think the Down Grade. More still: I have seen good and wise men who at the first looked unfavourably upon these changes, and who do not desire them even yet, come to acknowledge that the Church has no more loyal and devoted sons than many who have desired (in a right and good sense) to catholicise her worship to a humble degree And now, speaking in deep seriousness, and with a most earnest desire not to aggrieve one among my honoured fathers and brethren, I desire to set forth some thoughts only for your consideration: though speaking for very many besides myself; many who have grown old in the Church's service. Most of us were well-content with the old ways of the Church ; and desired no change. It was a strange thing to me, and startling, when I first heard it said, five-and-thirty years since, by Dr John Robertson of Glasgow Cathedral, and Dr Crawford, who became Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh, that changes in our worship must come : were demanded by the growing generation. Singularly, the thing they argued for was not anything which has come. It was that the Church should provide for Her ministers and congregations such aids in public prayer as have long been unknown here. I will put their view in Dr Macleod's words from this Chair: "Common prayer, like common praise, in words known to all the worshippers, would, I humbly think, prove a great measure of good for the people, and more especially for the better-educated portion of the congregation." But they added, strongly (I take Macleod's words again), "Yet never would I restrict any pastor from enjoying the glorious privilege of prayer from his own heart, and along with his people." I will confess that, as a youth, I thought there was no need for any liturgical help at all. The prayers one heard seemed always extremely good: and the sermon was the great thing in one's mind. And I had been educated where one had grown very weary of a liturgy; and had come to enjoy the freshness of prayers made on the instant for the instant. Dr Robertson was early taken, and Dr Crawford was not a man to press for change: while in preparing the volume of Aids to Devotion he found sufficient scope. The feeling was in the air, as is the way when any great change is impending. Many men, quite apart and independently, came to think in the same way at the same time: and the voice came from the most unlikely quarters. Now that one looks back on the Common worship of the Church twenty-five years ago, one is constrained to confess that the changes which have come are considerable. A good old Kyle Elder of my boyhood would be somewhat bewildered, were he to go to what on these Sundays has been the Church of the General Assembly: the Cathedral Church of St Giles. The very name would be strange. I remember vividly, even at the time when I first preached before the Commissioner, how the venerable Principal Macfarlan gently rebuked the title I gave his Church. "Not Glasgow Cathedral," he said: "The High Church of Glasgow." I presume to bind no man's conscience, nor understanding, when I say I venture to think the changes which have come are mainly for the better. The worship, and the churches, have grown more solemn and more beautiful: and surely our devotion is not less spiritual and real. And what has been done, even to minute details, is not properly to be called Innovation. It is Restoration of the better ways of the Church of the Reformation. And it comes of a most earnest desire to render to our Saviour our very best: in architecture, in music, in common prayer. It comes, too, of the deep conviction that everything right and touching and helpful in God's worship since the Holy Spirit came, is ours to this day. It is ancient history now: but it is well within the memory of very many of you. It was natural that good men, deeply attached to the dear old ways, should seek to keep what they had known all their lives. It was not unnatural that such should fancy that what they had known so long had always been the way of the Church: while in fact it was no more (in some cases) than a graceless innovation against which our fathers had striven and protested: something not of Scottish origin or character at all. We all knew and revered men who would most vehemently have opposed the first entrance of that which, having been submitted to for what is a short time in the history of a National Church, they fancied was the good old way: and would then have laid down their life for. It was whispered at first, in gatherings of the younger clergy, that there were Spots on the Sun. A pamphlet came out, bearing just that title: It seemed like touching the ark. Little things, as they seem now, were first aimed at; to kneel at prayer, to stand at praise, to have the heartening of the sacred Organ. When Principal Tulloch returned from America, he said much of the strong desire there, among Christian people who had copied the organisation of the Church of Scotland, that the congregation should rouse itself to take active part in public worship; should not be prayed for and preached to: should at least say Amen, as St Paul expected, as the Psalmist bids all the people do: should audibly join in the Lord's Prayer and in the Creed. It was a step onwards to say, Why should not Prayers be read: as Chalmers read them when he was Moderator this time fifty-eight years: as John Knox did habitually? Not that the Prayers were bad. They were wonderfully good: If all Ministers were always what some Ministers are sometimes, they might be the best of all. But surely in a Church which will have no mortal man come as intermediary between the soul and the Saviour, it is an extraordinary act of confidence in an individual man, that a congregation should gather to lift up their hearts to God Almighty, and then be content to accept whatever may be said by one of whom they know little, know nothing, as the expression of their deepest feelings and most vital needs. I must not go into details: they are endless. Only let it be said how it brightens the interest of the congregation, when the same voice does not go on too long: how pleasant it is when the lessons of Scripture are read by an educated layman: as our best Elders in and out of this Assembly read them; or are read by bright young aspirants to the ministry, who get help in giving it. I do not forget what Mr Moody said to me: and few know better: "Change the voice continually: Never the same voice for more than five minutes, save in the sermon." A bright, hearty service, with interest alive and alert from first to last, is surely what we aim at. And when the sermon ends with the solemn ascription, according to the good old fashion of the Kirk for its first century, how touching and heart-warming when the great congregation arises in solemn assent, and adds its thunderous Amen! The character and arrangement of the fabrics are much changed. Where great cost is impossible, one often finds a simple beauty, pleasing and helpful. Lath and plaster are being banished. In many Churches you find chairs: capable of being easily placed as may suit weddings and baptisms: and which make it natural in good faith to kneel at prayer. Though the Communion, as yet, does not come frequently, as the founders of the Kirk intended, the Holy Table is there to remind us of it. It is not now carried in and carried out again. The Font, too, of suitable dignity, is part of the furniture of most Churches. In some, the pulpit is used only for preaching from. It is hard to quite be rid of "the most eloquent prayer ever addressed to a Boston audience," till the prayers are said by one kneeling among the congregation, so placed as plainly not speaking to them, but for them. It is a sad sight, a congregation listening intently to the prayer of an unfamiliar preacher, and perhaps gazing at him. And let us honestly kneel, if it may be. The Minister always can. Nor does the attitude in the least affect his voice. Standing is good. Think of the pictures in the Catacombs. Kneeling is good: St Paul identified the attitude with the vital thing: "For this cause I bow my knees." But sitting, leaning back in a pew, gazing open-eyed at the minister, is the most abhorrent attitude in prayer ever devised by man. Anywhere, even now, we may close our eyes, we may cover our face, we may bend the knee. No one has proposed to belittle the sermon. That is not likely to come here. For it is just among the most outstanding preachers of the Church that the desire is strong to make much of prayer and praise. And as some of them, if they are not preachers, are nothing at all, it is improbable that they will depreciate their own work. It may be said, that the sermons of these days tend to be shorter and brighter than of old: to touch a large range of subjects: to come close to actual life. And, tried by literary and critical tests, one may say that the present preaching of the Church has attained a very high level of helpfulness and excellence. Likewise of cultivated intelligence. I do not think that any educated preacher, addressing an educated congregation, and making use of their sympathy, would now make an end of Sir Walter by calling him, contemptuously, "a writer of idle tales:" and of Burns, "a writer of as idle songs." Nor would any saintly minister' declare, ex cathedra, that "no man who knew the truth as in Jesus could read Shakespeare." Finally, there has appeared, in many quarters, a strong craving that the great events in Christ's life, and the great Christian doctrines by which we live, should be brought back to us by the revolution of the year. We all know that here is a going-back to the ways of John Knox's earliest Book of Order. I do not venture to say more of this: save that though the Hymnal was not prepared with any view to the revival of the Christian year, it contains grand materials for the commemoration of our Saviour's Birth, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Second Coming: likewise of the Descent and continual abiding of the Blessed and Holy Spirit. Many will be disposed to use these hymns at the times when most Christians do the same. Looking back upon all the movement, one may say, generally, that it has meant the making much of Prayer and Praise, while not making less of the Sermon. And after all, the church is the place of Prayer and Praise. "I will make them joyful in My house of prayer." " Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee." When we were boys, it would have seemed strange that a minister should take great interest about the music in his church. I have heard it said, five-and-thirty years since, of a great preacher, as something eccentric, "He wanted to arrange the tunes before service with the Precentor." There was little Praise then: and it was cut down, unsparingly, that the sermon might be longer. It was a saintly man who said, significantly, as the bells ceased, to a young friend who was to preach for him, "We don't read much of the Bible here." Surely things are better than that. In January, 1865, a Society was founded, of Ministers and Elders of the Church of Scotland, whose object was the study of the best models of Christian prayer, with the view of publishing material which might be helpful to our young preachers, and our old. In fact, the Church already had what may be called a Traditional Liturgy. A youth, entering on his duty, remembered what he had heard all his life: and in that unwritten store there are very touching and beautiful sentences: some, too, which cannot be approved. There never was the smallest mystery about that Society's work. Its meetings were public: anyone might go to them. It published a Volume, which anyone may buy. Principal Tulloch was its President till he died: he was succeeded by a very outstanding Scotsman, strongly-Presbyterian, — the Duke of Argyll. Principal Caird and Professor Story are its Vice-Presidents still. Professor Milligan and other recent Moderators are active and valued workers. It now numbers 600 members, most of them Ministers and the rest Elders. Whoever likes may have a printed list of their names. I think the time has come in which the existence of the Church Service Society ought at least to be named here; and I will say from this Chair, the Church has no abler ministers, nor more loyal defenders, nor more devout sons. A desire arose, many years since, for further material for Praise. I was not among those who felt it: I was content with the Psalms and Paraphrases. But, with others, I thought that if the Church had a Hymnal, it ought to be a good one: which could face literary criticism, as well as supply a want. There was great labour, great anxiety. But the Scottish hymnal is widely known: and it bears the imprimatur of the Supreme Court of the Church. The Assembly's approval was very seriously given: after it had fully heard nearly everything that could be said against the volume. Not everything: I could have suggested more damaging criticism than any I have heard or read. Yet the book has commended itself to the most competent judges, and it has attained a phenomenal success. Other Committees draw from the Church: the Hymn Committee, though the editions are marvellously cheap, has given the Church its thousands. I turn to a subject which is to many of us inexpressibly painful; and concerning which the wisest can hardly in these days suggest any practical remedy, going to the root of the evil. A word of the "unhappy divisions" of Christian people in this country. Scotland is divided, sorrowfully divided, on points so minute that only a Scotch intellect can discern and understand them: on points which are not understood by thousands of those whom they divide. There is the perfervid genius which prompts to fight out a question to the last; and to part off wholly if there be not absolute agreement. There are those who shrink, more than words can say, from all controversy: knowing what it results in, what tempers it brings out: while regarding with respectful wonder those who feel a vocation to serve, in that field, the Church and the Race. There are those who cannot read the past heroic history of the Church, but with an incapacity to fully sympathise with either Resolutioner or Protester. The curse of quarrelsomeness came upon the nation, and is not yet worn out. Kindly Scots have fought, as for life, for such small matters: thinking they concerned the Ark of God. The manifest result is, that over large tracts the country is greatly overchurched. One could point to parishes in which, if every man, woman, and child of the population were in a place of worship at the same moment, hundreds of sittings would remain unoccupied. There are many parishes in winch three and four ministers are doing the work which it is little to say would be done as well by one: it would be done far better. "The cause is to be represented." And, though I will acknowledge that, generally, good sense and good feeling mitigate evils which seem due, yet in some cases there is a rivalry which does no good; and even what may be called touting for a congregation by very degrading arts. Discipline is made impossible. And certain folk think that in attending church they are (so to speak) patronizing the minister's place of business. Undue multiplication of churches belonging to one Communion tends to just the same evils. All this is surely bad: bad even here. But it is awful, in the presence of the cultivated Heathen, as in India. What is the educated Hindoo to think, when he finds the High Anglican unchurching the Presbyterian, the Free Church standing apart from the Church of Scotland, the Baptist pressing his special doctrine, and the Roman Catholic unchurching them all? You know it was like to break Macleod's heart, to see Christians parted as he saw them there. How shall we look at this ? Perhaps, though our Saviour said so much of His people being One, it was not in His mind that there should be entire uniformity. May not the Church of Christ, vitally One, yet manifest herself in each nation in a government and worship suited to the genius of that nation? I suppose there is no Church on earth, which in details is exactly such as the Church of Apostolic days. Some of us are quite reconciled to the belief that Presbytery is the right thing in Scotland, and Episcopacy the right thing in England. People who talk of "the establishment of two different religions" do not know what a religion means. Certainly one's heart sinks, calculating the possibility of absolute agreement. To hear the utter contrariety of opinion, the vehement maintenance of the most individual crotchets and fancies, of a nation coming to be universally educated: and then to imagine this multitude coming all to think alike all to unite cordially in one Communion! It would be different, if we had God's Revelation for it: if any system of Church Government were, what Dr Liddon regards his own, a vital part of Christianity. But if that were so, surely the New Testament would have told us so. And it has Not. Those who hold that belief must go somewhere else than to God's Word for it. And they must not, as lawyers say, approbate and reprobate. They will find there what will carry them a good deal farther. It must be reasonable Protestantism: or Rome. I note, most thankfully, that earnest men in Scotland are now talking of Union as for very long it was not talked of here. I note, indeed, that more is said of the practical inconveniences of competing sects, than of the sinfulness of causeless. separation. There are subjects, we know, on which people by their make and training must differ: unless Christ Himself would tell us what the government and worship of His Church are to be. Apart from such supernatural direction, the notion of the millions of even Protestant Christendom, of even the Scottish Race, accepting a whole complicated system, where at every step difference is. certain if people think at all, is hopeless beyond human speech. One sometimes thinks that the prospect of all Christians becoming either Episcopalian or Presbyterian, is just as hopeful as the prospect of all. British subjects becoming either Whig or Tory. Natures are different; and will be to the end. For a time, it appears that the testing question which is put to Scotsmen to Right and Left, will be that of a National Profession of Christianity and a. National Church; or not. No amalgamation is possible here: no splitting of the difference: if the question be one of Principle. And we hold it as one of Principle. We cannot yield. Here we stand. as Luther said: we cannot do otherwise. God help us. Here is an issue, where the answer must be Yes or No. But there is in Scotland a Communion, at one with us in holding the Establishment Principle, from which, notwithstanding the kindest social relations and even religious sympathies, we stand apart. We witness in this country the strange phenomenon of a Communion numbering little more than one-seventy-fifth part of the population, which yet has in some places a clear majority of the highly-educated: a majority which the education of the wealthier order in these days is likelier to increase than to diminish. I say nothing, here, of the causes which have led to this result. If improvement in our public services had been as free to such as desired it thirty years ago as it is to-day, this might not have been. And no patriot but must lament the separation of rich and poor in their worship. The severance between rich and poor is too great already: to the great loss and peril of the rich. No patriot but would be thankful for what might righteously draw them together. I know well, indeed, that there are many good Christian folk who are quite content with the present outward separations: or who, though not content, conclude that these must just be borne, like other evils in our own lot or in God's Creation and Providence. Others there are who would do much for outward and visible union with any body of their fellow-Christians: notably with one holding so much in common with us, and holding so special a place. We cannot forget the root, in Scottish history, of that Church: though doubtless there is very much, too, better put away and forgotten in these days on both sides. I minister in an ancient Church which was Pro-Cathedral of the Primacy, while that Communion was by law (or without law) established: some of the plate we use in our holy sacraments at St Andrews bears to have been given by James, Archbishop of the same: not, indeed, an estimable Archbishop by any means. But though we would do much, there is a limit. If all on the other side were like that venerable and kindly scholar who for thirty years has pressed for Union, beseeching England and Scotland to be of one mind in the Lord; it would be well. But we hold no terms with such as speak of our holy sacrament of Baptism as being "merely sprinkled in the schism;" or who inform us, very sad if true, that their little body is "the only Church in Scotland." Perhaps it is not entirely amiable: but whenever I come to know of such false and insolent nonsense having been put about, I hasten to make inquiry as to the education of the speaker: likewise as to his ancestry. In many cases, there is a strange irony: though we do not now expect a man to think as his father did. And I will frankly say that my feeling is even so as to good men who propose to treat with us as from a position of superiority, in which it is assumed that they are right and we are wrong. I have known union with England benignantly proposed on the condition that, union being brought about, we who were ordained by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery should, till we died out, abide as second-chop clerics, incapable I say not of holding an Anglican benefice, but even of ministering in an Anglican Church: all this without the smallest sense that the proposal was a most offensive one. With the authors of such schemes we will not talk for one minute. Our commission, our orders, are just as good as those of the Archbishop of Canterbury. If we did not believe that, firmly, we should not be here. But it appears really impossible to make many good men take in that Scotland is just as content with Presbytery as England is with Episcopacy. There is a highbred provincialism through which you cannot, in many cases, get that taken in. A dignified Anglican ecclesiastic has come to Scotland, and gone about smiling at our ways: forgetting that it is precisely as provincial, as narrow, as vulgar in him to do so, as it would be for one of us to go about doing the like in England: which, God be thanked, we have more sense and better breeding than to do. Not for one moment would I confer, as to Union, with any man, save on the basis of absolute equality. The Church of Scotland is precisely as right a branch of the Church Catholic, as is the Church of England. In the presence of the ancient unreformed Church, they stand or fall together. Dies venit, dies Tua; the day of outward Union; if that be God's will. But, as was said by the wise Archbishop Tait of Canterbury, thinking only of the two National Churches, "The practical difficulties are so great, that we can but wait God's time." I suppose the Anglican Church has rarely had a stronger Primate than that son of an Elder of the Kirk: that wise and good Archbishop whose brothers sat while they lived in this venerable house: active and admirable members of it. Meanwhile, thank God, where the Blessed Spirit is, we recognise the Church of Christ. And let there be none of that social drawing-apart which has done more than almost anything to embitter our differences. I have taken part in meetings with ministers of other Scottish communions, with great profit and warmth of heart. But I will say, strongly, that where the good men thus acting for a time together loudly emphasised the fact, calling attention to their own liberality (if that be the word), there was a general and deep sense of insincerity and inconsistency. It was where good men never once alluded to their differences, but simply pulled together like brethren, that one felt how here (by God's mercy) there was a real unity. Let me quote a passage from a letter I lately received from the Bishop of Minnesota, in the United States: the saintly and eloquent Bishop Whipple: the first and most outstanding in the hierarchy of the Protestant Church in America. Surely he shows us the way. "More memorable was the meeting of some ten eminent Presbyterian divines and laymen with Dr Smith, the Moderator of the General Assembly; and some ten Bishops, Clergy, and laymen of our Church. By an inspiration which came from above, our Primus and the Moderator both proposed that there should be no allusion to or discussion of topics on which we differed, but that the evening should be devoted to brotherly intercourse as between kinsmen in Christ; and then we should have prayer and a benediction. Dr Smith first prayed, and I followed, all joining in the Lords Prayer, and then Bishop Williams gave us his blessing. All hearts ran together; and I am sure some day this meeting will be historical. It was pre-eminently wise not to discuss, not to argue over vexed questions. The gift of unity will not be grasped by any rash human hands. It will come down from above in the in-dwelling of the Holy One; and will come, as all other blessings, when the Church is ready to receive it." One word, only one, of what would NOT conduce to Union in Scotland. It is the attempt at Disestablishment. The wildest delusion ever cherished by man, is, that Disestablishment would unite Scottish Presbytery. I know no human being with whom I am less likely to unite, than with the man who thinks to compass the downfall of this National Establishment of the Church of our fathers. Some of you have seen how that question touches the people's heart: you will not forget it. This matter is vital: and we will fight for it, if need be, to the end. Never was such fiery bitterness brought into the national life in these two centuries, as would follow a politician's hand laid in enmity upon the Church. Take the Nation's voice: we are content to stand or fall by it. But take it honestly. And that, I say to the enemies of the Church, that is what you dare not do! But we must not part with words of uncongenial controversy: thus entering on this beautiful and hopeful June. There is better than that: though the most pacific of us, sons of the Church and of the Manse, if we must fight, WILL. But the blossoming hawthorn is waiting for us elsewhere: and the green trees will be thicker when we go back: the turf will be lighted up with widely-opened daisies; and the beautiful long twilights will come (as when we were boys), suffering scarce a night at all. God's blessing attend you every one, my dear brothers: and should you look back on this General Assembly, spare just a thought for one whom only your call would have brought to this chair; and who, while he lives, will never forget your more than brotherly kindness. AND NOW, RIGHT REVEREND AND RIGHT HONOURABLE, AS WE MET IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE ALONE HEAD AND KING OF THIS CHURCH, SO IN THE SAME GREAT NAME I NOW DISSOLVE THIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY: AND APPOINT THE NEXT GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THIS CHURCH TO CONVENE IN EDINBURGH ON THURSDAY THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF MAY, 1891. The MODERATOR, turning to the Lord High Commissioner, said — May it please your Grace, at the opening of this General Assembly I was honoured to convey to you the hearty welcome of this Venerable House, which, for many reasons, greeted you with special cordiality as the Representative of our good Queen. We knew that you were a hardworking nobleman, very worthily carrying on the best traditions of your ancient race and your dignified Order. But though you had done many things, and all of them well, you had not as yet filled the office of Her Majesty's Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly. You have done so now, and we shall not forget how. We shall remember your interest in our meetings, the benign and dignified wisdom which has characterised all your functions: your kind welcome to us in the ancient Palace of Holyrood. Nor will any of those who have known that historic house in these days of May and June soon cease to remember one gracious and beautiful presence which gave warmth and brightness to these old halls. You will permit one word of acknowledgment of the unvarying kindness which I have met both from your self and Her Grace, which has done much to make only pleasant a duty anticipated not without foreboding. You descend from that throne followed by our warm esteem and our best wishes, and we shall watch with interest your career of dignified usefulness, asking God's blessing on you and yours. Finally, let me express our hope that your Grace may be able to report to our Sovereign that the proceedings this year of this Venerable House have not been unworthy of its great traditions, unbroken through these two hundred years. ADDRESS BY THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER. The LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER then said — Right Reverend and Right Honourable, I have now to discharge the last of my duties, as Representative of the Queen in this General Assembly, by addressing to you a few words in closing your session of this year. It will be my pleasing duty to lay before the Queen a most favourable report of your proceedings, and to convey to Her Majesty the assurance of your devoted loyalty to her person and her throne. Your debates have been carried on throughout with the utmost good taste and good temper; they have been marked by an adequate discussion of every subject that has come before you, and at times by passages of eloquence which would have done credit to any Assembly in the world. But, above all, your proceedings have been thoroughly practical. Within the time allotted you have transacted all the business which you came here to transact — a happy result which could only have been gained by judicious arrangement, by strict adherence to the subject on hand, and by the resolute avoidance of aimless talk and fruitless controversy. This manner of conducting your debates has enabled you to overtake a large amount of business within a limited time, and has added to the reputation of this Venerable Assembly. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, one question which has come before you has overshadowed all others in its interest and importance, because it affects the existence of the Church, at least in its present form. This is a vital question, and naturally all else is felt to be subsidiary to it. But it would, I think, be a grave mistake to overlook the significance of other matters which have engaged your attention, between which and the question to which I have alluded there is a most direct and intimate relation. The Reports which have been submitted to this House, and the comments made upon them from those benches, have shown most strikingly that the Church of Scotland is a living, a vigorous, a progressive Church, worthy of her great past, and full of promise for the future. The style of the debates in this House is a testimony to the capacity of the Church's Ministers and Elders. The absence from your journals of any cases of discipline is an evidence of the high tone of your clergy; while the fact that you have not been called on to deal with any question of heresy is to be ascribed to the wise caution with which disputed questions of doctrine are approached by the Ministry, as well as to the enlightened spirit of tolerance in regard to these which prevails within the Church. So far as Statistics can prove prosperity, you are to be congratulated on the results that have been laid before you. An increase of membership of over 6000 during the past year, and an increase in the funds raised for Missionary and other purposes of over £50,000, are satisfactory in themselves, and of good augury for the future. The reports which have been submitted to this Assembly show every sign of health and activity, in all branches of the Church's work, at home and abroad. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, very briefly I must advert to that question and debate which will naturally be regarded as the outstanding events of this Assembly. This Throne-- bench is no fitting place for the expression of political opinions, and neither, I venture to say, is the floor of this House. The Church is apart from politics, because it is above them. No feature of your debate could have been more satisfactory than this, that speaker after speaker disclaimed any intention of identifying the Church with any political party, and I am sure that the wisdom of that disclaimer will be appreciated by all true friends of the Church. If you are menaced or attacked you have the right of self-defence, but your line of defence must be chosen with wisdom. When the struggle comes the Church will not want champions; your debate proved that, if proof were needed. But I may be allowed to say that the best defenders of the Church are those Ministers who, each in his own Parish, in his own sphere of duty, do their work honestly and quietly, as the spiritual guides and faithful friends of all who are under their charge. The Church of Scotland is a democratic Church; in the last resort, it stands "broad-based upon the people's will." It is no exotic, but a native growth of our native soil. Its claim to continued existence rests not merely on historic traditions of old, but on the usefulness of the work which it does in the present. The very growth of the Church justifies its existence, and justifies you in pressing home this truth on the mind of the people of Scotland, that the proposed change, if it were carried out, would in the end prove more disastrous to the community at large than to the Church itself. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, your proceedings have shown that the Church is alive to its duties, and ever ready to take upon itself an increasing burden of responsibility. In the social conditions of our time there is ample room and verge for all your energies. I may refer to that evil of intemperance, which is so dark a stain on our national life ; and also to that prevalence of gambling and betting, which I am afraid is growing every year, and which produces, down to the lowest strata of society, so much dishonesty and degradation. These are abuses which the Church has to combat; and from one report which came before you I noted with satisfaction that a most important social question has not been neglected — namely, the proper housing of the poor, with a due regard to health and decency, In social reform, no less than in religious teaching, it lies with the Church to show the way; and I should regard it as a great misfortune if the Church were distracted by any conflict from following this path of beneficent activity, which is, I believe, the surest guarantee of the heritage banded down to us from our forefathers. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, it now only remains for me to thank you very sincerely for the unvarying kindness and courtesy which you have extended to Lady Tweeddale and myself during my tenure of office. I shall carry away none but pleasant memories of this Assembly, and of the intercourse I have been privileged to enjoy with so many Ministers and Elders of the Church to which I am proud to belong. To you, Right Reverend Sir, who have filled the chair in this Assembly with such admirable tact and dignity, I desire to tender my warm thanks for the kind and graceful words you have spoken; and to express the pleasure which Lady Tweeddale and myself have had in your society. I am most gratified to hear from you that my endeavours worthily to discharge the duties of my office have met with the approval of this Venerable House, so many of whose members I shall be able to number henceforth among my friends. Right Reverend and Right Honourable, the same kind wishes which you, through your Right Reverend Moderator, have expressed for me and mine, I now, with equal cordiality, return to you and yours. I bid you God-speed and farewell. CLOSING OF THE ASSEMBLY. And now, in virtue of the powers vested in me by Her Majesty, I do dissolve this Assembly in the Queen's name, and do appoint the next Assembly to meet on Thursday the 21st of May 1891. The MODERATOR having engaged in prayer, the assemblage sang the 122nd Psalm — "Pray that Jerusalem may have peace and felicity" — after which the benediction was pronounced, and the proceedings were brought to a close at midnight. Following the usual custom, the members lined the passage of the hall as the Lord High Commissioner and the Marchioness of Tweeddale left, and a cordial cheer was raised as they took their departure for Holyrood.