at the very time the path of rectitude is quitted for ever, men seem to be advancing into some higher and nobler road of public conduct. Not that such impositions are strong enough in themselves, but a powerful interest works at the bottom, and secures the operation. Men are thus debauched from those legitimate connexions which they had formed on a judgment sufficiently mature, and wholly unbiassed. Gradually they are habituated to other company, and a change in their habitude soon makes way for a change in their opinions. Certain persons are no longer so very frightful when they come to be known. And as to their old friends, the transition is easy-from friendship to civility-from civility to enmity. Few are the steps from dereliction to persecution. Growing every day more formed to affairs, and better knit in their limbs, it is now only in the ordinary course of business to alter an opinion, or to betray a connexion. Frequently relinquishing one set of men, and adopting another, they grow into a total indifference to human feeling, as they had before to moral obligation. In the mean time, they are delivered up into the hands of those who feel neither respect for their persons, nor gratitude for their favours. Until at length, soured in temper, and disappointed by the very attainment of their ends, in some angry, or in some haughty moment, they incur the displeasure of those upon whom they have rendered their very being dependant. Then, perierunt tempora longi servitii. They are cast off with scorn; they are turned out, emptied of all natural character, of all intrinsic worth, of all essential dignity, and deprived of every consolation of friendship, having rendered all retreat to old principles ridiculous, and to old regards impracticable.'*

CRITICAL NOTICES.

A Report of the whole Proceedings of the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotand relative to the state of religion in the land. With an Introductory Narrative, by the Rev. A. MOODY STUART. Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1844.

We trust that this report will circulate by tens of thousands over Scotland. It is a document of unspeakable importance and value. Mr Moody Stuart has done good service to the Church by his very excellent and suitable preface. We present our readers with the Report of the Committee,' not because we suppose they have not seen it, but because we wish to preserve in our pages a document so precious.

"REPORT.

"Your Committee having fully deliberated on the important matters brought under their consideration, are of opinion

“Ï. That the Presbyteries of the Church ought to be instructed forthwith, to make the state of religion at large, but especially within their respective bounds, a subject of earnest and prayerful consideration.

66

That, in doing this, they ought particularly to consider, whether the actual measure of divine power generally found to accompany the ministrations of the gospel during these latter times, be not greatly wanting, when compared with the promises of God's word, and with what seems to have been often enjoyed in other ages, and especially during apostolical times.

"That they ought also deeply to ponder, and after asking counsel of God, to determine, as far as may be, the principal hindrances or causes of spiritual barrenness, whether these are to be found with ministers themselves, or in whatever other quarter, and by what means they may be removed, so as to admit, if it be the Lord's will, of a larger measure of divine power going forth with the means employed; and farther, whether in the present circumstances of the Church, there be not other and additional means which ought to be employed.

66

It appears to your Committee that much good might farther be done were this subject to be also brought under the consideration of kirk-sessions, particularly as regards their respective congregations.

"Your Committee are strongly impressed with the importance of learning, in some such way as this, the whole mind of the Church, even if the matter were to go no farther. But they are also persuaded, that much more extensive and matured views on this subject may in this way be obtained, than perhaps in any other. And if the Assembly shall see cause, either to re-appoint this Committee, or to appoint some other for the purpose of receiving and digesting returns to be made by the courts below, and generally for giving attention to this subject, a full and really valuable report might be prepared, and laid before the Commission in August, and if then approved, and if the Committee were so empowered, said report might immediately thereafter be printed and sent forth as a Pastoral Address to all the congregations of the Free Church; or, should this prove inconvenient, an address might be prepared therefrom. "II. But while your Committee would mainly look to the leavening process thus put in operation, and to the varied and matured views which might in this way be procured, the urgency of the present crisis induces them to submit the following suggestions, as calculated, under God, to promote the end in view, without incurring any unnecessary risk.

"1. And first, your Committee would submit, whether the whole of Tuesday's proceedings, which have not yet been provided for, and whatever else stands in close connection therewith, ought not to be printed and put into general circulation, to enable the Church at large fully to apprehend the views and intentions of the Assembly, and generally and intelligently to co-operate in giving them effect.

"2. Your Committee would also submit, whether the Ministers of the Church in meeting to deliberate on the matters already suggested, ought not first, solemnly and affectionately, to converse together on what concerns themselves -on the awful responsibility of being entrusted as ambassadors for Christ, to deal with men in the matter of their condition before God-and whether they ought not, when so together, to inquire how such dealings may be most Scripturally and effectively conducted; and, in particular, as regards the allowing plain, pointed, soul-searching addresses, to occupy a more prominent place in the ordinary ministrations of the pulpit-and whether, on the other hand, ther ought not to be more wrestling in prayer, preparatory to preaching, a more

thorough recognition of the Divine sovereignty, and of this very sovereignty as the ground of our confidence in the expectation of promised blessings.

"3. Your Committee would farther submit, as closely connected with this proposal, that the Elders of each congregation ought also to consider the duties which the great Head of the Church may require at their hand, and in what spirit they ought to be discharged. And it were well if congregational meetings were held for like purposes, and especially for united prayer. The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was preceded by the longcontinued prayers of the whole Church, and the only occasion afterwards noticed, on which there was any thing like a second Pentecost, was in similar circumstances, (Acts iv. 23-37,) "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." (Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7.)

66

4. Your Committe have reason to fear, that loose ideas respecting the Divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's day, and still more the many forms of Sabbath desecration which characterise our age and country, are among the principal hindrances of practical godliness. But irrespective of these, your Committee doubt whether even such as observe the holy rest of the Sabbath, be not generally wanting in a full and scriptural recognition of the Lord's day, as such—of the Lord's day, not only as a season of rest and of religious worship, but also as especially and eminently set apart-that our risen Lord may on that day reigu undisturbed in the hearts of his people, and triumph as a conqueror in the conversion of sinners. Were the hours of that season of rest to be thus regarded, the ordinances of religion usually observed on that day would receive therefrom a special and solemnising character, and abuses which might otherwise appear trivial, would thus be seen to interfere with the Mediatorial glory and divine work of a risen and reigning Saviour. We are not to forget that it was on the first day of the week that the Lord of the Sabbath rose from the dead, as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and the forgiveness of sins, and that it was on the same day that the promise of the Father was bestowed on the Church for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ in this world.

"5. But it appears to your Committee to be almost essential to the full attainment even of such preparatory ends as these, that due care be taken to secure Scriptural purity of communion-thus separating as much as possible the Church from the world, and removing causes of controversy which may otherwise stand in the way of an answer to the prayers offered. "The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isa. lix. 1, 2.) "Your Committee are far from alleging in this, that the Free Church is specially guilty in this matter, and still farther from either alleging or admitting that it is more so than was the Church at large previous to the disruption. They do not forget that the growing zeal of the Church in that as well as in other matters, was one of the main causes which issued in that event; and they are farther aware, that many are still opposed to the Free Church on similar grounds. But as your Committee are not comparing the Free Church with other Churches, but the Free Church with the rule of God's word, they are satisfied that the Assembly, taking this view of the subject, will neither be ashamed to admit whatever may be found wanting, nor unwilling, as far as may be, to repair deficiencies,—desiring in this, that God may be glorified and

men saved.

"6. And on now coming to the actual employment of farther means for the conversion of sinners and the edification of the Church, they would mention, first, what remains to be done as regards the Eldership. Hitherto, Elders

have been to a great extent chiefly conversant with duties proper to Deacons; but now that deacons will be found in every congregation, the attention of the Elders ought to be mainly occupied with other and higher duties. What these, as a whole, are, it may be for the Church in some more matured form to determine; but, in the meantime, your Committee would suggest that the Elders of the Church ought to give themselves more fully to spiritual duties, acting in this as helps to the Ministry, that greater fruit may by such means be secured and gathered in.

7. There is one class of means so closely connected with the whole matter of Divine power accompanying the ordinances of the Gospel, that your Committee would place it in front of all others. It is the turning to account whatever there is of a spirit of prayer in the Church. There are perhaps in all your congregations some of those hidden ones, whose very life is bound up in whatever concerns the glory of the Redeemer. They will be rejoiced to learn that the Church, as a Church, has been so directed as to look away from man, and his imagined resources, to Him whose are all things, and whose especially is the power of turning the hearts of men. And what your Committee desiderate is, that these be drawn forth, like the Annas and Simeons of other times, so as to be available for leavening the congregations to which they belong, with a similar spirit of prayer and general expectancy. How this may be best done your Committee will not venture to describe, especially as the mere manner must depend on the circumstances; but the thing desired is that God's praying people should be induced to associate more together in such meetings as may be found to be for edification. And in this the Eldership will probably find the fittest field for their first and early sowing.

"8. After this, your Committee would not forget means special to the young, and particularly Sabbath-School teaching. It will not be doubted by any competent to judge, that Sabbath schools have been, during the last forty or fifty years, among the means most eminently blessed for staying the downward progress of our country and nation, and it is not, therefore, now to be spoken of as anything new or special; but if the Free Church will, as a church, give itself to this work, in connection with other means of grace, your Committee are of opinion that the leavening process of Divine truth may in this way be carried into quarters which would scarcely be otherwise accessible, and the very exercise of teaching in a Sabbath school will fit and qualify for other and important duties.

the

"9. But it is the opinion of your Committee that, in present circumstances, means more special than these will require to be thought of. There are large masses of the population who, from whatever cause, are for the most part without any decided profession of religion, and who live practically beyond the reach of a preached gospel. It has been already sufficiently proved, that the classes referred to will not of themselves, and in any considerable number, attend the ordinary places of worship. And the question seems to be, in the providence of God, raised, whether it be not the duty of ministers to carry gospel forth of the sanctuary to such places as the classes referred to are accustomed to frequent, or wherever they may be found. Many of the ministers of the Free Church were themselves driven forth of their wonted places of worship, and forced to preach in the fields, or wherever their people could be conveniently gathered together, and in these circumstances they found access to classes who were not likely otherwise to have heard the gospel at all. And your Committee have in this been impressed with a sense of the leadings of Providence, as if God had in this way been teaching his servants where to find many of the outcasts of our Israel, and how to address them. And they feel the greater certainty in pointing to such a course, from the recollection that while our Lord himself taught in the synagogue every Sabbath-day, he preached in just such places as these, to many who frequented not the synas

VOL. XVII. NO. II.

T

gogue, and that many of the fruits of his ministry were gathered in these outfield labours.

"10. But looking at the present aspect of Providence, and the state of many parts of the country, your Committee are farther of opinion, that such fallow-grounds would in many places require to be first broken up by men specially commissioned under the authority of this house, these going forth two and two to visit and preach in as many districts. If a beginning were thus made, others would follow in their train, and carry out the work thus shown to be practicable.

"11. And, in conclusion, your Committee would submit, that before entering on such undertakings as these, it would be fitting and proper to appoint some early day when congregations would be assembled together for purposes of confession and prayer, and for giving themselves to God in the furtherance of this great work, each saying in effect, Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?' D. MACFARLAN, Convener.

The Case of the Free Church of Scotland. By BAPTIST W. NOEL, M.A., Minister of St John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London. London, James Nisbet & Co., 1844.

We never expected to have seen an Englishman so thoroughly comprehend, and so clearly state our whole Church question from beginning to end. Mr Noel has done us much service, and himself no inconsiderable honour, by this able pamphlet in our defence. It is well written, well argued, and eloquently pleaded throughout. It is worth while to let our readers see how he repels some of the asaults of some of our adversaries, and we add a brief specimen: This last mode of party warfare demands a separate notice. Is it not somewhat startling to hear Episcopalian Dissenters say to them as Presbyterian Dissenters, 'You shall not, if we can help it, buy a single spot of ground on which to worship God? We will have our dissenting temples of florid gothic, surpassing the fanes of the Establishment; but you, because you are less fundamentally Dissenters than ourselves, shall not have even a brick meetinghouse in which to pray and praise.' In other matters the law would limit the territorial right. If a canal or railroad is required for public convenience, the proprietor must part with the necessary ground; but when small spots are asked to enable one-third of a nation to worship God according to their conscience, they are refused. Parliament would not endure that a proprietor should say to the public, 'You shall not travel in my territory;' but it allows him to say to some of the best and wisest men of the country, whose creed is orthodox, whose lives are blameless, and who are guilty of no crime but of acting with rare self-denial on the highest principle, You shall not kneel upon it.' He must not impede public convenience, but he may endeavour to force men's consciences. Why? All men must travel; peer and peasant, statesmau and artizan, all want to force their way, for business or for pleasure, to every extremity of the busy land; but those who ask permission to kneel together are chiefly the poor.

"For these sacrifices and for the endurance of this obloquy, by which the ministers of the Free Church deserve our esteem and gratitude, they are denounced as enemies to the two Establishments in this island; and those who vindicate their character are stigmatised as allies in that nefarious crusade. But what can be more unreasonable, more palpably, more grossly preposterous than this denunciation? Were it made by careless and ungodly men who do not comprehend religious truth and care nothing for Christian principle, I should pass it by as a thing of course: but can evangelical men demand from evangelical men that we should stand aloof from these Christian brethren? Up to