present inserted in the ordinary minutes, as prepared for publication. The following resolution was agreed to: "After comparing the statements in the several formulas and questions put to office-bearers at ordination and admission, as well as to students previously to their being licensed as probationers; and, after conversation thereanent, the joint committee hereby record their gratification in finding that there appears to be no intended difference of meaning in the diversity of expression in adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and that there does not appear to be any difficulty connected with that diversity as to an agreement by the several churches in a common formula. In this finding, the committee do not embrace any definite conclusion as to the manner in which the views of the several churches on the subject of the relation of the civil magistrate to religion and the church are at present expressed in their respective formulas, or in which they ought to be dealt with in the formula of the proposed united church." The committee resolved to hold their next meeting on Tuesday, the 30th day of April.

In both the Edinburgh and Glasgow Presbyteries of the Free Church, long discussions have taken place on the subject of union, Drs. Begg and Gibson taking the leading part in the urging of delay. The motion of the former was carried in the Edinburgh Presbytery by a majority of 26 to 19. It was to the following effect :-" That the General Assembly should be overtured to give no deliverance on any branch of the question of union with other churches until the existing inquiries under all the heads of the programme are laid before the church, and the Assembly is enabled to take a conjunct view of the whole question." Dr. Gibson in Glasgow submitted an overture to the effect-"That care be taken that in any future action on the important subject of union, the whole principles of this church, as contained in her authorised standards, should be preserved uncompromised." Dr. Buchanan opposed such a caution as unnecessary. He quoted from a statement published by the late Dr. Cunningham in the New York Observer in 1845, to show that he considered the Church and State question to be subordinate to others of more importance. Dr. Cunningham said:-"1. That with the views we entertained, we could not say that we never would, in any circumstances, enter into alliance with the State, and receive State assistance. 2. That we never would receive State assistance upon any terms or conditions, expressed or understood,

which were in the least inconsistent with the free and full exercise of all our rights and liberties as a Church of Christ. 3. That we could scarcely conceive any thing more improbable than that the rulers of Great Britain, or of any of the kingdoms of this world, would be willing to give assistance and support to a church upon terms and conditions with which it would be lawful for a Church of Christ to comply, and that this improbability was so great as practically to amount, in our judgment, to an impossibility. 4. That even if the State were to make to us proposals which, viewed in themselves, involved nothing that was in our apprehension inconsistent with the full recognition of all our rights and liberties as a Church of Christ, we would attach very great weight in deciding upon them to the consideration of the way and manner in which our acceptance or refusal would bear upon our relation to other Churches of Christ, as there is good reason to believe that the maintenance of a strict relation between the Churches of Christ in a community would have a more important bearing upon the interests of religion and the welfare of Christ's people than anything the civil power could do.” Dr. Gibson's overture was lost by a majority of 16 to 34, so that the two Presbyteries have come to opposite decisions.

Dr. Lee continues in Grey Friars, Edinburgh, the use of his written form of prayer; and this having been prohibited by the General Assembly of 1866, the case is likely to cause much agitation at the approaching meeting of Assembly.

Dr. Candlish, at the closing of the session of the Free Church College in Edinburgh, delivered, as Principal, an address. The subject was Liturgical Worship. He attempted to show from the history of the early church that liturgies were unknown till a later period. As to the argument for written prayers from written sermons, he said : "If I read the same sermon, composed or adopted by me, from Sabbath to Sabbath, for any considerable length of time-the sermon being printed, and in the hands of the people, who thus go along with me in the reading of it-that would be a case in point and an argument from analogy in favour of using set forms of prayer. I think there is a distinction between prayer and preaching that it is important to notice here. Prayer is my speaking to God in behalf of the people; preaching is my speaking to the people on behalf of God. At first sight, the former would seem to be the more solemn and awful exercise of the two;

and in one view, as regards the awful majesty of the august Being whom I address, and the responsibility which we, the people and the pastor, incur as to addressing Him aright, it may be admitted to be so. But in another view the reverse may be seen to hold true. To be the mouthpiece of my fellow-men in their appealing to God is not really so delicate and difficult a function as, if I adequately conceive of its meaning and issues, to be the mouthpiece of my God in his appealing to them."

Accounts are given of the progress of revival in Biggar, Lesmahago, Aberdeen, Johnstone, Paisley, Alloa, and the Orkneys. In the mining districts, especially of Lanarkshire, much revival influence continues to be experienced.

Ireland.

(From our own Correspondent.)

THE month of April has been signalised after old wont by meetings of the various religious societies in connection with the church of England and Ireland; not perhaps so largely attended as on many previous years, but with reports, on the whole, more encouraging, and betraying zeal as ardent. The Hibernian Bible Society has received for the past year £4,596, and issued 57,185 copies of the Scriptures. Its support has been chiefly drawn from the South, while its benefits have been equally distributed over the island. During the last five years, Ulster has contributed 4,8447., and received 109,694 copies of the Scriptures; while Leinster, contributing 4,882l., had received only 37,034 copies, about a third of the supply for the northern province. The reasons that partly account for the disproportion--the larger number of Protestants in Ulster, and the existence of another Bible Society supplying Bibles with the Scotch version of the Psalms-have been alleged to be rather reasons for increasing the contributions from the North, as a district more penetrated with the love of the word of God. The Sunday School Society reported that their schools were 2,525, attended by 194,172 scholars, and taught by 18,136 gratuitous teachers of the children 127,924 were reading the Bible, only 95,349 were receiving instruction in day schools, and 5,800 were above the age of fifteen. There is an increase on the year of six schools, a decrease of 925 scholars, and 316 teachers. Of the schools 696 had received gratuitous assistance, and 388 more had been supplied with books at reduced

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prices; the total number of books being 32,054 Bibles and Testaments, 2,856 portions of Scriptures, 15,832 elementary books, and 179 concordances, besides class-books, Scripture cards, &c. Since the Society was established 58 years ago, it has supplied 1,527,105 Bibles and Testaments, 367,518 portions of Scripture and Scripture reading books. It was urged that, as more than half the children attended one of the Sunday Schools separate day and night schools should be established, that the Sunday school teaching might be exclusively religious. The income of the Protestant Orphan Society for the year amounted to 5,518l. or 5421. in excess of 1866; and it supports 445 children, making a total of 1,887 provided for since the founding of the society. It was stated as an encouragement that 460 orphans had been given up to their friends, who by better circumstances became able to support them, and that in 38 years the society had been the means of preserving 6,740 Protestants. The Orphan Refuge has an income of 1,763., an increase, also, amounting to 517. on the year preceding. About 3001. of the sum was the result of a special appeal during the prevalence of cholera, a crisis which the society met in a manner that leaves nothing to regret. The number of children supported is 218. Though the Church Education Society reports some schools removed and placed under the National Board, the language of its report is hopeful. The income exceeds the past year by 4641., and amounts to 45,619.; and, though the number of children is not so great as formerly, there are 67,277 in the roll of 1,510 schools, and classified-as of the Established Church 46,704, other Protestants 12,608, and Roman Catholics, 7,855. While acknowledging the disadvantage of depending upon voluntary rather than State support, the Committee see no reason to depart from their first principles: and the Bishop of Ossory expresses the same opinion, notwithstanding that prospects were dark in some respects and trials might be in store. Lord Clancarty, who took the chair, was thankful that none of their children or teachers were connected with the recent outbreak. The state of the country, the ignorance of the peasantry, the superstition of the masses, the disaffection that overspread the land, was a fair evidence of the advantages that had been derived from 35 years of the national system. The Bishop of Tuam held that the recent disturbances were the legitimate fruit of the system. Any attempt to reconcile them with State Education, he warned

them would be the voice of the charmer. Their ordination vow would prevent them joining the National Board. The system was monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, in lumen ademptum. But Lord Clancarty, though he thought the National schoolmasters were the secretaries of rebellion, yet hoped that if the Government made concessions they would be favourably met; and Mr. Warren, the Solicitor-General, thought it was the duty of the society to suggest to the Government some possible compromise. The Report of the West Connaught Endowment Society referred to many reasons for a disappointment of their hopes, and that instead of an additional endowment they have not four-fifths of the 2,500l. necessary for one; yet they rejoiced that when this eighth endowment was completed half their work was done, and 20,000l. was set apart for the advancement of the Church in Connaught. The Bishop of Tuam took occasion to correct some statements put forward in a pamphlet by the Bishop of Down, who sought to show the necessity for a redistribution of Church revenue in close accordance with population, and who stated that between 1826 and 1864 the number of benefices in Tuam have decreased from 77 to 72, and the number of clergy from 98 to 96, so that the average amount for benefices in populous Down and Connor was 2251., and in unpeopled Tuam 2411. The figures, according to the Bishop of Tuam, stand thus-the benefices have increased from 50 to 82, the clergy from 78 to 99, so that the proportion of income was in Tuam only 2121. The meeting of the Church Missionary Society was addressed, amongst others, by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop of Carlisle, and the Dean of Cork, and reported an income from Ireland of 6,0561., being an increase on the previous year of 510l. The clerical breakfast in connection with this society was addressed by the Bishop of Carlisle upon the necessity of sound doctrine in working for God. Meetings were also held for the Jews' Society, the Colonial and Continental Society, which reported an Irish income of 416l., the Society for promoting Female Education in the East, the Society for Missions to Seamen, and others.

Notwithstanding the slight diminution of the number of Wesleyans in Ireland, they have raised 5,500l. for their Missionary Society, an increase of 7621. in last year. The American-United States contribution to the new Wesleyan College, in Belfast, is expected to reach 50,000 dollars, independent of the grant from Canada. And it is expected that the 1,500l. proposed to be raised for

a college scholarship, to perpetuate the memory of the Rev. Robert Wallace, who died while pleading the cause of the Irish Wesleyan Church in the States, will be contributed before the next con| ference. Mr. Hargreave and Mr. Wilson, formerly missionaries in Fiji, have been addressing the Wesleyans through Ireland.

The question of a mission to China is still before the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, but no practical steps have been taken; and the Board of Missions is anxiously strengthening the Indian Mission. An additional home missionary is to be sent to Tuam; while a site for a church has been taken at Killarney, and a church has been opened at Enniscorthy. The propriety of including Italy in the field of the Jewish mission, is yet in debate. Mr. MacFie has made a donation of the works in Clark's Foreign Theological Library to various home mission stations of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland; and Mr. David Drummond, of Dublin, has presented the theological students, to the number of over fifty, with the Rev. Henry Wallace's book on Representative Responsibility, one of the most thoughtful and masterly of recent works in theology. The Church is also making a vigorous effort to raise the income of its ministers to a standard more in harmony with the requirements of modern life, and the position of a clergyman.

The Dublin Young Men's Christian Association, in connexion with the Established Church, reported at its annual meeting 553 members, having 47 affiliated societies, making a total membership of 2,500, a library of 3,000 volumes, and a lending library of a thousand. Prizes were given in theology, Scripture, history and politics, and, among other classes mentioned, was one for Hebrew. Although the lectures last year showed a loss, they are to be attempted again, and with such men as Mr. Smiles and Dr. Russell of the Times. The Primitive Association also held its annual meeting, and presented a very satisfactory report of a large attendance, and of much Christian work done. Instead of suffering by the formation of other and powerful societies, it has gained and exercised an independent and wholesome, because directly Christian influence. A valuable report on Church Extension has been presented to the Presbytery of Belfast, from which we gather that there are 20,000 Presbyterians in that town unconnected with any places of worship. To remedy so great and growing an evil, it is proposed to build at once five churches in specified districts; and, besides those, to have three mission

churches erected in destitute localities, and whose ministers shall be secured a sum of not less than £200 a year each. This arrangement is to be considered as only an advance to the solution of the question, for the town is increasing at so rapid a rate, that the efforts to overtake the careless and destitute must be continuous. The report was very warmly received, and it was stated that the sites for the churches would all be secured by some laymen who undertook that responsibility, that an offer had been made of £200, and another of £100 to every mission church built, and a third person has offered 251. a year to the endowment of the church first built. The Belfast Parochial Mission is an effort for the same end, and pursued by the Establishment with much the same agency already employed in the better known Town Mission. Three clergymen are already employed, a fourth is expected, and five districts are in as much need as were these four. The subscriptions to the mission amount to £348.

In

The present lull in political excitement is only broken by occasional utterances of the dignitaries of the Romish Church upon Fenianism. addition to those already recorded may be given some extracts from a Pastoral of Dr. Leahy, the Archbishop of Cashel. "Fenianism," he says, "is a movement foolish in the extreme, and because foolish, therefore sinful in the eyes of Heaven. I assert, then, two things without fear of contradiction. First, the movement has not the least chance of success; secondly, therefore it is a sinful movement. So long as England is the power she is, a Fenian insurrection, instead of doing any good for the country, could only make bad worse. It is a noble thing to die for country; but to get one's self killed or to kill others, with no result to an unhappy country than making bad worse-that is a sin, if ever there was one."

It is the hopelessness of the project that condemns it, not its unrighteousness. It is only because "convulsive efforts make the power we struggle against tighten its grasp the more." Bishop Moriarty, whose denunciations of rebellion were echoed so warmly in the House of Commons, has pursued another branch of the subject, and discussed the endowments of Ireland. He examines the expediency of disendowing the Established Church. Its present position alienates the Romish Celt, and preserves the faith.

"There were some favourable circumstances which helped to the same result, such as the preservation of a language unknown to the

stranger, and a national character averse to a cold, bloodless worship, and to doctrines or denials which deprived religion of its heart. But we must state our solemn and certain conviction that in the hands of God an iniquitous ascendancy was changed into a principal and a most effectual means of deterring our people from apostacy when every human motive urged them to it, and when they had neither priests nor schools to teach them its deep sinfulness."

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Dr. Moriarty considers that the Church disestablished will be disintegrated, that it has been held in shape by endowment, as bodies though lifeless are preserved in ice," and when the ice is withdrawn decay will set in. He suggests that the Church revenue should be paid into the imperial treasury, thence to be paid out again to the different ecclesiastical bodies, according to their numerical strength. Confident of the strength of his party and his plan, he looks forward to see a large part of the disendowed Church fall away into infidelity, a still larger return to the bosom of the one mother.

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Many of the Protestant clergy have the zeal God, though not according to knowledge. Many amongst them are serving God according to the light vouchsafed to them in simplicity and sincerity of heart. They pray, and prayer with correspondence to grace must result in union with the Church of Christ. In the sister country we witness now, and we have witnessed for more than twenty years past, the most extraordinary phenomenon that the history of religious life presents-a spontaneous growth of faith in the very bosom of a heretical communion. Resting on the Apostle's word—that faith comes by hearing-we were inclined to think that conversion could be wrought only by the Apostolic action of the Church of Christ. But we have seen men who held no intercourse with Catholics, who were estranged from us by every circumstance of their position, who openly and vehemently expressed their hatred of the Catholic Church as they apprehended it, gradually grow by study, and thought, and prayer, to the full measure of Catholic truth. Some day, when in their walk of life the embodied form of the Church appeared before them, they found to their amazement that they too were Catholics. Like those who in childhood were torn from a mother's arms, but whose dream of life was a longing desire to see her face again, they recognised, when they saw her, the true mother of their souls, and they rushed to her embrace. This extraordinary movement is still