Pastoral Address,

CONTAINING

CAUSES OF FASTING.

BY

THE SYNOD OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

24TH NOVEMBER, 1842.

SECOND THOUSAND.

GLASGOW:

SOLD BY J. KEITH, W. MARSHALL, AND D. BRYCE.

THOMAS NELSON, AND CHARLES ZEIGLER, EDINBURGH.

A. GARDINER, PAISLEY. J M‘COID, STRANRAER.

WILLIAM M‘COMB, BELFAST.

MDCCCXLIII.

[PRICE TWOPENCE.]

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PASTORAL ADDRESS.

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The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to the brethren under their pastoral inspection: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Being met in our judicative capacity, and taking under serious review the peculiar aspects of Divine Providence at the present time, we affectionately submit to your consideration some of those reflections and views of present duty, which this survey has suggested to our minds.

When we consider how frequently inattention to the works of God, in the kingdom of Providence, is condemned in Scripture, as an evidence of moral insensibility and obtuseness of mind, and that it is represented as a privilege when a people have among them those who “have understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do,” we can have no doubt that it is an incumbent duty on all men devoutly to mark, and carefully to improve, in their religious exercises, the dispensations of Divine Providence. If this is not done, even the people of God are liable to mistake their duty in matters of great importance. They may ignorantly set themselves in opposition to the Most High. They may labour to build up what he intends to destroy. They may be sorrowing when they ought to be rejoicing, or rejoicing when they ought to be sorrowing. They may be full of alarm and terror, when an enlightened view of the work of God would lead them to anticipate a happy issue; or they may feel secure and at ease, when, if they were better informed, they would be preparing for trouble. Such mistakes are, in some cases, exceedingly criminal. “And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold joy and gladness.” “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not

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be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.” (Isa. xxii. 12—14.)

We are strongly impressed with the conviction, dear brethren, that at the present time, there is a loud call to humiliation before God, and the confession of sin, on account of the manifold and great iniquities with which these lands are filled, the tokens of God’s displeasure that are already in the midst of us, and the indications of coming judgment that present themselves to view. We invite your attention to some of the more prominent aspects of the present time, in four several departments, viz.:—in the PHYSICAL, or economical, the POLITICAL, the MORAL, and the RELIGIOUS condition of the community.

I. We direct your attention to the extraordinary depression of trade and commerce, which has distinguished the past season. It is, perhaps, in the nature of trade, as usually conducted, to have its vicissitudes. But such a stagnation as that which we have now experienced, has not been known in recent times. In no previous instance, within the memory of living men, have so many fortunes been broken up and dissipated; so many hopes been blasted, so many enterprises confounded. Riches have, indeed, been making to themselves wings, and fleeing away. The shock has been felt throughout the whole empire, and what is more remarkable, throughout the whole commercial world. Nor is there any visible prospect of a speedy recovery. Those who possess capital are afraid to invest it in trade; and they whose capital is already invested, are, many of them, carrying on business at a positive loss, which is only less ruinous than would be incurred by an abrupt suspension of it. Hence the physical privations of the people have been very great. It has not, heretofore, been known, that one-fourth part of the entire population of a large town have been absolutely dependent upon charity for subsistence, for the greater part of a year. Benevolence has not been inactive in endeavouring to alleviate the distress; and in many cases the work of coming years has been forestalled, to supply labour and wages for the present time.

The trial has been greatly aggravated by its long continuance. A period of moderate prosperity leaves in the hand of industry a resource for the day of adversity;

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but a continuance of commercial depression, like a long drought on the cistern, entirely exhausts the supply. This is already the case with multitudes of industrious families. Nor does emigration afford the relief that has been expected from it. Those who are straitened and uncomfortable in their circumstances, are commonly given to changes, as the sick man seeks relief by turning himself upon his bed. But of those who have passed to foreign lands during the past season, it is well ascertained, that many discovered, when it was too late, that a change of country brought no change for the better in their temporal condition; and that an humble trust in Divine Providence, and a patient continuance in well-doing at home, might have brought them speedier relief. And what is more to be lamented, many, of whom better hopes were entertained, have deliberately bartered their religious privileges for a doubtful hope of bettering their worldly circumstances; and, like Cain, have gone out from the presence of the Lord, to bring up their families in a moral wilderness.

In connexion with this may be noticed the alarming spirit of discontent, that has spread so widely among multitudes of the people. We should be happy to believe that this feeling is not more general, nor more deeply seated, than might be accounted for by the existing distress. But we greatly fear it is otherwise. It has been of much longer duration than the commercial crisis. It extends widely among classes who have, hitherto, had small share in the prevailing distress. It has been apparently gathering strength for years. The feelings of respect and gratitude with which the operatives were accustomed to regard their employers, have, to a great extent, given way, and angry and resentful feelings have risen up in their stead. We presume not here to adjudicate between the contending claims of capital and labour, or the respective rights of employers and employed. We believe that both classes have suffered by the decay of mutual confidence; that the workings of selfishness, on both sides, have produced their usual bitter fruits. We mention the matter as one of the dark and gloomy signs of the present time. Even during the course of the past season, it has required, in many parts of the country, the

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most energetic measures to preserve the peace. And if these things occurred when provisions were abundant, and prices very moderate, who can predict what might have been the result, had the Lord in righteous displeasure sent an unpropitious season, and a scanty crop. Enough has occurred to show what elements are at work in society; and that unless He who stills the ragings of the sea, and the tumults of the people, be graciously pleased to lengthen out our tranquillity, a single spark may call into action the slumbering energies of a moral volcano, that may convert the social fabric into a mass of ruins.

These, brethren, are matters of deep and solemn concern, that should summon Christians to humiliation and earnest prayer. To see the commerce of these lands, on which so many depend for their subsistence, so grievously crippled and paralyzed; to see the manufactures so profitless, that they neither yield a remuneration to the manufacturer, nor to the labourer; to see multitudes unable to obtain employment, while their families suffer from pinching poverty; to see large numbers deriving a stinted support from the contributions of the benevolent, or increasing the enormous burdens of the community, by obtaining relief through a legal assessment; and, above all, to mark the increase of imposture, ignorance, immorality, and ungodliness, which are the customary fruits of extended pauperism—these are sights deeply affecting even to patriotism and humanity, but much more to the enlightened Christian.

Although many of you, dear brethren, participate in the existing distress, we feel confident you will give no ear to ignorant and foolish men, who can see nothing but human agency in all this—the effect of unwise policy—of erroneous legislation. Could we fasten on your minds the following truths, they might contribute to fortify you against the infidel delusions that are now so current, in regard to this national visitation. 1st, Be persuaded that the Supreme moral Governor of the world has sent it. Through whatever agency it has come, the Divine record would teach you to make this acknowledgment. “Is there evil in the city,” that is physical evil or distress, “and the Lord hath not done it?” The language of men who were placed under a dispensation by no means so clear as that which we enjoy, should rebuke the atheism of modern

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professors, who would put the Providence of God out of the world. When Shimei cursed David, he looked on him only as an instrument of correction in the hand of the Lord. (2 Sam. xvi. 10.) When the Sabeans carried away Job’s oxen, and the Chaldeans his camels, he thinks not of the instrument, but of the author of the calamity. “The Lord giveth, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” It is one of the darkest features in the scene we have been contemplating, that when the Lord’s hand is so manifestly lifted up, vast multitudes refuse to acknowledge it.

2d, Be convinced that the distress of the land is sent upon it on account of sin. Nations and empires are subjects of the moral government of the Most High. National iniquities are visited by him with national judgments. If he “turneth the rivers into a wilderness, and the water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness, it is for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” The language of the dispensation is in harmony with that addressed to the Israelites of old: “If you will not for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins.” (Lev. xxvi. 18, 19, 21.)

3d, Be convinced farther, that nothing can afford the slightest security for effectual or permanent relief, but a thorough and general repentance. The noisy declaimers who would regenerate society, and create prosperity and plenty, by mere financial changes, are physicians of no value. The order of things they so passionately desire, has not secured prosperity to those countries where it exists in its perfection. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.” “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me, and that I also have walked contrary unto them; if their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember the land.”

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(Lev. xxvi. 40—42.) Even profane history corroborates the lesson taught in the Bible. The doom of Tyre, and of Babylon, and of Rome, proclaim, as with the voice of a trumpet, the inevitable and fearful punishment that impends over ambitious, ungodly, and wicked nations.

II.—When we take a survey of the POLITICAL ASPECTS of the community, we find additional evidence that the Lord has a controversy with our land. Some of the evils that might here be specified have been of long standing, and on that account the guilt and danger incurred by them are the more alarming. It is not our intention, at this time, to enlarge on those moral evils in the civil constitution, which have often been exhibited and testified against by the church. Most of these still remain, bringing accumulated guilt on the nation. An Erastian supremacy over the church is still vested in the crown—a supremacy quite as offensive in its character, and scarcely less arrogant in its pretensions than that of the Roman Pontiff. An episcopal hierarchy, becoming every day more deeply leavened with popish error, is made an essential part of the civil constitution. While Christianity is ostensibly made part and parcel of the law of the land, and while the higher orders in the state affect zeal for religion, it never was more manifest that truly evangelical, or scriptural religion, can find no favour with them, and that there is no form of religion too corrupt to obtain their patronage, provided it can subserve political designs. But at present we turn from these things to other features in the political aspects of our country.

We regard it as a great and sore evil that the age in which we live has become, so intensely, a political age. We are no advocates for arbitrary power on the part of rulers, nor for blind and implicit obedience on the part of subjects. We hold it to be good not only that a people should be acquainted with the laws of the community in which they dwell—that in so far as they are righteous they may not transgress them—but that they be acquainted with the law of God, as it applies both to rulers and subjects. But when the fear of God has lost its ascendancy, every thing is liable to be abused. No one, we conceive, who has been calmly considering the state of society for a few years past can entertain a doubt, that

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immense evil has been done by the continual and vehement agitation of politics. What multitudes are passing into the world of spirits who have devoted more time and thought, in the course of one year, to the work of reforming the state, than they have done during their whole lives to the work of preparing for eternity!

It has been painful to contemplate the extreme violence and unfairness of party politics. In the unceasing warfare between contending parties, all candour and impartiality are commonly discarded. Misrepresentation, the suppression of the truth, deliberate deception, the utmost efforts of ingenuity, either to defend what is culpable on the one side, or to raise odium against the other, will be found to characterize a large share of the political contendings of the community. Men of the highest standing in the political world are found either conniving at all this, or giving it positive encouragement. No inconsiderable portion of the talent and education of the community has been enlisted, or hired, to labour in this deliberate perversion of the truth. And those who have prostituted their eminent talents in this employment have been cheered on, and munificently rewarded by the public. Each party has cheered on its own leaders and champions. The astonishing force of the temptation may be inferred from this, that those periodicals that were understood to be conducted on religious principles were, in many instances, scarcely less disfigured by this vice than the openly irreligious. With all parties it seemed a small matter that truth and charity should be sacrificed, provided their own party, respectively, could be saved. What a picture of the community would be exhibited, if a brief history of it were compiled from the representations of party politicians, each party giving the history of its opponents! How much guilt must have been contracted by all this slander and detraction! And what a demoralizing and hardening effect it must have had on those who were continually torturing their ingenuity in dressing up the slander, and on those who, for a series of years, were devouring it with more avidity than a hungry man does his food! Let us examine ourselves, dear brethren, on this head. Although, in conformity with our principles, we cannot be of any political party, it has been exceedingly difficult to be familiar with the public literature of

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the day, without catching more or less of the infection. If we have read with complacence while one party has been indiscriminately defended, and another blackened and defamed, there is a loud call for humiliation and repentance. If such a course is immoral in all classes, it is still more inexcusable in professed witnesses for the truth.

And here we cannot withhold the expression of our regret, dear brethren, that the force of political excitement, combining with an undue influence which the upper classes have, in some cases, ungenerously employed towards their friends or dependents, has prevailed to shake the steadfastness of individual members of our own church. Some have, in an unguarded moment, committed an act, by which, we are convinced, they compromise their principles, and identify themselves with a civil constitution, against which they have lifted up a testimony, as being antichristian and immoral. Let it not be said that the office-bearers of the church are inconsiderately, or lightly, tampering with the civil privileges of her members. The decision to which they have come has not been precipitate; for the question has been under their most anxious consideration for a series of years. They have no conceivable interest in desiring to abridge the legitimate liberties of the people. A moment’s reflection must suffice to show, that all their worldly interests lie in an opposite direction. The testimony they have been called to interpret and apply, is older than any of the ministers or elders now living. These ministers and elders have been chosen by the people, on the express ground of their declared attachment to that testimony, and for the purpose of maintaining it. And their unanimous and deliberate conviction is, that the members of this church cannot be incorporated with the British constitution, as long as it bears the stamp of antichristianism, without a dereliction of their testimony. We cannot stoop to answer the pitiful insinuation, that if the ministers and elders possessed the franchise themselves, they would be less inclined to lay restraints upon others. Most of the ministers, and many of the elders, it is believed, might possess the franchise if they desired it. And if there were truth in the allegation, such men ought never to have taken up the testimony of the martyrs.

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Before dismissing this topic, there is one other important feature of the politics of the day, which cannot be passed over in silence; and that is the extent to which, among certain classes, they have become tainted and poisoned by infidelity. The fact is so distressing, that if the evidence on which it rests were at all equivocal or indecisive, it would be a privilege even to rest in suspense. But the evidence is altogether irresistible. The fact is plainly indicated in the circumstance, that so many of those who become deeply immersed in politics, lose all relish for religion; the house of God and the ordinances of divine grace become distasteful to them, until in many cases they are wholly abandoned. The sacred day which God has given to man for attending to the concerns of his soul, is alienated from its merciful design, and spent partly in carnal indulgence, and partly in political agitation. The fact is proved by the circumstance, that so large a proportion of those who are, by profession, political agitators, and who are most favoured and caressed by the multitude, are at no pains to disguise their hostility to all religion. It is proved most of all, by the character of those periodicals, and public prints, which are avowedly devoted to the management of the political interests of a numerous class of the people. However these may differ from each other in respect to their literary character, and the ability with which they are conducted, they are, very generally, inimical to true religion, and most of them bitterly and rancorously hostile to it.

We have often felt it to be our duty, dear brethren, to warn you against being implicated in political agitation, from the conviction that it is unfavourable to the growth of piety; and also from the belief, that the politics of our age and country are so much at variance with the doctrines of the Bible. But under present circumstances, we would intreat you, with tenfold earnestness, to abstain. As professed witnesses for Christ, how could you give countenance to a system, whose tendency is to subvert the foundations of religion, and give power and prevalency to infidelity? In their zeal to make proselytes, the agitators will promise you various changes, some of which you might think desirable. But meanwhile you are robbed of your time, and of your substance, and of your peace of

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mind; and you expose to extreme peril—what should be infinitely more precious to you than all outward reforms—your faith in the glorious gospel, and your hope for eternity. Nothing but infatuation could induce Christians to repose confidence in men, who, on political grounds, are rending the church of Christ into fragments, and setting the order of Christ’s house at defiance; who have neither the head nor the heart—the measure of information, nor the honesty of purpose—that might qualify them for managing the affairs of the humblest association, while their towering ambition aspires to the government of empires; who seem ready to launch out on a dark and tempestuous sea of political change and confusion, without either chart or compass—without faith in the eternal Providence of God, and without reverence for the dictates of infallible wisdom in the sacred volume. This would be to realize the parable of the trees of the forest, crowning the bramble, and putting their trust under its shadow.

III. In surveying the MORAL ASPECTS of society at the present day, there are many things calculated to strengthen the apprehension, that these nations are ripening for judgment. The privileges that have long been enjoyed by them are very great. The holy Scriptures have been in general circulation. No country in the world has a more plentiful supply of religious books, adapted to all ranks, and to all ages. The gospel is extensively preached, and all classes are invited to hear it. Our sabbath schools, our parochial and city missions, our tract societies and religious instruction societies, while they all afford cheering evidence that there are large numbers of enlightened and zealous Christians in the land, conspire, at the same time, to bear most solemn testimony against the daring wickedness that so greatly abounds. “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This is the verdict of the Supreme Judge: “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin.”

Profaneness in speech is still lamentably prevalent. The Lord has declared that “he will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain.” Yet there are multitudes who seem incapable of carrying on conversation without inter-

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mingling it with other oaths and curses. Profane language is heard in almost every public vehicle. It abounds in factories and public works. It pollutes the conversation of labourers in rural districts. It mixes in the murmur of our streets. It is poured forth in torrents in a hundred thousand receptacles, provided for regaling drunkards. And of all the forms of it, there is none more affecting than when it is heard intermingled with the joyous revelry of children and youth in the streets, not only as showing how certainly it will be transmitted to the next generation, but as displaying the dreadful moral condition of those families in which they are brought up. And it is a great aggravation of this sin, that it is difficult to find any motive for it, excepting the rank ungodliness of the heart—the existence of a spirit of insolent contempt towards the Most High.

The profanation of the Sabbath is believed to be greatly on the increase. That customary or hereditary respect for the Sabbath, which distinguished the people of Scotland, has to a great extent declined, and the indications of open disregard of its sanctity have been multiplying. Many spend the Sabbath in sluggish indolence—pampering the body, while they starve their immortal souls. Many spend it in visiting their friends; in making pleasure excursions; in frequenting places of entertainment; in writing letters, keeping their accounts, reading the newspapers, or other publications, that are not only unsuitable for the Sabbath, but have a direct tendency to corrupt the mind. Many resort to public houses, or meet with their friends in private, to maintain social intercourse in the use of intoxicating liquors. Many are accustomed to devote the Sabbath to the grossest sensuality. It is a choice day for the servants of Christ to sow the precious seed of the Word; but on the same day the Enemy does not fail to sow his tares. There is much reason to believe, that there is more flagrant iniquity perpetrated on the Lord’s day than on any other day of the week. In those regions where there is “no rest, day nor night,” there are millions who will trace their eternal ruin to their horrid waste and abuse of God’s holy day of rest here on earth.

And what shall we say of the higher orders of society, and of our opulent merchants, who give the sanction

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of their example to this criminal abuse of the Lord’s day? We do not impute to them those revolting excesses which precipitate the working classes into profligacy and infidelity; but we do charge against them the guilt of openly violating the Sabbath, and of encouraging the humbler classes, by their example, to do the same. In a city which was wont to take for its motto, “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word;” and in an assembly representing more than a thousand of those who would claim to be accounted the élite of that commercial metropolis, it was determined, by an overwhelming majority, that the principal public reading-room of the city should be kept open on the Lord’s day! Who could have expected this? And after such an act of contemptuous disregard of God’s authority, who would suppose that these gentlemen would present themselves in churches claiming the special privileges of religion? or that if they did so, they would find ministers and church rulers obsequious enough to comply with their request? It is impossible to calculate the pernicious effect upon society which must result from such an example.

In this department, the last year has witnessed the introduction of a gross and glaring iniquity, which in this part of the kingdom has been hitherto unknown—namely, Sabbath-day travelling upon railways. This evil has, indeed, existed in England for some years; and the friends of religion there have witnessed and deplored the effect it has produced on public morals in many districts. It has been ascertained, that the number of persons who left one large English town [Newcastle.], on a specified Sabbath, by railroads and other public conveyances, was larger than that of those who attended public worship in all the churches belonging to it; that from twelve to fourteen thousand people hurried away to convert the Sabbath into a day of thoughtless amusement, or of sensual gratification. In many rural villages, and in towns on the sea coast, the aspect of a Sabbath has been lost, and the parade, and tumult, and business of a gala day have come in its place.

And now this enormous evil has broken in upon our own land. The efforts heretofore made to prevent it have

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proved ineffectual. The power of capital, in the hands of men without religion, has proved irresistible. In these preliminary trains of one Scottish railway, we see the commencement of a career of moral evil, to which the human mind can assign no limits. We foresee, in its progress, a growing neglect of divine ordinances; the decay of knowledge; a more extended disregard of the restraints of religion; and a gradual but inevitable assimilation of the Scottish nation to the condition of those countries, where the Sabbath is either wholly disregarded, or made a day for carnal indulgence. It remains for the friends of religion to inquire what can yet be done to limit the range of an evil, which it has been found impossible to prevent. And it is, above all, necessary, that “when the enemy cometh in like a flood,” there be incessant prayer addressed to the throne of the Most High, that the Spirit of the Lord may lift up a standard against him.

The gross mismanagement of families, and disobedience to parents, are lamentably prevalent at the present day. The family is the first seminary, both in point of time and of importance. The impressions that are made there, and the habits that are formed, are usually the most permanent. It is a benevolent and wise arrangement which provides, that every successive generation of men should be trained up in families. But the advantage of this divine constitution is forfeited, where parental control is not wisely and efficiently exercised. As nothing important can be achieved by an army, where insubordination prevails among the troops; and as no good can come of a vessel, where mutiny and disobedience characterize the crew; so little hope can be entertained of a family, where parental authority is not asserted, or where it is spurned and disregarded. Yet this is the condition of society, to a prodigious extent, at the present day. Many parents never have any authority over their children; and others speedily lose their authority by their injudicious management. In violation of public solemn vows, they neglect the moral and religious training of their children. They do not curb and check their self-will, and wayward tempers. They do not instruct them, nor pray for them, nor watch over them, nor train them, while they are capable of being trained, in habits of order, and morality,

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and religion. The children become tyrants, and their parents drudges and slaves. The extensive and lamentable neglect of family worship is intimately connected with all these evils. Even pious parents do often greatly fail in this matter, and their sin, like that of Eli of old, is recompensed with just severity upon their own heads.

There is also cause for much lamentation on account of the abounding licentiousness of the present age. This is “a pestilence which walketh in darkness.” But it is disclosed in the sad degradation and wretchedness which mark its progress. It is not confined to cities or populous towns, although exceedingly destructive there. Like a loathsome leprosy, it pervades every part of the land. Benevolent societies have been formed in some places, with the view of counteracting the progress of this evil, of guarding the virtuous from the force of temptation, and, if possible, to reclaim those who have deserted the path of virtue. Philanthropic individuals have submitted to much labour, in endeavouring to ascertain the extent and principal causes of this vice, with the view of suggesting remedies, and the means of counteracting it. The revolting statistics they furnish, are frequently deduced from data which leave little ground of doubt in regard to their general accuracy. And it would be difficult to discover, in all the annals of crime and wretchedness, more heart-sickening and heart-rending scenes, than those which they partially disclose. The deepest moral debasement accompanies this sin, by a progress at once invariable and irresistible. Whatever may have been the previous character of the individual, a short period in the walks of this iniquity commonly destroys all moral principle, and every thing that is aimable. Sabbath breaking, profane swearing, lying, dishonesty, and drunkenness, grow up with amazing rapidity, and with horrid luxuriance. A career of less than five years, on an average, hurries the outcast into eternity. And when it is ascertained, on what seems good authority, that more than one hundred of such victims, of one sex only, perish every year, in one of our own cities, and that not the most populous in Scotland, what must be the number of victims, of both sexes, throughout the kingdom! We shudder at the report of human sacrifices in India, and other dark regions;

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the immolation of thousands on the altar of lust at home, is surely not less to be deplored. And how inexpressibly solemn do these facts become, when viewed in connection with the words of the apostle, “that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” “The abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”

In connection with this we must mention here one of the most extraordinary of the signs of the times; and that is the favour that has been shown to a system commonly distinguished by the term SOCIALISM. This system makes large professions of benevolence, and of a desire to reform the world. The shortest mode of studying it, however, is to attend to the changes which it contemplates, and the course of conduct to which it would lead its disciples. The most appropriate title to its creed—for it is not ashamed to publish its confession of faith—would be this: “A directory how to perpetrate every iniquity which the depraved heart may desire, without remorse, and without fear of punishment, either in time or eternity.” If a man sets his heart on his neighbour’s property, it furnishes a scheme for obtaining it; for it advocates a community of goods. If he covets his neighbour’s wife, it will justify the seduction; for it teaches that adultery is no crime. Should he be fettered in the indulgence of his passions by the existing order of society, it comes with words of comfort, assuring him that this order must be changed—that law, and government, and every species of punishment, must be abolished. Should he have any checks of conscience in having destroyed the happiness of his fellow-creatures, for the gratification of his own wicked propensities, it brings him relief, by assuring him that he is the mere creature of circumstances, in no sense nor degree responsible for his actions. Should he have any forebodings of a judgment to come, it confidently declares that there neither is any future state of existence, nor any God to demand an account of his life. This system is such, that the community that should work it out in practice, must exceed in barbarism, and brutality, the most savage tribe on the face of the earth. Yet this many-

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headed hydra has its temples, and its priests, and its crowded assemblies, where its infamous doctrines are propagated, and the name of the Lord blasphemed every Sabbath day. “Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.”

To this enumeration, which, alas, might be greatly extended, we are obliged to add another of our great national vices—the desolating sin of intemperance. In the word of God drunkenness holds rank among sins of deepest dye. The drunkard cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The enormity of the sin, however, is greatly increased, by the intimate connection it has with almost every other description of iniquity. There is not one of the vices we have named that is not aggravated and extended by intemperance. If we speak of profane swearing, it is the common language of drunkards—the almost inseparable accompaniment of excessive drinking. If of Sabbath breaking, the most competent witnesses declare with one voice, that of all the principal causes of that sin, the common use of intoxicating liquors is the chief. If disobedience to parents be specified, it may easily be shown, that a large proportion of the more aggravated cases are connected with, or directly spring from, drinking customs. Strong drink is the most powerful of all incentives—the deadliest of all snares—to licentiousness. Whether we look into the sacred volume, or into the world, we find that intemperance and uncleanness go together. “Whoredom, and wine take away the heart.” “Rioting and drunkenness” are the companions of “chambering and wantonness.” Even Socialism and infidelity would languish, were they not nurtured into luxuriance by the never-ending drinking usages of the community. While millions are suffering for want of food, our distilleries are converting millions of bushels of valuable grain into a fiery liquid, by the excessive use of which health, and life, and soul, are destroyed. The people ask bread, and the community offers to them a scorpion. And so inveterate is the habit of using these liquors, and so dreadfully are multitudes enslaved by it, that even those who receive a pittance from the hand of charity, rush with it to the spirit store, that they may obtain the means of intoxication.

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To all these things might be added the guilt that is contracted by multitudes, through their habitual and deliberate neglect of the means of grace. This, also, is one of our great national sins; and it has this peculiar aggravation, that it is a sin against the remedy, which infinite mercy has provided for the disorders and miseries of the world. This was the crowning sin of the ancient Jews. When Jesus came near to Jerusalem, “he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

IV. Let us now take a hasty glance of the RELIGIOUS CONDITION of these nations. However manifold and affecting the moral evils which present themselves to our view, if we saw the glorious gospel taking its free and unfettered course, and the churches of Christ in a state of Scriptural purity and efficiency, we should still be cheered and comforted amidst all our sorrow. And although the general aspect of our horizon is certainly very dark, we rejoice to say there are many bright spots which awaken joy and gratitude. Some of these may be noticed in the sequel. But our primary object, at the present time, is to call your attention to some grounds of deep concern and anxiety, which the state of religion, and of the churches in these lands, brings into view. If, on this head, a comparison were instituted between the present state of the country, and what it has been within the last ten years, we are impressed with the conviction that a change for the worse has taken place, and that the prospects of the church are gloomier and darker at the present period, than they were then.

Look, then, to the great Prelatic Establishment of this country. When you consider the position which the Church of England occupies, its universities, its immense wealth, and that in the different divisions of it there must be upwards of twenty thousand clergymen, you will be convinced that it must be a mighty instrument for good or evil; that the cause of religion must be deeply affected by it, not only in Britain, but throughout the world. Ten years ago there were hopeful indications of improvement about that church. A numerous body, chiefly of her younger clergy, seemed to be earnestly in search of the

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truth, and according to the measure of their knowledge, were preaching it with ardour. Christians in other denominations were looking on with interest and with gratitude; and many indulged the hope, either that this church would be reformed, or that in the lapse of a few years, there would be found in her a numerous band of ministers, and a host of enlightened Christians, who, unable to bear the grossness of her corruptions, would come forth from her fellowship, and unite with other friends of the gospel in helping forward the triumphs of true religion throughout the land.

But this pleasing prospect has vanished like a dream. The leaven of superstition and popery which lay hid in the mass, has again boiled up with a violence such as has not been witnessed for two hundred years. The system of doctrine commonly termed Puseyism, or tractarianism, is, beyond doubt, popery in all its essential elements. In its doctrines concerning regeneration, justification, and the sacraments, and also in the exclusiveness of its pretensions, it is essentially popish. It exalts the fathers; and, a necessary consequence, withdraws attention from the Scriptures. It multiplies rites and ceremonies. It ascribes virtue to pilgrimages, crosses, and priestly absolutions, for making the sinner’s peace with God. It discountenances preaching, and exhorts its disciples to place their main confidence in the sacraments, as having infallible efficacy to regenerate and purify the soul. It fraternizes with the Church of Rome, while it disparages, and almost denounces, the Protestant reformation. It denies the validity of ordinances when administered by any but Episcopally ordained clergymen. It consigns all the reformed churches in the world, that are without Episcopal ordination, to perdition, or in other words, to “the uncovenanted mercies of God.” It extends large indulgence to Arminian doctrine, and looseness of life in the clergy, but enforces conformity to rites and ceremonies with rigour. And it very distinctly indicates the opinion, that sects and schismatics, that is all who stand aloof from the fellowship of the Church of England, (Roman Catholics being, perhaps, excepted,) ought not to be tolerated; in other words, that when the proper time has come, conformity to the Church of England should be enforced by legal enactments!

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And this is the present upshot of our hopes of reformation for the Church of England. A multitude of her younger clergy have embraced these doctrines with great avidity; and what seems remarkable and melancholy, many who were accounted evangelical are among the number. The most ably conducted, and widely circulated, of those periodicals, that are accounted the leading organs of the church, have become the avowed defenders of the system. The bishops throw the shield of their protection over it; or if they seem to cavil at it in detail, they eulogize it in the gross. It already possesses and exercises a powerful, if not a paramount, influence with the government of the country, particularly in those measures which affect the rights and privileges of other churches. Of this the Presbyterian Church of Ireland has had convincing evidence, in the proceedings of government regarding the marriage question, and the Church of Scotland in her struggle for non-intrusion. The Romish church looks on with mingled surprise and delight; and one of the ablest of all her champions does not hesitate to proclaim his confident belief, that a few years will suffice to restore the Church of England to her connection with the Romish See.

We turn our attention to the established Church of Scotland, but find little to relieve the gloom awakened by our survey of the English establishment. It is not in our thoughts to set these two churches on a level, in respect to their conformity to God’s word, or their purity and efficiency. We feel reluctance in calling them sister churches, however much this language has been employed by distinguished advocates of the Church of Scotland. We have been accustomed to make a great difference between them, and to form different anticipations respecting them. Yet, it is a remarkable circumstance, that the least corrupted of all the established churches of Europe, should, according to present appearances, be in greatest danger of being overturned. Although compelled to stand aloof from the fellowship of the Church of Scotland, and to testify against her defections, we could not suppress the hope that she would yet “remember” whence she had fallen, and repent, and do her first works,” and that the Lord would yet assign to her an honourable

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place among the churches of the reformation. And who can tell, but that the furnace into which he has now cast her, may be designed for her purification? We feel assured, that many of her ministers and people have learned important lessons since the trial began. They know better who are their friends, and who are their enemies, both within and beyond the pale of the establishment. They have been led to investigate and ponder sound principle more closely, we believe, than their fathers have done, either at the revolution, or since. Their confidence in an arm of flesh—their reliance on irreligious men, incorporated with a corrupt system, has been happily laid prostrate, and they have been led more than ever, we trust, to put confidence in Jehovah. We are encouraged to believe, also, that there has been a decided increase both of humility and charity; and that the tone and spirit in which her leading organs were accustomed to speak of other christian communities, who did not happen to belong to an established church, would not be employed at the present time. These are tokens for good, and we greatly rejoice in them. It may be that the Lord is saying to her, as to his church of old—“and I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward, thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

But her present position is altogether extraordinary and perplexing. Having, in the good providence of God, obtained strength to make a hopeful beginning, both in the work of church extension, and church reformation, the rude hand of Erastian power has been laid upon her, and her labours forcibly suspended. The shock has probably been the more severely felt, that it seems not to have been at all apprehended. Other parties, whose attention had been more strongly drawn to the Erastianism of the British constitution, and who had studied the character and terms of her relation to the state, under more favourable circumstances than her own sons, were accustomed to testify against that alliance; to declare that the state was not of such a character that the church of God could warrantably, or safely, be united with it; that the terms of the alliance, moreover, left undoubted room for

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the exercise of Erastian aggression; and that the multiplied encroachments actually made on the church’s liberty, since the revolution, and the lamentable consequences that have arisen therefrom, proved to demonstration, that the connection was unjustifiable and dangerous. The soundness of these views has been established in the clearest possible manner, by recent events.

So long as the church was decidedly secular in her character, the combined yoke of patronage, of moderatism, and of aristocratic control, was not sensibly felt. But when evangelical doctrine and true religion revived in her, this yoke was felt to be oppressive. The church was straitened and trammelled; she had not space to breathe, nor to act freely; the current of returning health was retarded, and her growth and enlargement prevented. To all this was added what, perhaps, she felt not less keenly, the reproach of her adversaries, that she had sold her liberty, and was actually in fetters. It was a mighty improvement when the friends of evangelical religion obtained the ascendancy in her church courts. This enabled her to meditate other reforms. Nothing could be more remote, however, from the desires of her leading men, than to disturb her relation to the state. But putting a favourable construction on those statutes which defined that relation, they set about the work of reforming to the utmost limits that these statutes would admit of. And in the prosecution of that work, which a truly enlightened and christian state must have greatly approved of, she has encountered so much opposition, and incurred so much hostility, that it seems difficult to say how she can escape being shaken to pieces.

At the present moment, the wheels of ecclesiastical reformation are so fastened, and locked, by the courts of law, that they cannot make a single revolution in advance. And while the power of doing good is, in this department, laid under arrest, all the powers of evil are in vigorous operation. Patronage raises its sceptre, and points to the sword of state, as ready to enforce its mandates. Moderatism, that seemed sinking into imbecility, again stands up in most formidable strength; spurns discipline, and looks defiance at the reforming majorities of the church. As parishes become vacant, they are commonly filled up with

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men of dubious orthodoxy, or with such as are abject enough to obtain a living by crouching to Erastian domination. The preachers and students of the church are, at the same time, placed in circumstances of extreme temptation. Almost all hope of preferment lies in temporizing, or in attaching themselves to the moderate party. In the midst of these perils, the aristocracy, the Church of England, and the Government, are all of them alienated from the Church of Scotland, and decidedly hostile both to those principles, and those measures, which she cannot abandon, without sacrificing her allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of doing good. These things are exceedingly to be deplored, as it is very evident, that if the church be kept in her present position for any considerable time, there is a probability amounting almost to moral certainty, that the Moderates must recover their lost ascendancy, and the work of reformation be indefinitely thrown back. We heartily concur in the sentiment now frequently expressed by leading men in the church, that it were better, immeasurably better, there were no established church at all, than a church that would conform herself to such decisions, as have recently been delivered by the civil tribunals. We hope and pray that they may not be seduced from the principle of this admission; but that strength may be given to them to follow it out, consistently and fearlessly, in its application to the Church of England, as well as to their own church.

Look for a moment at the character of recent judicial decisions. One of them, which has been confirmed by the House of Lords, has determined, that the Presbyteries of the Church are bound by statute to proceed with the trials and ordination of every qualified presentee, without the slightest regard to the will of the people; and that their refusal to do so may be punished, as a civil offence, by heavy legal penalties. Another decision by one of the Lords of the Court of Session [Lord Cunninghame.], should it be subsequently confirmed, would have the effect of subjecting all the spiritual censures of the church to the revision of the civil courts, whenever their interference should be craved, by parties considering themselves aggrieved by these censures. On the principle of this enactment, the

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civil magistrate arrogates to himself the power of annulling church censures, and of restoring to official standing church officers who have been deposed, by regular course of ecclesiastical process. Should these decisions remain in force, and one of them must do so until the statutes on which it is founded be altered or repealed, the church’s claims to independence would be annihilated; her subjection to the State in spiritual matters would be complete; the Lord Jesus Christ would no longer be her spiritual head, but the civil magistrate. By other decisions, the civil courts have already spread the shield of their protection over the delinquent members of the church. Ministers who have been sentenced for immorality, or ecclesiastical rebellion, are kept secure in the possession of all the temporal benefits that pertained to their office. And as they continue to minister in the same churches, and at least to a portion of the same flocks as formerly, they have still an ostensible connection with the church, whatever may have been the scandal of their deportment. In another case still pending,* an adverse decision would deprive some hundreds of ministers, who are among the most efficient and useful in the church, of all ecclesiastical authority, in so far as the exercise of this authority should affect any civil rights. We cannot divest ourselves of the hope, that the very oppressiveness of these decisions will be overruled for good. It is at least manifest, that the temptation to acquiescence would have been much more insidious, had the aggressions of Erastian authority been less outrageous.

Were we convinced that such an adjustment of these perplexing difficulties as is sought by many, and would still be accepted, perhaps, by a majority of the ministers and members of the Church of Scotland, would be consistent with her own permanent prosperity, and the honour of the Messiah, we should heartily pray to God that it may be as they desire. But having a settled conviction, which has been gathering strength every year by the progress of events, that the British Government, as now constituted,

An adverse judgment in the Stewarton case has been actually delivered by the Court of Session. How this decision may affect the subsequent proceedings of the church, it is difficult to predict. Should it be applied and followed out, it must prove a new ACT RESCISSORY.—Second edition.

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is not a proper ally for the church of Christ, and that no settlement which it is possible for her to obtain, in present circumstances, will be sufficient to shield her from the ensnaring, corrupting, and paralyzing influence of such an alliance, we can only pray that the multitude of excellent men who are in her may obtain a distinct and clear perception of the path of duty, and have courage and fidelity to pursue it, at whatever sacrifice.

Other churches, although at present exempted from the difficulties that beset the Church of Scotland, have trials which must be very painful to some of them, and which cannot but materially affect their usefulness. The United Secession church has of late been greatly agitated, by the efforts that have been made to propagate among her people, as well as in the community, some of the initiatory errors of the Arminian school. Discipline has been already exercised towards some of her ministers, and fears are entertained that a much larger number must be separated from her fellowship, or otherwise, that a schism must be created within her pale, at once fatal to her orthodoxy, and her unity. It is to be lamented that the battle with Arminianism should require, at this period, to be fought in a church that has rendered such essential service to the cause of evangelical religion in these lands.

At the time when all these evils are pressing upon us, the grand enemy of true religion in these latter days—the apostate Church of Rome—seems to be awakened to unwonted energy and exertion. We speak not so much of the proselytes she makes, because the gain from this source is, perhaps, more than counterbalanced, by defections from her fellowship in other quarters. Nor do we feel surprised at the increase of her adherents in particular localities, because, in general, this arises from mere changes of residence, which do not affect the aggregate number of her votaries. There are other and more decisive symptoms of increasing vigour, which cannot be contemplated without deepest concern. There is a prodigious increase of the number of places of worship throughout the united kingdom, in connection with that church, and also of colleges, academies, and other seminaries for the education of youth. Extraordinary efforts have been made, for some time past, for the propagation of

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Popery in the vast colonial dependencies of Great Britain. It is well known that a re-action in favour of Popery has taken place in France, and in some other parts of the Continent, where, a few years ago, infidelity seemed to a great extent to have supplanted superstition. But there are three circumstances especially, which conspire to render the revived power of Popery in these lands at the present time peculiarly alarming. These are:—

1st, The very close and intimate connection it has with the civil government, and the facilities it possesses for bringing the united influence of the entire priesthood to bear on public measures. Party politicians affected to believe, that the elevation of the present possessors of power would be a bulwark against the inroads of Popery; but that delusion served its purpose, and is now vanished. The munificent sums that are annually voted from the public treasury, for the education of the priesthood of that church, and for the dissemination of popish doctrines in British colonies, give sad demonstration of the readiness of our rulers to sacrifice their professed Protestantism on the altar of political expediency.

2d, The amazing spread of Popish error in the several divisions of the prelatic church. Whether this extraordinary movement may issue in the restoration of the Church of England to the See of Rome, is a question on which we hazard no opinion. The poison of Popish error is not the less destructive to the souls of men, that the church by which it is administered stands aloof from the fellowship of the Romish church. It is manifest, however, that a growing affinity between these churches prepares them for co-operating in public measures, in which the liberty and safety of other divisions of the visible church may be most deeply concerned.

2d, The formidable advances of Erastianism. It might at first view be imagined, that Popery and Erastianism are antagonist powers, and that there is little danger of their uniting in any combined effort. But they have many things in common. They are alike unwilling to defer to the authority of the inspired record. They are alike disposed to usurp the dominion that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to rob the church of her spiritual independence. They are alike ready to trample on the

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rights of conscience, and enforce their mandates, if need be, with sanguinary violence. They are perfectly capable of harmonious co-operation, when true religion, and the witnesses of Christ, are to be put down, although they may eventually quarrel among themselves about the distribution of the honours and emoluments, of which the church of God has been despoiled. The reign of the Stuarts in Scotland, and particularly of James, the brother of Charles the Second, shows clearly, how Popery and Erastianism can combine their energies in the work of persecution. We have before us at the present crisis, therefore, three distinct powers, ERASTIANISM, an intolerant and superstitious PRELACY, and POPERY;—all of them essentially inimical to true religion. Any one of them might prove a most formidable enemy to a truly Scriptural and faithful church. For a long season they have been at variance with each other; and to that circumstance may fairly be ascribed, under God, the tranquillity enjoyed by evangelical churches in these lands. But all these three powers, simultaneously and severally, are displaying extraordinary energy and activity at the present time; and the obstacles which have hitherto prevented their acting in harmony, and which were safeguards to religious liberty, are manifestly decaying. These facts afford matter of solemn reflection to all the friends of true religion, and especially to the open witnesses for the universal dominion of the Redeemer. The expounders of sacred prophecy, and the most intelligent observers of the signs of the times, concur in declaring their belief, that a season of sore trial is at hand. But let the friends of the Redeemer rejoice—“THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH!” Happy shall that church be that can appropriate his encouraging admonition: “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich;) fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

We are concerned, dear brethren, lest, in some portions of our own church, the punctuality of attendance on fellowship societies should have declined. Regarding the fellowship meeting as of Scriptural authority, a most effectual means of promoting vital godliness, and peculiarly endeared to us by the example of our ven-

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erated fathers, it is our most earnest wish, that it should be maintained and cherished with unabated affection. You must have observed, brethren, when religion has declined in a church, and when cold formality is the prevailing characteristic of her members, that meetings of this kind can rarely be kept in existence. On the other hand, the institution and diligent observance of such meetings is, commonly, one of the most decisive tokens of the growth and prosperity of religion. All religious revivals have been distinguished by the activity and frequency of these meetings. It would be an empty honour to have preserved the practice of keeping fellowship societies, during the last century and a half, should we become weary of them now, when other communities are awakening to a sense of their great importance. Your fathers sought refreshment and edification in them, when the pulpits were filled with men whom they could not recognize as faithful ambassadors of Christ. And there is nothing extreme in the conjecture, that before the present century shall have elapsed, your children may be placed in circumstances of similar peril and privation. But however this may be; we ask you to mark with candour the general character of those among yourselves, who are most distinguished for their attachment to those meetings; and also of those who are distinguished for their neglect of them. There may be individual exceptions; but, in general, the prophet’s delineation will suit these two classes respectively. The man who, without any adequate excuse, shuns the fellowship society, or whose attendance is the result of perpetual and teasing importunities, will commonly be found “like the heath in the desert, which does not see when good cometh, but inhabits the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land not inhabited.” On the other hand, the man who joyfully associates with the fearers of the Lord, in their holy christian fellowships, will be “as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jer. xvii. 6, 8.)

You will excuse us farther, dear brethren, while we take leave to warn you against one of the most fatal, but

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one of the most common of all delusions, that of mistaking the FORM of godliness for the POWER of it. You make more account than some others of embracing and exhibiting a purely scriptural creed. You profess to hold fast an inheritance of precious truth, handed down by confessors and martyrs of a former age. The rules of the church to which you belong make it imperative, that the external duties of religion, in the family, and in the church, should be observed with regularity and decorum. But alas! what shall these things avail, if you are strangers to the NEW BIRTH, destitute of LIVING FAITH in the Redeemer, and of that HOLINESS without which no man shall see the Lord. In the profound deceitfulness of the heart, the soundness of your public profession, the exact routine of religious duties you are required to perform, and even this ostensible relation to confessors and martyrs, may lead numbers to build hopes for eternity on a foundation of sand. There are foolish virgins who cannot easily be distinguished from the wise until the approach of the Bridegroom shall detect their hypocrisy. There are many who say unto Christ, LORD, LORD, whom he will utterly disown in the great and terrible day of retribution. How dreadful to be expelled from the table at which the accepted guests celebrate “the marriage of the Lamb!”—to be torn from the fellowship of the saints and consigned to the company of devils, and accursed spirits! What a heart-searching and awful warning is that of the Redeemer: “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In conclusion: amidst the manifold evils which we have been compelled to enumerate and deplore, and on account of which we desire to engage you in solemn prayer, and humiliation before the Lord, we would not overlook the exuberant goodness of God to these lands, during the year that is now drawing to a close. The season has been one of almost unexampled mildness and splendour. The sun has given his warmth, and the clouds have yielded their showers, not profusely, yet so as to nourish an abundant crop. The seed time, the summer, and the harvest, have all been propitious. One merciful result is, that the essen-

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tial articles of subsistence are of an excellent quality, and at a most moderate price. The bills of mortality, also, furnish proof, that notwithstanding the privations to which many were subjected, the general state of health throughout the community, has been pre-eminently favourable. Such fruits of a bountiful Providence are at all times precious; but, in the present instance, they are enhanced by several considerations. From what has been already advanced in this address, it will be evident, that they were most undeserved. They afford fresh proof that “the Lord is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy: that he is good to all, and his tender mercies over all his other works.” They are enhanced by the circumstance that they were so urgently required. There is still much privation and suffering; but how immensely must these have been aggravated had the Lord, in righteous displeasure, sent a deficient crop, and a famine price! And it is impossible to say how far we are indebted to this merciful interposition, for the tranquillity we at present enjoy. What thanks do we owe to God, for a dispensation, that has not only brought subsistence and comfort to millions of the poor, but which has been a principal means of warding off tumults and convulsions, which might have been productive of infinite distress!

We should acknowledge with gratitude the adjustment and removal of several questions of difference and debate, between this country and other nations, which, as long as they continued unsettled, were a source of irritation and anxiety. It is, indeed a very remarkable circumstance, that almost every one of those matters, which had either led to actual hostilities, or awakened apprehension of coming strife, have been arranged and disposed of, within a very limited time. The prospect of peace with other nations, has not been so universally and decidedly favourable, for a long series of years. The hostile demonstrations of France have been discontinued, and the Continent of Europe has assumed a pacific aspect. The Canadian colonies are at rest. One protracted dispute with the American Republic, concerning territory, and other irritating questions of more recent origin, have been happily adjusted. Our wars in the East, we rejoice to learn, are

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for the present, brought to a termination. Of these wars we would tremble to speak with any approbation. But the less we can say in their justification, either as respects the grounds on which they were commenced, or the manner in which they have sometimes been conducted, there is just so much the more cause of rejoicing that they are brought to a close, and that the effusion of blood has ceased. The Affghans are to be left to govern themselves, as may seem to them best. A peace has been concluded with China, which not only holds out the prospect of more extended commercial intercourse with that country, than its laws have heretofore permitted, but which seems likely to facilitate the introduction of the gospel into those immense regions, where, for so many ages, idolatry has held undisputed sway. “Thou, even thou, Lord, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty; with thy glory and thy majesty: and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness.”

Let us be thankful, also, that we still possess an abundant supply of gospel ordinances at home. Although the Lord has been giving to many “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet he has not removed their teachers into a corner.” The great salvation is extensively proclaimed in the land, and indubitable evidence is afforded, that the word is not preached in vain. Benevolent and christian associations were never more numerous, nor active, than at the present time; and from the various fields of missionary labour, reports continue to be more and more favourable every year in succession. “God be merciful unto us; and cause his face to shine upon us: that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.”

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[* * The Synod appoint the last Tuesday of January, (1843,) or such day near to that time as may be more convenient for particular congregations, to be observed as a day of public humiliation and fasting, for the causes herein specified.]

BELL AND BAIN, PRINTERS, 15 ST. ENOCH SQUARE.