AN APPEAL TO MEMORY. On, if there be a land around whose name Guardians of all that's holy, just, and true. Her children worshipped in their sheltering side. Her heavens are black, compared with southern skies, But she would not exchange the Gospel light That shines on her, for sunniest beams that rise On lands where brood the shades of moral night. Son of that land!-albeit inured to roam, Is she to thee less venerably dear, Than when thy step turned from the lowland home, O'er northern glen, that knew thee many a-year? Canst thou forget the broad and smiling strath, The faint-blue peaks, the nearer hills of pine,The lonely dell, the mossy woodland path, The lochs and streams 'neath shifting heavens that Canst thou forget the sharp, fresh mountain gale, When sunset to the pensive "gloamin" waned? That swell upon thee, midst the godless crowd. Leal to a heavenly King, who dar'd to die; He reigns again, who was her King of old! The tabernacles for her wanderers reared? Oft pealed from Torwood and the mountain side; There may thy father's God on thee arise, And thou 'neath his o'ershadowing strength abide. Edinburgh, April 20, 1846. A. R. C. NOTICES OF BOOKS. Truth and Error; or, Letters to a Friend on some of the Controversies of the Day. By the Rev. HORATIUS BONAR, Kelso. Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy. WE do not mean to write a review of this work. Neither our time nor our space permit our indulging in what we would feel a labour of love. The esteemed author is known to many of our readers, and those who do not yet enjoy that pleasure cannot find a better opportunity of commencing an acquaintance with him than just by purchasing this work. We would fail in our duty, did we not recommend it, as we most cordially do. The following extracts will shew the style of the work, and we assure our readers, in terms which many of them well understand, that the stock is equal to the sample: "It is a singular fact, that the tendencies of the present day are to substitute the operation of general laws for the direct interposition of God. This is Satan's present device; and this is a device which he is carrying into all the departments of knowledge, philosophy, science, literature, and theology. Some twelve years ago, for instance, we had a specimen of this in a work called My Old House, or the Doctrine of Changes,' by an individual calling himself a minister of Christ. He had conjured up a magnificent system of laws, a self-moving universe, and though he frequently spoke of Providence, it was evident that the idea of a Providence was a disturbance of the harmony, an incumbrance upon the graceful beauty of his system. Just so in the theology of some in our own day. They would carry on every thing by means alone, by intermediate agencies; and, though they often speak of the Holy Spirit, yet it is very manifest that the doctrine of the Spirit's work sets their system out of joint, and is quite an incumbrance to it. Their system is quite complete without any such agency. This is already felt, and hence his direct personal operation is set aside. What may be the issue of this in a few years we shall not venture to predict. Whether such a theory can long subsist with the belief of the divinity and personality of the Spirit, or which of the two is likelier to give way, we shall leave to others to determine. "Of late the well known work 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation,' is another specimen of what we mean. In that work we are told by the author that he has suggested a physiological explanation of the development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, leading to the conclusion that the designs of Creative wisdom were entirely effected by the intervention of natural laws.' His object is to prove that God works only mediately and indirectly through his laws, but not by the forth-putting of his power in any more direct manner. Now, it is this very principle that pervades the new theology. Like the above writer, the new divines frequently speak of the Spirit, so as to lead many to suppose that they do not at all question his work, but they never fail to add, that he only works in the use of means,' not by 'an inward direct energy.' Now, in regard to the statements of the man of science, we are quite willing to admit that God does work by the intervention of natural laws;' but the question is, Does he work in that way alone? He affirms we deny it, and maintain that such doctrine is philosophic scepticism. So in regard to the statements of the divines alluded to. We are equally willing to grant that the Holy Spirit does work by the use of means; but the question is, Does he work by the use of means alone? They affirm: we deny it. We say that the opposite of this is theological scepticism."-Int. pp. xi.-xiii. The following is Mr. Bonar's reply to the question, "How can you preach a free Gospel and yet believe in election?" "I believe in both, and preach both, because I find both in the Bible. I have no authority for preaching an unconditional have the same authority for preaching an unGospel but what I find in the Bible; and I conditional personal election. God has told me that both are true; and woe be unto me if I profanely attempt to mutilate either the one or the other. If one man refuses to take the simple meaning of election, another may refuse to take the simple meaning of the Gospel. And I do solemnly protest, that if I were called upon to say which is the worse, the more profane of the two, I would say the former. I would, indeed, tremble at the thought of denying either election or the Gospel; but I confess that I think the denial of the latter a less direct, and a less daring insult to the sovereign majesty of Jehovah. It would be a shutting out of his grace, a closing up of all the manifestations of his character which have come to us since Adam sinned; and it would be drawing a dark cloud over our eternal prospects,--but it would not be a taking of the reins of government out of his hands,-it would not be the usurpation of his throne, it would not be giving the right hand of fellowship to atheism. But there is no need of any such comparison. Perhaps it was wrong to make it. I have done so, however, because I wish you distinctly to understand that I consider election to belong to the highest and most sacred order of truth,-not a doctrine to be concealed and muffled as if we were either ashamed or afraid of it; but to be firmly held and faithfully preached whether man will hear or forbear. Mere philosophy might tell this if the Bible did not. Mere philosophy might expose the silliness, and shallowness, and selfishness of those who trample on God's free will in order to establish man's--even if theology and Scripture were silent on the matter."--Pp. 6 and 7. We regret that our space will only admit of one extract more. It is from the conclu sion of the letter on the state of religion. as Having myself written much in defence of a free Gospel, I felt the more called upon to write what I have written, and to do it in the way I have done. I hold and preach free a Gospel as ever I did, nor shall I be driven from it by the extremes into which some have gone. They have brought reproach upon the freeness of the Gospel, by the false doctrine with which they have encircled it. They have made many suspicious even of the very name of the Gospel. But this is only Satan's old device. He wants to make the Gospel odious, and he has to no small extent succeeded. But shall this hinder us from proclaiming as before? Shall this lead us to hedge it about and guard it, and affix conditions to it, because of such abuses? No; let us grasp it entire. Let us lift up our voice as loudly as ever,-'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.' be "We may be accused of inconsistency and self-contradiction,-one sermon may be contrasted with another,-one statement may held up as an antagonist of the other. But still let us not be moved away either from the Gospel or its hope. We believe in a Gospel free to all, and we preach it as such,-going up to every man with the message of peace on our lips, and the blessings of salvation in our hands, saying, 'Be thou reconciled to God.' "Or, perhaps, we may be accused of an and of blind veneration for the theology of ignorant attachment to antiquated creeds, other days. Now, though wishing to draw from the fountain head, and to call no man master, yet we confess a liking to those docgrasped trines which, in life and death, were so strongly by our fathers,-those muchpraying, much-believing, deep-thinking, hardtoiling, sore-suffering men, whose eye grew early dim, and whose hair grew early grey. We are not ashamed to confess a satisfaction in sitting at the feet of such men, and listening to their solemn teaching, in preference to seeking instruction from men whose shallowness and self-confidence make us feel, that instead of teaching others, they have need that one teach them what be the first principles of the oracles of God."-Pp. 154, 155. MESOPOTAMIA.-BABYLON. [WE give the following passage from a small, ncat, and most interesting work, entitled, “A Journey over the Region of Fulfilled Prophecy." By the Rev, J. A. Wylie, Dollar, Author of "Modern Judea," "Scenes from the Bible," &c. Published by Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1846. The passage is long, but we could not shorten, without spoiling it. We most cordially commend the work to our readers. All our Sabbath-school libraries should possess it.] thickly spread over this day's march, that water; were protected by numerous watchtowers; and contained a hundred gates of solid brass. Each gate opened into a street which ran across, straight as a rule, to a gate in the opposite wall. Thus the area of Babylon was occupied by fifty streets, which crossed each other at right angles, the Now we draw nigh the site of the mighty squares formed by their intersections being Babylon. Our approach to this renowned covered with gardens, plantations, and pasNow we cross the Tigris, and enter on the spot, is notified to us by the signs of greater ture-grounds. Through the middle of the patriarchal region of Mesopotamia. Our desolation now visible around us. The earth mighty city flowed the noble stream of the path lies south, with a just perceptible incli- begins to wear a more scathed and blackened | Euphrates, and added much to the freshness nation to the east. Behind us, are the ruins look; the heaps of ruin are more numerous, and beauty of the capital. Nigh the river of one great city [Nineveh]; before us, those and dark-looking, and shapeless masses, stood the royal palaces, one on this side, and of a greater. The tract over which we are which, in point of magnitude and height, re- the other on that. Both were worthy of being now passing was illustrated in other days by semble hills, are seen rising before us at a the residence of the monarch of Babylon; the footsteps of the "mighty hunter," Nim- great distance on the plain. A profound but the western one was of surpassing size rod, and the tower reaching to heaven, which silence reigns throughout the region--not the and splendour, and its triple rampart was of the sons of men attempted to build. This silence of repose, but of awe and terror, as if prodigious strength. Near to this last, and plain was, in early times, the theatre of un- nature were conscious that the frown of the extending along by the river, were the hangrivalled glory-the scene of unexampled Almighty still rests on the spot where his ing gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar for the wickedness; and now it lies before us a wide-indignation in past ages was poured out to delight of his queen.' They were supported spread ruin. It stretches out and out as we the uttermost. We begin to feel the spirit of on arches, and rose, tier above tier, till they go, with scarce a human habitation or a the place to feel as if we had entered the resembled natural hills, formed into terraces, speck of green on its bosom, and with so portals of some vast temple consecrated to the and planted with the choicest fruits and the few landmarks, that the Arab, in traversing vengeance of the Holy One, and where no most precious trees. In the middle of one of it, is often obliged, like the mariner on the one ever stood without being constrained to the divisions-Diodorus says the eastern-of deep, to guide himself by the stars. The worship-a temple whose floor is the blasted the city rose the Tower of Belus, the under heart of the stoutest traveller becomes op- earth on which we are treading; whose walls part of which was most probably the same pressed, as he surveys the boundless extent and roof are the heavens over us, which are structure which the sons of Noah erected soon of dreary and dark wilderness around him, as brass; whose altars are the hoary mounds after the flood. Whoever ascended this tower diversified only by tufts of reedy grass, by before us; and whose songs are the cries of saw at his feet the most gorgeous picture dwarf acacia bushes, and heaps of ruins, the doleful creatures by whom it is inhabited. which the wealth and labour of man ever which swarm with reptiles and ravenous ani- Here is a mass of ruin, shapeless, and tower- created. There, covering the plain in all dimals. At every step we meet the memorials ing high above the level of the plain; let us rections as far as the eye could reach, and of the past-the vestiges of the cities, the ascend and rest us on its summit. This pile reposing proudly beneath the beautiful sky of cultivation, and the men which once flourished will afford us a prospect of the ruins of Baby- Chaldea, were the streets and squares, and here. These grassy mounds, which intersect lon. Who can tell what this mass may have palaces and gardens, and temples and bulthe plain in long straight lines, are the re- been once? Perhaps the monarch of Baby-warks, of "the golden city"-"the glory of mains of the ancient canals. By these the lon dwelt here; or it may be that the gods of kingdoms." Rennell is disposed to think waters of the Euphrates were made to irri- Babylon were worshipped here; but whatever that Babylon, at its height, may have congate the country; and this, together with its it once was, it is now a heap of ruin. Now tained one million two hundred thousand infat alluvial soil, made it, in past ages, the we are on its summit. Let us open the Pro- habitants. Within the city were provisions garden of the East. These black spots which phecy of Isaiah and read. A BIBLE on the for twenty years; and if ever there existed on occur, ever and anon, and where the soil is site of Babylon! Who could deny its divinity the earth a city warranted to bid defiance to evidently unable to nourish a single pile of here? But before comparing what Babylon the prediction of its overthrow, Babylon grass, and where the ground looks as if it now is, as exemplified in the scene around might presume, from the strength of her had been scorched by fire, are the sites of us, with the predictions of the prophet, let us defences, and the number of her defenders, ancient cities. We meet them at so short look back on what Babylon once was, as de- that she was entitled to do so. But all these distances, and the desert, right and left, is so scribed in the page both of inspired and pro- availed her little when her hour had come. thickly dotted with them, that we are forced fane history. Before taking a survey of the to the conclusion, that the entire plain between ghastly relics around us, let us recall the the Tigris and Euphrates, was formerly power and magnificence that once flourished one continuous town. As we go, and still the on this site. dark desolate plain spreads out before us, and still the monuments of ruin lie thick around us, the feeling of loneliness with which we are at first impressed, rises at last into awe and reverence, at the power and truth of Him who has so signally punished, so utterly overthrown, this region. “Our ride,” says Frazer, who was now traversing the country between Seleucia and Babylon, "so long as day-light lasted, served at least to convince us how populous the land must have been in times of old; for scarcely did we traverse a mile of it without passing over the site of some ancient city, or town, or village. Sometimes we found a whole tract covered with fragments of bricks, pottery, and glass; and it was remarkable, that all of these sites are utterly bare of vegetation; so that, even independent of the appearance of debris, we could tell when we were crossing one. Mounds, also, of the same substances were but low, and altogether shapeless. Sections of funereal vases and coffins, which we observed protruding from them, marked them as receptacles for the relics of the dead. We likewise crossed a number of old canals -all dry and useless now; and, in short, no one who has had any experience in these matters, could doubt, from the vestiges so numerous; Between Babylon and Nineveh there is a close resemblance in many particulars. Both were founded in the earliest ages of the world; both gradually rose to a great height of power and grandeur, though Babylon was some centuries later than Nineveh in reaching the summit of her glory; both practised enormous oppression on the surrounding nations, especially on the Jews; both were filled with lewdness, luxury, and idolatry; and both were doomed by Heaven to desolation. A hundred and sixty years before an enemy entered her gates, the doom of Babylon was foretold by Isaiah. The style of this prophet, sublime at all times, is peculiarly so when predicting the fate of this city. The same may be said of Jeremiah, who also foretold the desolation of Babylon. Even this is no mean evidence of the truth of their predictions. The impostor never attains to sublimity; the consciousness of fraud is altogether incompatible with that expansion of the moral and intellectual nature which gives birth to sublimity. The would-be prophet is perpetually haunted by the dread of detection, and is constantly seeking to hide himself No sooner had Nineveh declined from the in vague generalities and misty ambiguities; rank she long held as queen of the East, than he can never irradiate his page with that the sovereignty was transferred to Babylon. moral splendour which comes only from This city was the equal of Nineveh in size, truth. How different is it with the two proand its superior in wealth and splendour. phets we have named!-how free, noble, and The descriptions which ancient historians-majestic are the strains in which they foreHerodotus, Ctesias, Strabo, Diodorus-have told, long before she fell, the overthrow of left us are so clear and minute, that there is that greatest and proudest of cities! The no difficulty in forming a just idea of the noblest images and metaphors come at their glory of Babylon. This city was a perfect call. Her fall they compare to that of the square; and each of its four sides being angels from heaven, seeing the history of fifteen miles in length, the space included was nations had then furnished no event which fifty miles in circuit. Its broad walls were could adequately represent its grandeur and the wonder of the world while they stood, terror: "How art thou fallen from heaven, and have since often been the theme of praise. O Lucifer, son of the morning!" The They were a hundred feet in height, according obscuration of her glory they liken to the to the most moderate calculation. They were darkening of the lights of the firmament. defended outside by a broad ditch, filled with | The earth, which had groaned beneath her weight, they exhibit as rejoicing at her over- | lon were speedily drowned in wine, and sleep, | mains, where shall we find words to describe thow. They assemble the most doleful and and darkness; the waters of the Euphrates the scene around us half so forcible and true terrible emblems around her grave; and were turned off-the troops were marched as those employed long since by the prophet: having spread the worm under her power and along the dry bed of the river, and without "Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingglory, her princes and nobles, and having a blow being struck to oppose their entrance, place for dragons. Thy pomp is brought breathed a lament full of the deepest tender- they passed on and stood within those walls down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: ness and pathos over her ruin, they retire, which all their strength could never have the worm is spread under thee, and the worms bowing reverently down before the holiness battered to the ground. Thus the city at last cover thee." of Him who had overthrown her, leaving fell an easy prey: "I will make their feasts," Babylon to the dragons of the wilderness, by said Jehovah by his prophet, "and I will whom she was henceforth to be inhabited. make them drunken, that they may rejoice and It is only a small part of the prophecy we can sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the here quote. Lord. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter. I will make drunken her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men, and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep." "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" The conqueror of Babylon was foretold by name; a rare circumstance in prophecy: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus." The forces he was to lead against her were also named: "Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media." The time when Babylon was to be overthrown was also fixed: "It shall come to pass," said Jeremiah, "when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord." This prophecy was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and seventy years after that date the united hosts of Persia and Media, under Cyrus as their leader, appeared before the walls of Babylon. Cyrus soon became aware that famine would be his most effective weapon of assault; accordingly he drew a trench around the city, fortified with towers, to prevent the flight of the inhabitants. The prophet had said: "Let none thereof escape." Weary of the delay which this method of strategy imposed, Cyrus employed every art to draw forth the men of Babylon and join battle in the open plain; but, as the prophet had foretold, this they declined: "The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their strongholds, they have become as women.' Two years had now been spent before the place, and no progress whatever made in the siege. In the perplexity occasioned by this waste of time, it was suggested that the course of the Euphrates, which flowed through the city, should be turned, and thus the troops would be able, in the dry bed of the river, to march into the city under the walls. This was precisely what the prophet had foretold, although unknown to Cyrus: "That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers. A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up." The task was a Herculean, and almost an impossible one; for the river was a quarter of a mile broad, and twelve feet deep: yet no sooner was the proposal made, than Cyrus resolved on attempting it. An immense trench was dug, and all was now ready for turning off the waters of the Euphrates from their accustomed channel which led underneath the walls into the city. All was ready we say, but Cyrus knew that an annual festival, the night of which the Babylonians were accustomed to spend in revelry and wine, was nigh, and he fixed on this night for the execution of his project. The night came--the revels of the feast began the inhabitants of Baby Can any one compare the prophecy with the facts-and to the facts no suspicion can attach; they are given by Herodotus and Xenophon, men who perhaps never saw a copy of the Old Testament--and doubt the inspiration of the prophet? Though any one had been rash enough to hazard a prediction that this great city would be destroyed, who would have ventured to fix the year-to name the conqueror? -who could have pointed to the lands from which the invading armies should come; and especially, who could have hit upon the singular expedient by which the city was taken-an expedient which did not occur to Cyrus himself till after he had spent two years before the place, and tried every other stratagem in vain for taking the city? Although Cyrus had sat down immediately on the capture of the city, and detailed the manner in which it had been taken, he could not have given the particulars more exactly; perhaps not so fully, and certainly not with so much beauty and sublimity, as they were given a century and a half before by Isaiah. The history of the city, from the time when it was taken by Cyrus, has been in exact accordance with the prophecy respecting it. The night was to overtake Babylon not all at once-it was to sink down by slow degrees. First she declined from the rank of an imperial to that of a subjugated city: "Sit in the dust; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans." Next came Darius, who, provoked by her disposition to revolt, greatly reduced the height of her walls, and thus gave a presage of the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, now long since accomplished: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken." The desecration of her shrines and the demolition in part of her famous temple by Xerxes, fulfilled the prediction: "I will punish Bel in Babylon." Then came the attempt to heal her wound, as had been foretold; which, however could not be healed. Alexander conceived the design of making Babylon the metropolis of his great empire. Ten thousand workmen were already employed in the task of its restoration, when the death of the monarch arrested the progress of the undertaking. After this, the rise of Seleucia on the Tigris, which led to the transportation of the materials of Babylon to the new site, rapidly accelerated its decline. A Parthian general is said, about a century before Christ, to have demolished most of the fabrics which remained. At the beginning of the Christian era it was mostly deserted. In the fourth century, its vast area, which was still enclosed by the remains of its walls, was a hunting ground of wild beasts. Thus did her glories wane, as prophecy foretold; shade gathered after shade, till at last the once mighty Babylon disappeared altogether from the eyes of men and now that modern discovery has lifted up the veil, and allowed us to survey her blackened site and ghastly re On the summit of this ruined heap, the page of the prophet open before us, and the ruins of Babylon around us, let us proceed to compare the one with the other. What fea ture or circumstance of Babylon's desolation have the prophets omitted? Every emblem of terror and devastation on the prophet's page is found to be realized on the gloomy plain around us. In the most minute particulars does the resemblance hold; so that a painter who had never trodden the blasted wilds of Chaldea, and never climbed the hoary mounds of Babylon, could, simply by study ing the prophet, produce a most impressive and truthful picture of Babylon's ruin. Did the prophets foretell that Chaldea should be "a dry land?" Look over that plain. It is crossed, you perceive, by the embankments of its former canals, but these canals are dry the waters of the Euphrates no longer irrigate its soil; it is a sterile expanse, here sown with nitre, there blackened by the crumbled remains of the bituminous materials which composed its cities. "This country is so dry and barren," says Rauwolf, "that it cannot be tilled." Did the prophets foretell that Babylon should become "pools of water?" -a prediction apparently inconsistent with the preceding. Look here; the Euphrates at the season of flood, overflows its banks, and forms lakes here and there amidst the ruins. These pools, Mignan informs us, are the resort of flocks of bitterns: "I will also make it a possession for the bittern." Was it foretold that the sower should be cut off from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest ?-a most improbable prediction! Herodotus testifies that this Plain of Babylon excelled all the countries he had visited, as a land of corn; the returns being two hundred and sometimes three hundredfold; but now no attempt at cultivation is, or could be, made on the site of Babylon, or indeed anywhere almost on the plain. The ruins of Western Asia abound in flocks and shepherds' tents; but in this particular there was to be a marked difference between Mesopotamia and other ruined countries: "Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there." The ruins by which the country is overspread contain an ingredient unfriendly to vegetation, and where there is no pasture there will be no resort of flocks. A passing caravan may at times be seen, their black tents may dot the desert for a night, and the tinkling bell of the browsing camel agreeably break the silence; but here flocks never depasture; and especially does the Arab avoid, above all things, pitching his tent near the ruins of Babylon, or near any of the ruined sites in its neighbourhood, so great is his horror of the evil spirits by whom he believes these places are haunted. "The solitary habitation of the goatherd," says Mignan, "marks not the forsaken site." In fine, were the palaces of Babylon to become dens of venomous, doleful, and ravenous animals? Such, on the testimony of every traveller, they have now become. Not only is it true of Babylon, but of all the ruins on the Plain of Chaldea, that they abound in cavities and caverns, which are the receptacles of owls, bats, lizards, hyenas, jackals; and occasionally the footprints of lions have been seen. The mouths of these dens are strewed with the bones and other relics of sheep, goats, and other larger animals. Thus do the wild beasts of the desert lie there; and their houses are full of doleful creatures; and owls dwell there, and satyrs dance there. PRESBYTERIANISM AND PRELACY. senger." I am, &c., ONE OF THE MINISTERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD IN ENGLAND. Northumberland, 9th June, 1846. [We occasionally receive such communications as the above, which hitherto we have suppressed, from a desire not to give offence to parties whom we highly esteem. The sectarian, intolerant spirit and proceedings of Puseyites and High-churchmen have exited, as might be anticipated, a spirit of retaliation and antagonism in the bosom of many who had no desire but to serve their Master in faith and love. Towards the faithful in the Church of England we will however cherish, as we have always done, the love of brethren; but towards High Church superstitions and Puseyite heresies we proclaim irreconcileable hostility.—ED.] rious insinuations against the validity of their | the dead and the plague of heresy may be ministerial character and functions, the minis- arrested in its fell career. ters of the Presbyterian Church in England are now imperiously called upon to carry the war into the enemy's country, and to drive him out of a territory which he occupies only by the right of usurpation. There is reason to fear that the policy of our venerable branch of the truly Protestant Church in England has been for many years, and still is, far too To the Editor of "The Presbyterian Mes- timid and shrinking as to this most important matter, and hence the progress of error amongst us is awfully alarming. A new tactics in the moral and spiritual warfare which we have to wage as a Church would require to be adopted without delay, if we would either retain what we possess or enlarge our boundaries. When the enemy threatens to come in as a flood, we should raise up a standard of fearless and uncompromising testimony against him, in behalf of the essential truths of Revelation, disencumbering them of all the rubbish with which the pro-Popish party overload them, and exhibiting them in their pristine purity and glory to the acceptance of faith. If we do this we may rest assured that these truths will the prove power of God, and the wisdom of God, for the salvation of many. DEAR SIR,-Amid the ominous signs of the times, it is cheering to contemplate the progress which Protestant principles are making in various parts of the world. There is a banner displayed because of the truth, more particularly in Scotland and England, in the present day, and a noble testimony is borne by many faithful witnesses to the scriptural doctrines of the Reformation, which will tell upon mankind to the latest generations. In England, notwithstanding the many disadvantages under which the working of the pure form of Presbyterian church-government labours, that primitive and apostolic model of a Church is gaining ground and advancing rapidly. The Presbyterian Synod in England is making head in many parts of the country against the opposing barriers of power and aristocratic influence, and stealing the hearts of the people, aided by no other appliance than the moral energy of truth. Truth is great and it shall prevail. But there is none who considers the state of England in the present day but must be convinced, that very strenuous exertions require to be made to prevent many of the population from relapsing into the essential errors of Popery. High Church Prelacy is notoriously only another name for Popery, and all orthodox Dissenters should attack it as Popery. If this were done, it would undeceive the public at once, and many who are now halting betwixt two opinions might be brought to decide in favour of Protestant truth and Presbyterian principle. And this is the business and the duty which, if I can read aright the signs of the times, devolves more especially upon the ministers and members of the Presbyterian Church in England, circumstanced as they now are. Occupying a high vantage ground at present, in consequence of recent changes which have taken place in their polity and constitution, they seem called and destined by Providence not only to act as a preserving salt in the land, but to diffuse Evangelical Christianity, and that, too, in its pure Presbyterian form, over the length and breadth of the country. They should not, therefore, rest satisfied with keeping within the Church of their forefathers Scotchmen and Irishmen resident in England; they should make an aggressive movement upon the whole mass of the population. The heretical doctrines which are inculcated ex cathedra should be exposed and unmasked as Antichristian superstitions. No false delicacy or slavish fear of man, which bringeth a snare, should prevent those who are placed as watchmen on the towers of our Zion in England, or who are influential as laymen, from coming forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty. On a subject which concerns the everlasting interests of thousands, a truckling and time-serving policy should be utterly abjured. Instead of passively bearing the insolent scorn and derision of High-churchism, as it scowls contemptuously upon them from the snug parsonage, or the splendid vicarage, or the lofty episcopal palace, or of merely acting upon the defensive and repelling unjust attacks and inju PRESBYTERIES' PROCEEDINGS. PRESBYTERY OF LONDON. THIS Reverend Court held its ordinary Monthly The Rev. Messrs. M'Kenzie (Van Diemen's Land,) and Alfred Edersheim (Missionary to the Jews), being present, were associated. The term of Mr. Nicolson's Moderatorship having expired, the Rev. Josias Wilson was unanimously chosen Moderator, and took the Commissions were given in, read, and sustained in favour of Messrs. William Hamilton and James Nisbet-the former to represent the Kirk Session at Edward-street, Wardourstreet, and the latter to represent the Kirk Session at Ranelagh, as Ruling Elders in this Presbytery during the currency of the ensuing twelve months. The Presbytery called for the deliverances of the Synod-on the different overtures and references transmitted by this Court-which were produced, read, and ordered to be recorded. Professor Lorimer and Mr. Forsyth were appointed Assessors with Mr. M'Lymont, to hold Kirk Sessions at Hampstead, till Elders have been regularly ordained over that congregation. Instead of acting upon the principle of expediency and keeping silence, when immortal souls are at stake and perishing for lack of knowledge, why should not the ministers of our Presbyterian Church in England go forth as champions of the Lord's host in their separate localities, unsheathing the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, and explain-chair accordingly. ing, illustrating, and enforcing the truth, in opposition to Popish errors, however artfully these errors may be disguised, or however ingeniously they may be insinuated? We egregiously mistake the state of matters in the middle of the nineteenth century if we imagine that the battles of the faith do not yet remain to be fought with Antichristian adversaries-that the sure foundation laid in Zion must not still be exhibited, as it was by our early Reformers, as the only ground of confidence for sinners-that the first principles of Christianity must not be expounded afresh that the watchword of Luther, Jehovah Tzidkenu, must not be employed to rally around the standard of the Redeemer all who would be saved from prevalent and pestilential heresies. There is a dark and cloudy day coming on in which the witnesses for the truth as it is in Jesus must combine together against the common enemy of God and man. In these circumstances, ought not the ancient protestation of our Reformers against Popish super-appointed to meet with the students at 16, stition and idolatry to be renewed in full Exeter Hall, on the evening of the second force, and to resound from the Presbyterian Tuesday of June, and to examine them on pulpits in England with a trumpet-tongue the different subjects prescribed. and in peals of thunder, in order to alarm dormant consciences, which may be cradled in carnal security and sleeping the sleep of death? Never was there a time when it was more necessary for ministers to exhort their hearers to search the Scriptures, that they may be rooted and grounded in the knowledge of the truth and stedfast and immovable in the faith of the Gospel. The vital essentialities of Christianity should be insisted upon with all earnestness, and the mere circumstantials of its outward ritual should be exhibited as occupying only that place of subordination which properly belongs to them; and the sentiment that "in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, and faith, which worketh by love," should pervade every sermon and animate every address. Thus may we stand between the living and Mr. Gordon reported that he had dispensed the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at Westminster last Lord's-day. The Moderator and Mr. Nicolson were The following were elected members of the Commission of Synod, viz. :--The Moderator, and Messrs. Nicolson, Ferguson, and Cousin, Ministers; and Messrs. William Hamilton, Nisbet, Gillespie, and Major Anderson, Elders. A Committee was appointed to take the necessary steps for getting up Petitions to Parliament against the Charitable Trusts' Bill, and in favour of Mr. Fox Maule's Bill for procuring sites for places of worship in Scotland.-Adjourned. The Presbytery met at 16, Exeter Hall, on the 9th June. The Rev. Josias Wilson, Moderator, in the Chair. Mr. Nicolson reported that,-8 -as Convener of the Committee in Mr. Hunter's case, and in accordance with his instructions, he had communicated with Mr. H. on the subject of the Synod's deliverance. letter from Mr. Hunter on the same subject. He also read a The matter was referred again to the abovementioned Committee, which was re-appointed with former instructions. A letter was received from Mr. Gillespie, bearing that, as he had been returned by another Presbytery to represent them in the Commission of Synod, he begged to resign the Commission which he had received from the Presbytery of London. Mr. Coates was appointed in the room of Mr. Gillespie. The following were appointed a Committee to consider the deliverance of the Synod regarding the powers of the Commission of Synod, and report to the Presbytery with all convenient speed:-Mr. Wilson, Professor Campbell, Mr. Nicolson, and Mr. William Hamilton. It was reported that collections had been made, in accordance with the appointment of the Synod, by all the congregations within the bounds except the congregation at Hampstead. The Moderator and Professor Campbell were appointed to hold Kirk Sessions at Regent-square during the temporary absence of the respected minister of that church. Mr. Chalmers, in the name of the Ladies' Association, craved that the Presbytery would be pleased to take the necessary steps for placing their missionary at Corfu more entirely under the management of the Church; and it was agreed that, as the Synod's Jewish and Foreign Mission Committee are invested with full power in all matters of this sort, the Ladies' Association be recommended to put themselves in communication with the Treasurer of that Committee. Mr. William Hamilton, Student of Divinity, was authorized to be taken on trials with a view to his receiving licence to preach the Gospel. Mr. Bryson appeared and underwent all his trials with a view to his ordination to the pastoral charge of the Church and congregation at Wolverhampton. The Presbytery appointed that his ordination should take place at Wolverhampton on Thursday, the 25th instant, at one o'clock P.M. Mr. Wilson to preach and ordain, Mr. Nicolson to expound the principles of Presbytery, and Mr. Ferguson to give the charges to the minister and people respectively. PRESBYTERY OF LANCASHIRE. THIS Presbytery held its ordinary monthly meeting at Liverpool, on the 3d of June; the Rev. R. Cowe, Moderator. The Moderator, as Commissioner from this Presbytery to the Free Church Presbytery of Wigton, to prosecute the translation of Mr. Walker, from Newton-Stewart, to Salford, Manchester, reported, that the said Presbytery of Wigton have refused to translate Mr. Walker. The Presbytery accordingly agreed to sist procedure in the matter, and report the present state of the case to the congregation worshipping in Salford Town-hall, that they may look out for another pastor. Mr. Radcliffe's application was taken up, and the following deliverance was unanimously agreed to, viz.:-The Presbytery having heard a paper read on the part of Mr. Radcliffe, containing a statement of the views which he now entertained on the question of ecclesiastical polity, remit the statement, and all the relative documents, to a Committee, who shall consider the same, confer with Mr. Radcliffe, and report. A Committee was at the same time appointed for the purpose of drawing up preliminary regulations for the guidance of the Presbytery in all future applications from ministers of other denomi nations. The Presbytery resolved to open their or- | appointed Moderator, pro tempore, and Mr. dinary meetings with devotional exercises, Lennie, clerk. and an address. Mr. Munro was appointed to deliver the address at next ordinary meeting. A Committee was appointed to consider what measures should be adopted to secure the more regular attendace of ministers and elders at meetings of Presbytery, and to report. Mr. Fergusson submitted to the Presbytery the draught of a Petition to the House of Commons in favour of the Right Honourable Fox Maule's "Bill to enable Christian Congregations in Scotland to obtain Sites for places of Worship, Manses, and Schoolhouses," which was adopted, and ordered to be signed by the Moderator, and transmitted without delay. A Call from Chalmers's Church, Manchester, in favour of the Rev. J. Donaldson, Minister of the Free Church, at Cupar, Fife, in Scotland, was produced and sustained, and Mr. Munro was appointed Commissioner to prosecute the translation. Messrs. Fergusson, Munro, Gardner, and White, reported that they had made collections for the Foreign Missions.-Adjourned. PRESBYTERY OF NORTHUMBERLAND. FELTON, MAY 12, 1846.-A". pro re nata" Meeting of Presbytery was held here this day, in virtue of a requisition from the Moderator, and duly constituted. Present, Mr. Edwards, Moderator; Messrs. Hoy, Anderson, Huie, Gillespie, Ministers, and the Clerk. The Presbytery cordially approved of the Moderator's conduct in calling the meeting. Commissions were given in from the Kirk Session of Felton for Mr. Hudson, from the Kirk Session of Framlington for Mr. Shillinglaw, and from the Kirk Session of Wooler for Mr. Atkinson, to represent them as Ruling Elders in the Presbytery for the ensuing year. Mr. Huie reported that he had obtempered the appointment of the Presbytery; preached at Birdhope Craig, declared the Church vacant, and moderated in a call in favour of the Rev. K. Johnstone. Mr. Huie laid said call on the table of the Presbytery, which was sustained, and the same being put into the hands of Mr. Johnstone, he declared his acceptance thereof. Whereupon the Presbytery agreed to meet at Birdhope Craig, on the first Tuesday in June, at 12 o'clock, for the purpose of his induction. Mr. Lennie was appointed to serve the edict, and the following ministers were appointed to conduct the services of the induction:-Mr. Thompson to preach; Mr. Anderson to give an exposition of Presbyterianism; Mr. Huie to address the minister; and Mr. Gillespie to address the people, and conclude the service. The Presbytery, taking into consideration the inconvenience of two proximate meetings, unanimously resolved to change the time and place of meeting from Felton, on the last Wednesday in June, to Birdhope Craig, on the first Wednesday in June, at nine o'clock. In regard to the meetings of the Commission of Synod, Messrs. Gillespie, Anderson, Edwards (Ministers), and Hudson, Hood, and Atkinson (Elders), were appointed to represent the Presbytery at the same.-Closed with prayer. BIRDHOPE CRAIG, JUNE 2, 1846.-On this day the Presbytery met here in the manse, and was duly constituted. PresentMessrs. Trotter, Anderson, Lennie, Thomson, and Gillespie (Ministers). Mr. Thompson was In conformity with the resolution of last meeting, the Presbytery proceeded to take the necessary steps towards the induction of the Rev. Mr. Johnstone, and Mr. Johnstone having laid upon the table an extract minute from the records of the Presbytery of Lancashire, certifying his admission as an ordained Minister within the bounds of our Church, and the Presbytery being satisfied that the edictal intimation of the Presbytery's meeting here this day, for the induction of Mr. Johnstone, had been served (said edict being returned by Mr. Lennie duly endorsed), the Presbytery sent the Church officer to give due intimation, at the door of the Church, of their being met and ready to hear any party or parties who had anything to object to Mr. Johnstone's induction, and none having compeared, the Presbytery proceeded to the Church, when Mr. Thomson, after praise, prayer, and reading of the Scriptures, preached from Psalm lxxxiv. 10. Mr. Anderson delivered an address on the distinctive principles of Presbyterian polity. Mr. Huie put the questions, and inducted Mr. Johnstone, in the usual form, into the charge of the Birdhope Craig congregation. Mr. Huie, afterwards addressed the minister; Mr. Gillespie, the people; and concluded the service; when Mr. Johnstone having retired with the Moderator, to the door of the Church, received a most cordial welcome from the people of his charge. The Presbytery then retired to the manse, when Mr. Blythe took his seat at the clerk's table, and Mr. Huie, who had come in during the service, and officiated as above intimated, also took his seat in Court. The Presbytery appointed Mr. Johnstone's name to be added to the roll of the Presbytery, who thereupon took his seat as a member." An application was given in from the Managers and Elders of the congregation at Harbottle, purporting that Messrs. Anderson, Bolam, and Thompson, were appointed by them, to appear before the Presbytery of Northumberland, and humbly to crave that venerable Court to appoint one of their members, upon an early day, to preach at Harbottle; and to moderate in a call in favour of the Rev. Samuel Cathcart, Minister at Wigan, in the Presbytery of Lancashire, to be their Minister. The Commissioners having satisfied the Presbytery that the people were desirous to have the call moderated in on Sabbath first, the Presbytery, under the cir cumstances, agreed to appoint Rev. James Blythe to moderate in the same on Sabbath, 7th inst. The Presbytery agreed to meet at Bavington, on Thursday, 18th inst., at two o'clock. The Presbytery adjourned till next day, to meet in the church at Birdhope Craig, at nine o'clock.--Closed with prayer. BIRDHOPE CRAIG, JUNE 3, 1846.-The Presbytery met by adjournment, and was duly constituted. Present,-Mr. Thomson, Moderator, pro tem.; Messrs. Huie, Anderson, Gillespie, Johnstone, and the clerk. The members present reported that the day of humiliation, appointed by the Synod, had been observed in their respective congregations. The Presbytery then called for the Report of Associations, appointed at last meeting, when Messrs. Anderson and Huie intimated that they had already formed Associations. Messrs. Gillespie, Thomson, Johnstone, and Blythe, reported that by them nothing had yet been done, but expressed their intention of doing so speedily. A letter was read from the Kirk Session of Widdrington, intimating their resolution to take immediate |