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preacher's power to attract the attention by the soul-quickening statements and fervent-toned unction which he so copiously poured forth. On the following Tuesday evening the usual public tea-party was held in the same church, which was largely attended. Twenty-four ladies of the congregation furnished gratuitous tables, and presided over them with their usual grace and cheerfulness. After tea, the following gentlemen occupied the platform :-The Rev. Dr. Duff, the Rev. James Glasgow, Rev. Mr. Lewis, Rev. Mr. Keene, Wm. Henderson, Esq., of Seaton Iron Works, Workington; Rev. Mr. Gordon, Workington; Rev. Mr. Harvey, Maryport; Peter Cameron, Esq., and the Rev. J. Burns. Mr. Cameron having been moved to the Chair, called on the choir to sing the 100th Psalm, after which Mr. Burns engaged in prayer. The Rev. Mr. Keene followed, and gave an interesting address on the duty of Christians to maintain and extend the cause of Christ. The choir having then sung an anthem, the Chairman introduced Dr. Duff by a few appropriate remarks, bearing on the wellknown celebrity of the devoted and distinguished missionary. The audience was large, and the sacred orator delivered one of his soul-awakening, and heartstirring speeches, which occupied two hours and a-half in the delivery, but none felt the time long. The congregation was rivetted by the force and fervour of his able and powerfully-telling address, and often responded to his faithful appeals by frequent bursts of applause. In the course of his splendid oration, the Doctor bore a noble testimony to the character and faithfulness of all the missionaries sent forth to India by the different sections of the Church of Christ, and poured forth torrents of withering denunciations on the selfishness and earthly-mindedness of professing Christians in these lands. He gave a telling and masterly description of Popery, and shewed its unchanging nature and evil tendency, and earnestly urged all Protestants to unite heart and soul against the endowment of Maynooth out of Protestant money. The speech was a noble display of sacred eloquence and intellectual power throughout, and produced a deep and lasting impression on the audience. The amount of the collections for the repairs of the church was thought to be liberal, as it reached thirty pounds.

MANCHESTER.-ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY.

-The Sixth Annual Meeting of the above Society was held in the Town Hall, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, on Friday evening, December 5, Mr. Peter M'Gregor, President, in the chair. The large room was completely filled by a numerous assemblage of the members and friends of the Society; amongst whom were the Rev. Mr. Traill, Minister of the congregation; the Rev. Mr. Porteous, of the Free Church, Ballantrae; the Rev. Mr. Edwards, Mr. Councillor Clark, &c. Apologies were received from the Rev. Messrs. Munro and M'Caw, and from Thomas Greig, Esq. After tea, the Chairman delivered an excellent address on the history and objects of the Society. The Secretary, Mr. Lumsden, then read the Report for the past year, the adoption of which was moved by Mr. Robertson, seconded by Mr. Macdonald, and supported by Mr. Clark. Mr. Robb, being next called upon, addressed the Meeting on the Society's out-door operations; and was followed by the Rev. Mr. Traill, who, in an impressive speech, forcibly alluded to some of the more prominent features in the Society's plan. Dessert was then placed upon the tables; after which Mr. Halliday read a paper from the "Manuscript Magazine," and shortly stated the objects of its recent institution. Addresses were also delivered by Mr. James M'Gregor, on the “Importance of Association as a means of Mutual Improvement;" and by the Rev. Mr. Porteous, on the general subject of Young Men's Societies. A vote of thanks to the ladies and strangers, was proposed by Mr. Skeoch; seconded by Mr. Milligan; and acknowledged by Mr. Peter Brown, of London; Mr. Lawson, President of the Scotch Church Young Men's Society; and the Rev. Mr. Edwards. Thanks having been accorded to the Chairman, the benediction was pronounced; and the company separated about half-past ten o'clock, apparently much gratified with the evening's proceedings.

MANCHESTER.-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY.-The Eighteenth Anniversary of this Society was held in the lecture-room of the Church, Grosvenorsquare, on Monday evening, the 24th ultimo. The President (Mr. Lawson) occupied the Chair, and the Secretary (Mr. George Aitken,) the Vice-chair. There were about 300 ladies and gentlemen present. After tea and dessert had been placed on the table, the Secretary read

the report for the past session, shewing | blessing will attend him in his new sphere. that the Society continued in a highly |—From the North and South Shields flourishing condition. After the loyal Gazette of Nov. 21.

sentiment of the "The Queen " had been proposed by the Chairman, and warmly responded to, and followed by the company singing the National Anthem, an eloquent and interesting address was delivered by the Rev. Alexander Munro on "The nature and form of evidence, as bearing on creed and conduct," which was received with attention and applause. The rev. gentleman then proposed success to the Society, which was responded to by the Chairman. In the course of the evening the following sentiments were proposed by the members of the Society : The Advancement of Education,' Mr. William Freeland; "The Practical Sciences," Mr. Thomas Aitken; "The other institutions in connexion with the Church," Mr. Robert Freeland; "Town and Trade of Manchester; " by the Vice-chair; "The Presbyterian Church in England," Mr. James Parlane; "The Ladies," in a neat and appropriate speech by Mr. J. S. Meldrum, which was responded to by the Rev. Andrew Hardie; "The Strangers and Honorary Members,' Mr. John Lonsdale, which was responded to by Mr. M'Gregor, President of the St. Andrew's Young Men's Society. The health of the Rev. Alexander Munro was proposed by the Chairman, and suitably acknowledged, after which Robert Barbour, Esq., proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman. The Meeting then broke up, having spent one of the most pleasing and successful reunions that the Society

has ever held.

THE REV. G. J. C. DUNCAN.—A few friends of the Rev. G. J. C. Duncan hav

ing purchased of Lister and Sons, of Newcastle, a handsome ormolu timepiece, a Meeting was held on Friday in the upper school-room attached to the Presbyterian Church, Norfolk-street, North Shields, when Mr. Mavor, on behalf of the subscribers, presented it to Mr. Duncan, who returned thanks in feeling terms. The Rev. Gentleman, who leaves North Shields for Greenwich, is respected by persons of all denominations in this town. So public-spirited, liberal, and active a minister of religion must steal away men's hearts wherever he goes. His enlightened patronage of mechanics' institutes and other means and appliances for disciplining the minds and increasing the resources of the working classes, demands especial reference. We trust God's

TRINITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, MANCHESTER.-On Sabbath, November 16, the Anniversary Sermons were preached by the Rev. Dr. Hetherington, to a large and attentive audience. On the following Monday evening the Annual Congregational Soirée was held in the commodious school-room adjoining the church, which was completely filled. Effective addresses were delivered by Dr. Hetherington, the Revds. A. Monro, W. M'Hinch, W. Trail, Mr. M'Caw, who presided, and also by several of the Elders of the Church. It was gratifying to hear of the increasing prosperity of the congregation, under the faithful ministrations of their present minister, and of the deepening interest its members are taking in the various schemes of the Church.

BRETHREN ABROAD.

IT is cheering to hear good tidings of those of our ministers who have accepted calls to foreign fields of labour. The Rev. W. Blackwood, late of Newcastle, and the Rev. W. O. Johnston, late of Blyth, are both established in Philadelphia, U. S., with every prospect of acceptance and usefulness. The late minister of Lowick, the Rev. T. D. Nicolson, pursues his labours assiduously and successfully at Nelson, New Zealand; and his namesake, the Rev. W. Nicolson, of London-wall, has received a warm welcome in Australia. And from the "Adelaide Times" we see that on July 6, 1851, the Rev. John Gardner, formerly of Birkenhead, opened a new church in Adelaide, which (site included) cost 2,500l., and a collection was made to the amount of 104/.

EPISCOPAL MISSION IN CHINA.-Bishop Boone, in his Annual Report, says :-"As a gracious reward of our labours, we have been privileged to gather within the Christian fold in the last year, twelve of those poor Heathens: seven of these connected with the School-chapel, and five with the congregation at Christ Church."

JEWISH MISSIONARIES.-Three hundred converted Jews are now engaged in various parts of the world, in preaching that Jesus Christ is "He that was to come."

LUTHER AND HIS MAID-SERVANT.

LUTHER had a domestic residing in his house by the name of Elizabeth, who, in a fit of displeasure, left without giving the family any notice. She subsequently fell into habits of immorality, and became dangerously ill. In her sickness she requested a visit from Luther. On taking his seat at her bed-side, he said :"Well, Elizabeth, what is the matter?" "I desire," she replied, "to ask your pardon for leaving your family so abruptly; but I have something else weigh ing very heavily on my conscience, I have given my soul away to Satan!"

:

“Why,” rejoined Luther, "that's of no great consequence: what else?"

"I have," continued she, “ done many wicked things, but this is what most oppresses me, that I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil, and how can such a crime ever find mercy ?"

"Elizabeth, listen to me," rejoined the man of God. "Suppose, while you lived in my house, you had sold and transferred all my children to a stranger, would the sale or transfer have been lawful or binding?"

"Oh no," said the deeply-humbled girl, "for I had no right to do that."

"Very well, you had still less right to give your soul to the arch-enemy! it no more belongs to you than my children do. It is the exclusive property of the Lord Jesus Christ; He made it, and when lost, also redeemed it; it is his, with all its powers and faculties, and you can't give away or sell what is not yours; if you have attempted it, the whole transaction was unlawful and is entirely void. Now do you go to our Lord; confess your guilt with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and entreat Him to pardon you and take back again what is wholly his own. And as for the sin of attempting to alienate his rightful property, throw that back upon the Devil, for that and that alone is his." The girl obeyed, was converted, and died full of faith and hope.-Lutheran Observer.

Obituary.

THE LATE REV. A. HUTCHISON, D.D. THE Rev. Dr. Hutchison died at Warrenford, on the 2d of December, in the seventy-second year of his age, and in

the thirty-sixth of his ministry, and was buried at Lucker, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, his remains being accompanied to the grave by a large concourse of people. On the following Sabbath his death was improved by the Rev. James Anderson, of Morpeth, who preached to a densely crowded and deeply attentive congregation, in the church at Warrenford, from Zech. i. 5,-"Your fathers, where are they and the prophets, do they live for ever?" The following extract from his sermon on the occasion is inserted as a brief record of our departed father:

"The Rev. Dr. Hutchison was born in 1779, at West Green, a beautiful farm in the neighbourhood of Dundee, which has been tenanted by the family for at least a century. The child, it has been often said, is father to the man, and at an early age he gave indications of his after history. When only five years old, he discovered such a taste for religious inquiry, and such an aptitude in committing to memory and repeating large portions of Scripture, that he was then familiarly known in the domestic circle, and among the friends of the family, by the name of the minister, as if prophetic of his future vocation. When very young he was sent to the Grammar-school at Dundee, where the precocity of his talents attracted the attention of his teachers, and where his rapid acquirements in the Latin classics soon qualified him for what had been one of the fondest dreams of his childhood, to enter the College at St. Andrew's. Being admitted there, he prosecuted his studies with untiring application during the ordinary curriculum-of four years' attendance on the Literary and Philosophical Classes-and of four additional years at the Divinity Hall. Having completed his collegiate career, and acquired for him. self the reputation of an excellent classical scholar, he was, after the customary trials, licensed to preach the Gospel by the Presbytery of Dundee. In those days a parochial charge could only be reached through the passport of a presentation; and the favouritism of a patron, more than the merit of a preacher, constituted the requisite qualification. No opening in the Church being accessible, Dr. Hutchison devoted himself to the duties of a tutor, and was successively employed in that capacity in two gentlemen's families, from whose interest it was confidently expected he would obtain a presentation to a vacant living; but here he learned

of different sentiments, and members of different religious communities, from the Bishop and Archdeacon of Durham downwards, responded to the application, and countenanced his objects with their

the insecurity of anticipations founded upon human favour-mean men are vanity,' and great men sometimes a lie. After having secured a promise of the next appointment to a particular charge, he had the mortification to see the pre-ready aid. His labours, however, must sentation issued by the patron in favour of another. But Providence was his patron-a door of usefulness was opened to him, for a season, as assistant to the late learned and much respected Mr. Murray, minister of North Berwick, where he laboured with much acceptance, till a cry from across the border seemed to reach his ear, Come over and help us.' In 1816, He who determines the bounds of our habitation, and who disposes of his labourers severally as He will, telling them where and when to put in the sickle, guided him to cast in his lot among you at Warrenford. At that time the congregation was feebled and scattered, the constituent members being reduced to a mere handful, and a strong prejudice current in the district against

have been great; for it appears from the subscription list, which has been carefully preserved, that the bulk of the funds provided, were collected from among strangers. In prosecuting his extensive canvass for subscriptions, he met with only one solitary refusal, and that was from a lady, who said, that she could not subscribe, but she would pray for him; whether she had the willing heart, but wanted the full hand,-or whether she was one of a numerous class, who will only serve God with that which costs them nothing, I do not know,- but the result would encourage the hope, that she belonged to the generation who seek God's face, and who have power with God and prevail, for the efforts which she promised to make the subject of her intercession, were crowned with the most abundant success. And this shall be told for a

the very name of Presbyterianism, generated by the discreditable circumstances under which the former in-memorial of your departed minister, to cumbency had closed.

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generations yet to come,-1
-that here he
collected and retained to the last a large
and respectable congregation, built this
substantial and commodious church, re-
paired and enlarged the manse, and left
the entire premises unencumbered with
one farthing of debt. These shall be his
monument. I do not know of how many
among the living before me, and of the
dead who have passed away, it shall be
said, 'In the day when God writeth up
the people, this man and that man was
born here;' but surely the minister who
accomplished the work to which I have
referred, in making such competent pro-
vision for the maintenance of the Gospel
among you, has done no small service to
his generation, and has earned a lasting
and indisputable claim to the veneration
and respect of a grateful posterity.

"The few friends of this Zion, to whom its very dust was dear, yielding to the influence of their fears, were ready to exclaim, By whom shall Jacob arise, for he is small?'—but the minister had no misgivings. He knew that prayer, pains, and perseverance could surmount all opposing difficulties, and he resolutely set himself to the work of repairing the existing desolation. He soon gathered around him a flourishing congregation, but the church and the manse were both in a state of ruinous dilapidation; and he saw that it was essential to the prosperity and onward progress of the cause with which he had identified himself, that comfortable accommodation should be provided both for the pastor and the people. Single-handed he embarked in the undertaking of restoring "But while Dr. Hutchison was intent these fabrics. Even his own people, who upon advancing the religious interests of though greatly increased in numbers, his people, he was by no means negligent were generally poor, deemed the project of their temporal welfare. It was mainly impracticable, and dissuaded him from through his instrumentality that a dayattempting it. But he was not to be school was instituted, and a school-house daunted by ordinary discouragements. erected, and a post-office established in He assumed the entire responsibility of this locality. To the former object he the enterprise,opened the subscription subscribed twenty pounds. In aiding list with a donation of 100l. from himself, members of his flock in the settlement of and appealed to the Christian sympathies their worldly affairs, his counsel and his of others in and beyond the neighbour-services were often as valuable as they hood. Nor was his appeal in vain ; men were frequently required; and in more

than one instance he assisted parties to surmount untoward circumstances by seasonable loans of money.

"As a man of literature, Dr. Hutchison's mind was furnished with a store of general and useful knowledge, which he made tributary to his professional studies. Theological learning was the prime object of his pursuit. The Bible was his close and constant companion. He drew his religious convictions fresh and pure from this deep and living well of Divine truth. He was a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and like a wise householder brought forth out of his treasure things new and old for the instruction and edification of his people; and it was among the last conscious acts of his life, but an hour or two before he became speechless, to expound a chapter of the Bible at family worship.

"His work on the Prophecies, and his papers on the Harmony of the Evangelical Narratives of our Lord's Resurrection, will remain as evidences and exponents of the literary acquirements and Biblical knowledge, which procured for him, in 1843, the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Glasgow. "Of his character as a Christian minister, and of the manner in which he acquitted himself of his pastoral functions, it is not needful to speak to those among whom he went in and out for nearly thirty-six years. The man who could build up and preserve such a congregation as this for such a long period, while other nonconforming places of worship were being opened around him, could not have been an idle or time-serving minister.

His

piety, though sober and chastened, was sincere. In the intercourse of life he was cheerful and sociable. He was a lover of peace, a maker of peace, a maintainer of peace. And he was catholicspirited. He could open his heart and extend his hand in frank and cordial fellowship to men of other communions than his own. He was no narrowminded bigot, who saw nothing good but under his own symbol, and who thought that the sheep of Christ were only to be found in one fold. But to positive errors--to Socinian blasphemy-to Romish superstition and idolatry, he showed no indulgence.

"Do not suppose that I mean to represent the departed as a perfect character,

or to eulogise his memory at the expense of truth. Perfection is not the attribute of our fallen humanity. Unqualified and indiscriminate praise is of little value. The best of men, as has been quaintly but truthfully said, are bad men at the best, and the failings of such are often, in one sense, as instructive as their virtues. Your late minister, doubtless, had his failings, but I am not aware of any which tended to dim the light of his example, and to detract from his influence and his usefulness, except the charge of parsimony, which was occasionally preferred against him. It may be, that, after all, this was more his infelicity and infirmity, than his fault. This I believe to have been the fact, that Dr. Hutchison was more concerned about a penny than a pound; and though it is far from my wish to extenuate aught that was faulty or defective in his character, yet justice to his memory requires it to be told,—that in the outset of life, when a man's character is usually moulded, his circumstances were such as to constrain him to use a rigid economy; and thus, what was a duty then, continued from the force of habit to be practised, when it was no longer justifiable. But admitting this abatement from his merits to the full extent alleged, it cannot be denied that in Dr. Hutchison's character there was a strong under-current of warm-heartedness. He was always ready to oblige, kind and hospitable. If he forbade a servant to relieve a beggar, he proved that the injunction was prompted by other motives than niggardliness, for he ministered to the mendicant himself. And in the transactions connected with the admission and settlement of his excellent successor, you are witnesses that he betrayed no sordid passion for filthy lucre. He might, if he had been influenced by a griping avarice, have spared his purse by the employment of a temporary assistant, but he readily made a sacrifice of the entire emoluments for your good. If on this occasion you feel his loss the less, if his death has not left you to-day an orphaned congregation without a head, it is because he himself provided for the vacancy before it occurred. But I come not here to pour out the unction of eulogy on the memory of your deceased pastor. I come to improve the event of his death for your spiritual benefit."

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