III.-EDUCATIONAL WORK.

The school continues to do well, though we still meet with opposition. Fees have been levied since the month of April last, and this year we are imposing higher fees on some of the classes. Some scholars have on this account left the school; but on the whole it has not suffered seriously on account of the change. The fees realised up to the present time amount to L.2 14s 10ld, a small sum, considering the number of scholars; but there are some arrears, and there is reason to hope for a considerable improvement this year. The payment of fees will now be more strictly enforced than at first.

The school also suffered somewhat two or three months ago by the needful dismissal of a Mahometan teacher. He was at once employed by the Committee of the Zilah School, and drew away a number of the youngest scholars of the Urdu department.

On the other hand, a few boys belonging to some of the most respectable families in Seoni were some time ago enrolled as pupils, which tends to raise the school in the public estimation. The highest number of scholars on the roll at any time during the year was 183, the average number was 166, and the present number is 167, of whom 40 are in the English, 51 in the Urdu, and 76 in the Hindi department. The average attendance for the year was 117. The total expenditure connected with the school, exclusive of Mr. Bose's salary, was L. 125 168 10d.

Religious instruction is communicated daily to all the pupils of the English classes, and to those of the Hindi and Urdu classes who can read fairly. We are as yet unable to do more, owing to the paucity of Christian teachers: but this is an improvement on last year. I am, as already observed, now relieved from regular school work; but I usually visit the school, and examine some of the classes every Monday morning, besides which I have had occasion to teach temporarily at other times.

A few months ago, some members of the Zilah School and Municipal Committee, petitioned the Chief Commissioner to the effect that the Zilah School be amalgamated with the Mission School. A counter petition was also got up by interested parties, asking that, for the sake of competition the two schools should be maintained; but no objection was made to religious instruction. This petition was signed in ignorance by some who were friendly to the amalgamation, under the impression that it was simply a petition for the promotion of education. In these circumstances, I considered it to be my duty again to petition that the Zilah School be made over to the Mission, but the Chief Commissioner answered to the effect that he agreed with the Commissioner in thinking that the time had not yet come for this to be done.

I have petitioned for a grant-in-aid to the school for the ensuing financial year, which begins in April; but as yet I have received no answer. It is just possible that it may be refused on account of retrenchment in connection with the recent famines.

IV. COLPOrtage.

Since the month of July, Munshi David Gajadhar has been employed as colporteur by the North India Bible Society, which relieves the Mission of the greater part of the expenditure connected with colportage. Bibles, parts of Scripture, and tracts, were sold to the value of L.5 14s 6d, of which amount L.2 175 9d, was the price of Bibles and parts of Scripture belonging to the above Society. The Bible Society paid for salary, coolie hire, and commission L. 13 45 2d. The net cost of colportage to the Mission for the year, including the price of a book press, books, carriage, &c., was L. 16 15s 3d. Tracts have likewise been given away from time to time, as I saw occasion. Fifteen copies of a Christian Hindi monthly periodical, and two copies of a Christian Urdu weekly newspaper, are also subscribed for in Seoni. By the blessing of God, this work may prove a valuable auxiliary to the other work of the Mission, while it affords the colporteur many opportunities of setting forth the way of salvation through

Christ.

Library.-There have been added to the library during the year in all fourteen volumes. The total cost, including price of bookshelves, bookbinding. &c., amounted to L. 2 4s 10ld.

V.-CHURCH BUILDING.

We have for some time past been rather crowded in our meeting-room in the orphanage, and much more so since the baptisms above referred to. In these circumstances, it was thought advisable to erect a small place of worship in the corner of the mission compound, next the town. By this arrangement the room presently used for public worship will be placed at the disposal of the orphans, by which their accommodation will be considerably increased. Considering the increase of the congregation of late, we saw that it would be necessary to erect a larger building than was at first contemplated, and that the sum of L. 50 granted by the Committee for the purpose would be quite insufficient. We therefore at once attempted to supplement the sum allotted by collecting money amongst our friends in India, the result of which has been very encouraging. Our own small flock has subscribed L. 13, donations from without have been received to the amount of L. 19, and we have reason to hope for more. One of the most interesting donations .owards the erection of the Church was received from the orphans. A friend had given Mrs. Anderson five rupees (10s), to provide a treat for them. On hearing that we were trying to raise money in India to help in the erection of a Church, they in the most hearty way told the matron's husband that they wished to give their five rupees, and to do without their bará kháná (big dinner). Of course we were much pleased, and highly approved of their self-denial. The total expenditure will probably amount to about 1000 rupees (L. 100). A considerable part of the wood work has been made, and the foundation has been laid, in the faith that He whose are the silver and the gold will provide the funds necessary for its completion. We hope that it may be ready for use about two months hence. As the interior measurement will be 40 ft. by 20 ft. there will be considerable room for increase to our numbers. The site being very near the main road, it will be necessary to put up a respectable-looking building; but everything will be managed under my own supervision and with strict economy

VI.-PURCHASE OF A VILLAGE.

As yet we have not heard of a suitable village for sale; and I think it would be a mistake to invest money in any village which could not be under proper supervision. Nothing beyond inquiry has therefore been done in this matter.

There is enough in the above Report to encourage as to persevere in the good work of the Lord. It is as yet the day of small things with us; but our labour has not been in vain in the Lord. Let all the friends of the Mission continue instant in prayer "that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified" in Seoni. God says, "Yet for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord."-Submitted by

GEORGE ANDERSON, Missionary.

Seoni, Chhapara, C. P., India, 15th March 1878.

REPORT ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS.

PRESENTED TO SYNOD, MAY, 1878.

THE public questions, to which the Church as "the pillar and ground of the truth," and as "set for the defence of the Gospel," ought to attend at the present day, are numerous and important. They include questions arising out of the old controversy between Theology and Science falsely so called, between Religion and Scepticism, between salvation by grace and salvation by works,-between holiness and sin in the world. They include, also, questions and facts that have

arisen during the synodical year now closed.

We have had, for in

stance, the Rev. Fergus Ferguson suspended and libelled by the U. P. Presbytery of Glasgow. We have had the Rev. Professor R. Smith practically acquitted, and his errors condoned by the F. C. Presbytery of Aberdeen. We have had the meeting of the Pan-Presbyterian Council,—a meeting that has done some good to the cause of truth,— the re-establishment of the Papal Hierarchy in Scotland, and the downfall of the Turkish, that is, of the Mohammedan empire in Europe. Some of these are events with far reaching issues, on which, therefore, as holding fast, in order that we may hold forth, the Word of Life, we cannot but have serious reflection.

The time in which we live, and the opponents with whom we have principally to deal, are also somewhat peculiar. The present is a time of great earnestness and of great indifference,—of much zeal in the propagation of knowledge, and of much indifference as to the kind of knowledge that is propagated. It is, accordingly, a time of much error and of much boasting on the part of those who maintain it, that they only are the learned, the charitable, and liberal-minded Christians, whilst they, of course, apply the opposite names unto those who expose the unscriptural nature aud mischievous tendency of their statements.

The opponents with whom we have principally to deal, and against whose errors we have to testify, are not open enemies, but avowed friends, who, professing like Ephraim to be fully armed, have gone to the high places of the field, to meet the enemy on his own ground, and wrest the citadel of truth-the vital parts of our religion-out of his hand.

Men, eminent in particular departments of science, as Tyndall, Huxley, Bastian, have in choice sentences, and in eloquent language, tried to show that there is no God, or at least that there is no proof of His existence. Men, eminent in other departments of knowledge, as the members of the Tubingen School, have tried to show that we have no Bible, or at least that the one we have is not worth the paper on which it is printed; and that unless we put ourselves under their infallible guidance, we will never arrive at the truth after which we are professedly seeking.

The attacks of these powerful and persistent foes have called forth replies in defence of our common faith from our Jowetts, Stanleys, Robertson Smiths, and others. And it is in making their replies, and whilst acting as the champions of the faith, that they have enunciated the errors against which we have to testify. Some, in their replies, give up a greater, some a less, amount of our common faith. In dealing with the enemy our Jowetts and our Stanleys are prepared

to give up with the supernatural altogether, that is, they are prepared to give up with everything miraculous or prophetic in the Bible. They do not say that they give up with these views personally. What they say is, that the supernatural is not essential to Christianity; and that if they have a few pious sentiments, and a few moral precepts, they have everything in which the essence of Christianity consists. In their defence they give up to the materialistic cerberus almost everything worth the defending. Robertson of Brighton, Maurice, and others, whilst retaining the supernatural, give up with the doctrines of grace, and teach that we may enjoy all the blessings of Christianity without any manifestation of faith in the atonement of Christ, or in the work of the Spirit. Dr. Dods, Professor R. Smith, and others, whilst contending earnestly for the doctrines with which the other classes are willing to part, manifest, at the same time, a willingness to give up with the Bible in its entirety as the Word of God. Professor R. Smith, who may be viewed as speaking for his associates, says "We cannot say that the infallibility which belongs to the divine substance of the Word, extends to the outward form of the record, or that the self-evidencing power of the Word, as a rule of faith and life, extends to expressions in scripture which are indifferent to faith and life." (Answer, p. 26.) "My views-deduced not from theory, but from the evidence of facts,-are inconsistent with the ascription to certain biblical books, of a formal infallibility extending to every word and letter." (P. 28.) "We have it as a fact, that God has employed a series of human agencies, and in the use of these agencies, has not excluded every human imperfection." (P. 30.) "I am constrained to admit that some of the Pentateuchal laws are not Mosaic, and that the ascription of them to him (Moses), cannot be taken literally." "I do not affirm that believing criticism can carry out its work, without coming to the conclusion that an author like the Chronicler has sometimes made a mistake." These and similar statements clearly show that, however pure the motives or friendly the intentions, our so-called defenders of the faith have given up with precious truth that has hitherto been most surely believed among us Among other things, they have given up with

I. The plenary inspiration of the Scriptures.-By plenary inspiration we mean two things. We mean that we have had, 1st, a revelation from God, and, 2nd, that that revelation has been communicated to us without any admixture of error. Revelation is the supernatural communication of truth from God. Inspiration is the supernatural transference of the truth to the spoken or written word. Inspiration, therefore, secures that the truth communicated shall be correctly made known to us. That it is infallible truth

correctly made known to us is the claim which the Bible makes in regard to every part of its contents. Thus, in 2 Tim. iii. 16, the Holy Ghost says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Professor Smith does not admit, in the ordinary sense of the expression, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Distinguishing between the substance and the outward form of the Word, he admits that the former is inspired, whilst he asserts that the latter is not. How he knows the substance from the form, or how he can distinguish what belongs to the one from what belongs to the other, he does not inform us. But whilst he admits that God's thoughts are perfect, he does not admit that the words in which they are expressed to us are perfect. There is no mistake as to the substance, but there may be a mistake as to the form. "I have written on the assumption that it must be determined by observation of the facts, and not on a priori considerations, whether a biblical author has sometimes made a slip in matters of fact." "It will, however, be noted that on all such points I carefully avoid hasty conclusions, and am unwilling to go beyond an admission that in some cases the evidence points to a possible, or at most, a probable error." These statements show clearly that whatever the Professor may believe, he does not believe in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, or that the revelation of God has been conveyed to us without any admixture of error or of human imperfection.

to.

Professor Smith disclaims being a rationalist; but we do not see how, on the principles he assumes, his disclaimer can be given effect For what is rationalism? Rationalism in its essence consists in asking God to submit to man. We care not, whether the submission asked be in great or in small matters. In the fact that it is asked, we have the essence of the system. Now Professor Smith asks God

to submit to man as to the outward form of His Word. He admits that the Word is perfect in substance. He does not deny its perfection in outward form. But he asserts that its perfection in the latter quality can only be known after it has been tried. The infallible tests by which he tries it, are what he calls literary tastes and historic canons. If the Word in its outward form complies with these, it is perfect; if not, it is imperfect. And what is this but to claim that in literary tastes and in historic canons, man is superior to God. And if this is not rationalism we confess that we do not know what rationalism means. And if the Professor teaches, as he evidently does, that in regard to literary tastes and historic canons, man may sit in judgment on the Word of God, it is impossible that he can believe in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, or that he can be thought of otherwise than as a rationalist, in his dealings with them.

The Professor's views are said to be popular with certain