And yet our duty is plain. We can only press on, following the Lord whithersoever he leads us, and believing that he who sends the call and opens the way will provide the means. We must take up the position of Jeremiah, and listen to words which are addressed as truly to us as they were to him:-" Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." It is our hope and trust that when the influence of the Lord's doings in China, through our little mission there, comes to be felt by the Church at home, s come it must, there will be such an interest created-such a revival of Christian zeal, that the managers of our great funds will be no longer doubtful of their ability to meet the increasing demands of an advancing cause.

The missionary meeting of this year's Synod was in all respects a success. With a cheering report, heart-stirring addresses, and a large sympathetic audience, how could it be otherwise? The wisdom of the Synod in devoting an entire evening to the subject of Foreign Missions, and in dispensing on that occasion with much of the formality which characterizes its ordinary proceedings, has been abundantly proved. Every succeeding year, we believe, will add to the interest and importance of the Synod's missionary meeting.

Another evening is annually devoted to the receiving of the deputations from sister Churches. This year these deputations were more than ordinarily influential, being headed by Dr. Buchanan, of the Free Church; Dr. Wilson, of the Irish Presbyterian Church; and Dr. Marshall, of the United Presbyterian Church. All the addresses were excellent, and were listened to with evident interest by a large audience. It was pleasant to see such noblemen as the Earl of Dalhousie and the Earl of Kintore taking part in this work as representatives of the Free Church; nor was it less pleasant to listen to one so able and zealous as Dr. Wilson, as he described the labours and successes of our Irish brethren; or to come under the spell of one like Dr. Marshall, whose mingled humour and sagacity would give him power--not diminished, but perhaps increased, by his broad Scottish accent-over any audience; but the most noticeable feature of this part of the Synod's proceedings was the manifesto uttered by Dr. Buchanan, on the extent of the proposed Union of the Churches. The doctor emphatically declared, as his own opinion, and as the unanimous feeling of the Free Church, that the united bodies in Scotland and England should have separate jurisdictions. He argued this point with all his accustomed clearness and force, expressing, however, at the same time, the willingness of the Free Church to enter, as part of the United Church in Scotland, into a union of alliance with the Church in England, commissioners being sent from each assembly to the other, and allowed to sit, and deliberate, and vote. We may regard his statement, if not his reasoning, as settling the question. The Churches in Scotland will not cross the border; and it would be well if all parties would now acquiesce in what seems to be inevitable, and especially if Presbyterians in England would direct their efforts solely and earnestly to the uniting of the two bodies located in the Southern half of the kingdom. We notice with great satisfaction that Dr. King is prepared to accept whatever decision may be come to on this point by the Churches in the North.

It

The Synod was unusually expeditious in transacting its business. closed its sittings on Thursday evening, a thing which has not occurred before for many years. We do not think that it had less to do than former Synods, or did less; it spoke less, and wrangled hardly any. It will be found equal to any of its predecessors in the importance of the matters that occu

pied it, and in the practical value of its decisions. Take as specimens-the proposed change in the constitution of the College; our Home Mission and Church-extension operations; the successes and needs of our Foreign Missions; the question of Union; and the adoption of a new Hymn-book. Indeed the blessed crisis at which our principal schemes have arrived-a crisis which is due to unwonted progress, and which requires the most vigorous action to meet it accounts in some measure, strange as it may appear, for the dispatch with which the Synod conducted its labours. Things were too serious to admit of idling, or of loose and unprofitable discussions. All minds and all parties were evidently impressed with the momentousness of the period, and led to join in seeking for every case the best possible solution. And it is wonderful how real earnestness and a weighty sense of responsibility contribute to that forbearance and openness of mind which are essential to the deliberative spirit. Nor should we overlook here the thorough competency of our Moderator. He exhibited an acquaintance with the duties of his position, and a confidence in his own decisions, which, no doubt, did something to economise the time and shorten the sittings of the Synod.

The new Hymn-book has received the sanction of the Supreme Court. All who are acquainted with the history of the Hymnal-controversy, extending over a period of nineteen years, will hail its most satisfactory termination. We trust that all congregations who at present use hymns in the public worship of God, or desire to use them, will, in loyal response to the declared wish of the Synod, adopt the new book which has been prepared at such a cost of labour and money, and which, we are free to say, is equal if not superior to any similar book now in use. Before closing these remarks, we feel bound to express the satisfaction with which all members of Synod witness the improved method and order in the conducting of the business of the Court. Every year the Synod becomes more fully organized, and carries on its various work more smoothly and effectively. We need not mention names in connection with this important matter, for it is well known to whom we are indebted for the continuing improvement in the direction named.

It should be stated also that, by the wise and liberal measures of our excellent contemporary, the Weekly Review, a fuller and more accurate report of the proceedings of the Synod has been secured for the Church than has ever been obtained in past years. Those who wish to possess it should apply at once by letter to the office of that journal.

THE OPENING ADDRESS OF THE MODERATOR OF

SYNOD.

THE Rev. Thomas Alexander, M.A., on being elected Moderator of the Synod, addressed the House as follows:

"Fathers and brethren, -I am sure I should break down hopelessly if I were to attempt to find words sufficiently emphatic to express the deep sense I have of the kindness which has this evening called me to the post of dignity I now occupy, and I have felt that even if the words could have been found, and penned, I should have broken down in the attempt to utter them. I beg you, therefore, to think for me, and to say to yourselves something of what I ought in this place, and at this present time, to have said to you in the way of thanksgiving. I assure you that I don't,

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simply and honestly because I feel that I cannot, speak a word on this matter. I should have declined to accept this honourable office, so acutely did I feel my incompetency for the discharge of its duties in a manner worthy of even my own conception of them, had I not felt all but certain hat the generous kindness which has placed me here will not only strenuously uphold me in my zealous-for it will be very zealous-attempt to justify the confidence you have placed in me, but will also magnanimously overlook and then entirely forgive and forget the faults and flaws which are sure to mar the result of all my best endeavours. We meet in Synod in pecular times. One whose opinion is worth a good deal said lately, in another place, that 'ours is an age of revolutions, revolution plus the constat le.' Ecclesiastically, it is widely different, for there it is revolution minus the constable. In the name of liberty men are protesting against law, which is the only basis of liberty. Where there is no law there can benly license, licentiousness, which is the bitterest enemy of all true lib rty. This cry against law is only varied in its form when it assumes the shape of a protest against creeds and confessions. Men appeal from law to a principle, which is only the source of a law, and from creed to the Bible, which is only the source of all true creeds. But the appeal is plausible, and likely to be popular; for it looks to the unthinking as if the appeal were made from the word of man to the word of God. Perhaps you would bear with me for a little in offering a word or two about this incipient controversy ? And, in the first place, it is obvious that every intelligent man must have a creed of some kind': it may be written or it may be unwritten. If a man believes anything worth believing, that which he believes must be capable of being stated in a proposition, and therefore capable of being put into print. And if so, is it not every way better for the man's sake, for a Church's sake, that it should be printed, and so preserved ? The rise and progress of creeds is the history of the gradual expiscation of truth, and the sharp and ever sharper delineation of its more prominent boundaries and outlines. Error arose; controversy followed; bit by bit the realm of darkness narrowed, and the region of light widened and spread out; inch by inch the ground was contended for and gained, till the latest formal creed, the Westminster Confession, recorded the truth the Church had wrested from the grasp of the adversary, and by recording the truth also fully, though indirectly, indicated the error she had defeated. It would not be difficult to show-if this were the proper place and time-that this Confession embodies in itself the result of all the contendings of the Church for the truth of God, in all the successive centuries of her history from Pentecost down, and to show, also, that since that Confession was issued, there has been no doctrinal controversy of any importance which was not simply a going over the old ground, and a mere repetition of the old and often refuted arguments; for all our modern controversies of any importance, at least all the doctrinal ones, were discussed and settled then, or long before then. Since that day, the truth contained in that 'document' has been confirmed by much fresh criticism, by many fresh arguments; it has been made clear by many new illustrations, and confirmed by many fresh applications; but of substantial addition or subtraction there has been none. Now, it is open to any man, at any time, to reject that creed in toto, and to begin the whole process of creed-making de novo. But he who does so puts himself exactly in the same position as would the man who puts away the scientific astronomy of to-day, and throws himself back once more on the heavens and the earth as the source of all the facts of that science. The Church of Rome does

So. She still rejects modern scientific truth, and holds by the exploded theory that the earth is the centre of our system and she is judicially right in so doing; for the earth is the centre of her system, while the Sun in Heaven is the centre of ours. It is quite competent to any man to reject scientific astronomy, and to go back to primitive star-gazing if he will; and it is equally competent to a man to shut his eyes against all the light which has shined in the Church, to reject the results of scientific theology, and to fall back on the elemental facts of the Bible, out of which to construct anew a fresh system for himself; but to do so is not to be the pioneer of progress-it is simply to go back to ecclesiastical barbarism. Astronomy is not a completed science. As you continue to improve your instruments and your skill, your limit is only the whole creation of God. Theology is not a completed science either. Improve your critical, historical, doctrinal instruments, possess yourself intelligently of the results and the reasons of the results already attained, serve yourself heir to the labours of the men that have gone before you, get a fresh baptism of fire from the Holy Ghost, and then 'speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' Your limit, then, is solely the written Word of God, which, like the work of his hands, is exhaustless because infinite. For ordinary navigation of the sea, for the ordinary routine of healthy life and hopeful travel, it is not absolutely necessary that a man be a scientific astronomer. By help of the Pole-star, easily seen and easily known in the heavens-God's kindness points it out so clearly that a wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot fail to find it- —a man can transact all necessary business and travel, both by sea and by land. No more is it absolutely necessary, in order to salvation, that a man be a scientific theologian. To them that look for Him, Christ, the Pole-star, Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, is easily seen in the cloudless sky of the written word; and to an honest and earnest seeker, the night will be but short, and the day will speedily dawn, and the day-star, the precursor of the Sun of Righteousness, will speedily arise and shine in his heart. The position, then, of our Church is this: we say to our teachers, 'We have found, on the whole, that this compend of doctrine, the Westminster Confession, contains the sum of the truth which we have been able hitherto to wrest, in all, from the domain of darkness. Out of the inspired record, by strength and guidance of the Holy Ghost, whose it is to lead us into all truth, we have found thus much as at all events certain and clearly revealed to us by God in his written word, inspired by that same Spirit : do you, too, find all this at least? And will you, under our guidance and government, go and labour in this word and doctrine, teaching only in accordance therewith, we, on our part, giving you all help in our power for your furtherance in the same?' That is our position. We who are preachers of the word have cheerfully accepted it, answering with a true and hearty Yea;' and any question that can be raised in regard to our implementing the engagement we have thus voluntarily come under, is simply a question of common honesty-of a man receiving wages for building up a house when he is busily engaged the while in pulling it down-a question which we here are not prepared to so much as moot, or suffer to be mooted. I might be permitted to add, finally, that there is no doctrine or single statement in our Confession of Faith which we regard as like the laws of the Medes and Persians, which alter not. It is competent to ar y minister or member of our Church, at any time, if he think that he ees a fallacy in the old arguments by which our faith was first settled, or if he think that God has vouchsafed him any clearer or fuller light than the Church hitherto has had, it is always open to him, we say, and quite

competent, to bring the matter before the Church, in Synod assembled, and there and then have the matter discussed again, and finally adjusted and settled anew. Thus are we open, at all times, to any fresh light from above which God may choose to send us to bring out either more largely or more clearly the meaning and full force of that word of his, which alone is the guide to our feet, the lamp to our path. There is another question, which has again been raised, and with the old arguments; it is that touching the law of God as embodied, or 'summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments,' whether it has been abrogated in whole or in part, yea or nay? The raising and discussion of this question, whatever else it may show, goes far to prove that we have not fallen on the best of times for amending our Confession of Faith. I feel almost ashamed to so much as name this question at all here; but I may be permitted to show in a single word how it actually stands, by way simply of uttering our mind upon it. God's way of saving fallen men is one and the same in all ages. That whole method of salvation was clearly set forth to the ancient Church in type and figure. We have all that they had; the type in the antitype, the figure in the truth so foreshadowed. The heart of the old system was the tabernacle; around it were orderly gathered and arranged all the tribes of Israel. The heart and centre of the tabernacle was the ark; the heart and centre of that again was the law, the two unbroken stony tables of the law, hard, silent, imperishable, upholding the golden mercy-seat, where God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. That ark was Christ. There wa; nothing in the ark saving the two tables of stone. When Christ came to do his Father's will, he, too, could say, 'Yea, Thy law is within my heart.' There was nothing there beside the law-the whole law, the unbroken law, and nothing else whatsoever. 'I come to do thy will,' and 'thy will' is 'thy law,' which is written on his heart. The law can no more pass away, therefore, than can Christ pass away; it is simply as permanent as he is, and he is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever; yesterday Jewish, to-day Christian, and for ever. And every man who is Christ's is made like Christ. The stony heart is taken out of him, and God's law is written by God's own finger on the fleshly table of his heart. Think not, therefore, that Christ is come to destroy the law or the prophets; he is not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Perhaps I ought to offer an apology for alluding, in even this sketchy way, to questions that are not all likely to come before us in any shape. We are not advanced' enough in the region of speculative thought to doubt any of the foundations of our faith. I ought rather to have spoken more at length on a question which also fills large space in the discussion in our Churches, which is certain to come before us in some part of its onward stages -I mean that of Union. On that question we are now happily all substantially agreed; we agree as to the necessity, as to the duty, and as to the blessed privilege. We agree, too, as to the parties with whom we can, and therefore ought to, unite. If we differ, it is only as to details, as to the manner and nature of the bond we are all desirous of seeing speedily formed. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.' For myself I must say that, having lately had the privilege of attending a full meeting of the joint committee on Union in Edinburgh, where were gathered together as one Presbytery all the picked men of all the Churches; and having watched the proceedings and heard the discussions with the keenest interest, I felt my last doubts and difficulties vanish as a cloud before the rising of the morning sun. I could not but feel that the