infant cause seemed likely to be doomed to perish. "But again their attachment to Presbyterianism triumphed, the little barque, though tossed upon an angry sea, beneath a dark and cloudy sky, yet rode out the tempest; rough were the shocks sustained, and often did the little crew fear for the safety of their frail vessel; but the storm passed away, and the little barque, shattered indeed, and deserted by many of the mariners, still floated on the waters, and we trust is yet destined long to display the 'blue banner' from her mast-head, and borne along upon a smoother sea by the favouring influence of the spirit of grace, may bear many souls to that desired haven 'where every storm is stilled, and there is a great calm.' PROPHETICAL LANDMARKS. WE intended to have noticed the valuable work bearing the above title, by the Rev. Horatius Bonar, of Kelso, but we have not space in the present number to enter sufficiently into the subject. With regard to the whole of this millenarian controversy, which in England as yet more than in Scotland, has excited so much the attention of students cf prophecy, we regret to observe much misunderstanding and consequent misrepresentation on the part of writers on both sides of the question at issue between them, viz., as to whether the Lord's Advent is to be before or after the Millennium. Even Mr. Bonar's book is not free from statements such as we now complain of, as to the views of those who differ from him. What is the use of bringing in (preface, p. ix) the heresy of Dr. Bush, of America, as to the Resurrection, as at all analogous to anti-millenarian arguments? and why are all those who doubt the millenarian views represented as either denying the personal advent, or as putting death too much in the place of it as the hope and desire of the militant Church? While we agree with Mr. Bonar in the Scripture arguments by which he overturns the views of those who expect a millennium before the Second Advent, we think he entirely fails in establishing his own view of the subject, and is led into perplexed contradictions by the interpretations given of certain passages. In the chapter on "Difficulties," even of the few stated very unsatisfactory solutions are given. "The Committee met and consulted, and met and consulted again, but their prospects seemed dark and darker still; some advised the dissolution of the congregation, as it appeared almost hopeless to proceed further in the matter; truly they were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears; nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted them also, and sent them help from trouble.' They applied for advice and assistance to Robert Barbour, Esq., Manchester, and both were promptly afforded. That gentleman, with his usual kindness, and desire to promote the cause of Presbyterianism and the cause of Christ, sent them ministers to supply their now vacant pulpit; brought their case before the Home Mission, cheered their drooping spirits, and inspired them with fresh confidence. From various causes, they were long, however, before again obtaining the services of a settled pastor; their case was peculiar, and required much care in the selection of a minister; at length the Rev. G. Lewis, of the Presbytery of Newry, Ireland, was unanimously chosen, and on the 18th day of April, 1845, having previously accepted the Call, was ordained over them, by the Reverend the Presbytery of London; the Revds. James Hamilton, James Ferguson, and Josias Wilson, officiating on the occasion. "Since then their prospects have again brightened, many of those who had desponded But the point which of all others we object again joined them, others followed their ex- to in this as in every millenarian work is the ample, so that within the past year the num-identification of the one passage in Rev. xx., ber of members has almost doubled, and the Church has attained a greater degree of prosperity than at any previous period in its short but eventful history. "Surely no Presbyterian can read this slight sketch without feeling deep interest in the early struggles of this Church, and no Christian of any denomination can refuse their admiration of the high-toned determination and moral courage which sustained them in their difficulties, and which, through the blessing of God, has enabled them to triumph over every obstacle, and plant right firmly in the soil of Dudley, that goodly vine which once overspread fair England, but the goodly boughs of which have been since broken down. "The work to which they have now put their hands, that of erecting a suitable church and schools, is an arduous one in their circumstances, but sure we are that men who have already displayed so much energy, will, through God's grace, be enabled to accomplish it; and having fairly put their own shoulders to the wheel, they will not look for assistance in vain from their brethren, in other localities more favourably situated." We hope that the church at Dudley will continue to prosper, and become the parent of other churches in the midland counties. After giving a summary of these difficulties Mr. Bonar says, p. 142, "This is the substance of anti-millenarian arguments. These are conceived to be insuperable difficulties. So that on account of them we ought to give up the idea of a personal advent and reign." We assure Mr. Bonar that the idea of the personal advent and reign is held by us as firmly as by himself, but we do not think that the holding it involves the millenarian views, nor do we think it right thus to charge those who do not hold these views with "giving up the idea of the personal advent and reign." with all the glorious things spoken in other parts of the Scriptures as to the kingdom of Christ. This identification is wholly unproved, and yet on the gratuitous assumption of it the whole millenarian theory rests. We hope soon to give a satisfactory defence of the scriptural doctrines of the Second Advent and the Personal Reign of Christ, against the speculations of the writers on both sides of what is called the Millenarian Controversy. THE CHERUBIM. WE have received a communication from Dr. Hutcheson of Warrenford, author of "The Cherubim," pointing out the serious errors arising out of ignorance of the true revelation of Scripture as to the Cherubim, especially when considered, as very generally is done, to be some order of angels or other living intelligences, instead of types and symbols of Gospel truth. We have not space to insert the whole letter, but the concluding part will raise some trains of thought of an unexpected and interesting kind in the minds of our readers : "There are many parts of the Old Testament which no man can read to advantage, far less expound to others, without a right knowledge of the Cherubim. It is equally necessary also for understanding the spiritual scenery of the Apocalypse. Moreover, this ignorance has prevented the inquiries of scientific men, among the mythological remains of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, from taking a right direction: else they would have found out Christ among the sculptured buildings, and marble statues, and sacred rites of all nations: and would have learned to admire and adore the universal love of God to his fallen creatures, in giving to them all the knowledge of his salvation. If they had understood the Cherubim, they would not have been compelled to spend their learning in vain conjectures about the origin of pyramids, obelisks, sphinxes, two or more headed gods and goddesses, sacred vestal fires, Delphic oracles, and the like; for they would have readily traced them all to one root, viz., that of the Paradisaical fiery Cherubim, of which the Apostle intended, for our edification, to speak more particularly. All the Pagan idolatry in the world has sprung from the abuse of this Divine institution: just as all Popish idolatry has sprung from the abuse of the language, doctrine, and institutions of Christianity. "And finally, it has mightily retarded the success of the Gospel, and woefully cramped the usefulness of our missionaries. Could they have spoken freely of the mysterious Cherubim, explained its awful import, and shown its intimate connexion with their superstitions, we are persuaded that, with the Divine blessing, our missionaries would have found a readier access into their understand ing and their hearts. This is more particularly the case with the Parsees, who worship the fire of which the Cherubim were first composed, or as they themselves affirm, Jehovah in the fire; which was nothing more or less than the primitive Cherubical worship of the Divine Person who dwelt between the Cherubim; and who are therefore in some measure prepared by their religion to receive the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified. And what is the river Ganges in which multitudes of Hindoos bathe for the pardon of their sins, flowing as they believe from the calf's foot of Brama, stamped on the rock of the Himalaya mountain, but a tradition of Christ's blood, symbolized by the calf's foot of the Cherubim. It would be easy to traverse the circle of human idolatrous folly, and trace out Christ in the varied forms of the superstition of every civilized land. Let our missionaries then study the Cherubim without delay; and let them be instructed to apply the divinely instituted mystery wherever it is practicable, and wherever it would be advantageous." THE SITE QUESTION IN SCOTLAND. IN consequence of the continued refusal of some proprietors to grant sites to the Free Church, a Motion was made in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, March 2, for a Committee of Inquiry. The subject was brought forward by Mr. Bouverie, Member for Kilmarnock, and, after a very interesting debate, the Motion for inquiry was carried by a majority of 28, the numbers being 89 to 61. The chief opponents of the Motion were Sir James Graham, Lord George Bentinck, and Sir Robert Inglis. Sir George Grey, Mr. Fox Maule, and Lord John Russell supported the Motion. We trust that this inquiry will result in a favourable settlement of this practical grievance, and the removal of the persecution to which many of our brethren in Scotland have been subjected. Letter to the Editor. WESLEYAN NORMAL SCHOOL. as To the Editor of the English Presbyterian Messenger. DEAR SIR,-During a recent inquiry at which I was present, before 66 Examiners appointed by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, some circumstances were made known which I have thought might be of interest to your readers. The measure under investigation was connected with the sewage of part of Westminster, and was opposed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and other parties, whose property was likely to be depreciated in value by the erection of the proposed works, or was intended to be taken under compulsory powers sought in the Act of Parliament which had been applied for. Amongst the opponents were the Wesleyan Education Committee, who appeared by counsel and by a minister, a member of that Committee. From their statements, it appeared that the Education Committee had resolved, some time ago, to make a large extension of their schools throughout the country; and that, in order to do this widely and efficiently as they desired, they had found it would be necessary to establish a Normal School of their own; that at Glasgow, from which they had obtained many teachers, being unable to supply the number they should then require; that this school was to be a very large one, comprising from 800 to 1,000 youths, to be trained for teaching; and that in the course of a few years they expected, through this new agency, to increase the number of their scholars in Great Britain by 400,000 or 500,000. It was stated also that the Committee had resolved to select, as a site for this establishment, an acre, or an acre and a-half of ground, on the edge of some poor and destitute locality in London, but not in it, with a respectable neighbourhood around, on the other sides of their buildings: that, after laborious search, they had been able to discover in all London only one place corresponding to their proposed plans, which they had accordingly bought at a high price: that it consisted partly of an open space, known as "Mudie's Garden," and partly of surrounding houses, yards, &c., situated in that part of Westminster lying between the new Houses of Parliament and the Millbank Penitentiary: and that this very property was now sought to be taken from them by the Sewage Company referred to, for the purpose of erecting their works thereon. having been given on oath by the miAll this evidence nister, the counsel made a powerful appeal to the Examiners in support of his client's claims to retain the said ground: setting forth the many and important benefits such an establishment as had been described to them would secure to the children of the poor throughout the land, and the blessed effects its success would have on the moral and spiritual condition of the rising generation: and urging on the Examiners, whether they could report to Parliament in favour of passing the Sewage Company's Bill without requiring such a change in the position of their works as would leave the ground in question to be devoted to the good and benevolent purposes for which it had been purchased; seeing, at the same time, that the said Company's designs could be carried out as well a mile off as there. The Examiners have no power beyond that of reporting on the evidence laid before them; but one can scarcely doubt what their recommendation will be; and we may thus hope to see the very important design of the Wesleyans speedily begun and carried out.-I am, &c., A. M. 66 London, March 2, 1847. P.S. Since this letter was written and in type, I have received a copy of the official report of the examiners on the in which, after certain reasons stated, they sewage scheme, promoters should be authorized to establish recommend, that, in the first instance, the their works at the proposed station at Bermondsey only." I had not previously mentioned that the scheme included works both the interest of the communication, to your on the south and north sides of the river, readers, being limited to those in Westminster, as bearing on the Wesleyan school design, which, as the latter are not at all recommended by the examiners, we may now hope will be relieved from the risk of farther interference. Missionary Entelligence. CORFU. A.M. THE following is an extract of a letter lately received from the Rev. Mr. Charteris: the ordinance of the sacrament, chiefly that I "For various reasons I delayed dispensing might have an opportunity of conversing with those who expressed a desire to communicate for the first time on Sabbath last. for this purpose in the school-room, which I preferred to the Military Chapel, as I wished We met it to be known to the soldiers and others as a place where we might have the privilege of meeting for prayer, a church in the house.' Indeed since then we have had several interesting assemblages in it. There were eighteen communicants in all, chiefly from the military. Two were young women, daughters of sergeants, for the first time, two of the soldiers were also for the first time, having not had an opportunity before, together with one mother of a large family, who had no previous Presbyterian dispensation. We had also Simon Peter Frankel, the converted Jew, of whom I have written. Our numbers were larger than I anticipated, and I have good grounds for believing that it will be considerably increased next time, as there have been soldiers coming to me lately asking, What they must do to be saved?' Of these I have hopes, as well as of some among the civilians. I was careful to explain previously, both in public and in private, the object of the solemn ordinance, ment; at the same time, that I set before and the duty of obeying the Lord's command them the danger of unworthy communicating. They had no worldly inducements, it could not be in conformity to fashion that they acted, it was their own spontaneous act, and consequently I felt my mind much relieved from doubts in regard to this little flock.' I felt much at home with them, and I trust it was to all a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.' I preached on the Lord's day from Matthew ii. 28. I had all the ordinary services on the previous Thursday and Saturday evenings, and on the Thanksgiving Monday we had a full and most delightful meeting, when I spoke from the 103d Psalm. Both then and on the Sunday the room was quite filled; at both times the children of our Sabbath school attended. We have thirty of these on our list, in some of whom I think I their progress in knowledge is most satisfacevidently see a work of grace, while in all tory. I find the Proof Catechisms you sent great favourites, and I never was more convinced of the utility of the Scottish system, and I hope its good effects will soon be visible." In a subsequent letter received from Miss Greig, she mentions they had had a most interesting and gratifying Sabbath-school soirée, when upwards of forty attended, to whom Mr. Charteris gave a suitable address. We quote the following from a letter 24th February last:received from Mr. Charteris, bearing date "I am living in prayerful expectation that mind-not by might, nor by power, but by a revolution will take place in the Jewish the Spirit of the Lord God. I think I see, weeds, and so hedged round with the thorns even in this desolate field at Corfu, so full of and briars of rabbinical bigotry, signs of better fruits. Surely nothing can be a God. There has been a demand made upon better sign than a desire to read the word of I me for bibles which I have no means of meeting, though in the circumstances I have done what I could. I know of a few young men, five or six, who meet together to read the Italian bible, Diodati's version, and who are them all, but two of them, the leaders in the searching the Scriptures daily, whether these things are so.' I have not yet seen with me a good part of the gospel by Luke, have told me what was going on; have read matter, have frequently waited upon me, and some of the prophecies, and have been mak ing rapid progress in knowledge. absent for some months, he has taken with him a few bibles which he says he thinks will them has left for Italy, where he will be One of remains here, and comes almost every day. He wept the other day when reading of the meet with a rapid sale in Trieste. The other woman who was a sinner, and of her conduct to our Lord, in the 7th chapter of Luke. Indeed I have heard that there has been a demand for Diodati's bible there also. have heard of an old Scotchman who, when a branch of the Foreign Bible Society was established in his native town, exclaimed, I see now the fulfilment of prophecy, I see an angel flying through the midst of heaven with the word of God in his hand'... I have spoken of our class of five or six, who may be said to be under my superintendence, so far as the two principal ones I have mentioned read with them, and solve difficulties as they themselves can or are taught by myself. Thus for a few nights past I have had a few young men coming to me, brought by the wandering Jew mentioned in the letter that appeared first in the Messenger.' They they should be observed by others, and I have come by night like Nicodemus of old, lest just been discoursing with them to-night on John iii. These words of our Lord appeared strange to them, quite marvellous, as they appeared to Nicodemus, and yet I think I never had better proof of the adaptation of the word of God to the conscience, and I have been confirmed in a line of attack which I have been practising for some time, namely, to insist upon man's fallen, and helpless, and dangerous condition, on the necessity of the new birth, and on the means of escape from wrath. I find a power in these truths, far stronger than the answers, many of them very triumphant, which can be adduced to refute Jewish objections from the evidence of prophecy. I have made them read with me the 51st Psalm, and the 36th of Ezekiel, urging upon them the fact that regeneration is not a have been taught by the masters in Israel. doctrine of the New Testament, but ought to The Jew above mentioned is a curious whimsical being. His convictions seem every two or three months to distress him, and then he returns to me. I fear much his heart is too | unstable to be depended upon as that of a hopeful convert. Indeed I have heard that he was baptized at Constantinople by the Roman Catholics in order to obtain a passport from the French Consul, not being able to get out of Turkey without it. From his anxiety to know the difference between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, and from some ideas which he inadvertently broached when I was speaking of John iii. to himself a few evenngs ago as to baptism being a change of heart, I have my suspicions that he may have been learning from the Roman Catholics. However, the truth is with the greatest difficulty attainable here, and they all hate and are hated of one another. I thought it unadvisable to perhaps drive the poor man away by asking him if such were the case until I had opportunities of shewing him the truth along with the others whom he is anxious to bring with him, Roman Catholic or Jew is the same to me, I found him going over the prophecies of Isaiah in the schoolroom a few evenings ago with another, in order to show how the Messiah must be both God and man. He said in English, which he has acquired with great facility, I am instructing him. I said, Very well, go on, and was glad to hear that his knowledge on that subject, so far as it went, was quite correct." MADEIRA. Is a private letter, Dr. Henderson, of Glasgow writes, "A week ago I had a most interesting man from Madeira with me, on his way to Trinidad, as a catechist from our Free Kirk to his exiled and fellow-Christians there --Senhor Arsenio, a few years ago known by the name of the Usurer, who was led by his daughter to hear Kalley expound, and who gradually, but at last firmly, embraced the truth, and has now left wife, and daughter, (the wife now of the prosecuting judge,) and houses, and lands, and money, for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. He seems a very good, devoted man of God." BOMBAY. HORMAYDJI PESTONJI, a Parsi, has been The Governor-General of India (says the "Bombay Times") has directed that labour at public works shall be suspended on Sundays throughout India. A similar measure, three years since, introduced by Sir George Arthur into Bombay, has been eminently successful. Though the natives dislike our faith, they despise us when they see us neglect the precepts of the religion we profess. PUNA. MR. MITCHELL sends the pleasing account that two individuals at this station, a Parsi and a Brahmin, have been admitted into the Church by baptism. The Parsi, Rustonji Nowroji, was awakened in a singular manner. He had been confined | ings, and Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Wylie parti- Balu Joshi, the Brahmin, was for about three years a pupil in the English school at Puna, and afterwards went to Bombay in October, 1845, that he might enjoy the benefit of one of the scholarships connected with the Free Church Institution there. Three months ago he communicated his desire to be baptized, and asked permission to return to Puna to receive the ordinance in the presence of his former companions and school fellows. MADRAS. WE have received, through the kindness of CALCUTTA, THE Rev. J. Mackail has been inducted into a "ILLUSTRIOUS GARRISON" OF JELLALABAD. AND here let me not forget to record to the honour of the illustrious garrison, that regularly as the Lord's-day came round, brigade orders called both officers and men together, that in his own name and in the name of his comrades, one of themselves might present to their Father which is in heaven their common sacrifice of prayer and praise. It was righteous custom, and produced upon all concerned the happiest effect. It sobered while it encouraged all, from the highest to the lowest, teaching them to feel that the lives of the brave are in the hands of Him who gave them; and that the best preparation which men can make for battle and for death comes out of a humble yet hopeful reliance on the mercy, as well as on the power, of the Most High. Nor do I think I go beyond the line of sober truth if to the prevalence of this right feeling among them, aided by the happy absence of that bane of a soldier's usefulness, spirituous liquors, I attribute the patience, the goodhumour, the unwearied zeal, which, from the beginning to the end of the siege, characterized the behaviour of all classes, and rendered the garrison of Jellalabad, though few in number, invincible.-Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan, by Gleig. BLAME thyself that the times are so bad. There is a general complaint about the badness of the times, but every one shifts the blame off himself, and instead of accusing himself, accuses others. Ahab said to Elijah, BAD TIMES WE LIVE IN. "Thou art he that troubleth Israel." Adam said to the Lord God, "The woman that Thou garest me, did give to me, and I did eat." The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me," Thus do we put it off from ourselves to others, and rather will lay evil to God than see ourselves as helping to bring it. No man says with Jonah, "For my sake is this come upon you;" no man saith, What have I done? do my iniquities not help to hide God's face, and to bring judgments on the earth? Oh then condemn yourselves and amend your ways. The times would not be so bad if we were not so bad. Pray not so much for better times as for better hearts. Were there more of the presence and the blessing of God thus sought and obtained, the times would soon grow better. SAINTS' DAYS.-When the intelligent and sensible Protestant reflects, that there is not one single personage registered in that calendar of saints appended to his Book of Common Prayer who did not live and die, or win the palm of martyrdom, in the belief of the Catholic doctrine of the Mass, and that many of them were in the habit of daily offering up that eucharistic sacrifice, he will censure the temerity, at the same time that he blushes for the inconsistency, of his Church, in designating (in the Thirty-first Article) as a blasphemous fable the practice of those very men whom she herself has recognised as saints!-Rock's Hierurgia, vol. i., p. 182.(Notes and Dissertation on the Doctrines and Ceremonies of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.) Poetry. SUNDAY. O, DAY most calm, most bright! The fruit of this, the next world's bud; The endorsement of supreme delight, Writ by a friend, and with his blood; The other days and thou The working days are the back part; Man had straightforward gone To endless death; but thou dost pull And turn us round to look on one Whom, if we were not very dull, We could not choose but look on still; Since there is no place so alone The which he doth not fill. The Sundays of man's life, Of the eternal glorious King. Who want herbs for their wound. O let me take thee at the bound, Notices of Books. A Plea for Ragged Schools. By the Rev. THO. J. Johnstone. 1847. THE object of this pamphlet is to call the attention of the Edinburgh public to the necessity which exists in that city for the institution of a school for the destitute children of the very poor. The scheme is a local one ; but the need for such institutions is unhappily but too general. Mr. Guthrie has never hitherto appeared before the world as an author, but the vigour, good sense, eloquence, and Christian benevolence, with which this small publication is replete, lead us to indulge the hope that he may favour the public with various future productions from his pen. The anecdotes adduced to illustrate the positions which he takes up, are most graphically told. The author has shown himself worthy to tread in the steps of that first of living philanthropists, Dr. Chalmers. The poor form a theme of public interest at present, and their moral wants need energetic efforts to be supplied as truly as their physical necessities. After describing one of the boys for whom such schools are intended, " ill-fed, ill-reared, already self-supporting, a master of imposture, lying, begging, stealing," Mr. Guthrie con tinues | passport is a conviction of crime." "It makes "We see no way of securing the amelioration "I have often met this difficulty in dealing Historical Memoirs of Presbyterianism in New The Lay Churchman. No. II. Shaw, South- WE gladly hail this monthly contemporary SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR LIGHTED CANDLES.- -"A remarkable accordance may be discerned between the practice of Catholics at the apostolic period, and that observed by Catholics of the present time. They were, like ourselves, not only most careful to hear mass upon the Lord's-day, but were accustomed to make use of lights to afford more solemnity to its celebration; and studied to procure the benefit of verbal instruction in a sermon delivered by their pastor; since we read on the first day of the week, when they were assembled to break bread Paul discoursed with them and there were a great number of lamps in the upper chamber where they were assembled.' (Acts xx. 7, 8.) The numerous lamps particularly noticed here, were, no doubt, employed to give splendour to the sacred institution."-Rock's Hierurgia, Vol. I., p. 263. [Dr. Rock thinks proper to omit the end of verse 7, where it is written, that "Paul continued his speech until midnight." It occurs to us that the lamps might have been intended to give light at that late hour; and not merely to give solemnity to the ceremony of the mass as is pretended.] He that is contented with just grace enough to get to heaven and escape hell, and desires no more, may be sure he hath none at all, and is far from being made partaker of the divine nature.—Janeway. Advertisements. SANCTUARY SERVICE. Price ld., or 8s. per hundred, A MINISTER'S ADDRESS to his Birmingham: John Turner, 31, Temple-row; GEM OF TEAS. This Tea is consigned to the Proprietor by a relative resident in China. For richness of flavour, exquisite taste, and great strength, it is unequalled, and far surpasses any other Tea in this country. 6s. per lb. [NVALID or DR. TURNER'S COCOA; Chemist whose name it bears. 2s. per lb. prepared after the formula of the eminent IN THEY who reject the divine person of Christ, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.. Messrs. Finlay and Charlton, who believe it not, who discern not the wisdom, grace, love, and power of God therein, do constantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual truths of divine revelation. Nor can it otherwise be: for they have a con "Such children cannot pay for education, nor avail themselves of a gratis one, even if offered. That little fellow must beg or steal, or he starves. With a number like hinself, he goes as regularly to that work of a morning as the merchant to his shop, or the tradesman to his place of labour. They are turned out,-driven out, sometimes,-to get their meat, like sheep to the hills, or cattle to the field; and if they don't bring home a certain supply, a drunken father and a brutal beating await them." Such children may get education, and secure some measure both of common and Christian knowledge. "But marksistency only in their relation unto the how, and where, not as in the days of our blessed Saviour, when the tender mother brought her child for His blessing. The jailor brings them now. Their only passage to school is through the police-office; their mystery of godliness, God manifest in the Printed by ALEXANDER MACINTOSH, of No. 20, Great Newstreet, Fetter-lane, London, and published by JAMES MACINTOSH, of No. 47, Church-road, De Beauvoirsquare, in the parish of Hackney, at the Office, No. 16, Exeter Hall, Strand, London. Thursday, April 1, 1847. Sold by HAMILTON, ADAMS, and Co., Paternoster-row; and JAMES NISBET and Co., 21, Berners-street. Stamped (to go post-free).... Four Shillings. PRESBYTERIAN TAMEN CONSUME ATUR MESSENGER. THE great thing in the Church is Christ,-the eternal deity of Christ, the blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the presence of Christ among us. The great thing is Christ, but there is also advantage in a certain government of the Church. I am a Presbyterian, not only of situation, but of conviction and choice. Our Presbyterian way is the good middle way between Episcopacy on the one side, and Congregationalism on the other. We combine the two great principles that must be maintained in the Church-Order and Liberty: the order of government, and the liberty of the people.--MERLE D'AUBIGNE. FOREIGN MISSIONS. COLLECTION, SABBATH, MAY 16. WE are sure that the members of our Church will hail with the liveliest joy the announcement which we have now to make. After RIVER TERRACE CHURCH, ISLINGTON. his destination. Surely, the prayers of all DEATH OF THE REV. JOSIAS WILSON, of intercession. SINCE its first organization our Church has sustained no bereavement like that which it is now our melancholy duty to record. PreThe Committee gratefully commemorate eminent for eloquence and popular talent, two years of on-waiting and inquiry our the Lord's goodness in disposing his servant's Mr. Wilson surpassed the most zealous of his Church has at last found a missionary to heart to undertake this work; and they canbrethren in activity, energy, and pastoral China. The name of Mr. WILLIAM C. BURNS not forbear to mention one circumstance in devotedness; and in two short years he had is known to many of our readers. During which his providence was manifest. the eight years that he has been preaching couraged by the difficulties of the Chinese their numbers, but still more remarkable for the Gospel in Scotland, in England, and in Canada, a remarkable blessing has attended Dis field, and having waited two years without gathered round him a flock remarkable for their enthusiastic affection. A church nearly doubled in size could not contain the multi his labours; and whilst so long trial of the obtaining a missionary, on the 12th of April, tudes who resorted to his ardent and arousing ministry has enlarged his experience, his sermons; and though he himself was not per from London too, we doubt not that it will follow him. the Committee in London resolved to recommend to the Synod the establishment of a friends will thankfully learn that he retains mission to India. On the same day, in Edin-mitted to see the full fruit of his labours in burgh, Mr. Burns was writing to London his London, he had seen it largely elsewhere, and acceptance of the call to China. And now that the path is as plain as the door is open, the Synod confidently renews its appeal to the churches,-assured that those who showed by their liberality last year that they were ready long ago, will not be lacking now, but the same zeal and vigour as in the days of Kilsyth and Dundee. Mr. Burns's original destination was an Eastern mission. He would have entered on it long ago, had not the signal success of the Gospel at home proved for a time a happy hindrance. But understanding that Mr. Burns's eye was still turned eastward, the Synod's Committee invited him to go as this Church's missionary to China. After long and prayerful consideration, Mr. Burns accepted the call; and when the Synod met last week, he was present not only to repeat his acceptance, but ready, were it needful, to depart on the morrow. Accordingly, and with joyful consent, it was resolved, that Mr. Burns should be set apart to the work of the Mission with prayer, and the laying on of the hands of the brethren. This solemnity took place in Bishopwearmouth Church, on Thursday, April 22, when Mr. Burns was ordained by the Presbytery of Newcastle by appointment of the Synod, and in its presence; and as soon as a few requisite arrangements are completed, our esteemed and beloved brother will proceed to Towards the end of January, Mr. Wilson was laid aside by a bilious affection, from which no danger was apprehended; but it refused to yield to the most skilful advice will enable the Synod to conform this Mission and the most effective remedies, and at last it to the primitive model, when they went out two and two. Mr. Burns, and for Mr. Charteris, at Corfu, closet and the sanctuary. The collection for the Synod's Mission to JAMES HAMILTON, Convener. became evident that his powerful constitution was sinking. On Sabbath, the 11th of April, the Rev. W. Blackwood officiated at River beloved pastor's danger. During that day it Terrace, and the people were apprized of their was affecting to see his attached hearers lingering in the neighbourhood of his residence, looking up to the window of his chamber, and awaiting any tidings which they could glean from dejected friends as they left the dwelling. On Monday evening a prayermeeting was held in the church, and for the same purpose it was agreed to meet again on the morrow. In the meanwhile, vividly conscious of his situation, the sufferer's mind was kept in perfect peace. He was enabled to rest on the Rock of Ages. He said, that |