both in spite of the people's prayers, and protests, and insurrectionary tumults, was no ordinary undertaking. It required them to put on courage, and to put off the trammels of a too tender conscience; the fear of God and the fear of man stood equally in the way, and both had to be overcome. Such labour was worthy of its hire. An application was accordingly made to government for an augmentation of the "livings" of the clergy. An ungrateful country resisted the claim. Many of the counties passed strong resolutions condemning their avarice and selfishness; and to aggravate the hardship, and complete the overthrow of the devoted and disinterested men, a committee of noblemen and gentlemen was appointed at Edinburgh to watch the progress of the business, and by all legal means to oppose the application. To complete the calamity, his majesty's commissioner, in his speech on the dissolution of the Assembly, noticed the application, and warned them of the risk they incurred of losing all by grasping at too much! But men who could appreciate the merits of Mr. Thomson, of St. Ninian's, of course, possessed some congeniality of spirit, and were, therefore, not wanting in fortitude to bear up under the storm. They accordingly despatched commissioners to London to petition his majesty and the two houses of parliament for an increase of their stipends; but after plying every means for months, they returned without success. The monarch was deaf and the senate was blind; their distress was, therefore, unpitied and their merits unacknowledged. The remembrance of these facts will, no doubt, be a source of consolation to Dr. Chalmers and his brethren, when smarting under the disappointment attendant on their recent application to the late liberal government. It may further tend to soothe them, to reflect that their fathers' claims were rejected by a Tory parliament, a Tory government, and a Tory king! We now proceed to state the impression produced upon our minds by the examination of these volumes in relation to the Secession community; and the first thing that claims notice is their anxious care, from the very outset, to provide for their people an adequate supply of able ministers of the New Testament. This vital point, from one generation to another, has been sedulously attended to. Even when the community was young, and small, and poor, the most laudable efforts were made to realise this object. There can be no doubt that a highly competent ministry was a chief means of their success. From the commencement it appears to us that the pastors of the Secession, taken as a whole, have been much superior to those of the Establishment in piety and talents, and at least equal in education, while they far surpassed them in the literature of their order. The theology of the Secession has been invariably taught by professors of the first ability— by men who knew the truth and loved it--and who were mighty in the Scriptures. Neglect on this point had been fatal to the interests of

the body; and, aware of this, they have been from age to age improving their course of ministerial education.

A second feature of the Secession church, which is brought strongly and clearly out in these volumes, is the missionary spirit of the community. Although previously not unacquainted with the main facts of their history, we confess we were not aware of the extent to which the missionary spirit had pervaded the minds of its venerable founders. So early as 1752 we find them making energetic efforts to send missionaries to the United States, and withdrawing the license of one of their students because of his refusal to go abroad to those who were perishing for want of bread. They had doubts of the sincerity of men, who, like him, had no home-ties, when they shrunk from distant and arduous service. Six years after this we find fresh and greater efforts put forth in behalf of the American colonies, and liberal collections made in all the churches of the Secession in support of the mission.

In 1767, we find the Synod becoming still more resolute upon the subject of missions, and actually prohibiting presbyteries from licensing young men who scrupled to profess a readiness to go on any missionary enterprize to which they might be appointed. The Synod took very high ground on this head; allowing a little for the times and circumstances which account for the rigidity of their arrangements, we see much in their views which excites our unfeigned admiration.

"Preachers were to be deprived of their license, and were not to expect any employment from the Synod, if they should refuse to fulfil any missionary appointment which they might receive, even though it should be to a foreign land; and those who were under such an appointment were declared not to be eligible to any of the vacant congregations in this country. It was scarcely possible for the Synod to do more in this matter than they did. That these regulations did not remain a dead letter in their hand, their records sufficiently attest. Frequently did they rebuke and deprive of license those preachers who were contumacious; and though it appears that, in most instances, the license was restored again, yet this was not done until a promise was previously obtained from the penitent preacher, that for the future he would be submissive. At that period, the difficulty of obtaining a comfortable settlement at home was not so great as it is at present; and the prospect of personal comfort to a labourer in the American vineyard, was not then so inviting as it now is. Such considerations as these, though they do not vindicate, yet tend, in some measure, to account for that reluctance which many of the Secession preachers manifested to go and traverse, in the capacity of missionaries, the sylvan solitudes of the new world."-Vol. I. p. 385.

While thus alive to the wants of the colonies, they became more and more awake to the necessities of home. We find the General Associate Synod, between twenty and thirty years ago, employing itinerants in the Highlands of Scotland, and making collections for the support of the Irish Evangelical Society. It ought also to be stated, that the London Missionary Society was from the first strongly befriended by the Associate Synod. Its pulpits have very generally been opened to the

successive deputations of that Society, and "by the members of the Secession congregations, comparatively poor though they be, many thousands of pounds have been cast into its treasury."—Vol. II. p. 296. When the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed, the Secession churches took a foremost place in the support of its associations; by none, indeed, were they more cordially upheld.

A third feature of the Secession is its public spirit. It is at once affecting and instructive to witness its progressive development through the long space of one hundred and twelve years. As we have already said, we are met occasionally by exhibitions of narrowness and bigotry, but it is always in alliance with something which bespeaks noble natures, high principles, and holy men. We are met at every turn by discussions about the "civil magistrate." Some of the earlier brethren were utterly ignorant of the true nature of Christ's kingdom; but others had broad glimpses of the truth, and some had clear and comprehensive notions of it.

A curious case occurred in 1759, when Mr. Moncrief proposed to the Synod that they should address the king on "the state of religion," and ask "redress" of "grievances" concerning its low and lamentable condition. Mr. Gib set his face against it as at utter variance with the principles of the New Testament-Vol. I. pp. 350, 351. This very able man contended thus for great principles :-" It cannot be said that we have any more of a providential intercourse with civil powers than the apostles had, or even near so much as some of them; and Christian magistrates can have no more need of being dealt with about the true religion than heathen magistrates had. Nor can ordinary ministers have a farther warrant to deal with the one sort, than apostles had to deal with the other."-Vol. I. p. 352. So completely did the members of Synod concur with Mr. Gib, that Mr. Moncrief, although an excellent man, and held in much esteem by his brethren, found not one supporter among them. He, notwithstanding, persevered most resolutely in his object; this was in 1759, and he introduced it afresh in April, and in August, 1760, and in the same months, 1761, but always without success. His death in the October ensuing put an end to the question. The Secession Synod have always proved themselves alive to the interests of liberty, humanity, and religion. So early as 1789, they passed a resolution worthy of their principles, relative to the anti-slavery conflicts which were then being carried on, and in behalf of "vigorous efforts for promoting the spiritual and eternal welfare of the slave." -Vol. I. p. 445. During this same year they appointed Wednesday, the 5th of November, as a day of solemn thanksgiving, to celebrate the centenary of the glorious revolution of 1688. In the same spirit of patriotism, although many will think, with less wisdom, they testified against the removal of the Catholic disabilities. When the charter of the East India Company was renewed in 1813, the Associate Synod stepped

generously forward and petitioned the legislature to provide "that it shall be lawful for all denominations of his majesty's subjects to send Christian ministers and teachers to India, for the purpose of instructing the nations in the knowledge of Christianity; and that such ministers and teachers shall enjoy full protection."—Vol. II. p. 373. In the case of Smith, the missionary, the Synod was equally prompt in the expres sion of their indignant sympathy with the friends of that much injured man.-Vol. II. p. 432.

It only remains to notice the spirit of movement, which, during the present generation, distinguishes the Secession Church. There is no body of Christians, it strikes us, who have, in all points, made more improvement in the course of the last ten years. They stand forth with great prominence in all the aspects in which a Christian church should present itself to the world. They have betaken themselves in good earnest to every department of their work. Their ministerial education has been still further improved; they have one of the ablest and best conducted periodicals of the day; they have in all things also much improved the financial economy of their congregations; home and foreign missions increasingly absorb their attention, and receive their generous support; they have taken up a position of the highest honour in the great war of principles which has been so powerfully waged during the ten years last past. And then the great question of voluntaryism, with all that it implies, the question of scriptural Christianity, has received from them a portion of aid which can hardly be over-rated. They have been the leading power in the great conflict, however ably they may have been sustained by the other denominations of Scotland. There is another work of inestimable value in which they have achieved great distinction—the abolition of the Scottish Bible monopoly; for the excellent Dr. Adam Thomson, the prime actor in that great undertaking, is a minister of that communion, and he acted as the agent of the Synod. At no period of its history did the Secession body ever present so fair a form as at this moment. Both in Scotland and in England its chief posts are all occupied by men of a very high, frequently of the highest, order. At no period, in our remembrance, have the Secession pulpits of London, Manchester, and the west and north of England, been so ably filled as at the present hour.

Whatever makes for purity among Christians, makes for unity: "first pure, and then peaceable.” The work of union has been advancing rapidly in Scotland for many years-may it still go on! We see that a union between the Secession and the Relief churches is in contemplation. We are fully satisfied there is nothing to prevent it; nor ought the junction among the members of Christ's body to end there-nor will it. When truth has purified, love will melt souls; and

all in whom it dwells will combine.

We have now stated our chief impressions, and it only remains that we thank the historian for his services to his own connexion, and to all the churches of Christ. We have little to say to him personally, in addition to our opening observations. On his style we need make no remark. It it clear, natural, easy, and expressive, every way adapted to narration. We can, indeed, conceive of a history in some points greatly superior-displaying more depth, more literature, and more philosophy-in a style more varied, more terse, more splendid, and more elaborate; but all that classically constitutes history is here; all that is essential to instruction, to devotion, and to a full comprehension of the subject, is here. We may just note two little flaws. It is unwise to allow passing trifles, party spite, or the feelings which it provokes, to find the smallest place in history; hence we recommend the author to expunge the bitter note in page 377 of Vol. I. regarding Mr. Pirie, to whom, by the way, he has not done justice. Again, he has used the substantive mission occasionally as a verb. Speaking of an individual being sent out as a missionary, he says, such a one was missioned to such a place. We again sincerely thank the author for the pleasure, and, on certain points, the instruction he has afforded us, and for the benefit which he has conferred upon the highest of all causes.

Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis aevi,
Retulit in melius; multos alterna revisens
Lusit, et in solido rursus Fortuna locavit.

THE EDITOR'S TABLE.

The Saviour's Care over Ministers and Churches: a Sermon delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Kent Congregational Association at Bromley, July 7th, 1841. By Patrick Thomson, M.A., of Chatham. 8vo, pp. 32. London: Sherwood & Co. Friendly Appeals: or, Brief Warnings and Exhortations on subjects of the greatest importance. 18mo, pp. 140. London: Religious Tract Society.

An Appeal to Common Sense; being a Comparison of Mohammed and the Pope with the Messiah. Addressed to Christians. By L. E. Threlkeld. 8vo, pp. 52. London: Dinnis.

Report of the Proceedings of the United Association Synod in the Cases of the Rev. James Morison, Kilmarnock, and the Rev. Robert T. Walker, Comrie. 8vo, pp. 150. Edinburgh: Paterson.

Defence of the Rev. Robert T. Walker, of Comrie, before the United Associate Presbytery of Perth. With an Appendix. 12mo, pp. 72. Glasgow: Maclehose

& Nelson.

Reply of the Canada Wesleyan Conference, June, 1841, to the Proceedings of the English Wesleyan Conference and its Committee, August and September, 1840. With an Appendix. 8vo, pp. 102. London: T. Tegg.

Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, held in London, June, 1840. 8vo, pp. 597. London: British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.