commend it to ministers and sessions as a valuable means of making registration full, accurate, and easy, and of thus securing attention to a piece of sessional business, the common neglect of which is partly owing to the lack of a well arranged register, such as this publication promises to supply.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.-FOREIGN.

SURVEY OF MISSIONS.-Australia.-At Perth, in SWAN RIVER settlement, the Wesleyan Missionary Society has a missionary stationed, whose labours embrace a portion of the aboriginal population. In his schools there are reported to be thirty native children, whose progress in the different branches of religious and useful education is highly satisfactory. They give "decisive evidence of the capability of the native mind to receive instruction, and encourage the hope that, at the least, a remnant of this miserable and degraded race will be gathered into the fold of Christ, and be saved from the general ruin to which they appeared to be abandoned." At Buntingdale, on the west of Melbourne, the same society has a missionary stationed for the benefit of the aborigines. This station, once hopeful, is now reduced to the very verge of ruin. The feuds and dissensions which prevail among the different native tribes, presented formidable difficulties to missionary operations among them; but the advance of colonization has now rendered the exertions of the missionary altogether abortive at the present site of the mission; and it is very doubtful if it can be removed to any other locality with a much better prospect of success. At Moreton Bay, 400 miles north of Sydney, there is a German mission among the aborigines, consisting of two or more missionaries, and a sufficient number of catechists or lay missionaries to afford protection to each other, until the natives have been conciliated, who, in that part of the country, are so savage that it would be dangerous for any European to be found alone by them at a distance from a European settlement. The lay missionaries being all either handicraftsmen or agriculturists, they can do much for their own support and comfort, in so fertile a district as that in which they are settled; and thus greatly lessen the expense of the mission to those by whom it is supported.

New Zealand.-The missions which have for a period of years been conducted by the Church of England and the Wesleyan Missionary Societies, chiefly in the northern of the two large islands, continue in a favourable and advancing condition, notwithstanding that colonization seemed for a time to threaten their prosperity. The northern island is in area somewhat larger than Ireland; and the population has been estimated at 160,000, or even more. The Church of England Missionary Society has twelve missionaries and twenty European catechists, in nineteen stations; besides 348 native assistants. "Within the last four years the number of natives who have embraced christianity, so far as to become attendants on public worship, has increased from 2000 to 35,000." At their schools there are, of all ages and sexes, 16,246. The number of their communicants is 1822. The Wesleyan Missionary Society has sixteen missionaries in fifteen stations. The number of their communicants is 3259, and of their scholars 4007. The New Testament in the native language is largely circulated among the people, and is producing the most beneficial effects. In very few scenes of missionary enterprise has a more rapid progress been made in civilizing and christianizing the general population than in New Zealand. Since the commencement of missionary operations among them in 1814, the gospel has had a speedy and effectual establish

ment among them, and christianity has spread its influence over a large portion of the northern island. Very many of the chiefs, once fierce and murderous, have been brought under the power of religion, and become examples of its peaceful and sanctifying influence, and teachers of its glad tidings to their savage brethren. And many interesting narratives have been sent home by the missionaries of individual cases among the natives who had embraced the gospel, exhibiting a piety in life, and a hope in death, which might have stirred up to emulation those in more favoured circumstances at home. When the missionaries entered among them, these islanders were unnatural cannibals, who, by incessant warfare among themselves, easily found the means of gratifying their horrid appetite for human flesh. Now, "it is a matter for joy and thankfulness, that war and cannibalism have almost, if not entirely, ceased; that ancient superstitions have been forsaken; that so many are using the means of grace, and making rapid progress in scriptural knowledge; and that so great a change has been effected in the moral aspect of the population. The Lord's day is religiously observed, not only at the mission stations, but by many of the natives far beyond their limits. Few things are more remarkable in the New Zealand missions, than the extent to which christian truth has been spread over the island by the sole agency of the natives; not merely of those who were specially instructed for the work, and sent forth by the missionaries, but of some of whose labours the missionaries had no idea. Many have sought their brethren and friends, and endeavoured to bring them to Jesus. In many parts of the interior, where the missionaries have journeyed over ground never before trodden by Europeans, they have been astonished to find chapels built, some of the natives able to read, and many in the habit of assembling for worship. Schools are established, and religious instruction given in remote places, by natives who had been instructed at the mission stations: and so eager a desire is generally manifested by the New Zealanders to receive instruction in the general branches of useful education, that the proportion who can both read and write is rapidly increasing; and there is every prospect that, at no very remote period, the native population within the reach of missionary influence, may be generally raised to the condition of a christian, civilized, and well ordered community."

RECENT INTELLIGENCE.-Southern India.-An extraordinary excitement has been produced in Madras, and its neighbourhood, by the baptism of a Brahman youth of nineteen, in connexion with the mission of the Free Church of Scotland; which event, along with some other recent conversions in that part of India, had struck a panic into the priests and votaries of idolatry, and awakened, for the time, their most determined opposition to the whole labours of the missionaries in Madras, and the surrounding missionary stations. Various measures have been in consequence adopted, and even a society formed to counteract the influence of the missionaries, and especially to induce the people to withdraw the children from their schools. An address had been printed in Tamul, and widely circulated, containing the most extravagant imputations against the missionaries in relation to the instructions they impart to the native children." The uncivilized and deceitful Padres," it says, "give to our youth, who unwarily go to their schools, that cursed bible which they themselves use; they wean them from their own mother's milk; they bewitch them with medicine; they sprinkle them with magic dust; and, finally, these desperate sinners, in order to cast them unawares into a horrible well, take the sacrament with them. Therefore, I beseech you, not to think it will be time enough to weep for your children, when they are dead through the poison of christianity; but before they have waded through that wearisome bible, prevent the loss of your children, whilst they are yet alive, by removing them from christian schools." All these absurd statements were

easily credited by the natives; and, in places considerably distant from Madras, the alarm excited was such that many schools were completely deserted. The panic, however, appeared to be again fast passing away; and many of the children had returned; though it was to be feared that some on whom much labour had been bestowed would never come again.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. DOMESTIC.

UNITED SECESSION CHURCH.

THE SYNOD'S MISSION FUND.

THE following appointment was made by the Synod at its last meeting, in regard to a collection throughout all the churches of the Secession, in support of its missions, on the first Sabbath of December next. "The attention of the Synod having been called to the necessity of adopting some means for providing the necessary funds for supporting the Synod's missions for next year, until the more permanent and efficient plan, which a committee are appointed to prepare, shall be matured and adopted,-it was agreed to appoint a collection to be made for this purpose in all our churches, on the first Sabbath of December next.

We earnestly hope that this collection, the time for making which is now approaching, will be heartily gone into by our churches. The present ordinary income of the mission fund, falls short, we believe, about L.1200 or L.1400 of the annual expenditure. Apart from congregational missions, the Home and Foreign missions of the Synod require nearly L.5000 annually for carrying them forward, while, last year, only about L.3400 were raised from congregational collections and contributions from missionary associations-the ordinary sources of income on which the Synod is accustomed to depend. Hence the necessity of the extraordinary collection which was made during the year, by which upwards of L.1200 were added to the mission fund. Fully as much will be required, we understand, to carry on our missions for the present year. For the year 1839-40, the sum raised from congregations and congregational societies, amounted to L.4770, 18s. 9d., a difference of nearly L.1400 over that raised from the same sources for the past year! We are quite aware that it would be wrong to ascribe this decrease in the mission fund to a diminished interest on the part of the Secession Church, generally, in the cause of missions.

Although in the Secession, as in other churches, there may be an occasional rising and falling in the degree of zeal which is manifested, and the capacity of her members in respect of means may not be the same at one time as at another, yet the aggregate amount of what is raised on behalf of the missionary cause within her pale, is not so greatly different now as might be supposed from what it was some years ago. Owing to the number of congregational missions which have been undertaken, a considerable portion of those contributions which were wont to find their way into the Synod's Mission Fund, are now appropriated to other objects, although still devoted to the same great work of advancing the kingdom of God. We have reason to know, that at the present moment about L.1000 are expended annually by individual congregations in one branch only of the missionary cause, viz. in the support of city missionary agents, the importance of whose labours among the ignorant and destitute cannot well be estimated. Between L.3000 and L.4000 are also raised by the Secession churches every year in aid of other missions besides their own. The number of congregational missionary enterprises which have thus sprung up of late, diverting the resources of the church into new channels, are quite sufficient to account, to a considerable extent, for the

declension of the Synod's mission fund, without the supposition that the interest in the cause of missions has been growing weaker to any great degree throughout the body. But surely it is right that the Synod's mission fund should be supported. How else is the interest in the Synod's missions to be kept up, or how otherwise are these missions themselves to be carried forward with the energy and enterprise that ought to distinguish the church of the Secession?

Although the necessity of an extraordinary collection, such as that which is contemplated in the beginning of next month, is, perhaps, in some points of view, to be regretted, yet, it cannot be doubted, that an occasional appeal to the churches on the subject of our missions, has also its compensating advantages. It furnishes a favourable opportunity, when rightly improved, of bringing the claims of our missions fairly before the minds of our congregations, and of stirring up their zeal, and the sympathies of the people of God in a cause, their increase of attachment to which furnishes no mean test of their deepening piety, and of the growth of their love to the Redeemer. In the movements of any religious body, much depends on unity of purpose and simultaneousness of action. On this account we are anxious to see a united effort made on behalf of the mission fund of our Synod. This is what is needed at the present time to place our Synod's missions in their proper position, and to enlist those larger sympathies on their behalf which are fitted, by the blessing of God, to call forth the efforts of all classes in our church-ministers, preachers, and people, in taking a deeper share in their advancement and support. We hope that no congregation will act upon a narrow view of duty on the approaching occasion. One thing it will be of the utmost consequence to attend to, and that is, that the day appointed for the collection be kept, unless, perhaps, where the communion is observed, in which case it ought to be made on the Sabbath immediately following. For want of attention to this rule on last occasion, not only was there a want of mutual stimulus and encouragement in some parts of the country, but, in not a few instances, it is to be feared, the collection being put off at the time, was never afterwards attended to. Such congregations are surely called upon to double their contributions this year to make up what was formerly wanting. We are aware that it is the desire of many that the standard of congregational effort should be raised, and that a fear, consequently, is entertained lest such a collection as that which is proposed should be taken advantage of by some congregations to supersede all other exertions. We cannot believe that in the case of any well trained or well principled congregation, this effect will take place. We hope better things of all our congregations, and yet, looking at what is done throughout our church, we have no hesitation in saying, that taking the same number of men and means into account, there is great room for the exertions of our church being equalized. We may anticipate that we shall yet see greater things done as it respects missionary exertion, when "the more permanent and efficient plan" which the Committee of Synod is preparing, comes into operation.

SECESSION DIVINITY HALL.

Meeting with Relief Brethren.-On Friday evening, the 20th September, a deputation of the Relief Hall waited on ours, and a deeply interesting meeting was held in the Hall of the Students' Library, Broughton Place Church, Edinburgh. Mr Alexander M'Ewan, censor of the senior division of our Hall, was called to the chair. After praise, the meeting was opened with prayer by Mr M Crackan of our Hall. The meeting was thereafter addressed by Mr Gunion of the Relief, Mr Graham of the

Secession, and Messrs Sclanders and Ballantyne of the Relief; and, after prayer by Mr Ballantyne of the Secession, the concluding address was delivered by Mr Wallace of our Hall. The speeches were animated and eloquent, and breathed a most delightful spirit of affectionate brotherly regard. After a few appropriate and excellent observations by the chairman, the meeting was closed with praise. The attendance was so excellent, that our students were present almost to an individual; and it seemed to be the sentiment of every one, that our interest in each other was deepened by the mutual expression offervent desire for immediate incorporation.

PRESBYTERIAL NOTICES.

Dunfermline.-The United Associate Presbytery of Dunfermline, met at Limekilns on July 23; when, inter alia, the report of the moderation held in Chalmers Street congregation, on the 1st inst., was received, the conduct of the moderator on the occasion approved, the call, an unanimous one, to the Rev. Mr Walker of Comrie, sustained; reasons of transportation by the congregation read, and the Rev. Mr Gibson appointed commissioner from the presbytery to co-operate with the commissioners from the congregation, to lay the call and accompanying papers on the table of the presbytery of Perth, at its next meeting, and to prosecute it before that presbytery to its result. A letter was read from Mr Dawson, catechist in the mission station of Hillside, Jamaica, giving some interesting information respecting the prosperous condition of that station, and thanking the presbytery for the pecuniary aid afforded by several of their congregations, to the people of that station, in building their place of worship. Reports were received from the district committees of presbytery, for superintending the students, and the students were appointed to be attested, for attending the ensuing session of the Hall. The presbytery met again, at Dunfermline, on the 22d of October, when it appearing from an extract from the minutes of the presbytery of Perth, which was read, in reference to the call to Mr Walker, from the congregation of Chalmers Street, that Mr Walker had accepted the call, and that his pastoral relation to the congregation of Comrie had been dissolved, the presbytery appointed his admission to the charge of Chalmers Street congregation to take place on Wednesday the 6th of November, the Rev. Mr Gibson to preach on the occasion, and the Rev. Mr Mackelvie to preside, and address the minister and the congregation. The students of divinity, under the jurisdiction of the presbytery, were present, and gave an account of their course of study at the past session of the Hall; they were examined on some parts of that course, and had subjects of discourse prescribed to them, together with readings (chap. 1.-lxvi. of Isaiah) in Hebrew, and the Greek of the Septuagint. Mr Hay, one of them, having finished his course of study at the Hall, was entered on trial for license. The presbytery had under consideration the proposal for a salaried agent for the business of the Synod's mission, but delayed the further consideration of it, and their determination on it, till next meeting.

Perth. On the 13th August the presbytery approved of the proposal sent down by the Synod to presbyteries and sessions for consideration,-of having a salaried agent for the business of the Synod's Missions. On Sept. 14, the meeting of presbytery was opened, according to appointment, by an address by Mr Newlands on the obligations of ministers to edify one another by stated religious exercises. The presbytery took up the consideration of a call to Mr Walker of Comrie from the congregation of Chalmers Street, Dunfermline, in the Presbytery of Dunfermline, which had been laid on the table at the previous meeting. After commissioners

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