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ing, your increase is fully sufficient to enable you to keep up and extend your Scheme in the forthcoming year. I may mention that the Committee recommend, that during the ensuing year, the plan of having a monthly collection at the Church-doors should be discontinued. That plan has been found to work ill. The reports received from all parts of the country state, that it is found to interfere both with the ordinary and extraordinary collections. The Committee, therefore, recommend that it should be discontinued, and that in its stead it should be enjoined on every congregation that it should make a contribution every month in some way or other to this fund, leaving it to the discretion of the Deacons' Court to determine how it should be done. Upon this point, if it is necessary, I shall afterwards go more into detail, and also upon the subject of the constitution. I think the subject of the constitution must be disposed of to-night. It is, however, perhaps unnecessary to mix it up with the giving in of the report at present. The report states that opinions have been obtained from the Presbyteries of the Church upon the Interim Report sent down to them. Certain modifications were made in the constitution by the Presbyteries, almost all of which have been adopted. If you pass the constitution, the report will be transmitted to Presbyteries in the form of an overture, in terms of the barrier act. I cannot draw this subject to a close without giving in a few words what, had time permitted, I would have given in print, and which I shall yet endeavour to give in print, as the conclusion of the Report. The conclusion I wish to make to this report is simply this, that your Committee are more and more deeply impressed by the experience of every year with the vast and vital importance of the Free Church of Scotland providing an educational machinery at least commensurate with her ecclesiastical machinery; and an educational machinery equally sound in principle, and equally efficient as regards the best and highest interests of the people. (Hear, hear.) I have been led perhaps to speak more than was meet in the way of apparent boasting. I have been led, perhaps, on the part of the Committee, to speak more than was meet in the way of exultation. I have been led to bring forward assertions regarding the intellectual efficiency both of our normal schools and of our ordinary schools. If I have been tempted to err in this respect, it has just been from the deep sense which I entertain of the value of this educational institute; and because I earnestly desire that whatever questions this Church may have to entertain relative to education,-whatever collateral topics may come before the House, she should take up these questions and topics, not as a Church drowning, and catching at straws-(applause)—not as a Church driven to her last resources, but as a Church which, through faith, has entered upon a noble work, and which, as yet at least, has had no cause to do anything else but thank God, and take courage. (Applause.) I will not ask you this evening to prejudge future questions. All I say is this, that the Free Church of Scotland should take up all questions of education just now with these two settled convictions deeply rooted in the minds of all her members; first, that, let other parties in the land do what they may, and let other schemes of whatsoever kind be proposed, this Free Church of Scotland cannot, and dare not, abandon the duty which God has laid upon her, of providing for the thoroughly Christian training and godly upbringing of the youth of the land; and the other conviction I would desire to be deeply rooted in the mind of every man is, that we have abundant evidence already, without that straining,—without extraordinary effort, without an assessment or tax of a burdensome nature being laid upon our people,that we have it in our power, if God will but give us faith, to carry out our plan to the fullest extent which the fondest imagination ever devised; and that independent of all other resources but just the free-will offerings of God's people. (Great applause.) I say again, that I make no pretension to pledge either myself or this Assembly on coming questions; but I confess that I was most anxious that this House should have plainly brought before it such a report,-which is not varnished, which is not exaggerated, but which is supported and substantiated, as you will soon see when the Appendix comes out, by an amount of details and of figures—such a report as must satisfy the Church; first, that the path of duty upon which they have entered, is a path which in no case can they have liberty to abandon; and, secondly, that it is a path in which they need have no hesitation in boldly going forward. (Applause.) I will just close with remarking, that while I have been led to dwell upon the intellectual and practical efficiency of our schools,--our normal and our ordinary schools, -partly, I confess, because of some tendency which exists, I think, in some quarters

of the Church, prematurely to be discouraged and to despond,-while I have been led to this, let it be ever understood that it is the mind of your Committee, and I trust it will be the mind of the Assembly and of the Church, that the distinctive character of these your schools is not their high scholarships,-not their intense practical efficiency, but their godly character,--their character as being schools taught by men of God,―their character as being pervaded throughout all the branches of instruction communicated in them with the very vital spirit of the gospel. (Applause.) It is indeed true that the people of Scotland have not perhaps that preference which once they had for religious and godly schools. It is indeed true that the people of Scotland will not now, perhaps, give such a preference to a godly schoolmaster, as to make them prefer him, in spite of his defective attainments, to a man of less piety, but with higher qualifications otherwise. That is true. I do not wish it to be otherwise. I do not desire any change in this particular among the people of Scotland. I do not wish that this Church should make a gain of godliness, or should seek to win people to her schools from the mere character of godliness that pervades them. I am ambitious for the Free Church attaining the character of a highly intellectual and highly accomplished Church, ranking high among the educational institutions of the land(applause) but I cannot but think that, notwithstanding all that has passed over the people of Scotland, they have still, from the bottom of their hearts, a preference for schools in which they shall have security for the godly upbringing of their children. (Applause.) It is quite true that the long reign of Moderatism during the last century went far to shake the principles of the people of our beloved country. It is quite true that the blight which came over the Church came also over the schools of Scotland. (Hear.) We know right well the system under which the schools of Scotland were managed. We know the kind of men who were appointed to these schools in generations past. Many of us who have lived in country parishes, remember the kind of drones and sluggards—(laughter)—who were put into parish schools-men often with no religious character, and many of them with no moral character to maintain; and it is no wonder if, under such a system, the people of Scotland have got too familiar with an ungodly system of education. They got too familiar with an ungodly system in the Church. They got too familiar with Moderate preaching in the ministry; and it is no wonder that they also got too familiar with the godless system of education. The effect of this is to be seen in all classes of the community,-in the higher and lower. In the upper classes, it is to be deplored that there is so little regard for the godly character of the schools in which their children are taught. An amendment is, however, going on in this respect. A similar process of improvement is going on among all the population; and I venture to say that it is not the duty of the Church to proceed upon the existing fact of a taste and preference for religious education being greatly lost, from the past abuses which have prevailed in the land; but rather, that it is the duty of the Church to proceed upon the principle of elevating the taste and recreating the preference for the highest possible intellectual, and the deepest possible moral and spiritual training. (Great applause.) And this, I repeat, is the great enterprise which God has given to this Church to achieve. She is the only body in all the land that can at present achieve it. All other educationists are at sea. They have all their nostrums. (Laughter.) They have all their devices. One man proposes this kind of education, and another man proposes that. Statesmen, politicians, Establishments, Dr Hook of Leeds, and all the rest of them, are all at sea upon this question; but the Free Church of Scotland is not thus at sea. She has her settled moorings. She has her principles fixed; and I trust they are unalterably fixed. (Great applause.) She knows what an inheritance she got from her fathers. She knows what an inheritance she is bound to hand down to her children. She knows that the Bible is the Word of God. She knows that the truth is contained in her Catechisms and her Confession of Faith, the truth of God, according to His Word. She has no doubt, no hesitation here; and she can go forth, whatever other parties may do, and whether she can co-operate with them or no, she can go forth, giving no uncertain sound, not halting, not hesitating, but giving to the people of Scotland an education keeping pace, in point of intellectual efficiency, with the highest attainments of this intellectual age, and yet pervaded throughout by the deepest spirit,that reverence, that awe, that sound religious feeling, that characterised the fathers of our Scottish Reformation. (Loud and prolonged applause.)

Dr LAIRD, after making a few observations, proposed that the Report should be approved of and adopted, and that the thanks of the Assembly should be given to the Convener of the Committee.

Mr SHEPHERD of Kingussie said, he had much pleasure in seconding the motion for the adoption of the Report which had been submitted to the Assembly by the Convener of the Education Committee. He rejoiced to think that this great scheme of Christian education had been so auspiciously begun by the goodness of God, and he trusted it would go prosperously onward until the blessings of a Christain educatien should be extended over the length and breadth of the land. He thought of all their Schemes there was none which had a more urgent and paramount claim on their prayers, their personal exertions and pecuniary contributions. It was deplorable to think that thousands and tens of thousands of the youth of their native land, particularly in their great towns and in many of their country parishes, were still in a state of degraded ignorance, exposed to every wile and temptation, and also to dangers of every kind. A remedy, by the grace of God, must be applied to this crying evil; and he trusted they were disposed, each in his own sphere, to contribute his exertions to this great end, that by the blessing of God it might be accomplished. He believed it was peculiarly incumbent upon them all, and especially upon those whom God has blessed with worldly substance, to come forward and contribute of their pecuniary means to the support of this Scheme, and at the same time, by supplications to the throne of grace, to implore that it might be crowned with triumphant success. While he would earnestly plead for the whole of their native land, he would especially press upon their attention the claims of the Highland population. Some of the most efficient teachers in that part of the country had not more than £15 salary a-year. This arose from the want of funds. They knew that the Convener of the Education Committee made liberal responses to the applications which were sent in to that Committee; but still they were unable to supply a suitable salary. Many in the district schools had still more limited allowances; and while the Church came readily forward to relieve the wants of their suffering countrymen, and enable them to avoid the horrors of famine, surely they would be found to take another step in advance; and while they so liberally gave them the bread that perishes, they would likewise give them the bread which cometh down from heaven,-the bread that tends to everlasting life; and by the blessing of God's grace, the whole of the sufferings of the people would be sanctified to their spiritual as well as their temporal welfare. But especially he conceived that the Highland population had a peculiar claim upon them, because there, it might be said, the Free Church of Scotland was more triumphant than in any other part of the country. It was not the Established Church, but the Free Church, which was looked to for the whole of the teachers in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland; their schools were all numerously attended, and in many instances they were full to overflowing; and many of the brethren in the low country, as well as those resident in the Highlands, could bear testimony that they had proved stedfast amidst the severest privations; that although driven by the iron hand of oppression to worship God according to their conscience in the open air, they have remained faithful to the Church of their fathers, and to the cause of their God. They had stood stedfast amidst all opposition, and surely they must use every exertion on their behalf, and give to their children a suitable education in connection with that Church, which was associated in their minds and in their remembrances with everything sacred, and everything solemnizing. And he might venture to say that they had excellent materials to work upon. When he spoke thus in favour of the Highland population, he might take the liberty of saying that he was not a Highlander himself. He had the honour to be an adopted Highlander, and he had been long acquainted with that interesting country, and he would venture to say that they have an acuteness and intelligence of mind, a warmth of feeling, and a grateful recollection of the smallest favours, equalled by few, and surpassed by none. Might he venture to plead their cause on the highest consideration that could be brought forward, the value of their immortal souls? Many of the parents of those children were most anxious to receive instruction at their hand. Many of the parents of the children for whom he pled, under God, had proved the safeguards of their country. They had been enabled to fight the battles of their country, and some of them had shed their blood, that their rights might be maintained; and were they not bound to

give to them in return what was not to be found amidst the confused noise of the battle, that form of truth to which they were attached,—and render them as distinguished as heroes of the Cross, as their fathers were distinguished as heroes in the field. Many of their Highland population must rejoice in anticipation of the blessing of a religious education which this Scheme promised to provide for them; and many of the members of their Church might have it in their power to avail themselves of the highest blessing which God hath put in their power, that of contributing to the extension of a scheme of so much importance to the best interests of the people, as well as the cause of religion. The more this subject was brought before them, the more would the people generally be stirred up to become sharers in their blessed work. He would not trespass farther on the time of the Assembly, but would give his cordial approbation to the plan now submitted for extending education over the length and breadth of the land. He trusted they would not cease to go perseveringly on with the Scheme, until they had established an efficient agency, not only for the education of the Highland population, but for all their population, an education for the youth of their land, which would prove not only useful on earth, but which would be an assistance to heaven. He trusted they would persevere until their parched land becomes like the pools of water, and the wilderness becomes like unto a fertile field. (Applause.)

Mr DONALD of Sheuchan said, he begged simply to propose that it should be a rule that the teachers be required to subscribe the Confession of Faith and Formula. He would move that as an amendment to the adoption of the report.

Dr CLASON said, that subject had not come before them. The plan and constitution were not before the Assembly; it was merely the Report which had been read. Mr Sheriff MONTEITH said, he thought the remark of the gentleman who had last spoken suggested the propriety of a very calm and deliberate consideration of the report. He most cordially concurred in any principle which would secure to their youth a thorough Christian education; but what has been alluded to was more in regard to the constitution than to the report. But there was no denying that it involved questions of great difficulty and delicacy. If they were to be called upon again, however, to take the constitution into consideration separately, the motion before the House might be modified, or at least some limitation might be made in it in regard to the report before the House. He was aware that Dr Candlish stated that the constitution was to be separately discussed; but the motion was, that they should approve of the report, which contained the principle alluded to by the reverend gentleman. He only wished that it should appear on the record that they reserved themselves upon some of the points contained in the Report.

The Rev. Mr ANDERSON said, he begged to support the report in its present form. He was aware of the difficulty and disadvantage of rising, in such an audience as this, after the eloquent statement which had been made by Dr Candlish, the Convener of the Education Committee; but having been, in the course of the providence of God, called to labour as a minister in a very poor and destitute locality, his attention had been powerfully drawn to the state of education, or rather to the want of it, which prevailed among the poorer classes, and the evils which resulted from such a state of things; and the conviction was then pressed on his mind, and it had been deepened by all his subsequent experience ever since, that it was one of the greatest boons that the Christian Church, or Christian philanthropists, could confer upon the common people of this country, to provide them with teachers who should be men of personal piety, of high attainments in literature, and in every respect of superior qualifications. Now, the question was, how was this to be done? He had been accustomed of late, among some of the objections thoughtlessly brought against this Scheme of their Church, to hear it said that the school fees were quite enough to give to their teachers, that the poor people could afford to pay for the teaching of their own children. But he maintained that that system had been tried long enough, and that its advocates could not complain that we should ask them to stand by that test which was admitted as a fair one in all such cases,-"by its fruits shall it be known." Those fruits were now to be seen in the miserable ignorance which prevailed in the large towns, and also in the more thinly populated country parishes. (Hear, hear.) He did not think it was enough that teachers should have only the small fees which poor parents could afford to pay for the education of their children; and experience

had shown that this was not enough, and that under the system private teachers attended almost entirely to those classes for which they were most highly paid, and left the poor, who could only afford to pay small fees, to be taught by a very inferior description of men. Therefore it appeared to him that they must provide some sort of endowment ab extra to their teachers, to enable them to secure the services of efficient labourers; and he could not help expressing the high satisfaction which he had this night enjoyed, in finding that so much had been done in accomplishing this end, by providing salaries to supplement the small fees of the children of the poor attending their schools. He rejoiced that the Committee had succeeded so well in this matter. Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which they had been placed during last year, he found that they had been enabled to provide salaries for the first class of their teachers of £30, for the second class £20, and that £15 was the minimum. When it was announced some years ago by a respected brother, that he had succeeded in raising the means of building 500 schools, the announcement was received with the greatest gladness; but, to his mind, the fact announced to-night, although less dazzling, was not less important,-namely, that salaries had been provided for a greater number than would occupy all of those schools, the Committee having provided salaries for 530 teachers already. This fact, he repeated, although less dazzling, was not less important than the announcement of their being able to erect 500 schools; for it was not the stone and lime merely, but the living agencies, and living agencies of a proper kind, which were necessary to educate the people; and they could not get proper living agencies unless they paid such salaries to their teachers as would secure the services of able men. He rejoiced at the enlightened views taken by the Education Committee on this point. While they aimed at attaining high intellectual acquirements on the part of their teachers, those who paid attention to the matter would see that they had made the greatest improvements in their Normal Schools, by instructing the students in the classics and in mathematics,-to say nothing of the recommendation in the Report that they should give an entire year's attendance at the College. It was part of the system to provide a thoroughly religious training for the teachers themselves. But he was delighted to find, that not only were those teachers instructed in religion, but that they were called in a certain way to labour as missionaries,— that they were sent forth to destitute localities in this city and in Glasgow, and thus undergoing an admirable process of training for being efficient in their future labours. This was important, not only to those schools which were called missionary schools, but to their congregational schools, which were, to a large extent, missionary schools. Now, he did not know any way in which the Church could act more as a missionary church, than by the establishment of such congregational schools. In the case of his own congregation, they had sent a considerable number of children to the school from the very first, selected not from amongst the members of their own Church, or their own congregation, but more frequently by following the Scriptural injunction of going to the highways and byways, and compelling them to come in. In this way, he believed, they were teaching the children both of practical and professed infidels, and he did not think they would be doing their duty as a Church if they did not act in this way. The congregational schools ought to continue, to some extent, worthy of being denominated missionary schools. It was of great importance, therefore, that teachers should have an education of this missionary character, which was calculated to train and fit them for the efficient performance of their religious duties. There was no mention, he observed, in the Report of a class of schools which might be termed gymnasia of an elementary character, but holding a middle position between their existing elementary schools and their colleges. It was well that they should direct their attention to the poor at the first; but they would find that it would be better, for the sake of the poor themselves, that this Church should take up the education of the influential middle classes; and he hoped by next year that, in addition to such a scheme as had been tabled to-night, it would be in the power of their Committee to state that they have a greater number of those secondary schools planted throughout the length and breadth of Scotland. (Hear, hear.) It had been stated that the Report was not complete, and he knew it was not complete, in so far as giving a full view of their educational exertions was concerned; for in the town in which he resided there was one of those schools which he had recommended, which was not yet in connection with the general scheme of the Free Church; but he hoped before next

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