the fullest opportunity of doing good service to the souls of men. (Applause.) Was it not a matter for the man on a sick-bed to refer to with seriousness, that the clergyman, perhaps, who was waiting upon him, had to reflect, it might be, that while his sick charge was surrounded with all the comforts and elegancies of life, he had left a wife and amily at home, not in the most comfortable condition? It did not follow, because a man complained not, that he might not be enduring painful sensations,-it did not follow that all was smooth within, because all was smooth on the countenances of these holy men. For himself, he would never forget the feelings that came upon him when, on the day of the Disruption, he saw men with a smile on their faces leaving their all to follow Christ in the way their consciences preferred, regardless of the temporal consequences. That sight he never could and never would forget. (Applause.) One word more, and he would conclude. He hoped that all who heard him would take this matter home to themselves, reflect upon it seriously, and then act as their consciences should direct. Religion itself was no vague sentiment--it was a rational and practical thing—and, with religion in this matter, their duties were identified. Let it then be brought before every man and every woman in this country, that ministers were but men like ourselves,-that they required to live, eat, to drink, and sleep like other men, in order to be able properly to discharge the business of their high office; and, in contributing to the fund necessary for their support, it was surely gratifying to reflect. that men were thereby aiding to spread abroad a knowledge of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour. (Applause.)

Dr CANDLISH said,-I feel myself constrained to remind the Assembly that there are some practical matters connected with the efficient working of this very Scheme which must be disposed of before we adjourn to-night, as it is utterly impossible to find another place for them during the sitting of the Assembly. I would therefore propose, after a few remarks on the subject occupying our attention, that we should proceed to take up the overtures that lie upon the table in reference to Deacons' Courts, and other matters that vitally and materially bear upon this important Fund. I think it may be right to remind the Assembly, in a single sentence, of the actual state of this great Fund. It is this. The Committee have reported to us a decided increase on the Fund, and a small decrease in the stipend or dividend; and this brings out the real position of the Fund at this moment. There is no failure in any sense of the term,—there is no going back in this important Fund, but there is a going forward on the part of the Church in the planting of charges, and in the preaching of the everlasting gospel. (Hear, hear.) The Fund is not retrogading. The Fund is not, even with all the drawbacks we have had this year, stationary. It is increasing; and that, too, in circumstances which ought to be noticed, namely, that with a considerable decrease of those extraordinary contributions that were made for a few years after the Disruption, the decrease in these has been more than counterbalanced by the progressive increase from our congregational associations. But with this advance on the Fund, there is a decrease in the stipend or dividend, simply because the Church, in her spiritual movement, is advancing and making progress, with God's blessing, in the way of taking possession of the whole land. Now, this being the state of this Fund, of course, independently altogether of the weighty remarks which fell from the Chair, all delicacy must be now, and henceforth and for ever, at an end. (Hear, hear.) And now it plainly appears that it is the progress and extension of the Church that is to be promoted by the increase of the Sustentation Fund. (Hear, hear.) And it plainly appears, moreover, that we are brought into a position in which it will be truly discreditable to the Church and the people of Scotland if we shall be left another year. If it comes to this, that the support of the existing ministry, and the extension of the means of grace among the destitute population of the land are competing and conflicting claims,—if it comes to this, that these are antagonist to one another, the honour of the Church is gone,-Ichabod may be written against her, her glory is departed. (Applause.) No power of human virtue,-I would go further, and say, no promise of divine grace will warrant us in such circumstances to hope that the Church can be faithful. If it is brought to such a point as this, that these interests are conflicting and antagonist,-the comfortable maintenance of the existing ministry, and the extension of the means of grace,-all ordinary calculation will at once tell you what must be the issue; and we have no promise in the Word of God, in that case, to rely upon. The promise in the Word of

God is bound up with the discharge of duty; and of that duty among the rest,"Whoso provideth not for his own, and especially for those of his own household, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." If I go forth among the naked and the hungry in the land, and dispense to them bread at the expense of my own ,family, I sin against the Lord, and I break that solemn commandment. (Hear.) Now, we are the ministers of your household,- —we are your family. (Applause.) Your first duty is to provide for us, if you would not deny the faith, and be worse than infidels; and if you fail in the discharge of that duty, any efforts you may make to dispense the means of grace to the destitute in the land, must want the Divine blessing, having no warrant out of the Word of God. I feel that we have heard, perhaps, fully enough to-night about the delicacy and embarrassments which ministers feel in reference to this question. I have no hesitation in saying, that if there be any delicacy in our minds, it is the duty of the Assembly and of the Church to put forth a strong band, and compel all ministers, whether they be delicate or not--(a laugh) to preach plainly the doctrine of God,-"Whoso preach the gospel, must live by the gospel." I think there are several matters of detail that will require our consideration immediately; and I may refer here to one matter of that kind in connection with this very topic. A good deal has been said of the comparative efficiency of deputations sent forth to address week-day meetings, and of discourses delivered from the pulpit on the Sabbath. I draw no comparison between the two kinds of agency; simply say that both are best. (Hear, hear.) I simply say that deputations to do the week-day work,-enlightening and addressing the people, are a legitimate means in which we may hope, by the blessing of God; but I must say that preaching the solemn truth from the Word of God, that they who hear the word at our mouth, and to whom we minister in spiritual things, are bound to minister to us in carnal things, being an ordinance of God, we have a right to reckon upon God's blessing in the use of it. But if there are any of our friends who feel that something ought to be done to make us preach upon this subject, or to bring it before our people from the pulpit, the Committee, in their Report, have suggested one method, namely, the issuing of a pastoral address on the subject, and the appointment of a particular day on which ministers are to preach on the doctrine of God's word, relating to the duty to which I have referred, that "Whoso preach the gospel must live by the gospel." If, however, more than this is necessary, I would take leave to offer one suggestion of a practical kind. It is known to the Assembly that there is an act requiring a monthly congregational meeting to be held, for the purpose of hearing reports as to the state of this great fund. That monthly congregational meeting is regularly held in many of our churches. It is held in many of them on a week-day evening. I do not know what may be the experience of my fathers and brethren in relation to this matter. My own experience in reference to these week-night meetings is discouraging and deplorable in the last degree. I get a handful of the ladies of my congregation to attend, but it is always the same persons, and the very persons I do not care to see at all at these meetings. (Laughter.) They are the very persons who have no need of any statement or exhortation I can lay before them-(hear, hear) and I have really almost come to look upon these monthly meetings, going through the form of reading reports, as singularly irksome, just because I find them so useless. (Hear, hear, hear.) But I have no objection whatever that the Assembly should authorise, and empower, and enjoin me to make the very same statement I do on the first Monday evening of every month, on the first Sabbath afternoon of every month, as it rolls over my head. (Hear, hear.) I believe it would be a salutary change, and that it would be a suitable method of compelling, if it be necessary, that the ministers should bring before their people, month by month, the plain state of the case,-namely, whether they are or are not doing their duty in reference to the means of propagating the Gospel in this our native land. I rejoice in the resolution to which I trust the house will unanimously come, in regard to a sort of promise or pledge, of our determination as to what the minimum stipend shall be for the ensuing year, that is to say, that, the Lord helping us, the stipend, out of the common fund, should be to every minister not less than £150, without any deduction for the widows' rate, or any other cause. (Applause.) I understand that this house, this night, and through this house, I understood the Church at large, are willing to stand, as in the sight of God, solemnly pledged and committed to this undertaking in faith, believing assuredly that the purpose, which is in accord

D d

ance undoubtedly with the word and will of Christ, the Head, will not want his blessing, who hath the hearts of all the members in his holy keeping. (Hear.) Several plans to accomplish this have been talked of to-night. Mr Speirs has suggested a plan, in connection with a certain scale of proportional increase in the different congregations, by which the sum of £25,000 may be raised, in addition to what is raised at present; and Mr Campbell of Monzie has proposed another, to accomplish the work. Now, comparisons are odious; and I draw no comparison here; but I just repeat that both are best. (Hear, hear.) I trust that both plans will be vigorously promoted. I think that the suggestions which have been thrown out show that we are not really engaging in any Utopian undertaking,-not pledging ourselves to what is impracticable,-not wanting in that wisdom that should lead us to count the cost. I presume that it will be the mind of this House that the formal finding of the Assembly should be postponed to a future diet, until the matters of detail are adjusted. Before concluding, I beg to say, that the true note and tone have been given by those who spoke of the coming generation. (Hear, hear). Scotland, as it seems to me, in so far as the Free Church is concerned, is now put on her trial. She got from the great Head of the Church, at the time of the Disruption, a ministry, of which, without boasting,-glory be to Him in whose hands the minister is but an instrument; for who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers of whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man; but the Lord, at the time of the Disruption, gave to the people of this land that are in communion with the Free Church, a ministry of high order, I will say no more. (Hear, hear, hear.) And the test of your faith, and your stedfastness in connection with the principles of the Free Church of Scotland, is just this, will you transmit to the generation following, a ministry of an order equally high? You are bound to seek the ministry from God. If you desire to transmit to coming generations a ministry equally high both in ordinary endowments and in the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, you can no where seek it. You remember the command of our Lord,-" Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest;" but the prayer will be the prayer of hypocrisy, if means be not employed in order that the ministers that have been set up be maintained; and their number added to. We must reckon according to the ordinary tendencies of hu man affairs; and it is needless for a moment to imagine, that zeal for God's cause will prompt ministers of high standing to come forward and serve at the altar, if the people are not doing their duty. (Hear, hear.) They have no right to ask the ministers to serve them for nought. They have no right to expect that God will give them ministers so to serve them. And I trust that this very Assembly will have its attention yet called at a future stage to this precise subject, namely, the bringing forward of young men for the ministry, and to this particular view of the subjects, which seems to me most important, namely, that the Free Church of Scotland is entitled to expect that all the different classes in her communion, from the highest to the lowest, shall be fairly represented in the ministry of the gospel. (Hear, hear.) She has a right to tax the families connected with her communion, in whatever style of life they move, and to require from the families of all the people, of all ranks and classes connected with her communion, a portion of their sons to serve at the altar. I trust that this principle will be upheld both now and in future years. Let it be understood that the Church, or rather the Head of the Church, has a claim upon all classes in the com munion of the Church. The rich ought to send a portion of their sons. when they give us a portion of theirs, will not be refused by us or by our Head. (Applause.) But if we wish that a ministry should be thus kept up, as fairly representing all classes of the people connected with us, we believe, under God, that the best security, humanly speaking, is, that the principle should be carried out of an endowment,- -an endowment provided, not, indeed, now by the State, but provided by the liberality of the Christian people, and such an endowment as secures to the ministers of our disestablished Church somewhat of that independence,--somewhat of that freedom from cankering care,—and somewhat of that security for their homes, which alone to spiritual men can ever make the advantages of an endowment desirable. Mr CAMPBELL of Monzie said that he begged to explain that his scheme must follow that of Mr Speirs to make it at all effectual, as 500 men giving each £5, would only realise a sum of £2500. If, however, 500 individuals gave £50 each, that would raise £25,000. He did not see what was to prevent that being done, if people had only the hearts to do it.

The poor,

Mr CRICHTON rose for the purpose of making an explanation. His motion, as it now stood, was a simple approval of the Report, as the suggestion he had thrown out in reference to the eldership was now embraced in it.

The Assembly then approved of the Report of the Sustentation Committee, but deferred the farther deliverance till a future diet.

DEACONS' COURTS.

The Assembly then took up two overtures,-one from the Presbytery of Aberdeen, and the other from the Presbytery of Edinburgh,-on the subject of Deacons' Courts; also certain overtures on the subject of the Sustentation Fund and Seat-rents.

Mr GRAY of Perth said, he wished the Assembly, in taking up the subject regarding Deacons' Courts, to advert to this fact, that the act of Assembly for regulating that matter was an act strongly called for at the time it was passed. It was during the heat of the Disruption that acts were passed upon this subject, in the Assemblies of May and October 1843; and he believed the construction which had been put upon these acts was, in many cases, that the financial affairs of congregations should be placed exclusively in the hands of the Deacous. He believed it would be found to be the case, that such a power was generally considered to be vested in the deacons by the act of 1843, in Deacons' Courts which consisted of the deacons alone. He wanted the Assembly to advert to the circumstance, that the act which now regulated that matter corrected that unscriptural practice,-that most unscriptural practice, of confining the administration of their financial affairs within their congregations to the deacons alone. By the Act passed by the Assembly two years ago, with the consent of a majority of Presbyteries, that matter was put upon a scriptural and constitutional footing. (Hear, hear.) Now, all the office-bearers of the Church, ministers, elders, and deacons, were constituted the guardians and managers of its financial affairs. That act achieved a great benefit for the Church, in correcting an admitted evil, but some of their friends still complained, and seemed rather to have forgotten, that although not in all respects perfect, it achieved a great benefit, and was at least a step in the direction which they themselves desired. Beyond this point, which the act settled, in removing what he considered an unscriptural and unconstitutional practice, he did not think there was any disposition in the Church to go farther, believing that, on the whole, they had attained a right medium in regard to this matter. Now, he wished the Assembly to consider that the Deacons' Court ought not to be held as a co-ordinate court with the Session. The Session sitting in temporalibus, with the deacons as members of it, constituted the Deacons' Court. The deacons were members of Session, in regard to temporal matters, and, having a voice in the Session as such, administered the temporal affairs of the Church. A question had sometimes been raised as to the jurisdiction of these Courts, and an exception had been taken to the name by which they were designated. That there ought to be Deacons' Courts was not disputed. That was a compendious phrase, and it was necessary to have a convenient phrase. It was consequently suggested that they ought to designate the ministers and elders sitting along with the deacons on temporal matters, Deacons' Courts. Now, in regard to the jurisdiction of the Deacons' Courts, it had been asked, whether they had any exclusive power which could not be appealed from? That was not settled in the act, because the general law of the Church settled the question. It was a principle of the Presbyterian Church, he thought, that no absolutely exclusive jurisdiction could be exercised on the part of any of the inferior judicatories. There might, in the administration of Deacons' Courts, be many things the Assembly would refuse to entertain, and that even the Presbyteries would refuse to take up, or to look into at all; but he believed that, in the case of any complaints in regard to the malversation, or mal-administration of the funds, a proper appeal did lie from the Deacons' Court to the Presbytery. He wished to say a word in regard to the practice of the deacons not only sitting in session with the elders on temporal matters, but on matters spiritual. That practice was one for which they had the authority of precedent; but it was a practice he thought, and he submitted the opinion with great deference, of very doubtful advantage. He was afraid that, if the practice of deacons sitting on all occasions as members of Session was recognised, and generally acted upon, the line of distinction would come to be lost sight of between the offices. The deacon was, in all practical respects, an elder when the Session was sitting in spiritualibus; and the line coming to be obliterated, tended very much to the state of things, he believed, which had existed

before the Disruption, when it was only here and there that a few deacons were to be found connected with the congregations of the Church within all their bounds. But he did believe that the best plan in all cases was not to have the deacons, in the ordinary circumstances, and in the ordinary proceedings, of the Session, present at all. He did think it was necessary to preserve a complete distinction between the eldership and the deaconship of the Church, and to keep a separate register of the Session and of the Deacons' Court. When they laid down the rules for the Deacons' Courts in the Act of Assembly, it was not mentioned that the resignation of deacons was not to be addressed to the Deacons' Court, but to the Session. Now that must be explained. It ought to be known that the Session were the only parties to whom a resignation of the deaconship could be addressed, and who were authorised to decide when an election of office-bearers should take place. In short, it was necessary to draw a line in such matters as this between the jurisdiction of the Session and the jurisdiction of the Deacons' Courts. He thought that would be an advantage. At the same time, he had to beg that his fathers and brethren would make themselves acquainted with the law, as it at present stood, for he was convinced that some mistakes had arisen very much from the circumstance that the brethren had really not read the law which regulated the whole matter of Deacons' Courts. For instance, he lately met with a brother, who told him he did not know whether he had the power ex propria motu to convene a Deacons' Court. Now, some unfortunate prejudice had gone abroad against the act, in consequence of the law not being really understood. Nothing could be more plain than that it was provided that meetings of the Deacons' Court were to be called by the authority of the minister. He would also mention another misapprehension which some brethren had gone into. Some thought that the act discouraged the presence of ministers at the meetings of the Deacons' Courts. This was entirely a misapprehension. The act did the very reverse. It did not hold, indeed, that there could be no meeting without the minister being present; and he was not inclined to go that length; and he did not think the Church would be inclined to go the length of saying that it was essential that no meeting should take place without the presence of the pastor. He had great doubts of the propriety or advantage of making it imperative that the minister must always be present at the meetings of those who were the trustees and managers of the temporal affairs of the Church. He did not see any scriptural principle to make such a rule necessary. But he was of opinion that they should encourage the attendance of the minister at these meetings, that he might preside in his own Court among his own office-bearers. (Hear, hear.) The act did encourage the attendance of the ministers. If a meeting was to be convened, it was intimated from the pulpit, and was called by the authority of the minister: and, of course, when it was called by the authority of the minister, he must fix the time so as to make it convenient for himself, as well as the other office-bearers, to attend. No doubt it was provided, that at the requisition of any three members, a meeting of the Deacons' Court might be called; but that was in no way inconsistent with what he said about the power of the minister, as it was not said, and not meant, that the requisitionists should fix the day and hour of the meeting. He remembered a brother minister objecting to the act, on the ground that a meeting of the Deacons' Court might be held and the minister not know of it. He (Mr Gray) told him he could not have read the act, as any requisition, calling a meeting, must be addressed to the minister. The whole power of the Deacons to obtain a meeting consisted in any three of them being at liberty to obtain a meeting; but the minister, on his responsibility, fixed the time; of course, if he abused his power, he might be complained of and called before a superior court. The minister, on his responsibility, determined the time of meeting to suit his own convenience and that of the other office-bearers; and, consequently, no meeting could be held without his knowing of it, and being present, if he pleased. If men would not read the act, and still complained of its provisions, the Assembly could not help it. In regard to some of the matters he had mentioned, a declaratory act might be passed to explain them; but a declaratory act to say that meetings must be called by the minister would be of no use, as that was in the present act; and if they would not read the one act, they would not read the other. (Hear.) There were some things, however, which it was necessary to explain and define by a declaratory act. There was one important clause, viz., the third clause of the fourth section of the act. That clause defined the powers of the Deacons' Courts. Having read the clause, he continued,