RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

HOME. SCOTLAND.-During the last three months deputations from the Free Church have been traversing all Scotland, "testifying the gospel of the grace of God." The results of their labours cannot of course be yet ascertained. But we have reason to believe, they have not been in vain. These evangelists went forth, followed by many prayers, and the seed thus extensively sown, shall not be lost. Something has been accomplished by this movement already, and we trust that next summer will witness the carrying into effect of similar measures, yet more extensive and mature. Some parts of the plan-such as that for supplying vacancies, will require to be simplified. If one synod were appointed to exchange with another synod, or at least if some regular method of exchange were devised, much confusion and inconvenience might be spared.

ENGLAND.-There has also been a deputation to the northern counties of England on the same errand as the other,-simply for the preaching of the gospel. The head-quarters were Newcastle; but the labours of the evangelists extended to Sunderland, North and South Shields, and Carlisle. No localities are more destitute than these, or present more important fields of labour. But one effort will accomplish little. There must be a series of prolonged and vigorous efforts to carry the gospel into these regions where Satan reigns. Popery, Puseyism, and infidelity at present divide the field with each other. The glad tidings of a free forgiveness through the blood of the Son of God is the only thing that can meet the terrible evil, and heal these running sores. To Newcastle these evangelists went, by two and two in succession, for six weeks. Every night they preached somewhere. Generally one went to the market-place and another to the church. Right opposite the ancient church of St Nicholas, which is the strong-hold of Puseyism, they proclaimed to hundreds of solemnised hearers the unsearchable riches of Christ. Some mocked, some cavilled, some cried out against the preacher, but the majority acknowledged the power of the truth. Many such interesting crowds surrounded the herald of salvation, and many a careless passer-by was constrained to listen to truths which he would not go to the sanctuary to hear. But as we have no positive intelligence of direct success as yet,-beyond the intense interest created in the religious community among more denominations than one, we need not dwell further on this matter.

IRELAND. In reference to the progress of the gospel in this country, we know little The following extract from the journal of the Rev. J. Edmonds, one of the home missionaries employed by the Presbytery of Tyrone, will give our readers a correct idea of the progress of the work of God in some of the dark regions of Ireland. It contains much both to interest and to stimulate the heart of a believer; and much also to arouse the energies of a Presbyterian.

My appointment to the itinerant department of the work of the Home Mission took place on the 23d January last. Immediately after, I took a rapid survey of the field committed to my care, within the bounds of the Presbytery of Athlone, and was at once convinced of the wisdom of the Assembly in commencing this hitherto untried plan of advancing the Saviour's kingdom by the Irish Presbyterian Church.

"I have been able, in the good providence of God, in some degree, to attend to the instructions of the directors of our missions- To itinerate, preaching the word of God wherever God may open a door, making known the prin

ciples of the Presbyterian Church, gathering together her scattered members, and, on occasions when they require sympathy and succour, aiding the brethren located in mission stations in the distant part of the kingdom. To all these I have attended, with the exception of succouring the ministers in mission stations in this Presbytery; I have indeed sympathised with them, but I require their succour, which was readily and efficiently granted.

"I commenced, by direction of the Presbytery, and at the request of Captain Bond, to preach every Lord's day at

"Coolarty, county Westmeath, within three miles of Edgeworthstown. In this place I have, on Lord's days, an attendance of more than one hundred individuals. There are nearly twenty families who profess adherence to the Presbyterian Church, and more than thirty heads of families have earnestly, by a written document, desired the continuance of gospel preaching by Presbyterian ministers. We have, by the kindness of Captain Bond, two suitable school-rooms, apartments, and support for male and female teachers, books for both schools, and the munificent offer of L.35 a-year to the minister who may be settled in this congregation. There is here a fine centre for missionary work, as preaching of the gospel might be statedly carried on in four or five surrounding places with every prospect of very considerable congregations. Altogether, the prospects of this, the first station I was enabled to open, are highly encouraging. Mr M'Cubbin, since his settlement in Corboy, has been employed, as God has given him opportunity, in preaching in Coolarty and Granard.

"Granard is situate about three miles from Coolarty. There are very few Protestant families in the town or neighbourhood; but as some of them are warmly attached to the Presbyterian Church, and as the town is of considerable magnitude, I thought it well to preach here with regularity. I had, at first, very few in attendance; but our congregations have progressively and steadily increased, so that our average is now more than forty. We have also had addition to our Coolarty congregation from this town. Mr M'Cubbin had occasional preaching in it before my arrival in the mission field. Our rented accommodation is not very good, but we have immediate prospect of better. Mr Kirk, a Scotchman of influence, has here warmly and steadily supported

your cause.

"Moate. This town is twenty-six miles from Granard, and twenty-three and a half miles from Coolarty. Every alternate Lord's day, after preaching in Coolarty, I post to Moate, and preach at seven o'clock in the evening. Mr John Fisher, while minister of Moyvore, and Mr Boyd, his successor in that interesting mission settlement, supported preaching here with great regularity until my appointment. I have determined, if sanctioned by the directors, to make Moate head-quarters of the mission. It yields a highly respectable congregation, averaging more than fifty; and through the great kindness of Richard Adamson, Esq., your mission has a comfortable and rather splendid house and garden, provided at a rent little more than nominal.

"Ballinasloe is nineteen miles from Moate, and forty-five from Granard, by the way of Moate. There the foundation of a promising congregation has been laid. It embraces a number of sincere Christians, who love our Presbyterian Zion, not merely from early education, but from enlightened views of its simple, Scriptural character. Through their ready zeal, and that of other attached friends, in this most beautiful of all our western towns, a commodious place of worship, capable of accommodating one hundred persons, has been provided, and is at all times respectably occupied. As I here met the Lord's people, who were longing after the ordinances of grace, I early commenced a communicant's class. Although some had very interesting certifi cates from Scottish and Irish ministers, yet, feeling the importance of having only the Lord's people (as far as we could judge) in the Lord's church, these

willingly submitted, with the others, to examination on theoretical and practical religion. We have now the Presbyterian Church of Ballinasloe to shed its cheering light on this beautiful locality.

Mountmellick, by Birr, is forty-three miles from Ballinasloe, and distant from Moate about twenty-three miles. It is a very pretty town in Queen's County. Here formerly was a mission station of the Secession Church. Remembering this, I was anxious to learn if there were any members of the former congregation still remaining. I found very few; but I had ample evidence of the need of gospel ordinances, and I could not leave our few Scottish brethren, anxiously desiring the Word of Life, ungratified. Had I a schoolmaster, in part sustained by the mission, who would act as a Scripture-reader, I have no fear of disappointment of a good and increasing congregation. I preach here once in three weeks.

Every one of the above stations would make hopeful centres for missionary work, did the funds of the Assembly allow the settlement of a sufficient number of ministers; and your itinerating missionary would have important opportunities of preaching the gospel in many places in Westmeath, Galway, Roscommon, Kildare, King's and Queen's Counties, were all his present stations occupied by others.

My brethren of the Presbytery would anxiously co-operate with me in preaching the gospel in those localities, where Presbyterianism is unknown, had they barely the means of transit to those places. What would the directors think of making the Presbytery of Athlone a mission Presbytery, allowing each minister his mere car-hire, and receiving quarterly reports from the Presbytery, specifying the mission work performed by each minister? The brethren here have all small congregations, and, without injuring their present charges, could easily devote two or three days of each week to missionary labour. So far from injuring their own churches, or retarding the progress of the gospel in their neighbourhood, I have every reason to hope the foreign labour would have a reflex influence for good on their respective settlements. "I have been prevented visiting many places where I have good reason to believe a wide and effectual door is open for preaching the gospel, by the absolute necessity of regularly and frequently attending the places already specified in this report. It would be worse than useless to commence preaching when we would not have means of sustaining it; and except the Assembly send forth labourers, we cannot occupy the field already entered on.

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Truly the fields are white unto the harvest. The Romish population are quite accessible. This is my experience. The intelligent people of the English Church are sick of Puseyism. The exclusive claim of the Prelatical clergy to be the only Christian ministers, is not believed by most of their own followers. The Society of Friends are incited to inquiry, by their own principles being followed by their legitimate results. The public mind is roused to the investigation of what is truth; and if the Presbyterian Church do not now direct that mind when she has the opportunity and the power, a similar opportune season may not again be afforded.

"I know wherever the Christian minister is devoting himself to the service of his Master, he sees so much necessity for missionary exertion in his own sphere, he is tempted to believe it is to that particular place the chief energies of the Church should be directed. Brother Graham would say-The family of Abraham has the first and chief claim upon the Presbyterian Church; James Glasgow-Let your main strength be given to Katiawar; and our brethren Allen and McManus would urge that no field is so promising as the Irish-speaking population of our own land. I trust I do feel the importance of sustaining all our missions; but if immortal souls are equally precious, then, why not give our first attention to those places where the greatest anticipated good could be effected at the smallest possible cost? You have men at once quali

fied for entering this field,—you have those to whom they come as ignorant of the way of salvation as the inhabitants of any heathen land, and there is not a more accessible people on the face of the earth; besides, there is scarcely a town or village where the missionary would want a Christian friend to open up his way, and bestow upon him the civilities of life. The children and descendants of Presbyterians have either merged into the Popish population, or they are still more ignorant or more ungodly than the masses by whom they are surrounded. Children of professing Protestants, of eleven years, may be often met with unable to repeat the Lord's prayer, and those of six or seven could not tell who made them. Surely the recovery of these from ignorance, and their preservation from the delusions of Antichrist, is worthy an exertion of our Presbyterian Zion.

"What is my success for three months' labour? I have, in one place, nearly 100 children under the instruction of two Christian teachers, who are paid by a Christian friend; in the same place, a congregation formed, and the amount required to obtain endowment for a stated minister secured by the same benevolent individual. Here, also, I hope I have been made the instrument, in the hands of the Spirit, of turning some from ignorance of the way of salvation to a knowledge of Christ crucified. In three places, widely separated, congregations which may yet be flourishing Presbyterian Churches, watch with anxiety for my stated returns; and I have a Christian church formed of the most hopeful characters, in the most important and thriving town in the west of Ireland. This report shows that my labours extend to places widely scattered in Longford, Westmeath, Galway, and Queen's Counties. In reaching my stations, in the two last counties, I must pass through Roscommon and King's Counties, where there are openings for the introduction of the gospel of the kingdom. May the Lord, the Spirit, lead our Christian Church to fill the treasury of the Home Mission, and may the same mighty agency guide the directors to send many self-denying labourers into the field, white unto the harvest, that spreads out far and wide around us in this our native land."

THE COLONIES.-We quote the following brief paragraphs from the Missionary Record as a summary of what is doing in our colonies.

Disruption in Canada.-The last accounts from Canada advise us of the fact, that a large and influential minority of the ministers there have seceded from the Synod, adopting the same testimony which our beloved Church has been enabled to exhibit. After much reasoning, thirty-nine ministers voted substantially for retaining connection with the Establishment, while twentyone voted for its abandonment,-two have signified their adherence since, making twenty-three in all, who have organised themselves under the title of the Presbyterian Church of Canada.

"The following is a list of the brethren who have relinquished their connection with the Establishment:

"Nova Scotia.-At the late meeting of the Synod two-thirds of the ministers renounced their connection with the Establishment, and formed themselves into an independent Synod, holding fellowship with the Free Church, and with others holding the same principles.

"We present some extracts from a very valuable report, which Dr Burns of Paisley has submitted to the Colonial Committee, and we shall continue our quotations from this valuable document from time to time.

"The personal observations of Dr Burns confirm the statements we have often made regarding the spiritual destitution of the American provinces. When we consider the inadequate number of labourers which at any time was found in the Canadas, the number of congregations left desolate by the return of many ministers lately to Scotland, we are quite prepared for the lamentable picture which Dr Burns draws, the fidelity of which is daily demonstrated in the letters which are received from these parts. For example, the condition of Nova Scotia is thus referred to in a communication which we hope to give at length next month:

"In the county of Pictou alone there are upwards of twelve thousand souls, who, I am persuaded, under the vigorous agency of pious and devoted men from home, could be secured to us perhaps in twelve months. In Prince Edward's Isle there are about ten thousand of our people left as sheep without a shepherd. To supply these not fewer than sixteen or twenty ministers are required. How shall we get them?'

Again, a correspondent from Canada, after giving many affecting facts regarding its general destitution, says,- There are within the bounds of the Presbytery of Hamilton alone five congregations as numerous, and every way as promising as any yet organized, wholly destitute of gospel ministrations.' "Another correspondent in New Brunswick speaks of six or seven localities in his own neighbourhood yet unsupplied.

"The universal cry is for more labourers. May the Lord of the harvest speedily send them forth! Another point on which the brethren in those parts are specially urgent, is the visit of a deputation, consisting of some of the leading ministers of the Church. We hope this will soon be found practicable.

"We have the pleasure of announcing that the Rev. W. C. Burns, whose labours have been so highly blessed in this country, has left for Canada, where we trust a wide and an effectual door will be presented to him."

AMERICA. The American religious newspapers frequently furnish us with interesting notices of the revivings of God's work in different places. These

VOL. XVII. NO. III.

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