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The other religious bodies-namely, the Established Church and the "Primitive Methodists "-have each two resident ministers. The appointment of a Wesleyan minister was imperatively required by the circumstances, and might, no doubt, have been advantageously made at an earlier period. The action of the Conference in constituting a Circuit here has been heartily responded to by our people, who have been roused to new activity, zeal, and liberality.

The congregations in the town have improved, especially during the summerseason. The week-night services, and also the prayer - meetings and classmeetings, are well attended.

During the year some interesting conversions have taken place, whilst the regular attendance and serious demeanour of some who have not yet entered into the fellowship of our church encourage the hope that they will erelong be brought to decision.

We are just now commencing a plan of district-visitation, by which we hope, with the Divine blessing, to induce some hitherto habitual neglecters of public worship to attend the house of prayer.

Our day-schools are flourishing. The attendance of the scholars, their progress in learning, and the healthy moral tone of the schools, afforded satisfaction to the Inspectors who visited them during the year.

One of the most hopeful aspects of our cause is the success of an effort that has been made toward the reduction of the heavy debt upon the trust-property. Amid a small fixed population, like that of Filey, we cannot anticipate any great increase of the material resources of our church. Hence the reduction of the chapel debt, and the liberation of the income for the sustentation of the work, have appeared indispensable to the future well-working of this station. Our people are, I am thankful to say, of one mind and heart in this effort. The proof of this is seen in the reduction of the debt, during the year, by more than three hundred pounds. The work of liquidation is still in progress, and, with the other requirements of this station, will absorb all the energies of our people for some time to come. A good beginning has, however, been made; and I venture to hope that the progress of the work will correspond with this auspicious commencement.

It is right to add, that, whilst making

these extra exertions, we have been able to fulfil our engagements, as a Circuit, with the Home-Missionary Committee, and can report an increase of twenty-five per cent. on the ordinary finances.

7. GLASGOW WEST, Anderston Mission. -The journal of the Rev. William Ainsworth, ending December 31st, 1863, reveals something of the deplorably sunken condition of many in the low parts of the city of Glasgow; a condition as bad, at least, as can be found in Great Britain. For instance:-November 13th.-Having groped my way through a dark and dirty alley, the offensiveness of which was almost intolerable, I had to ascend three flights of stairs. This I accomplished by the aid of a filthy iron rail, (which was needful to keep the people from falling to the bottom,) and entered a room the dirt and odour of which were indescribable. Here were three small children on the hearth, hardly discernible for the smoke, and each of them quite naked! On the bed lay the mother, apparently half-drunk, and half-dead with a frightful wound reaching from her temple to her crown, without any garment, and without bedclothes! She and her husband had had a drunken quarrel the night before, when he so injured her with a blow from the poker. No furniture but a box, a stool, and a table; no food, nor any money whatever to purchase it. Yet this

wretched woman has a secured income of fifty pounds per annum, and the husband could obtain a good income too, if he were sober and industrious. I called at the police station, to which the husband had been taken, but failed to produce any salutary impression upon him. His inquiry was, "Why his wife had not sent him something to eat!" In some cases fearful deception is prac tised, poverty feigned, religious convictions avowed, and contrition awfully counterfeited, by wretched and most abandoned people. Some of these have been unmasked.-The Mission, however, is most encouraging. A class has been formed, in which there are now (Christmas) sixteen members, and eight on trial. We have twenty-six tract-distributers, each visiting about twenty families a week. There are also six cottage-services, at which thirty prayer-leaders assist. The subscriptions toward the erection of a Mission-chapel now amount to nearly seven hundred pounds.

A LORD'S-DAY-OBSERVING RAILWAY COMPANY. - Stockton and Darlington Railay-The Half-yearly General Meeting of this Company was held at Darlington. ...The Chairman congratulated the proprietory on the prospect of their amalgamation with the North-Eastern; and mentioned, that during the last twelve months the mineral and goods traffic of the Stockton and Darlington proper was $0,000,000 of tons over a mile.Mr. Pease, M.P., said he could not allow the opportunity to pass, seeing it was their last meeting as an independent company, without offering a word of congratulation on the fact that over the whole period of their existence as a company, thirty-eight years, they had never killed a single passenger, nor run a Sunday excursion train. They began with only £8,000 capital; now they had £1,000,000.-Manchester Guardian.

ICELAND. The edition of the revised Icelandic New Testament and Psalms, recently issued by the Society, has been received with the utmost thankfulness, and will have a rapid and welcome circulation amongst the inhabitants of that northern region. While the price is fixed so low as to place the volume within the reach of the humbler classes, the Committee have sanctioned free distribution when deep poverty proves a barrier to the purchase of a copy.

A letter has been received from Mr. Isaac Sharp, of Middlesborough, who

has visited Iceland two successive summers, and to whose Christian zeal and sympathy the Committee are greatly indebted in maturing the necessary arrangements for revising and editing the Icelandic New Testament. Testimony is borne as to the joy created amongst the people by the arrival of the Society's supply of Scriptures. A further proposal is now made, to the effect that the Old Testament shall be subjected to a careful revision, with a view to the early publication of an improved edition. The Committee have readily promised to defray the entire cost of the revision, and they will be prepared, as soon as the work is finished, to print a complete Bible. The abovementioned correspondent observes:

"I have rejoiced greatly in witnessing the universal satisfaction of the Icelandic people in having presented to them, in a clear, bold type, the excellent edition of the New Testament and Psalms, recently printed by your Society.

"The copy I carried with me from

place to place was the only one the people had seen in the east, north, and west; and in not a few instances this must continue to be so for many months to come. Those who have never traversed the remote districts of this peculiar country have little idea of their extreme isolation; and, owing to this circumstance, the distribution and ultimate payment will of necessity be a work of time. Availing myself of the liberty granted by the Committee, authority is given to Dr. Petersson, the valued Secretary of the Icelandic Bible Society, to issue, at his discretion, any number not exceeding five hundred copies of the New Testament and Psalms at two marks each, equal to about 9d. English; the standing price having been fixed, on due deliberation, at four marks, or about 1s. 6d. English. This arrangement is within the limit of reduction generously conceded: on the other hand, I venture to propose drawing yet more largely on the liberality and co-operation of the Parent Society.

"Deeply impressed with the conviction that there yet remains a work to be done for this land, and that the opportunity at present open ought not to be allowed to pass by, it has been agreed, after repeated conferences, on this important matter, (subject, nevertheless, to the concurrence of the British and Foreign Bible Society,) that Dr. Petersson and Sigurdur Melsted take charge of the revision of the remaining portion of the Old Testament, and that the sum of £112. 10s. be paid them, on the satisfactory completion of the work; which sum is on a similar scale of remuneration to that allowed for the previous work of revision entrusted to their care. This arrangement I contemplate with unmingled satisfaction, and rejoice in being able to propose it for adoption, if approved, at head-quarters.

"A small grant was made from Copenhagen in 1859 'once for all,' and this was devoted to the former revision. All hope of further assistance from thence has fled; and, were the hand of help now stretched out withdrawn, it might be mournfully said by this interesting isle of the lone North Sea, 'I looked for some to take pity, and there was none.'

"Earnest here has the longing been, year by year, for the execution of the work now proposed; and the appeal is made confidingly on behalf of the friends of the Bible in this land, who would not have ventured to solicit for themselves an extension of the generous aid of

which they have already largely and gratefully partaken.

"From among the many evidences of the interest excited by the new edition, the following may be mentioned:-In one of the parishes of the north-east of Iceland stood the pastor, beside the porch of his dwelling, on a sunny Sabbath-day. The congregation had left the kirk, and it was deeply interesting to watch the group gathered round the pastor to examine the copy of the New Testament and Psalms he had borrowed of me in order to show them. The interest excited by the book thus placed within their reach was manifest; nor were they slow in their commendation of the work, or in the expression of their admiration of it. For this parish one hundred copies have been ordered.

"The pastor of an adjoining parish, after examining the type and general execution, exclaimed with admiration, as regards the whole, 'It is a glorious work!"

"O, beautiful!' was the commendation of another pastor, when page after page had been turned over with delight."

Bible Society Reporter.

SWEDEN.-Mr. C. O. Rosenius, a layman in Stockholm, continues for the twenty-second year to publish his deeply Evangelical and earnest monthly paper, called the "Pietist," and more than 10,000 copies are issued monthly. Pastor Fjellstedt, formerly Missionary in India, continues also to issue his Christian periodicals, the "Friend of the Bible," and "Lunds Missionary Journal," which are nearly as old as the "Pietist."

The church which the Methodist minister, the Rev. George Scott, from England, erected in Stockholm is in possession of the Fatherland Society, and is truly a free church in Sweden. It was the same Pastor Scott who first commenced the "Pietist."

He was forced by popular hatred of his preaching to flee from Sweden. How changed would he now find this country to be, would he again visit his old friends here. He lives in their affectionate and indelible remembrance.

I close with a glad and hopeful glance towards the future of my beloved fatherland.

The horrors of war threaten us; but if the Lord finds in our country as many righteous as His united mercy and justice require, He will shelter us, and His angels with their chariots of fire shall encompass us, and surround us for defence, as the waves of the ocean

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surround our north, and equally surround Old Albion.-Rev. Carl Bergman.

INDIA.-The baptism of no fewer than forty-one Christian converts took place lately at Kundiapootoor, near Vellore (Presidency of Madras). The Rev. Ruthven Macfarlane, of the Church of Scotland's Mission at Madras, administered the sacred rite, assisted by the Rev. Joseph David, a native minister, who has been labouring at this out-station for some years. The entire number of converts is between sixty and seventy; but, as some were engaged in railway works at a great distance, they could not all be got together. They are of the Vallala caste, or cultivators; and when their own field-work is slack, they go elsewhere in search of employment. Mr. Macfarlane says that in the preliminary examination which he held they acquitted themselves most satis factorily, and so as to evidence at once their earnestness and the faithful teach ing of the native pastor and his catechist. The adults, in fact, evinced a knowledge of Scripture truth "at least equal to what could be found among rural classes of our native land." Mr. Macfarlane's own words will best describe the baptism

"After addressing them at some length, I proceeded to administer the sacrament of baptism, and to admit them into the church of Christ, to the number of forty-one in all, including two young men from Vellore. The doors and windows were now quite closed up by groups of outside spectators, who behaved with much decorum, and were evidently much interested. The scene was deeply interesting; one old man, clasping his young grandchild in his arms, was evidently much interested. He and his wife came forward first to receive the sacrament, bringing with them their whole family to the third generation, their daughters, and their sons, and their sons' wives and their little ones. After the service was concluded, all sat down to a little love-feast of fruit prepared outside by Mr. David."

CHINESE SCHOLARS AND CHRISTIANITY. -The Rev. J. Laughton, Baptist Missionary, recently visited Timchewfoo at the time of the examination for the Chinese B.A. degree. There were be tween six and seven thousand candidates, and many of them eagerly attended the chapels of the Missionaries. According to Mr. Laughton, it was curious to notice the effect which the preaching of

Christianity had upon these scholars. Some of them said that Jesus was a great sage, and, according to what the preacher said, must have been a holy man. Some of them suggested, that, as Confucius was the great sage of the east, so Jesus was the great sage of the west. They were exceedingly angry at the attempts made to convince them of the sophistries and deficiencies of the philosophy of Confucius. When Christ was spoken of as the Son of the only true God, who became incarnate, and died for the sins of men, some of them laughed, and others flew into a violent passion. Many of them left saying, almost in the words of the Athenian philosophers, "We may, perhaps, call again another day, and hear more of this doctrine." Several, however, lingered behind, and talked over the matter calmly, with apparent candour and ability.

JUDGMENT OF THE METROPOLITAN OF SOUTH AFRICA ON THE BISHOP OF NATAL.-On December 16th the Metropolitan (Bishop Gray) delivered judgment. In going over the various charges, he said, that, on the question of the denial of the atonement and justification, he held the accusations fully proved. In reference to the third point-the denial of the sacraments as necessary to salvation - he held the Bishop's language to be inconsistent with the teaching of the Church. As regarded the fourth point, which involved the denial of the endlessness of future punishments, he would gladly have refrained from framing a decision, both on account of its awfulness, and because of the variety of opinions which in all ages had prevailed with reference to the future state, and the mysteries which hung around it, and around the purification needed to fit souls to dwell there, where no thing that defileth or is unclean can enter; but, being appealed to, he was compelled to consider and decide whether the Church did or did not allow her ministers to make such a declaration upon a point which was not merely speculative-which had been revealed and which had a direct moral bearing upon man in his present state of probation. He considered that the Church did not allow her teachers to put forth on this subject the opinions which the Bishop had published. Nothing could be plainer than her words. That confession which expressed the greatest mystery of the faith in language more clear and exact than any other formula -the Creed of St. Athanasius-was ex

press upon this point. His Lordship therefore considered this charge fully proved. On the fifth point, which was substantially that Bishop Colenso impugned the character of the Holy Scriptures, by stating that the Bible was not the word of God, but that God's word would be heard in the Bible, his Lordship referred to the articles, homilies, and other authorities, to show that the Church had from the beginning received the Scriptures as the book of God; and he must decide, that, while it was lawful to say that the Holy Scriptures contained the word of God, it was not lawful to say that they in such wise contained the word of God as not themselves to be the word of God, or that they were no more the word of God than a church was the house of God. The next charges bore upon the above. They related to the subject of inspiration, and the authenticity, genuineness, and truth of certain books of the Holy Scripture. His Lordship said it was a mockery and wrong for the Church to use the language which it did respecting the Scriptures, if in its belief the whole Bible was not the unerring word of the living God, or if it were to be ruled that the ministers of the Church were allowed to teach that the sacred books contained "uncertain stories and legends," and openly to reject no less than nine of them as "legendary," full of palpable "exaggerations," "contradictions," "impossibilities," and "improbabilities." Language must altogether lose its meaning, pledges, promises, declarations, must be regarded as so much waste paper,-if the words of the Church in those formularies and articles which spoke of the Bible, and which were in accordance with, and must be interpreted by, the language of the Church on this great subject from the beginning, were not held to be violated by the Bishop in the passages which had been referred to, and which were but a specimen of the views propounded by him throughout his books. Upon the whole, reviewing this charge, he felt bound to decide that, in denying the authenticity and genuineness of certain parts of Holy Scripture, Colenso had contradicted the teaching of our Lord Himself; and that, in denying the truth of a large portion of the contents of the Pentateuch, of Joshua, Judges, and Chronicles, he had contravened the faith as expressed in articles and formularies of the Church. The next charge brought against the Bishop was, if possible, graver than any of the above. It related to the nature and

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person of our blessed Lord. It accused the Bishop of imputing to our Lord ignorance and error, and thereby with denying that He is God and man in one Person. The question which the Bishop had raised was not a light one. It was not a mere question of words. If, as he affirmed, our Lord while on earth was ignorant and liable to error,-if He quoted fiction for fact, legends for history,-if He mistook altogether the character of the Bible,-believed a mere human composition to be the word of God,-believed that God really had spoken to Moses, when He had not,made blunders about the most important matters, as to which it had fallen to the lot of Bishop Colenso to set Him right, then, if these things be so, we had no sure ground for our faith. Mistaken on one point, He whom we call Lord may have been so on every matter. He could not admit the Bishop's statements without shaking to its very foundation the whole Christian faith as a revelation from God. His Lordship, therefore, must decide, that in imputing to our blessed Lord ignorance, and the possibility of error, the Bishop had committed himself to a most subtle heresy, destructive of the reality of the incarnation; and that he had departed from the catholic faith as held in the Church from the beginning, and as expressed in the second Article and in the creeds. The last charge was, that the Bishop had in his writings been guilty of depraving, and impugning, and otherwise bringing into disrepute, the Book of Common Prayer; particularly, portions of the Ordinal and the Baptismal Services. On this point, as on the others, his Lordship held the charge proved, and said:-"The Bishop, to do him justice, is sufficiently outspoken. He does not conceal that he no longer believes a great deal that the Church teaches out of the Holy Scripture, and has embodied in her formularies. He does openly and avowedly impugn, assail, deprave, endeavour to bring into disrepute, the Book of Common Prayer. He intimates his intention of not using in public ministrations those portions which he has begun to disbelieve; and he encourages others to do the same. 'I see no remedy for this

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to disobey the law of the Church.' He compares the Church to a master in 'real danger,' under a great 'delusion,' who issued orders long ago which are 'most ill-judged, and the attempt to enforce which would be irrational and suicidal.' He is the enlightened 'servant,' who knows better than his master what is

right, and for his good; whose 'duty it is to disobey,' who is 'bound to disobey, though the consequences of the act might bring ruin on himself, should his master, in his blindness and obstinacy, not appreciate his motives.' He hopes, though 'violent at first,' 'he will awake from his delusion,' and recognise the spirit of faithfulness which prompted the 'disobedience.' He looks forward to the time when the Church will be so changed in its teaching condition as to become 'what it professes to be, the national Church; not a mere sect, but the representative of the whole com. munity in its religious capacity,' 'of every form of earnest religious thought within the realm.' It is clear that he would not have the clergy under an obligation to teach definite truth. He would have error taught in our pulpits, as well as truth, provided only the teacher thought it to be truth. He would have clergymen at liberty to teach what they like, provided they are in earnest. He speaks contemptuously of those who, 'abandoning their rights and duties as reasoning men,' allow themselves to become the mere ex. ponents of a Church system or a creed.' Clearly, in his view, there is not, and ought not to be, a faith once for all delivered, and for ever to be maintained. The principle he advocates appears to me simply subversive of Christianity." His Lordship then proceeds :-"In con clusion, I would observe, that I have felt the greatest difficulty in dealing with this case, and with the charges which have been brought. Considering the office of the accused, the almost entire absence of precedent, the novelty of my own position and that of my brethren who have been my assessors, and the gravity of the charges brought, I would gladly have shrunk, had it been possible, from the responsibility of acting, and have left this painful case to be dealt with by the bishops and doctors of the mother Church. By general consent, however, it has been concluded that the burden must be laid upon the metropolitan and bishops of this province, al of whom have been summoned as my assessors on the occasion; though some, from the vast distances which separate us, from the great difficulty of communication, and, I may add, the heavy ex pense to which they would have been put, have, though most anxious to bear their share of responsibility, not been able to be present. For myself, I may be permitted to say, that I have taken up the burden which has been laid

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