yourselves to Christ, to serve him in the gospel; surely you cannot be contented with partial opportunities of making known his blessed name, when opportunities to the full may be had in another scene. God has put it into the hearts of the people, in the regions we speak of, to direct their petitions for the preaching of the gospel to the body with which you are connected-and you have it in your power to grant their request. And where these two things have so met, their destitution and desire on the one hand, and on the other, your adequacy to meet these, without occasioning a blank at home, may you not "assuredly gather that the Lord hath called" some of you "to preach the gospel unto them?"

But what we fear, dear brethren, is this: that you will readily acknowledge the truth of these statements in their general application, while it may seem to you, individually, that the call does not come to yourselves. Where so many underlie responsibility in common, the heart is prone to lose the sense of its own share in the obligation, in an indefinite feeling of the accountability of the body. With affectionate earnestness we pray you to guard against this danger. We solicit your personal serious consideration of this important subject-each one for himself. We are persuaded you will grant it. We are persuaded that if you have not heretofore examined the question of your duty in this matter, you will do so now; and if you have, that you will take kindly our request that you do so again. We are persuaded that in sight of the cross of Christ, in sight of your own voluntary devotement to the work of preaching that crossin sight of those destitute places, the inhabitants of which call for the preaching of it-and in the prospect of that great day of Christ's appear. ing when we must all give account of our stewardship, each of you will kneel to ask, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" And you will not forget, that if the duty be admitted as resting generally on the body of probationers, in the circumstances mentioned, then at least no individual can hold himself excused for declining the call merely on grounds which may be pleaded equally by all the rest.

Let it be allowed, that to leave your country, your kindred, perhaps your father's house, involves a painful sacrifice ;-you know and acknowledge that self-denial in some form is demanded of all Christ's people. And when you gave yourselves to the work of preaching the gospel, you did not put in the reservation-provided the work involve no sacrifice. And, dear brethren, may not this be the sacrifice he demands of you? And what then? Is He not worthy for whom you should do this? Is it too much for Him who gave himself for you? And will He not gloriously reward it? These are his own words. 66 Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit eternal life."

But after all, brethren, is the sacrifice so great? Going out to the field of which we especially speak, you go where many of your brethren are before you, ready to welcome you as fellow-labourers-you go to live, to a great extent, among your own countrymen, who speak your language, and look back to your fatherland as their own-you go where your services will be gratefully accepted-you go where your hands will be filled with the work you love-you go where you will be assured of a competent maintenance-you go where the climate, if differing somewhat from your own, is no less healthful-you go, shall we say, to another Scotland, a rising country-and one destined, we cannot but believe, to hold yet an honourable position in the Christian world, and to take an important part in the evangelization of heathen nations. What then withholds? We confess, brethren, our feeling is, as if we might hope better to succeed with you, if we could speak of greater hardships, and a larger sacrifice. That the

above statements are borne out by the accounts of the missionaries themselves, will appear from the following extract of a letter lately received from one of their number, with the sentiments expressed in which (see Quarterly Record) other recent communications fully accord :

"I cannot conceive," says the writer," why it is that preachers are so backward to come to this country. We cannot, indeed, promise them large salaries, but we can promise what will support them, and an abundance of work. And I cannot for my part see how any man, who is willing to spend and to be spent for Christ, can desire more. There is not one, in so far as I know, who has come, who has regretted for a single moment having come."

As we have said, we have been led by circumstances to speak especially of Canada, but the general principle on which we have founded our appeal has an equal bearing on our other foreign field of operations, the West Indies, or on any other which may hereafter be occupied. On this principle it were easy to enlarge, but it is not needful. We have brought the subject before you, and with your conscientious consideration we leave it. We fondly indulge the hope, that our appeal will be answered by not a few coming forward, saying, "Send us." And we cannot but repeat what we have already hinted, that it would place us on a most favourable vantage ground for urging our christian people to the duty of liberality, if we could say to them, The men are ready, right-hearted men who have offered themselves to the Lord's work, give us the means to send them forth.

We would request on the part of those of you who may see it to be their duty to comply with the call now addressed to you, that they lose no time in communicating with the secretary of the committee, as early embarkation would prove of great advantage. And with all affectionate wishes, we commend you, dear brethren, to the guidance of the Lord the Spirit, in your decision on this matter.-Signed, in name of the committee, June 1844.

JOHN M'KERROW, Sec.

MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, CEORGE STREET, KDINBURGH.

THE

UNITED SECESSION MAGAZINE,

FOR NOVEMBER, 1844.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

THE EARLY MISSIONS OF THE SECESSION.-No. II.

FOREIGN MISSIONS.-NORTH AMERICA.

In a former paper, a brief sketch was presented of the varied operations of the Secession, during the early period of its history, in extending the gospel in this country. To the Secession Church, viewed as a Home Mission, there can be no doubt that Scotland, in its religious interests, stands deeply indebted. At a time when ignorance and error very generally prevailed, and when vital religion seemed to have become all but extinct under the lifeless forms, and, in many instances, the worse than useless ministrations, of a corrupt Establishment, our forefathers were raised up and honoured by God to be the instruments of preserving his truth, and spreading the knowledge of his gospel throughout our country. By their efforts, a healthful reformation of religion was auspiciously begun and carried forward. Connected with this movement, numerous churches were planted by them, not only in Scotland and the adjacent isles, but also in many parts of the sister kingdoms of England and Ireland; nor can it be regarded as the least of the benefits conferred by their labours, that, wherever the Secession was thus extended, principles relating to the spiritual character and constitution of the kingdom of God were diffused, which, ever since their day, have, with increasing clearness and force, been working their way in the national mind, and giving birth to results having the most important bearing on the interests and prosperity of the church of God.

The missionary efforts of the Secession, however, at this early period, were not confined to our own country, although directed, in the first instance, with a laudable zeal, to its more general evangelization. Ere those missionary institutions which now form the glory of our country had come into existence, missions to foreign countries were undertaken by our forefathers of the Secession, and missionaries sent forth to make known to them the truths of salvation. Many whose names are but little known, or who are now, it may be, all but forgotten, animated by

NO. XI. VOL I.

3 U

love to Christ, and smitten with compassion for the souls of men, devoted themselves to this branch of the work of God to which they were called, and, as the messengers of the church of the Secession, went forth to preach the gospel in distant lands.

It may seem remarkable, considering the circumstances in which the Secession Church at this time existed, that such an enterprise as that of foreign missions should have been attempted. The resources available for such an object were certainly but very limited. The Secession was as yet only in its infancy. The people attached to its interests were, for a time, but few in number, and comparatively poor in outward circumstances. The congregations belonging to the body, as they gradually multiplied, had the double burden imposed upon them of maintaining, at one and the same time, their own ordinances, and of providing places of worship for their own accommodation. Add to this, that, at every step in its progress, the Secession cause had to encounter the most virulent opposition, every means being employed which bigotry or prejudice could devise to weaken its interests, and to prevent the measures adopted for its advancement from being attended with success. Looking at these difficulties, and taking into view the efforts which required to be made in meeting the urgent and extensive wants of our own country, it could little have been expected that other and more distant fields of missionary labour would have been entered upon. It is in this way, however, that the missionary principle, when fairly brought into action, usually manifests itself. It thrives amidst difficulties, and gathers fresh energy from increased exertions. When the spirit by which a church is animated is of the right sort, when her piety is what it ought to be, and when the earnestness of her faith and the vigour of her principles give evidence that the "dew of her youth" is upon her, obstacles which, in other circumstances, might appear to be formidable, will be seen to vanish, and, with even but very limited means at command, much will be aimed at and accomplished on behalf of the interests of the kingdom of God, that otherwise would never have been thought of or attempted.

The two more distant countries to which, in early times, the missionary efforts of the Secession were principally directed, were North America and Nova Scotia, including some parts of the adjacent British provinces. Connected with this nation by many ties, and destitute to a large extent of divine ordinances, both countries presented an eligible field for missionary exertion. The calls to engage in the work of missions in both were of the most urgent kind, and the claims which they had to attention were such as could not well be resisted. Considering the important bearing which these missions had, at the time, on the interests of the kingdom of God, and the extent to which the operations connected with them enlisted the sympathies and called forth the energies of the Secession body, a few notices of their rise and progress, and the successful results by which they were attended, may not at this time be uninteresting. It is unnecessary to state that both branches of the Secession, each pursuing its own course, embarked in the same good work, and had their share in extending a supply of the gospel to those distant lands now referred to, where its ministrations were so much required. Leaving the mission to Nova Scotia as the subject of a future

paper, we proceed to lay before our readers some particulars with respect to the mission of the Secession Church to the first of the countries mentioned, viz.-the Colonies of North America.

The mission to North America was the first of the foreign missions which the Secession Church attempted. It had its commencement about the middle of last century. At this period, and for the space of thirty years afterwards, North America, like Canada, or Nova Scotia now, was one of the provinces of Great Britain. Its inhabitants were of a mixed character, consisting partly of the aboriginal Indians, who continued to hover around the back wood settlements, and partly of emigrants from the different nations of Europe, more especially from the countries of Great Britain and Ireland. Many, both from Scotland and England, during the persecutions which prevailed in the reign of the second Charles, took refuge in America, there to seek repose from the troubles and sufferings to which they were exposed in this country on account of their religion. The "Pilgrim Fathers" of the English Puritans or Non-conformists, settled down, for the most part, on the eastern shore of the North American continent, their descendants spreading, as they increased, over that part of the country called New England; the middle and northern colonies were occupied chiefly with emigrants from Scotland and Ireland; while the "far West," up to 1690, had but few settlers in it, although in the way of constantly receiving accessions to its inhabitants, by the tide of emigration flowing into it from both the northern and eastern colonies. In 1750, about two millions of a population altogether, were spread over the whole of the thirteen original colonies embraced in North America.

The condition of the colonists, in regard to religious ordinances, scattered as they thus were over so wide a region of country, was anything but favourable. The settlers from this country, chiefly presbyterians, amidst all their privations, clung to the religion of their fathers. They carried with them, along with their Bibles, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, with the Directory for Public Worship, drawn up by the Assembly of Divines; and, adhering to the principles and forms of worship contained in these, they collected themselves together, as often as circumstances would permit, into congregations for the service of God. The ordinances of the house of God, however, were but irregularly dispensed, and they had but a very scanty supply furnished of the word of life. Among the scattered presbyterian population, there could not be said to have been, for many years, anything like a settled christian ministry, or anything like established and regularly organized congregations. The first presbyterian church which existed in the colonies of America, was formed in Philadelphia about the year 1698. Soon after this, four other congregations were organized on the eastern shore of Maryland. In 1705, only one presbytery existed, viz. "the Presbytery of Philadelphia," which consisted merely of seven ministers. This was the first presbyterian judicatory on the western continent. In 1717, "the Synod of Philadelphia" was formed; and afterwards, in 1745, the "Synod of New York," in both of which there might be in all about forty ministers embraced. And what were these to meet the wants of a constantly increasing population, spread over so wide a surface of country? It was in this state of things that