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the principal chaplain, was with him, who, when he heard the proposal, refused to allow me the use of the house. But he engaged to apply to the Quartermaster-General to have a place of worship erected for the Presbyterians in Balaclava immediately. Nearly a week passed away, and I had no reply. I went myself to head quarters, and saw Colonel H -, who still refused to grant my requisition, but promised to lay my statements before the chief of the staff. On the following day (5th February) I had a letter from the principal chaplain, dated 29th January, requesting information as to the number, time, and places of my conducting divine service each Lord's day. To this I replied immediately, but I have heard nothing more of it. I feel, and I think justly, considerably aggrieved in this matter, and I told the Quartermaster-General so; and if he continues to refuse my requisition, I shall forward it to higher quarters. The Roman Catholics have two large churches in the neighbourhood, and, in all fairness, the Presbyterians have an equal right, and might, without a grudge, get one.

They have read with deep interest the Journals of the missionaries, as recorded in the Edinburgh Christian Magazine, and are much gratified with the success that has attended their exertions. Their sincere desire is, that Almighty God may strengthen their hands and encourage their hearts in the discharge of their heavenly vocation, and that their labours may be abundantly blessed in imparting the consolations of the Word of Life to our suffering fellow-countrymen in that distant land.

We recollect, with grateful feelings, your visit, together with the other members of the Deputation from our venerable Church, to this place, at a time when the presence of able and faithful ministers was much needed; and the impressions then made will not soon be forgotten.

The subscribers express a desire that you will please insert the enclosed subscription list in the Edinburgh Christian Magazine, not so much for their own gratification, but that their conduct in this matter may induce other congregations on this side of the Atlantic to go and do likewise.

That the Chief Shepherd may bless and prosper your labours, and give you many seals of a faithful ministry in the great

ADDITIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO GLAS- day of His appearing, is the sincere

GOW MISSION TO SCUTARI. Mrs R. B. Maconochie, Edinburgh, Second annual Sub.

L.1 0 0

desire of

Your humble and devoted Servants, GEORGE JOHNSTONE. JAMES MILLAR.

SUBSCRIPTIONS BY THE ADHERENTS OF ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, CHATHAM L.0 2 6

George Johnstone

Mrs Johnstone

We have peculiar pleasure in recording the following subscriptions received from New Brunswick. We return our best thanks to our kind friends, and value most deeply this proof of their sympathy for their suffering countrymen. We have always maintained that there exist nowhere more warm and generous hearts than those of our countrymen in the William Swanson colonies.

The following letter has been addressed to Mr. Macleod, the Secretary of the Scutari Mission:

MIRAMICHI, NEW BRUNSWICK,
23d February 1856.

James Millar
Mrs James Millar
John Macdougall
Mrs Macdougall
John Smith

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REV. AND DEAR SIR,-We have much George Henderson pleasure in transmitting to you the enclosed Bill of Exchange for L.6 sterling, in favour of the Scutari Mission. The subscribers, sensitively alive to the sufferings and spiritual destitution of the Presbyterian portion of the British army in the Crimea, have cheerfully expressed their desire to assist your generous efforts in sustaining the Scutari Mission.

James Patterson
John Cameron
William Mason
William Sinclair

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Education.-In no subject is a greater interest felt among us that that of education. The six states of New England, (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,) and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and California, have each a system of public schools, by which instruction, if not gratuitous, is given at a reduced cost to all the youth who attend them. It is done in some cases by taxation, in others by the proceeds of funds created for that purpose, and in some cases (indeed most generally) by means of both taxation and permanent funds. When to the aid thus received we add the sums contributed by the pupils, where, as in most cases, they are required to pay something per month, or for three months, the whole amount becomes great.

In the other states the governments give large sums for the education of the children of the poor, derived from taxation, or from permanent funds.

According to the census of 1859, the number of public schools (that is, of schools sustained or aided by the government, as explained) was 80,978; the number of teachers was 91,966; of pupils, 3,354,011; and the amount paid for tui. tion was 9,529,542 dollars, of which 4,653,096 dollars were derived from taxation, 2,552,402 dollars from public funds, 182 594 dollars from endowments, and 2,141,450 dollars were paid by the pupils.

The number of academies and private schools was 6,089; of pupils attending them, 263,096; of teachers, 12,230; and the cost of tuition was

From an interesting pamphlet published by Dr. Baird of New York, on "The State and Prospects of Religion in America," originally given as a report at the Paris Conference.

4,225,433 dollars, of which sum 288,855 dollars were derived from endowments, 14,202 dollars from taxation, 155.729 dollars from public funds, and 4,225,433 dollars from other sources,-in other words, were paid by the pupils.

The entire number of pupils in the schools, public and private, in 1850, was, therefore, 3,617,107 as returned by the teachers of the schools to the marshals who took the census, but as returned by the parents, it was 4,089,507;+ the former giving, it is probable, the number that attended with a good degree of regularity, whilst the latter included all that were sent for any period, however short. The entire cost of tuition, including public and private schools, as well as the academies, was that year 14,173,756 dollars

We should not give a complete view of what is doing for the education of the people of the United States, if we did not say that it is believed that there cannot be less than 35,000 Sunday schools, with at least 2,500,000 pupils in them. These schools have generally interesting libraries attached to them. Not a few persons, especially among the adult pupils, receive all the education they ever get at the Sunday school

Number of Evangelical Ministers and Members.— In 1854, there were, in the United States, 27,740 ordained ministers of the Gospel belonging to the several evangelical branches of the one true Church of Christ. The number of the members or communicants in such branches was 3,986,750. If we suppose the population of the United States to be at present 26,500,000, then there is one minister, on an average, for a fraction more than 937 inhabitants And this leaves out of view the Evangelical Friends, whose statistics we do not possess, and also the ministrations of the "local ministers," who, as we have seen, exceed 12,000 in the Methodist body alone. We have no doubt that the statistics of all the evangelical Churches in the United States would show at this time a membership of four millions! can the number of those who preach" Christ crucified" with a good degree of faithfulness and clearness-ministers having pastoral charges, professors in colleges and seminaries, licentiates, local preachers, &c.-be at all less than 40,000.

Nor

Summary of the Non-Evangelical Bodies - The number of ministers in the non evangelical bodies, great and small, is 2,486; of the congregations, 3,607; and that of the members about 700,000 Of these there are 260 congregations of Unitarians, with 35,000 members; three million Roman Catholics, with 140,000 communicants "

The Jews have 65 synagogues, holding about 20,000 persons.

The Presbyterian Churches.—In the year 1705, a Presbytery, consisting of seven ministers from the north of Ireland and from New England, was formed. From this body arose the large body of Churches which bear the distinctive appellation of Presbyterian. In 1800, it is believed, there were about 300 ministers, 500 churches, and 40,000 communicants. or members. In 1832, there were 1,935 ministers and licentiates. In 1843, the two branches (for this Cnurch was divided into two bodies in 1838, called Old and New School) had 2,991 ministers and licentiates. In 1854-55, the statistics of these two bodies combined were as follows:-2 general assemblies, 52 synods, 254 presbyteries, 3,770 ministers, 346 licentiates, 648 candidates. 4,635 churches, 368,433 members; contributions to congregational, missionary, educational, and other religious objects, at least 4,000,000 dollars; and 10 theologigal

seminaries.

We subjoin, in a tabular form, the statistics of the other branches of the Presbyterian family or group of Churches:

Of these 4,089,507 pupils returned as attending school in 1850, those born in the country were 3,942,081; 147,426 were born in foreign lands; and 26,461 were free coloured children.

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Combining these six Presbyterian denomina. tions or communions with the two great branches just spoken of, we have a total of 4 general assemblies or general synods, 79 synods, 417 presby. teries and classes, 5,889 ordained ministers, 822 licentiates, 915 candidates, 7,759, congregations, and 680,021 members or communicants.

Home Missions.-Last year the American Home Missionary Society employed 1032 missionaries; the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church (in 1853-54) employed 523 missionaries; the Board of Missions of the Associate Presbyterian Church, 41; the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 98; Baptist Home Missionary Society (North), 179: Southern Bap tist Convention, 88; American and Foreign Christian Union, 62; Board of Missions of the Reformed Dutch Church, 50; the Boards of Missions of the several branches of the Methodist Church, 1197; Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, (about) 65: in all, 3335, at an expense of 728,539 dollars. This is not complete, but is suf ficiently so to give a good idea of what is doing in the cause of home missions; and this movement, we may add, is comparatively of recent origin.

The Bible Societies.-The American Bible Society printed last year 901,400 copies of the Bible and New Testament, and has issued, from its or ganization in 1816, no less than 10,653,647 copies. The American and Foreign Bible Society issued, in 1853-54, 51,032 volumes, and has published more than 550,000 copies since its formation. The American Bible Union has not yet published much at home. The entire number of copies of the Bible, in whole or in part, published by the Bible societies just named, as well as the Bible Society of Philadelphia, considerably exceeds eleven millions; the largest part of which has been for the benefit of the people of the United States. The receipts of these societies, in 1854, exceeded 500,000 dollars.

The Tract and Book Publication Societies.-The American Tract Society published last year-of volumes, 961,363, and of tracts, 10,091,214 copies; the Presbyterian Board of Publication circulated last year 252,413 volumes; the Baptist Publication Board (North) published last year more

than 26,000,000 pages; the Tract Society of the Methodist Church published many hundred thousand copies of 58 volumes and 467 tracts. The American Sunday School Mission has issued more than 2000 different publications, many of them books for libraries; the Methodist Sunday School Union nearly as many; the Massachu setts Sunday School Union, 2500 at least; the Episcopal Sunday School Union, 300. The receipts of these several societies last year exceeded 525,000 dollars, and they employed more than 1300 colporteurs and missionaries, whose work consisted greatly in promoting the circulation of good books and tracts.

Foreign Missions.-The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (supported by a portion of the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists) had, in 1854, 161 ordained American missionaries, 35 native, and 448 assistants, male and female; the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, 66 missionaries and 284 assistants, American and native; the Presbyterian Board, 64 missionaries and 161 assistants, American and native; the Board of Foreign Missions of the Episcopal Church, 15 ordained missionaries (including 2 bishops) and 30 assistants; the Southern Baptist Convention, about 15 missionaries; the American and Foreign Christian Union 46; the Methodist Missionary Society, 81 missionaries and 30 assistants; the American Missionary Society, 20 missionaries. If to these we add the missionaries of the Free Will Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, and some other small denominations, we may safely say, there are 460 ordained missionaries, and 700 assistants, labour. ing in foreign fields-in China, Siam, Burmah, India, and Ceylon, Persia, Turkey, Papal countries in Europe and America, in Southern, South-Eastern, Western Africa, in the Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and among the aborigines on our borders, at an expense, last year, of not much, if at all, less that 800,000 dollars, Con. nected with these missions, there are more than 340 churches and 53,000 members; a large number of schools, and at least 30,000 pupils, besides a goodly number of seminaries, and many print. ing presses.

Notices of Books.

An Analytical Concordance to the Holy Scriptures; or the Bible presented under distinct and classified heads or topics. By JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D. Griffin, Glasgow.

THE name of the learned and distinguished editor is a sufficient guarantee to the public for the worth of this Concordance. It is the third of an admirable series of biblical works published by Mr. Griffin, and edited by Dr. Eadie, designed for popular study, "specially for the use of Sabbath school teachers," and generally for domestic instruction. "The volume," as we are told in the preface,

"is an attempt so to classify Scripture under its different heads as to exhaust its contents." Thus, for instance, to take the first article "AGRICULTURE," the reader will ascertain under it what is said in Scripture as to the land and farms of Canaan; the processes of husbandry, such as ploughing, sowing, reaping, &c.; and the allusions to them contained in the prophets and in the parables of our Lord, with much more of similar import. That Dr. Eadie has had, as he tells us, an older and similar work, by Mr. Talbot, to improve upon, makes it the more certain that the latest is the best. We cordially recommend it.

Sermon.

By the REV. J. PAISLEY, Minister of Garelochhead.

"For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours."-1 Cor. iii, 21, 22.

Or this epistle the early portion to which the text belongs is directed against the state of division existing in the Corinthian Church. They were separated one from another into different parties, each of which severally had attached themselves to one or other of the eminent ministers of the primitive Church whom they especially appreciated, and were undervaluing all but him. One party magnified Paul, and wished to be reckoned his adherents; another gathered round the eloquent Apollos; a third ranged themselves as the followers of Peter; each party glorying in their favourite teacher, and living in disunion and separation from all who in this respect followed not with them.

The apostle is referring to this state of things in the language which he uses in the text. They were not Paul's, or Apollos', or Cephas', as they said, but they were Christ's, and, in Him, God's; and Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas were theirs. Yea, not Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas only, all things here were theirs; all things with which in any way they were conversant on the earth. things here, they should recognise, constituted a universal ministry to the saints. "All things were theirs; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all were theirs."

All

That all things here are a ministry to the saints is the truth which is in this passage declared to us; and of this truth I propose some brief elucidation and enforcement in connexion with the words of the text. It is a truth that is little recognised or little borne in mind by us, if indeed it can be said to be believed. Yet Scripture everywhere affirms it. And of all the truths revealed in the Scrip

| tures, it is surely for the Christian one of the greatest, the most blissful, the most important.

The ministry to the saints which the teachers of the Church constitute is the simplest and the most obvious part of the universal ministry to us.

It is altogether a perversion of the truth when you think of yourselves as belonging, in any measure, to this or that minister of the Church, and thus make ministers, in that measure, the centres of division and separation in the one body of Christ. It is to forget that you are Christ's, that you are God's, and that ministers are Christ's servants, whom He has set in the Church for your sakes. Ministers are to be accounted of as the servants of Christ with you, as the stewards, for your behoof, of the things of God. They are for you, and not you for them. In all their prayers and pains in the Church, in all their ministry of the Word, in all their watching for souls as they that must give an account, they are Christ's servants whom He has placed among you, because you are His,-who are with you for your spiritual edification for the great end of your progress towards the perfection that is in Him. From this truth, distinctly realised, you are to rise into that wider affirmation on the subject which the text contains. The ministry to the saints here is not confined to living teachers; for the great end which the Christian has to keep in view, and to press forward towards, all things here are a ministry to us. Thus, first, following simply the guidance of the text,

I. The world is ours-this present evil world in which we are. In its temptations which it puts in our way, in the oppression of spirit which its evil is fitted to cause us, in the separation of its

life from ours in which it makes us dwell apart from it, in every aspect in which it presents itself to us as spiritual men, it is ours.

apart from it, while we are in it, is help-
ful to our spiritual wellbeing. It makes
our life here a life of separation from that
of many around us; and it brings
sharply out to us, therefore, the difference
between the Christian life and that of the
world. It does, indeed, make us feel
that here we are pilgrims and strangers.
But this is the very feeling we have to
come to, if we are to come to the perfec-
tion for a man that is in Christ. He was
a pilgrim and a stranger here.
the very feeling by which we are to ap-
prove our meetness for the better country,
even the heavenly; and the training to
it which we have here through the separ-

This is

It is not the worst world in which we could be for our growth in holiness, as we may be sometimes tempted to think, but the very fittest world for this,-a world in which everything is fitted for the accomplishment of this in us, by the wisdom of Him who rules over all things in it. The world's temptations, for instance, the particular temptations which it puts in our way, are trials of our steadfastness by God whose we are. They are often the occasion of our falling into sin,that is just when we fail in the trial, notation in spirit from us of all who are of walking in the guidance of God's Spirit which is given us, yielding ourselves instead to the suggestions of the evil that is within us. In themselves, in God's II. Then, secondly, life is ours, this purpose, they are trials of our steadfast-present life, in the things that belong to ness, by which it is proved, and by which He would strengthen and establish it. In every one of them there is for us a way of escape from sin, simply by proving faithful. And as often as we are true to God, our faith is by every one of them established, our Christian character, in one feature of it or another, is confirmed, and our progress advanced, in the best possible way, towards the perfection that is in Christ.

The oppression of spirit, again, which the world's evil is fitted to cause us, so far as it is felt by us, is salutary to our spiritual health. It makes the Christian a man of sorrow; but to be a mourner here, is part of the perfection to which the Christian is called. The time is coming when he will be comforted. And it is a blessed thing to be a mourner now. It is fitted to make us like unto Him who, in our flesh dwelling here the Righteous One, was made perfect through that which He suffered; to make us partakers of the perfection of humanity which He manifested, when He had compassion on sinners, when He wept over impenitent Jerusalem, when He laid down His life for His brethren, that He might save them from sin even through His blood.

The world's separation of life from ours, also, in which it makes us dwell

this world is just one manifestation among many of the love of God to us in Christ Jesus in which the world is ours.

it with us. Life here in its business occupations, in its social connexions, in its vicissitudes, in everything belonging to it.

Life is ours in all its business occupations. It sometimes seems to Christians as if the time spent in their daily work, their worldly occupation, were, at best, withdrawn from God's service, and there were thus left them but their leisure hours and stolen moments in which to do any thing for God. So the case will be felt to be by those with whom religion is a series of observances, or with whom it lies in a few peculiar duties; but so it need not be, and is not in God's purpose. The worldly occupation given to him in God's providence is no longer, to the Christian, merely labour and weariness of the flesh that he may live; it is now a blessed thing, or may be so with him, a work in God's service; and it is a work in God's service which, in the wisdom of His love, is fitted to prove us, and to bring us forward towards perfection. There is in it to each of us, throughout every day, a trial of our diligence, and patience, and conscientiousness, and right use of our gifts, in a work given us by the Lord to do. There is in it, also, in its reference to others, a trial of our integrity, and faithfulness, of our lovingkindness, and of our uprightness to the

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