burgh, the following deliverance was adopted :-" The General Assembly resolve to appoint a special committee, instructing them to take the subject of the overtures into very careful consideration; to endeavour to mature a plan for carrying out the object of those overtures; to hold such communication with the Colonial and Continental Committees as circumstances may render desirable; and to report the result of their inquiries and deliberations to the next General Assembly. Farther, the Assembly recommend to this committee to take steps for obtaining funds toward effecting any plan they may propose, in order that the Assembly in 1867 may be enabled to provide for putting it into immediate operation. Finally, the Assembly authorise the committee to arrange for the partial promotion of the object during the ensuing year, in the event of any funds being placed at their disposal for that purpose."

TUESDAY, JUNE 5.

The Assembly met at eleven o'clock.

THE UNION QUESTION.

It was intimated by Dr ROBERT BUCHANAN, as Convener of the Committee on Union with other Churches, that a communication had been sent to him from the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, to the effect that the Synod had reappointed their committee on that subject.

SECRETARY TO SUSTENTATION FUND COMMITTEE.

It was also intimated by Dr BUCHANAN, as Convener of the Committee on the Sustentation Fund, that the committee had agreed to a minute, which he read. It appeared from it that the health of Mr Handyside, the secretary, had been certified to be such as to require that he should have at least three months' relaxation from work. The General Assembly instruct the Committee on the Sustentation Fund to make such arrangements as may enable Mr Handyside to have three months' relaxation, at least, from his work.

SALE OF PROPERTY.

The Assembly again called for the Report of the Committee on the Sales of Property. In accordance with the report, in the case of the Application of the Deacons' Court of the congregation at Culsalmond, with the unanimous approval of the congregation and approval of the Presbytery of the bounds, the Assembly authorised the Deacons' Court to sell the cottage referred to in the petition, and to apply the price towards the erection of a new manse; the requirements and provisions of the Act VIII. of the Assembly 1863, anent Sales and Transferences of Property, being always observed.

SABBATH OBSERVANCE.

Mr MACKENZIE (Tolbooth Church) gave in the Report of the Sabbath Observance Committee, (No. XX.) He said we are all aware that the Sabbath is a hedge which God has set around the religion of Christ. Anything that strikes at the Sabbath strikes at the root of Christianity. There are two or three subjects in this report on which I would like to say a word. The first is that which states that during the past year,

certain lines of railway have been amalgamated, and the effect of that amalgamation has been to open one of the lines-the Edinburgh and Glasgow-which has been shut for nineteen years, on the Sabbath-day. And this was done unsolicited by any public body. It was also done against the remonstrances of parties at both ends of the line. It is a very serious fact, that these lines of railway in our country are becoming so very powerful; the greater lines are swallowing up the small; and, however beneficial this may be to the shareholders, I am afraid it acts disastrously on the interests of the Sabbath. The railway companies are becoming too much a despotic power. We find that the greater lines are swallowing up the smaller, and exercising an injurious influence, at all events morally, on all within their circle. I sometimes think that if there is anything which renders this a more serious subject than another, it is the familiarising of our people with this mode of Sabbath desecration. This is a very rapid age we live in, and we cannot tell how soon the sensibilities become blunted. What we think we cannot help we soon begin to tolerate, and the effect of all this is that soon the evil principle in any practice becomes little thought of, just when the practice itself is familiarised to us. I wish to call the attention of the Assembly to this fact, that I believe if we are, as a Church or as a country, to deal with the root of this matter now, we can only do it by facing another question —that is, what should be done with the post offices over the country. I believe that the Post Office lies at the root of Sabbath desecration. Why is it that we have our mail trains? It is because of the Post Office. And the mail trains lead to passenger trains, and passenger trains by and by, as we are finding, lead to goods trains. I do not say but a great deal of difficulty interposes with regard to this subject, but it is not insuperable; and could our post offices be closed what a valuable testimony it would be on the part of our nation to the authority of the Sabbath, and what an immense benefit it would be to thousands of noble-hearted men who are engaged in post office work, and who are connected with railway work on the Sabbath, to obtain this relief-relief they can now find in no way but by resigning their situations and giving themselves and their friends to beggary. I believe there are many such men engaged in postoffice and railway work, and what a great relief this would be to them. Then, the second point to which the report adverts is that, during the last season very loose and erroneous opinions have been widely circulated in regard to the authority of the day of rest, and these uttered and circulated by persons occupying prominent places in the country. These sentiments have no doubt weakened the faith of some, and strengthened the doubt of others. But while this has been the result, we all know that the utterance of these views afforded an opportunity for the whole subject of the Sabbath being discussed in all its bearings. I believe the result of that discussion has been to present this very momentous question before our people in a light it has never before been. But we ought never to forget this truth-that the effects of error long remain after the error itself has been successfully met. The poison of falsehood is long circulated even after the falsehood itself has been overthrown, and I believe that it is so in this case. Then the third point to which our attention is directed in the report is, that we have come to what may be called a crisis in the history of our Sabbaths. We find that bit by bit this sacred day is attempted to be taken from us. We have certain forms of

Sabbath desecration prevalent in our cities and towns. We have other forms of Sabbath desecration prevalent in our country districts; and I believe if these forms of Sabbath desecration are to be successfully arrested, it is only by the members of the Church awaking up to their great responsibility in the matter. I sometimes think there is a kind of insensibility creeping over us on this great subject from our familiarity with it. What we need is to be roused up to a singular effort in the present time; so that, by the blessing of God, the membership of our Church in our respective congregations may give proof, by their hallowed observance of this day in their families, and by stated attendance on the ordinances of God's house, what real Sabbath observance is, and that the due observance of this day is not only the best for the next world, but is also the best for the souls and body of men now and for all the social interests of the present life. I believe that by such a demonstration as this living testimony, we would do a great deal to arrest the torrent of Sabbath desecration which is at present sweeping over the country.

Dr J. J. WOOD-I much regret the absence of Mr Arnot, who was to move the adoption of this report; but, in his absence, it gives me great pleasure to do so, inasmuch as I feel it to be a matter of the very greatest importance. I need not here say how intimately the right observance of the Lord's-day is connected with true religion. If we can get our people rightly to believe in the divine authority of the Lord's-day, and rightly to observe it, we may expect that under this influence they will grow in spirituality. This question in our day has assumed a great magnitude, owing to the state of society. Owing to the way in which business is carried on, there are many temptations to Christians to forget the sacredness of the Lord's-day, and there is great difficulty in drawing the line of distinction as to the right observance of the day in works of necessity and mercy. I felt greatly indebted to our friend Dr Candlish for the very clear, common-sense, scriptural, and judicial statement with which he favoured the Assembly on Monday week. I think he put the matter of Sabbath observance on its right footing; but it will require a great deal of faithfulness to God, great faithfulness to men's souls, no little courage, and no little prudence, to manage the matter of Sabbath observance in connexion with our different congregations in the present state of society. But I trust that, when so many assaults are made upon the Sabbath by enemies from without or pretended friends within, God will give grace to His people to act faithfully and prudently in this most important matter. Mr Mackenzie has referred to the opening of railways specially to the opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow-on the Lord's-day. I am sorry to say that the only railway which did not run trains on the Lord's-day has now ceased to be in that position. The Glasgow and South-Western Railway was the only railway in Scotland which did not run any kind of Sabbath train. I am sorry to say that they have given up that position, and have begun to run a mail train, and this without consulting the shareholders, and without being called upon by the public-simply through an arrangement with the Post Office. I agree with my friend Mr Mackenzie, that the Post Office is at the root of a great deal of Sabbath desecration; and if we could prevail upon the Post Office authorities to close the Post Office on the Lord'sday, I am convinced that not only would it be no inconvenience to the mercantile part of the community, but it would be a great blessing to

thousands of persons who are called to work through the Post Office arrangements on the Sabbath-day. I feel exceedingly for the servants of the Glasgow and South-Western in connexion with its opening and running of trains on the Lord's-day. Many of them are resident in my neighbourhood, and numbers of them are members of my congregation; and I could not but feel that it was a cruel thing to compel these men either to give up their situations or to do what conscience condemned on the Lord's-day. I do trust we shall all in our several places faithfully and prudently maintain the sanctity of the day, and protest against every invasion of the Sabbath, come from what quarter it may. I have great pleasure in moving the approval of the report.

Colonel DAVIDSON-I think, instead of an apology being required from the convener of this committee to the House for occupying a portion of their time, an apology is rather due to the Committee on Sabbath Observance for the short time allotted to it in the proceedings of this Assembly. And were proof wanting to show how difficult it is, within the compass of the ten days which constitute the sederunt of the General Assembly, to give to each topic the place and attention that is due to it, we have it in the fact that in the present crisis in regard to the Sabbath, the report of the Committee on Sabbath Observance has such a small corner allotted to it in the proceedings of this venerable Court. At the same time, it has so happened that in the course of the judicial proceedings of this Assembly, a case has come before us which gives an important practical illustration of what we hold to be right and wrong in regard to the doing of secular work on the Lord's-day. This case, touching, as it does, a source of unhallowed gain from the employment of ordinary labour on the Sabbath, has drawn forth the fire of the enemy, and shown the weakness of his position. (Hear, hear.) I cannot believe that the shrewd and thinking men who form the staple of our working classes are to be hoodwinked and deluded by such flimsy and flippant arguments, or rather assertions, as are brought forward by the press to justify the giving and taking of ordinary labour on that blessed and divinely-appointed day of rest which is the birthright of the working man. When I see the press coming to the rescue and throwing its shield over a man in the position of Mr Robertson in his contest with the Church, I am reminded of the fable of the horse, the stag, and the man, which I have a dim, indistinct notion has been quoted before in this connexion, but which is so apt and apposite that I cannot refrain from referring to it now. In the fable, the horse, aggrieved by the conduct of the stag, applies to the man to help him against his enemy. The man saddles the horse, puts a bridle in his mouth, and, leaping on his back, hunts down the stag. The horse, thanking the man for his valuable assistance, begs that the saddle and bridle may be removed and his liberty restored. "Oh, no, my friend," says the man, shaking his head, "I have found you so useful that I will just keep you and work you myself." (Laughter and hear.) The Sabbath-day has long been a battleground between the world and the Church-between the lovers of pleasure and the lovers of God. The ungodly world demands the day for its unhallowed pleasures and unsanctified gains, while the people of God demand it in the terms of the Decalogue, as a day set apart for holy rest and the worship of Jehovah; and never, in our day at least, have the signs of the conflict been more dark and ominous than they are now.

In this view, I cannot but regret that the subject had not received more of the attention of this Assembly. But I trust, when we disperse, and our fathers and brethren return to their charges, it will be to reanimate their people with a sense of the vital importance of the struggle. We military men, in preparing our men for the evolutions of the battle, know that there is no element of our exercise so important as the company drill. When the companies are well drilled, there is no fear of the battalion and the brigade doing well in the grand field-day. The several congregations are the companies which make up the battalions of the Church in her conflict with the powers of darkness. The Free Church of Scotland is being put upon her trial. She fights under the banner of the Captain of the King's Host, who is already crowned Conqueror, and victory must be hers. We are told by the Times, in that notable article, in which folly and ignorance sit enthroned, demanding the obeisance of a silly world, that the Free Church of Scotland is either a tremendous necessity or a tremendous humbug. And here, under the garb of foolish impertinence, we have a solemn truth. The Free Church is indeed a tremendous necessity now, as she has ever been. In the same article she is sneered at as wishing to use the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue as a fulcrum upon which she proposes to move the world. Here, too, we have truth lurking behind the garb of foolishness. With the gospel of Christ for her lever, and the Sabbath as her fulcrum, the Free Church of Scotland has moved, and will yet further move the world. (Applause.)

Mr NAIRN, Dundee, thought it was desirable that this subject should have received more prominence in the Assembly. Nothing, he said, was more remarkable than the suddenness with which changes in the mode of treating such a question might take place. When the subject was brought up last year, a feeling prevailed in the House that it was quite unnecessary to enter into anything like an argument in regard to the perpetual and unchangeable obligation of the Sabbath, and in the address prepared by the direction of last Assembly, the writer merely alluded to this foundation statement, and then went into the practical bearings of the question. How remarkable was it that within a few months of the issuing of that address they had an assault made on those fundamental points, not by avowed enemies, but by those who had previously been its professed friends. He quite agreed with the opinion expressed in the report that these attacks on the Sabbath had been the occasion of bringing out very able and learned defences of the Sabbath, so that a most valuable contribution had been thereby made to the literature of the Sabbath question. He impressed on the ministers of the Church the necessity of bringing this subject frequently and prominently before the minds of their people. As administrators of the law of the Church they had great need to seek wisdom from God, that they might be enabled to deal with the questions that might be expected to come up, and to make application of their principles to particular cases of Sabbath desecration. It would be exceedingly important that they should keep that in mind, inasmuch as they could scarcely expect frequently to meet with cases so clear on the merits as that they were led judicially to consider the other day. They required to remember that it was their duty to make application of the Sabbath law in such cases to the individual conscience, and it would be of great importance to take