peared to be destitute of vital godliness. This motion, which was seconded by the Rev. Samuel Dill of Donoughmore, was followed by a debate, which did not terminate until the afternoon of Saturday, when, on putting the question to the vote, the overtures were carried by a majority of eightytwo-ninety-nine ministers and forty elders voting 'pass,' and forty ministers and seventeen elders voting 'not pass.' At this meeting of Synod, Mr Cooke, now regarded as the leader of the Old-Light party, exhibited great tact, decision, and intrepidity. He had to contend against the waywardness of some who were the stanch supporters of his own theological sentiments, but who imagined that measures of less stringency would have been sufficient for the reformation of the Church. An immense majority of the Presbyterian laity of Ulster were, however, decidedly in favour of his policy, and public opinion told powerfully on the synodical discussions. At this important crisis, an early friend, of extraordinary endowments, rendered him most efficient aid, both in consultation and❘ in debate. The Rev. Robert Stewart of Broughshane made no pretensions to the polished beauties of a captivating eloquence, but he was noted for his rare sagacity, his readiness and fluency as a speaker, his sparkling wit, and his imperturbable equanimity. For many years he had taken a leading part in the management of synodical affairs; and, in July of the year preceding, he had acquired great reputation by a public discussion with a Roman Catholic priest, in which he had completely prostrated an able antagonist. On the present occasion, he encountered a more formidable champion with signal success. Mr Montgomery, in a vigorous and ingenious speech, of upwards of two hours in length, had opposed the adoption of the overtures moved by Mr Cooke; and Mr Stewart, in an impromptu reply, which occupied nearly as much time, and which was heard throughout with profound attention, exposed, with most damaging effect, the assumptions and the special pleading of the Arian leader. And it was not merely at this juncture that Mr Cooke felt the value of the services of the minister of Broughshane. On ecclesiastical questions, they generally held the same views, and Mr Stewart almost uniformly sustained him in the intellectual conflict. There were times when the orthodox leader, irritated, it may be, by the pertinacity or the petulance of assailants, would express himself with rather uncomfortable pungency; and when an unpleasant altercation was likely to ensue, as yielding to the impetuousity of his spirit, he scorched with his sarcasm or maddened with his irony. Mr Stewart, at once perceiving | the rising storm, would promptly interpose, and contrive, by some happy stroke of humour, or some well-timed explanation, to restore good feeling to the assembly. The passing of the overtures effectually closed the door against the admission of Arians into the ministry of the Synod of Ulster. The members of the committee appointed for examination were all decided Trinitarians, and a heterodox candidate had not the slightest prospect of obtaining their approbation. The New-Light party now saw that, if they could not speedily induce the orthodox majority to yield, they could not themselves remain in their present condition. Another resolution might exclude them from the Synod, or, if permitted to continue in the body, they must be prepared to submit to their own gradual extinction. They accordingly began to consider the propriety of separation. a meeting convened by public advertisement, and held in Belfast on the 16th of October 1828, they adopted a 'Remonstrance,' in which their alleged grievances were set forth, and in which they declared that, if they could not obtain a repeal of the obnoxious overtures, they must form themselves into a distinct association. At the same time, they agreed to publish and circulate this manifesto, and they invited all ministers, licentiates, students, elders, and private individuals, opposed to the late proceedings of the Synod, to affix to it their signatures. At All parties now awaited with anxiety the next annual meeting of the General Synod. A few days before it assembled, an event occurred which added considerably to the public excitement. In March 1829, Dr John Young, professor of moral philosophy in the Belfast Institution, died, and there was a general desire throughout the Synod of Ulster that the Rev. James Carlile of Mary's Abbey, Dublin, who had been induced to become a candidate for the chair, should be appointed his successor. Mr Carlile was already known as one of the most learned Protestant ministers in Ireland; as his mind was remarkable for its metaphysical acuteness, he was believed to be peculiarly qualified for the vacant office; and the moderator of the Synod, who was one of the electors, was instructed to support him in preference to any other candidate. But on the day of appointment, to the surprise of a large portion of the community, Mr John Ferrie, a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, and a gentleman as yet almost unknown to the literary public, had a majority of suffrages. It was understood that the Rev. Henry Montgomery had contributed to Mr Carlile's defeat; and, as the minister of Mary's Abbey had recently pub lished an able work in defence of the Deity of Christ, rumour, with its hundred tongues, was ready to assign a cause for the hostility of the Unitarian leader. Matters were in this state when the Synod met in Lurgan, on Tuesday, the 30th of June 1829. The subject of the late election in the Belfast Institution was soon brought under discussion, and Mr Cooke expressed, in very emphatic terms, his disapproval of Mr Ferrie's appointment. It was remarked, that though the successful candidate had been chaplain to the University of Glasgow, he had no testimonia! from Dr Magill, its pious and enlightened professor of theology, and it was alleged that certain students had complained of his ministrations in the college chapel as anti-evangelical. The debate had continued for some time when Mr Montgomery and Mr Cooke came into direct collision, and, on the fourth day of its meeting, the Synod of Ulster witnessed a display of eloquence which would have been pronounced magnificient, had it occurred even in the most illustrious assembly of the empire. Mr Montgomery had evidently summoned all his strength for the occasion; and, as if anticipating his speedy secession, seemed resolved to make his last appear ance in the Synod memorable, by the infliction of a fatal wound on the reputation of his great ecclesiastical antagonist. Standign immediately below the pulpit, and in full view of a crowded auditory, his tall and portly figure, his well-toned voice, and his graceful elocution, imparted additional effect to an address of uncommon ability. Appealing to a report of Irish Education Inquiry which lay before him, and which he seemed to have diligently studied, he attempted to prove that certain statements, relative to the orthodoxy of the Scottish clergy, recently made by Mr Cooke in the case of Mr Ferrie, flatly contradicted his sworn testimony before the parliamentary commissioners. Not a few of the friends of the minister of Killileagh exchanged looks of trepidation and bewilderment as the Arian orator proceeded with his accusations, and as, now and again, waving the report in the face of the assembly, he apparently clenched the evidence in support of the various counts of indictment. When he approached the termination of his speech, he alluded to the possibility of a division of the Synod, and then contrasting the strifes of earth with the serenity of heaven, the tones of his voice became unusually melow and pathetic, as he closed with a sublime and touching peroration. For nearly three hours the house had now listened with mute attention, and when he sat down, it was agreed that the court should adjourn, and meet again in a short time, to hear what the accused could say in explanation. When it re-assembled, after the interval of half an hour, Mr Cooke entered forthwith on his defence; and though his reply was obviously altogether unpremeditated, never did the representative of a great cause acquit himself, on a great occasion, more to the satisfaction of his party. It was plain from the outset that he felt strong in his integrity, and that he was fully prepared to answer his accuser, and tears of gladness rolled down many cheeks as, in pleading to the charge of perjury, he proceeded, to use his own impassioned phraseology, to dash to atoms the atrocious calumny with the talisman of truth.' His physical energies seemed as if increased for the emergency; for two hours his distinct and deeptoned voice filled every part of the great assembly; and the attack of his assailant was repelled in an effort of sustained and surpassing brilliancy. As, point after point, he demolished the accusations of his adversary, his auditors could not restrain the expressions of their sympathy, and the house rang again with peals of acclamation. When he reached the close, the buzz of the excitement did not subside for several minutes, and all agreed that, however high their expectations, they had not anticipated a vindication at once so prompt and so powerful. Mr Montgomery was strained to bow to the decision of the auditory, and, during the remainder of the sittings of the court, did not again appear inclined to measure his strength with the Goliah of orthodoxy. con CHRISTIANS THE SALT OF THE EARTH. HERE is something else which Christians are. All that they are cannot be told in a single sentence. It requires many. Some content themselves with a partial representation of the Christian character. But the proper plan is to bring together all the Bible has to say about it, and then aptly to arrange the parts, so as to present a full and perfect delineation. Many seem to think that every definition of religion in the Bible is intended to exhaust the subject. It is a great mistake, and one which, I fear, is fatal to many. Christians are the light of the world, as has been already said. But this is not all they are; they are also 'the salt of the earth;' and the same individuals are both these; they do not merely shine for the benefit of the world; they act upon it in another, more immediate, and more energetic manner; they are not merely light to it, but salt to it also. They preserve it. Here let me remark, what a useful people Christians are! What are more useful, I may say indispensable, than light and salt? How could we get along at all without them? Well, Christians are these to the moral world. They enlighten it. They discover moral excellence to it. Yea, they preserve it from perishing. The world would not keep but for Christians. They are the salt of the earth. How soon Sodom was destroyed after Lot left it! He was the salt of Sodom. That one good man saved the city while he remained in it; and if there had been nine more, they might all have remained, and Sodom should have been spared. Well may I say, how useful Christians are to their fellow-creatures! And I may add, how variously useful they are! If they were merely light to the world, they would be very useful; but they are also salt to it. Moreover, what a disinterested people Christians are! It is not to themselves mainly, that they are so useful, but to others. Not a man of them liveth to himself. Light shines not for its own advantage; and salt exists wholly for the benefit of other substances; and how completely it spends itself on them, and loses itself in them! Such are Christians. They please not themselves. They seek not their own. This is what we are, if we are Christians. And now I have another grave reflection to make. How different Christians aré from the residue of men! How very unlike them! Others are not the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. No, they are the world-the person that require the light-the dark objects. They are the earth, which needs the salt for its preservation. They are the corrupt mass. Now, light is very unlike the object it illumines, and salt very unlike the substance it preserves or seasons. If it were not, it would not at all answer the purpose intended by its application. Well, just as unlike other men, unregenerate men, the men of the world are Christians-as unlike as are light and the world, or salt and the earth. But some may say, this is figurative language. What if it is? Figures mean something. They mean as much as literal phraseology. And the meaning of figures is as easily gained as that of any other kind of language. But St John speaks on this subject without a figure, and he employs one of the strongest and most striking expressions I have ever read. To many ears it does not sound at all charitable. He says, speaking in the name of Christians, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness; or, to translate the original more literally, and to make the contrast still more striking, in the Wicked One. This is his account of the difference between Christians and others. Christians are of God. All other men are in the Wicked One. Nor is it wonderful that Christians are so very different from others, when we consider that they become such by being created anew in Christ Jesus. Such a work of God upon them must needs make them very unlike those who are not the subjects of it. Creation makes a vast difference in things. The first creation did. The second does also. The new creature differs widely from the mere creature. The Christian is eminently distinguished from the man. Christians are exhorted not to be conformed to the world. It would seem impossible that real Christians should be conformed to it. It would appear to be as contrary to their nature to be conformed to the world, as for light to resemble darkness, or salt any insipid or corrupt substance. But the world say, they do not see the mighty difference between Christians and other men. Perhaps it is because they do not look at the right persons. It is no wonder they do not see a mighty difference between some professors of religion, and the rest of mankind; for no such difference exists. It is not to be seen. It is not every professor that is a true Christian. There are some that pass for Christians, of whom it may be said, that the light which is in them is darkness. Such are not the lights of the world. They need themselves illumination more than any others; for the darkness which is in them is great. Again, there are those in whom, according to the case supposed by our Saviour, the salt has lost its savourits saline quality. Yes, there are insipid Christians. That such should not manifest the difference which exists between real Christians and others, is surely not to be wondered at. These differ from others, rather in being worse than better than they. What is so worthless as salt which has lost its savour? 'It is thenceforth good for nothing; but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.' Just so it is with graceless professors of religion. They serve no good turn, but many an ill one. But some are not entirely without the saline principle, yet have it in great weakness. They are, if I may so speak, only a little brackish with it. Let such give diligence to grow in grace. And let us all see to it, that we have salt in ourselves, that we may be in this respect also what Christ says his disciples are, ‘the salt of the earth.' THE EDITOR'S LIBRARY. THE PROBLEM OF THE AGE; or, The Abolition of has ever inflicted; and the fear of such a consummation is increased by the fact, that amid all the oral details and written delineations of the evils of the system, no rational theory for its abolition has yet been promulgated. Even Mrs Stowe, throughout the whole of that work which has created the sensation to which we have alluded, has carefully abstained from pointing out a method of removing the monstrous iniquity she so powerfully depicts and deplores. 'Tis true this was not the purpose she had in view, and it is probably better that her energies were concentrated on another object; but now that the interest of Christendom is fairly excited on the subject, it is more than time that the powerful current was turned in a practically progressive direction. 'Many meetings have been held throughout the country, at which certain resolutions have been passed, in accordance with which, remonstrances have been signed, and transmitted to America; but what THE object of the author of this excellent pamphlet is to turn the current of sympathy, which has recently been so generally excited in favour of the victims of slavery, into some practical channel of relief. The author, very judiciously we think, avoids wasting time and space to prove that the evil exists, but at once assumes that on all hands it will be readily admitted. Who does not join in denouncing slavery to be a monstrous evil? And are not all ready to profess their anxiety, not in any way to touch the unclean thing,' and even to stand at a distance from those who are either nearly or remotely identified with the system? It is true that we willingly purchased the freedom of those held in bond-effect can these have, so long as such a age in our own colonies, but it cannot be denied that we are still indirectly connected with American slavery. Our manufacturers receive their supplies of cotton, which forms the principal part of British commerce, from the Slave States of America; and what would become of the multitudes of our manufacturing population, indeed, what would become of our population in every department of commerce, could the usual supply of cotton not be procured, for certainly the ruin of that branch of our trade would more or less damage every other? With all true Abolitionists, and we rejoice that they are so numerous, we fervently pray that some practical plan may be devised whereby the fetters of the slave may be broken, and that he may be speedily put in possession of that freedom of which he has been so long and so unjustly deprived. But instead of extending our own remarks, we lay the following extract from the pamphlet before our readers: While we rejoice in this deep and wide-spread sympathy, and bless the agent of its creation, we feel there is a danger existing of its taking a wrong direction, and thus retarding for an indefinite period the abolition of that system of slavery against which it is directed, or, worse still, by rashly and precipitately demolishing it, entailing a series of evils far greater and more grievous than those which now exist in connection with it. We fear that feeling may blind the judgment, and lead to the attempted realization of what can never be achieved without an ardent struggle, or if yielding to an overwhelming force of public opinion, the world would be plunged into a tenfold deeper misery than slavery vagueness or rather absence of plan, exists among the Abolitionists respecting the removal of the obnoxious system? The general and perhaps only sentiment expressed in these memorials, is a desire, on the part of the senders, for the speedy and eternal removal of the inhuman slave system, the appeal being often enforced by reproachful and indignant expressions. A little reflection will enable every one to see the utter inadequacy of such a course to gain the object in view. The cry for immediate Emancipation which has long been raised, and which has increased arnid the prevalent excitement, is tending more to retard the abolition of slavery in America than perhaps any agency or argument which interested selfishness has put forth for its support. Independently of the difficulty of harmonizing such a proceeding with justice and equity, as respects the proprietors of slaves, the disastrous consequences it would entail are so distinctly perceived by thousands of intellectual men in America, that rather than risk them they join the Anti-Emancipation party, and give all the support in their power to a system which they in their hearts condemn. Thus a twofold opposition is at the present time presented to the abolition of slavery, in the face of which it is at once impossible and undesirable to make head-way; and unless some practicable plan is propounded which can recommend itself to the judg ment as well as the feelings of influential men, the slave will continue to groan under his monstrous burden, and many benevolent heart sigh in vain to give him relief. 'That such an evil should be extended on account of such a cause is indeed to be deplored, especially when the time has arrived at which proper action has every chance of success. The period has now passed away, for an argument concerning the right and wrong of slavery. There was a time when its principle was defended and supported by specious reasoning, and even vindicated by appeals to Scripture, but this battle has been long since fought and won. Those feelings of justice and rectitude which the great Creator has implanted in the human soul, though long deadened, have at last asserted their power, and not even the brazen-faced effrontery of selfishness dare advocate the practice on the ground of principle. Accordingly those who, from pecuniary motives, are interested in the maintenance of slavery, have have been forced to entrench themselves behind that defence which many have adopted in sincerity; and it only requires a practicable and thoroughly constructed plan to draw the latter away from it, and leave the former in that miserable and helpless minority which their detestable conduct merits. 'We conceive, therefore, that the great work to be done at the present time, is to show the disastrous consequences that would result from the immediate abolition of the slave system; and we trust to be able to place these in such a light, that the present current of aggressive effort will be turned into a different and more promising channel. The cry for immediate emancipation, which is enlisting the sympathies and energies of a great part of the humanity and intellect of the Anti-Slavery party is, as we have said, a barrier in the road to the negro's freedom; and if we can remove the hindrance by picturing the evil consequences which success in this direction, were it possible, would entail, something will be done to hasten on the elevation, civilization, and freedom of a wronged and oppressed race. Still we are aware that when this is accomplished, "the problem of the age" yet remains to be solved; nay, the question will then come with greater force, How is American slavery to be abolished? We do not profess to be able to answer this awful inquiry. There is about it a length and a breadth, a depth and a height, almost passing knowledge. The evil sought to be removed is so deep-rooted and far-spread, as nearly to defy all human effort to eradicate it; and we are far from expecting that one mind will be able to project an adequate remedy, or that one generation will succeed in uprooting the terrible curse. Meanwhile we set ourselves to the less difficult, though not less necessary, task of showing the baneful effects which would flow from immediate Emancipation. 'Supposing then, that by some extraor dinary and ingenious method, the demands of justice were met, and the American government could, and did, without any infringement of its primary claims, declare within a week or a month the total and entire abolition of slavery throughout the Union, what kind of scene would the first morning of freedom present throughout the breadth and the length of the now Slave States? Every shovel and hoe would be lying in the tool-house; the rice fields and cotton plantations would be deserted; and the liberated millions would, under the influence of what they never felt before -a sense of freedom-be dancing and yelling like madmen in the forest glades and by the river's banks. "Well, we should not be at all surprised should this be the case," exclaim the advocates for immediate Emancipation; "it is very natural that, amid the first hours of joyous liberty, the poor victims of a long and cruel bondage, indulge in recreation, and for a space give themselves up to the enjoyment of rest from labour." Ay, but the question is, to what extent would this 'space' " of idleness extend, and when would the shovel and hoe be resumed? We answer never! The great mass of these emancipated savages, alive only to the idea that no overseer can now compel them to work, and altogether beyond the influence of moral feeling, would for ever refuse to labour in the plantations, on any terms whatever. And can we wonder that this should be the result? nay, in our turn we would ask, is it not very natural that they should bid an eternal adieu to those scenes of so much wretchedness and misery, and wander in idleness over the country? 66 If any of our readers doubt the correctness of such an anticipation, or the reasoning on which it is founded, let them look to our own West Indian islands, where experience can become their instructor in the matter. Have these islands known one hour of their former prosperity since the moment when the Abolition Act came into effect, or have the negros continued to labour with any thing like earnestness or regularity? Notwithstanding the degree of moral and religious training they had received from the missionaries, and the preparation afforded by the term of apprenticeship, it was, and still is, the universal complaint of the planters that they would not work; and this, combined with other disadvantages entailed by the Emancipation Act, has led to the gradual decay of every one of our colonies in that quarter of the world. And if such was the result in these islands, how much more would it be realized in America, where the slaves are sunk deep down in an ocean of grossest mental and moral ignorance, and |