realize the consolation arising from the simple and Scriptural belief that her husband is now with Christ. Her care of him was most unremitting, and her sorrow for him has been intense. The orphan, Prionauth, is a boy of about ten months old. May he yet live to take his father's place! I can assure you that I have exaggerated nothing in my letter, but have rather held back some things that I might have said. I did not under-rate the living, and over-rate the dying or the dead. In this my conscience bears me witness. Mahendra, our esteemed catechist, is well, and now aiding us in the Calcutta Institution." "It was, however, at this very season of darkness and depression that God was pleased to visit his servants with a new manifestation of his favour. In the course of the month in which Koilas was removed, four of the converts in the institution at Calcutta offered themselves as probationers for the office of catechists; and, on the day after Mr Macdonald's letter was written, one of the most promising of the young men of the institution, Guru Das Maitra, presented himself to the brethren, entreating to be received into the church by baptism; and was accordingly, a few days after, publicly baptized. The conversion of this young man furnishes a striking example of God's sovereignty in this employment of the means for the accomplishment of his gracious purposes. Guru had always been a thoughtful and attentive youth; but had not yielded to the convictions of the truth of the gospel till he stood by the death-bed of a fellow-student. The dying youth had himself been convinced that Christianity is true, but had not embraced it; and in anguish of spirit exclaimed, 'I have rejected the gospel, and what will become of me?' This proved an arrow to the conscience of Guru. From that moment he had no rest, till he sought and found it in Christ, whom he forthwith openly acknowledged. The hearts of the brethren were refreshed, and they rejoiced over Guru as a son whom the Lord had given them instead of Koilas, whom he had taken away.

"But in the inscrutable providence of Him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will, and who 'giveth not account of any of his matters,' this new manifestation of his tenderness and compassion towards his servants seems to have been a preparation for another and a very heavy affliction. Within these few days, the distressing intelligence has been received, that Mahendra, too, has gone the way of all flesh-suddenly cut down in the prime of life, and in the prospect of usefulness, to which the brethren had been looking forward with the fondest hopes and brightest anticipations. He died of cholera, after a few days' illness, on the 7th of last month. It will be remembered that Mahendra was selected by the Ladies' Association in Glasgow, as the catechist whom they undertook to support.

"In the course of the review which your Committee have been led to take of the history of your missionary undertaking during the past year, they have felt impressed, in a peculiarly solemn manner, with the great truth, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts;' and they could not have concluded their Report without giving expression to this feeling, and reminding the Church of the necessity of earnest, united, and persevering prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the means employed for the conversion of the heathen. They would have been disposed to dwell on the peculiarly striking proofs which the history of your mission affords of the necessity of the Spirit's work, in preparing and opening the heart to receive the love of the truth, even when the understanding has been brought to acknowledge it; and they would have taken occasion to urge on the Church at large the request which is repeated in every communication received from the missionaries: 'Brethren, pray for us;' but the melancholy intelligence with which your Committee have unexpectedly to close their report will, they are persuaded, operate more powerfully than any representation of theirs, in awakening the sympathies, and calling forth the prayers of the Church on behalf of the devoted men whose faith has been so sorely tried, that they may be able to say, of all the events that befall them, however discouraging they may be: The things which have happened unto us, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.' In name and by appointment of the Committee, "ROBERT GORDON, Convener."

Dr MACFARLAN of Renfrew moved the adoption of the Report last read, and that the thanks of the Assembly be given to Dr Gordon and the other members of the Foreign Mission Committee. He referred to the peculiar appropriateness of the communications which pass between the Church at home and her missionaries abroad -a practice for which they had the high sanction of apostolic example, in the salutions with which the epistles concluded; and he pointed out the good effects which such a practice had in making us familiar with the cases of conversion, with the charac

ter of the converts, and the general nature of our missionary operations abroad. He referred to the death of the two distinguished native converts in India, mentioned in the Report, and drew from the melancholy event the consolation which their happy end was calculated to give. He then showed how any individual brought to a knowledge of the truth in a heathen land, became necessarily a missionary to those around him. In India, or in Southern Africa, any little individual church, of perhaps from ten to twenty members, planted in the centre of a heathen population, and banded together by the ties of a common brotherhood, were so many active agents for proclaiming the truth to others; and he went on to remark that, if it were possible for all who were converted to God in our own land to become agents in the conversion of their fellow-men, we could then understand how the peace of leaven would soon leaven the whole lump. After showing the encouragement which this gave us to support missionary effort, and the duty which all ought to feel in this respect, he made some observations in reference to the missions in South Africa, from which a letter had only that day reached him. It ought to make many professed Christians in this country blush to hear how the African converts regulated their conduct. Public worship was made every morning and evening, to which they generally repaired; and, with the exception of one Caffre family at one of the stations spoken of, family worship was practised daily before and after sunset. There are other announcements received from Caffraria highly satisfactory and pleasing to any Christian mind; and he mentioned, as an interesting proof of the affection they entertained for the Free Church, that a meeting of Caffres was held, with a Caffre chief in the chair, and a subscription for the Free Church was set on foot, the contributions being given in kind, and that they had remitted to this country the sum of L.180. In conclusion, the reverend Doctor moved the adoption of the Report, and that the thanks of the Assembly be given to Dr Gordon and the other members of Committee.

Dr WILSON then shortly addressed the Assembly, and referred to the benefits conferred on the military in India by the missionaries there. He believed, that at the station at Poonah several hundreds of our countrymen had been converted through the instrumentality of Mr Mitchell. He had known regiments arriving there, in which they could not hear of a single pious individual; and afterwards praying societies had been instituted in them, attended by from 200 to 300 individuals, all, so far as could be observed, adorning the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. He then referred to the case of a regiment which he saw in the north of India returning from war, and in which he found the remainder of one of their prayer societies. He asked how they had maintained their Christian position in the difficult circumstances in which they were placed. Their reply was, that they had had great struggles of conscience. They were in doubts as to the justice of the war in which they had been engaged. Though ready and willing to serve their country, they were afraid that the cause in which they were engaged was not a right and just one; but that they felt they were not to blame if this was the case, as they were bound to obey those who had the command over them, and who were the best judges as to the propriety of the war. Still, they had not felt much comfort. In one of the engagements, fifteen of those who had belonged to a praying society in this regiment were cut off. One of them seemed to have a presentiment of his end. He said to a comrade that he thought he was to fall on that occasion, and rejoined, "I commend myself to God," when almost instantly a ball entered his ear, and he staggered backwards, and fell down in the embrace of death. Many instances of conversion among soldiers and others of our fellow-countrymen could be given; and he would say, that if our mission in India had produced no other good than the advancement of the cause of Christ among our countrymen there, it was worthy of support. (Hear.) He then showed the importance of the missionaries in India, as the great promulgators of Free Church principles in that land. It had been stated that the missionaries in India were induced to declare their attachment to the Free Church of Scotland from the undue influence of the press in this country. Now, they had all along declared their attachment to the principles of the Free Church; and the argument used in reference to the press, might be said to be of the nature of the Highlander's gun, which was intended to shoot round a corner: it was meant not to point at the inconsistency of the missionaries in joining the Free Church, but as an excuse for the in

consistency of the person who used it. (Hear.) Dr Wilson gave some interesting accounts of individual cases of conversion in India, and, in conclusion, said he had been requested to propose that liberty should be given to the missionary Presbyteries in India to give licence to ministers, catechists, &c., the Presbyteries using in all cases a wise discretion, and reporting the same to the Committee in this country.

The MODERATOR, then, addressing Dr Gordon, said,—He had to return the thanks of the Assembly to him, and to the Committee of which he was Convener, for the Report which he had just laid on the table, and for their continued and energetic labours in this most interesting and glorious cause. They had had many interesting Reports laid before them in the course of that General Assembly, but he knew not that in any General Assembly he had ever heard a Report so interesting as that which had been laid before them that evening. And he was sure Dr Gordon would not be offended when he said, that the interest of that Report arose not merely from the chaste and simple manner in which the narrative was given, but chiefly from the interesting character of the facts it brought before them. They had had that evening, if God was pleased to give them grace to improve it, one of the most profitable and instructive lectures, he would term it, which they ever had the pleasure of listening to. In Scripture, a very large portion of the instructions which God had given them for guiding their feet in the path of peace and righteousness, was conveyed in history; and he believed it would be their own fault if they did not find similar instruction in the history of the Church as it was observed by ourselves in our own times; and when they attended to the facts laid before them that evening, he hesitated not to say, that the responsibility of the members of the Assembly and the whole of that numerous audience was great indeed, if they did not go to their homes enlightened, and sanctified, and instructed, by what they had heard. One impression had that night been left upon his mind—an impression which he had often felt, and which he would still desire to feel-and it was the necessity of looking higher than to human wisdom and human agency in the work in which they were engaged. It had been stated in one of the letters read by Dr Gordon, that the Jews, after whom the missionaries were not seeking, had come to the missionaries and professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; but that the heathen, after whom they had been seeking, had, with a few exceptions, remained unconverted. So true was it, as remarked by Dr Duff, that we might have our institutions and our missionaries—that we might labour from year to year in filling the understandings of men with the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, but that the powers of man could not succeed in converting one human soul. With God, however, nothing was impossible; and it was on the strength of the promise of God that we were to go forward in the great and interesting field in which we were called to labour. The Rev. Doctor, after still farther pointing out the absolute necessity of reliance on God's Holy Spirit in the prosecution of this work, and on the assurance which was given them of ultimate success in their labours, referred to the painful events that had been witnessed in India in the death of those two young men who had appeared to be destined, in the providence of God, as the instruments, along with their missionaries, of converting many of their countrymen to God. In the course of their ministry at home, he had observed repeatedly, that the death, especially if accompanied with peculiarly interesting circumstances, of an individual in a family, had not unfrequently been followed by the awakening and conversion of others in the same family; and while they were mourning over what they regarded as the premature death of these young men, who could say but that it might be the intention of God, by means of this apparent trial, to sow the seed of a still greater number of missionaries, who, by the blessing of God, would be raised up to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ? In conclusion, he congratulated Dr Gordon and the Committee on the success which had attended them, in obtaining the means for prosecuting the good cause in which they were engaged. They owed much to their friends in India for the very liberal support they gave to the cause; they ought to rejoice, too, in the contributions of the Christian people at home; they were called on to be thankful for these proofs of Christian liberality, and to be thankful especially for what was called Mr Thomson of Banchory's scheme, but which he was sure that gentleman would

thank him for calling Mrs Thomson's scheme, for raising L.1000 towards providing Dr Duff with a library and apparatus; they had also just cause of thankfulness, in the zeal and activity which the Committee had displayed in advancing the cause they were appointed to promote, and he trusted they would ever continue to enjoy in their labours a large and abundant measure of success.

The Report was then approved of, and the Committee re-appointed with power to take steps for establishing a mission at the Cape of Good Hope. Dr Smyth engaged in prayer.

REPORT ON THE NEW COLLEGE. THE LATE DR WELSH.

The MODERATOR, being the Convener of this Committee, left the chair for the purpose of giving in the Report, which was occupied pro tempore by Dr Clason. The Moderator stated, that on two very important points connected with this subject, viz. the constitution of the New College, and the regulations for the curriculum, the Committee had not had time to enter. The Committee reported that the Assembly should hold in prospect the erection of a college at Aberdeen, and meantime that measures be adopted to provide for the instruction of students in theology; and that in order to fill up the vacancy occasioned by the lamented death of Dr Welsh, Dr Cunningham ought to take the Chair of Divinity and Church History, and that Dr James Buchanan, of St Stephen's, Edinburgh, ought to succeed Dr Cunningham in the Chair of Theology. The Committee further recommended that power be given to the College Committee to nominate a suitable individual to be Professor of Logic, subject to the approval of the Commission. The Moderator, having read the Report, continued,-Here, Sir, we have another call to remember the painful bereavement with which it has pleased God to visit us, in the death of our lamented brother, Dr Welsh. In every department in which he was connected with the Free Church, his activity and ability were above all praise. First of all, and prior to the disruption, he was the unwearied Convener of the Colonial Committee; then he presided over the Education Scheme; and next-the disruption having now taken place--we find him entering with his whole soul into the establishment of the New College, and being mainly the instrument, under God, by whom the Building Fund was provided. Last of all-and it is to this point that our attention is now more immediately called, in connection with the deep loss we have sustained-he discharged with ability and distinction the duties of Professor of Church History in the Free Church. What our lamented brother was in that capacity is well known to many of the ministers, and not a few of the students, whom I see in this place. He will be remembered for many days and years to come, for the strength of his intellect for the gifts of his mind-for the amiableness of his manners and for that polish of character which fitted him to enter into society with the highest individuals in the land. He will be remembered for all those qualities which command our admiration, and give to man influence in the world in which he dwells. But though it has pleased God to take him from amongst us, and while we deeply lament his removal, we have cause for gratitude that we are not left without one to occupy the situation which he has left vacant-one who, I pray, may be spared to us for many years, to labour with honour to himself, and to the unspeakable advantage of the Free Church.

The Hon. Fox MAULE said,-Before proceeding to the consideration of this Report, there is a duty incumbent upon us,-mournful in the extreme, but still not the less incumbent, of recording upon the minutes of this court, the deep and heartfelt grief which one and all must feel for that event to which the Moderator has just now so touchingly alluded. I would that this were in better hands than mine; I would that this were in the hands of some more capable of doing full honour to the virtues of him whom we all lament, and of bringing forth before this Assemby his merits which induced our love, and commanded our respect and esteem. This seems to me to be an appropriate occasion on which to notice the loss of our lamented friend, inasmuch as the name of Dr Welsh is intimately identified with the subject now before us. The deep interest which he took in the successes of our New College never can cease to be remembered to the latest hour of our existence by all of us who had the pleasure to witness it. When I look back upon the conduct

of our friend-when I look back upon the events which have recently occurred-when I think of his conduct in that controversy in which we were so long engaged, and think how calm, yet how unflinching his bearing was-how careful he was to give offence to none, and yet how intelligible his conduct was to all-when we call to remembrance, that when all attempts at negociation appeared to be in vain, Providence selected our lamented friend to fill the highest station in the Church before its disruption, and from whence, when it was necessary to give the world evidence of what the pure portion of the Church was ready to do for Christian principle, Dr Welsh led forth that patriotic band from St Andrew's Church, and afterwards occupied that chair in which you now sit-when we think of all these things, how difficult is it to speak of the virtues and conduct of our deceased friend in the terms in which they should be spoken of! During the whole of those perilous and perplexing times, there was no darkness which occurred in our course which his profound wisdom was not ever ready to meet. There was no perplexity which his profound counsel could not unravel; and his gentle conduct upon all occasions stifled difference in its infancy, and attuned to Christian harmony the hearts of all. Such is the character of him who is taken from us. Let us record our feelings of affection for his memory; and while states may be ready to offer their tribute to heroes and statesmen, let an assembled and grateful Church pay that tribute to their departed brother to which his memory is so justly entitled. I cannot trust myself to speak of Dr Welsh's latter days. They are in the knowledge of all. But I cannot give this tribute of affection to our friend without expressing the indignation which I felt at the persecutions to which he was subjected, for public acts, peculiarly in his own person. He consented to occupy that situation for which, of all men living, he was best qualified, as secretary of that board, the object of which was to secure the printing of the Word of God at the cheapest possible rate, and preserve it, at the same time, in the purest possible form, so that it might be distributed unaltered and cheap to those who stand most in need of it; and where is there one who does not stand in need of it? From that board, however, by a policy as narrow as it was vile, our lamented friend was removed; and I believe there was no event which occurred in all the events of these days, which gave cause for so much regret to every true, leal, honest-thinking Christian, whether they were attached to the Free Church of Scotland or not. I will not farther continue this subject. Peace be to those ashes over which the tomb has so lately closed! Peace be to him! He is now "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." He has left behind him an example which all may follow, and which all may hold up to their children, and to their children's children after them, as that of a man who knew God, and was known of God,-as one who loved and was beloved of men. I beg to propose the following resolution to the House:

"The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, in deep grief for the loss which it has sustained through the death of the late Dr Welsh, record their sense of the great services which, under God, he rendered to religion, and more especially to the cause of his Church. His life throughout was eminent for learning, judgment, purity of heart, gentleness of manner, capacity of service, and, above all, for piety and humble dependence on the will of his Divine Master; and, in his later years, and despite of disease which in ordinary men would have subdued all power of exertion, distinguished by firmness and energy, which marked him out for, and enabled him to fill, that office in which he was called to the sacred duty and lasting honour of being the foremost in her ranks on the day when, in the face of the world, she asserted her freedom.

66 Among other works for which the Assembly would have his name embalmed in the recollection of this Church, is that institution for the education of its youth, and especially those destined for the ministry, in which he took so deep an interest, and which owed to him, in a great measure, its establishment, and those bright prospects of success which it has not been the will of God that he should live to see realised, but which the Assembly trust are, under the Divine blessing, secured.”

Dr CUNNINGHAM said they had already experienced on many occasions in that Assembly the great loss which they had sustained in the lamented death of Dr Welsh; and they all knew the high claims which he possessed to their affections and respect.