had been doing in Pittsburgh might be taken up, and by her visits among the Chinese in company with some of the ladies of the 1st Philadelphia congregation, she laid the foundation of the present work for their good that is carried on in brother Stevenson's church.

In the fall of 1876 Mr. Morrow, of Camden, called on the members of the Central Board of Missions, and urged the establishment of a mission at Camden. The Board saw that this field of work was open to us, and Mr. McKinney was chosen to engage in it. His wife was ready to go, not only as identified with him in his life-work, but as herself willing to minister to the poor and needy. Her letters, portions of which we have published, bear witness to her interest and delight in the work. Her death is a sore trial to her family, her friends, and the church. The sympathy displayed at her funeral was very marked. She was buried on the 12th of October in Allegheny cemetery. The exercises were held in the spacious room on the second floor of the Seminary building, which was filled. On one side of the room were seated eight Chinamen, who listened attentively to the services, and some of whom went to the grave. Their attendance spoke her praise. After reading of the Scriptures, the professors of theology made remarks designed to be consolatory to the friends of the deceased, and to improve this providence to all who were present. After prayer, many accompanied her remains to their last resting place; the bearers, of the Seminary class. Her works do follow her.

WE gathered together for the September number the Minutes of the Presbyterian Council. We took our account from the Edinburgh papers, the Scotsman and the Review, for the latter of which we acknowledge our indebtedness to Dr. Sloane. The proceedings will be published by the Business Committee. The papers on Preaching, Missions, The Sabbath, &c., with the discussions, we should gladly publish, had we room. This Council will have a wide influence, for, as Dr. Andrew Thomson, of Edinburgh, said, the Council had power to send a great moral influence over Christendom, and representatives from many lands would carry home with them much of that influence to the spheres of their ministry.

Some uneasy spirits are not content with such a form of influence. Several members of the Council evinced a spirit of encroachment on the constitution of the Council. They will need continual reminding to keep them in bounds. They keep up uneasiness and apprehension, and thus lead to serious doubt as to the real good derivable from these attempts at co-operation. The United Presbyterian says:

The Christian Intelligencer is not an enemy to the Presbyterians; on the other hand it is a firm and zealous friend. It may, therefore, be supposed to represent whatever, other than Presbyterian, is kindly respecting the Pan Council of Edinburgh. Yet we find it in a hesitating state, and expressing its doubts in the following interrogatories: "But on such conferences in the abstract we are ready to say a word or two. We do not see any need of them. We do not see what they are to do, unless they attempt to interfere with our established forms of church government, and we doubt whether that would be

quietly submitted to. If they simply give advice, we are inclined to think that it will be received as gratuitous advice usually is, that is, with little consideration. We are rather disposed to shake our heads at the proposition to establish these conferences as an institution. It seems they are to occur once in three years. What for? To supersede General Synods and General Assem blies?"

Rev. Dr. William Adams, of New York, presiding at the closing meeting, was content to say, that he looked upon the Council as a great power in itself. They never imagined they should bring about an organized union; they had met to express a unity which already existed.

At Thursday's sitting of the Council, intimation was given by Rev. Dr. Blaikie, that arrangements had been made for a communion at Free St. Luke's on Saturday, and that an invitation was tendered to the Council to unite in this.

Regrets were strongly and freely expressed that this intimation had been made, and the feeling was general that it was a trespass. This could not but be the case, when the attitude of a number of the churches composing the Council, on the matter of open communion, was so well known.

These churches would hardly look for a repetition of this step at a future Council, yet they are not permitted to rest easy. The next Council is not to meet till 1880-in Philadelphia—and yet the way is being opened for interference with the basis on which the Council rests. The Christian Intelligencer calls the omission of the act of communion a great blunder, and says: "We heartily join in the hope expressed by the senior editor of the New York Observer, that the proposed meeting of the Alliance in 1880, in Philadelphia, may never be held, if the precedent is to be followed." What if this hope be reechoed in other quarters without any regret, if the following be the influence by which the Council in Philadelphia is to be controlled :

It would indeed be a strange thing for the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance of the world to refuse to celebrate the Lord's supper in the church edifice to which it has adjourned by special invitation from the very man who is to-day the most conspicuous victim of this cruel unchurching spirit. It would be strange indeed, in the face of the hospitality of a pastor and of a congregation whose legal rights to their own church property have but lately been protected by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania against the endeavors of the exclusionists to take it away, because Mr. George H. Stuart would sing other than David's Psalms, and because Dr. Wylie and his flourishing church stood by him when he was suspended from the communion of the church by the Synod for that enormous sin. Would not that be a fine paradox and a splendid sequel to such a record of Christian liberty against unchristian bigotry?

This certainly is remarkable-to advise the wrecking of the Council by running it against the testimony and discipline of the smaller denominations! This hardly seems to be the same voice that we quote above. Has not that worthy paper been influenced since? Already plain language is heard as to the future of the Council, if it is to be used to break down the testimony of the smaller denominations. The United Presbyterian says:

"It only needs to be known that there is a purpose to use the Alliance to force the views of the larger denominations upon the smaller ones, to make the beginning of its dissolution. It would be so palpable a departure from its original intent as would shake all confidence or hope of its usefulness. One thing

is certain, none of the denominations goes into the Alliance, or will go into any of its Councils, with the idea of stultifying itself, or being stultified by others, large as their majority may be."

There is time enough to see how this leaven is working, to which we havə called attention. The Covenanter Church can well endorse the words of the United Presbyterian as applicable to her.

At the same sitting of the Council a number of protests were heard against some sentiments put forth by several speakers. A British audience has a sturdy, serviceable way of expressing dissent by an emphatic No. Prof. Milligan, of Aberdeen, was referring to the bulkiness of the Confession and the need of a changed attitude to it. Dr. Willis, of Toronto, suggested the usefulness of a liturgy. They were heard with an impatience which soon found expression. In Friday evening's meeting, Rev. Dr. Wilson, of Limerick, of the Irish Presbyterian Church, contrived to bring in under the head of Missions, the following remarks:

They claimed for their church the character of a mission church. They had their own mission to India, which was started in the year 1840, when they solved the problem of uniting all sections of the Presbyterian Church, with the exception of a few scattered fragments in Ireland, which they hoped to unite

soon.

This is a back-stroke for our Irish brethren.

REV. Dr. Talmage has a lecture on looking on the bright side of things, but sometimes the dark side is so dark, that it rivets attention. The editor of the London Illustrated News felt so when he wrote the summary for 'the issue of the last week in July. The reports from America as to the railroad trouble, the apprehended invasion of the Colorado beetle, with the fearful accounts from India of the famine, made a dark picture. It is no partial view, when we consider the numbers involved, that makes the following accounts, all taken from one issue of the weekly London Times (for Sept. 7,) impress us deeply. From Turkey:

I am sorry to say that the greatest barbarities are being committed on both sides, and, as usual in this wretched quarrel, are all falling on the defenceless women and children and the old people. Of massacres it is now the Turks who seem to be the victims, as the Russian armies under their Bulgarian allies retire before the Turkish armies. On our side there are no massacres, for the very excellent reason that there is hardly a living soul in the land through which we have passed, as they have all already been massacred or have fled to Adrianople and other towns. But what can be done to complete the ruin of the land is carried out effectually, and the sky at night is illuminated by the blazing villages. At this part of the valley, and probably as far as the Shipka, the crops have all been gathered and threshed, and the Russians must have secured enormous quantities of grain for the cavalry. For us there is nothing left but the great stacks of straw outside the village of Hain, and it is already becoming extremely difficult to procure any forage.

From India:

Standing at the entrance gate of my house, I can in half an hour count hundreds of wretched creatures who have hardly strength enough left to drag their weary limbs along. These are the houseless and homeless wanderers from distant villages, for whom the government supplies centres of relief; but the people will not rest quietly and conserve their energies. They drag themselves and their feeble children about, wandering from camp to camp, until the time comes for them to lie down and die. Deaths in the streets are getting more frequent. One day last week I saw a small crowd assembled near to Government House. The people were gathered round a family, one of whom, a little girl of seven, was dying of exhaustion. The bystanders were trying to feed her with milk and rice, but she could not swallow. In Bangalore I hear that the people die in the streets at the rate of 15 or 20 a day, and the people in Madras are reporting such deaths as common. For the entire Presidency the deaths for the first five months of this year are 339,000 more than the average of the same period for the last five years, and this is exclusive of the Province of Mysore, and embraces only a part of the famine period. There is little doubt that the Sanitary Commissioner is not below the mark when he calculates that the number of people whose deaths may be traced directly or indirectly to the present famine has already reached half a million.

From China:

I have before me a report from a Roman missionary, Pere de Marchi, which gives a harrowing picture of the distress still prevailing in the district of Lin Kiu. He writes:

"Fancy a vast tract of land, as it were, devastated by brigands; fields uncultivated, either for want of hands or because the famished peasants have not the necessary strength to bear the fatigues of husbandry; and the houses destroyed in order to sell the timber; in many houses there remains only one room where the wretched family shelter themselves from the inclemency of the weather. In the almost deserted villages you see but exhausted cadaverous faces. How many families have become totally extinct through starvation; how many have gone elsewhere, after having sold their all at any price, without hope of return! But there is something worse. How many fathers of families who once lived honorably have committed suicide in order to avoid the ignominy of begging, all their family following the dreadful example! How many woe-stricken women-wives, sisters, daughters-have been sold by their fathers, brothers and husbands to unknown people, until in some places you hardly see any females left! A Christian literate of this district assured me that in the LuKui-hsien alone more than 100,000 women and children have been sold, which is shown by a register kept at the Yamen. . . In several places of this district they were able to sow wheat, and it promises well, especially after the last rain, but to the south-east, in the midst of the hills where I am, and where hardly any foreigner has penetrated, the land looks like a wilderness; there is neither wheat nor millet, and if ever they sow any late crop they must wait till the autumn for the harvest."

ECCLESIASTICAL.

THE SCOTCH SYNOD.

THE Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland met in the Nicholson street church, Glasgow, on the 7th of May, the opening sermon being preached by Rev. Robert Wallace, Moderator, from 2 Peter 1: 12

"The present truth." Seven ministers and seven ruling elders were present. Mr. Wallace was continued Moderator.

The licensure of John Martin, Jr, was reported to Synod by the joint Presbyteries of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Home Mission Committee reported that last fall Rev. James Dick had visited the brethren in Thurso and preached to them, and dispensed the Lord's supper. Mr. John Martin had also preached there, and the report of attendance is very encouraging. There are also some brethren at Girvan, Rothesay and Lorne that remain faithful to Covenanting principles. The Committee sought and obtained leave to operate in some of the larger centres of popula tion.

The Tract Committee reported that the following tracts were issued with the Committee's approval, and are now in circulation:

"Reformed Presbyterians and the Oath of Allegiance." By the Rev. J. A. Chancellor.

"Reformed Presbyterians and Open Communion." By the Rev. William Sommerville, A. M.

The Perseverance of the Saints." By the Rev. R. Dunlop.

"Christ in the Psalms." By the Rev. John McDonald, B. D.

"Regeneration: The Work of Sovereign Grace Alone." By the Rev. James Dick,

M. A.

"The Descending Obligation of the British Covenants." By the Rev. J. Dick,

M. A.

"Christ's Testimony to the Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment." By the Rev. J. Kerr.

"Two Objections to the Political Standing of Reformed Presbyterians Considered." By the Rev. J. Kerr.

A single copy of each of these tracts has been sent to all the Presbyterian ministers of Scotland, to the editors of all the magazines and newspapers published in Scotland, to a large number of the Presbyterian ministers of England and Ireland, and editors of many of the religious and secular papers issued in these countries. In all, three thousand five hundred and thirty packets of tracts have been distributed through the post.

Rev. James Dick, convener, gave in a verbal report on behalf of the Committee on Union with the Original United Secession Church. He stated that at a recent meeting of the joint committee, it had been agreed to ask re-appointment from their respective Synods, in order that they might prepare a final report on the negotiations that had been conducted by them with a view to an incorporating union. It had also been agreed to ask powers from the Synods for the committees to consider whether, and how far, the two Churches can co-operate on the basis of the Covenanted Reformation, in opposition to the latitudinarian tendencies of the present day. Synod agreed to re-appoint the committee with the powers sought.

Rev. James Kerr called attention to the propriety of Synod making preparations for commemorating in some public way, the bi-centenary of the battle of Drumclog, in June, 1879, and moved that a committee be appointed to consider the matter and report to the next meeting of Synod. Synod appointed a committee.

The report on the Signs of the Times is a full and carefully prepared report. The following recognition is made of our work of National Reform:

This movement has been inaugurated by Covenant brethren on the Western Continent; and it has been carried on in the face of strong and determined opposition. But the difficulties of the work have only animated the more the zeal and strengthened the determination of those engaged in it; and it is a welcome fact surely to announce here that to such an extent have our brethren succeeded in creating a favorable sentiment on this vital question, that even now they have drawn into active sympathy and co-operation in the movement many of the most able ministers of all denominations, and not a few of the most distinguished citizens of the coun