THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4282, 10 December 1874, Page 3

THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Wednesday, December 9. The Assembly mot at the Provincial Hall at eleven o’clock. RELIGION AND MORALS. The Rev. Mr. Elmslie suggested that a committee be appointed to consider the question of religion and morals. THE DAYSPRING. The Rev, Mr. Bruce stated the amounts raised in New Zealand for the purposes of the missionary vessel Dayspring, Canterbury had contributed £1*10; Nelson, £23; Blenheim, £2O; Wellington, £158; Wellington (forwarded from Auckland to Sydney), £-15; Auckland, at least £IOO. The total sum, with odd shillings and pence added, amounted to £l6t> 1S& 7d. INVITATION. The Rev, Mr. Paterson informed members that Mr. P. Lang had kindly extended an invitation to members of the Assembly to visit his grounds, at the Hutt, on the following afternoon. CHURCH PROPERTY. The Rev. Mr. Ross called the attention of the Assembly to a paragraph in that morning’s Times , which detailed the manner in which some church property in Westland was being dealt with. Objection was taken by several members to the introduction of a subject which was not before the Assembly in a regular manner. It had as yet no proper cognizance of the matter. THE MAORI MISSION COMMITTEE’S REPORT was read by the Rev, Mr. Elmslie. It evoked considerable discussion with regard to the resignation of Mr. Honeary, and the appointment of a Chinese missionary for the West Coast. The report was received. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE UNION ' WITH OTAGO. The Rev. Mr. Elmslie read the report of the above Committee, The Rev. Mr. Hill thought something had been le f t unsaid in the report. Cases of discipline and doctrine could be decided within reasonable time if the General Assembly met yearly, but if its meetings were biennial cases would suffer from delay. The Rev. Mr. Paterson objected to two decisions which had been arrived at by the committee. He would most emphatically dissent from the proposal, that the General Assembly should hold its meetings bi-annually. It had been tried before, and proved an utter failure. It was not simply the meeting of the clergy and the laity, but it was the interest such meetings evoked amongst the Presbyterian congregations. Such interest would be destroyed were the meetings bi-annual, and eight years would elapse between the meetings of the General Assembly in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, He felt strongly opposed to making two synods in the North. Mr. Elmslie’s suggestion, that the Wellington Presbytery should be divided, had pained him much. If it were the wish of his Northern brethren, he would not oppose it ; but he nevertheless disliked the suggestion. He would suggest there should be three synods in the colony—one for the North Island, one for Christchurch, and the third in Otago. If the old arrangements and associations were to be broken up, he would most certainly oppose the union. The Rev. Mr. Ross thought that union was most desirable, especially in the matter of Maori and foreign missions, and the education of young men for the ministry. The day was not far distant, he thought, when politically and ecclesiastically the colony would be one. They must proceed wisely in these matters before the process of extinction of present ecclesiastical institutions was commenced. He trusted that, matters having come so near a union, all difficulties would vanish. Both the Southern and Northern Churches desired the union. If there were reasons against the union, no doubt there would be stronger reasons which would overcome them. He thought the present isolation of the Churches most undesirable. The Rev. Mr. Calder did not oppose the synodical arrangements, but an annual Assembly would be quite inconsistent with them. In regard to the proposal before the Assembly, he neither dissented from it nor strongly urged it. The Rev. Mr. Ogg thought it was not a union that was desired, but simply an incorporation. He objected to the arrangements proposed with regard to the Wellington Presbytery. He did not see why the General Assembly, after the incorporation had taken place, should not meet each year. The presbyteries in the North Island might be invested with synodical powers.

The Rev. Mr. Sheiuuff.s thought Presbyterianism in the colony appeared nearer a union at the present time than it had ever presented before. The arrangements for three synods, however, he thought to be unworkable. A North Island synod would work most unsatisfactorily. If a middle synod were constituted, Nelson and Marlborough ministers woidd be enabled to attend meetings held in Wellington with more facility than if those meetings were held in Christchurch which would be the case if but three synods were appointed. No synod ought to be composed of fewer than three presbyteries. With regard to presbyteries being invested with synodical powers, he thought they would be of little service—the presbytery would refer matters to the synod, which would be simply the presbytery under another title. Synods woidd relegate matters to the General Assembly which could be done as easily by presbyteries. He thought with Mr. Paterson that a biennal meeting of the General Assembly would not have the influence which was possessed by the present annual one. A synod ought to be established in Canterbury, a middle one in Wellington, and one in. Auckland; neither one to consist of less than three presbyteries. He was happy to find that the union proposals were progressing so favorably. The Kev. Mr. Bruce thought the Assembly should adopt a spirit of quiescence. They should not appear as if they were endeavoring to throw any obstacles in the way of the proposed union. All cases of appeal could be forwarded, ia the event of union, from the synods to the General Assembly. He would say nothing regarding the biennial meeting of that body. He thought the Asembiy should not take up r a position with respect to the annual meeting, and stipulate terms in that respect to their friends in the South. No doubt they would join in arriving at a conclusion as to the beat mode of holding the General Assembly meetings. Geographically Auckland would find it difficult to enjoy a synod if three presbyteries were the least number allowed to form a synod. With Hawke's Bay it could muster two, but he saw difficulties in the formation of a third presbytery. It would be better to delay for a year the breaking up of the old presbyteries. The Kev. Mr. Hill regretted the remarks made as to the division of presbyteries into synods, which were stated to be the result of a union. That union might never take place. When it had been, consummated, no doubt the presbyteries would be found able to settle the matter themselves. Ho agreed with cases of appeal from the presbyteries being referred to the General Assembly. The Kev. Mr. Paterson moved the adoption of the report, subject to the elision of tho recommendations for the biennial meeting of the General Assembly, and the division of the presbyteries. The Kev. Mr. Elmslie explained the causes why certain expressions of opinion had been set forth by the committee in its report. The formation of new synods, he hoped, would be explained by tho Otago deputation to their Southern brethren as having nothing whatever to do with the hearty desire which was felt for union. Explanations and remarks were then made by the Kcvs. Hill, Elmslie, and Sherriffs. The Kev. Hr. Stuart trusted that* the suggestion for a bi-annual sitting of the Assembly would be understood by all present as not having come from tho Otago Synod, but only from a committee of that synod. The committee was convinced that annual assemblies would bo found to bo unworkable. They would take ministers from their charges for a period of from three weeks to a month, a term which he was sure would be objected to by their

congregations. He would point to the infrequent meetings of the Episcopal Synod, which exerted great influence by its meetings. Insufficient publicity was given to the meetings and proceedings of the General Assembly in New Zealand by the Press. The Press of Scotland had caused the triennial meetings of the Presbyterian bodies in that country to he regarded with great attention. He did not see that annual assemblies were necessary ; if biennial meetings were found to be unworkable they could easily revert to the annual meetings. Ho trusted an honest and hearty effort would he made to support the union. After a few remarks by other rev. gentlemen, the following resolution was proposed by the Rev. Mr. Bruce, and seconded by Mr. Hill :—“ The report of the committee on the union with the Synod of Otago and Southland having been read, that it be received, and that the Assembly express its willingness to acquiesce generally in the proposed scheme of union forwarded from Otago, and that it suggests to the Otago Synod the advisability of giving parties appeal in cases of discipline and doctrine, and declares itself ready to bring the principle of synodical action into operation throughout the Church, in order to facilitate the completion of the union.” THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE AT AUCKLAND. The Rev. Mr. Bruce read overtures from the Auckland Presbytery with regard to the establishment of a theological college in that city. He thought it would not do for the colony to rely solely on the mother country as the source from whence to draw their supply of ministers. The sympathies of the young men of the colony ought to be enlisted in the cause of the Church, and he had no doubt they would be successful if proper facilities were afforded for their theological training and education. He would disabuse the minds of members of the. Assembly and the deputies from Otago that the proposal was not made in a spirit of opposition, nor did he desire to ignore or disparage other towns. Mr. Calder opposed the overture, as did several other members present. The following amendment moved by Mr. Elmslie, to a motion by Mr. Calder, was carried :—“ That the Assembly having considered the overture from the Presbytery of Auckland anent the training of theological students, remit the matter to said presbytery, that they may be able to lay . before next General Assembly information regarding the means available in Auckland for the prosecution of arts, studies ; and also as to the prospects they have of such pecuniary support as would be necessary for the erection and maintenance of such an institution as is proposed in the overture.” The Assembly adjourned at three p.m. till eleven next morning.

CONVERSAZIONE. lu the evening, in the Oddfellows' Hall, a tea-meeting and conversazione took place—the Moderator in the chair. The tea-tables were spread at half-past six o’clock, and were well filled. Afterwards various clergymen addressed the meeting : PJIESBVTERIANISM IX ITS .RELATION TO RELIGIOUS LIFE. The Rev. Mr. Sidey delivered the following eloquent address : Religious life, what a beautiful thing, what a noble power, anti what an unspeakable blessing is that to individual men and to communities of men ! In its relation to the person and to the multitude its value can never be fully stated or conceived. It affects so many points in the person, and bears on such multiform aspects of society, that no individual man could ever fairly place before himself its immense importance. To the individual how invaluable is it that his life shall be directed by religious conviction, impelled by religious motives and consecrated to religious ends I What a magnificent kind of man does that make him ! His soul lives away up in the purest atmosphere, appropriates to himself the divincst strength, and rejoices in the highest satisfaction. He works out his highest destiny, and makes his life a feast of good. Then, how important to the family to have it pervaded by the hallowed leaven of heavenly sanctity and holy conviction ! How important that all the members of our households should grow up under these influences, and how important to the communities of men to have life regulated by enlightened conviction of religious duty, and pervaded by the power of hallowed feeling ! How precious would that be to all bodies and associations of men if you had that running like a silver line through all the arrangements of commerce, through all the forms of social life and every ramification of our relationship to one another, what a change it would bring on our world. Crime would be unknown, and these countless other forms of iniquity which mar the character and detract from thcsY/ell-being of society would all bo dispelled like the mist from the mountain tops on the rising of the sun. We might then expect that enthusiasm‘the dream of many noble and beautiful minds. Such a state as this is very far from being reached. However high individual men and women may ascend in these particulars—and thank God there arc many within the Church whose attainments in these respects are of the loftiest kind—yet the larger number of mankind are very far removed from it. Neither in conviction, nor feeling, nor consecration, can they be said to be seriously bound by religious principles. They often act from the very opposite, and make this beautiful world a great deal more of a weeping place than it might be. With the view of acting as a holy antidote to these evils God has planted Christian men in all communities with more or less clear conviction of his truth, with more or less fervent feeling towards himself, and with more or less consecration to his work. The duty of these men is to bring the principles by 1 which they are affected to bear on their fellowcreatures as living witnesses of God and his truth. Not only is that the case, bub in all phases of modern Christian society organisations of men with., some distinctively specific feature of religious conviction or belief have also set themselves apart to the great work of promoting the well-being of men or the glory of God, or of diffusing and extending religious life. Hence we have our Presbyterian communities, our Episcopalians, our Independents, our Methodists, and Catholics, and multitudes more. It becomes a very important question to ask and to answer, how do these bodies stand to the promotion of the religious life? What is their relative value to one another in the great matter under consideration ? To form any just judgment of such a question as this, we need to look at something else than the specific form of government or administration on which each, proceeds. Presbytery insists on the perfect equality of all men set apart to Christian office. Episcopacy glories in its different orders of clergy with distinct prerogative. Independency maintains that government lies in the people,and Methodism consents to the dictation of the celebrated fifteen. I almost feci inclined to look on these things as the accidents of the situations. No doubt they are all more or loss vital to their system, but they arc the outcome of deeper and broader principles that lie beneath as they bear on the Christian life. They are merely the branchings and leafage of great trunk principles, as they embody and represent Christian thought ami life. Now, as X do not wish to annoy a.single sensibility on the part of anyof thisaudience, which may be supposed to bo composed of other than Presbyterians, I pass at once from all reference to particular organisations, and take three great typical features of religious life and action, which cannot bo said strictly to characterise one body alone, since they in part interpenetrate them all, and play like light and shade in every one of them ; yet they bring sufficiently clearly before us the prominent qualities of religious life as promoted in our day. Thoyarc, form, conviction, and fervour. I do not mean that these words give strict definition, hut merely use them as pegs round which I may hang my story with the statement that I regard Presbyterianism as belonging peculiarly to the middle of these terms—conviction. Just let us glance briefly at the bearings of the three, in the question of religious life In the person and the community. First, there is form. Religious life lies largely in attention to some distinctive and arranged form. The soul is instructed, soothed, and elevated through formal observances in places set apart to religious use, like churches, or oratories, and such like. Everything must be done in the strictness of appointed order. There must be no departure from constituted rule or authority. The exorcise would have no value if there was the slightest breach in regulation. Religious life with these parties lies largely in reverence and devotion. It consists in having the soul brought under the power of profound awe and carried away in a kind of fervent rapture, surrounded with everything that speaks of refinement and gratification to the senses. These persons make very little of conviction. The reason has but a poor place in their religious faith or life, and there is very little provision made in their arrangements for its instruction in the word of truth. There is little stirring of the heart except in the region of reverence and devotion. Its aim Is a quiet, refined, beautiful extcrnallifo. Second--Fervor: thisis the voryantipodesof the former in many respects. According to this phase of it, religious life lies largely in the region of flush warm excitement. There is no good communicated to the soul, except when it is kept on the high mountain wave Of intense emotion. All spiritual blessing lies in I he agitation of the heart. Ilcrctheroisoftcnvcry little of reverence, whatever there may bo of devotion, and there Is still Jess of the reason iu the exercise of it. It lias but a poor place assigned to it. Indeed, it is rather dreaded than studied, lest it should dull the feelings and cloud the glory. Fervour cares for nothing even in scripture which docs not keep the emotions strung to tho highest pitch. Its life and being lies largely in fervour. Tho third is conviction. According to this position, everything is made to hang on enlightened conviction. Tho question of first moment to it is, What does God teach, and what does ho require? To reach these things, every power is bent and every thing brought into subjection. There is very little regard to form, except so far as essential to order, and little expected from it. There is no desire for fervour, except what la excited and filled by the truth. The point of first and lust Importance to it is. What is the will of God 7 To that every thing must be brought, and by that every thing must bo regulated. Thcio can be no doubt that tho soul of man in its relation to truth and duty Is affected by all those phases of religious lifo. There la a natural relation between tho mind and truth authentically presented. Tho rudest savage cannot help gazing on a picture with intense pleasure, and carrying away tho specific impression it was intended by the artist to afford, And tho higher

the education in this respect, the higher the influences. So is there between the truth and tho^ emotional sympathies. A man cannot help being affected by the sight of sorrow or of joy, or other things moving his sympathies. And so_ also by convictions. They take him and compel him to go whither they lead, By all these influences the mind or soul of man is powerfully moved. But then the effect of each is found in the respective channels from which the power proceeds. They make man in a very great degree like himself —water and its level. As I have said, I regard Presbytery as belonging to the latter category—not exclusively to other bodies but still in as marked a degree as any of them, and need I add for the great purposes of the religious life, both in its relation to the individual and to the com. munity, by far the beat. Wo start on the position that there is little real influence produced in tno mind of man as it regards duty to God or to his fellow creatures that does not arise out of enlightened conviction from the word of truth. Peelings of a right kind flow out of the conviction. Aspiration rises from it with lofty wing, and soars to noble thrones. Activities are inspired and sustained by its holy power. In short, the character is very largely formed from the root of conviction through the power of the. truth; and of necessity our arrangements for Christian culture and development partake very largely of the quality. What a mighty love-power thus forms in the heart of the follower of Christ. Ho says, I must do this, and dare not do that, for the one is enjoined and the other is prohibited by the M ord of God. buch a thing is right and; dutiful, and such another is the opposite. Now I must do the one and eschew the other. He is not liable to be made the child of every impulse—now gushing all over with signs of affection, and now bristling up with the quills of a porcupine. He is not drawn on to pursue his own objects with all the strength of an intense and remorseless selfishness, but keeps a conscience within him to God and man. He may bo called to suffer, and he docs it rather than do wrong. His life is ruled in the lino of the right—cither God ward or manward, he says, let me be in the right. Such is tho bearing and tendency of the theory of the religious life based on conviction. To my mind, it is infinitely by far the highest of life. Refinement and sentiment are very lacking in tho quality that makes strong men, and often keeps very blind to duty. Fervor wants supjiort. It neither leads to dignity, nor conviction, nor inaction, and is very often associated with qualities exceedingly repulsive to all that is high ami holy. The lino of conviction needs a far higher kind of man than tho others. Ho needs an exercise of intellect, will, and affection, which the other never knows, and is hemmed in by regulations which the other never feels. For this very reason ho becomes a higher and nobler kind of man. It is sometimes remarkable to see how those who have been nursed in the lap of conviction turn either to or from fervor. The one wishes as he declines less of conviction and more of form, and the other as he gets weaker, cries after fervor to the neglect of truth. Like animals finding a rich pasture they get restless, and seek after other succulents. Hence they break out of old fields, and seek to pastures new. Need anyone wonder if persons so trained never feel themselves at home where they go, nor are liked by those they favor. They feel themselves out of their own proper atmosphere, and never get fairly adapted to their new condition. From this want they are more or less objects of suspicion and dread to their companions. What was hoped to be a more living sphere of life, often becomes a tomb to all that is good and noble. Let me commend to you Presbyterians of Wellington the good old Blue Banner. It lias noble life in it, and I believe a glorious future. It is capable of doing for God and man what few other systems can accomplish. It is like the good old tree which has been bursting in blossoms and groaning with fruit for these hundreds of years past. At the very moment in which it is seen mustering its present product, it is casting out its buds for the birth of the next. Thus will it go on widening and extending for religious life. OCR MINISTRY, AND HOW TO SECURE THEM. The Rev. Dr. Stuart, of Dunedin, treated of these questions in an exceedingly happy and effective address. He dwelt upon the urgent necessity devolving upon them to raise up and search out the promising and capable youth amongst themselves to uphold and secure the perpetuity of the Presbyterian Church in this colony. Nothing more strongly illustrated and enforced the necessity of doing this than a glance back at the past and early history of the Church in Scotland. Those experiences showed that they should not look abroad for a ministry or for teachers, but among their own people, as was done in Scotland three hundred years ago, on tho plan initiated and carried out by the Assembly, which about that time met in Edinburgh, and in conformity with which their ministers were compelled to itinerate throughout the country and preach three times a-day, and whose salary was ninety-six bolls of meal, forty-eight bolls of malt, and about 600 merks a year, equivalent to £7OO or £BOO of the money of the present day. All honor to old Scotland for it. She required hard work from her ministers, but she was no niggard, and enabled them not only to sustain the heavy labor imposed upon them but to dispense a becoming hospitality. Lazy ministers, he held, were the curse of the church, and hard work he honored on account of the brain and muscle which sprang from it. There was no bettor training for a young man than, to be made to work hard. Notwithstanding the many difficulties which beset their efforts in Scotland to train up theirown teachers, very many clever men were produced as well asagreat many more who, though not remarkable perhaps for deep learning, were yet able to render good service to the church. Beginning merely as readers they became exhorters, and afterwards educated themselves in universities. As an instance of the bars to acquiring the necessary education in those days, tho little ]>arish of Ormiaton, in Berkshire, invested a considerable sum of money in the purchase of classical books, which were made common property, and placed at the disposal of young men anxious to acquire the information that would enable them to go to the college. And it was worthy of note that the first person who won a scholarship and got the first bursary was the son of the parish washerwoman. In those days their only book almost was the Bible, but in that they found everything to sustain and strengthen the mind—it was their family book, their school book, their church book—upon that they grew strong ; and he could not but look back upon that time and at what was achieved, when men in these days sought to have the Bible thrust altogether out of their schools. In no difficulty need the people be appealed to in vain. If the people are asked to supply ministers they will respond, as he had always found them do so in every emergency. The rev. gentleman related the history of tho first scholarship in Otago—how when he thought that the peo2>le would think too much was expected of them, a German woman, a recent convert, voluntarily tendered him £1 in a most unexpected manner —how, when he related the incident at a private christening, one lady felt that she, too, could subscribe £l, and so, with another and another, until the necessary funds for the scholarship were provided ; and tho same spirit always manifesting itself, the province of Otago has now more scholarships than there are candidates for, and nine or ten arc generally kept in abeyance. He hoped their young men would realise the nobility of the calling of the ministry, for it was surely above all other callings ; and he had faith that the young men of this colony would not be behind those of Glasgow, where recently seventy of them presented themselves, saying, “Do with its what you may deem best; if you think us fit for China, send us there; or Africa, send us there.” (Applause.)

The Rev. Mr. Kiukland delivered an interesting address upon the Bible, chiefly in regard to its relation to science, falsely so called. Like truth itself, the Bible was assaulted from all quarters ; but, like truth, the larger your acquaiutcnce with it the more' fortified and impregnable became the position. It was like the Russian batteries at Sebastopol which, the more shot was fired into thorn the firmer they became. From all his reading of scientific works and writings which impugned the veracity of the Bible he had not yet found one single Bible truth controverted, and the efforts made to damage the Christian religion seemed to him, to borrow another simile from war, to be like the efforts of the allied armies upon the Malakhoff, who knew that when that was taken the city must surrender ; so with the materialists and infidels, they brought all their engines of attack to bear upon the Book, knowing that if they conid once destroy the reliability of that Christianity was laid low. It was true there were difficulties iu the Word of God, but these lessened iu proportion as you approached their consideration in a truly Christian spirit ; nor was it to be expected that when the whole system of creation—God's handiwork—was so pregnant of Unfathomable mysteries, that the Word of God was to be free from them entirely. And if men found in connection with Christianity things which seemed intolerable, and which they wished to be delivered of, they are not to be found iu the religion which is preached, and which is found iu a true interpretation of the Bible. Many of tho objections to the Bible reminded him of the Cambridge student who, upon being questioned about a certain event in Bible history, said he remembered something about Peter, a person who cut off tho right ear of tho Prophet Malaohi. What appeared to be difficulties in

belief to-day vanished with time and knowledge ; and so it would continue to be. The rev. gentleman concluded his remarks by a powerful exhortation to promote the establishment and spread of Bible societies, as one great means of securing a wide-spread knowledge of the truths and teachings of the Bible and Christianity, RELIGION AND MODERN THOUGHT. The Rev. Mr. Calder said the present age, as compared with past ones, must certainly be looked upon as an earnest one, inasmuch as it is an age in which men will not take for granted everything told them, everyone seeming to be animated with the desire to be able to give a reason for the faith and hope that is in him; and in that respect Christ is made to stand in the present day as He stood arraigned before the bar of Pilate, But they could rest assured that truth never could contradict truth, and that true religion encouraged and welcomed every investigation into the department of truth, feeling that it is assisted by every honest inquiry. In this connection he was reminded of a very happy reply of Dr. Chalmers to a question, when he said, “If astronomy teaches us that our world is but an atom, science teaches us that every atom is a world.” He therefore never dreaded any inquiry into the history of our race or into the age of the world ; he felt that God’s finger would never contradict God’s tongue. The Rev. Mr. Hill, who said that the lateness of the hour alone prevented him from delivering an address which would keep impressed upon the Presbyterians of Wellington the importance of the work which devolved upon them, and referred in the most complimentary terms to the kindness and cordiality with which the ministers from other places in the colony had been treated during the session of the Assembly; and concluded by recommending earnestness and activity in the noble and glorious work which had fallen into their hands. The Rev. Mr. Bruce referred in terms of approval to the incorporation of St. Andrew’s Church with the Church of New Zealand. He was glad to see that the Church had assumed such a position that tho Press deemed it worthy of notice, though its notice of their proceedings upon that occasion was in a tone of animadversion. Nevertheless, they would take it all in good part and would not retaliate, for they were taught that it is not wise to hit hack, especially when the aggressor is considerrd weaker than themselves, though he did not mean by that that in a general sense the Press was weak. The Moderator complimented the ladies upon the assistance they had rendered during the evening, in providing an excellent tea, and sweet music and singing between the addresses. The Rev. Mr. Paterson proposed a vote of thanks to the Moderator, for the way in which he presided over their deliberations during the Assembly. A benediction by the Rev. Mi*. Ogg concluded the meeting.