PRESBYTERIANTSM IN OTAGO.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 324, 24 January 1874, Page 3

PRESBYTERIANTSM IN OTAGO.

The Rev. Dr. Cameron, of Victoria, in a speech made before the Synod in Dunedin, Baid-.— Twenty-seven years ago it was his privilege to be present at a meeting held with the first batch of emigrants who- Bailed from England for OtagOv. The meeting was. held with the- view of commending them. to. the guidance and guardianship of our Heavenly Father — and very affecting it was.. Such being the casej they would conceive the interest with whicV he, upon his arrival here, came up. their beautiful bay, and beheld Dunedin as it by degrees revealed itself and opened out before him, and they could understand how h,e was struck with, the contrast of thehumble beginning' with the noble outcome. Truly their prayers had been heard 1 . " Though thy beginning was small, yet shall thy latter end greatly increase."' There were two- things that had greatly interested' him, and which he might say had made him feel more at home than he thought he- could have, felt in any other- pai*t of this hemisphere, or indeed anywhere out of- Scotland itself.. The finst was the physical aspect of the- country. He did not know whether, they sympathised with him there, but he felt it strongly. He did not know why the meritorious Dutchman who discovered this country should; have called it New Zealand; after- a. low. sunken swamp. He- (the- speaker), would have called it Nova Scotia, for- this was. indeed the' new Scotland. [' Italia Saluto" the- Eoman poet said, speaking of the wanderer's, first eight of his nativeland after a long absence; As.hje sailed along the- route for Port Chalmers, he felt almost aa if he could have recognised and saluted ni& own native land.— (Applause.) The othercircumstance, to which he wished to refer was the itrength and predominance of Presbyterianism here, Not because it was- Scotch, 'as. he observed one of our Colonial upstart Lord Bishops had lately asserted.— (Applause*) Speaking of Presbyterianisra, this man had, caUGd it a, Scotch- peculiarity, and beside being- anold sneer, this was a very discreditable one, betraying- either gross ignorance, or very small malignity. William Cowper wrote L in one : q f his inimitable letters to a young

minister in whom he was interested-: " Keep a firm hold of the doctrines of the Reformation, called Calvanism,butunjustly. These doctrines are not those of Calvin, but of Paul and Paul's master, when he met him on the road to Damascus." He need not Bay — this bishop notwithstanding — that Presbyterianism, far from being Scotch, waa as old as the Synagogue, as old as the Council at Jerusalem, as old as the ordination of Timothy, At the Reformation Presbyterians were not more Scotoh than German, French, Italian, Dutch, and even English. All the Churches sought therefore to obey the command, " Stand you in the way and ask for the road by this, there is a right way of walking therein." Presbyterianism was not Scotch, Scotland, happily for itself, and perhaps on account of the universally acknowledged shrewdness of its people, was Presbyterian. — (Applause and laughter.) There was a story told of a Scotch regiment at Portsmouth being marched to an Episcopalian Church. The men refused to enter, and were marched back again to the tune played by the band of " This is no my ainhouse." — (Laughter.) No trueblue Scotchman would hurry away from Otago to this tune whether looking at it physically or eeoleßtically,