of necessity relieve the members of the several congregations of all civil or personal liabilities whatsoever, for the debt and burdens affecting the property; thus putting an end at once to all the litigation, and disunion, and irregularities necessarily arising out of local debts and liabilities, which have proved the bane and ruin of so many religious bodies. This is one main object of the arrangement, an arrangement which has been adopted with the most perfect success by the Wesleyan Methodists in England, by the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, and by the Presbyterian and other Churches in the United States of America. It is, indeed, an arrangement of vital and paramount importance, essential to the stability and uniformity of our institution; and rendered fundamental by the enactment of the first General Assembly of the Church. It will be necessary, however, while the congregations are thus relieved by the trustees of all personal or civil liabilities for the debts and burdens attaching to their several places of worship, that some rules should be laid down, by which each congregation, though relieved of all civil liability, shall still continue bound, as matter of ecclesiastical arrangement, to make due and orderly provision out of its collections for its own debts and incumbrances. It will, of course, be at all times the interest of the Church at large to co-operate with each individual congregation, and assist them in reducing the amount of their incumbrances, as well as to make the arrangements for meeting the interest of the debt out of the congre. gational collections as convenient as possible; and though this matter is one which will require some consideration, it does not appear to the Committee that it can be attended with any practical difficulty."

REPORT BY THE FINANCIAL COMMITTEE OF THE FREE CHURCH, TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MET AT GLASGOW, IN OCTOBER 1843.

Dr CHALMERS then read the following report:

"It will not be expected that we should make the same full and orderly statement, or present it in the same regular and business-like form, that would be required at the end of a whole year's operations, or that will be looked for at the meeting of our Assembly in May next. There has only elapsed a period of five months since our last report was given in, a brief but yet busy interval, filled up with great efforts all over the Church, efforts powerful and prolific, but not always pointed in the right direction, and not yet reduced to that thorough and uniform system, which, under the guidance of our more complete and ever-growing experience, it must ultimately land in. It is our confident hope, that, with the blessing of Him who is the giver of all wisdom, we shall, as the fruit of our careful and matured deliberations, at length feel our way to that which is best; nay, that before our present Assembly shall have finished its sittings, we shall make some important step in advance towards it. Meanwhile, it is our duty to bring before you all which is of any real or practical importance to know, or which might serve to regulate the procedure of the Church in the future conduct of her financial affairs.

"We begin with the amount of donations which are assigned to the building fund. Altogether there has been subscribed in this form the sum of L. 167,898, 8s. 4d., and raised the sum of L.118,962, 12s. 9d. Should we presume a like result for all the associations, it would imply a sum total for building of L.226,552, 16s. 5d.

[I may here observe that some discrepancy will be found between the figures of this report, as compared with that which was read just before by my respected friend. This arises from the fact, that sums have been reported from day to day, and may, therefore, have been given in up to a later period in the one case than in the other. Besides, we have taken somewhat different methods of calculating the average of those sums that have not yet been reported, and in this way the discrepancy has arisen.]

"Such sums as these tell magnificently for the amount of substantial friendship to the cause of our Free Church in all places of the land; but we must rectify a delusion to which the very proclamation of them might give rise, and which has operated most mischievously in various quarters, among even our wealthiest adherents, many of whom do less than they ought, and less than they would, but for the imagination of a great central treasury in Edinburgh that is quite inexhaustible. To

dissipate this hurtful misconception, let it be known, that the great majority is retained in the places which have yielded them, insomuch that the whole amount of donations for building deposited in the hands of our treasurer reaches to L.55,476, 14s. 8d., and this liable to be recalled to the extent of L.2909, 19s. 8d., for their own local objects at any time which the contributors might choose. This only leaves the sum of L.52,567, 15s. at the free disposal of the Building Committee for granting aid to our poorer congregations in the erection of their places of worship, which sum has been already reduced to L.32,700, and is all that we have at present on hand. Let us but estimate the capabilities of this fund, and it will appear that all which we can afford with our existing means, is but aid to 218 churches, and that at the humble rate of 5s. a-sitting, on the supposition of their average capacity being equal to 600 sittings. Having given this statement, let two things be taken into consideration. First, that instead of the 470 congregations which followed the ministers who have withdrawn from the Establishment, there is now the promise of no less than 825; and instead of 5s. per sitting being an adequate allowance, in many places there is, and chiefly from the poorer districts, an urgent demand, with the representation of an indispensable necessity for more, insomuch that, from the extreme Shetlands, we are told, that without 15s. per sitting they cannot possibly get on. On these simple data it will be at once perceived, first, that there is a most pressing call for further liberality to the general fund, for the purposes of building; and, secondly, that there is a call no less pressing for each congregation doing the uttermost for themselves; and that as many as possible should struggle forward to a place in the high and honourable list of those localities that provide their own churches wholly at their own expense, and without drawing any aid whatever from the central fund in Edinburgh.

"We now pass from the donations to the periodical subscriptions in all their variety of forms, from annual to weekly, comprising, therefore, the produce not only of our associations, but of onr collections at the church-doors; which last are now available for ecclesiastical purposes.

"The amount of direct annual subscriptions is L. 10,963, 19s. Id., of which there has been realised the sum of L.8791, lis. 8d. The reported produce of our associations should yield an annual produce of L.64,560, of which, for the few months since they were instituted, there has been realised the sum of L. 19,489, 11s. Id.

"The rate of ordinary church-door collections since the disruption, for 500 congregations, should yield the annual produce of L.31,579, 3s. 4d., of which there has been realised since June the sum of L.8914, 12s. 2d.

“The whole amount of the extraordinary collections, so far as reported, is L.4991, 189. 4 d.

"Excluding these last, and summing up the other accounts applicable to ordinary church purposes, (and which, generally speaking, might all be entered on the sustentation fund), the aggregate, so far as reported, reaches to the sum of L.207,409, 15s. 14d., implying a grand total, if the unreported have maintained the average of the others, of L.302,076, 15s. 6d.

"Of the 807 associations, 115 have made no reply to our circular,

“And if there be so many who have withheld from us all account of their money, there are many more who have withheld the money itself; so that the amount of the sustentation fund in Edinburgh is far short of what has been raised for sustentation all over the country-understanding that the whole produce of the associations was to have been applied for this object. Instead of which, not only has a considerable part of these sums been retained in the several localities, for the sustentation, it may be, of their own minister, but a great deal more of it has been withdrawn from its primary design, and appropriated for the building of their churches. In consideration of the very urgent necessity which obtained for places of worship, and altogether of the extreme difficulties which hang over the commencement of our undertaking, and which, after they are once got over, will never again recur, we are disposed to look with indulgence on the retrospect of these irregularities; but in the earnest hope that at this meeting of the Assembly, a fixed rule will be adopted and pro

claimed, so beneficial, and at the same time so satisfactory, that the observation of it will be a matter of high and sacred principle all over the Church.

"The whole sum raised for sustentation, so far as reported, has been L.28,281, 2s. 9d. The whole sum received in Edinburgh has been L.25,200; making a difference of L.3081, 2s. 9d., which (at the very least, considering all that has not been reported) has been retained in various localities for purposes of their own.

"Having now presented these various data to the Assembly, the important question remains, What, on the whole, do they suggest for the perfecting and extending of our financial system? We submit the following considerations to this venerable Court, with the greatest deference, yet with some anxiety about the entertainment of them. They will at least make known the reason why, if approved and acted on, we shall look hopefully onward, with the Divine blessing, to the future prosperity and enlargement of our Church-so as to view our state as it exists at present not with disappointment, and certainly not at all with dismay.

"First, then, when the magnitude of the emergency comes to be more adequately felt, we are confident that it will come to be more adequately provided for, by each association redoubling its efforts for the increase both of its contributors and of their several contributions-so as that (and more particularly after the locality has completed its own church, and the congregation have fairly settled down into regular and permanent order) a great addition may be looked for both to the number of payments, and to the average rate of payment on the whole. Many a penny, when the case comes to be more fully understood, will be turned into twopence a-week. Many, even scarcely, if at all, above the level of the working classes, and of this we have a number of goodly examples, will rise to a sixpence a-week. With regard, indeed, to the common people, we have no complaint whatever to prefer against the degree of their liberality; but we should like to see it followed onward, and followed up, by an ascending gradation of weekly offerings on the part of our richer adherents, so that each may give in proportion as God has prospered them. And then as to the increase that we may expect in the number of contributors to each of our associations-there is room for this both in the accession of new families, and in the growth of that wholesome practice by which the several members of one and the same family, down to the youngest of their children, are expressly, and by name, enlisted in the cause. In each of these ways every association belonging to us may, and we are firmly persuaded will, become greatly more productive than before. Let us once be at leisure from the turmoil of our first preparations-let our places of worship be fairly up-let the initial difficulties and expenses of this vast and arduous enterprise have been weathered and surmounted, so as we may at length give our undivided energies and means to the one object of the Church's sustentation; and we shall soon find, of these associations, that they, indeed, form the sheet-anchor of our financial system -that there is in them a capability and experience which are peculiarly their own; and that, if properly worked, they may, with marvellously little trouble, be made three, and, perhaps, six-fold more prolific of good to our Free Church than all the other sources of revenue put together.

"But this makes it all the more desirable, not only that each existing association should be made more productive-but what forms a second and distinct subject from this-that the number of the associations themselves should be greatly increased by the formation of new ones, wherever there is room for them. And that there is room for them must be palpable to all who can look intelligently abroad over the face of the country. We do not exaggerate in the least when we say, that, as far as space and population, nay, even adhering population are concerned, their number might be doubled; and the question is a question which you will soon find to be one of deep interest, from the elements involved in it-By what steps shall we make good this increase-not in the productiveness, of which we are not now speaking, but in the number of these associations?

"Let it be well understood, then, that we cannot expect either a large or a continued support from any neighbourhood in behalf of the Free Church, if, in return for that support, we render them no service as a Church back again. We have uni

formly found the greatest willingness to form themselves into an association among those who received the largest share of our public ministrations. In all the instances of a locality without the domain of our Free Church ministers, we have ever found the most effectual precursor for an association to be a series of sermons; and, at times, even a single sermon has been of mighty influence in predisposing the people to organize-of more in fact than any public meeting in the ordinary style of speeches from a platform, or controversial arguments on the nature and merits of our Church question. But certain it is, that though even without the preparation of any formal or stated religious exercise, an association should everywhere be formed; we cannot expect that without the supply of such exercises in one form or other, the association will long be upheld with vigour, if upheld at all. The likelihood is that it will speedily go down; and, accordingly, we can allege some examples of the Associa tion reported at last Assembly having actually been dissolved, and on the express ground that they obtained no return for the aid they were willing to render our cause in the supplying of any of the Christian ordinances.

"Now this, though in one aspect of it painful, is in another a cheering, nay, a hopeful, and at all events, a most instructive experience. It is most gratifying to know what the influence is, under which associations are most readily formed, and are most likely to flourish-or without which, it is most difficult to set them up at the first, and impossible to keep them up afterwards. It is a religious influence, and bears no analogy whatever (though otherwise apprehended by our adversaries), to those other influences which are brought into play during the course of a political or common-place agitation. It is by an address, not to their passions, but to their principles, and the higher faculties of their nature, that we best succeed in engaging the people to our cause. It is when we speak to their consciences, and their Christian sensibilities, and their affection for the souls of men, that we speak with surest effect upon them; and the only way by which we can interest their selfishness in our favour, is to hold out in return for their help as our supporters and auxiliaries, a supply of the word and ordinances for themselves. We trust that these associations will not be regarded with less partiality, when we thus state the pure and sacred origin in which they best take their commencement, and what the most effectual guarantee is for their becoming permanent, and productive of greatest good to the Free Church of Scotland.

"But this, while it directs our view to what that is, which will most enlargegives us also to perceive what that is which must necessarily limit the system of these associations. Our capability for the multiplying of these cannot go far beyond our capability for supplying the country with the public services of the gospel. Now, for this we have but 470 ministers, and perhaps 130 available licentiates; or 600 on the whole, regularly commissioned to preach; while our 800 associations betoken as many distinct neighbourhoods, each of which might claim, and would require, a distinct gospel ministry in the midst of it. In other words, there are 200 localities where the adherents of the Free Church call in the mean time for the treatment and the attentions which are customarily bestowed on vacant congregations. We need not wonder that, in such circumstances, the associations, in respect of any increase of their numbers, have very much come to a stand-insomuch that while in March and April about seven hundred of them were formed in the course of six weeks-the six months which have elapsed since that period have only witnessed the accession of 125; and all this in face of evidence the most palpable and satisfactory, that in the remaining half of Scotland, which is still unoccupied by the associations, the Free Church commands the affections of the great bulk and body of the people. In these circumstances, we know not a question of more high and commanding importance, than how to obtain the supplies, though even of but a temporary and imperfect agency, wherewith to meet this growing or rather universal demand, till our theological seminary shall have sent forth an adequate number of probationers for the regular charge of our rapidly-increasing congregations. We shall not get on, we at least shall not keep pace with the urgent importunities of our adhering people everywhere, without the help on the one hand of such in the eldership as are able and willing to conduct a devotional service, mixing with it the office of catechists and

readers to our embryo congregations; and, without a patient indulgence on the other hand, on the part of these congregations, whose duty it is to make allowance for our present difficulties, and who, I feel, ever will be disposed to do so, when they see us struggling onward, honestly and with all our might, to provide for the necessities under which they labour. We are making no general demand on the elders of our Church; for would but one-tenth of their number consent to give us the benefit of the co-operation which we now seek from their hands, we believe that a patent way would be opened up to such an extension of the Church as should be commensurate to the wants of her friends and supporters in every quarter of the land; and, what is more, should enable us, in connection with the other evangelical denominations of Scotland, to take possession of its whole territory.

"In a few brief sentences, we shall endeavour to convey our own views on the important subject of the distribution of these funds.

"First, then, devoted as we are to the cause of the general fund, and bent with all earnestness on the further enlargement of it, it will not be surprising that we should recommend this fund as the entire and exclusive depositary for all the produce of all our associations.

"But generally, it might be expected that on the same principle we should like if it lay open to other contributions from all other quarters; and more especially, that over and above the produce of the associations, the produce of the ordinary collections at the church-doors should either in whole or in part be sent up to the general fund. Now, however paradoxical it may seem at the first, we not only do not desire, but we deprecate any accession to our favourite fund from this source, believing as we do, and for reasons to which we crave not the passing, but the patient and most deliberate attention of the Assembly, that the fund, instead of being enriched, would, in the event, be greatly reduced and impoverished on the appearance of such an auxiliary, which, though coming to us in the guise of a help, would prove in the end a great hindrance to the cause.

"For, thirdly, It follows not that though the Church should ordain of the Sabbath collections their being sent up to the General Fund, the will of our different congregations shall go along with it. It is well that the experiment has been made, and that in this instance it has been found impolitic to legislate for the destination of a voluntary offering. The experience is all the more instructive that the proposed appropriation reached not to the whole of this fund, but only to a fraction of it. We cannot thus lay a force on the human inclinations; and when these are once revolted, it is not this particular fund alone which might suffer by it, but whatever else, in the way of money-raising, which the Church might be pleased to enjoin or recommend.

Fourthly, It is not good thus to share the responsibility for the support of the general fund between two distinct sources of revenue-the church-door collections on the one hand, and the associations on the other. Of these, the method by associations is the more operose, but when the requisite effort is made, is greatly the more productive. It is not good to hazard the prosperity of this more important fund, by furnishing either its agents or its contributors with a pretext of which many would readily avail themselves, for declining the more and preferring the less troublesome way of it. The weekly visitors would be all the less strenuous and punctual in the duties of their vocation, should they know that the support of the general fund and of its high and sacred objects did not rest exclusively upon them; and many are the weekly contributors who would gladly evade or dispose of their call could they allege of the Sabbath collections, that these, too, went in whole or in part to the general fund, and that they preferred this as the medium through which to give all the easier to the more troublesome, and at all events one channel, through which to rid themselves of the obligation, rather than two. It is thus that the associations would gladly merge in the collections-what might be made the greatly more, in what would certainly become the greatly less productive, for the former would lose a great deal more by these transferences than the latter would gain by them. Better that the whole burden of the general cause should be made to lie upon the associations, and that there should be no escape for the conscience