then, when the river ceased to be navigable, we crossed the country through a hill pass, a distance of about twenty miles, to where another river flowing down through Hwuy-Chow to Canton becomes navigable for boats of considerable size. The first part of the journey was tedious, and (including the days on which we halted until our business at the various cities we passed was concluded), we were on the way in all thirty-one days. The news of our arrest, and of my being sent to Canton, had reached Hong-Kong, and, through the great kindness of many friends who felt anxious for my safety, and could not explain why we sho be so long on the way, inquiries had been made about us at the office of the native authorities at Canton. It was perhaps owing to this, in part, that on reaching Canton on the morning of Sept. 30, instead of being taken to the mandarin's office, two men were sent by the authorities to conduct me straight from the boat to the office of the British Consul. The consul has hadacommunication from the governorgeneral (Chinese) about the case. I did not see it, but the consul informed me that it was conceived in a mild strain, much more so than he had expected, and I am thus wonderfully preserved, and freed from the infliction of any punishment or penalty. I am sorry to add, that there is reason to fear my two companions are still confined at Choan-Chow-foo, though the governor-general assures the consul they have been sent to their native districts (in the Chan-Chow, department), to be liberated on finding proper security. You will remember that these two men, though natives of that part of the country, have been for a number of years resident in Hong Kong, and connected with the American Baptist mission there. It was Mr. Johnson, the American missionary there, who sent them up in the beginning of June to act as colporteurs, and to co-operate with us as far as found desirable. Looking to the leni. ent view of our case, which the native authorities, both at Choan-Chow and here seemed led to take, I was disposed, now that my health is graciously restored, to proceed very soon back to Swatow, in the hope of being able to prosecute the missionary wor there unmolested; but yesterday, when in the act of making arrangements for going to Hong Kong, I was met by a message from the British plenipotentiary, Sir John Bowring, conveyed to me by the consul, to É. effect that after the representations of the imperial commissioner, he should deem it imprudent and improper that I should return to the district from which I have been sent. Met by such a message from such a quarter, I think it will be my duty to delay making an movement of the kind I contemplated, at least until I hear from Mr. Taylor about his plans and prospects, and d until the native brethren are, as we hope they may soon be, released. Mr. Taylor went to Shanghae in the beginning of July, partly, for a, change during the hot months, and partly intending to bring down his medical apparatus to Swatow. Whether he has already come down, or whether it may be hearing at Shanghae of our arrest, he has delayed, I am, as yet, entirely ignorant. In the meantime, if shut up for a season at Canton, I am in the midst of kind missionary brethren, American and English, and my acquaintance with the Canton dialect, now revived, should save me, through the grace of God, from spending, my time unprofitably. The field is the world; the seed is the Word of God. Most of those who came down with me from Choan-Chow were Canton men. They treated me with much respect and kindness, and with them, in the course of the month we spent together, I had many conversations on the subject of the Gospel, which, I trust, may not prove altogether useless. io. back on the whole scene through which I have passed, and contrasting the life and favours granted us, with the misconstruction and suffering to which we might have been subjected, I cannot but adore the wonderful goodness and power of Him to whom the kingdom belongs, and who unceasingly cares even for the most unworthy . servants. And while the people of God have need to pray for us that we may be guided to act aright, and not to rush into danger without cause, they have surely also to give praise fordeliverance vouchsafed, and for opportunities such as seldom occur of making known something of the truth of the Gospel to men in authority and to many P.S.-I was taken up to Shanghae others. last year free of charge, and this year I am glad to learn that at the time I have come down to Canton in the you wrote, there was a prospect of same way, a part of the way supported Mr. Sandeman joining the missionary by the Chinese government. I amuse band in China. I trust he may be my friends by saying that I wish the now on the way, and that he will come Chinese government had only conto be a blessing to many. With tinued my allowance (300 cash à day), Christian regards to all friends, and given me a permit to save me from I am, ever yours, being again apprehended. The time for W.O. BURNS. such liberty has, I fear, hardly yet come. Correspondenrr. OUR HOME MISSIONS.—(PORTSMOUTH STATION.) To the Editor of the Presbyterian Messenger. SIR, - I read with great pleasure your Mr. Stuart found that there is a depth notice in the “Messenger" for October of of feeling and attachment in the mind of the opening of the Presbyterian Church at Scotchmen, who, though separated for many Portsmouth. I rejoice that our Church years from their native soil, and the ordiis now putting forth some of her latent nances of the Church of their fathers, no strength. And those who take a deep sooner find that Church and its orinterest in the extension of that Church in dinances again within their reach, than our land, will be glad to know, that the they joyfully receive and warmly cherish success which has attended the opening of them. the Portsmouth Station, has exceeded the Other phases of national character were expectations of the most sanguine of its developed, which we also record as worthy promoters. It has proved to the Church of serious consideration, and that they may that in this important locality they had awaken and stir up all to Home Mission only to go in and possess the land. work. Some of the careless and the inThe opening services were conducted by different were found out and visited. Professor Lorimer, on the 14th September. One family, the father and mother, both Since that time, the pulpit has been sup-Scotch, had been many years away from plied by the following ministers of the Scotland, their large young family had been London Presbytery, namely, Mr. Thompson, born and brought up without the pale, and Woolwich; Mr. Wright, Southampton; without the influence of any Christian ComMr. Chalmers, Marylebone; Mr. Ballantyne, munion. After Mr. Stuart had conversed of London Wall: Dr. Weir, of Islington. freely with the mother, he proposed to engage Arrangements had been made for the Rev. in prayer. She had been taught at her D. M. Stuart, of Falstone, Northumberland, mother's knee how to bend the knee in to carry on the work during the month of prayer, but the children had never seen a November. This Mr. Stuart did most knee bent to God at home, and they were faithfully, and I have every reason to be- frightened to see a gentleman kneeling in here, that the great Head of the Church has their humble dwelling. abundantly blessed his labours. | One family had four children baptized, His pulpit ministrations were not only the eldest eight years of age, the others listened to by a large and intelligent younger. Another family had one child, audience, but his pastoral labours in the two years old, baptized. Another, one visitation of the several families of those child of eleven months; and on the last who have already given in their adherence Sabbath morning of Mr. Stuart's ministrato the Church, have been gratifying to the tions, an infant was baptized in the public minister and very memorable and useful to services of the sanctuary, making in all these families. | seven children baptized by him. Perhaps the most interesting service in inscription in Russ, the name of the famous connection with Mr. Stuart's labours here Russian General Osten-Sacken. was the first Communion of the Lord's! This work so auspiciously begun - a Supper at Portsmouth, celebrated on Church born in a day-I trust will be susSabbath, the 29th November. On the tained and carried forward with energy and previous Wednesday, a week evening ser- prayer. If the Presbyterian Church in vice, preparatory to the Communion, was England did not seek a higher object than held in a large room, adjoining the Hall. simply gathering her own children together This room was filled chiefly with intending in Portsmouth, she is called on to set her communicants, when the Rev. Mr. Wright, heart to the work. of Southampton, preached a very appro- In the garrison are always some hundreds priate sermon, from Revelations xx. 12. of soldiers who are Presbyterian. It may “I saw the dead small and great stand be- be in a few days, or weeks, one or more fore God,” &c., &c. It was remarked that regiments, wholly or largely impregnated a feeling of deep solemnity pervaded the with the Scottish element, may be located minds of all present. here, and then the hundreds will be changed The Sabbath services were deeply into thousands; and as yet we have no pastor teresting and impressive ; between forty- to care for their souls and no Church for five and fifty communicants sat down to God's worship. Here are constantly located this loved and honoured feast, set out after a division of the Royal Marine Artillery, the manner of our fatherland. Around that who are largely recruited from the North. table sat old soldiers, whose emotions could Here, too, are located numbers of families of hardly be concealed, as they thought of all surgeons, engineers, and all classes of officers the way the Lord had led them, and whose of the Royal Navy; and lastly, a large glittering medals told that they had been number of civilians, who, wherever the in dangers oft. I physical and mechanical sciences are ex. Sailors were there celebrating the dying tended, are sure to follow. love of Him who had saved them from Portsmouth is also the grand gateway shipwreck, from battle, and from sudden out of England for foreign and distant death. Others were there taking the sacred countries, both for her army and navy. The symbols into their hands, who had been dockyard wharfs and jetties will long be separated for ten, fifteen, and some twenty remembered by many a warm heart, as the years from the ordinances and communion last parting spot from loved and now lost of their fathers' God, and their fathers' ones, whose bodies now lie cold and lonely Church. The sight of this interesting on the banks of the Alma, or on the slopes group, with all its associations, was so deeply of Inkermann, or in the valley of Balaklava. affecting, that the minister felt it difficult The sunny months of last summer saw to proceed with the service. England's victorious army returning home There is a pleasing anecdote in connection and landing in Portsmouth. Those who with this service, worth recording, which saw with pleasure the many thousand brave, illustrates the kindly feelings of the Ports- hale, and hearty warriors, as they set foot mouth community to our new cause, and on their native soil, can never forget that also, how by certain links in the mysterious this army contained many, whose frames chain of providence, a vessel, originally de- had been shattered and torn by sickness, dicated to a sacred purpose in the Greek disease, and battle. The very appearances Church, should come to be used in the first of such told the sad tale that they had come Communion of the Presbyterian Church in home to find a grave. And would it not be Portsmouth. Some disappointment had only a graceful, nay, a Christian act, for been experienced as to the Communion Presbyterians to have a pastor and a Church, plate ; this was supplied most cheerfully charged with giving the last and the holiest and gratuitously by one of the wealthy and the best consolations to the dying sol. Jews of the town. One of the pieces, a diers of their own communion? The many cup, was a trophy, taken from one of the sad cavalcades with muffled drums which churches in Kertch; it bore, besides an we all saw during the summer months, can testify, that here many have found (if not prayers, their pecuniary assistance, and well the voice of a Christian pastor proclaiming directed influence, a Church may be erected messages of mercy to the dying soldier), at without delay for carrying on this good work least a soldier's grave. with vigour and success. And may the The peculiar position of those who form great Head of the Church add his blessing! the congregation here, calls for sympathy I am, yours most faithfully, and support from the more wealthy and influential of our Presbyterian brethren Mile End Terrace, Portsmouth, throughout the land, in order that by their ! December, 1856. JAS. SPENCER. Jotires af Books. Memorial Discourses. By the Rev.J.MAC., and I soon found that fellowship with NAUGHTAN, A.M. Belfast. Christ was the happy and sanctified result. In other days these would have been called No alarm mingled with this experience, but * Funeral Sermons." We greatly prefer all was peace." the title which the author has given them, and they were preached on successive Sabbaths. The first is a tribute to the memory The Holy Bible, with Original and Seof a remarkably amiable and promising lected Parallel References and Marginal young man, a student of theology, and son Readings, and a Critical and Explana. of Professor Gibson. The last of the three tory Commentary. Part I. By the Rev. was called forth by the death of an exem DAVID BROWN, D.D. Glasgow: Collins. plary and esteemed Elder of Rosemary. This is one of the most remarkable exam. street Church, Mr. Robert Leadbetter. The ples of "multum in parvo" which these Discourses are withal a“ Memorial” of the days of condensation have produced. Here pastor's fidelity and affection ; and we trust we have for fourpence not only the text of that they will prove extensively acceptable Matthew and Mark, and a map of Palesand useful in their present form. tine, but almost everything which an ordiThe following statement of his personal nary reader can desire for the elucidation experience, uttered by a youth of twenty, of the Gospel narrative. The name of Dr. is so remarkable, that we cannot refrain Brown is a sufficient guarantee that the from quoting it. work shall be marked by freshness of “I am firm. If God is true, I am safe; thought, and fulness of information ; but and He is true. The Father is true, for without actual inspection the reader can He is the God of Truth; the Son is true, hardly conceive how much interesting and for He is full of grace and truth; the Spirit useful matter has been packed into these is true, for He has this expressive designa- well-filled pages, which will be to many a tion, the Spirit of Truth;' and thus the Bible student a welcome Vade Mecum. Feracity of each of the Persons in the God. The work is to be completed in twenty-one head is pledged for the salvation of him numbers. who believes in Jesus, and the word of their united testimony is the Word of Truth.' It is to simple faith that all the promises *.* Among the New Year's volumes that are given ; and yet it was the very sim-have just appeared is a book on a very plicity of this exercise that was my only interesting and important subject, by Prodifficulty. The whole plan of redemption fessor Lorimer. It is too late for a notice was so plain, and acceptance of it so easy, l in our present Number, and therefore we that I could scarcely think that, by the mere act of trusting in the Saviour, and il give the following extract from the Preface, submitting to His righteousness, I could which will enable readers to form a tolerabe saved. But the state of mind and bly correct idea of what to expect :feeling which I experienced at the time, “Nearly three years ago, when the author was of so unusual a character, and so op- of the following work was collecting mateposed to everything unholy, that I was rials for the life of Alexander Alesius, the convinced it could not be the suggestion of earliest and one of the most distinguished the devil. In this conviction I left it to of the Scottish exiles who were driven out the Lord to carry forward His own work, from their country for their attachment to the principles of the Reformation, he came wood could only repeat the statements of unexpectedly upon the traces of a work in the martyrologist and the reformer. It is which Alesius had inserted some account indeed singular that such facts in the life of Patrick Hamilton. Following up these of such a man, as the universities where traces, he found that Rabus, a German he studied, and the influences under author of the sixteenth century, had intro- which his character and convictions were duced a translation of that account into formed, and the length of time during his History of the Martyrs; on perusing which he had opportunity to disseminate which, he discovered that Alesius had his doctrines, and even his birth-place, his noticed several important particulars of marriage, and several of the circumstances Hamilton's character and life, and of his of his last days and martyrdom, should own connection with him, which were per- have remained so long unknown. But it fectly new to history, as well as extremely is more singular still that a learned work, interesting and valuable. The author then which supplied original and authentic inbecame anxious to see the original work, formation upon the most of these points, which was referred to as a Latin Commen and written, too, by a man who was himtary on the First Book of the Psalms; but self an honour both to his teacher and his no copy of it could be found in the library country, should have remained for three of the British Museum, the Bodleian, Sion hundred years unnoticed and unknown by College, or any of the other great libraries Scottish authors, and should only at this of this country to which he had access. time of day be accidentally brought to It was not till he had travelled in quest of light. it as far as the old library of Wolfenbüttel | * In executing his design, the author in the Grand Duchy of Brunswick, that he found it necessary, in order to exhibit the got his first sight of a copy. various influences under which Hamilton's “The amount of new light thrown by the character and convictions were formed, to statements of Alesius upon the biography bring into view many facts belonging to of Hamilton was so very considerable, and the religious history of the times in which those statements had so much value as he lived, and to the annals of the numerous coming from one who was the martyr's universities in which he studied. He conown disciple and convert, and the eye-wit-ceived that much of the interest of such a ness of his trial and martyrdom, that the life lies in tracing the manifold discipline of author resolved to attempt to construct, by institutions and events by which the worktheir help, and with the aid of such addi-man is shaped and trained for his work, as tional facts as farther research might bring well as in the exhibition of his work itself ; to light, a complete Life of the First and requiring to draw somewhat largely for Preacher and Martyr of the Scottish Re- that purpose both upon academic and geneformation. ral history, he has thought the designation "Such a biography has remained till this of 'A Historical Biography' the most approday a desideratum. Scarcely anything, in priate to describe the mixed contents of the fact, has been added to our knowledge of volume. He has been able, however, in the first and most interesting of all our some instances to derive that history from Scottish Protestant martyrs, since the ac- fresh sources; and he refers, in evidence of count of him inserted by Fox in his Acts this, to the original documents contained in and Monuments. Even Knox, the only the Appendix, which have never been printed original historian of the Scottish Reforma- / before, and which will be found to possess tion, was able to add very little to that considerable value in relation particularly account; while Spottiswood and Calder- to Scottish ecclesiastical affairs. Presbyterian Church in England. COLLECTIONS AND DONATIONS. Warrington, ditto ....... Col. Anderson, R.H.A...100 tion . ds. . . 1 7 10 J. R. Robertson 5 5 13 6 6 A Friend of ditto 5 5 Sonthampton, ditto . . . . . . . 3 10 6 Bishopwearmouth, ditto .. .. 3 10 0 Robert Barbour ........ Subscription by cards...11 18 8 |