GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTE, RIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

[The following paper is extracted from an American publication. It gives an humbling view of the present state of the religious world there. From all we can learn, there is certainly much good doing-but there is also much evil. The source of the evil appears to be the character of a portion of the ministry. And it behoves us to learn the necessity of a well-educated and well-disciplined ministry, if religion would be preserved from injury. Let the enemies of establishments contemplate the state of the ministry in America, and see the working of their principle.-EDIT.]

FROM an abstract of the Report of the State of Religion in the Presbyterian Church in the United States, it appears that the labours of the ministers of that Church have been in many places signally successful during the last synodical year. From the proceedings of the General Assembly, which was lately held in Philadelphia, there appear, however, to be wide differences of opinion among the members of that body, on several important points of Doctrine, Discipline, and Church Order. These points were warmly debated for some days. What is called the New Divinity School seems to have been ascendant. A protest against the alleged errors of the New School was presented to the Assembly, and was rejected. It has since been addressed "To the Ministers, Elders, and Private Members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States," and signed by a very large minority of the General Assembly. The doctrinal errors objected to in this protest are the following; they are the opposite extreme of Antinomian Calvinism :

1. Our relation to Adam. That we liave no more to do with the first sin of Adam than with the sins of any other parent.

2. Native depravity.-That there is no such thing as original sin that infants come into the world as perfectly free from corruption of nature as Adam when he was created: that by original sin nothing more is meant than the fact, that all the posterity of Adam, though born perfectly free from moral defilement, will always begin to sin when they begin to exercise moral agency; and that this fact is somehow connected with the fall of Adam.

3. Imputation. That the doctrine of imputed sin and imputed righteousness is novelty, and is nonsense.

4. Ability. That the impenitent sinner is, by nature, and independently of the aid of the Holy Spirit, in full possession of all the powers necessary to a compliance with the commands of God: and that if he laboured under any kind of inability, natural or moral, which he could not remove himself, he would be excusable for not complying with God's will.

5. Regeneration. That man's regeneration is his own act: that it consists merely in the change of our governing purpose, which change we must ourselves produce.

6. Divine Influence.-That God cannot exert such an influence on the minds of men as shall make it certain that they will choose and act in a particular manner, without destroying their moral agency; and that in a moral system God could not prevent the existence of sin, or the present amount of sin, however much he might desire it.

7. Atonement.-That Christ's sufferings were not truly and properly vicarious.

Which doctrines and statements are dangerous and heretical, contrary to the gospel of God, and inconsistent with our confession of faith. We are painfully alive also to the conviction, that unless a speedy remedy be applied to the abuses which have called forth this act and testimony, our theological seminaries will soon be converted into nurseries to foster the noxious errors which are already so widely prevalent, and our church funds will be perverted from the design for which they were originally contributed.

Against such dangerous pelagian errors, it is as much the duty of Methodist and all Orthodox Arminians, to guard as the Orthodox Presbyterians. Such errors strike at the very root of the humbling and experimental doctrines of the gospel, and lead directly into the fatal errors of Sabellianism, Socinianism, and Unitarianism. The Presbyterian, (a most ablyconducted paper, published in Philadelphia, and the organ of the Orthodox party,) in adverting to the proceedings of the late Assembly, gives the following statement of parties, and concludes with some judicious advice :

"Matters have been brought to a crisis. A favourable juncture has ensued for arousing the dormant energies of the church, and of appealing to the judgment and conscience of every one who may be willing to lend his aid in rescuing the doctrines and order of Presbyterianism from the hitherto insidious, but now undisguised assaults of her opposers. A blow has been struck, which must prove destructive, unless it produce a salutary reaction. Such blows we prefer from an

opponent to those soft pretexts of peace-making which have hitherto lulled into security, while they have betrayed to ruin. The line of demarcation is at length drawn; the contest must hasten to an issue; parties must become distinctively charac terised; and those who have hitherto professed to occupy neutral ground, will have no longer a pretext for maintaining their questionable attitude.

"The evils under which our church now labours, may be traced to two principal causes: the first is a desire to multiply her members, which, although innocent in itself, has become tinctured with unholy ambition; and then, secondly, as a suitable accompaniment of the former, a relaxation of strict principles, both of doctrine and polity, to remove the scruples of the hesitating, and open a wider door of admission."

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"The late General Assembly was composed principally of young men, and particularly young in their experience of ecclesiastical proceedings, and was divided appparently into three parties-1. The Orthodox adherents to the doctrines and order of our church, who not only love the truth, but are not afraid to defend it at every hazard. 2. The New Lights, who have departed from the faith of our standards, and preach another gospel. 3. The middle party, whose professions are in favour of Orthodoxy, but who, in every vote which affected the ancient faith of our church, were found co-operating with those who impugn that faith. To us it has appeared truly surprising, that notwithstanding their professions, this last ty should never, even as it were by a kind of accident, vote with the Orthodox, whose sertiments they profess to hold; but that they should uniformly be found recording their names with those, whose preaching and publications assail the very vitals of our church."

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THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN IRISH VERSE.

LETTER TO THE REV. G. BELLis, by norman M‘LEOD, D.D. MY DEAR SIR, I AM indeed much disappointed that it is not in my power to attend the approaching meeting of the Synod of Ulster. I am under engagement to assist at the administration of the Lord's Supper, in the island of Arran, on Sab

bath, the 5th of July, and to preach on the previous preparation days. The services assigned me are all in the Galic language, so that I could not easily find a substitute, even if 1 could otherwise absent myself from an occasion where I have attended regularly for the last twenty years. The clergyman there was for many years my colleague in the same charge. He is my brother-in-law, and my most attached friend, and regular assistant at sacramental occasions. I state these circumstances to account for my absence from your Synod, as I mentioned to you and others that it was my intention to be present.

To myself the disappointment is one of no ordinary kind; I have never enjoyed purer or more elevated pleasure than in attending the deliberations of your Synod, which were uniformly carried on with a degree of talent and piety, of practical sound sense and devoted zeal, which could not fail to delight and refresh the soul of any man interested in the prosperity of Christ's church on earth. Among your many interesting deliberations for the advancement of religion at home and abroad, none certainly excited my interest to so intense a degree, as those measures which were more peculiarly Irish in their principles, and national in their tendency. The Synod have now cordially recognised the too long forgotten principle of instructing the Irish through the medium of their own beloved language. On this principle you have determined to send forth Missionaries who can address them in Irish-that language, without the aid of which, there may be in Ireland at this moment, no fewer than a million and a-half of people who cannot form an accurate conception on any subject, and through the medium of which they are alone capable of receiving moral or religious instruction. Never was there a more interesting field of Missionary labour presented to a Christian church than that which at this moment presents itself at their own doors. Your ministers are respected even in the most disturbed districts in Ireland. Your church stands high in the estimation of all classes; and if there be a glen, or isle, or door, or heart closed against one of your Missionaries, let him get the Irish language, and he gets a key that will open all. It will be in your recollection, that at the meeting of your Synod in Londonderry last summer, I called the attention of the Synod to the importance of preparing a metrical version of the Psalms of David, in the Irish language. I stated at that time that I believed the obstacles were not so great as many seemed to think; and that if the assistance of

some native Irish scholar could be procured, I was willing to make the attempt. This suggestion was received with such enthusiastic ardour, that I resolved to commence the work immediately. On my return to Scotland I did commence to study the Irish dialect of my native Celtic language; to this study I devoted all the moments I could spare from my parish duties-I procured all the necessary books, and the earlier versions of the Gælic Psalms, and thereafter prepared a few specimens of common and long measure, which I submitted to some good Irish scholars, and was by them encouraged to proceed. Aware, however, that the Irish language is exceedingly idiomatic in its construction, or rather that its idioms are different, not only from all other European languages, but even from its own kindred languages, I was anxious to procure the assistance of some Irish scholars, who were familiar with the fire-side language of the people-the peculiarities of Irish grammar-and the prosody and genius of ancient and modern Irish poetry. My attention was directed to Mr. Thaddeus Connellan, a gentleman well known throughout the country for his unparalleled exertions in teaching his countrymen to read their own language. He had many important engagements in Dublin, but he gave them all up for some time, came to this country, resides in my house, and has engaged in the work with an ardour and perseverance which is most delightful. In him I have found a coadjutor of the most valuable description. We are literally engaged from morning till night. We have the various editions of the Irish and Gælic Scriptures, many of the best critical works, and above all, we have copies of all the editions of the Gælic Psalms, which we make the ground-work of our version, and without which we could proceed but very slowly, and comparatively speaking, very imperfectly. I do not conceive that any great variety in the metre is required; simplicity in the verse, and in the choice of words, I consider the great object, and that I strive to secure. I have now the happiness of announcing to the Synod, under whose countenance I was induced to com. mence this most interesting undertaking, that the first seventyfive Psalms are now ready for the press. There are no Irish types in Scotland, and, therefore, they must be printed either in Dublin or London. I have opened a correspondence with Mr. Watts, of London, and I intend sending those that are ready immediately forward to be printed. My wish is to cast off a small edition, say five hundred, in the first instance-circulate these as extensively as possible in the districts where