intercourse with, but who was absent in Washington, though I yet hope to meet him. This great man has a strong hold upon me, and I speak with Scottish independence. This great man has gathered up the matured results of the studies of a long life in his marvellous work of three volumes, the greatest work of any church in any age or country. Without fear of contradiction, I boldly say—and I say it cordially-that this work of Dr. Hodge surpasses all similar works in any former century, in its compactness and fullness, in its clearness and logical consistency, in its accurately placing the limits between Church and State, and in its broad candor and fairness towards all opponents, and in its uniform consistency with the word of God as our one great rule of faith and practice. Long may he live to enjoy those honors, and may his last days be his brightest approbation."

THE FOREIGN MISSION DEBT AND ITS LIQUIDATION.

It appeared that the Foreign Board, from various causes, had come to the end of the financial year burdened with a debt of over $130,000. To go forward under such an incubus was no longer possible. Its prompt removal, or dire retrenchment, were the only alternatives. As the crisis was fully disclosed to the Assembly, a scene of unparalleled interest, which nothing less than the Spirit of God could produce, disclosed itself. A tide of heavenly tenderness swept over the body, and there was scarcely a dry eye in the house. $73,000 were at once pledged by members present in behalf of themselves, their churches, and presbyteries, in all amounts, from $5,000 to $10, from the wealthiest portions of the East and the feeblest missionary churches of the far West. We trust that the work so auspiciously begun will be pressed forthwith to its consummation, nay, will have been completed ere this reaches our readers. Our thanks are due to the Author of all Good for this glorious interposition.

CONSOLIDATION OF BOARDS AND CENTRAL TREASURY.

We think the Assembly made the only disposition of this subject, for which we are now prepared, in the following action. It presents the real points which need examination, and we trust due inquiry and discussion will bring out the truth to the clear apprehension of the Church:

Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed to take this subject into careful consideration, and to report to the next General Assembly on the following points:

1. Whether the expense of administration would be diminished by consolidation, and how far on this ground consolidation would be desirable.

2. Whether such consolidation would give increased efficiency to the different departments of work now committed to the several Boards.

3. If found to be more economical and efficient, to report a plan by which the desired consolidation can be safely and wisely made; and that such report, if agreed upon, be published at least sixty days before the meeting of the next General Assembly, in at least four of our leading Presbyterian papers.

SUSTENTATION.

This scheme for raising the standard of ministerial support, and promoting the increase of pastorates, initiated with the Reunion, has been steadily growing in favor and efficiency. It has of course encountered the friction incident to all new undertakings, and especially to the application of a method first successfully tried and proved in the Old World, to the altered conditions of our vast new country and ever increasing frontier settlements, in which it must be administered concurrently with a still greater work of Home Missions. That adverse criticism should have ample occasions and provocatives in such circum-stances, was inevitable. But, although proceeding from high: and influential sources, it has not shaken the faith of the Church, as a whole, in the wisdom and necessity of this scheme; and of its being, for the present, administered separately from the Board of Domestic Missions, which is tasked to its utmost capacity with the special work now under its charge. The committee to whom the Report of the Sustentation Committee to the Assembly was referred, concluded their own report thereon as follows:

"As the result of our study of this Report, therefore, we are unanimously of the conviction that this scheme is one of the very highest importance to our Church; that its administration has been prudent and able; and that it should no longer be regarded in the light of an experiment, but fully established as a part of the settled policy of the Church.

We recommend the adoption of the following resolutions as expressing the mind of this Assembly:

1. That the Sustentation Scheme has the confidence of this Assembly as a wisely-formed and well-conducted plan, and that it is no longer to be regarded as a mere experiment.

2. That our Churches are required to make regular annual contributions to its treasury.

3. That the thanks of this Assembly are due to Rev. Dr. M. W. Jacobus for his gratuitous, self-denying, laborious and very efficient services during

the year as Secretary of the Sustentation Committee, and that he is hereby re-appointed to that office.

4. That the surviving members of the Committee, viz.: Rev. M. W. Jacobus, D.D.; Rev. James McCosh, D.D.; Rev. F. A. Noble, Rev. James Allison, D.D.; Rev. S. F. Scovel, Hon. J. K. Morehead, David Robinson, and J. D. Vermilye, be re-appointed, and in place of Hon. H. N. McAllister, deceased, Henry Ivison, of New York."

These resolutions, after earnest debate, were carried by a heavy majority. The policy of the Church on this subject may therefore be regarded as settled, at least for some time to come.

THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

was unanimously commended to the churches, a committee raised to devise means of paying its debt for money borrowed, and the quarterly appropriation now due to beneficiaries for May. The rate of appropriation to the several classes of students was reduced to the former standard, experience having proved that the recent advance could not be maintained. Nearly all the changes in the rules and methods of administration suggested in our article on the subject, in January, were adopted. So clear has the mind of the Church been made on this subject during the past year, that all these measures, when recommended by the committee, were adopted unanimously, without debate. The subject of competitive examinations as a test of fitness and title to receive Church aid in preparing for the ministry, appears not even to have been mentioned. That indigent or beneficiary students, preparing for the ministry in college, should have the privilege of competing with others for prizes and fellowships, is a matter of course. One beneficiary is now studying in Germany on the income of a fellowship recently won by him in Princeton College. That prizes may be bestowed for superiority in competitive examinations in theological seminaries is also possible. Such prizes in a small way are not unknown even now. But that the condition of receiving needful aid from the Church, in the case of candidates of fair promise for the ministry, should be carrying off the palm at a competitive examination, is out of the question. There are pious young men who take first honors, and have no gifts for preaching. There are others whose recitations and examinations in the languages and mathematics are poor, but who yet are able

to speak, as dying men to dying men, with a mouth and wisdom which none of their adversaries are able to gainsay or resist.

We are glad that action was taken looking to the removal of the odious designation of W. C. in the ministerial. columns of the minutes, which has given rise to so many unjust inferences and cruel aspersions, and often conveys implications wholly at war with truth.

The Eldership question was referred to a large committee, Dr. McGill, chairman, for the purpose of comparing our system with that of the (Dutch) Reformed Church. We trust that this may lead to a solution of our present difficulties.

On the whole, we think it is rare that any Assembly has given such strong evidence of being under the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit. We trust its deliberations and acts will prove a rich blessing to the Church.

ART. IX.-DR. NOTT ON THE RESURRECTION.

By Rev. THOMAS A. T. HANNA, Williamsburgh, N. Y.

The Resurrection of Christ; A Series of Discourses. By ELIPHALET NOTT, D.D., LL.D., late President of Union College. With an Introduction by Prof. TAYLER LEWIS. Scribner, Armstrong & Co.

We remember hearing the President of one of our colleges tell how, many years ago, he was drawn from his southwestern home to study at Schenectady. He knew little about Union College, except that Dr. Nott was there; but that was enough to attract him and many others from all parts of the country. Those who came from afar to hear the wisdom of Solomon were never disappointed; and probably there were few young men, of the many drawn to Union College by the fame of its President, who did not find themselves under the spell of an influence even mightier than they had supposed. In reading this volume of sermons, and knowing by tradition the profound impression made by his funeral discourse on Hamilton, we are able to appreciate the power he had over intellectual young men. He was

a man of great vitality, of great nervous energy, of great personal power. If there is any such thing as magnetism of man over man, he was a man of preeminent magnetic power. He had something of Agamemnon's quality-an avat, avôpor. Also his style of oratory would be peculiarly impressive to the straightforward minds and impetuous hearts of youth. There was in it a vivid intellectual energy, an imaginative glow, a directness, and a touch of sombre thought. These qualities will always be charming to young men, and indeed to all whose hearts are unsophisticated. The comparison made by Prof. Tayler Lewis, between Dr. Nott's style and that of the French preachers of Louis Fourteenth's time, is quite just. There is the same accumulation of energy in both, the same rhetorical habit of thought, the same tendency to dramatize. There is the same half-indignant, on-rushing vis vivida of a mind impatient of elaborate processes of sermonizing. Dr. Nott's mind moved from point to point, not like the slow march of an army, leveling everything in its track, but like the swift passage of the signal fires from peak to peak, leaving the low spaces unillumined. There is in him, however, something more than Gallic vivacity and intensity. That sombre tinge, mentioned above, sometimes deepens into a certain solemnity and imaginative power which remind us of the great essayist, John Foster. With the grand elocution which, by all accounts, distinguished Dr. Nott, these discourses must have been wonderfully impressive and sometimes electric.

It is a great avantage to the Gospel that its rays centre in the one capital fact of the resurrection. The argument for the truth of Christianity, drawn from the resurrection of its founder, is so simple, so level to the common-sense of men, and so absolutely irresistible, that the contest with the infidel is narrowed to a point. It is simply a question of one fact: Did Jesus rise or no? If yes, then life and immortality are brought to light. If not, our faith is vain; we are yet in our sins. Whoever can disprove the resurrection of Jesus, extinguishes the forlorn hope of man's immortality.

The Roman procurator, Festus, was a fair specimen of the attitude which the average sinful heart of man holds toward the fact of Christ's resurrection. He viewed the question between Paul and the Jews, as merely a foolish controversy about one Jesus.