with me when I say that the experience we have had of it confirms us in the belief that it is fitted to do much good, and further the objects we have at heart. It has certainly made us better acquainted with each other, and brought together many who would never otherwise perhaps have known one another except by name, and led us to co-operate for our common objects in a way which could not otherwise have been done. And gradually, but I think I may say surely, through the agency of the General Presbyterian Council, those objects are being attained. Even since we met in 1884 important steps have been taken in America towards a federal union of Presbyterian Churches. During the same period, I think we may congratulate ourselves on a decided growth of interest and endeavour to support missions in foreign countries. Those who are paying attention to the signs of the times will have seen an increased desire on the part of all of us on behalf of co-operation in foreign missions, and even some cases of united effort. All these things are being furthered, and will be furthered more, by means of the gatherings, of which this is one.

We have other objects set before us. We desire that those Churches which are strong should use their immense power to encourage those who are weak; the strong should endeavour to bear in some degree the burdens of the weak, and by so doing they will not only not lose but gather further strength. It is our desire that all should take an interest, a helpful interest, in their brothers who may be less fortunately situated. I hope and believe that in these efforts we have been successful. It will be of interest to those here to know that they have in the Churches they represent no less than four million communicants, which represent members and adherents to the number of twenty millions. That marks this as an important gathering. I believe the Council we are inaugurating will not only not fall short of, but will exceed in interest, those that have gone before. We are all looking forward to the day set apart for a conference on foreign missions, and to that on the position of women's work in the Reformed Churches. That is one feature of the Church's work which has been too much neglected in the past by the Reformed Churches throughout the world. It may be we have something to learn even from the failures of those who think they have failed, because, perhaps, the history of failure is as pregnant in its teaching as that of success. We hope by the meeting we inaugurate that friends will become even more friendly, and if there be any who are estranged amongst us, we believe that our meeting together will cause that to wear away. I have the pleasure of wishing all who have come from a distance a hearty and cordial welcome to the Presbyterian Council.

Rev. Dr. DONALD FRASER, of Marylebone, London (Presbyterian Church of England), said:-Ladies and gentlemen, fathers and brethren, Welcome, most welcome to the hearts and homes of your brethren in England. You come to us and find us a comparatively small church, small in comparison with your great churches in Scotland and America, and small in comparison with the old ill-compacted Puritan Presbyterianism of this country 200 years ago. The wonder is that we are alive at all. Thanks be to God that we have not only survived our many mishaps and misguidances, but have really a better prospect before us than we have had for many generations. Suppose a council had met here 200 years ago, it would have found the Presbyterians anxiously hoping for the landing of William of Orange, and soon after giving great thanks for the Act of Toleration, which was praised then as a kind of Magna Charta. Whereas, if any one read it as it originally passed, he will see from the meagre and hesitating character of the document in what a state of distress our ancestors were at that period. The preamble says: "It is expedient to give some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of their religion." Even in what was meant to be conciliatory, our fathers were described as scrupulous great preachers or teachers, and there was no recognition of any church whatever except one. But mention is made of "those congregations who dissent from the Church of England," and their ministers are described as "in pretended holy orders, or who pretend to holy orders." If the Council had met 100 years ago you would have had difficulty in finding your orthodox Presbyterian friends. In the Midlands and South they had been suppressed or had faded away, and you would have found that the cold intellectualism of Unitarians like Price and Priestley passed under the Presbyterian name. All these things are changed, and you are here recognising us as one of the Churches of the Alliance of the Reformed Churches of the world, met here with Churches which, at all events, do not exist by dissent from any other Church, but have as good historical grounds to stand upon as the Church of this country has herself.

We are not here as a bundle of dissenting congregations. We are here as a well-compacted and well-organised Church, among well-compacted and well-organised Churches. It really seems to me that we have some title to the grand name of Pan. PanAnglicanism, for which I have the greatest respect, by its name declares its insular origin and character. It refers to the predominant Church in England, and its offshoots and developments. But this is not Pan-Scotticism at all; it is a gathering of the representatives of various sixteenth-century Churches which have grown up and developed

their histories in many lands and among many races. In reading the list of delegates, I was reminded of the people gathered at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, and like them they will all with one accord speak of the might of God and His saving grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let the English be the Galileans, and the rest will arrange themselves thus :-Parthians and Medes and Elamites are the Americans, Canadians, and Australians; dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judæa, and Cappadocia are the people of Wales and Scotland and Ireland; Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia are the people of Belgium, France, Holland, and Germany; Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene are Switzerland and the parts of New Zealand about Otago; and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, are our sojourners from Rome, both Spaniards and Greeks; Cretans and Arabians are Bohemians and Hungarians; and all of us, in our tongues and nations, will speak of the mighty works of the Lord.

Besides the common faith which we hold along with all of our fellow-Christians, there is a somewhat definite type of thought and life, which, notwithstanding all our diversities, may be traced amongst us. We have been in the past criticised and lampooned; we have been told we are very stiff, stern, dry-and we are dry sometimes, and when we are, nobody can be more dry, morose, sour, and gloomy. This is the way certain people choose to express their dislike of seriousness, especially religious seriousness. But our fathers, while grave, were also cheerful and fervent Christians. How they would have rejoiced in a gathering of the representatives of evangelical reformed churches throughout the world! How those men, who were sore let and hindered in their work, would have rejoiced to see a company like this, not let and hindered, but encouraged to come together, asking no man's licence, and dreading no man's frown, to discuss spiritual themes, and consult for the promotion of the Divine Kingdom. How John Howe's grand face would have shone on an assembly like this, and how Richard Baxter's fervent heart would have thrilled with happiness! I am not ashamed of such ecclesiastical fathers as these. Let us honour and maintain their characteristic type, a balanced mind, an ardent spirit, a firm, strong fibre of conviction, with a charity to all our brethren and love to all mankind, an intelligent devotion to order and liberty, but no extravagance, no nonsense, no ultraism, no rhodomontade, and no bigotry. If we do by the blessing of God maintain this type of character, and cherish the proper genius of our Church, and transmit it to those who come afterwards, and do our best to practise the sermon we heard to-day, the future of this Church, for it is one Church, in the hands of our children, will be

brighter and more glorious than our fathers or we have been permitted to see.

The Rev. Dr. DONALD MACLEOD of St. Columba, London (Church of Scotland in England), said :-I feel it a high honour to have been deputed to add a few more words of welcome to our brother delegates, whom we are so glad to see to-day amongst us. You will not misunderstand me when I say that the honour has been greatly enhanced, because I know that the London Committee selected me as a minister of the old historic Church of Scotland. We are not here to make too much of ourselves, and certainly not to make too little of any other branch of the Church of Christ. We have joined this morning already in the fervent prayer with which our Council was opened, that the presence and power of the Spirit of God might be in the midst of our brethren of the Church of England now met as a Pan-Anglican Council at Lambeth. We thank God for the great Church of England, and for the grand work she has done, and is doing, in our own and other lands. We open our hearts and hold out our hands to all the Christian Churches who are standing shoulder to shoulder with us in the great conflict with ignorance and vice and sin. Yes; if there be any contest between the Churches, as Presbyterians we own none, except the desire to excel in hastening on Christ's cause and kingdom. But while it is so, we may surely be pardoned if, on such an occasion as this, we make a little more than usual of our Presbyterianism; pardoned if we remember with a just and honest pride that we belong to a Church that has a record of work, a record of suffering, a record of triumph, a record that cannot be excelled by any of the Churches of Christendom, a record written in the history of almost every land. Surely we may be pardoned (if may use the expression) if our Presbyterian hearts throb to-day, the Presbyterian blood tingle in our veins, as we look around us and see so many revered fathers, of whom we have heard so long, and so many beloved brethren-literally coming together from the east, west, and north, and south-these, the representatives of a great Christian host, the children and successors of legions more, who through ages of toil and trial " subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises . . . out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." The question has been often put, What good comes from our PanPresbyterian Councils? My noble friend in the chair has answered the question. And, besides, there is a grand meaning in our gathering. The command of the Master to His disciples was, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' Fathers and brethren, you have come back to-day from every part of the

I

Christian world to tell us in this Isle of the Sea that the Master's promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," has been fulfilled, is fulfilling every day more and more, as the Churches realise their responsibility and their power "through faith in His Name." We have come together to tell as we look into each other's faces and grasp each other's hands that it is victory all along the line-that the old, old story of Christ's Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth "-the mightiest power this world of ours has ever felt or witnessed; the power that is converting men and women every day to Christ, and is destined surely one day to convert the whole world, when "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." We trust that these ten days before us may prove that our words of welcome are no mere words of course. We, in London, have had a noble example shown us at Edinburgh, Philadelphia, and Belfast. If we shall not be able to surpass the splendid hospitality of these cities, we will do our best to rival it. Fathers and brethren, we, who have come to welcome you from Great Britain and Ireland, thank God, who has brought so many of you safely over mountains and across seas to hold counsel and communion with us. If we continue our Fourth Council in that spirit of unity and brotherly love in which it has been begun, we may rest assured it will be one in which we shall feel more than ever drawn to one another-one from which we shall go away to our different homes and spheres of duty more than ever stirred to greater faithfulness, holier zeal, more entire consecration, and more Christlike life.

Senior J. E. SZALATNAY, of Velim (Reformed Church of Bohemia): -I wish to express the gratification that I and my co-delegates feel at being amongst you. Although my tongue cannot follow my heart, I beg to say that our gratitude is deep, sincere, and lasting. This gathering brings to my mind several historical facts connecting England and Bohemia. It is nearly 500 years since our Jerome of Prague studied at Oxford, and brought back from it the enthusiasm for the Gospel which was imparted to him by your great John Wycliffe. A princess of Bohemia came to this country to marry your Richard III., and became known as "good Queen Anne." As you loved the Bohemian princess, I hope you will love Bohemia a little at the present time. About 200 years ago the English Government sent for our Senior John Amos Comenius to reform the English schools. For several reasons that was not accomplished, but his ability was acknowledged. Now delegates from Bohemia are received kindly in such an important and great gathering, and I hope that to