ADDRESSES OF CONTINENTAL AND COLONIAL DELEGATES.

According to appointment, further addresses were now heard from Continental and Colonial delegates. The first to speak was

Pastor COULON (Neuchâtel).-I wish to express to you the great interest that the Church to which I belong has in the proceedings of the Presbyterian Council. The Evangelical Independent Church of Neuchâtel in Switzerland is not a great one. It numbers no more than twenty-three congregations and fifteen thousand souls. It is gratifying to us to be a part of the great Presbyterian Union, of which this Council is the manifestation. This Church began fifteen years ago, but we think that we are the true continuation of the old Evangelical Church of Neuchâtel, of which Farel was the founder. Our old Church was always free from the intrusion of the State in religious matters, but fifteen years ago an attempt was made to put it into the hands of the civil government, with the intention to place it under the influence of rationalism and unbelief. A law was issued with this view, and many of our pastors and people felt obliged to assemble in a church of which Christ alone would be the chief. We went on with some anxiety, but the Lord has blessed us in a very remarkable manner, and we shall never be thankful enough to Him for His merciful kindness to us. Not only have we been able to go on, and to find, without difficulty, all that was needed for the maintenance of our pastors, and for sustaining our theological school, but we join with our brethren of the free churches of the Canton de Vaud and of Geneva in missionary work in South Africa, on which the Lord has poured His blessing in such a way that it is growing from year to year. Several years ago the missionary spirit was awakened amongst our people, and many young men expressed their willingness to be sent where work was to be done. In our congregations the people have learned to pray more earnestly for the welfare of the work of God in heathen lands. Not only so, but purses have been opened, and more than a fourth of our contributions for sustaining the Church is given for missionary work. We are also very thankful to the Lord because He always gives us some young men for the service of our own Church, and He enables us to give a little aid to countries where an evangelical ministry is needed. The missionaries are trained in our theological school at Neuchâtel, in which Professor Godet is still teaching, although his great age obliged him to give up a part of his work amongst the students, consecrating himself more completely to his literary labours. This winter he was seriously ill, and we feared we should lose him, but the Lord has answered our prayers. He has been restored, and is again able to do much work.

I bring his most hearty greetings to the good friends he has amongst you. I have the same communication from my friend Professor Gauthier, of Lausanne, a member of the Belfast Council. I have also to express to our good friends in Scotland our most sincere thanks for their great kindness to the young students we send sometimes to Edinburgh. We should be glad in Neuchâtel to have the opportunity to do the same for young men from English-speaking countries, who would have the opportunity of studying theology in our theological schools. We think it would be a good thing for Christians of different countries and languages to have intercourse one with another, and I offer my best thanks for the opportunity given to us of meeting in this Council, and for the kindness of our reception.

Comte DE ST. GEORGE (Free Church of the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland). I wish to speak to you about our work and the spirit that governs it. We have forty-one congregations, and fortyseven pastors to lead them. We have 176 elders who help their pastors in their ministerial duties, but, excepting in two towns, the work belonging to the deacons is performed by the pastors. Five of the above-mentioned communities have no chapel, but the brethren meet in rooms hired or lent for the purpose. Besides the regular services on Sunday morning, there are numerous religious meetings, held mostly by the pastors in several villages, both on Sundays and weekdays. Other meetings, such as those held by the Temperance Society, the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Association, etc., have developed much lately, and excited great interest. The Sunday evening meetings, especially in winter, collect larger and more miscellaneous audiences than the morning services, for Nicodemus has still many children in our country. We are not officially recognised as a Church by the State, and it is only forty-three years ago that our ministers were led to prison between two policemen for having preached the Gospel. However, we thank God that circumstances are since then much altered. We can now build chapels and preach the glad tidings of salvation both indoors and out-of-doors with the greatest liberty. Our Free Church has day-schools and Sunday-schools, the management of the latter being chiefly in the hands of the ladies and younger members of our communities. I can merely mention our divinity college at Lausanne, for the education of young men who wish to become pastors. Every year a certain number of them, after having graduated, go forth to proclaim the name of Jesus-some as missionaries, some as evangelists at home and abroad, some as pastors of our churches, and not a few are called away to foreign countries. With very few exceptions our congregations are so small

that we feel very much in each little community as if we were members of one family; but the difficulty is, that owing to our small number, and to the topography of the country, some of our congregations up in the mountains are scattered in villages far apart, and when deep snow lies on the ground, and the roads and mountainpasses are blocked up, the fellowship of the spirit remains, but personal intercourse becomes often impossible. We are thus obliged to find the means of keeping up amongst ourselves the feeling of unity and the bonds of Christian love and fellowship, which otherwise would easily grow slack. In order to bring about this Christian intercourse we have district meetings for the pastors, for the elders of the Church, and also for Sunday-school teachers. These meetings are attended with the greatest zeal, and are a permanent source of encouragement and blessing to many. Our annual synods are times of great refreshment for all the leaders and members of our Church, as well as for the locality where these large meetings are held. This is so much the case that we make a point of it to hold our annual assize alternately at Lausanne, and in other districts, as far as circumstances allow. The bond uniting our brethren has also been made stronger of late by a series of Church inspections which were made during the last four years throughout the whole of the Free Church congregations. These reports, if they reveal many a deficiency, have at least proved abundantly that the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud, though small as to number and poor as to means, is yet, by God's grace, a light that doth shine, if ever so feebly, to the praise of our Lord and Redeemer. As to the activity of our Church in evangelisation, and in mission-work, if there is enthusiasm for anything with us, it certainly exists for our missions in Transvaal, the Spelonkin district, and Lorenzo Marquez. When our supreme court sent me as a delegate to this Council, I asked what message I should bring you from our Church. The response was as quickly found as unanimous. "Tell the brethren of the Council," they said, "that we love them well; and tell our English brethren, and especially our Scotch brethren, how deeply indebted we feel towards them for the very kind, even affectionate, way in which they receive our students of divinity." It is an immense boon which you confer on these young men by receiving them with so much brotherly love, and by allowing them to see somewhat of the intense, active life of the Presbyterian Church in your country, of its spirit of sacrifice, of its strength, and of works of faith and charity which are an example to them. They come back to us with wider views-with a better comprehension of the magnitude of God's work, and of the way He uses His children for it. We pray you, fathers and brethren, to go

on stretching towards them your strong hands, and opening your kind hearts, for it is a noble privilege for you to be able to do so; and may our Good Shepherd increase tenfold towards you the blessing you are thus the means of bringing to us! One word more, and that word one of sincere and heartfelt gratitude for the hospitality so liberal and so Christian we have received here. I go back to Switzerland thanking God to have allowed one of the smallest churches of the Alliance thus to have enjoyed this communion of saints.

Chevalier PROCHET (Rome).-In the year 1686 the Roman Catholic Church succeeded at last: the efforts of centuries were crowned with success. Their persecution had the result of stamping out of Italy that little band of 15,000 Waldensians who, from the twelfth century, had kept burning the light of the Gospel amidst the darkness of Roman Catholicism. For three years in the Waldensian valleys there was the silence of death. But in 1689, notwithstanding the great kindness of the Swiss, and the liberality of the Germans, 900 of the exiles could not stay away any longer from their native valleys, and they were bound to come back. They were united together. They fought their way back. These 900 mountaineers reached once more the Waldensian valleys, and withstood for years the united forces of Louis XIV. and the Duke of Savoy. That is the reasonthough the fact may sometimes be ignored-why we in Italy have as much liberty as you on this side of the Atlantic, or our American brethren on the other side. Our forefathers for centuries were groaning and crying, but God, who is the hearer of prayer, did not forget their tears and their intercessions; and in answer to them He has sent a blessing upon the Waldensian Church. Next year we are to celebrate the bicentenary of our glorious rentrée into the Waldensian land. That is the communication I desire to make to the Council. I need hardly say you will understand it-how our brethren there would welcome those that would come to sit at their side-no more, as some of you have done, to cry and weep in order that God might deliver us, but to rejoice with us, and to thank Him who has granted our prayer.

Dr. BLAIKIE.-M. Bersier and M. Monod have taken an active share in our business, and do not wish to make any special addresses today; but on behalf of M. Bersier I am requested to acquaint the Council with the fact that a monument is to be erected to Admiral Coligny in a central part of Paris, facing the Louvre, and that £4000 of voluntary subscriptions have been collected. The Government itself has contributed 15,000f.: so that France now acknowledges the moral value of that most eminent Huguenot of the sixteenth century.

The Council next heard addresses from some colonial brethren who had not an opportunity of speaking on Tuesday.

The Rev. G. SUTHERLAND (Sydney).—Australia is between 10° to 40° south latitude, and occupies some 40° of west longitude. In its widest extent, 2400 miles from east to west, and 1800 miles in its depth from north to south, it embraces 3,022,000 square miles; or, if you include New Zealand 3,125,000 square miles of territory. About one-third of the whole, viz. 1,000,000, is embraced by Western Australia; 900,000 by South Australia; 669,000 by Queensland; and 310,000 by New South Wales; while Victoria has 87,000; Tasmania, 26,000; and New Zealand 105,000 square miles. This may give some vague idea of the vast extent of territory covered by Australasia, leaving out the Fiji group and New Guinea. The inhabitants of these vast territories are yet comparatively few. The larger portion of Western Australia has only 50,000 people, all told. The highest in population is New South Wales. The mother colony has now advanced to the premier position in that respect, embracing more than 1,000,000 souls. Victoria comes next, but is very little behind. Sydney and Melbourne, 300,000 each. In all Australia, 3,000,000; or, including New Zealand, 3,600,000. New South Wales has doubled its population during my residence there of sixteen years. Let me now give you some figures of the Presbyterian churches of Australasia. There are 51 Presbyteries, 672 charges, and 571 ministers. Victoria, the enterprising, public-spirited colony of the South, takes the lead in regard to ministers, having 200. New South Wales has 132; New Zealand, 152; Queensland, 34; Tasmania, 20; South Australia, 15; New Hebrides, 16; and only 2 in Western Australia. The progress has been very marked in some churches. I have seen nearly all the churches doubled in numbers and congregations, and some of them increased threefold. Our difficulties may be summed up thus:—(1) We need the descent of the Holy Spirit to give effect to the Word preached and to the truth which is circulated. (2) We need the combination of the Christian Churches in hearty effort in the domains of sin and ignorance. (3) We need the organisation of a Christian League to secure a Christian representation in our Houses of Parliament, men who will honour God in the chief council of the nation. (4) We need the establishment of a daily Christian newspaper, at the very head of the press for intelligence, information, and principle-a standard-bearer for Christ— forming public opinion and guiding governments. We have great spiritual difficulties to encounter :-(1) We have to contend with great devotion to pleasure. Games, sports, and races are made a trade of. (2) We have the drink traffic spreading far and wide, and doing a