THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER. EDITORIAL. It is not without tokens for good that our Church enters on a new year of her history. The twelvemonth just closed has been for her one of tranNever has she enjoyed a season of more quiet usefulquillity and progress. ness nor felt more sensibly her tendency to gain ground in England. Several important new charges are fully equipped to-day, which, at last New Year, were unheard of or just commencing a precarious existence, and if in some quarters slight checks have been experienced, we have in others which may well be accepted as more than a compensation. proofs of progress, Among the most gratifying events that have distinguished the past year, has been the substantial demonstration of kindness accorded to us by the sister churches in Ireland and in Scotland, the former of which has contributed to our Home Mission Church Extension Fund the handsome amount of £700; while the latter puts at our disposal, whenever we are in circumstances to avail ourselves of the advantage, the services of some of her best ministers for any temporary assistance which we may think important to our cause on the soil of England. Our missionary operations never were more promising or more successful, and whether we look to China, the chief field of our labours as an aggressive church, or to India or Corfu, we have reason to thank God, who graciously the efforts of our brethren in these regions, and prompts us by encourages their successes to give a new impulse to our contributions on their behalf. Some progress, too, has been made in the College Endowment Scheme, chiefly through the earnest efforts of William Ferguson, Esq., to whose letter in another page we direct special attention, while a plan for a Church Building and Debt Extinction Fund, set on foot by last Synod, is now engaging the thoughts of the Committee appointed to prepare details. The ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER still keeps its place among institutions connected with the Church, and seeks, we trust not without some success, to do the part assigned to it. Our desire in this periodical is to This convey information, rather than to direct opinion. Our original matter is on this account contracted, while our columns of intelligence are full. is what we think our place and duty require, and on this plan we propose, more and more, as our contributors enable us, to act. We have to thank many friends who have aided us liberally by their kind attentions during the year past-the brethren who have sent us valuable articles; the Presbytery clerks to whose monthly care we owe the flow of information from so many church courts; the conveners and treasurers of our committees, whose reports and communications are essential for maintaining the interest of our readers; and the office-bearers and active members of so many flocks who have shown themselves willing amid many avocations to spare a few minutes from time to time to inform us of interestNo. 181.-New Series. 2 |