The next business was the “Appointment of the Annual Collections” for the various schemes of the Church. The Synod
agreed to appoint them as follows:—(1) Collection for College Fund in August—notice to be sent by the Convener of the Theological Committee; (2) First Missionaries and Catechists’ Collection in October—by book from house to house—notice to be given by the Convener of the Sustentation Fund Committee; (3) Organisation Fund Collection in December—notice to be sent by the Synod Clerk; (4) Church Building Fund in January—notice to be sent by the Synod Clerk; (5) Foreign Mission Collection in March—notice to be sent by the Convener of Foreign Mission Committee; (6) Second Missionaries and Catechists’ Collection in April at church door—notice to be sent by the Convener of Sustentation Fund Committee; (7) Aged and Infirm Ministers’ and Ministers’ Widows and Orphans’ Fund in June—notice to be sent by the Rev. D. Macfarlane, Dingwall.
FOREIGN MISSION REPORT.
Rev. J. R. Mackay delivered this report, and spoke as follows:—
“MODERATOR AND BRETHREN,—I have been asked by the Convener of our Foreign Mission Scheme—Rev. Neil Cameron—to state to the Synod the salient facts that have arisen since last November in connection with this scheme. The Court will remember that it was resolved at the November meeting to ask Mr. David N’Tuli to proceed as missionary to Mashonaland, provided he were willing to take up work there at the rate of £60 per annum. N’Tuli was satisfied with this arrangement, and began missionary labours among the Mashonas in May of this year. N’Tuli had had a good deal of experience as a preacher before Mr. Radasi went to Rhodesia at all, but after he learned from Mr. Radasi the nature of the Free Presbyterian testimony, he fell in heartily with that testimony, and was ever afterwards as good a supporter as Mr. Radasi had in that Mission. He became an elder of the Free Presbyterian Church in Matabeleland. His salary is, I believe, less than he had received in some former services that he rendered as a missionary, but it is as much as we can afford to give. N’Tuli is, I believe, like Mr. Radasi, a Fingo, and a native of Cape Colony to begin with, but besides being a pretty good English speaker he can preach in the language of the Mashonas, a language very different from that of the Matabeles. It will be our prayer that a large and effectual door may be opened to him, even if there should be many adversaries.
“Mr. Radasi towards the end of March of this year married a daughter of Chief Sogfni, who lives at Seleukwe. When one considers Mr. Radasi’s position with a weak orphan child to care for, with an important missionary Institution, where there are always so many youths entering upon manhood some of whom are only emerging from heathenism, to look after, one cannot help seeing how desirable it was that Mr. Radasi should have a help-meet to support him. The grounds I have just now stated are substantially those stated by Mr. Radasi himself also, in a letter
received the other day, for marrying so comparatively soon after his first wife’s decease. As one that has some direct knowledge of his circumstances, it was my wish that Mr. Radasi should not remain long unmarried. Besides, his second wife is connected with one of the most honourable Free Presbyterian families in Rhodesia. Her father, Chief Sogini, himself holds meetings in connection with our Church at a distance of over 100 miles from Ngwenya, and to him we are largely indebted for our having the present Mission House at Bembesi.
“I am not able to report anything concerning the rendering the Psalms into Kaffir-metre beyond what members of the Synod have already learned from the Magazine. That amounts to the information that the first nineteen Psalms were some months since in Kaffir-metre. It is an advance on anything attempted in that line hitherto in the Bantu languages, and we are hopeful that at length the Free Presbyterian Church will have the honour of being the instrument of first publishing the Psalms in Kaffir-metre.” Mr. Mackay concluded his report by expressing the hope that the lively interest which the Church had always taken in the Mission in Rhodesia would become still livelier from our having a Mission now to two peoples in that region, the Mashonas and the Matabeles. “These are peoples (he said) against whom there is an increasing prejudice on the part of many Europeans because of their colour, and it is simply fearful how scepticism draws upon crude evolutionary notions to justify this antipathy. For us who believe that these black-skinned people have descended from Adam and Eve as we have done, that they are like us, sinners, and like us destined to have an eternity of bliss or woe awaiting them, it must appear a prime duty to do what in us lies to send them that Gospel which if they but receive, it will make them with us sharers in eternal salvation. It is necessary, on grounds of both reason and Scripture, to insist on the unity of the human race, otherwise Missions will receive a death-blow.”
Rev. A. Sutherland moved the adoption of the report, which was seconded by the Rev. D. Beaton, and cordially agreed to.
Rev. W. Scott spoke on the subject of the Foreign Missions, and intimated that he had received the usual contribution to the Mission from friends of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland in his former charge at Brushgrove and Grafton, Clarence River, New South Wales. The sum on this occasion amounted to £11 os. 5d. (commission being deducted), which he had pleasure in handing over to the Clerk.* He went on to say that he believed there was a remnant in that colony who hold the same principles, and who would like to be formally connected with the Free Presbyterian Church at home. He suggested that the Synod
* Since above, Mr. Scott has received £1 for the Mission from S. Porter, Esq., Pitnacree House, Maitland, Australia.
might enter into correspondence with those friends in Australia. Rev. J. R. Mackay moved that the Synod thank Mr. Scott, and through him, the kind friends in Australia who have annually sent a substantial contribution to the Foreign Mission. The motion was cordially agreed to. After some conversation, it was unanimously agreed to give full powers to the Foreign Mission Committee to enter into correspondence with friends in Australia with a view to closer relations.
Rev. A. Sutherland moved that Mr. Radasi be asked to send half-yearly detailed reports to the Convener of the Foreign Mission Committee for presentation to the Synod, of the work carried on by Mr. David N’Tuli and himself in their respective spheres. The motion was unanimously agreed to.
CANADIAN MISSION REPORT.
In the absence of the Rev. Ewen Macqueen, Convener, Rev. D. Macfarlane briefly gave a report of the Canadian Mission. He stated that the Committee met at Dingwall in March and appointed Rev. Neil Macintyre, Stornoway, as the deputy to Canada for this summer. Mr. Macintyre left early in May and was now engaged in his work there. Mr. Macfarlane said that although he had never been in Canada, he felt much attached to the people there, and desired the prosperity of the cause among them. He proceeded to compare the Church to “the vine brought out of Egypt,” referred to in Scripture, which spread its branches far and wide, and remarked that the first Court of the Free Presbyterian Church was known as the “Free Church Presbytery of Scotland,” but that now the Church had branches in various distant parts of the world such as Canada and Africa. He remarked that he knew of a number of persons from the Western Islands who had emigrated to Manitoba, and he would like to see the congregation, already formed at Winnipeg, supplemented by another farther west. Mr. John Macdonald, elder, Stornoway, moved the adoption of the report. He said that it gave him great pleasure to hear of the advancement of the cause of the Gospel in those distant parts of the world. The motion was agreed to.