Communions.—Gairloch, 2nd Sabbath of month; Edinburgh, Plockton, and Lochinver, 3rd; Wick, 5th; Helmsdale and Oban, 1st Sabbath of November.
Sustentation Fund Notice.—The attention of congregational treasurers throughout the Church is respectfully drawn to the desirability of their forwarding to the general treasurer at Inverness as much as possible of the current Sustentation Fund in ample time to meet the payments to be made at November 11th. Sometimes delay in this respect is apt to cause a good deal of inconvenience.
Memoir of Rev. D. Macdonald.—It may be proper to call the attention of our readers to the fact that the Rev. Mr. Macfarlane has still on hand a considerable number of copies of the “Memoir and Remains of the Rev. D. Macdonald, Shieldaig” (price 2s. 9d., including postage). At the present time, when there is so much discussion of Church matters, friends of the cause should take the opportunity of circulating this interesting and instructive volume. In this month’s issue we give the notes of a very striking sermon of Mr. Macdonald’s as a sample of the good things to be found in the book. Orders may be sent direct to the Rev. D. Macfarlane, Free Presbyterian Manse, Dingwall. Copies can also be had from the Rev. Neil Cameron, 4 Shaftesbury Terrace, Glasgow; or the Rev. James S. Sinclair, 248 Kenmure Street, Pollokshields.
F.P. Church in Edinburgh.—The Free Presbyterian congregation in Edinburgh recently acquired a church at East Fountainbridge. The building, which is well equipped with many conveniences, including a large hall, was originally erected by members of the Evangelical Union, commonly known as Morisonians. Thence it passed into the hands of the United Free Church, while now it has become a Free Presbyterian place of worship. It is capable of holding 500 persons, and the price at which it has been secured is £1600. The bargain is considered a very good one. An opening service was held on Thursday evening, the 22nd September, when the Rev. Alexander Stewart presided over a large attendance. He said that the beginnings of the history of the Free Presbyterian Church were associated with the passing of the notorious Declaratory Act. For his own part he had always regarded that Act as rather the occasion than the cause of their setting up a distinctive ecclesiastical organisation in Scotland. He should like to represent their Church as embodying a practical protest against the higher criticism. The Free Presbyterian Church were old-fashioned enough to believe in a whole Bible. They were not fine enough in intellectual acuteness or nimble enough in moral adaptability to be able to turn and vilify and pour the vials of their contempt and their scorn and their reproach on what they solemnly engaged before God to assert, maintain, and defend. (Applause.) “Excuse me,” Mr. Stewart at once observed, “we shall have no applause in the House of God.” Continuing, he denied that their adhesion to the Confession of Faith precluded them from preaching a free gospel, and said that they adhered exclusively to the Book of Psalms in the service and song of the sanctuary, and dispensed with instrumental music in the worship of God. The Rev. George Mackay, Stornoway; Mr. Archibald MacNeilage, Glasgow; and the Rev. John Macleod, M.A., Kames, also spoke.