Communion.—John Knox’s, Christian Institute, Bothwell Street, 1st Sabbath of December, not 4th Sabbath of November, as in last issue.
Acknowledgments.—The Treasurer of the Dingwall Congregation begs to acknowledge, with thanks, the sum of £1 for Manse Building Fund received, per Rev. D. M’Farlane, from Mrs. Mackay, Overscaig Hotel, Lairg. Rev. Neil Cameron acknowledges, with thanks, £5 from a “Lady,” 5/ from Inverness-shire, and 5/ from Carrbridge, for St. Jude’s Building Fund; also £1 for Kaffir Bibles.
The “Observer” Correspondence.—In last issue we referred to an attack made on the Free Presbyterian Church for the temporary transference of some money from the Foreign Mission Fund to the Organisation, by a writer signing “Observer,” in the Oban Times and Northern Chronicle, who appeared to discover a grave misapplication of funds. It was assumed in our note that the writer was one of our former brethren, now in the Free Church. Since then, we received on the 10th November, a letter from the Rev. D. Maclean, Free St. Columba’s, Edinburgh, in which, among other things, he stated, “I wish simply to inform you that the letters of ‘Observer’ are mine, and I take full responsibility for every word they contain.” Though Mr. Maclean wrote with considerable emphasis as to his being the writer of said letters, yet the terms of his communication were not, in our opinion, all that could be desired, and so we replied, that, before we could “give an unqualified expression of regret at the impression formed by Free Presbyterians in general on the subject,” we “should like to get an assurance that none of our former brethren were coadjutors in the publication of these letters.” The only answer Mr. Maclean has given to this is, that he is amazed we should suspect the veracity of his statement when he assured us that he “took entire responsibility for the letters in the press over ‘Observer.'” This answer is beside the point. We did not doubt his veracity as to his being the writer of the letters in question nor as to taking entire responsibility for their contents, but by our request we indicated that it was possible that all these things might be true, and yet he might have others as active coadjutors in the business. For that matter, he might only be their sympathetic representative. Does not even the assertion of “taking entire responsibility,” which Mr. Maclean repeats, leave it an open question whether he may not have assumed a responsibility in connection with the contents of these letters that did not of absolute necessity belong to him? We conclude by stating that we certainly regret to have come to the conclusion that “Observer” was one of our former brethren, and in this expression others who wrote public replies to his letters concur, but we are also sorry that he has not supplied us with the satisfaction requested, for certainly the “Observer” letters were no credit to any one. A more flimsy or baseless foundation for raising the cry of scandal we have never seen.
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