Objects of the Reunion. — The Church must hold fast what it has already gained. Influence of American Cities. What Church will control the Religious Character of the Country. --Law of Growth for Churches. Need of Amalgamation. Congregations misplaced. A Distinct Territory for Each. The best Missionary Organization. Problems of City Missions. Church Extension. — Disadvantages of a Casual Plan. —Each Church responsible for Evangelizing the Region around it. - Denominational Co-operation. Function of the Elders. Theory and Fact. Stated Supplies. "My People—"Our Pastor." -- Ministerial Support. Scotch Sustentation Fund. - The Deacons. The Church must teach the truth. "Gospellers." - Teach the Children.- Sunday-school Teachers and Literature.— Parental Responsibility.-- The Shorter Catechism. --Presbyterianism in Great Britain.-Public Services of the Future Church. Sermons read and spoken. Agencies of the Presbyterian Church. Doctrines.-The great Object of Prayer and Labor.

WHEN the English and the Prussians, under Wellington and Blucher, effected a junction on the 18th of June, 1815, on the field of Waterloo, it was not that they might enjoy the parade and pomp of a mighty host, or luxuriate in the gladness which led the old Prussian, after the manner of his country, to embrace and hug the victorious Englishman; but to continue the work in which they had been engaged to drive a military despotism out of France, and to restore to Europe the blessings of an assured peace.

And when two great sections of the Lord's sacramental host fell into one line in Pittsburg, it was not for the satisfaction of exulting in the sense of greatness, or indulging in mutual gratulations, but for the purpose of

pushing Christian effort with more vigor, of concentrating strength, and bringing the land under the Sav iour's peaceful sceptre. The sympathy of numbers is indeed a valuable power, and the joy of enlarging communion on earth a precious fruit of the Spirit. But they are not to be rested in as an end, but employed as means. We are to be more sanguine because we are one; for the Spirit that has put aside the barriers to union, and made us one, may well be counted upon to carry us over other difficulties. If, however, flushed with a sense of strength and success, we rely on visible resources, and yield ourselves up to mere carnal exultation, we shall be certainly visited with God's displeasure, and with deserved humiliation. But if we feel our dependence on Divine aid, give God glory for the great things he has done for us, and address ourselves in a right spirit to the work of a Church of Christ in this land, we shall see enough in ourselves, and in the desolation around us, to emphasize the caution to the angel of the Church at Sardis, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die."—Rev. iii. 2.

The measure of the strength of a machine is the strength of its weakest part. It is prudent for a besieged city to look to its defences where the line is most easily penetrable. And it is wise for a church to make good any position which it is right to hold, preparatory to successful aggressive effort. There is a charm about a new thing to many minds. It is all too common to quit the old spheres and relieve the monotony of labor by seeking fresh fields of exertion. The lines may thus be widely extended without any absolute gain. To

cultivate a country is not to rush across it, here burning

a wood, and there making a corduroy road over a swamp. When men steadily, persistently, and on a definite plan, sit down on the land, root out its trees, fence it in, and cultivate it, till its valleys are cov ered with corn and its hills with cattle, they are really ruling over and subduing it. And on such a course, though less striking to the imagination than the movement that sweeps along like a prairie-fire, ought the Presbyterian Church to enter if she is to win in years to come the Master's commendation, "I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first." Rev. ii. 19.

The cities of America are permitted to exercise an immense influence. The agricultural districts of every country are slower in movement than the cities. From great cities smaller towns take their cue; from these, again, the villages; and from the villages the purely rural population. What an immense power is radiating from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and many other centres only distinguished from these by their areas of influence being less extended. It ought to be among the first objects of the united Church to strengthen itself in the great cities. Apostolic practice, the later history of the Church, the deductions of common sense, and the peculiar circumstances of America, all point to this. If we be strong in the cities, we shall be strong in the land. If we be feeble where people most do congregate, where mind is most active and vig orous, where thought is soonest and most loudly uttered, we must resign into other and abler hands the work of evangelizing the land. The Church that holds the

great cities will control the religious character of the country.

In some of these, our Church is already strong, relatively. In some she is almost unknown. And in some she must be content to remain unknown. To expect missionary effort to be made from without for setting up Presbyterianism in New England towns, for example, is in the highest degree absurd. There are certain laws of life which must be respected in the growth of churches, as in the growth of any societies composed of human beings, and which you cannot control by any forcing agency with advantage. A congregation "got up "in a place by external zeal is usually a poor, sickly, hothouse plant, drooping under every unfavorable change. "Behold, I am at the point to die," is its frequent cry, "and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" There is no wisdom in forwarding these artificial "erections." But when the people of a locality, looking around, and seeing how well a system works elsewhere, set up among themselves an organization, and maintain it as a thing of their own, there is hope; for there is natural and healthy growth. The plant is racy of the soil. It does not need the nursing demanded by an exotic. It has not to overcome the prejudice with which an intrusive stranger is apt to be regarded. Its existence is its justification. Its progress is an argument for sympathy, and its success is a plea for a second like unto it. And so the work of healthy and useful church extension ad

vances.

But how are our existing possessions to acquire that attractive appearance?

1. In many places there is need for wise amalgama

tion. Of what use can it be to maintain two feeble churches in a district which has seen its best days, when one would serve all the objects of a church? Union would set one man free for ministerial work elsewhere, and would secure employment and adequate maintenance for the other. That there is a second building is of no real consequence. Buildings and organizations are for men, not men for them. There is no indelibility about the sanctity of a church edifice; when it ceases to be what it was intended, its work is done. No mercantile firm that could move would remain in a region from which trade had disappeared simply because they owned a house. And the children of light ought to be no less wise than the children of this world.

2. There has been some waste of power in many of our cities and towns from the misplacing of congregations and mission stations. Sometimes this arose from the ignorance which comes from want of concert and consultation. Sometimes, one fears, there was too much eagerness to push denominational interests to permit dispassionate examination of collateral questions. It would be easy enough to have Presbyteries survey the cities and towns within their bounds, and so far as new churches and mission stations are concerned, distribute their resources to the utmost advantage, so as to secure as near an approach as possible to the territorial system. To give to each congregation that undertakes aggressive work a definite district for which, in Christian honor, it should be held responsible, would be an immense gain. There is, on the present plan, a great discouragement in the apparently unmanageable character of the undefined regions in which evangelistic