PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD.

Otago Witness, Issue 1417, 18 January 1879, Page 10

PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD.

The sessioa of the Presbyterisn Synod of Otago and Southland w.is opened on Tuesday evening in the First Church. Proceedings began with divine worship, the retiring Moderator (the Rev. J. Clark) eccnying the pulpit, and delivering aa excel'eut discourse from 2nd Corinthians, chapter v., verse 25. INDUCTION OV MODERATOR. The service being concluded, the retiring Moderator thanked the Synod for the honour done him in electing him to the office, and for the courtesy and consideration shown to him during the past session. He then nominated as his 'successor the Rev. Dr Copland, of North Dunedin. The nomination was received with applause, and Dr Copland was formally inducted to the ohair. moderator's address. The Rev. Moderator then delivered the following addresB :— Fathers and Brethren, — In acceding to your call to occupy the position of Moderator of this Synod, the highest Court of our Church, I beg to tender you my sincere thanks for the great honour you have conferred on me. Relying on your kindly forbearance and support, which you have alwayß accorded to my predecessors in this office, I will endeavour, to the best of my power, to disoharge its duties with faithfulness and impartiality On the occasion of this, the annual assembly of the representatives of our whole Church, we have reason to express our deep thankfulness to God that since our last meeting the ranks of our ministers have been left unbroken by death. There have been changes in the pastoral relationships of some of our congregations, as might naturally be expect* d ; but ohese, we have reaßon to hope, will prove arhunra^eouß both to the*ministers and the congregations. I may be permitted to refer to the loss which our Synod has sustained by the removal to another sphere of one who lately

filled this office — whose habitual courtesy to all, whose ripe wisdom in counsel, and devoted zeal and liberality in the promotion of every Christian work, gained the reßpect and affection of the members of this Court — the Rev. Mr Gow. Feeling the infirmities of advancing years creeping upon him, he deemed it wise to give up the onerous duties and anxieties of a city charge and retire to a more limited sphere in a distant part of the country. I feel sure that I express your sentiments in saying that our wishes aad prayers will follow him for his continued usefulness and happiness in the evening of life. He has lefb behind him here the evidence of his zeal for the spiritual benefit of the rising generation in the scheme, which he inaugurated and carried on successfully, foe supplying libraries and periodical religious literature to our Sabbath-sohools, and improving the efficiency of these institutions that are now felt to be increasingly important. While there is much to excite our thankfulness in our great privileges and abundant opportunities of usefulness as a Church, it cannot be denied that there are many grounds of anxiety and discouragement which should on such an occasion as this receive our attentive consideration. We have reason to feel that intense worldliness is a besetting sin to Which colonists are peculiarly exposed, and the Church of Christ in all its branches must grapple with this evil. It has laid its withering hand on many who, in their early days in the Home Country, had taken deep interest in religion, and, in consequence, they are seldom found in the sanctuary on the Lord's Day, or, if they give occasional attendance, take little interest, and render little active help in the work which is demanded by Christ at the hands of everyone who professes His r»ame. The Sabbath rest, which ha 9 yielded incalculable benefits to the weary sons of toil in every land where it is preserved in its entirety, is exposed in this land to serious encroachments, which reduce the life of m'aDy engaged in our railways and coasting steamers to a state of weariness and bondage for which no justifiable ground can be shown. It cannot escape notice, too, that infidelity rears its unblushing front in a manner which gives an unenviable prominence to this city among the various cities of this Colony. No doubt, the number of professed infidels, secularists, sceptics, agnostics,, or whatever other name they choose to take to themselves, is comparatively small, and the notice which they endeavour to attract is in the inverse ratio of their significance. Bufc as even water, by continual dropping, makes, in time, a lasting impression on the hard rock, it is desirable to stop the stream. The source from which it flows is the unclean heart of unconverted man, and the only means by which its bitterness and corroding power can be taken away is that devised by God's wisdom revealed in the Gospel. When the poisonous herbs which were put into the mess of pottage in the days of Elisha were likely to work death in those who tasted it, the Prophet commanded the young men to cast into it a handful of meal, and forthwith its deadly nature was destroyed. In like manner the effectual antidote for the corrupt and venomous waters of infidelity is the spiritual manna brought from heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ ; and the sons of the prophets are now required to administer it in the confident expectation that it will neutralise the poison. Its efficacy has been proved by its overcoming the spell of the gorgeous allegories and mystic subtleties of the Oriental sages, by the victories it has achieved in the hearts of those who were exercised in the materialistic doctrines of the early Greek philosophy, and by its resurrection power in the lives of those who were steeped in the corruption of Corinthian licentiousness. In all ages it has encountered and overcome infidelity in all its Protean manifestations ; and it will still reveal its divine efficacy in rescuing those who are now liable to be cast into tbe bathos of the coarsest materialism which now stalks forth before the ga^e of men, clothed in the panoply of a pretentious and pseudoscientific jargon. The divine power which caused the pebble from the brook, elnng by the shepherd lad, to pierce the forehead of the Philistine giant, will now rout the hordes that defy the army of the living God. — (Applause.) While prosecuting our high vocation in declaring the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the assaults to which we are exposed are of many diverse kinds. Some have endeavoured to cast uncertainty upon the Holy Scriptures, and in varying degrees and modes of opposition, cairied on frequently under the guise of sincere friends of the Word of God, insinuate such views regarding what is contained in the Scriptures, as would, if believed, cut away all valid claim which they make to receive the faith and obedience of men. Assaults of this nature can only be directly dealt with by those who are equipped with the armour of deep learning and critical acumen, and can devote their lives to this special work. But the results of their painstaking researches, which have fully met the difficulties raised by those who assail the integrity of the Scriptures, should be received and used as weapons of defence by all who are engaged in building the walls of the spiritual Zion, just as the labourers of old held each man a sword in the one hand and with the other applied the trowel to the wall. The special object of attack against which at the present time the most determined efforts are directed, is the conscience of man. Sometimes by means resembling sapping audmining, and occasionally by skirmishers with hand-grenades, whose principal danger is those who throw them, this bulwark of morality and religion is persistently assailed. In the very nature of things, however, it cannot be destroyed. Though from the hnmanheartdepraved by sin proceedeth all onr woe, it yet possesses a monitor of God in the conscience which our Maker has implanted ; and although it is frequently overborne by the violence of evil passion, yet in the lull of the storm it raises its still small voice on behalf of God, and gives unfailing testimony to His message declared out of Sis own word by His faithful servants. "By manifestation of tire truth, we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our Gospel be hid, it ia hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of ' Christ, who is the image of God,

should shine unto them." The force of such response from the human conscience to the declarations of God's Word has been observed by those who seek to overthrow God's authority, and in these recent days especially, attempts have been made to persuade men that its alleged and universally-admitted authority is a mere delusion. The long associations which have been formed in men's thoughts between certain courses of action and the consequences to which they have been observed to lead, have acquired such strength, it ia alleged, as readily to excite the feeling of approval and pleasure in the one case, and of disappointment and pain in the other, on the appearance of the kind of action with which it was formerly connected. Under the tutelage of parents this process has begun in the earliest period of life, ie has been confirmed by' the experience gained under the discipline of school, and in maturer years the authority of the rulers of the land has still further deepened the associations of approval and of disapproval in connection with particular kinds of conduct. On such principles, it is held by some, the dictates of conscience are readily explained. It is therefore assumed that if the particular kinds of conduct that have become associated with pleasure and approval had been reversed, we should have found that which men call their conscience testifying exactly the reverse of what it now does Such an attempt to explain away the authority of the conscience is readily seen to be futile, by the appearance of such strong feelings of approval of honesty and disapproval of the opposite at an age so early as to preclude the thought that it could have been due to the strength of long- continued association. Moreover, under the very varied circumstances of the human race in different lands, there has never been discovered any race or tribe ef men in which the dictates of conscience have ever been presented in a form the reverse of those with | which we are familiar. Varieties and perversions, no doubt, there have been, which can be sufficiently explained in accordance with the view that there are fixed moral dictates implanted by God in the human conscience j but the history of man has never presented an instance of any race in which the dictates of the conscience were reversed. The force of these objections to such a view has been felt by others to be insurmountable, and they have therefore abandoned it. In order to account for the appearance of moral dictates at an early age, they aver that they have been formed in the minds of their parents or ancestors, and have been received by natural inheritance. This, however, only removes the difficulty of accounting for their origin to an earlier period in the history of the race. It has never been shown that there was at any time since the human race existed the absence of these moral dictates. The question then arises : In what manner were they formed at the first ? It has been declared that their experience fully accounted for it. They have found honesty profitable and pleasurable, and dishonesty the reverse ; and by frequent repetition the association has gained strength. Bat unfortunately the experience of any race of men since the days of primeval innocence has never been so uniform as this supposition assumes. Dishonesty has in all ages been pursued for the very purpose of gaining pleasure or profit, and in the present day such a course is not unknown. It is quite manifest that experience could not fully account for the universal dictates of the conscience. We find experiences in connection with certain actions of a different nature almost uniform, as the pleasure connected with eating and drinking, and the pain felt from being deprived of food or drink. Yet such universal experience has never among any people given rise to feelings of a nature kindred to those which are connected with honesty or dishonesty. These latter are everywhere distinguished as moral, while the feelings of pleasure or pain, arising from merely physical or natural experiences, are regarded as having no moral character. The origin of the idea expressed by the term moral cannot be explained by any of the theories which are founded on experience, either personal or derived by inheritance. Eight and wrong express ideas of a totally different kind ffom those which we designate by pleasurable and painful. Nay, in many cases the two descriptions of conduct — the one which we call moral, and tbe other physical or natural — may be in conflict at the same time in the experience of the same individual, and when this conflict arises, the moral is felt to possess supreme authority ; so that, as has often been experienced by every honeot man, he is willing to endure the pain that may be caused by the merely physical or natural action, in order that the approval of conscience may be gained. Nor is it a balancing of the degrees of pain which may arise from the disobeying of the dictates of conscience on the one hand, and the pain which may be experienced from the physical conduct on the other. It is universally felt that there is no possibility of comparison between them. They are incompatible. The dictates of conscience assert themselves as supreme, no matter whether the physical pain derived from the conduct demanded by them be trifling or intense. The univeral recognition of the idea of morality and the supreme authority of conscience can only be adequately explained by the recognition that the same God whose finger wrote the law universally accepted by men on the two tables of stone at Mount Sinai, wrote His law in the heart of man at the beginning. As to the degree of minuteness with which that law has been imprinted by God on the heart, there may be room for difference of opinion ; but the great fact that the existence of God and our responsibility to Him as our Lawgiver has been indelibly written on the heart of man, stands forth as affording by its own voice, uttered in the faith and conduct of men, an ample refutation of the elaborate and arrogant attempts that have been made to deny to the conscience any authority which should command our obedience. Undisturbed therefore by these vain assaults — notwithstanding the profuse display by some writers of physiological considerations arrayed in support of them (much of which physiology, it may be remarked in passing, is rather speculative than scientific),—unmoved by such opposition, — the preachers of the Gospel have the strongest ground of confidence in presenting God's me&Bsage to men, in the f Act that, if faithfully proclaimed, it will find an echo de«

daring its truth in the hearts of all whov intelligently listen to it. The specious delusions of false philosophy may with some exert a baneful influence for a time, by keeping them from considering the Word of God which is brought before them, but by faithful and repeated presentation it will act like the hammer on the flinty rock, and break through the outer crust of worldly wisdom and conceit, and lead the awakened conscience to recognise the Spirit of God addressing him through the revealed Word, so that he will say: "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." God has promised that His word shall not return to Him void, but accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing wheretc. He has sent it. The Holy Spirit willexercic r Hia quickening aud enlightening power Ie connection with His gracious Word, \ and renew and sanctify the heart, so that the fruits of righteousness shall abound. At the present time the noble work committed to Christ's ministers, of commending the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God, is pre eminently required. The most powereful instrumentalities which the world possesses for influencing the feelings and* conduct of men are in many quarters vigorously used for the purpose of bringing men under the tyranny of so-called Secularism — which, being interpreted by the words and actions of some in authority, means the domination of the world and the exclusion of God. The common schools, the colleges, the many channels of influence^ afforded by the Press, and the powerful^ authority of legislation are sought by manjr to be used in such ways as may quench, the light of God's Word, and silence the \ oice of man's conscience, and destroy God's authority among men, and reduce the moral world; into a state of chaos, where darkness shall brood over the mighty deep of the humansoul. Let us, as watchmen on Zion's tower, recognising the danger, employ diligently the means by which alone it can be arertedL The Gospel of Christ supplies the true, armoury whereby we may resist the foe. If it be faithfully proclaimed, and its principles fearlessly asserted in all their length, and breadth as applicable to the circumstances of every age and country,, we may cherish the assurance that it shall triumph over every obstacle, that GodV authority shall be acknowledged as paramount, that Christ shall be welcomed as the Saviour of Binners and the desire of all nations, and that men shall be blessed in ' Him, and all nations call Him blessed. The time may be still far off when that result i shall be fully accomplished, but already the day ia breaking, and the clouds that now darken the horizon shall be scattered, and the sun of righteousness diffuse the splendour of its healing beams over the universal I. family of man. — (Lsud applause.) ROLL OF MEMBEES. The Clerk of Synod (Rev. W. Bannermen) read the following roll of members : — Presbytery of Dunedin — Miuisters : Rev. W., • Will, Wm. Johnstone, Dr Stuart, M. Watt, A. Greig, Dr Copland, J. M. Sutherland,, L. Mackie, J. Kirkland, J. N. Rußsell, A., M. Finlayson, C. S. Ross, Prof. Salmonct Elders : Messrs Henry Purvis, Capt Thomson, Arthur Scoullar, James Runciman, Wl Allen, Wm. Hutton, John Paterson, John* Gillies, Alex. Chisholna, John Cameron* Robt. Crawford, W. S. Fitzgerald. Presbyterj of Clutha— Ministers : Rev. W. Baaman, Hugh Cowie, J. M. Allan, J. • Waters, R. Telford, 0. Connor, J. Chisholm, J.. M'Ara, A, Bett, D. Borrie, J. Skinner. Elders : Messrs P. Johnston, Alwx. M'Nicol, Wm, Smith, John Johnston, Robt. M'Kay, Jas. Taylor, James E. Brown, T. T. Ritchie, J. Reid, Wm, Duff. Presbytery 'of Southland — Ministers : Rev. A. H. Stobo, Tl Alexander, A. Stevens, R. C. Morrison, D". Ross, J. Henry, J. G. Paterson, J. M. Davidson, R. Ewen, J. Cameron. Eiders = Messrs A. Bathnne, Thos. Carswell. Presbytery of Oamaru — Ministers : Rev. A. BL Todd, J. Christie, J. Clark, J. Ryley, J., Baird, J. M'Josh Smith, J. Steven, J. H.. Cameron. Elders : Messrs H. Allan, Johxr Duncan, A, C. Begg, Alex. Rennie, E. B_ Cargill, Geo. Strachan, R. Jackson. ELECTION OF COMMITTEES, ETC. The usual committees were elected, and other routine business transacted. The hours of meeting were agreed to be similar to those of last year — namely, morning sederunt, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ; eveuiag; sederunt, 6 30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. VISITIN& MEMBERS. The Rev. Dr Stuart moved— « That the- ' Rev. Mr Gillies, of Timaru, being present*, be associated with the Synod ;" and The Moderator, in the name of that Synod, extended a hearty welcome to Mr. Gillies. The Clerk read a communication from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, appointing the Rev. J. W. Inglis deputy of auoh Assembly a* tbe Synod's meeting, and introduced the Rev. Mr Inglis to tbe Synod. The Moderator welcomed Mr Inglis, and expressed the pleasure the Synod felt at bis presence ; and on the motion of tbe Rev. Mr Bannerman it was agreed to hear Mr Inglis 1 ;. address to the Synod during next day's fo«^ noon sederant. NOtICES 01? MOTION. The following notices of motion were read : — By Mr Will : " That when the proposed! new chair comes up for the coasideration o£ the Synod, I will move that English Literature and Rhetoric shall be assigned to this chair, as recommended by the Kirk Session of East Taieri." By Mr Bannerman: "That with the view of furthering the interests of educations throughout the bounds, and securing more fully the original purpose of the education fund belonging to this Church, the Synod delay the institution of a new chair and take the necessary steps towards obtaining ate amendment of the Presbyterian Churcbt Lands Act, 1866, to the effect that tha Synod may be relieved from applying sayf fund towards instituting and supporting^ 1 second chair in the University of Otago, *"'•; be empowered to devote said fund for ffi payment of bursaries, as far as it will all<^»to pupils of either sex, from the High ad I District Schools of the Otago and Southland Education Districts who shall enter the University of Otago, having passed the matriculation examination of said University ; ancE* further, that power be obtained, in the events of the chair presently endowed by tbe Sjnodt

becoming vacant, and the University Council not acceding to its continuanoe, that the portion of the fund now applied towards its support be devoted to the increase of the number of bursaries, and the giving of a bonus to such teachers whose pupils shall be the successful winners of the bursaries." By Mr Ryltzy : " That the regulations passed as an Interim Act of Synod ou the 16th day of January, 1878, be now finally passed and adopted by the Synod, with the alteration that the words contained in the second line of the first regulation — namely, 1 or such other professor '—be omitted." ADJOURNMENT. The Synod then adjourned till 11 o'clock the following morning.