RESOLUTIONS RE JESUITS' ESTATES ACT.

The REV. DR. BURNS, convener of the Committee appointed to prepare Resolutions re Jesuits' Estates Act, brought in the Report of the Committee, recommending the adoption of e following resolutions by the Alliance:

1. "The Evangelical Alliance in Conference assembled, representing the various Protestant denominations throughout the Dominion, avails itself of the present opportunity to record its decided disapproval of the recent legislative action in the Province of Quebec, in appropriating to the Society of Jesus the sum of four hundred thousand dollars, taken out of the funds which came into the public exchequer, over one hundred years ago, and have hitherto been available for the purposes of general education, throughout the Province, without respect to creed or nationality.

2. "This Alliance is of opinion that the Provincial Legislature by previously investing with corporate powers this long defunct order, whose career has been so inimical to the best interests of mankind, and which all civilized people (Roman Catholics included) have united in condemning and expelling, and by now endowing this order with public funds, has adopted a course prejudicial to civil and religious liberty, and in a mixed community like ours, calculated to entail consequences, which it is most desirable to avoid.

3. “This Alliance is likewise of opinion that the Society of Jesus being confessedly a religious organization, its endowment in this way, is at variance with those principles of religious equality, now happily established in this Dominion.

4. "This Alliance, while fully recognizing the right of the Protestant minority to its full share of the public funds for educational purposes, cordially sympathizes with our brethren of the Province of Quebec, who distinctly repudiate, as a part of this arrangement with the Society of Jesus, the appropriation of sixty thousand dollars to the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction.

5. 'This Alliance would also strongly protest against those provisions of the Jesuits' Estates Act, which make the distribution of the public money of the Province dependent upon the will of the Pope, and agreements of the Government with any society, under the Queen's Government, subject to his ratification.

6. "The Evangelical Alliance hereby remits to its Executive Committee to take such steps in the premises, at its earliest convenience, and as to its wisdom may seem meet, in order to give practical effect to the foregoing deliverance."*

The above Report was unanimously adopted by the Alliance. The meeting adjourned with the Benediction.

The petition prepared by the Executive and forwarded to the Governor-General, in Council, praying that the Jesuits' Estates Act be disallowed, will be found in the Appendix.

THURSDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 1888.

EVENING SESSION.

The last meeting of the Conference assembled at 8 o'clock, on Thursday evening.

HON. SENATOR MACDONALD, President of the Alliance, occupied the chair, in the absence of the HON. S. H. BLAKE, Q.C., of Toronto, whose name was on the programme to fill the position.

The hymn,

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun

Does his successive journeys run."

REV. W. J. CROTHERS, M.A., of Ottawa, led in prayer.

TOPIC: THE CHURCH IN ITS RELATION TO THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD.

CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS.

HON. SENATOR MACDONALD, Toronto.

I must congratulate this audience on the distinguished delegates present from the United States. After all the bluster and folly of politicians on both sides of the line, I believe that a leaven of righteousness remains in both countries sufficient to secure for ever peaceful relations. An heroic and eloquent missionary from India is also present. The subject to be discussed is, "The Church in its Relation to the Evangelization of the World." The subject is as important as it is large I dare not think of the Divine in any way that would limit His power. The Church must, however, evangelize the world with the living voice of living man proclaiming a living Gospel. The Church has been doing this for the last eighteen centuries, and notably for the last one hundred years. Opponents of mission work taunt the Church that nevertheless there are 3,000,000 more heathen to-day than a century ago. There is, however, no cause for discouragement for

the true Christian; for God's promise is, that "every valley shall be filled and rough places made smooth." It is always the duty of the Church to say, "Go forward." All the people who don't want to give, and are ready to find excuse, should receive the answer, "Let us go up and take the city, for we are well able.” That great missionary, the Rev. Dr. Duff, speaking at Toronto some years ago, said, "I don't say to you, give something and you will never miss it. If you don't miss it, keep it." I believe that if that had been the standard of giving to missionary work the world would have been converted long ago. I doubt whether any but the poorest people have felt what they are giving. If the rich gave in the same proportion as the poor, the increase would be marvellous. It is said of the sainted Dr. Geddes that he had visited a region where there were no Christians, and when he left there were no pagans. It appeared certain that hundreds of church members had really never been born again, and without that second birth no man could understand the full missionary spirit.

HOME BENEFITS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS.

REV. S. J. MACPHERSON, D.D., CHICAGO.

It is a familiar injunction of our blessed Lord "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." In this royal commission are imbedded three foundation principles of church life and growth.—

I. The Church is constitutionally missionary. It is the same foe that must be fought at home and abroad, the radical heathenism of sin. It is the same goal that must everywhere be sought, the reclaiming of lost men to God. It is the same Gospel that must uniformly be preached,-" repentance and remission of sins" in the name of the Crucified. Every man, even though he be a Christian, is a heathen just as far as he is a sinner. Every church, however rich and cultured, is a mission station just as far as it is faithful to its divine charter. Every preacher, whatever gifts or favors he may enjoy, is a missionary just so far as he follows Paul and Christ.

2. There is no essential difference between the home work and the foreign work as to either our moral liability or its intrinsic character. If we perceive hedge or fence between these

two portions of the vineyard, it is artificial and not normal. It is merely nominal, for convenience of description; or else technical, for ease of administration. Division of labor may promote promptness and efficiency; but any aggrandizement of either department at the expense of the other, is an exhibition of fanatical zeal and ruinous rivalry, a sinful mangling of the individual body of Christ.

3. The field is the undivided world of all nations, and only the starting-point is our own dwelling-place. Our primary duty as evangelists lies at our very doors, but our final obligations and our vital interests include " every creature." Selfishness is quite as fatal in the Church as in the world. The Church is a single vast and sensitive organism, which thrills with universal sympathies to its remotest extremities. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Ecclesiastical isolation means spiritual stagnation. There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. On the other hand, "The liberal soul, shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself."

According to these principles and promises, we ought to expect great benefits at home from mission enterprise abroad. Nor are these returns far to seek. They come to us in every sphere of civilized life, commercial, intellectual, moral and spiritual, and they come in larger and larger richness as the spheres grow higher and higher. Suppose that we cull scattering illustrations of this truth.

We may begin with the lowest rung of the ladder and consider, for a moment, the commercial benefits of foreign missions. Your great British Empire, on which the sun never sets, receives, it is credibly affirmed, £10 in return for every £1 expended in mission work. I am convinced that the ratio of cash gains is even larger both here and throughout Christendom.

Find the first illustrations in the Dark Continent. Immense business enterprises, inaugurated by Mr. Stanley in the Congo country, have been enlisting the competitive scrutiny of several European nations. But who was Mr. Stanley? An obscure newspaper reporter, who suddenly became famous the world. over by his admirable success in bringing back within sight of man that grand old missionary hero, Livingstone. What sent Mr. Stanley on his errand? Simply the New York Herald's nose for news" and trained instinct for a sensational advertisement. That journal was wise enough to take advantage of humanity's intense interest in a missionary-an interest which

would have been impossible a century earlier. Accordingly, through the often despised agency of missions, a whole new world of wealth dawned upon the vision of commerce, to render every great business centre gluttonous with hope.

As much as fifteen years ago, the American ploughs sold among the Zulus of South Africa brought enough money to sustain the American Mission among them. Yet the first American missionaries had gone there, less than a dozen years before, to find that all the tilled soil was broken up with "clumsy picks and hoes" in the hands of native women. Christianity, as usual, not only emancipated down-trodden womanhood from lazy brutes of men, but turned the desert into a fruitful field and opened a market for farm implements, cooking utensils, household furniture, clothing, and a thousand other manufactured articles.

The world, you know, notwithstanding the grape-sugar industry, still gets large annual sums out of sorghum. Yet as a source of sugars and syrups, sorghum is said to have been first brought to the attention of the world, in 1854, by Mr. Wilder, a missionary to these same Zulus. The home benefits of this Chinese sugar cane alone have largely reimbursed us for our outlays on foreign missions. Indeed, everybody that eats sweet cakes, ice-creams and candies, is in debt to foreign missions for the cheapness of these luxuries.

Asia has the same story to tell. I well remember my surprise when in coming over Mount Lebanon, in a diligence, I saw two American ships lying in the harbour of Beyrout. I asked the driver why they were there. He replied, that they had brought cargoes of kerosene oil. Then I recollected that even in the hamlets of Syria, one sees American lamps burning American oil, which, Dr. Jessup afterwards told me, had been first introduced among the people by the direct influence of a missionary. This may be an unexpected kind of light for missionaries to shed, but it ought, at least, to reveal the debt which our Standard Oil Company owes foreign missions. It is as the Rev. Henry Morden, of Central Turkey, says: "No contact with western civilization has ever roused the Oriental from his apathy, but when his heart is warmed by Gospel truth, his mind awakes, and he wants a clock, a book, a glass window and a flour-mill."

It is well known that the Pacific Islands were long the terror of navigators. The dusky islanders liked the tender flavor of a white sailor. Magellan fell at the Ladrone Islands; Captain Cook was murdered at the Sandwich Islands; the crew of "The Boyd" was massacred at New Zealand. But since missions have occupied these places, hundreds of vessels anchor there in safety,