Beloved Brethren in the Lord, - Called by your love and confidence, I, to-day, occupy a position, to me the highest and most honoured I could hold, viz., that of presiding over the deliberations of my brethren in Annual Conference assembled. When, in 1887, I first attended this yearly meeting, then assembled in the city of Glasgow, I was much impressed with the true Christian bearing of my brethren one towards the other. From then till now I have had the privilege, with about two exceptions, of being present at all these annual assemblies; and they have ever been to me seasons of much profit spiritually and educationally, and of true intercourse with fellow-workers. This year I come to the meeting with feelings such as never possessed me before: feelings of real timidity and unfitness, and yet with the confidence that my brethren, who have so honoured me, as to call me to this chair, will lovingly help me to bear the honour and carry out the work they have thus laid upon me. I have no idea that feelings constitute no part of our religion, but believe that right feelings with respect to duty, are indispensable to the real performance of all our duty.

Our prayer is that oneness of mind and true Christian love and forbearance may characterise our proceedings during this conference. May we study to effectually avoid everything that would tend to offence; at the same time developing in all that is said and done that noble independence of mind which illustrates the force of the Scripture dedication: "If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

I wish to address you, brethren, on "Our Position in the Religious World: Some of its Problems and Personal Requirements."

The profession we have made and the position we occupy religiously are big with importance and fearful accountability, both with regard to ourselves and others. The Reformation with which we stand identified took its rise in the expressed will of Christ; this will being the supreme law of both doctrine and practice. Consequently our work is both doctrinal and practical; it consists in holding precisely and only what is taught in the Word of God, and in founding our practice thereupon. Then the final end to which we look is a complete return to Primitive Christianity, in doctrine, in practice, and in spirit. The strong positive element in our work is the determining will of the Christ; and our work is of a double character - constructive and destructive - designed to build up the body of Christ as well as to correct error. In the progress of this great movement it cannot be denied that much has already been accomplished. Whatever may be urged from the paucity of our numbers, or from the fact that in our own ranks differences of thought obtain, or from the continued existence of sects and parties, certain it is that the principles of our plea and movement has been triumphantly established - that the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures as a basis of Christian union and as the standard of Divine truth has been nobly vindicated and experimentally demonstrated. Now, for the successful continuance of our work two things are needed:-

1. A deep-laid conviction of the truth of our principles;

2. A sublime faith in the God of truth and love.

We must ever remember the position and power of the Church of Christ. First, she is a spiritual body, composed of living, active, loving members; in the world, but not of it. Secondly, we must, at all costs, retain the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and retain it in its purity. This is no time for speculation, nor for any side-issues. Thirdly, the strength of the Church lies in her purity: this is her true distinctive character. Let the world see it and mark the difference. It is a living faith we need: a faith that clothes Christ's words with reality and makes them, as it were, a tangible basis of action. The essential principles and truths of Christianity are the same to-day as when they

were first uttered; but the application of these may and will vary from age to age, according to the problems that characterise the age.

The rising generation knows but little, if anything, of the toils and sacrifices of their fathers who initiated this grand movement for the restoration of Primitive Christianity. We beg them, therefore, to count the price that has been paid. But our young men are face to face with their own peculiar problems, and we desire to offer them words of counsel and encouragement on these things.

Before so doing, however, let us all realise that the only power on earth that makes war against pride, intolerance, and persecution is the pure, original, apostolic Gospel of the Christ. No one who has drunk deeply at that fountain can ever thirst for the objects of merely human ambition. Also remember that in the establishment of Christianity the apostles spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The evangelical facts, beginning with the very first - the incarnation, the conception of a virgin by the power of God, the birth. the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and the coronation of Jesus, together with the supernatural descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as well as His gifts richly distributed to the apostles, and by them to others - were subjects of ancient prophecy, and were confirmed by miracle. Prophecy and miracle are God's sign-manual to the truth of the Gospel. Where this handwriting, this security, and infallible warrant and demonstration is wanting, no man is under any obligation to believe. The New Testament contains the faith "once for all delivered to the saints:" demonstrated and proved true, not by Augustine or John Calvin, but "by signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit." This faith is as pure as the breath of God, and as fresh and regenerating as when it fell from the lips and pens of the apostles. This is the sovereign remedy for all the maladies of Christendom, and of the world outside. The Word of God can cure every disease caught from the pestilent city of Rome, papal or pagan.

But we are men as well as Christians: inhabitants of the earth as well as citizens of heaven: under human government as well as under divine: and confronted with modern problems we can neither shirk nor ignore. Complicated

questions are before us daily in our earthly relationships and associations. Some of these we term political, some social; but to the disciple of the Christ the majority of them are moral. In looking at these we clearly perceive certain distinct lines of demarcation; there must be no political combinations for religious purposes, nor religious combinations for political purposes. Church and State are two distinct institutions, and should not be united. "My kingdom is not of this world," said the King. Worldly powers may endow and establish an Anglican church, or any other sectarian body, but never the Church of God in Christ.

Among the many modern problems, we are all interested, and necessarily so, in the SOCIAL QUESTIONS which in these days are clamouring for consideration and solution. At the outset the social problem requires that we think of the character as well as the material circumstances of those concerned. We might learn something from the attitude of the Old Testament prophets towards these questions in their day. We find from such a study of these servants of God:-

1. They had a very real God;

2. They knew Him as a living being.

Their certainty of God was overpowering, and was independent of mere reasoning processes. Their power and authority was in truth itself; not made by them, but master of them: constraining them to service. A study of the prophets on this subject reveals the thought that the ethical centre of gravity of the social problem lies in the highest possible moral culture of the personal life. Hosea, for example, shows that justice alone is not a sufficient foundation for the Jewish nation's weal, but it needs the added requirement of love. Righteousness needs for its completion the loving-kindness which each citizen owes to his fellow-countryman. The loving-kindness of God should and must produce the loving activity of man to man. To-day we shall never solve the social question apart from the workings of watchful love. It is not enough that every man shall have a freehold in the country, and sit under his own vine and fig-tree. The first and last solution the success or failure of which decides all the rest, is the good man, the self-controlled,

firm, pure. Christ-like character, living for and loving his fellow. Hence the Christian's first work and best attention to-day, in seeking to solve the social question will be given to preaching the Gospel, to changing men into Christians first. Then the Christian, as such, is bound by the highest law of the highest court to throw his influence on the moral side of all questions, let the cost be what it may socially, politically, or financially. To the Lord's follower, the housing problem is a moral question before it is a financial one. True! neither Christ nor His apostles said anything about the evils which the Imperialism of their day was inflicting on the material and moral condition of the people. They did not propagate political ideas or social theories; but they established a faith which was certain to produce such changes in the thought and life of mankind as would render these external changes inevitable. The Christian faith set to work at an early date to relieve physical suffering and poverty; and it as necessarily and inevitably proceeds now to prevent the same. The measures necessary to remove our appalling social evils require a courage and self-sacrifice which nothing will create but love to Him who made the poor His brethren. These questions will never he solved until the old enthusiasm of the apostolic church in the cause of the poor gives its fire and force to the movement of social reform; first and constantly by the proclamation of the Gospel, and secondly by the daily application of the Christian principles by each individual Christian in the industrial, commercial, social, and political departments of life.

We are also in the midst of a revolution for weal or woe, in the present education fight. This is a question we can not ignore, and one which demands the most serious consideration and prompt exertions of all good men. The controversy is upon us, and the teachers of Christianity must meet the issue. Mere politicians can never settle this question or accomplish the necessary work. The wrangling and strife and division of sectarian churches have brought about this educational war: and now it is our duty and privilege to present an intelligible attitude on Bible teaching, concerning both matter and manner. We must discern the signs of the times; and this religious agitation of the school question is one of the signs of powerful influences that are

vexed question, viz., that the State shall neither endow nor pay for any religious teaching to either old or young.

Then there is yet another question which forces itself upon us for consideration, viz., The Doctrine of Scripture.

That a change of thought has taken place regarding the Scriptures and their authority since the commencement of our movement is known to all. Then it was sufficient to prove that certain teachings were in the Scriptures, and the subject was virtually settled. To-day we have, even to the man in the street, to demonstrate the position and authority of the Bible. Into what chaos has the doctrine of Scripture fallen in these days, even among Protestants! It is said that when the sixteenth century Reformation took place, the Reformers substituted an infallible Bible for an infallible Pope. Certainly, the Reformers placed the authority of the Bible above that of the interpretation of either individual, church, or council; and we have hitherto contended, and must now more strenuously than ever, in face of modern criticism and doubt, contend that in faith and practice the church derives her authority from the Scriptures; but there is to the Christian an internal evidence, far more valuable than all the philosophical arguments which encumber the library shelves of the learned. The disciple finds on reflection that the system of Christianity gives him means of subduing his passions and preserving his soul; that the Bible description of the carnal mind is a portraiture by a divine hand; and that the motives of the Gospel bear the impress of divinity. Here is proof that the sacred book lays open, by divine inspiration, the by-paths, labyrinths, and hidden springs of the human heart; and by the same inspiration shows that it can, and how it can, be made a dwelling-place for Deity. And as in some great master's matchless music there runs one idea, worked out through all the changes of measure and key - now almost hidden, now breaking out in rich, natural melody, suggested in the prelude, but growing clearer and clearer as the work proceeds, winding gradually back till it ends in the key in which it began, and closes in triumphant harmony - so throughout the whole Bible there runs one great idea - Man's ruin by sin and his redemption by grace. In a word Jesus the Christ, the Saviour.

The doctrine of inspiration fixes a gulf between the writings of the New Testament and contemporary writings excluded from it ; and there is an elevation of the New Testament writings in their vital connection with the Old Testament. True Christian faith has nothing to fear no interest to serve-by imposing any arbitrary limits on the study of its literary origins. We await with perfect assurance any judgment that may be pronounced from an historical study of the Scriptures, Old and New.

The transition from spiritual tyranny to the glorious liberty of truth must of necessity be a slow and tedious process. But a· man cannot be governed by moral philosophy: he must. feel the weight of Divine authority embodied in the solemn form of law, and clothed with appropriate sanctions, resting, upon his conscience. There is real and great value in authority; and he who despises the experience of the past proclaims not always his independence, but his ignorance of history. Yet it is often forgotten that all is not venerable which is old. The mere fact of antiquity and alleged authority sets no man free from the responsibilities of individual judgment. No man can be justified to-day by merely living in accordance with the knowledge he had yesterday. The ratio of piety is the ratio of conformity to the revealed will of God; and in our knowledge and realisation of the New Testament church there is yet room for growth. Custom applies to the present as well as the past. There are so many respectable people who have never Personally decided for and surrendered to the Christ, that to talk of "one way" of becoming children of God seems to some presumptuous. Yet it is needed that we hold by the law of our God. Law deals not in custom, vague feelings of hopefulness, and a general sense of well-being. Law deals in evidence and facts, and so produces certainty and peace.

A word may now be said on our personal requirements in our advocacy. We must be neither compromising nor loveless. Our age has its subtle tendencies, as all past ages have had. Men talk loudly about freedom of thought. But what is it? Correct thinking allows no license of thought. The whole field for freedom is confined within the terms of a syllogism. The liberty of deducing correct conclusions from premises, either self-evident or proved beyond doubt,

is what there is, and all there is, in true free thought. To start at a fixed point and go three steps without the liberty of choosing either the point or the direction is the sum of freedom in reasoning. "Free" and "liberal," in the modern sense of the words, cannot with any propriety be applied to truth. Truth is exact and severe: the deductions of reason are precise and imperative. Whether we perceive them or not, the outlines of truth are sharply defined. There is nothing flexible or yielding or accommodating in the domain of truth. Never forget, however, that in any battle for truth there is need of care that love be not sacrificed at the shrine of zeal. It is not the mere knowing more than others which makes a man a more useful or acceptable follower of the Saviour. Orthodoxy of heart is urgently needed, as well as orthodoxy of creed.

It is truly said that "in union there is strength;" but it is a fault of our times that we accustom ourselves to look away altogether from our personal efforts in the work of converting our fellows to the supposed greater efficiency of aggregate movements. We are too apt to lose sight of what is required of ourselves individually in our anxiety to push forward what others seem to be doing. But there is in Christ an empire of individuality and an empire of unity. Let there be no abuse of either of these; for too much license to the individual to do and say as he likes produces sectarianism, while absolute subordination of the individual to the society spells Popery. Our day is remarkable for its acknowledgement and application of the power of union; of co-operation as better than individual effort. When any number of men engage in any great work, unity of purpose and of action is indispensable to success. We are engaged in a great work - the greatest of all works; we are endeavouring to unite God's scattered children by elevating the Bible to its proper position in the minds and hearts of our fellow-men; and if ever the restoration of Primitive Christianity triumphs over opposition - and triumph it will - it will be through the unity of its advocates. There can be no body of Christ anywhere, under any circumstances, unless unity is the conspicuous element in it. The body of the Christ has a commanding influence, both in the polity with which it is endowed, and in the unity which is its life's blood. We must permit no change in the Church which

will endanger that unity. Against changes in religion there exists in the ordinary mind a prejudice; but in relation to the Church this prejudice against change is strengthened and made doubly salutary when we consider that she is of Divine origin. Of the Church we may say:-

Ours is one of the noblest brotherhoods the sun has ever shone upon. Within the hands of this brotherhood, and within their hands only, is kept the cause which is the last hope of earth. And the brain and voice of living men are the great chief instruments for carrying this cause forward. The great means ordained by Christ for spreading the truth is indisputably the living human voice. To this in point of effectiveness the first rank must be assigned. It can neither be superseded nor excelled. The great cause we plead needs the aid of preachers high in purpose, sound in the faith, and firm in will. These are the men to stand sentinels now. Let not the fear of making parsons keep us from having preachers. If callings are to be estimated by the results they yield, then is preaching the first calling on earth; and consequently the work should be done in the most perfect manner possible. We want preachers, especially in all our great centres of population, with a fine sense, an active mind, and the power of concentrated, persistent thought. Our Gospel discourses should be good in matter, style, and spirit: while above and beyond all we need a tenacious faith in our plea.

There has not been since the days of Christ and His apostles so important and glorious a contest as that between the current Reformation and the religious world. The issue is between the old Christianity and the great apostasy developed in many forms and varieties. The question is, Shall we have Christianity according to human reasoning, or according to Divine inspiration? Now, God has put great honour upon us in calling us to this great Restoration

work. We appeal to all God-fearing, Christ-loving men and women everywhere to keep His ordinances and commandments blamelessly, walking therein continually. The Lord Jesus Christ has given His people ordinances, in order that their minds may be carried back to FACTS that have transpired in the past. These are the foundation facts of the Gospel, and form the solid basis on which our hopes and our salvation depend. The strength of our fathers lay in the tenacity of their faith in these facts, centreing in and revolving around a living Christ. Our fathers' sons need their fathers' faith. That there are dangers and difficulties ahead no observant man will deny. But let us flee from no danger without having faced it; and let us exaggerate no danger, for all such exaggeration tends to discouragement. Never let our caution spell mistrust of our great Captain. To all true men experience worketh hope rather than distrust. It is the policy of the enemy to create doubt and fear in the hearts of the oncoming army when all else fails; but, beloved brethren, fear not, it is your Father's good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. Courage, then, ye soldiers of the Cross! The battle is fierce and long: but the victory is certain. Watch ye, therefore, for -

The doctrine of crucified love has triumphed over man; has been almighty through God; has regenerated and captivated our hearts. And this is still the sacred influence which the Most High wields against moral evil, and by which He is expelling it from the human soul. Brethren, go forward with this mighty plea! The glorious truths of our charter must he told forth in unwavering tones. The way of the future lies in moving towards the heights that lie in front. not in harking back to the valleys behind. The

faith of to-day must insist on the significance of to-morrow. And with all the fervency of a message originating in Heaven, our work is to be engaged in heralding the Gospel of the Redeemer, never halting to argue either philosophically or ecclesiastically whether all the world will be converted or whether one in a million will be saved. Our business is to separate heavenly realities from earthly corruptions, pressing the truth in the love of it upon men; and not attempt to estimate how many will receive or reject the Lord Jesus Christ.

When all the teachable men are called out. of any sect into the liberty of the New Testament, there is good reason to believe that sect will speedily die; but the how is of slight moment to any man who believes in and works under the one Lord. Assured of victory, we can leave to God the rate of progress, while we