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the testimony of John the Baptist, and secondly by the resurrection of Christ. The fact of his resurrection, he says, 31st verse, may be proved by those who saw him many days. Having thus established the point that Jesus is the Christ, he says, 'we declare unto you glad tidings, how the promise made unto the fathers, (what promise? why, the promise referred to in the 23d v. that God would raise up a Saviour,) God hath fulfilled unto us, in that he hath raised up Jesus.' There is no allusion here to the resurrection, for the promise to which the apostle had reference, was not that Christ should rise from the dead, but that a Saviour should appear; and of this the second Psalm is a clear prediction. The 34th verse makes this still plainer; for Paul, having announced to the Jews the glad tidings that the Saviour had come, turns to another subject, and says, "But that he raised him from the dead, (as he had asserted v. 30,)-he said on this wise, &c.;" and then goes on to prove that his resurrection was predicted in Ps. xvi. It seems clear, therefore, that verse 33 has no reference to Christ's rising from the dead, and consequently that Ps. ii. 7, is not quoted to prove that point. If this be the correct interpretation of this passage, it of course affords no argument in favor of the opinion that Christ is called the Son of God, on account of his being raised from the dead, and exalted as Messiah.

Such passages as Matt. xvi. 15, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," John i. 49, "Rabbi thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel," do not prove that Son of God, and Christ are synonomous, any more than the expression "Christ, the Saviour of the world" proves that the word Christ means Saviour. They prove simply, what no one denies, that Son of God was a very common appellation for the Messiah among the Jews; but they throw no light on its import or the ground of its application. In the great majority of cases, it is used very much as a proper name, and therefore, such cases prove nothing, one way or the other, as to its meaning.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

WITH

FOREIGN CHURCHES.

WE acknowledge ourselves to be under many obligations to the stated Clerk of the General Assembly, for the manner in which he has prepared and published the Minutes of that body, for the present year as well as for several that are past. Although it does not fall within our immediate purpose, yet we cannot help giving him our thanks for his statistical tables. They now approximate to the truth; and it is no fault of his, that they are not entirely full and accurate. We had no adequate idea of the rapid growth of the Church to which we belong, until it was presented by the pamphlet annually published under his direction. The Presbyterian Church in the United States, stands before the country and the world as an important body of Christians. This remark is not made with a view to awaken sectarian confidence. Should we become proud of our numbers and strength, He who giveth grace to the humble, will know well enough how to bring us down, for He " resisteth the proud." We hint at the influence which Presbyterians may exert, to give some view of their responsibility, and of the extent of their obligations.

According to the Gospel, the ability of a man to do good is the exact measure of his duty. The same rule applies to societies. They are bound to do all the good in their power. How great then are the obligations of a Church consisting of One Hundred and Sixty Thousand communicants, com

bining much intelligence and wealth, with a form of ecclesiastical polity in itself admirably adapted to produce the strength of united exertion and the energy of free action! The country and the world ought to feel her influence, and rejoice in her labours of love. Her missionaries ought to be found in every destitute portion of the land, and in every dark corner of the world, bearing "the unsearchable riches of Christ," and proclaiming the messages of redeeming love. It appears from the Minutes of the last General Assembly that Providence is opening a new door of usefulness to the Presbyterian Church in this country. In the year 1828, the General Assembly resolved to open a correspondence with the Protestant Churches in France. A letter was accordingly sent to that body of Christians, in the name of this Judicatory. This letter, addressed to the Consistory of Paris, was translated into French, and published in the Archives of Christianity, a monthly periodical devoted to the cause of Christ. Since the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, the French Protestants have had no national Synod. Correspondence with them, can therefore, be conducted only through their Consistories, or through individuals and voluntary associations.

The publication of the letter of the General Assembly, excited considerable attention. Accordingly, answers were returned by the Editors of the Archives of Christianity, by St. Pilet Joly, pastor of the French Walloon Church of Francfort on the Maine, by the Consistory of the Consistorial Church of Mens, and by the pastor of the Third Ecclesiastical Division of the Reformed Consistorial Church of the Departments of Aisne, and of Seine and Maine.

The effect of this correspondence was not confined to France. On the 10th of March in the present year, a letter was written by the Congregational Board of Ministers in London, addressed to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, in which it is

proposed, that there should be a correspondence between those two bodies of Christians.

The reception of these letters may be justly regarded as a remarkable event in the history of the General Assembly. And it does appear to us, as intimated before, that Providence has, in this way, prepared new facilities for the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom among men. But that our readers may enter into our views and feelings on this subject, we present the following cursory statement of facts.

The Reformed Church in France was once an object of veneration and sympathy with all Protestants. Pure in doctrine, strict in discipline, full of holy zeal, and furnished with pastors not more distinguished for the fervour of their piety, than for profound and various learning; it was regarded with glorying and joy, by all who loved the Reformation. At the same time, its members, subjected to the tyranny of priest-ridden princes, and to the remorseless hatred of an intolerant hierarchy, endured through a series of years, sufferings too dreadful for minuter description. At length by the repeal of the Edict of Nantz, the cause of Protestantism in France appeared to be totally ruined, and that church, which had furnished an army of more than 200,000 martyrs, and many of the greatest scholars of the age in which they lived; which had more than 2000 congregations, and 2,000,000 of communicants sunk under the fierce fanaticism of Louis, misnamed the great, and his hooded ministers. A great number of learned and pious pastors, and vast multitudes of the most valuable subjects of the French monarch, escaped from the country. But two millions of people cannot emigrate. Of those who remained, the timid and flexible, yielded to force, and were converted to Popery; the firm and conscientious maintained their principles, and worshipped in their own way, in "caves and dens of the earth." This remnant of a better age suffered innumerable vexations, and often horrible per

secution, from the year 1685, until 1787, when, principally through the exertions of La Fayette, "a civil existence" was granted to them.

None need be surprised that men oppressed as the French Protestants were, should rejoice in the change effected by the revolution. Napoleon, with all his faults, was a friend of religious liberty, and under his reign, the persecuted found favour. But on the restoration of the Bourbons, scenes of former violence were renewed, and the true spirit of Popery showed itself with its customary violence and cruelty. During a considerable period the Protestants were unprotected, and suffered all that the rage of their enemies could inflict. It was not until these disgraceful events had attracted the attention, and excited the indignation of the world, that any effectual measures were adopted, to prevent their recurrence.

It will not be thought extraordinary, that in a state of things such as we have very briefly described, religion should greatly decline. But there was another reason. The Protestants every where found the Catholics their bitterest enemies. In the mean while it served the purpose of the philosophists of France, in their warfare against all religion, to hold up the mummeries of Popery to ridicule, and its cruelty to detestation. In this they would have performed a good service, had they not identified true religion with its corruptions. It was, however, to be expected, that the Protestants, driven from their temples, denied the privileges of subjects, and often hunted by their enemies as wild beasts, it was to be expected, that they would feel some obligation to the men, whatever might be their motives, who turned the indignation of mankind against those bloodyminded persecutors. Accordingly, it has been found, that among many of the Reformed Churches, there is that approximation to infidelity, which goes under the name of Liberal Christianity.

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