There was formerly a station in Puslinch, an adjoining township, but, through want of supply, it went down. There was also one at Paisley Block, in the township of Guelph, where there were forty members, and an excellent frame church capable of holding 200; but when Mr Barrie was located in Eramosa, January 1842, he engaged to visit Guelph on the afternoon of every third Sabbath, the people of Paisley Block and Puslinch agreeing to attend there. Thus, for the present, the Guelph congregation may be said to embrace the other two.

The Rev. William Barrie, to whom we have just referred, labours in the townships that immediately adjoin Guelph to the north, viz. Nichol and Eramosa. The first families which settled in Nichol, where the Irvine unites with the Grand River, arrived in 1835, and were from the city and county of Aberdeen, in Scotland; and the following account of them, for which we are indebted to the

*Extract from Autobiography of JOHN

GALT, Esq., Vol. iv. p. 56. "On the 22d of April (1827), the day previous to the time appointed for laying the foundation of my projected polis, I went to Galt, a town situated on the banks of the Grand River, which my friend the Hon. Wm. Dickson, in whose township it is situated, named after me long before the Canadian Company was imagined. Here I met by appointment, at Mr Dickson's, Dr Dunlop, who held a roving commission in the Canadian Company, and was informed that the requisite woodmen were assembled. Next morning we walked, after breakfast, towards the site which had been selected. The distance was about eighteen miles from Galt, half of it in the forest. We found the men, under the orders of Mr Prior, whom I had employed for the company, kindling a roaring fire, and after endeavouring to dry ourselves, and having recourse to the store-basket, I proposed to go to the spot chosen for the town. By this time the sun was set, and Dr Dunlop, with

Canadian Presbyterian Magazine, will, we are confident, be perused with interest.

Although not all belonging to one religious denomination, yet they held in common the great doctrines of christianity. Coming, as they did, from a land of Bibles, and locating themselves in a moral as well as physical wilderness, they naturally turned their attention towards supplying the lack of ordinances to the best of their ability. They accordingly exercised mutual forbearance towards each other, and met together every Sabbath-day to worship the God of their fathers. At that time the clearings were few, small, and at a distance from each other. But the Sabbath morn saw these settlers wending their way through the woods to the house of Mr George Elmslie, a member of the church of Scotland; and here the little assembly met, and praise and prayer were offered up, where, a year before, the foot of a white man had scarcely ever trod. Six individuals, in their turn, led the devotional exercises.

A place of worship, in connexion with the Church of Scotland, had, by the munificence of Mr (now the

his characteristic drollery, having doffed his wet garb, and dressed himself Indian fashion, in blankets, we proceeded with Mr Prior, attended by two woodmen with their axes. It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So, intimating that the main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow of the neighbouring rising ground, and Mr Prior having shown the site selected for the town, a large maple-tree was chosen, on which, taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To me, at least, the moment was impressive; and the silence of the woods that echoed to the sound, was as the sigh of the solemn genius of the wilderness departing for ever. We drank prosperity to the city of Guelph.

The name was chosen in compliment to the Royal family, both because I thought it auspicious in itself, and because I could not recollect that it had ever been before used in all the King's dominions."

Honourable Adam) Ferguson, been built at Fergus. There were occasional services in it by ministers of that body, and, being only five miles distant, the settlers always availed themselves of these opportunities of hearing the word preached.

Matters continued thus until the fall of 1836. The forest fell before the axe, and the population was increased by an accession to its numbers. A congregation in connexion with the church of Scotland had been organized at Fergus, and office-bearers appointed, with every prospect of a minister being settled there. With the exception of five families, the settlers at once joined the congregation at Fergus, while the rest kept up the Sabbath-day meeting as usual. Four of these families belonged to the United Secession, and the other to the Independents. The Rev. Thomas Christie, in compliance with the request of the Seceders, visited the settlement in September 1836, and this visit encouraged the Seceders very much. They had hitherto been bound together by the tie of oneness of sentiment and opinion; and this bond was now felt to be sufficiently strong to encourage them to construct a little chapel of logs, 30 feet by 18, within the walls. It was, indeed, a formidable undertaking for five individuals; but their heart was in the work, and from time to time they laboured, as circumstances would allow them, to make their temple fit for the worship of God being conducted within its humble walls. To the honour of the settlement, be it stated, every man, no matter what were his religious opinions, attended, and lent a willing hand at the raising of it, which took place upon the 11th November 1836. In January 1837, they were visited by another member of the Missionary Presbytery, the Rev. James Skinner; and although only nine, they resolved to send one of their number (J. A. Davidson) as commissioner to the

Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas, with a petition to be erected into a congregation.

Interesting indeed to them was the departure of this commissioner to West Flamboro', where the Presbytery were to meet on the 8th February 1837. As the representative of only four families, he was sent away commended to God, and with many prayers for a blessing upon his journey and its objects. The Presbytery received their petition, and Messrs Christie and Skinner having stated what they knew respecting them, the former was appointed to congregate them and dispense sealing ordi

nances.

Agreeably to this appointment, Mr Christie visited them on the 18th of May following, and having met them in a barn (the log-church was still roofless), belonging to one of their number-Mr Alexander Watt -and preached to them, he after sermon constituted them a congregation. Mr Watt having previously filled the office of elder in Scotland, was appointed to the same office, among them, and Mr J. A. Davidson was then elected to the same office, and ordained on the 20th, and next day the table of the Lord was spread in a spot where, three years before, nothing disturbed the solemn stillness of the forest, but the sighing of the breeze and the cry of the wild animals which inhabited it. It was a season of intense interest to the little flock.

By and by the little chapel was roofed, and on the 3d June 1838, was opened by Mr Christie. At the next sacrament the membership amounted to sixteen. Thus they continued meeting regularly every Sabbath-day, and keeping up the public ordinances of religion until the month of January 1842, when they formed a connexion with the United Associate Congregation of Eramosa, for the purpose of procuring the stated services of a minister between them, and thus enjoying

a more frequent dispensation of sealing ordinances. It was settled that Eramosa should have two of every three Sabbaths, and having conjointly appeared by commissioners at the Presbytery in applying for a moderation, it was granted, and in March both congregations unanimously called Mr Barrie, who was set apart to the pastoral inspection of the congregation in Eramosa on the 4th January 1843, and to that in Nichol on the day following. Here Mr Barrie, although called at one time to Hamilton, and at another to Guelph, has continued to labour ever since with a zeal that never tires. A hard-headed and warm-hearted man, he is probably not surpassed in labours by any missionary on any field. Present membership 140.

Bidding adieu to our most excellent host, Mr Sandilands of Guelph (formerly of Regent Street Church, Glasgow), we set off at seven o'clock of the morning of the 16th by Galt for Ayr, and reached our destination, by a remarkably hilly road, towards the afternoon. Ayr is situated at the confluence of two creeks, Cedar creek and Smith's creek, and may be described as consisting of a few dwellinghouses which two flour-mills have gathered around them. It lies on the west of the township-line, and equidistant from the northern and southern extremity, ten from Paris,

ten from Galt, twelve from St George, and twenty-five from Flamboro'. The neighbourhood is tolerably well cleared, but abounds with stumps. There is a Free Church in the village, which is pretty well attended by persons who used to sit under the ministry of Mr Bayne of Galt. The population is mostly Presbyterian, and from the south of Scotland. Our station here arose out of an interview which the Rev. George Murray of Blenheim had with some of the people, which led him to visit and preach to them. They were congregated by him in 1834, when the members amounted to thirty-four. After a time Mr Roy succeeded Mr Murray in supplying the station with sermon, and this he did till the Rev. Alexander Ritchie (formerly of Dalry, Galloway, Scotland) appeared, who was inducted May 1842. The church is a frame one, holds 400, and cost £300. The membership, which at Mr R's. induction was 114, is now 240. There is not a more thriving congregation than this in the whole body; and we trust that its progress in piety and the missionary spirit will keep pace with its increase in numbers. We may add, that thirty-two members, desirous of a more frequent dispensation of gospel ordinances, were recently disjoined, and form the station of Blandford, fifteen miles distant.

THE world is seldom completely right on any point. Bad principles are acted on long after they have been proved to bew rong; and good ones are frequently carried to excess, and treated by their advocates as if they were the only truths in existence. amples of this error are continually occurring in the religious and political history of our country; but few instances of it have been more injurious than the false relations which

Ex

the Bible has been supposed to bear to scientific inquiry. During the hierarchical despotism of the middle ages, every new discovery was denounced as a heresy, and the greatest philosophers were dreaded as necromancers, or imprisoned as infidels. Subsequently, however, affairs took another turn; it was found that the Bible was not hostile to science, and that it contained nothing that was likely to be disproved or damaged by

increasing knowledge; but, not content with this, many who called themselves the friends of christianity went further still, and following Hutchinson, Master of the Horse to George Third, made the word of life a textbook of chemistry and natural philosophy, and expected to find in it a key to unlock all the mysteries of science, as well as to open the gates of heaven. The truth, then, lies between these extremes. The Bible is not a scientific book, for, if it were, it could not be one for all ages, all countries, and all degrees of knowledge; but it contains no scientific falsehood; and, while it was sent to teach us the one thing needful, the infinite knowledge of its great Author on other subjects also occasionally appears. To point out a few of those allusions to facts generally unknown to mankind, at the period when the Bible was written, will be the object of the following remarks.

It is well known that the number of stars visible at any time to the naked eye does not exceed a thousand, which is quite within the power of conception and calculation; but the Bible, Heb. xi. 12, tells us that they are "innumerable,”—a statement whose truth has only been proved within the last two centuries, since the telescope showed us that the milky way consisted of an infinity of stars; and more recently still, has taught us that there are thousands of star-systems besides our own, and that there may be thousands more in those parts of Jehovah's dominions to which our sight, with the greatest artificial assistance, has not yet been able to pierce. The word of God also affords us correct ideas of their distance, bidding us "behold the distance of the stars, how high they are.”—Job. xxii. 12. It is worthy of notice also, that it does not represent the sky as a solid body, as do many of the ancient systems of philosophy, and more than one of the false religions prevailing

at present in the world; but speaks of it as "the expanse," a word which is ill represented in our version by the term "firmament," which from its derivation would lead us to suppose that it was a tangible and material arch.

Before the time of Galileo the air. was supposed to be an imponderable body, like light or heat; and Torricelli, who died in 1647, was the first who proved by experiment that it was possessed of weight: but the fact was recorded in the Bible three thousands years before,-Job xxviii. 25. God "looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds."

To descend now to the earth, we are told for what purpose it was made. God "formed it to be inhabited," Isaiah xlv. 18; and his wisdom "rejoices in its habitable parts," Prov. viii. 31. This is the intention which every rational person must ascribe to the Creator in bringing the world into existence; for without living beings of some kind, vegetation would be useless, and successive growth would only spring up to decay in unmeaning profusion. It was necessary also for his glory that some of these beings should be intelligent, for what he makes is made by him to be used or admired; and his greatness, though always existing, is only displayed when it may be seen. He did not descend on Sinai "in blackness, and darkness, and tempest," when there was none to behold it but the wandering beasts of prey; nor send forth "the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words," when they could only be echoed back from the solitudes of the desert: but he did so when a nation was present to be awed and astonished by the sight, and when the most highly favoured of the sons of men did himself exceedingly fear and quake. "He stood, and measured the earth; he beheld, and drove asunder the nations: and the everlasting moun

tains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high:" but one was looking on at the time to witness his triumphant passage, and record the homage of nature to its God. The principle of providence is that of creation also; and the purpose for which the Bible says our globe was formed, is in accordance with the conclusions of the most profound philosophy.

Revelation also imparts to us correct views of the constitution of the earth. Long before the philosopher had discovered that it was not a plane, and while he was yet conjecturing about the means by which it was supported, the student of the Bible had been told of "the circle of the earth," Isaiah xl. 22, and informed that the Almighty "stretched out the north over the empty place, and hung the earth upon nothing," Job xxvi. 7. As a natural consequence of this true view of its shape, we have no foolish dreams about a boundless ocean, stretching away on every hand from the continent, known to the ancients, in which the sun sank at his setting, and from which he emerged in the morning. On the contrary, God hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end," Job xxvi. 10.

The chronology of Scripture has been doubted by geologists, who as cribe to the earth a much higher degree of antiquity than it has been commonly supposed to possess: but whatever the opinions of biblical commentators may have been on the subject, it will be observed that the

*The view of Genesis i. 1, adopted by Doctors Buckland and Chalmers, to show the harmony of Moses' narrative with geological discoveries-viz. that this verse contains a distinct announcement from the details of the subsequent narrative, and points to an epoch at an unmeasured distance, followed by periods of indefinite duration" -is sometimes sneered at as a recent invention, to serve a purpose. How very incorrect this is may be seen, from earlier

66

Bible itself furnishes us with no clue to dates before the creation of man, and we defy the most inveterate advocate of the earth's antiquity to carry it further back than "the beginning," Gen. i. 1.* It is probable that a reference is made in Job xxxviii. 8-10 to the final settlement of the bounds of land and sea after the numerous geological revolutions to which the globe had been subjected had passed over; and more particularly the only one that has taken place since the existence of man, the great submersion mentioned in the book of Genesis under the title of the Flood. "Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors?" Philosophers inform us, that the place now occupied by Europe and the greater part of Asia was at one time under water, with the exception of a few of its loftiest points, which would appear as little islands; but it is no new thing for the reader of the Bible to know, that there was a period when

66

as yet" Jehovah "had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world," Prov. viii. 26.

It had long been conjectured, but has only lately been proved, that the interior of the globe is much higher in temperature than the surface, and that its heat increases rapidly towards the centre. The fact, however, stood on record in the book of Job, long before the experiments by which it was proved had been made in the

critical investigations; e. g. " D'abord il créa la Matière. Moyse ne dit pas précisément dans quel temps; si ce fût dans ce période, qu'il apelle le premier jour, comme cela paroît plus vraisemblable; ou si ce fût auparavant. Il dit seulement que Dieu la créa; c'est tout ce qu'il importoit de savoir."Saurin, Disc. Critique, tome prem., p. 2. Buckland refers to Petavius. See also Zanchius, de Oper. sex Dierum.