in in 1884, making me at the same
time their Missionary delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council at
Belfast, and also their representative to the General Assemblies of the
several Presbyterian Churches in Great Britain and Ireland. And they
empowered and authorized me to lay our proposals about a new Steam
Auxiliary Mission Ship before all these Churches, and to ask and receive
from God's people whatever contributions they felt disposed to give
towards the sum of L6000, without which this great undertaking could not
be faced.

A few days after my arrival I was called upon to appear before the
Supreme Court of the English Presbyterian Church, then assembled at
Liverpool. While a hymn was being sung, I took my seat in the pulpit
under great depression. But light broke around, when my dear friend and
fellow-student, Dr. Oswald Dykes, came up from the body of the Church,
shook me warmly by the hand, whispered a few encouraging words in my
ear, and, returned to his seat. God helped me to tell my story, and the
audience were manifestly interested.

Next, by kind invitation, I visited and addressed the United
Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, assembled in Edinburgh. My reception
there was not only cordial,--it was enthusiastic. Though as a Church
they had no denominational interest in our Mission, the Moderator,
amidst the cheers of all the Ministers and Elders, recommended that I
should have free access to every Congregation and Sabbath School which I
found it possible to visit, and hoped that their generous-hearted people
would contribute freely to so needful and noble a cause. My soul rose in
praise; and I may here say, in passing, that every Minister of that
Church whom I wrote to or visited treated me in the same spirit
throughout all my tour.

Having been invited by Mr. Dickson, an Elder of the Free Church, to
address a midday meeting of children in the Free Assembly Hall, I was
able by all appearances, greatly to interest and impress them. At the
close, my dear and noble friend, Principal Cairns, warmly welcomed and
cheered me, and that counted for much amid all anxieties; for I had
learned that very day, at headquarters, that the Free Church authorities
were resolved, in view of a difference of opinion betwixt the
_Dayspring_ Board at Sydney and the Victorian Assembly as to the new
Steam Auxiliary, to hold themselves absolutely neutral.

Having letters from Andrew Scott, Esq., Carrugal, my very dear friend
and helpe