done
at the present time, from the circumstance that the last instalment
of the Manse Building Fund is just in the act of being paid, and
those who have been subscribing for five years to this object, and
formed a habit of periodic giving in relation to it, may be induced
to transfer a portion of what they gave to the permanent fund, and
so continue contributing. Ere, however, they can be expected to do
so, they must be fairly assured that what they give is to be
employed in strengthening and consolidating the Church, and in raising
her ministers above the level of _fine-bodyism_, not in adding to
her weakness by adding to her extent. Until a distinct pledge be
given that there shall not be so much as a single new charge
sanctioned until the yearly dividend amounts to at least a hundred
and fifty pounds, we must despair of the Sustentation Fund. One may
hopefully attempt the filling up of a tun, however vast its contents;
but there can be no hope whatever in attempting the filling of a
sieve. And if what is poured into the Sustentation Fund is to be
permitted, instead of rising in the dividend, to dribble out
incontinently in a feeble extension, it will be all too soon
discovered that what we have to deal with is not the tun, but the
sieve; and the laity, losing all heart, will cease their exertions,
and permit their ministers to sink into poverty and _fine-bodyism_.

_May 15, 1850._

ORGANSHIP.

Some six or eight months after the Disruption there occurred an
amusing dispute between two Edinburgh newspapers, each of which
aspired to represent the Establishment solely and exclusively, without
coadjutor or rival. The one paper asserted that it was the _vehicle_
of the Established Church, the other that it was the Church's _organ_;
and each, in asserting its own claim, challenged that of its
neighbour. The organ was sure that the vehicle lacked the true
vehicular character; and the vehicle threw grave doubts on the
organship of the organ. In somewhat less than half a year, however,
the dispute came suddenly to a close: the vehicle--like a luckless
opposition coach, weak in its proprietorship--was run off the road,
and broke down; and the triumphant organ, seizing eager hold of the
name of its defunct rival as legitimate spoil, hung it up immediately
under its own, as a red warrior of the West seizes hold of the scalp
of a fallen enemy, and suspends it at his middle by his belt of
wampum. The controversy, howev