With reference to the support of education, Mr. Baird expressed a clearly defined opinion, of which we quote the _ipsissima verba_. "I have," he said, "a strong and conscientious objection that any of my money, whether exacted from me by rates and taxes, should be expended in teaching secular knowledge unless it is permeated by religion, and I believe I shall be joined by an overwhelming majority of the people of Scotland in that objection." ... "Religious and Scriptural education is what we are contending for, and religious education we must have, even should the State withdraw its support, which is a thing not likely to be done." These are the words of one who has evidently "read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested" the whole subject of education, and is prepared, at whatever sacrifice or cost, to stand up for a system of instruction that shall embrace preparation not only for the duties and exigencies of this life but also for that which is to come. And the views of such a man have all the more weight that they accompany and flow from a sincere desire and a tangible readiness to afford practical support to the cause of education. But if education owes much to the generosity and practical sympathy of the Messrs. Baird, the Church has still more reason to register their names in its roll of attached friends. With reference to Mr. James Baird, it may be fitly said that he is "a pillar in Israel." He is conservative to the extent of maintaining unimpaired all the institutions of the Church; but patronage, and other plague-spots in her bright and noble constitution, he would utterly abolish. Progress has long been his watchword, but it is in the direction of building up and not of pulling down. He is not an iconoclast for the mere sake of change. But he would remove out of the pathway of the Church all that would hinder from the efficient discharge of her mission. Above all, he is averse to a policy of _laissez faire_. Believing that the Church has failed to meet the increasing wants of the people, he is an eager advocate and a liberal and intelligent supporter of missionary schemes. At an ordination dinner held in Glasgow in 1868, Mr. Baird delivered an address, in the course of which he pointed out that the missions of the Church were in a languid state, and dragged along a dreary and miserable existence. Although there were from 12,000 to 15,000 young men and women arriving in Glasgow every year at an age when they should become members of some church, the Establishment was getting barely sufficient from that multitude to maintain its old numbers. He was afraid, he added, that a great many had not the chance of joining any church, as none of the churches were increasing in proportion to the population of the city; and that, therefore, they would go on to swell the ranks of heathenism and materialism. The results of the investigations recently carried out in this city, amply vindicate Mr. Baird's almost prophetic remarks. Mr.