It is a great trial of patience, to wait seven years for a minister, and to have an opportunity of hearing the gospel for two or three Sabbaths only during all that time. There are good Christians in

the island of St. John who, in all probability, have not heard five sermons these twenty-five years; and probably there are some there twenty-five years old who never heard a sermon. Who would not com- passionate these people? We hope two ministers would be very aggree- ably situated among them, and in a short time there would be a demand for a number more. We earnestly beseech the Synod to consider the case of this island, and to send over two ministers to them as soon

as possible... None of us have been in the island of St. John these four years past, and we know not the present sentiments of the

people there, save only that they are still waiting for the ministers; but when they wrote the petitions, they laid their account with paying the passage of the ministers... Besides Lord Montgomery's agent there had then power (and we suppose has it still) to pay the passage of the

first Presbyterian minister who should come to the island...

Signed by James MacGregor Duncan Ross,

John Brown

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