aiHMinmMiM^NiBiwilMiMa MMKMMMnipMuwaaptieH^^ fMe»A»)W tMW I *» I W I M il . l U»*a i U lii r H>l i lil >W IW I W « I M I WMI III» l» ^ >. LM -.-.^ «^;. ••• .■ sv^y *■' -*• . . '■- 1 ^. ^. '\ ^ SPEECHES ON MISSIONS BY THE RIGHT REVEREND Samuel Wilberforce. d,d. LATE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. EDITED BY THE REV. HENRY ROWLEY, AUTHOR OF "the STORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO CENTRAL AFRICA," ETC. LONDON: WILLIAM WELLS GARDNER, 2 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, 1874. PREFACE. A PREFACE to such a book as this can scarcely be too brief. By his zeal and eloquence Bishop Wilberforce did more than any man of modern times to promote the Mission Work of the English Church, and by his death the cause of Missions sustained an almost irreparable loss. His energising spirit and loving persuasiveness, which led men to consecrate their lives to Mission work, was no longer felt ; and his voice, which pleaded for Missions as none other could plead, was no longer heard. To my own great gain I had heard some of his Mission Speeches, and read others. I felt sure that the reports of many such speeches had been preserved, and it occurred to me that if they could be collected into a volume, the loss which the cause of Missions had sustained by his death might in some measure be repaired. He, being dead, would by them yet continue to speak to us of that which had been so dear to his heart. To my appeal for the loan of such reports, many friends, to whom I take this opportunity of returning my best thanks, responded, and the result is the present collection. Where the same subject has been dealt with in several speeches, I have, to prevent repetition, given only extracts iv Preface, from such speeches ; and I have arranged the whole of them with a view to a sequence of subjects, rather than in chrono- logical order. Bishop Wilberforce was for many years so constant an advocate of Missions, that a single volume must be very far from comprising all that he said on the subject, but I believe that nearly all his most celebrated speeches will be found here. So vast was the supply of his ideas, and of the arguments by which he enforced them, that, while these speeches cannot fail to be a storehouse of information for the student of Missions, they constitute, I conceive, no mean memorial to one of England's greatest Prelates. I have only to add that this volume is published with the full and hearty consent of the Bishop's family, and that the profits arising from its sale will go to the Society for the Tro- pagation of the Gospel. HENRY ROWLEY. London, May iith^ 1874. CONTENTS. I. Upon the Principles and Mode of Working of the Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts . . . . i II. Upon the Standing-place, Work, and Prospects of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel . . . . .19 III. Upon the Special Characteristics of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, etc. . 35 IV. Upon the Confidence due to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel . . 50 V. Upon the Duty of Providing our Christian Countrymen in Foreign Lands with the Ministrations of the Church . . 57 VI. Upon the Penal Settlements of the British Empire . . . . .70 VII. Upon the Duty of England to accompany its Commerce and Emigration with Christianity 73 VIII. Upon our Duty to the Aboriginal Inhabitants of our Colonies . . . .83 \j| IX. Upon our Duty to impart the Gospel to the Heathen, etc. . . . .91 X. Upon the Extension of the Missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in India . . . . .103 XI. Upon the Work of Missions in India . . 115 vi Contents. Xli. Upon the Supply of Men for Mission Work in India . . . . .124 XIII. Upon our Indian Empire ". . .128 XIV. Upon South Africa, India, etc. . . i37 XV. Upon the Evangelisation of the Native Tribes of Southern Africa , . .151 XVI. Upon new Openings for Missions, and the want of means to meet the call which comes from them . . . .160 XVII. Upon the need of Special exertions . .166 XVIII. Upon the Universities' Mission to Central Africa — {speech at Cambridge) . . 176 XIX, Do. do. — {speech at Manchester) . 187 XX. Do. do. — {speech at Liverpool) . 201 XXI. Do. do. — {speech at Leeds) . 211 XXII. Upon the British Columbia Missions . . 217 XXIII. Upon the Hawaiian Mission . . .230 XXIV. Upon the Islands of the Pacific . . 240 S- XXV. Upon the success of Modern Missionary Enter- prises ..... 246 *^ XXVI. Upon the disappointment at not move being done by Missions . . . .254 XXVII. Upon the Disestablishment of the Colonial Churches . . . .256 XXVIII. Upon the difficulties caused by the Disestablish- ment of the Colonial Churches, etc. . 265 XXIX. Upon the Hindrances at Home to the Progress of Missions . . . .271 XXX. Upon the visits of Colonial Bishops to England, etc. . . . . .280 J XXXI. Upon acting on right principles in Mission Work . . . . .285 V Contents. vii PAGE XXXII. Upon the Extension of the Episcopate in the Colonies ..... 293 XXXIII. Upon the Extension of the Episcopate in Foreign Lands ..... 297 XXXIV. upon the Necessity of a Native Ministry . 305 XXXV. Upon the reason why the Missionary efforts of the Church of England were not earlier made . . . . .314 S^' XXXVI. Upon the Duty of the Inhabitants and Visitors of Watering-places to Support Missions . 322 XXXVII. Upon the Death of Bishop Patteson . .325 / XXXVIII. Upon the Duty of supporting Missions as the Special Work of the Church . . 327 XXXIX. Upon the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ..... 332 Ji i/ V:. % THEOLOGIC&L /> SPEECHES. I. Upon the principles and mode of working of the society for the propagation of the GOSPEL IN FOREIGN TARTS.— Manc/iesUr, Oct. 12, 1863. I NEED not, I am quite sure, say anything to you as to the general duties of Christian people, because they are Christian people, to extend their Christianity to those who do not )^et possess it. I should think it lost time to argue with any set of professing Christians whatever, the abstract proposition of the duty of preaching the Gospel to others. That duty hes upon the very simplest and broadest statement of the Chris- tian faith. No man receives from God any gift to consume it selfishly upon himself Stewards we are one and all of us, of whatever talents we have been intrusted with — stewards for the mighty Master, labouring for the great account. And if this applies to every talent committed to the stewardship of man, the responsibilities of that trust must rise just in propor- tion to the greatness of the deposit. He that has received much shall have to give an account for more. And if this be so, what is, for this world and for the world to come, the greatest deposit which the Almighty can have intrusted to His creatures ? Surely it must be the knowledge of Himself, the revelation of His will, the knowledge of His being, and of His own person and character, and the principles of communion with Him, of obtaining oneness with Him, of being made like in A Ditty of Christian Membership, the humility of the creature's lesser sphere to the great Creator Himself in His unapproachable greatness. This is Christianity — this is to be indeed the Christian Church — to have come to the general assembly and Church of the First-born that is written in heaven. Impossible, therefore, is it that this should have been intrusted to any one except upon the condition of com- municating the blessing, and not selfishly consuming it himself. Therefore, to have been made members of the Christian Church entails of itself upon every one intrusted with that member- ship the duty, according to his power, of extending the boon to all mankind around him. This being the first broad posi- tion upon which all Christian missions rest their claim for support, there comes next the very important question of what instruments men should choose to do this work which they are bound to do. Now, so blessed is the work, so large is the field in which it is to be wrought, so plainly earthly and sensual are the dififi- culties which are to be overcome in leading men to do it, that I for one rejoice in every single instrument by which the work is being accomplished, and instead of looking with a scrutin- • ising and somewhat jealous eye upon the instrumentality, and being ready to find a fault with it if it be possible, my own inclination is to rejoice in every lawful instrument which can be employed, and which men can be got to use in order to under- take this mighty work which God has committed to them. Therefore, I will never appear before any body of Christian men to urge one society to the depreciation of another. I will — and I think I should not be fit to speak to you if I did not avow it — I will always take what I believe to be the best and most effectual instrument, or the one which has the greatest claim, but not as depreciating the others for the pur- pose of exalting that. This seems to me to be a plain intelli- gible Christian proposition. If a man will not join with me in using the instrument. I say to him, " Go and use another, and do it heartily, and give it your prayers and self-denial; only do not be an idler and make-believe in the work. Do not use as an excuse for doing nothing the miserable pretext that you Relation of the S. P. G. to the Chztrch. 3 cannot join with this man or that man, and that everything is not squared exactly as you would have it." As if in a town beleaguered, when men's lives and women's honour were at stake, one man would refuse to use the piece of ammunition which had been provided for him because there were figures struck upon that tube the exact shape of which he did no-t admire. No ; let us use all the instruments God has given us in this righteous and noble warfare. But in anything I may say, think not I wish to depreciate any other instrument, while I am bound in Christian honesty to show you the peculiar advantages which attend that Society which I am bound to^ speak about. These advantages seem to me to rest upon two things — first, the relation of this Society to the Church and to the nation at home j and, secondly, the relation of the work of this Society to the spread of our people in distant parts. These are the only peculiarities of this Society. If any of you come here expecting to hear from me that this Society is the advocate of any peculiar notions in the Church of England, I must disappoint you. It is bf'cause I believe it to be the organ of no pecuHar opinions in the Church of England that I think it has a special claim upon us. Mark, I pray you,, how the relation of the Society to the Church is maintained. Supposing a society, in the main within the Church of England, wished to stamp upon its missionary work some peculiar character of its own and not the character of the common Church. How can it be done ? It must be done by forming a committee of management, who, instead of being left to assume naturally the colour of the Church at large, shall be obliged to assume a peculiar dis- tinctiveness of colour within that common body of the Church. The committee so selected would be able to carry out its pur- pose in this way. It would select as the missionaries who went out to do its work, men of the same colour as themselves. They would be instructed to select for their use books the very covers of which bore upon them the very same tint, and so there would be one pervading hue running from the book to the missionary, from the missionary to the book, and, if 4 Relation of the S. P. G, to the Church. possible, from the book and teacher to the convert. Now, the tendency of all that is to cultivate party feeling within the Church at home — to make that peculiar hue which has been adopted the substitute for the general catholic truth of the whole body of the Church, and so by degrees to become one- sided, or what I may call societyish, if I might venture to invent a word. So, instead of the great object of those who are banded together being the spread of the Church of Christ throughout the world, it will be the propagation of the par- ticular society, and the spread over the earth of that particular society's theological tint. The Gospel Propagation Society, in order to avoid that, has adopted this method. It has said it is not safe to commit to a shifting committee the great task of judging of the fit- ness of the missionaries who are to go out to preach the ever- lasting Gospel. It therefore has divested itself of — call it patronage, or responsibilities, or what you will — it has divested itself of the work of settling who is fit to go and who is not, and it has committed the work of choosing to the chief rulers of the Church in your own Church at home. It leaves it to the two Archbishops of the two provinces, and to the metro- politan Bishop ; because, by a long tradition, as I think, of mis- understandings, it is supposed that the Bishop of London is a sort of oecumenical bishop throughout the earth. But, how- ever, from that misunderstanding has come this good result, that the Bishop of London is joined to the two Primates, and with them appoints the clergymen who every year act for the Gospel Propagation Society as a body, who examine all the missionaries who are sent out to distant parts of the earth (clergymen and schoolmasters), with the single exception of the men whom colonial bishops, when in England, select to take back with them to their own dioceses. Even the colonial bishop, when in his own diocese, if he requires a man to be sent out, has to send that man to be examined as to his fitness for the work to this committee, appointed by the two Primates and the Bishop of London. And so, if it is possible for a human society to have divested itself of every opportunity of cultivat- Relation of the S. P. G. to the Nation. 5 ing or increasing party spirit in the Church, the Gospel Propa- gation Society has done it. It has identified itself, as far as it is possible for a human instrument to do it, with the Church, as the Church lives, and feels, and prays, and acts here at home throughout all the dioceses in this great country. This is the first point, and the second is exactly parallel with it. The aftairs of the Society are administered by a Board, of which officially the archbishops and the bishops in the United Church of England and Ireland, and every colonial bishop, are, without selection, members, capable of attending — and, for the most part, throughout the time their duties call them to London, actually attending — upon the weekly adminis- tration of the missions of this Society. So that here, again, as being identified with the universal episcopate of your Church, this Society is, as far as it possibly can be, not a Society of a party, but of the Church. In the next place, the relation of this Society to the nation is the other distinctive feature of its work. By that I mean, that instead of picking at will spots upon the earth to which it will send out its missionaries to bear the Gospel message, it lays it down as a primary proposition that where the nation touches heathendom the nation incurs the double responsi- bility — first, of securing for its own poor emigrants the minis- trations of the Word and Sacraments as they are ministered at home ; and next, the responsibility of conveying to the heathen people around them the blessed message of the everlasting Gospel ; and that this being God's appointment through His providence, is to be taken as the indicative finger marking where the work is to be begun, and where, therefore, His blessing, without which all is vain, may be expected. And I think, if* you come for a moment to reflect upon it, you will see that this must be the right principle in Christian missions, because they depend altogether for success upon His blessing. Only transfer yourselves in thought to the earliest times, when the Gospel of our Lord was struggling for expansion through the earth. You then saw it settled where the apostles and apostolic men should go, and where 6 IMission Fields deter mmed by God's Providence, they should not go. It was not left to their own individual caprice ; it was not left to their own private choice. The blessed Spirit indicated to those who were carrying the banners of the cross where they should make their first inroad, and from what places they should for the time abstain. You remem- ber where we read that they were disposed to go to Asia, but the Spirit suffered them not. You will also remember the man in Macedonia beckoning over the apostle St Paul in a vision, beckoning him away from those interests which were dearest to him, beckoning him away from that peculiar line of missionary work which it is perfectly plain he had chalked out for himself. St Paul, remember, was an Eastern man, and full of the love of the East which belongs so essentially to every Eastern man. Plainly we may gather from the whole account, that had he listened to the dictates of his own inclinatior, the Lesser Asia would have been the great sphere of that man's work. But to come to Europe, with which he had little sympathy — no sympathy at all at that time, except as he sympathised with every fallen human being, because he saw for every one the cross of his beloved Lord, and the redeeming drops of his IMaster's blood ; to come from the beloved East, with its ancient calm, with its loved traditions, with its beloved voices, and to cast himself instead into the strife and turmoil of Europe, was altogether against the natural inclination of the man. But the vision beckoned him, and the apostle obeyed. And if he had not obeyed, if, instead of that, he had leant upon his own in- clinations, and had gone whiihcr they would have led him, can any one of us for a moment doubt that that mighty success which attended him would have been withheld, because the Spirit workcth in the willing instrument which bows itself to the lightest intimation, and not through the self-willed heart which sets its own will up against the will of the Almighty. If at that time the duty of thus spreading the Church of Christ was to listen entirely, and with such childlike obedience, to the intimations of the will of God, must not it be the same with us? Must not we just as much be bound at this moment to sec that where the finger of God points is our sphere of Worldly Power on Side of the Church. 7 labour, if we desire in our time to have the whole support of God, and His whole Spirit with us? The only difference must be this — we are not to look for the supernatural intima- tion of that will, but we are to read the intimations of that will in the ordinary communications of God to us. Now, how are these ordinary communications made ? They are made by the unseen presence and power of God working through material things; shaping the flow of the stream of time as it runs onward, bending it now in this and then in that direction, and leaving for us, studying carefully His will in His revealed Word, and His ways in the world around us, to see what His intimation to us at the time is as to the duty which at that moment is ours. And how, then, are we to gather it as to this? Consider for a single moment the position of Christendom now as compared with the condition of Christen- dom when- the father-apostles and fishermen of Galilee went out against the united world to spread that truth. Surely we can see at once, that whereas then the ignorant were against the learned, the uncivilised against the civilised, the compara- tively despised against those who were rich in all the learning and power of this world ; now, on the other hand, the riches, the power, the political strength, the intellectual vigour of the earth are gathered upon the Church's side against the Church's opponents. We know perfectly well now that what we call civilisation is really another word for Christianity in some shape or other. Where is there at this moment civilisation upon the earth where there is not Christianity, and where Christianity has not been ? You see, then, the difference that has come over the whole aspect of the conflict. It is now this world's might of intellect, this world's power of arms, on the side of Christianity, against the uncivilised barbarous world in its ignorance not only of Christ, but of all other mighty agencies in the world around. Now mark what follows from that distinction. When those who were preaching the Gospel of the kingdom came as the igno- rant to the learned, how could they obtain a hearing ? What was necessary for them in order to enable them so to command 8 The Purpose aiid Effect of HI i racks, the attention of the world as that the world would listen to what they had to say, and give to what they had to say the oppor- tunity of producing its proper results ? You see at once that something was needful. That something manifestly was the power of working miracles. When a man went among the hea- then people of that time, who were his superiors in philosophy, his superiors infinitely in art, the superiors of his own nation in political power — when the poor Galilean fisherman came to argue, for instance, wdth the learned Greek or with the power- ful Roman, what had he to command so much as a moment's quiet attention which would lead that man without the utmost scorn to listen to his words? God provided that power as His Church needed it in the power of miracles — credentials from the other world, credentials from the ^Master of Life, creating the first listening and attention to the word which that messenger bore, which word was to produce its effect upon the listener's heart. This was the power of miracles. It was not that the miracle itself converted the heart. It is a most shallow view that signs and portents do convert the heart. They do not touch the will, in which lies the mighty secret of conversion. They do not move the affections, which must be stirred before the stubborn will yields itself, and in which, in their final flame heavenward, is the accomplishment of the mighty sacrifice of the heart of man to his God. Pro- digies and portents touch not these things. There are deep notes in the mighty composite instrument of humanity which the sign and the miracle cannot make to speak. No ; it was the message of the love of God, then, as it is now, the message of reconciliation, brought home to the man in whom the gnaw- ing sense of internal dissatisfaction was breeding a desire to have questions answered which from his youth up had been sounding unanswered within his heart — it was this message of the Lord to him which, under the breath of the Everlasting Spirit, was then, as it must be now, the single instrument of the conversion of the heart. The miracle, like the voice of the trumpet, did but awaken the attention which was to be given to the received messaire. Power of Christianity a Substitttte for Miracles, 9 Is there anything provided at this moment which answers to that? It seems to me that the reply is patent, inasmuch as the superiority of the holders of the deposit of the faith over the whole race of man who have it not, is now plain, intelli- gible, and certain. They can, by the demonstration of that superiority, command the same first listening to the message that they have to deliver which the gift of supernatural power administered to the first preachers. Now^, mark you, that is not saying that civilisation can convert nations— not a bit; nor that the superior power which waits upon the possession of the Gospel converts them. I ventured to say even that the power of supernatural works could not convert the heart, and no more can these supreme powers of intelligence and civiUsa- tion. They have no gift of themselves of converting the heart, but they have the gift of exciting the listening attention of those who can appreciate them, and so leading them to listen to the message, which message, under the power of the Holy Spirit, is the converter of the heart to God. If, then, this is so, first.it becomes the duty of Christian nations to use that supremacy God has given them for this purpose ; and next it becomes their duty, in choosing the field of their operation, to select those places where those powers God has given them will best enable them to demand the attention they need for the reception of their message. Therefore, observe, wherever a Christian nation has been by God's providence connected in its national character with a heathen people, there the finger of God points out a place for you to begin your work. If there be, through His providential arrangement, any part of the earth in which a Christian nation possesses the com- mand of a great multitude of the heathen, where they, therefore, will appreciate the power which these strangers possess, w^iere they will see with their own eyes what civilisa- tion has done for them,— there is the indication of the hand of God ; there is the man of Macedonia standing, in a vision, and saying, "Come over and help us :" if we can read the signs of the times, as apostles read them, that should show us that we should go over, gathering assuredly that God has called us to TO Those who Emigrate, the work. This is the principle of the Gospel Propagation Society, the second principle after identification with your Church, that it identifies itself with your nation, that it dis- tinctly says. Wherever the people of England spread through- out the earth, there rests a twofold duty upon the community at home — first, that it should give to the emigrants the power of maintaining their faith ; secondly, that through the Christian communities settled in foreign lands, it should show in the eyes of the heathen people what the power of Christian civilisation is, and so command a hearing for the message of the Word of God, and an opportunity for the spread of the sacraments of the Gospel. This has been, and I trust always will be, the principle of the Society. And now mark in detail how this principle works. The dis- tresses of a manufacturing population at any particular moment lead necessarily to a certain amount of emigration from our shores. Many of us may think it very dangerous to encourage it, may be very glad to see it stayed, may fear, and not without reason, the removing skilled hands, and leaving therefore the mighty arts by which the nation's wealth has been formed with- out material hands wherewith in future to produce them. I have nothing to do with that question — I deal with the fact. Any mighty stir in the population at home does necessarily — from a community girdled into so small a space as the British people are, bound in by the narrowness of these islands — does necessarily drive away a wave of emigration to the less peopled part of the earth. And who go ? You know perfectly well that it is the poorest and least provided who go. You know, again, that it will continually happen that, in point of character, the people go who have the least of fixed regulation in their own moral character at home ; who are ardent, who are impetuous, who are somewhat ungoverncd, who are a little undisciplined, who have found the strait-laced sobriety of home life a little irksome. They are the readiest to slip their anchor, to seize the first breeze, to dare the intermediate sea, and to venture upon the unknown continent beyond. It must be so. The well-furnished, and the rich, the comfortable, the respect- Condition of Eiitigrants in the Backwoods, ii able, the creators of impressions in society, and the ready recipients of society's impressions, — they are the men who are the least willing to go. They get, even if they are poor, into their corners, and wait until the storm has swept by, while the little crowd of canoes in which the less-disciplined poor have entered have been borne away over the trackless sea to their distant work. But now follow those canoes — follow that wave of English life breaking upon some distant shore, — and what is its condition ? Those men have a hard struggle before them. The abject among them will sink down into menial offices in the great cities upon the coast of the Atlantic opposite. The daring will press on into the back settlements of society. The wood will ring again with the woodman's merry axe, and the earth be subdued before the enterprising family. But it is a hard fight, it is a great struggle. There is poverty to be met, not as it is met with here, with hands always ready, thank God, to be stretched out to reUeve a man in his sickness, and in his extremity ; but in deep, dark woods, where there is not a Christian near, where there is no hand ready to be stretched out but the unseen hand of the supreme Lord. There, with fever, it may be, laying low the strong arm upon which the whole family depends, laying low the mother upon whose presence everything within that rude hut depends, even for health as well as comfort, — there is to be accomplished that mighty strife against the rebellious elements of this fallen world of man, their dethroned lord. And what is to be the issue of it? Life or death? God knows. Almost always this struggle waits upon the advanced guard of the advancing civilisation ; and how can you expect those men to be the planters of your Church in those remote deserts ? Even if they desired it, how could they? They have neither the time, nor the education, nor the means. It is with the utmost exertion of every power of labour God has given them that they can win from the reluctant earth the very necessities of supporting their family. No ; that first wave of emigrant life as it breaks upon those distant shores cannot by any possibihty bear within itself the elements of reproducing the Church of Christ. Then whose 1 2 Spiritttal Provision for E^nigraiits. duty is it to see that they have it ? Ah ! you hold undoubtedly that it is the duty of the nation that sends them out into that wilderness, to do it. How if we suffered these people to go without the means of reproducing their own natural life in that distant West ? How if the Government of this country freighted vessels, and sent men out unfurnished with the neces- sary implements for that struggle which they have got to main- tain in the forest, and cast down a shipload of them in some distant part, there to starve and to die? How would the English people think of the dealings of that Government? How if they sent them out in some time of trouble in ships that were not seaworthy, knowing that they were not sea- worthy, to trust to the stream of the Atlantic to rid them of the troublesome mouths ? How would the people of England deal with such a Government? Would the tenure of office of the most popular Government that this land has ever known be worth a week's purchase if one such derehction of duty could be traced home to it? I trow not, and thank God for it. But what, then, shall we say of the duty of a Christian people of sending out with those emigrants the means of reproducing their better possession of the Church of Christ, of the means of grace, of the hopes of glory ? Can it be, that that which would be so dire a dereliction of duty as to things earthly, in an earthly Government, shall be no dereliction of duty as to things heavenly, in the spiritual community of the Church of Christ? No; surely, my friends, the conclusion is certain. We are bound as a Christian community to send out with these poor emigrants the means of reproducing the Church of Christ among them. This is the work of the Gospel Propagation Society. It does not undertake to maintain in the settled communities of North America, for example, the preaching of the Word of God. It would be as irrational to ask you, the people of Manchester, to provide for the Church of Christ in Montreal, as it would be to ask the people of Montreal to provide for your churches here in Manchester. Tliere is no such folly as that committed by the Society. But it is with tliat first margin Religious Divisions a Huidrance, 1 3 between absolute barbarity and civilisation, which consists of the ravelled edge, so to speak, of this emigrating population, in meet- ing there a population of comparative lawlessness, that the Church of Christ at home has to do. It is to supply the wants of such a state of things that this Society addresses itself This cannot be done by the Government of this country. The unhappy condition of our religious divisions besets us here as everywhere else. If the Government were asked to attempt it, the Government would meet us at once by the unanswer- able question, "What are we to say? We deal with taxes drawn from a community made up of all discordant voices of religion ; which voice are these taxes, as administered by us, to ''speak?" No; alas! alas! this plague of religious dissension besets us there, weakening us for good, as it besets us everywhere besides. Instead of glorying in it, let us never name it without smiting upon our breast, without confessing our shame. If we were but a united people in religion, there is no hm-iting what we might do for God's glory and for man's salvation. But so it is, and therefore it must be left, mind you, to the Church of Christ to do it— to the Church of England to do it ; for the great mass of those emigrants, because the great mass of emigrants from this land belongs to its own com- munion. This, then, I say, is so palpable and first a duty in the missionary work, that we have not a right to go to the heathen until we have made some preparation for supplying our own people with the truth. "Let the children first be fed." " He that maketh not provision for them of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." And observe, that for the very work of evangelising the heathen this is essential, because a lapsed Christianity, pre- senting Christianity to the appreciation of the heathen mind with the sins of a high civiHsation, and without the correlative restraints of a prevailing Gospel, that is the loudest and most easily appreciated argument against Christianity which the enemy of the faith can possibly use in this world. Therefore if you allow that advancing wave of your civiHsed life to be no- thing but the bitter waters of irreligious life, you are perpetually 14 Necessity of Missio7is to Emigrants. preventing the spread of civilised Christian life producing its own proper effect upon the heathen among whom it permeates. Therefore, looking beyond your duty to men of your own blood — to your duty to the heathen — this must be the first of necessities, that you provide for sending out with your poor emigrant the Gospel of Christ, to be his sanctifi cation in that remote part of the earth where he settles ; then, secondly, for the heathen people directly. Surely we can see from what I have ventured to trouble you with already, that it is from the establishment of your own people in one of these lands that you must send forth the messenger and the message of Christian truth to the heathen people around, because there your superiority is appreciated, and, therefore, there you can command a first attention to your work. And now, what is the condition of England in this matter? Take only one single part of the work. See what God's provi- dence has committed to this people of England in India alone. Did you ever reflect what really was the charge of God to your country in this one single fact of there being intrusted to us the dominion over India? There are over 200,000,000, remember, of persons, strangers as yet to the truth of God, and committed to the absolute government of the English people — one-sixth, we may say, speaking loosely, of the human family. With the power of Government, with the manifest superiority of educa- tion, and all the arts we have, how have we used the opportunity of speaking to this people of the beloved Name, and of the powers of the world to come? Those of you who know what the history of our dealings in India from the first has been, will be able, without any suggestions of mine, to give ihe answer. You will remember such facts as these — that when Carey, the Baptist missionary, went out first to India to preach the Word of God to the Hindoos, he was absolutely com- pelled to settle in the Danish settlement of Serampore, because the English were afraid of having the missionary to the heathen settle in their own territory. There was the beginning, your abuse of opportunity, and the course of subsequent events has been far too like it. That one single fact of Sir Peregrine Abtcse of Opportunities in India, 15 Maitlaud having been compelled to return home to England, leaving a high official post, and, so far as man's orders could make it, to return a dishonoured man, because he refused to order Christian English soldiers to fire salutes for the most accursed of the Hindoo's idols— that fact alone seems to me to be but the reverse side in the language of prophecy of the bloody characters that were written broad in the Indian mutiny. Yes, my friends, it was that cowardice for God which marked from the beginning the history of our Indian Empire. Perhaps all in this room may not be aware of the fact, that when the East India charter was renewedin 1783, there was a mighty stand made in the British House of Commons against that cowardice. He who then led in every such question of humanity and of truth the van of English thought, my own honoured and beloved father— he struggled hard against an almost universal opposition, at first, to get inserted in the Act, by which the new charter was to be framed, a declaration— somewhat barren, because too general, and yet, as he hoped, likely to bear fruit hereafter— that it was the duty of the people of England to promote the moral and the religious welfare of the people of India. Could anything be lighter than that ? And yet it was not until after a struggle of almost unparalleled violence that he carried the in- sertion of that clause. He did carry it, but so terrible was the cowardice at that time of the English mind upon these matters, that in the final adoption of the Act the clause was struck out again, as threatening English domination in India : the mere ad- mission that it was our duty when we could to promote the moral and rehgious welfare of the Hindoos being judged so dangerous an assertion that it might cost this people the possession of its whole Indian Empire. Is it to be doubted by any reasonable man that the providence of God, working, not by direct inter- positions, suspending His laws, or interrupting His ordinary administration, but by those ever-present and unseen methods by which He works out through the rebellious wills of men His own blessed purposes, did suffer these last troubles of ours to be in the course of natural events at once our punishers for the past and our instructors for the future ? And in some degree, thank 1 6 Liberality of Christian Converts in India. God, we have learnt the lesson ; and just in proportion to our less fearing to avow ourselves Christians, has been, in fact, our sway over that Indian mind committed to us. The fruit of the work of the Gospel Propagation Society may be apprehended there as well as anywhere else, endea- vourincr wherever it can to use the broad basis of the wealth and power which England possesses there, to do — what? To force no one, to compel no one, to bribe no one, to purchase no one adherent, but to get a hearing for the blessed message which it is its business to disseminate. And how great the effect that is obtained may be seen at this moment in whole districts of the south of India, the earliest sphere of the labours of this Society, and of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which in the beginning of the work com- bined these two works, but afterwards handed over this one of the propagation of the Gospel to the Propagation Society. It is not possible for us, dwelling at this distance, to know, unless we had learnt it from those among them, what the effect upon the native mind in all those districts has been, how village after village has been brought to profess the faith of Christ. Take one little fact, — that in the district of Tinnevelly alone, several years back, as much as p/^iioo a year was subscribed for the spread of the Gospel by the South Indian converts themselves. And how much does JManchester, with its tra- ditional Christianity, give to the Gospel Propagation Society? Set the small means of these Tinnevelly Christians beside our mighty resources, and see what it is. It is almost is. a week from every Christian family throughout that whole district that those people out of their poverty contributed. Set that /? beside what we are doing at home, and I think we may blush at the comparison. It would only be repeating the same story to take you to other parts of the world. It would be easy to do it — to New Zealand and to North America — of which I shall say to- day nothing, for the simple reason that my right rev. brother the Bishop of Columbia will address you and enlarge upon it, and tell you the works of his own hands, in which God has blessed and prospered him there. He will tell us something Ancient and Modern Missio7is Compared, 17 of that which many of us feel who knew him before, and had some little hand, humbly, in leading the selection to fall upon his head for his important post, of his deep and rejoicing interest in the mighty advance of the work that he is accom- plishing. It would be easy to say the same thing over and over again. But this is the issue to be tried. "Will you, by your Church's own instrument, accompany the march of your nation's civili- sation with the blessed seed of the Word, and the Sacraments of the Church of God ? Can you as a people expect to be maintained in your greatness if you are unfaithful to your trust ? Can that which you so give to God by any possibility be lost or wasted ? You will tell me, perhaps, that the results are not commensurate with your expectations, and that they justify your coldness. If the time would serve, I think I could answer those charges. Instead of being less than anything we had a right to expect, I think I could prove to any thoughtful man that the blessing of God as given to our labours is infinitely greater than anything we had a right to expect, if we measure those labours by the true measure of their simplicity, their singleness, and their self-denial. Men are led astray, so far as that argument goes, in this way : they see the progress the Gospel has made throughout the earth, and they say it does not make the same progress now ; but they forget that they are comparing, perhaps, an interval of ten to fifty years with an interval of eighteen hundred years, through which the Gospel has been spreading in the earth. If men at the beginning had judged by the same standard, they would have turned back from barbarian Phrygia, and never visited distant Britain with the healing sounds of Christ's truth. But so far from its having made a slow, I believe that in many parts of India, for instance, it has made an unexampled progress. But even if it was not so — if we did not see the result — that should make no differ- ence in our work. We work not for results, but we work for God, and we leave the result in His hand. And when man, in his littleness, looks out and says, " I do not see the fruit, and so I will give up," it reminds me, my friends, of what we B 1 8 Results in GocFs Hands. see even in nature. We look at some mighty estuary which the retiring tide has left bare of the water. We go to one of your own Lancaster shores, and we see there a vast expanse of sand and mud, with little trickling rivulets wearing their scarcely appreciable way through the resisting banks of that yielding ooze ; and the man who knew not the secrets of the tide, and the influences by which God governs nature, would say, " How can you ever expect to see that great expanse covered? Look at those sandbanks— those mudheaps. How possibly by any contrivance are you to cover them? You had better give up the thought, and acquiesce in the per- petual sterility and the enduring ooze." But high in the heavens, the unseen Ruler has set the orb which shall bring in her time the tides of the surrounding ocean, and when the appointed moment comes, noiselessly and unobserved, but suddenly and sufficiently, the whole is covered by the rejoicing water ; and again it is one argent surface, sandless and mud- less, because the Lord hath willed it. And by the self-same power, when the appointed hour comes, His work shall be wrought in the heathen mind, and these trickling rills of a struggling Christianity, which we have scarcely maintained through the mighty ooze of the opposition of fallen humanity, shall, under the unseen influences of the heavens above, so spring into a rejoicing tide, and cover with the wave of God's truth the regenerated earth. Blessed in that day above men shall that servant be, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find working for that result. IT. Upon the standing-place, work, and prospects OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. — Exeter, Oct. 1 859. The special subject upon which I have been called upon to address this meeting is, the standing-place, work, and pro- spects of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. I may assume that all in this room understand what the special principle and organisation of that Society is — that it is, in point of fact, this nation, and the Churdi of this nation, engaged in the work of spreading to others in distant lands the blessings of the pure faith, and of the apostolic dis- cipline, which this nation and this Church have, of God's mercy, received — that it specially undertakes the work in connection with those parts of the world with which our nation, as a nation, is itself directly connected. This is the one peculiar distinction of this Society, that it interprets the call of God for the spread of His truth to be specially addressed to a Christian people with regard to those distant parts of the earth which His providence has connected with itself; and that in this there are, first, the claims of the members of the mother country, who, in the process of swarm- ing forth that must naturally take place from a thickly-peopled country like this, are thrown afar from the inheritance of their Christian birthright into the wilderness of the earth. It does not need words to make every one in this room see that, for the most part, it must be the poorer class of people v^hom the agencies which are at work naturally thrust out of their native land. It is impossible that these people can carry with them M 20 State of Emigrants without Spiiatual Aids. in their first settlement in these distant parts the means of reproducing their fathers' Church. They go out often to obtain a bare liveHhood by the hardest labour, and often with manifold sufferings and self-denials. In the early stage of their colonial life it is impossible for them to make any due provi- sion for their spiritual wants ; and even if barely possible, it is not to be expected that they would do it. It is the law of spiritual necessity, that instead of engendering the hunger for the things which are wanting, it tends to prevent men perceiv- ing that they have the need. Natural hunger, by God's appointment, prompts at once to labour, because the sense of inanition is physically painful- but it is not so in spiritual things. The man that has not, hungers not. There is nothing which enforces by any immediate alarm to his being the awful change which is passing upon him, and so it is not to be expected that those who are thrown out — for the most part the least educated — into these scenes of labour and of difficulty, should provide for their spiritual necessities. Therefore the native country which thrusts them out surely incurs this responsibility, that as it is bound to send them out with all that is necessary to enable them to reproduce their native race, with its own main institutions, with its essential liberty, in the new land of their adoption, so it is bound also to send out with them the means of reproducing the Church of Christ. This charge the Society has always undertaken. The history of our colonies, where this Society has not reached to their early beginning, proves abundantly this necessity. We have the fearful example of such things as this : Our missionaries going to a settlement, originally made by British Christians, and finding that they had lost altogether out of their reckoning the very day in the week of our Lord's resurrection; tha^t tbey had lost altogether the habit, not only of baptizing their children, but even of giving to them Christian names; and that they were lapsing, through the neglect of their native land, into a state worse than heathenism, because a lapsed Christianity is a more malignant form of spiritual ignorance than even heathenism itself. This is the first charge which Dttty of a Christian Nation to the Heathen. 21 this Society has undertaken. And when you consider the mighty stream of emigrants which, for many years past, has been leaving our shores — fleets of vessels from this land, carry- ing not only the bodies, but the souls of our fellow-creatures to those distant settlements, I think that every one will admit that we, as a nation, are bound in some way or other to pro- vide for the religious necessities of that stream of emigrants. This, then, is the first principle of the Society, but only the first. It maintains next, that as the first duty of every Chris- tian people is to send the Gospel to their own brethren, so the second duty is to the heathen people whom the providence of God has connected with this nation as a nation. That is to say, while it would send the truths of Christ's Gospel every- where and anywhere, it is especially the bounden duty of a Christian nation to send it to those heathen people with whom it is brought, "by God's providence, into daily contact, and into the relations of social and daily life. Thus does this Society interpret the meaning of God in connecting Christian England with any great tracts of heathendom. God's purpose, in this connection, is not that we Christians should oppress, not that we should spoil, not that we should ourselves profit by our heathen brethren, and give nothing in return ; but that, by imparting to them the light which God had given to us, not for our own selfish benefit, but in order that His name may be spread upon the earth, we may become in these distant parts of the world in which we settle the centres of new light, and the spreaders of Christian influence. None can, I think, doubt that this is the true conclusion to come to. We know that when the apostles went abroad preaching the Gospel, they did not hold themselves at liberty to follow the mere dictates of their own inclination, but that they waited for intimations from the Spirit where they were to go, and, under God, as to when they could assuredly gather that which He had sent them to gather. If they had gone according to their own natural inclination, and contrary to the leading of the providence of God, they could not have looked for God's support. So we, at the present day, are bound to consider our 22 Method of Proceeding in the Colonies, duty precisely as they considered theirs. And is there any way in which it is possible that God could more directly intimate His will than by connecting any particular tract of heathendom with a Christian land ? What could be His meaning, in His mercy and in His love, but that, by the natural interchange of commerce, by the natural flow and ebb, influx and reflux, which the natural necessities of men would give rise to between the Christian community and the heathen, the Christian community might spread its higher standard of morals, its clearer revelation of truth, its knowledge of things unseen, which had been committed to it as a trust, and which, in the mysterious providence of God, had been withheld from the other? This Society acts on this principle : It first of all provides our fellow-countrymen, strangers in distant lands, with the necessary means of planting a Church. Mark, I say of plant- ing. There is not the least intention on the part of this Society of maintaining a Church in rich and populous centres of settlements in distant parts. Such a course would be alto-, gether wrong. The Church at home having planted the means of grace in great centres of civilisation, it becomes the duty of the settlement to preserve the means, and to spread them in their vicinity. The Society then withdraws the support, which originally was properly given, and transfers its aid in directions further from the centres of civilisation ; it may be deeper into the backwoods, where the population is sparse and poor. Thus the border-lands in time become themselves centres of civilisation. We have also to speak of the fruit of our labours ; for the noble chairman has called on me to speak of what has been done, as well as of what is now doing, and what may yet be done. Abundant fruit has been seen in the planting of that great country of North America with the faith of Christ and with the apostolic discipline. The American Reformed Episco- palian Church, now spreading throughout the whole of the United States, especially leavening the higher and more educated ranks of the people, is beginning to swarm forth The Importance of British Columbia, 23 in missions to the distant heathen. Thus has God prospered the labours of this Society. This Society planted and watered the Church in that distant land ; and only see for a moment how God has connected the doing of His will in these matters with even national rewards. There has always been the closest alliance of feeling, of interest, and of love between the mother country and that great land. The special bond of unity in these matters is between those who agree with the mother country in the community of the Church and of the faith. Here, then, is an instance in the past of the working out of this principle. The same spirit is manifest in other parts of North America, and especially in Newfoundland. There is a settlement of the poorest people; in fact, their only means of support is by fishing, and this is attended with much danger. They are too poor to maintain a minister, but it is delightful to see their joy when one visits them. They have nothing to offer but their fish ; but the Society sent a clergyman to them, feeling that they had no right to let a poorer brother suffer religious hunger, to lose his Christian minister, and then his Christian birthright; to have no one to baptize his children in the faith of his fathers, to perform the holy rites of matri- mony, and to speak consolation in sickness, and over the grave' of the departed dead. This is only an illustration. Precisely the same thing is going on in another part of America, which just at this moment has special interest for us— I mean that great new settlement of British Columbia. Perhaps many present may not be aware of the great prospective importance to England of that distant settlement. I may state, then, that it has been a universal rule that those places which have been the great emporium for the transit of the productions of the East to the West have become great centres of wealth, and great centres of power to the country which originally settled them. The great problem which it has been long endeavoured to solve is this— how across the great continent of North America the goods of the Eastern world might be brought by any direct transit to the Western seaboard. One special obstacle has always hitherto opposed itself to the realisation of any scheme 24 Climate of British Columbia. for this purpose. There is the great line of the Rocky Mountains reaching from the north to the south through the whole of that great country, and hitherto the difficulty of overcoming that ridge has prevented the realisation of any plan which should open that Eastern seaboard directly to the Western seaboard. Some time ago there was a dispute between North America and ourselves as to what was the true line of territory between ourselves and them. With much difficulty, and after many perplexities, that line was fixed, but with no idea of providing any mode by which, within British territory, this great problem might be solved, and this transit provided for our British terri- tory. But it has since been discovered that, through the providence of God, the line of territory was so settled that it fell about thirty miles south of that which has just been dis- covered to be the one, easy, and practicable mode of passing through that chain of the Rocky Mountains. So that, without our having in any degree schemed for it, God's providence has so ordered that the great transit from one side to the other of that vast continent will almost necessarily and certainly be carried now through British territory, finding its debouc/iement upon that distant side close to the new and vast harbours which belong to the settlement of British Columbia. It seems in many respects perfectly marvellous, when we consider how many combining circumstances tend to render that one of the most important portions of the globe for us. You all know that discoveries in modern science have shown that we owe in a degree the temperate climate of this beloved land of ours to the marvellous operation of what we call the Gulf Stream, bearing upon its bosom the warm breeze of the other side of the world. It has just been discovered that, by a similar provision, Columbia is favoured with the same kind of temperate climate ; the same absence of extreme cold, and therefore the same power of growing those wheat and other grains which are so essential to the prosperity of our race. Then recent engineering has shown that there is a tract of land eminently adapted to carry the great trunk railroad straight from one sea to the other, running for the most part along a t Missions to the Gold-Diggers, 25 moderate ridge of slight eminence, the whole sides of which are fitted for British agriculture and for British life. There- fore the probability is, when we look to that future to which the noble chairman has requested me to look, we may expect in a few years to find the whole outpouring of the superfluous life of Great Britain, if God spares peace and abundance to us as a nation, proceeding to people either side of that great railroad with men of our own blood, carrying our own faith, steeped in our own traditions, reproducing our own liberties, and strengthening incalculably the power of our beloved land. At the present moment the question is this, Shall these rugged men, gold-seekers and the like — men of whom we know very well that the last thing they think of in settling in that distant land, when in health and strength, is the making provision for the spiritual necessities of that marvellous being which is within them, — shall these men be suffered to lose their British instincts, to lose their British Christianity, to lose alto- gether their standing-place as members of the civilised family of man, because the native land which sends them out, while it would protect them from the slightest insult which a foreign flag could inflict upon them, cares not for that higher being which God Almighty's gift has stored within every one of them? It is impossible to imagine the effect when, in these distant lands, one of these rugged men, not in the hour of success, not in the time when gorged with the yellow gold which he goes forth to seek, and with the luxuries which that gold affords — not in that moment of pride of heart, but when fever has struck him, when one of the family is laid low, when the selfish- ness which that low life breeds is beginning to display itself by those who have been friends of the hour of joviahty, casting him and his family heartlessly off in the hour of their sufferings, — it is impossible, I say, to calculate what is the effect of the entrance, at that moment, into one of those families of those rugged men, of one coming to minister to their necessities in the strength, and blessedness, and love of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord. 26 Effects of a Godless Christianity I think some of the most interesting and touching things I have ever read have been the histories of the welcome given to one wlio would have been too often rejected in the hour of health, when these very men have been visited by sickness and pain. It is your duty, living here in the abundance of all your spiritual privileges, with Churches, with Schools for the young, with Bibles on every shelf, with Prayer-books in every hand, with that unknown influence of the circumambient atmosphere of a perpetually present Christianity,— it is, I say, your duty to minister through the long arm of such a Society as this to those brethren settled at the other side of the world. That is one great field of the Society's labours ; and the other great field is this— the dealing with the heathen round about these settlements. Let me ask you to remember what must be the effect upon the heathen people of the neighbour- hood of a young settlement, from what we call civiUsed lands, unless it is guided by Christian men ? There is nothing which represents Christianity worse than that sort of ravelled ex- ternal edge of the web of civilised life removed from those things which here retain men, even if they have no sense of religion, at least in decency of living, and in a good deal of mutual kindness one to another. When you take away the restraints of society, the restraints which family life in a Chris- tian land imposes even upon the most careless — when you throw the most reckless (and for the most part the leaders of emigration will be people of a certain natural recklessness of cha- racter, men who are disposed to throw off a little of the restraint of civilised life) together in a new colony, what sort of repre- sentatives of Christianity do you think they will generally be ? No doubt among them you may find a man possessed with an overbearing desire to spread the truth of Christ among his fellow-settlers, but he will be universally the exception. For the most part, those who hang upon the edge of the settlement, where it touches heathendom, will be those who have been driven out even from the former heart of a new civilisation in that distant land, because they dislike the tone which is spring- on the Heathen. 27 ing up there. It must, therefore, necessarily happen that these border settlements will ill represent your Christianity; your kindness, which flows from it ; your truthfulness, which is nothing more than an emanation of it ; your fair dealing, which is only one of its results; and all those other things which would make the settlement of a Christian people in the midst of heathendom a blessing instead of a curse. Universal experience shows that a new settlement brings a time of suffering, a time of danger, and a time of increased demoralisation to the heathen people among which it is made. The history of all our settle- ments in North America afl"ords strong evidence of this truth. It must happen, therefore, that unless there is a strong and dominant religious principle introduced into the colony which goes from the civilised land to settle in the uncivilised country, the ravelled edge at which the civilised life meets the uncivilised, will be one of cruelty, harshness, and utter want of brotherly regard to the people amongst which it settles. Just for a moment apply the principle which that necessarily involves to the fact of our being a great colonising country. We send out a colony here, a settlement there, and a commercial establishment at another place. What is to go on from that ? Are these native people, whose land we by degrees occupy, whose hunting-grounds we abridge, whose modes of getting their livelihood we impair, and to whom we impart the diseases of civihsation, to whom we impart the worst spiritual diseases, whom we teach to drink what at first they know no better name for than the " fire-water,"— are these people to be neglected? What must be the duty of the Christian people wh'o established such a settlement ? What, in the sight of God, must be their duty to the natives round about them ? Are no obhgations incurred by our taking possession of their land, by our sometimes adding them to our dominion, by our always imparting to them our evils? Surely there are. Thus this Society has interpreted its duties. It has said, " We are bound to make every settlement of British men an outpost of the faith ; we are bound to make it as a lighthouse in the midst of storms, casting its holy rays over the troubled waters of 28 Power over Nature the Fruit of Christianity, human life." We are bound to do it, and we can only do it by these two processes : First, by fulfilling the first obligation (upon which I have dwelt), of making our own people Chris- tians, without which all is in vain. It is no use to preach to the heathen that you have a purer faith than they have, when our own countrymen show them it is an impure faith. It is no use saying to them, " Cast your idols aside, and worship with us the God of heaven," when they can retort, " The wor- ship of God leaves you more drunken, more dissolute, more quarrelsome, and less careful about human blood, than the worship of these idols." Therefore, in the first place, we make our own settlers, by the power of the Gospel, examples so far as we can of what the Christian life is. And in the second place, from this vantage-ground we carry Christianity and civi- lisation amongst the heathen people around. And mark how especially this is our duty. I suppose every one of us would admit that the possession of the power to work miracles constituted a special charge upon the early Church that it should use that power for the sake of convert- ing the earth. You will also admit that if any man possessing the power of working miracles had applied it for his own tem- poral aggrandisement, he would have committed one of the greatest sins of which human nature could be guilty. And has not God given us the blessing of civiHsation ? has He not given us liberty, freedom, and strength of character? has He not given us the power over nature, which is the fruit of Christian- ity, for power over nature is the result of Christianity? Chris- tianity it is which has taught you the one will, the one power, the one law, and so has set you face to face with nature ; before which men, who had not got that key to read its secrets, trembled hopelessly, as before a set of mysterious powers into whose secrets they did not dare to pry; and having given you the power in this way of looking nature coura- geously in the face, and bidding her thus unfold her secrets, God gives you the power of commanding nature, and so has given you a great standing-place of superiority over the untaught tribes of the earth. I say, has not God, in giving us School for Childreit in Grahamstown, 29 these advantages, which call, by their first aspect, upon the heathen to give to us the self-same attention which the power of working miracles gave to those who in the first ages went forth to deliver God's message — has not God given to us precisely the same sort of responsibility as to our use of His gifts, as He gave to the first bearers of the message ? Well, then, when we settle amidst a tribe of untaught men, and they at once honour our superiority, fallmg down before us, how are we lifted up above them ! Is not that superiority, I ask you, just as direct a requirement that we should use our power to speak to them of the wonders of the message which has made us what we are, as if God from heaven by a distinct voice committed these heathen people to our charge ? This is the work which this Society is carrying on. There are several parts of the world in which it is promi- nently at work. Take, for example. South Africa, a country which we " need pre - eminently in order to maintain our Indian supremacy; because if any other nation possessed Southern Africa, and could come forth with its ships of war from the harbour of that southern peninsula to intercept our Indian fleet, there is no calculating what the consequences would be. Therefore, observe, we need for our own aggran- disement the possession of that land. We find the tribes there at this moment so possessed with the notion of the superiority which our education and our faith have given us, that they are sending to us to desire us to supply missionaries to instruct their people in the faith. They are sending the children of their chiefs, that we may educate them ourselves. How could any man devise a scheme by which Christianity could be more effectually introduced into that colony? The question is. Shall we be able to do it ? Just before I left London, I pre- sided over a meeting of the committee of this Society, when the Bishop of Grahamstown laid his case before us. He told us that at his diocesan school for natives there were between two and three hundred native children fed, clothed, and trained. The Government had hitherto supplied the greater portion of the money for this scheme, but the necessity of paring down 30 Duty of Christians at Home. the expenses had caused the withdrawal of the grant. He therefore wished to know, whether these children were to be sent away, and the work of Christian teaching to be abandoned. In appealing to our treasurer, I found that every single penny of income had been already appropriated, and that we could not, as honest men, undertake tliis charge. The matter, how- ever, was discussed, and I ventured to say to the Bishop of Grahamstown, "I am confident that if you simply make this fact known to Christian England, you will have the money necessary to maintain the school. Do not hesitate to take upon you the responsibility; do not dare to undertake the responsibility of breaking that school up, and abandoning this mighty offer of God's providence to you." Now I tell you this to-night, and you must make the answer. If this and other similar works are to be maintained, they must be maintained by your augmenting the funds by which this Society works. It may be that many in this room cannot go upon this errand. It may be that if at this moment a bloody war were to break out, and our lives and our liberty were all at stake, comparatively few in this room could go themselves to fill the ranks of the volunteers of our land. But is there a man here, is there a woman here, who vrould not have their part in that defence ? Is there one who would not send, if he could not go ? Is there one who would not be following those who went, night and day, with exceeding prayer to God that He would strengthen the band of their countrymen? And think you that the case is really different? Oh, no ! If you care for the spread of Christ's Gospel, and for the main- tenance of the eternal truths which are enshrined in His blessed Church, if you cannot go, you must send — send by your alms, send by your intercessions, send by your perpetual prayers; and this is what we charge upon you ; this is your duty with reference to the Church's mission-work. You know, most of you, that that good and marvellous man Dr Livingstone has gone out to endeavour to open a way into Central Africa, by which commerce, civilisation, and Christianity may go upon their united errand of healing to Purpose of Dr Livingstone s Travels. 31 those distant tribes. I received from him, about a fortnight since, a letter full of the deepest interest, giving minute details of the wonderful success of his mission — of his having dis- covered a tract of land accessible, with very little land- carriage, from that great river the Zambesi — a tract of land healthy and admirably adapted to the constitution of Euro- peans, where the use of quinine is unnecessary, because the African fever seems to spend itself of itself. The population there is abundant, peaceable, and influenced by all the gentle arts of peace. The cotton-plant abounds, and the people so far know its value that they already spin its fibres into the dress worn by their own women. Dr Livingstone asks, " Can you stir up the English people to use this? Can you stir them up to send a representative of Christian Britain ? " He says it will be the destruction of the slave trade if such a settlement is made. But observe the same peculiarity which runs through all God's dealings with Christian people. It would be at this moment pre-eminently of mercantile and commercial advantage if this land were civilised ; because at this moment there is no problem so important to be solved as how we can supply the great manufacturing districts of this country, more certainly than we can now do, with the raw material of cotton. Observe how God has connected together the prosperity of our beloved country with the meet- ing His offers of service to Himself Suppose we do nothing. There is an unimportant territory between the seaboard and this land, possessed by the Portuguese, and still, I grieve to say, ravaged by a slave trade, which, if not encouraged, is at least winked at by the distant settlers of that colony. This is breeding perpetual mischief. Even as it was, Dr Livingstone had great difiiculty in passing through that miserable country. Let a few more decades of years pass, and the evil will have so established itself, that it will first of all eat inward upon the country not yet ravished by it, and then it will build up a wall of suspicion, and hatred, and violence between what remains untainted in the central land and the external part of that country with which you can come into contact. Then the n ^ Christianity Spread by the Chtirch, o- opportunity of providing for your cotton-market will have passed away. And observe, we not only provide for the welfare of your own manufactures by opening this new supply of the raw material, but we solve another great question. How is slavery in the United States to be overcome? Not by our talking unkindly and arrogantly about the faults of our brethren there. That never has healed mischief. How very inconsistent, too, for us so to talk, and then to be the great consumers of what has really been created by that slave cultivation. Rather let us endeavour to provide the raw material elsewhere from free labour, and so make it the interest of the Americans to join with us. Here is the sort of work which this Society is doing ; and observe, it cannot be done by the nation. Supposing any minister, whatever were his power, were to rise to propose that the nation should send out such Christian means as these, you know what would follow — the Babel of tongues that would begin, and the absolute impossibility of doing it, divided as we are at home. But I venture to say, further, that it is not the bu^nness of the nation, and never has been the business of the nation. Christianity has been spread by the Church ; Christianity is not spread by nations. Nations have no organs for converting the earth. The sword will not do it ; diplomacy will not do it. No ; it must be the duty of the nation which has received Christianity as its best boon, to hold the shield of temporal power over the Church in the Church's mission to the world abroad. It must, then, be done by the Church ; and here is one of the Church's most direct and most influential instruments through which you can do it. I do not say anything against any other ; God forbid that I should. I wish to draw no man from any other agency which is doing the Church's work ; but I do wish to draw men from spending what God has intrusted to them upon selfish- ness, upon display, and upon worldliness, and to lead them to consecrate it to the service of their Maker. And for a moment remember what it is that England owes to this land upon which 1 have ventured to con- Debt of England to Africa. 33 centrate your attention. Remember that for centuries the leading nation of Christian Europe in the accursed crime of the slave trade were the British people. Remember that throughout the vast peninsula of Africa, war, treachery, and misery were engendered, as far as your influence could reach, through the curse of the slave trade, which you introduced and fostered in it. This is the great evil which Dr Livingstone tells you he meets on every side. He finds that wherever Christian traders have been, and the slave trade has been estabhshed, falsehood has followed in their track, that all the native virtues have disappeared, and that a man, instead of being, as in most parts of Africa he was, a comparatively amiable savage, is turned into one who looks upon his brother, either with cupidity, thinking how he can enslave him, or with trembling, fearing lest he should find in his brother an enslaver. If this is the actual state of the land, and if God, by one of those rare dispensations of mercy which He sometimes vouchsafes to a people, gives us still the opportunity of undoing the evil, and of introducing Christianity to heal the disorders which in times past we have spread amongst them, how, I ask, can England, how can England's Church, be guiltless in His sight, if it does not rise to the greatness of the opportunity, and spend its mite freely in doing heartily this work of the Lord? This, then, is the question for us ; and surely at this moment it is one of momentous interest. What can we expect as a people, as a Church, if we refuse to discharge these obligations? Are there not already abroad upon the horizon of our beloved land, clouds enough which might darken at any moment into a complete eclipse of the light of heaven from our firmament ? In whom do we trust to dissipate these vapours ? Who is it that raises the cloud no bigger than a man's hand, and bids it, while the prophet prays, overspread the heavens? Who is it that bids His wind sweep again the vapour from the azure arch above, and reveal it to us in its beauty and in its repose ? Who is it but He who has set this work before us, and gives us this day of trial in which to discharge it ? And if we do it C 34 God's Pin-poses Irresistible. not, what shall be the result ? Think you that His purposes of mercy can be defeated by the cupidity of man ? Think you the avarice of one set of men, and the timidity of another, and the sloth of a third, can intercept the purposes of mercy with which the love of the Almighty embraces His creation ? Oh, no ! The will of God shall be done, whether we do it or refuse to do it. Man cannot stay the mightiness of the march of His love. The question, and the only question, is. Shall we do it, or refuse to do it ? Shall we hand on to another the glory, and the blessedness of the reward of performing His embassies of mercy? That is the question. It maybe that there slumbers at this moment in the arsenal of the Most High the bolt of long-delayed judgment. It may be that it slumbers there until the appeal now making to Christian England shall either have been answered, or shall have been refused. And if it shall be refused, what then ? My brethren, I will not read these letters of threatening. The dream be unto our enemies ; the interpretation to them that hate us. You can all read it. But if we do rise to the call, what then? Has it ever happened that one of God's instruments has been ' broken in the encounter? Has it ever happened that a people or a nation doing His work were stayed by another people or another nation from the work which they were heartily performing ? No, indeed ! If England be strong in the hardy, self-denying performance upon high principle of what God has intrusted to her doing, let her laugh her enemies to scorn ; for then, indeed, He that sitteth on high shall be on her side, and He that is higher than the highest her perpetual defender. III. Upon the special characteristics of the society FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL, ETC.— Ipsivich, Oct. 24, 1864.. The special characteristics of the Gospel Propagation Society amongst the other societies connected with our Church, and which are engaged in this work of spreading the Gospel through the earth — the high distinguishing characteristics of the Society are two ; and the first is, that it takes as a sphere the work marked out for it by the providence of God— namely, those parts of the distant earth with which we are nationally con- nected. I think that it is a very important principle myself. The spreading of the Gospel of Christ throughout the world is a mighty trust to be committed to any Church, to any people, or to any individuals. It is not to be undertaken by men— it is not to be carried on by men, at the mere dictates of their own inclinations. They are to mark what are the providential indications of the hand of God. They are to follow up those indications, and then they are to act in this great work in faith, and not merely upon feeling. [After illustrating this by St Paul's call to Macedonia, the Bishop continued : — ] Now, what I want you to notice is this, that in mapping out the different spheres of direct missionary labour, we have in God's Word this proved, that there is a pointing out of par^ ticular places to particular individuals, to which they are at that time to direct their steps, if they are to expect to have the full support of Almighty God with them. And why should it be otherwise at the present moment ? Surely we may now, from this which is written in the Word of God, gather it as a 2,6 How a Natio7is DtUy is Ascertained. certain fact, that every Christian people have a special mission, some special part of the world to which their attention should be directed ; and their great object should be to discover where that special mission is, because then they can have the help of God in carrying out their work. And how is that to be ascer- tained ? It seems to me to be distinctly marked by this, that when a Christian people have been by God's providence con- nected as a nation with a distant part of the earth, and with certain particular tribes of the heathen people, then we may see the finger of God pointing to that field of labour as the one permitted to that particular nation. And I think it is plain for this reason ; as God has been pleased to withdraw from the missionary work the day of miraculous proofs that those who go about His work are sent by Him, that which the power of working miracles afforded to the first missionaries of the Gospel must now be found in some other gift of God to the messengers of the Gospel And where is it to be found? Surely in this, that whereas when these miraculous powers were given, the uninstructed and ignorant men had to strive against all the learning, and all the social position, and all the civilisation of the then earth, and therefore would not be able to get ear for the message which they declared unless there was something to strike upon the senses of men to lead them to give a first listening to the message which they brought ; so while civilisation is altogether upon the side of Christianity, the power of working miracles, being no longer needed to secure the first attention, has been withdrawn, and the Church is thrown upon that which God has now given her, the superiority of Christian civilisation, to obtain a first hearing from those to whom the message of the Gospel goes. Well, if this is so, then it is per- fectly clear that when a Christian nation is known and appre- ciated in Its strength, in its superiority of civilisation, in its gifts of liberty, and in all those things which raise the civihsed man above the uncivilised barbarian, it is to those places that the messengers of the Gospel should direct their first attention because there they will meet that readiness of listening to the'r message which is created by a knowledge of the superiority Who it is that now Emig^^ate, 3 7 which Christianity has given to the people who go amongst them. Now, this being the case, mark the results. Where a Christian people is settled in distant parts of the earth, there first is bound to be — trusting to God's aid — the spreader of His Word to the people. And there is another reason which seems to me to mark the same out, and it is this, A Christian prin- ciple laid down in the Word of God is, that while we owe a duty to every man, we owe first a duty to such as are united to us by ties of blood. And thus, first of all, the Church must be the Church of its own sons and daughters whom the nation sends out as emigrants. We have no right to indulge ourselves by engaging in missionary work in behalf of those who are not connected with us, if it leads us to neglect those who are bound to us by the ties of brotherhood. Well, then, we must go first of all, because we have been sent, to those brothers of ours who have made for themselves a home in some distant part of the earth, because they cannot in their poverty provide the blessing for themselves. For, mind you, it is the poor who go out now. The days are past when men went out as in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and formed some new^ settlement. Now those who are driven out to settle in distant portions of the earth are those who cannot find at home that which they need; for the increasing popu- lation drives them out. It is the principle upon which the bees swarm out of the hive, because those who have got pos- session of the hive will not let them abide in it. That being the case, these people are unable to found the Gospel there, they have not the means, they cannot pay a ministry, they cannot maintain a Christian priest to go out with them, and to minister the Word and the Sacraments. Then, perhaps, some of you say, " The nation ought to do it." But I tell you we cannot do it as a nation, because of our religious differences at home. This is one of the many evils of that great sin which I maintain we all amongst us are chargeable with. We are broken and divided among ourselves in our religion at home, and therefore we cannot, as a nation, act upon the heathen people abroad. But then, if we cannot do it as a nation, the o 8 Establishing the Chicrch in its Coiupleteiiess, duty must fall back upon every religious denomination which professes the name of Christ. In virtue of its own Christianity, it should send out what it has received, and that in the purest form of Christianity that is given to it. Mark you, that is the minimum duty that can come back upon each religious denomination. It is not that they should send out a form of Christianity. What they themselves have received is God's gift of the Gospel in ever}^ one of its particulars. They must send it so, or else they are guilty of maiming or altering that which they have received as the deposit of God's gift to them. Then if this is the case, mind you, there must rest upon the Church of Christ the duty of sending out first to the Church of England emi^ants in the distant parts of the earth, and then next to the heathen people round about those centres of emigration, the Church of Christ in its doctrines, in its dis- cipline, in its completeness, as the Church of England has received the same. To do less than this is unfaithfulness ; it is meddling with the deposit God has given to the Church. It is the very fault that we charge — and I maintain charge truly — upon the Church of Rome, that it innovates upon the apostolic institution and the apostolic doctrine. If we, for instance, say, " We will send out the Bible, and we will send out a preacher of the Word, and that is enough for a distant mission," what are we doing ? We are falling below our own principle. We have no right to fall below our own principles. We have no right to expect the blessing of God upon our work if we do. Other sects of Christians, who do not hold as of apostolic institution what we do, may expect a blessing when they send out what they have received as the truth in faith, while we cannot expect that blessing if we do only what they are doing, because we are not in faith sending out what we have received, but something else. Now, this is a most important principle j and I say, therefore, my dear friends, with God's providence, it is marked for us, for these two reasons, to uphold the work of this Society. The first and chiefest characteristic of the Gospel Propagation Society among the different missionary institutes is this, that Who are Needed f 07^ Missionaries. 39 it takes as its field of labour the distant parts of the earth con- nected with the nation of England, and it takes the emigrants from Great Britain as its first charge. There is one other pecu- liarity about it, and it is one I think well worth your noting, and that is the mode in which it selects its missionaries. Of course this is a very important matter in any missionary society. It is of extreme importance that we should get really living spiritual men to do the work. You don't want to send out the dull and the dry ; you don't want to export bad goods to the cheaper market. On the contrary, in many respects the missionary work is the highest work the Church can be called to. It is there she stands face to face with Satan in his own empire, face to face with all the difficulties which have long been established and made into the traditions of the nations against the Gospel of Christ. It is there that self-denial is most re- quired ; for there men are thrown upon their own inward heart's strength of the grace of God to support them in the difficult positions in which they are placed. Why, really, we might almost say, that just as it is necessary to send the best generals out when you have some dangerous enemy to attack in a distant part of the world, w^iereas mere ofticers, made up of lace and epaulettes, and accustomed to ride in Hyde Park, would be quite unfit for the duty, so it is necessary to send out at the head of these regiments of Christ— for you are cToing into the very stronghold of Satan— those in whom the l'ove°of the Gospel is deepest, and faith in the Gospel the strongest. Then there is another important point. There may be some peculiar taint or some peculiar bias of opinion in men, that will appear in their work; and it may be easy to conceive of a society for missionary work representing some one section of opinion. You all know the cant terms by which sects are designated— I am not going to use them ; fix in your minds any one of them you like, and suppose some gentlemen of that section were going to flavour the work with their particular views. How could they do it? By picking out gentlemen very strongly flavoured with the same, to convey a particular flavour 40 Foundation of Colonial Sees. to their work. Therefore the system on which missionaries are appointed is all important. Now the peculiarity of the Gospel Propagation Society is this, that wishing really to identify itself in this work not with any particular section, but with the Church of England at large, it does not leave even to its managing committee the selection of the missionaries, but it leaves to the two Archbishops and the Bishop of London the appointment of the clergymen who are to be sent out by this Society; and I defy the ingenuity of man to invent a pro- cess by which we could more reasonably expect to come at the conclusion we desire to reach — namely, that the missionary work should be what the Church at home is in its most active working, and not belong to any particular section of that Church. The only exception to that rule is this, that when a Colonial Bishop is at home, and is going to his own diocese, he is at liberty to select those to go out to work with him. But in his diocese he is not allowed to select the men to be sent out, but all must pass under the approval of that IMissionary Board in which the Society has vested the power, putting it out of its own hands into that of the chief elders of the Church at home. These are the only two remarkable characteristics of the Society, and I think, identifying itself as it does with the nation and the Church, it has a pre-eminent claim upon the support of all English Churchmen. And in saying this, I do not wish to draw away the subscription of any one man in this room from any other Church of England Society that he may support. I would not willingly, if you offered it to me, take from you a diverted half-sovereign which was given to another society, because I am convinced that it is not the rivalry of those societies which limits our funds, but it is the rivalry of the Avorld and its selfishness against the claims of the Gospel. Now, the special work to which the resolution before you points is the foundation of the Sees ; and in this it is for us to consider how important it is for us to have the blessing of God. If you and I, as members of the Church of England, do really believe that the apostolic office is exercised now in the Practical Working of the Society's Principle, 4 1 episcopate of the Church of England — if we believe, with our Reformation Service, that it is evident to all men diligently reading the Holy Scriptures that from the beginning of the Church of Christ there have been these three orders. Bishops, Priests, and Deacons — if you believe that you are interfering with God's ordinances if you leave out any one of these orders from the missionary work, — pray see the conclusion we come to; because I beUeve it is really in a great measure the slowness of the Church of England in acting upon that principle which has so long limited her missionary success. Of course there may be success without these organisations ; for the help of God may be given to men who believe they have the Church with them j but what I want to sink into your hearts is, that if we believe with our Prayer-book, we cannot look for God's bless- ing if we do with less than the sending out of bishops to the Church into its struggle abroad, and therefore it is a matter of faith with us to do so, and not a matter of choice. It is a matter of faith with us Church of England people, and that point settled, I must maintain that it is, secondly, the cheapest, and most practical, and best way of working your means efficiently. Now let me show you that for a moment, because English- men always like to have a little backing-up of the principle with something practical. Principle is a beautiful thing, the right thing, everything ; but still, after all, is it practical ? Does it work ? That is always the thought of Englishmen, and unless you can show that the principle is a working principle, I am afraid that however well the abstract truth is admitted as an abstract truth, it will be very little acted upon in daily work. Well, now then for the practical. Let us consider first what are some of the main difficulties of the work. A man com.es to the missionary for baptism. You see he is under very deep impres- sions of religion ; at the same time he is not able to sacrifice some old heathen custom. He has a struggle, and he comes to the missionary, who has had perhaps but little experience, and who is put into a great difficulty to know what he is to do with this question. If he can refer the question at once to his Bishop 42 Practical Working of tJie Society s Principle, — who has been having a hundred of these questions put to him from different parts of his diocese, and is in the constant habit of answering them — the man is able to take at once a distinct and definite line, and a line which his brother missionaries are taking, and it comes with such power upon the mind of this heathen inquirer, that it is like a law from above, because you have taken the Church's organisation and authority. There are a multitude of such questions. The mode, for instance, in India, of treating the great caste question is one. But when you have not got the missionary See and Bishopric, what can you do? The missionary writes home to the committee a long statement of the whole case, and desires instructions. It takes many months for his letter to come, and when it comes, the committee meet to consider what answer they are going to send. They send a very wise answer, no doubt ; printed very well indeed at headquarters ; and it goes back, and is several months more on the passage ; and before it gets there, the question has been settled. Perhaps the man has been satisfied, and is baptized ; or he is dead, or gone away; and before the answer gets there, the necessity for any answer at all is wholly passed away. It is exactly as if a man were wounded in a ship at a distant part of the earth, and needed the amputation of a leg, and the surgeon had to send to London to the Horse Guards to know whether he should amputate the leg, and wait for the answer before taking the knife into his hand. What would it be in worldly things, if the commander of an army — for instance, in New Zealand — instead of having the power to give an immediate order, had to send to the Horse Guards or to Downing Street? It would lead to the disorganisation and breaking up of the army into a mere multitude of individuals, so that there would be no concentrated action, no successful warfare. And it must be the same in spiritual warfare. You need in practice, as well as in principle, the apostolic institution, in order to give harmony, strength, and instantaneity of action to the army of missionary clergy in that most difficult enterprise. There is still one other point which I wish to sink into your Ditties of a Bishop. 43 hearts. One of the most essential duties of the Bishop at home, as you know by experience, is to be the friend and con- fidant of the clergy who are working under him, in their diffi- cult work, to lead them every one to know and feel that there is one man upon whose love and sympathy and care they can reckon constantly, with whom no trifle will be too little for him to think the matter over, and to send them back with his sympathy and the best advice he can give. That is one of the main works of the living episcopate at home, and it must be even more so in those distant lands where the missionary is an alien in the midst of a mass of heathendom, his spirits ready to sink, and his hopes to be scattered. In such a posi- tion, above all, he needs one to whom he can thus look in the hour of difliculty, and from whom he can receive back that word of cheering sympathy, and of help and direction, which at some moments to every labouring man is worthy of all price in this world. Well, this being the principle on which this Society acts in the heathen world, wherever this nation of England has spread itself, I maintain that the Society has first been acting on a high Christian principle, and, next, it has been doing that which is practical, and most conducive to the spreading of the Gospel in foreign parts. Now there is one objection taken to this, and as it is an objection that is very often found in men's mouths, I should like to say a word upon it. The objection that is made is this, " You so often see these Colonial Bishops at home. If they are so much wanted abroad, why are they so often at home ? " First of all, then, I deny that they are so very often at home. Like the man who gave twenty good reasons for doing a thing, the last of all being that it was impossible, I begin by saying, that they are not so often at home, and then I will explain why they are at home. It is quite true that there are at times one or two, or even three Colonial Bishops in England; but then they have been at their posts five, seven, and some of them fourteen years, without ever having been back to England. But what gives the impression of their being so much at home is their activity while they are in this country. It is like a : 4 Colonial Bishops at Home. man who sees six flies in a room flying round and round and round again, and who says that the room is full of flies. You know the old theatrical trick of making half-a-dozen men walk several times across the stage, so as to give the effect of a large army on the march; and just so, when the Bishops are at home, because they are not at home in idleness, not going to some seaside place to lie snug for a season, but going back- ward and forward to the most popular centres of the land, and stirring up the missionary interest, therefore it is supposed they are always back at home. Because the six missionary flies are flying about in the centre of observation, the country is supposed to be full of them. But let me say this, that I believe it to be of the utmost moment, at once for the Colonial Church, and the Church at home, that the Colonial Bishops should come home, and go out again to their work. These men are called by St Paul the angels or messengers of the Churches, the proper messengers between the Church at home and the Churches in the colonies. They come to gather up the prayers, the zeal, the interest, the desire, the advice of the Church at home, and in this way a unity of feeling and action is kept alive between the Church at home and the Churches abroad. They bring back to us the news of what they are doing, and then, as brethren, we are called together to hear what the Lord has done by the hand of His special messengers; and the heart of the Church at home is warmed, so that it shoots out the life blood to the very extremities with a new vigour in its arterial action, because we have learned at home what is doing abroad. I have known nothing in my diocese which has more quickened the zeal of the people than the going round with me of one of these Colonial Bishops, testi- fying what the Church was doing in distant parts of the earth. Then there is one other most practical consideration. No Colonial Bishop has ever yet been appointed to his See with- out the number of missionaries working in that See being at least quadrupled within a few years of his appointment ; and therefore, observing what a great thing it is to get missionaries, The Melanesian Mission. 45 the shortest way to get them is to send out a Colonial Bishop to head them. For the men feel at once their strength in the presence of the Bishop. They do feel that they are indeed working in the Church's army, according to the will of its Divine Head, and so they are encouraged to make great sacri- fices of home and comfort here, and to go and throw themselves in the forefront of the noble army, amidst all the self-denials, the dangers, and the difficulties which beset such a post. Look for a moment, practically, at one of these dioceses, and you will see all I have said fulfilled. Just consider, and realise to yourselves, the position of the Bishop of New Zealand, at the other side of the world. Let us look for a moment at the islands of that vast archipelago on the north of New Zealand. What has been the result of sending the Bishop of New Zealand to those islands ? It was first Bishop Selwyn, now it is Bishop Patteson. He goes in a ship, with no niuni- tions of war, nor even of self-defence, from island to island of that vast cluster, going with one marvellous power God has given him — the power of acquiring languages — and he touches at one of these islands, which are inhabited by tribes whose Yery name was synonymous with barbarity and cruelty of every kind — men who were constantly charged with the dreadful practice of eating one another, not only when they got victims in war, but even at other times. And the Bishop goes to one of those islands in the midst of great dangers, and for this reason: the crew of some ship that has previously visited this island has left a feud behind in consequence of outrages which they had committed, and the natives have determined to take revenge, and to make no distinction between those who were connected with the men who had done the wrong and others ; and so the Bishop finds the beach lined with men in hostile array. But this good man anchors his vessel in the very face of the hostile gathering, trusting to the soul-winning power of the Gospel of Christ, of which he is the bearer. He then, by some means or other, probably by some act of kindness, gains upon the natives little by little, obtains some friendly communication with them, and soon persuades them to trust one of their lads to go a 46 Who Support Missions ? short voyage with him. He takes this lad, and devotes him- self to him, and becomes his friend ; and when he goes back after a few weeks, he is led in safety by the boy to the parents' hut, and they welcome him back, and the strange teacher is then introduced to four or five more people, and after a time some others consent to go and be instructed in a school on another island. There they learn the truths of the Gospel of Christ, and returning to their own native island, become the spreaders of the truth to their brethren in their own familiar and beloved tongue, commending the new teaching as none but natives can commend it. Such has been the first entrance of the Gospel into one of those islands, which have been gradually leavened by the blessed message of the everlasting Gospel, and such has been the practical working of the See in that antipo- dean mission of ours. The question I wish to put to you is, whether you will help heartily in this work, which God, I maintain, has placed before us ? I know well the objections men can take. I know well the whisper, "There is so much to do at home; there is no great call for these men to distant parts of the earth ; it is ex- travagant of the four Archbishops to say that there is a duty incumbent upon us to send more missionaries there." I dis- believe those objections from the bottom of my heart. I am perfectly satisfied of this fact, that the men active in missionary work are the men active in work at home. I challenge any one to disprove it, and I put it to any man in this room, if he were going to raise a sum of money for some religious or really charitable work at home, and wanted to get help in order to carry that work out, if he knew that one of his neighbours gave to the missionary work, and the other always buttoned up his pockets, and would not give anything to the missions, which would he go to? You can all answer the question. You might write seven or eight octavo volumes to disprove it, but his logic of experience would tell him that the man that buttoned up his pocket against the claims of the missionary cause would not open it to the home claim, and the pocket that ojjened for the heathen would have something left for the God's P^trpose in giving England Power, 47 people at home. Therefore you see there is nothing in that objection, because if you have led a man to believe in this, you have made him a diffuser of blessings, and although you have led him first to help the distant mission, he will not refuse to help in the good work at home. Then we go to another and a higher reason. Do you really believe that God has given to us in England the wonderful power He has given us on the earth, only that we may have greater physical enjoyment at home, or only that our name may be spread throughout the world? Have you so read history, so studied your Bibles ? Has any man received any- thing from God except to use as the instrument of the mani- fold grace which has vouchsafed it to him ? And can, there- fore, a Christian nation have received its national greatness or its Christianity, except upon the condition of using that greatness to spread the kingdom of Christ, and that grace to make others partakers of it also ? Well, then, if so, it is dis- tinctly a national object that we should use these oppor- tunities God has given us for His glory ; for if not, what will happen } Surely this, that some other people will be raised up to that pinnacle of power which God has given to us, in order that it may do what we have refused to do. And if this be true of our national greatness, perhaps it is more directly true of our spiritual advantages. God has given us, as a nation, very peculiar powers of doing this work. Our great navy— the way in which it touches the shores of heathendom at every turn — the very fact, as you see here, of the sea and its inlets running throughout every part of England — the fact that every breeze that blows under heaven wafts a thousand English sails into a thousand ports, — all these things are our opportunities, and increase the call made upon us. And I say that, perhaps even more than in these things, tlie call upon us is strengthened by what God has given us in primitive purity of doctrine and primitive completeness of discipline, and at the same time perfect liberty of acting. Do consider what that is. God, in our Reformation, enabled us, through our fore- 48 Blessings conditional on right use of them. fathers, to cast off those corruptions of superstition which had been for so many centuries growing upon the Church, and has given to us the Bible in our own tongue, and the Bible trans- lated into the tongues of all the earth, in its purity and in abundance. Furthermore, He has given to us, with this purity of doctrine, the completeness of the Church's organisation, so that we do not lose what so many parts of the earth lost in sweeping off abuses — that we did not lose the Episcopate ; and therefore we have the opportunity, which no other nation under heaven at this moment has, nationally, ecclesiastically, and religiously, for doing this work of God ; and that, having that opportunity, and that greatness, we have the greater ac- count to render as to how we do it. And just as, if we neglect to do it, we may look for national humiliation, so let every one remember, if we refuse to do it, we may look for a spiritual withering. You may see some parts of the earth — the Holy Land is one of them — the very lands of which are scorched and seamed by the dry prints of old torrents which once watered the plains daily, and which now, in perfect drought and hardness, witness only of the change of the heavens above them. Once they were conduits and ducts of gracious showers, which made the valley below verdant and abundant, but the showers have ceased to fall ; they themselves are dry as the bare desert side, and what once were laughing valleys are now themselves dried- up wastes. And is there not in nature a terrible sign of what befalls the Church when, because she is unfaithful to her high vocation, the showers of grace are suffered not to fall, and her sacraments and other means, which once carried those gracious and refreshing gifts of God to ten thousand souls, are become empty of the inward grace which is their only life, and are become barren and fruitless as the land of God's sentence ? We have seen in the Church such an instance, and may God divert it from us ! We have seen it in the North African Church, which produced St Augustine, and which once numbered more than two hundred bishoprics ; and what is it now ? How com- pletely wasted away and perished ! and that because, as it seems to me, when Christianity was at its height there, no North African C/mrck, why Destroyed. 49 attempt was made to spread it into Africa below it ; no efforts were made to advance it beyond Rome, and the civilisation that then was upon the earth, and boldly and daringly to in- vade the conterminous heathendom. And so when the awful Mussulman power swept over that land, it had no native strength to fall back upon ; it had no outlying civilisation ; no national support to sustain it ; and was swept away by the judgment of God's providence, because in the day of its abundance it had been content to have, without imparting, the blessing of Christianity. Spiritual selfishness is the worst form of selfishness, whether it be that of a Church or a man. Who contemplates the gift of God in Christ as if meant only for himself, and not for every one around him, that man turns with the alchemy of selfishness the very gold of God's blessed gift into poison and dross. Yes, so it wnll be, depend upon it, if we listen to that voice which says, " Have for yourselves, but don't think of spending and giving to others." It is as we do give to others that our God will give to us. It is as we bear the blessed message to every waiting soul, that we shall know, from God's merciful gift to ours, more of its inward power, more of its superabundant grace. Therefore do we desire for our own welfare, as well as for the glory of our Lord, that we may be stirred up in this and every other part of our Church, to labour through this chosen instrument for this blessed end. D IV. Upon the confidence due to the society for THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. — Nottingham, 1864. I APPEAR at this meeting at the desire of your Bishop, and in order to render any little aid that is in my power to the efforts which he is making to arouse this part of his diocese to the great privilege of spreading the Gospel in foreign parts ; for it is upon this broad footing, and no other, that I will put the matter at the outset. I do not want to scold you into giving ; I rather prefer to show you how great a blessing it is to be permitted to share in so great and glorious a work as that of spreading the Gospel. The resolution which has been committed to me refers specially to the eminent claims of that Society known as the Gospel Propagation Society \ and I am, therefore, bound in honesty to say a word or two about that particular Society, to show why I believe the words of that resolution to be literally true. But while doing so, I first of all wish to clear the ground, and 1 desire also it may be dis- tinctly understood that, in anything which I may say, I do not mean to aim a blow at any other society. To do so is a despicable piece of malevolence, which is exemplified in the saying, *' Who praises Lesbia's form and feature, Must call her sister awkward creature." I do not wish to call her sister an " awkward creature." I welcome her into the family. But I claim that mine is the elder sister, and therefore entitled to the first chance. If the offer were made to me this night by any in this crowded hall to transfer their subscriptions from the Church ]\tissionary Society to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, I Why the S. P. G. shoitld be Preferred. 5 1 would refuse them every one. The enemy which we have to strive against is, I am convinced, selfishness- and uncon- cern in the work of God, rather than zeal for a particular agency in domg it. And having said this much, I will not shrink from saying that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has pre-eminent claims on the liberality of the members of our Church, and that, in order to make ourselves free to sup- port other Missionary Societies, we must begin by supporting this one. We- might have our preferences, but we must do our duty before we indulge them. The first ground upon which I support this Society is, that it is pre-eminently a Society which does the mission-work of the Church in every nation of the great British Empire. It selects its field of operations not by mere choice, but by going where Providence points the way — by seeing where the British peo-ple have settled in foreign lands, and following them there with God's blessing. Wherever the Gospel has been spread or preached with any success, it has always been where those who were engaged in spreading it looked for the leading of Providence, instead of following the wishes of their individual will. It was so with the apostles. St Paul would never have left Asia, because there was the home of his youth, and all his associations were intertwined, as all loving men's are, with the abode of childhood, and so. he wanted to turn aside into Asia, but "the Spirit suffered him not." The man in Macedonia beckoned to him in a vision of the night, and at once, leaving any individual preference which he might have had, he cast himself into the West, knowing that the Lord had called him thither. To this call was to be attributed the great success which attended the mission of the apostle in the West ; and very probably it was to this, too, that we in this land owed the first sounds of the everlasting Gospel j all by the apostle yielding individual preference to obedience to the will of God. But how, it may be asked, was that call to be ascer-. tained ? Surely by one marked providential opening following upon another. And these openings could not be more explicit than when God had extended our nation to distant settlements. 5 2 Power of Civilisation a SubstitiUefor Mh^acles, and called upon us first to give to our poor emigrants the privileges and blessings which we ourselves enjoyed in the knowledge of Christ and His everlasting Gospel. In this way we mif^ht gather that when any of our nation was settled in a distant country, there God gave us a call to begin our work. Of course every one admitted the truth that God never in His dealings with man had used superfluous powers. He had imparted gifts according to the necessity which existed for their exercise, but when that necessity did not exist, then the gifts were not imparted. God gave the gift, the power of working miracles, to the first missionaries, because they were for the most part uneducated men, and had the power of the world against them. Unless they had some extraordinary gift of this kind to show that they were the messengers of God, they would not have gained that first hearing which was necessary to enable the word of truth to enter the reason and apprehension of men. They worked miracles not to convert men ; it was the Gospel of Christ, under the influence of the blessed Spirit, that did that. The miracle obtained a hearing for the message of salvation ; it was like the clap cf thunder, that stilled the multitude into silence — a silence that waited for the first weapon of the Gospel ; and then came the message of truth, and love, and peace. If that was the prin- ciple which was set forth in those days, what follows now? God having withdrawn the power of working miracles, we are bound to see what influences are intended to take the place of tliat power. The learning, and civilisation, and power of the world are now on the side of the Gospel, and we stand on a much higher vantage-ground than in the early days of Gospel history. When we are among the black men of whom Dr Livingstone [wlio was present at this meeting] has spoken, ihey are ready to fall down and worship us, in consequence of what they believe is our manifest superiority. But these powers can no more con\'crt men than could the miracles that were performed in the first ages of Christianity. But when they come to see that we are so much above them, they begin to say, "What have these men to tell us?" Sectional Character of some Societies. 53 And thus their interest is awakened to hear the message of the truth. And so it was with the Apostle Paul. He worked no miracles among the Athenians, because it was not needed to command their silence; but among the barbarians of Thrace he worked miracles abundantly. The single Christian mission- ary, going among the hardy savages, comparatively speaking, without any power of making his message known to the hearts of those who heard him, manifests the weakness of our com- mon humanity, and he thus throws away the power which we now have of obtaining a hearing for the message of truth. But when he went forth backed up by the greater power which Christians now possess, a way was prepared for the spiritual character of his mission, and the power of God which accom- panied it. And this is one reason why I consider this Society to be the best exponent of our mission-work. The next reason why I support this Society is, because it is the best representative of the Church as established in this land. It is pre-eminently a Church Society, and as such has a particular claim on your attention and sympathy. And this leads me to inquire why it is so called. Your Bishop alluded to this in his opening speech, and I will only supplement his statement by saying, that it is a Society of the whole body rather than of a part of it. It does not identify itself with a part of the English Church— not even with what might be thought the best part of it— but it identifies itself with the Church as a whole. Supposing it were to identify itself with a part of the Church— with the best part of it, I will say, if you like— what would be done ? A committee would be formed consisting of members of this best part, and to that committee would be left the choice of missionaries, it being thoroughly understood that only men belonging to this best part of the Church would be chosen. For the sake of illustration, I will call this best part of the Church blue, and the rest of the Church white. Now what would be the result? The result would be, that the missionaries chosen by this committee would be blue, and the white portion of the Church would be disregarded; and I can- not see how these blue men could be the exponents of the 54 Missions witho2U Reference to Societies, white portion of the Church. Therefore it seems to me that, if you want a purely representative Society, you must not trust to the action of any committee of men pledged to a certain colour, nor to the appointments made by them. However liberal they might be on a platform, and however great might be the catholicity of feeling there, it was astonishing how soon all that would vanish when they found themselves in the committee- room. And when some unhappy man came to be examined by them with the view of becoming a missionary, the question, " Are you blue, sir ? " would show that all their professions on the platform, all their catholicity of spirit, had suddenly evapo- rated, and that they were as anxious as ever to perpetuate the system which they had but a little time before been condemn- ing. Now this Society is the only Missionary Society which does not trust to a committee to choose missionaries. In order that one set of opinions might not preponderate more than another, it delegated to the two Archbishops and the Bishop of London the power to nominate the men by whom the missionaries were chosen. And they chose missionaries from the whole Church of England, and not from any section of that Church. And this is the reason why this Society is pre- eminently the representative of the Church of England ; and it is on this account that I support it. But before I sit down, I should like to say a few words on the importance of supporting and aiding the great cause of missions without reference to any particular Society. In sup- porting the missionary work of the Church, we further the great work for which our Redeenier came upon the earth — the making known to lost man the blessed message of His re- conciling love. And it is because this work is of so great and important a character that I ask you all to assist in it. The difference between heathenism and Christianity is the dif- ference between darkness and light, between misery and blessedness ; and the question for you to settle this night is. Has the Gosi)cl been precious enough to you to enable you to incur some real self-denial, in order to extend it to others? In our day it really amounts to practical unbelief on the part of God's Method of Working out His Designs. 55 many in this matter, and it is that practical unbelief which makes men so little anxious to extend the blessings of our holy religion to their brethren in distant lands. How can 1 believe otherwise when I see the anxiety which is evinced by any assembly of Britons, no matter from whence they are gathered, to further any and every object in which they have a great or lasting interest ? Why, I have seen an audience of Englishmen so roused by a narrative of the cruelty practised in the dungeons in Naples, that they were almost prepared to leave their all, and to enter on a crusade to pull those dungeons down. And if such an anxiety is shown in the cause of liberty, how much more should we desire to spread the know- ledge of the truth of Christ, which is the only source of all ■ true liberty, and the greatest blessing which can be conferred on humanity ! What I desire to ask every one now hearing me is, What portion of this work are you helping forward ? What association do you belong to? Is there a single man, woman, or child, in a distant land, whom you can meet at the great day with the blessed recognition of having contributed to their spiritual necessities from your own abundance? I believe that is a great national question, and a great Church question for each one of us. It is impossible for any one to have read history, or the Word of God, without being con- vinced that God invested nations with positions of eminent power and responsibihty that they may do His work, and that, if they will not do that work for which they are raised. He put them down and lifted up another. Nor need there be any supposed miraculous interposition in this. God does not work by such means. He works out his purposes by ordinary laws. From what is called the operation of secondary causes, the cities of Tyre and Sidon were laid low in the dust. And not long ago the harbour of Dover was gradually silting up with sand, and thousands upon thousands of pounds were spent in the attempt to avert this calamity. The Folkestone and Dover Railway Company, while engaged in making their railway, had to blast a portion of one of the cliffs, and a much greater portion of chalk was detached than was necessary 56 God's Method of Working ottt His Designs, for the making of the line ; and what was the result ? The current of the water at that place was changed at once. It needed therefore no direct or visible interference on the part of God to accomplish His purposes with reference to any nation ; for He does work in the way I have indicated, just as certainly as if the heavens were cloven, and He visibly mani- fested His presence in the performance of His works. Now, if this be so, and if our nation is not discharging the duty for which we have been raised up, it needs no waiting for the day when all accounts will be rendered for the nation to receive its reward. You all know how greatly a change in the American war, or a fluctuation in the price of cotton, affects our manu- facturing districts. And so, on a large scale, Providence is accomplishing His purposes, and is wrapping us closely round, and touching us at every moment of our lives. If we as a nation are not doing the work for which our commerce and our civilisation has fitted us, how can we expect but that we shall be put down from the place of power, and that those who will do the work of God will be put into our places. And so I believe it to be at this moment a great national question whether we shall answer the cry of the waiting world, and carry to it the message of salvation, or leave it to others, after our disgrace, to do what we refuse for the cause of God ? I pray each of you to lay this matter to heart, and consider the duty which God calls upon you to perform. Take up this great work in earnest, and do not rest until you have made Nottingham great, not only in its intelligence, and wealth, and public spirit, but as being the centre of a great missionary movement, which shall grow and increase day by day, and on which the blessing of God will descend without measure. V. Upon the duty of providing our christian countrymen in foreign lands with the min- ISTRATIONS OF THE CHURCH.— 7>7/r^, Nov. 8, 1 867. I AM very glad to be allowed to say a word or two for this great cause. I remember well the period referred to in the Society's Report when I last visited Cornwall, and advocated the claims of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; for it would be impossible for me to forget the hearty and kind welcome which many Christian people, of many different kinds, and degrees, and denominations, then gave to me throughout this county. I assure you that welcome has never for a mo- ment been forgotten from that day to this, and I have ever since identified the Cornish name with heartiness, hospitality, and fairness of conduct. Now, my friends, passing from these pleasing reminiscences to the consideration of the claims which I am about to advo- cate, I may say, first of all, that I rest the claims of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts upon these two things— the work done amongst the emigrants from the mother country, and amongst the heathen n;'tives of the de- pendencies of the Crown. The claim of the emigrant it is hardly necessary for any man to dwell upon. It cannot be according to the will of God that a Christian people should see a stream of life flowing from its own shores to distant parts of the earth, and not see it provided with all that is necessary to reproduce itself in that country into which it goes. We do not allow of emigration merely that we may get rid of a superfluous population which have become troublesome to us ; but a Christian nation per- 5 8 Temporal and Spiritual Interests Cojitrasted. mits emigration because it is inwardly conscious that it is fulfilling the command of God to replenish the earth and possess it. But if that be so, it stands to reason that a nation that sends away the surplus of its own population, is bound to provide those who go out with that which will enable them to go and to make a settlement, and to reproduce the land they leave in all its essential features in the country into which they go. Now the first great principles of English law — which is an embodiment of Christianity itself, because our law is a develop- ment of the Christian teaching we have received — enunciates this proposition : Into whatever part of the world an English- man may go, he takes with him as his patrimony, his British liber- ties and rights. Now suppose the Government of the country knew that an emigrant ship was going out wholly unprovided with the means of settling in the country to which the emi- grants were going, would not the ship be stopped at once ? If the ship were not fitted out in a manner calculated to insure a safe voyage, or not provided with the means for sustaining the natural life of those on board, would it not be looked upon as positive murder if the poor inhabitants of a district in this country were encouraged, or even allowed, to go out from us with the intention of settling themselves in a distant land, and then left, without further thought or care, to be shipwrecked on their way, or, at best, to land on a distant shore where starva- tion would necessarily be before them? Why, there never was a Government of England which could resist the clamour and the storm of indignation which such conduct would raise against them. And if this be true of the physical wants of men, is it not abundantly more true with respect to their spiritual necessities, and consequently more important that provision should be made for them ? For is not the soul better than the body, and the life of the spirit deeper than the life of the flesh ? But if from the very heart of Christendom, where God's Word is every poor man's birthright, and where he is throughout life surrounded by an atmosphere of Chris- tianity, we suffer him to be driven out and planted with his family in a distant part of the world, where all these things are Importance of PlaiitingChurches for Emigrants.^<^ withheld from him, how, if the soul is better than the body, can a Christian man who suffers such a state of things be free from the reproach, and the guilt of having sacrificed the souls as well as the bodies of those who have been allowed to go out unprovided for? Well, if that is the case, and if, as I hear, 205,000 emigrants went out of this country last year, what must be their spiritual condition? And, let me ask, who were the people who went out ? In the days of Elizabeth, it is true, and even at a later period, we read of people going out to form colonies with men of education and position at their head ; but that is the case no longer. Emigrants now are the swarms driven out from the hive, on account of the hive having become too small for the population. - They were, therefore, the poorer class of people, without guides or natural leaders; and how is^ it possible that they can provide the means of estabhshing amongst themselves anything like the Church we have^ in- herited at home ? And let us never forget, that all the religious advantages- which we possess at home have sprung from the settlement here of the ancient Church, out of which every other religious body has developed itself amongst us : and hence we may see the importance of planting the Church along with the settlements of our emigrants. But the history of all colonisation teaches us that there is a starving time before the earth has begun to yield its produce to the new-comer. Before the grain has fructified and yielded the increase, and the trees have given forth their fruit, the wants of the body cry out for satisfaction more than the wants of the spirit and of the soul ; and whereas the deprivations of the appetites of the body do but increase the clamorousness of the tongue for their satis- faction, spiritual hunger very often passes into moral apathy if it is not satisfied ; and men, from the continued neglect of their spiritual wants, sink into utter carelessness as to whether their souls are provided for or not ; therefore if emigration from a Christian land is to be a blessing, we must see that our emi- grants are not left in a state of spiritual destitution. There is, too, another consideration, and a most important 6o Evils of Spiritual Neglect of Emigrants. and practical one, which bears upon the same point. For the most part those who emigrate are not men whose natural dis- position is the steadiest, or the most disposed in our own community towards religious influences. They are not old men, but young men who have got a tendency to dash in their character, and we know verj' well what young men are who have got that tendency ; they are certainly not the most pious and religious of our own population ; and it is such men as these who become the leaders of emigration from our shores to distant lands. They chafe under the restraints of home life, which they find excessively dull, and characterised by some- thing very like stupidity, and they seek, in distant climes, a wider field for their energies, and greater scope in which to let off their exuberant spirits. These being the people who, for the most part, lead the stream of emigration from our shores, it is not to be expected that they will, immediately they get into distant lands, begin to care very much for establishing any form of religion amongst the people around them; and so it is certain that the emigration from a Christian country of such a mass of people, unless there is some special care taken to pro- vide for their spiritual welfare, leads to the establishment in the distant land to which they have gone out of a very irreli- gious settlement. There are many cases of actual experience which prove this beyond all doubt. We know from the mis- sionaries who went out to one Christian settlement in North America, that the people had positively completely lost the memory of which was the Lord's Day ; they had relinquished the practice of giving Christian names, had abandoned all the habits of a Christian land, and were fast lapsing into all the worst forms of heathendom. Now this being the case, and human nature being the same, and subject to the same rules and influences in all ages of the world, the question comes, What should a Christian land do for the people whom it sends out, or whom it allows to proceed to distant parts of the earth? Clearly it should plant amongst them Christianity, as the only means of reproducing a Christian nation, and of carrying out the divine command to preach the Gospel to every creature. The Nation cannot Establish Christianity. 6 1 But why, you may ask, should the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel undertake this duty? Why should not the nation, upon which the duty of providing for its children rests, do what is necessary for the establishment of Christianity am.ongst the emigrants ? For the simplest of all reasons, that the nation could not undertake it. If there were no other difficulty in the way, the unhappy fact of our religious divisions makes it impossible. This is one of the many evils which come from our want of religious unity ; we are too divided amongst ourselves to attempt to undertake such a great work as a nation. It is very easy to find fault with this state of things, and to say that it ought not to be, and that we ought to take this course or that in order to secure that unity of re- ligious faith which is not ours \ but I say that the truest philo- sophy is to look upon all these things as existing by the will of God, and as coming either by His divine appointment or permission ; to take things as they are, and not to maunder away our lives and our sympathies by vainly wishing it v/as otherwise, and sit down and do nothing. If the work of God is to be done, we must do it under the conditions in which we find ourselves placed. But if the nation were to do the work, it would do it in a cold, starched, cheese-paring, scissor-cutting manner, hampered by routine, and utterly without spiritual life. If it is to be done, it must be out of the warmth of the Christian heart, and not out of miserable grants from taxation by m.eans of Acts of Parliament. And it is for us, a Christian people belonging to a Christian nation, to do this. Making every allowance for differences of religious opinion, I say it rests, by the very permission of God, and by His appointment, with the different religious bodies at home to provide religious teaching for the emigrants who go out from amongst us, and in doing this we may look for the blessing of Almighty God upon our work. Instead of feeling the slightest jealousy of those who differ from myself, and who use other instruments in doing this work, I can thank God from the bottom of a Christian heart, for every man, be his religious opinions what they may, who does his duty towards his fellow-creatures in this respect. But 62 Church in America the Fruit of the S. P. G, for those of us who conscientiously belong to the old Reformed Church of England, our duty is as plain and as clear as it possibly can be — we are to seek through that instrument to do the work which God says ought to be done. We do not quarrel with other religious bodies about opinions, or about deeds, but we believe that the work belongs to the Church of England, which we believe to be the purest, the best, and the strongest of all Churches. That is our view. We hold to her, and holding to her, we say she should be foremost in every great and good work. Then comes the question, What body in the Church should undertake the work ? And I unhesitatingly answer, The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The other Society of the Church does not attempt this sphere of labour ; and therefore, if this great work is to be done by the Church of England at all, it must be done through the instrumentahty of this Society, which has for nearly two hundred years been doing this work — and doing it how ? I need hardly answer that question, for you all know the immense success which has attended her labours. Let us look at the great Church in America, which this Society planted, and look at what that Church has been able to do. It has now more bishops than we have in the mother Church, and in the late convulsions in that country it was able to hold together when no other Church could, and it is now engaged, in the spirit of Christian charity, welding into one body spiritual the broken fragments of that mighty com- motion : and that great American Church, which is now send- ing its missionaries all over the world to plant the Gospel of peace, is God's gift and heritage to the Gospel Propagation Society. The object of this Society, however, is not to maintain the Church in centres of large populations in distant settlements ; not, for instance, in Quebec, or towns similarly situated with regard to position and population ; for there is not the slightest reason why the men of this old town of Truro should assist Quebec to keep up her Church, more than there is that the people of Quebec should help Truro in maintaining the Condition of A merican Miners. 6 o Church of England. It is not where society is settled, and where Christianity has developed itself, that the duty rests upon us to maintain it. It is where the tide of emigration is establishing fresh colonies, and where society is in the inci- pient periods of civilisation. When a nation sends out its humanity, which, like a mighty sea, spreads itself along the whole coast, rushing up every creek and crevice and cranny, making itself felt at eveiy opening, and penetrating by every inlet to the farthest part of the land, then is it bound to in- vigorate with the living principles of Christianity the advanc- ing waters of humanity. It is the duty of the missionary to leave the large towns where Christianity is established, and press on with the advancing human family to the back settle- ments, where his labours are more requisite. One great sphere of such missionary labour is among the miners on the other side of the great continent of America, who live, poor and scattered, and miserably forsaken, in the cities on the coast, or far up among the mountains. You know something of such men as they are at home ; you know the temptations to which they are exposed, arising from their mode of life, and how they are tempted to entertain special sins. You know how the working together under the earth, and the fatigue consequent on ascending, after their day's labour, from deep mines, tempt men to drunkenness and sins of that class, which conduce to sins of other kinds. And you must remember, that here at home there is a constant atmosphere of morality and religion around them. Labourers of various kinds are at work for their benefit ; they have good examples before them every day ; and people constantly at their sides to guide them and set them right ; they have family ties to work upon their better feelings and keep their evil propensities in check ; men of sober habits and religious feeling around them, and often working with them, ready to speak to them words of love and give them good advice ; ministers of religion waiting upon them, in times of sickness and affliction, to speak to them of the sufferings and love of Christ, and cheer them by words of comfort. Here all these influences are fighting for men's souls 64 Temptations of American Miners. against the temptations of his fallen nature. But it is not so there. The scattered men who ascend one of those rock gullies can only work at certain periods of the year; in the winter time they can do nothing, and then they mix with other scattered adventurers like themselves— men knowing little of the law, and altogether removed from the influences of Chris- tian or civilised society, with no good example to assist to keep them straight. They settle upon some stream, collect and wash out the ore. In the hardships and exposure to which they are subject, the weakest sickens, and is unable to take his share of the common labour; but there is no place amongst these men for the idle or the sick, and so the poor fellow, perhaps stricken down with fever, is cast out to live or die, as best he may. Theirs is a gambling life, accompanied by all its evils. They have long fasting, and unrequited labour, and then comes the sudden receipt of something large, winch they gamble away in certain games. They love excitement, and become so cruel and intensely selfish that they do not hesitate to rob one another. Now let us follow these men as they flock down to the miserable cities, as they are called, on the coast, but which are in reality dens of iniquity, where every species of temptation abounds to induce the man who has gained some money in the mountains to spend it at once in vicious excess. These poor men who have flocked from every part of Christendom to the mountains in search of gold, and who have toiled for it long and hard, come down to these places, and become an easy prey to the devils in human shape who are waiting to devour them. Now, what help is there for these men ? This Society has sent its missionaries to these mountains, and though their ministra- tions have been refused by men in the full vigour of health and strength, when they have gone to the sick man, tended perhaps at the bedside by a loving woman, and when they have spoken to him the old words of the old country, offered up the prayer he had lisped at his mother's knee, and sang the sweet hymns which he had heard at the Sunday-school, the sick man opens his fever-stricken eye, and looks with wonder upon the man who has followed him out there, and the most obstinate sinner Httman Alinistry the histruvtent of Conversio7i. 65 is melted by the proof of devotion to his welfare offered by the missionary. A very hardened man, who entirely refused to listen to the missionary in one of the cities, was astonished a short time afterwards to see the missionary in the mountains, and said to him, " Well, we refused to listen to you in the plain, because we thought you were like the other fellows, looking after your own interest, but we did not expect to see you up here. There must be something good in you after all. Come, we'll hear you." And then from those trackless deserts arose the voices of prayer and song, and angels rejoiced over the rei^entant sinner, making even the songs of heaven richer and more exultant. This, then, is the history of the work done by this Society, in dealing with the emigrants from our own land. And now, just observe how closely it is connected with the other branch of the Society's work in spreading the Gospel among the heathen in the foreign dependencies of Great Britain. Men, by God's appointment, were to be the converters of men ; not even the blessed Word of God is to be alone the instru- ment of conversion, but that Word brought home by the lips of a brother Christian to the heart which He has made ready to receive it. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit; but the sword must have a hand to wield it, or it rusts and becomes useless, and the hand would be impotent if the sword of the Spirit was not in it. But the sword of the Spirit is to be wielded by a hand which has been taught by the living Word how to minister to the necessities of a brother's soul. Now, if this be the case, how are the heathen to be converted ? It must be by Christian men bringing the message of Christ to them, and enforcing it with gentleness and love in a Christian spirit. For though it may please God to convert a man's soul even by a chance word dropped by an infidel, that is not the ordinar}'- way in which the Almighty chooses that His work should be done. No ; it is the man who is himself first pene- trated with the love of Christ, who is enabled, by the grace of God, to speak His message with effect. But if that be so, Christian nations which desire to spread the Word of God must E 66 Htiman Ministry the Instrument of Conve^^sion, do it by bringing Christianity in the concrete to the heathen people, not by merely sending out books to them, but in the old established way, by preaching the Word of God by the mouth of His servants. We must be able to say now, as was said in times past, "The Word of the Lord is burthening the mouth of His servant." They who teach Christianity must feci its life and appreciate its truth. There must be an atmosphere of religion round about the man or the country, if that man or country intend to spread the truth of God. When the aposdes of our blessed Lord went forth to teach the Gospel, was it not so ? Was it not the life of the apostle — the embodiment of the truth his lips were teaching — which was the all-powerful instrument in bringing the truth to the hearts he converted. How was it with the gaoler at Philippi? It was the light of Christ shining forth in the person of the apostle Paul which flaslied into the heart of that man. It was the light of Christian faith and love which gave reasonable voices to the dull rum- blings of the earthquake, and caused it to speak to his soul as no merely physical phenomenon could have spoken to it. Well, that is the way by which it is ordained a Christian nation is to evangelise the earth. It is by sending out men filled with the love of Christ, who shall live amongst the people, and shall, by the grace of God, exemplify in their own lives the beauty and the truth of the doctrines they teach. A man's heart then becomes changed to the likeness of what God has implanted in him, and his life and example, even more than his word, impress upon the mind of the heathen the beauty and the truth of Christianity. According to the providence of God, no nation is an emigrating nation except a Christian people ; and why is this? It is because God means that His blessing should be spread in this way throughout the world, and that thus shall be inaugurated in place after place the great truths of Christianity. What does a man do when he wants to restore the turf to a field from which it has been taken away? He obtains fresh turf, and sets down in place after place a piece of turf, which soon shows signs of life, and gradually spreads till the whole field is Effect of Evil Example amongst the Heathen. 6y covered by a magnificent greensward. So it is in planting the Gospel in the desert waste ; we send out Christian men who plant the Word of God at different points, from which it spreads all over the land ; and if you have observed the whole provi- dential government of the earth, you will have seen that this mode of spreading the Gospel appears to be particularly the work allotted to this nation. Thus, at a time when, from various causes, a great increase of the circulating medium ot the country was needed for the requirements of commerce, there was a new discovery of gold. And where was it made ? At a place where it was never known before — where there was nothing to attract the attention of emigrants, and where, had it not been for this natural temptation, not a single man would have thought of going. So- that God thus provides for His Christian people a way in which, if true in their duty to Him, they may become the instruments in spreading His Church and His worship throughout the whole heathen world. But remember, if your emigrants themselves are not filled with the spirit of Christianity, they will not spread it. Salt which has lost its savour is a very bad instrument to prevent putre- faction I and so, if the emigrants have lost the odour of Chris- tianity, they will not prevent the putrefaction of the heathen, but will, on the contrary, aggregate to themselves, in addition to their own vices, all the worst and most debasing evils of heathendom, and instead of a blessing, they will become a curse to the heathen people amongst whom they settle. You have all perhaps heard the history of a certain servant of the East India Company, a military officer who held a high position, and* had great command over the native people. He lived there a long time, but at last he died, and the people assembled together to consider what they had better do. They said, " This man was very wicked ; when alive, he never missed an opportunity of injuring us;" and, according to one of their native superstitions, they were afraid that his spirit would continue to afflict them. They asked each other what offering they could make which would be most likely to appease his spirit; they thought of what he most loved, and seemed to take 68 Design for making the World Grecian, most delight in whilst alive, and at last they came to the unanimous resolution that they would offer spirits and cigars, which would be sure to appease and soften his spirit, if any- thing would. Is it not an awful thing that a man going out from the bosom of Christianity, and living in such an influ- ential position amongst the heathen, and having infinite opportunities of doing good, should have left the impression when he died that he cared neither for God nor man, that he had no interest in the welfare of any one, and that his spirit was to be appeased only by those miserable gifts ? You will say this is an extreme case. Perhaps it is, but it is a very good specimen of the way in which bad Christian people have been a hindrance to the spread of Christianity. And the fact of the rise in the general tone in India, and especially with respect to those who have gone out there of late years, is one of the most hopeful symptoms of the spread of Christianity in that vast dependency of the British crown. There was a time when it was said that the Englishman, when he went out to India, dropped his Christianity at the Cape, and forgot to take it up again when he came home. I thank God that is not so now, and that there are numbers there who say, like the layman who has spoken to us to-day, that religion is for the people at large, and not a clerical thing only. I again ask you to remember, that you must make your emigrants heartily Christian, if you mean them to Christianise the people around them. You know there is a tendency in every- thing that is cast out from a body to throw off the distinctive peculiarities of the body from which it has come; and so when a little colony of Christians goes out from this -country, and settles in the very heart of heathendom, its Christianity cools down rapidly unless means are taken to keep it alive. There- fore if, as I have already said, you mean your emigrants to spread the Gospel, you must make them heart and soul Christian before you send them out, and you must provide them, when they have settled among the heathen, with the means of practising their Christian worship. One of the greatest men who ever lived upon the eartli, Alexander the Great, saw this principle Design for making the World Chris Han. 69 perfectly. He had a wonderful design of making the world Grecian, and the way he determined to do it was this : he set up at all the leading centres of the world, where commerce would naturally bring men together, a great Grecian city. We must conquer them, he said, by the sword, but we must make them a Greek empire by peace. And for Christians God has apj^roved this policy. In this way we are to make the world Christian. Where is there any one great centre of the develop- ment of humanity to which God has not made it a condition that there British commerce, British empire, British wealth, British liberty, and British emigration has gone from merely earthly motives, and settled at the very springs of its future life? If, then, we are only able to keep that British life replete with Christianity, provision is made by which there shall be flowing perpetually with the stream of common life into all these distant places, a true stream of spiritual life, the knowledge of our own law, and the love of our crucified Master. This, my dear friends, is indeed the great and mighty vocation which God has given to us as a people. I therefore ask you here to-day, you who know so much of emigration, and the flowing out of active and intelligent labourers to distant mines and places, and therefore can so well appreciate the whole of that course of argument which I have used with you — though I should not have ventured upon it were I speaking in a dull stagnant inland town, — I ask you who live here close to the sea, and in the midst of mineral wealth, who see what God can do for man by breathing His Christianity into the nostrils of a nation — I ask you, will you enable this Society to make British emigrants good by making British emigrants Christian ? VL Upon the penal settlements of the British EMPIRE. — Mansion House, London, April 1840. There is one great colony in which I desire, for a few moments, to arrest the attention of this meeting — I allude to the great penal settlements of Australia; and I think that, with regard to them, there are considerations which bind down upon our conscience, as a Christian people, the absolute duty and necessity of prompt exertion, such as cannot be adduced for any of our free colonies in any part of the world. Let this meeting for a moment realise how these settlers came there, and who and what they are who have thus been sent forth. Let them remember that, while to other parts of the world emigration is voluntary, while nothing at least but the necessary pressure upon the means of subsistence drives forth our countrymen to them, that to the penal colonies emigration is purely compulsory ; that those who go there exercise no will whatsoever whether they shall go or not go \ that this country takes on itself to exercise that will for them ; that it sets them down there without their consent; and then I ask, if it is not most evidently bound, by every obligation to them and to God, to see that, in setting them down there, it does not deprive them, as I must contend it now does, almost of the possibihty of salvation. For what has been the state of those colonies from their first foundation ? Let this meeting hear it briefly stated. In the year 1 787, when the close of the war with America had stopped that vent of our penal population, it was determined to found, for this same purpose, at the other side of the earth, that which has now grown into the great colony of New South spiritual Destitution of Convicts in Australia. 71 "Wales. In that year, 1030 settlers were sent from this country, of whom between seven and eight hundred were convicts, to be founders of a new great empire there. Now, let this meet- ing bear in mind who and what they were who so went forth. Let them remember that they were those who, even with all the blessings and advantages of this country, had shown already that they feared not God, neither regarded man. Let them remember how certain and necessary is the progress of corruption amongst the corrupt ; and then let them hear that we sent these men forth into this new land, where they had every opportunity of gratifying the corrupt passions which already raged within them, almost without the only let and hindrance to the absolute dominion of their evil nature — the knowledge of Christ and His salvation. Long, indeed, had that expedition been planned, and all its details settled, before there was a thought of sending out even one single chaplain to minister to these unhappy men. This meeting will, I am sure, excuse me if I mention, what filial duty almost forces me to state, that the sending forth of that single chaplain was, under God's blessing, owing to this : That there was found among the citizens of England then, one who used his oppor- tunities of constant confidential intercourse with that great man, Mr Pitt, not to make his name noble by the titles of earth, or his family great with its possessions, but to succour the oppressed, and to plead for those who had no helper. He went to Mr Pitt, and pressed on him the absolute duty of sending out the Church's healing power to that far land which we were settling with the very dregs of our corrupted popula- tion. Thus w^as the absolute neglect avoided ; but still, what is the history of that colonisation ? One single chaplain was all that England could provide for these her sons ; and when the axe was first heard in these untenanted woods, and domes- tic buildings began to arise on that new shore, will this meeting believe that not one temple of God, not one church, in which these men could hear of that Gospel, which could alone heal the deep pollution and guilt which had eaten into their heart, was raised for them by us, the English people, who had sent 72 Condition of Co7ivicts in Australia. them forth ? For seven years no church whatsoever was erected in New South Wales ; and even at the end of these seven years a merely temporar>', wooden edifice was raised by the solitary chaplain there, that he might have a place to which to bid these poor unhappy men, where he might preach to them the Gospel of his Lord. And so matters went on. From the year iSoo to 1807, when the official returns show that the population had multiplied to between seven and eight thousand souls, there was still but one chaplain to supply its pressing needs ; and what was the result ? What must be the result ? I ask any man, who has thought for a moment, what must necessarily follow from this crowding together the morally degraded, under circumstances too well fitted to complete that degradation? For there were amongst them none of those common influences of society, by which vice is held in check in this land. They had no fear of shame to deter them from evil; no hope of better things to lure them on to good. Every secondary motive was gone, and we shut them out from those which are higher. We left them in an absolute dearth of all spiritual advantages. I ask, therefore, in these principles of national responsibihty which have been so well laid down by the bishop of this diocese, have we not, as a country, hereby incurred a great debt of guilt to God ? Is there one here, who believes that God yet rules the earth, who does not tremble for his country when he thinks of the multitudes that have already passed, hopelessly passed, into the eternal state, because Eng- land shortened the arm of spiritual compassion for these her outcast sons, even while she sent them to those shores ? I would entreat this meeting most seriously to weigh how great is their responsibility who undertake to found a new nation in this world of God's ! Let us remember how surely the first principles and manners of the founders of a people are repro- duced in their posterity ; how great a thing, therefore, it is to be entrusted with sowing the world-field with the seed of man, and how surely, even by the laws of natural consequence, they who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind, they who plant the dragon's teeth shall reap a harvest of violence and wrong. VIL Upon the duty of England to accompany its commerce and emigration with christian- ITY. — Bradford, Yorkshire, Oct, 22, 1858. [This speech has become traditionally famous at Bradford. In consequence of the Bishop's supposed High Church ten- dencies, the meeting was largely attended by those who were resolved to give him an unfavourable reception. But never was the matchless power of his eloquence more triumphant. Those who hissed remained to cheer, or were reduced to silence by his burning words and irresistible indignation. For these reasons the speech is here printed just as it was reported. The Bishop of Oxford, on rising to second the first resolu- tion, was greeted v/ith loud applause, mingled with hisses, the cheering being again and again repeated. When order was restored he said : My Christian brethren (hisses, followed by cheering), I rise to second the resolution which has just been moved, and I rise, in spite of these trumpery interruptions^ with the greatest possible pleasure to plead for a great cause (loud cheers) — to plead for a great cause with brother English- men, and to plead, I will say to you, with brother Yorkshire- men (continued cheering). Now, sir, the cause which I have to plead has been in a degree set before you already, and I will try not to go over the same ground again ; but just let me add a word to what has been said about the character of this Society, and what its principal object is (hear, hear). Its object island I think the hard-headed men of the North will enter fully into it — the carrying out into action of one single and simple idea, and it is this, that inasmuch as this is a 74 Bradfoi'd Past and Present, Christian land, it is bound as a Christian nation to accompany its commerce and its emigration with the planting of Chris- tianity throughout the world (loud cheering). And, sir, in this one, and in this one only respect, the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts differs from the other Missionary Societies within our Church. It has hostility to none— God forbid that it should — for if it had, it were not of Christ. It has love to all, and therefore it is that it dares meet you, and stand and look you in the face this day (cheers and hisses). Speaking of the character of the Anglo-Saxon race, the Bishop continued : It is the very character of Englishmen, by which any young English lad, sent out as we send them out to India, by the mere presence of the English blood in him^ is able to direct the minds of hundreds or thou- sands of the inhabitants of that land, although no other European was near him to stand by him and to succour him (loud cheers). But then, sir, I say this, and I think it is all- important that we Englishmen should understand it, and that it should sink deep into our hearts, that all this would have been altogether in vain for us if God had not, as it were, enlightened this beautiful statue, which He has cut out with His own hand, with the ethereal fire of the revelation of Christ our Lord (applause). Why, sir, look for a single moment back at what was happening some years ago at this place in which we now stand. Think what this place, which we now call Brad- ford, was at the time to which our thoughts have been called back, when that serial visitant, which has come from the dis- tant parts of the solar system to blaze again in our night sky, last looked upon England. What changes have taken place in England since that time ! We Englishmen had got very much the same blood then as now; but what was England then compared with what it is now? Why, this England, this town of Bradford, and those peopled places around us, what were they, but, as their names now tell us, low moors, high hedges, and bare hills — the habitations of a scattered handful of poor and uninstructed men, who had no weight in the affairs of the world, and no voice in the great synod of The Catise of the Diffej^ence. 75 nations. Well, what has made the difference ? This has made the difference, that there stood up in Eastern lands one who declared that he had laid upon him, by the Lord of all, a burden which he could not bear until he had preached the everlasting Gospel of Christ to the Jew, and to the Scythian, to the barbarian and to the heathen ; yea, until it had reached to the uttermost parts of the earth — to the dis- tant and then despised Britain (cheers). And then, sir, when, in the history of Christendom, the nations which formed the front rank of the great advance of the march of Christendom stood almost breast to breast, there stood before this land of Britain at least one, if not two, in the march of nations ; when Spain stood the first of the people, with her great transatlantic dominions, with her gold flowing in from the far-off land, with her own people at home formed of the strongest material, by the welding together of men of different blood, and different gifts of intellect and nature — when that land stood in the fore front of European civilisation, followed hard upon by France, and Britain occupying probably but the third rank among the nations of Christendom — what is it that since then has raised our beloved fatherland to the first and prominent post on this earth which God has made ? What, I ask, was it but this, that at that time God offered a purity, and a purification from the superstitions which had overwhelmed Christendom, to every nation in Europe, and that God gave to our fathers the grace, before and beyond every other people, to receive and welcome that purification, and to sweep off those superstitious glosses which had wellnigh eaten out at that time the heart of ancient Christendom ? (loud applause). And from that reign of Eliza- beth, my brother Britons, the mind, and the strength, and the power of the English people has been continually growing and increasing : and I say it is owing to this, that the Christian religion, of God's great mercy and goodness, and of no merit of ours, has flourished and abounded among us as it has done in no other nation on the earth (cheers). And now, I am not con- tent with simply asserting that, but let me show what I mean. I maintain that the strength of England depends on this — that it 76 Christianity the St^xngth of England. depends pre-eminently upon the honest moral sense of the people of England (loud cheers); that it is this which pervades all classes; that it is this that makes the workman with no eyes upon him give a hearty and a true day's work to his employer (continued cheers); that it is this which, not only in those populous centres of industry, where men work in multitudes, but also in my own diocese — where a poor man goes out on a half-freezing morning, stoops down into a miserable ditch, and stands in it half-knee deep until the sun is ready to set, cleaning out the heavy clay, with no eye seeing him, and this not as taskwork, not for a master who has his wages to pay — it is this that makes the man do his work, and never flinch from it — do it heartily, because he does it to the Lord, and not unto man (cheers). Then, sir, I say further, that that which is the English- man's birthright and boon — that which you Yorkshiremen, or which the fathers of you Yorkshiremen helped my glorious father to earn (great cheering) — I say that the gift of liberty is bound up in the charter of God's everlasting Gospel (continued cheering). Because we see that other nations have not got liberty though they love it, and are ready enough to seize it if they can ; but they do as the child does with sweatmeats — gorge themselves until they are made sick. But the mother takes the sweatmeats away to prevent the child making itself sick, and this is the secret of other nations not having Hberty as you have it ; it is that the people have been possessed with Christ's truth, and that has taught us to use moderation to one another, not turning it into idle licentiousness, the blessed gift of liberty (applause). Well, sir, I say that this is true, and capable of demonstration, that England's strength is based upon England's Gospel, and that a free English Bible, and the good English Prayer-book, read and prayed over (loud cheers) by thousands and tens of thousand of sturdy Enghsh hearts, is the history of England's liberty, of England's glory, of Eng- land's loyalty, and of England's strength (renewed cheering). Well, then, if this were really the source of the blessings which God has given this country, there is another position which I would lay down, and it is this, that God never gives these gifts The Reason for our Insular Position, 77 to any nation except for some high purposes in His everlasting government of the world (hear, hear). And can any one doubt what that work pre-eminently is ? Is it not written throughout His Gospel and prophecies, that it is His will that the Gospel of His Son should be preached to every nation under heaven, and that then shall the end come ? — That end for which every one of us is labouring and learning, and, if need be, suffering, — that end which is to overpay all the sufferings of these short years, in our being received into the mansions of everlasting felicity in our Father's presence, and beneath the eye of our blessed Redeemer — then shall the end come (hear, hear). But then, mind you, if this is God's will, it is necessary that He should raise up human instruments, and fit them for doing the work; because we know that He does use human, and not angelic instruments ; and, therefore, if He has given to any nation peculiar purity of faith, peculiar strength among the people, and peculiar opportunities of carrying His message abroad among the heathen, He has just as distinctly given to that people this work to do as if He had spoken to them from heaven, and charged it on their consciences (hear, hear). Now, we have seen already that He has given us this strength and this purity of faith, and need I tell you that He has given us every one of those other gifts which we enjoy? What is the history of this people ? What is the reason that we are hemmed in by the four seas which surround the shores of this our land ? What is the meaning of it but this, that God has intended us, as we increased and multiplied, to swarm forth from this land, and to go forth and possess other Englands in other parts of the world ? (hear, hear). If God had spoken from heaven, and had said, — " There shall go forth every year from Great Britain so many people who shall be my messengers," would that have been a plainer charge to any thoughtful Christian than that He has given in this, that He has provided, by the action of secondary causes, that there should perpetually go forth such a stream of emigration from this land .? And mark how it has gone forth. Most remarkable — most wonderful were the dealings of God's providence which produced the beginning of 78 The Pilgrim Fathers. that stream of emigration, for it led to those persons, in whom the principles of Christianity had asserted an absolute supre- macy, becoming the first settlers from Great Britain in the great colony of America (hear, hear, hear). Now, I differ in many respects from those Pilgrim Fathers ; I don't want to deceive any of you about my opinions — I have nothing to hide (loud cheers and hisses). The Pilgrim Fathers were Puritans, I am a Church of England man. They were Presbyterians. I am to the backbone a son of the Reformed Church of Eng- land (cheers). I have not another thought in my heart but this, that so long as God gives me life, intellect, and voice, I am ready to bear being abused, to be laughed at, to be any- thing you like (loud cheers), so that I can help forward what I beheve to be the purest form of the Christian religion on earth — the hearty, true, undiluted, unmingled, uncorrupted religion of the Church of England (loud cheering). Well, now, mark you, I differ, therefore, very materially from the Pilgrim Fathers, because they were not members of the Church of England ; but I honour them deeply for that deep Christianity which laid hold of those manly hearts of theirs, and which led them to say, — " Let us worship Christ according to what we believe to be the purity of the faith in distant lands, rather than be obliged here in England to dissemble our convictions or to conceal our faith " (applause). In those days the doctrine, the true, honest, hearty doctrine, of thorough and entire tolera- tion was not understood, as, thank God, it is now. Now, the absence of toleration confinesitself to a few nasty articles in news- papers (cheers and laughter, followed by a storm of hisses) ; yes, I am going to say, if you will wait a moment (hisses and inter- ruption), to a few, very few (interruption), and to a few nasty hisses from nasty mouths (laughter, cheers, and hisses). Well, I tell you that every one of such persons — and there may be some such here now — would burn us if they could (hear, hear, hear). But they cannot, thank God, they cannot ; Ihey must tolerate us (hear, hear, and a voice, "Boyne-Hill!"). Now, I say, these Pilgrim Fathers went forward, and planted the faith of Christ in the far wilderness ; and herein we may The Single Idea of the S. P. G. 79 mark God's marvellous dealings v/ith our land. They were the only people who could be got at that time to plant that far-off land, and ever since there has been flowing forth from this country a stream of the heart's blood of our population. And how have they been driven out? Mainly to find the means of maintaining themselves in that far-off land. And what follows ? It is not possible that they can plant there the true faith of Christ ; they cannot supply the seed for their food without assistance ; and so, when they go out at first, you send with them seed, and corn, and implements for cutting down the primeval forests, and all that is necessary for them to reproduce themselves, as an English people, in that far wilder- ness. Well, you are bound by the very same necessity, and by obhgations greater than those, as the soul of man is more precious than his body, to send out with them at the same time the instruments of reproducing the Church of England, and of planting their own reformed faith in those new lands they go to possess as their inheritance. Now, this is the single idea of this Society. It says, wherever the English emigrant goes, he ought to have with him the means of planting the true Reformed Church of England, circulating her Bible and her Prayer-book, and of having all the ministrations of religion according to her usages. But these poor emigrants cannot do this themselves, and they suffer many privations when these means are not afforded to them. In one distant part of America a number of our countrymen settled, but they were so far out of reach that they escaped the notice of this Society for a number of years, and when at last a missionary from our Society went among them, he found them in this lamentable condition — they had lost all record of what was the day of the Lord in the Christian man's week — they had lost all record of the Christian ordinances — they had lapsed from, being a Christian community to the elements of the old heathendom, and with that they had imbibed those seeds of dissolution which, although they had once been most polished and civil- ised, reduced them again to chaos (hear, hear). And this must happen in the wilderness throughout the world, unless thf^ 8o A L apsed Christian an A rgtimentfor A theism. Church at home is enabled to send out with the emigrants the instruments of reproducing itself; and therefore this Society" waits upon English emigration, in order to s&nd out with it the seed-plant of the Reformed Church, which has been God's chiefest instrument in making and keeping this country what it is (cheers). And mark the important bearing of this upon the heathen people living around these emigrants. All the missionaries of all sects agree, that the chiefest hindrance of all to the spread of the Gospel throughout the earth has been, not unwilHngness of the heathen to receive the truth, but the evil example of professing Christians making them disbelieve the truth declared by the preacher. And so it must be. What argument for atheism is like that of a man professing the faith of Christ, and living as if there were no God, no eternity, no devil, no hell, no heaven ? What argument for atheism can equal that which is presented to a heathen when he is brought face to face with this lapsed Christian — with this man who has been steeled by the enemy of his soul's wel- fare into a panoply of evil which no Christian dart can pierce, because doubts have been nourished into unbelief, and care- lessness has been made his irresistible destiny? (applause). Well, then, the mode of spreading Christianity on the earth, is to let your Christian emigrant have the light of Christianity so shining from himself that it might shine on the faces of the heathen around him, and convince them, by the argu- ment of a Christian life, which is above cavil, of the truth of that Gospel (cheers). And so every Christian colony, and every band of Christian emigrants, ought to be a spark of divine light cast out of the great sun of England's Christianity into the darkness and chilliness of heathendom (cheers). Well, then, this Society has this one principle, and that being its only distinctive principle, I ask you who are members of the Church of England, can you refuse to support it? I ask you who are members of the great commonwealth of Great Britain, can you refuse to aid it? Because if God has raised us up as a people that we may do this work of His; if He has given us ships, commerce, naval pre-eminence, superiority in Impolicy of not professing Christianiiy in India, 8 1 the face of Europe ; if He has given us all these in order that we may maintain His truth and spread the knowledge of His Son, and we refuse to do it, what does the history of the world teach us but that these privileges which we refuse to use shall be taken from us, and given, in God's good time, to a nation that will use them faithfully (hear, hear) Now, here is my whole case for you. The whole world is before you. India, with its waiting multitudes ; China, to which we have long done such deep wrong by the iniquities of the opium trade (cheers) — China, my brethren, which has rebuked England in words which might well have come out of a Chris- tian mouth to a heathen, instead of the reverse, when it has said to us, " You know that this is poison to our people ; you know that you could not spread it at home, and yet you spread it among us. Is that doing to others as you would be done to ; that for the sake of commercial gain you will ruin the souls of our empire ? " (cheers). Well, God has opened China to us. Then, look to Africa. Think of the unnumbered wrongs which we, the English people, perpetrated there before we turned round and cast off the abominations of the slave trade (loud cheers). Remember that, and I ask you, Is it possible that the mere fact of our being now ashamed of our- selves can remove from us the necessity — the absolute bounden duty — of repaying to that injured people the debt of wrong which for so many years we inflicted upon them? Look again at our own dominions in India, where God has already so scourged us. I believe it was our cowardice which led to the late outbreak. I believe it was because the rulers of that country were afraid of avowing themselves Christians (hear, hear). I believe that the conduct of our rulers in that country was unintelligible to the Hindu population, who, always afraid of trickery, regarded the forbearance extended to them by their rulers in regard to their religion as some deeper treachery than usual, and as a scheme to bring them by some unperceived turn to a profession of Christianity. I believe that if we had openly professed our Christianity, and said to the Hindus that our toleration of their heathendom depended upon our F Si Impolicy of not pi^ofessing Christia7iity in India. Christianity — if we had said to them, "Our Christianity tells us that we must not persecute, that we should be very unjust if we did so, and that, therefore, until we can convince you of the evil of your system, we won't move a little finger to compel you to profess Christianity " — if that had been our tone, we should never, I believe, have heard of the outbreak (hear, hear). God has punished us for our fearfulness ; but He is giving us another opportunity of spreading his truth. Now, it must be you, the people of England, who must declare that for the future there shall be no fearfulness among the Christians of India of saying they are Christians ; and you say that by supporting the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. If you will rise up to the greatness of the opportunity which God has given you, and enable your Church to send forth its reformed faith, as it might do now, through your national extension to every part of the earth, I, for one, cannot doubt but, that instead of there being any limit put to the growth and increase and improvement of this, our beloved land, that blessings would return to us from every wind that blew, prayers for us would be offered up in every tongue that addressed itself to God, and England, the heart of Christendom, would be strengthened to an unexampled blessedness which the world never yet has seen. The Right Reverend Prelate resumed his seat amid general cheering. VIII. Upon our duty to the aboriginal inhabitants OF OUR COLONIES. — London^ April Zy 1840. After urging an ampler spiritual provision for the colonists of British North America, the Bishop said — I will now leave this branch of the subject, and enter for a few moments on another, because it has hardly been touched upon. Let us not forget that a great debt is owing by us, not only to these our colonists, but also to the aboriginal inhabi- tants, among whom our colonists are settled. Let us remember that when our ships approach those distant shores, nowhere do we find a desert waste. Everywhere do we find those to whom the God of heaven has given an inheritance, whether to the Red men in the one world, or the degraded Australians in the other. They, too, are meant, in the purposes of the Most High, to be, like ourselves, children of salvation : for what other end are we sent there ? Let any Christian picture to himself the first meeting of a body of English Christians with one of these degraded native tribes, as it must be viewed by holy angels, when, on their difi"erent embassies of mercy, they look down on this lower world \ think what that tribe is ; how the positive want of the gifts of Christianity has reduced it in the scale of humanity ; how its various members are thirsting for those waters of life with which our cup is full ; and the providence of our God sends the ships and the people of a Christian land, because it is Christian, to that far shore ; — ' how, then, must the angels of God look on that meeting \ What an opportunity of glorifying God, and proclaiming good- will to maUj does the meeting of necessity create ! How 84 Extirpation of Aborigijial Races in America. would they watch to mark the thirsty impatience of the one to receive, almost overmatched by the eager desire of the other to impart that which they possess ! And what is the stern reality? That we scatter amongst them new kinds of sin, and, therefore, new seeds of disease and misery ; that we mow down in hopeless death, the tribes to whom God has sent us with the gift of life eternal ! These are strong words, but they are words fully borne out by facts. Allow me to call the attention of the meeting to one or two statements which would bear out stronger words than I have used. Let us look at any part of the world where w^e English people have settled. What has become of the aboriginal inhabitants of the West India Islands? Ask, and the answer is, that tradition says that there were Caribs, for not a single specimen remains. Turn next to the British Colonies in North America. Where is that full mantling tide of human life which once filled the whole of that great continent? Where are those whom our first navigators and merchants found, frequent as the very insects under the sunlit canopy of heaven, all over that great land ? Gone, too ! And why? They were multiply- ing when Christian Englishmen found them ! but Christian Englishmen brought them death ! Whole tribes have abso- lutely disappeared : and we read now, occasionally, of a decision in the American House of Congress, by which it is determined that such and such a tribe of Indians should be removed across such and such a river, and placed at such a greater distance from civilisation : and our hearts condemn the vio- lence and wrongs which drive them from their fathers' hunting grounds to misery and want. But who taught them the lesson ? Who first beat back that great tide of Indian life ? It was Christian Englishmen ! Aye, and even now are we quite clear from the same guilt ? Let mc impress another fact upon this meeting. Hear what is the state of things in Newfoundland with regard to its original inhabitants ; and here the guilt is absolutely ours, because no European nation, but ourselves, ever did possess that land. What, then, is the state of things there ? These are the facts which the Parliamentary Report Extirpation of Nezvfoimdland Indians. 85 supplies ; not painted facts furnished by those who have an interest in colouring their statements highly, but the simple records of parliamentary inquiries. Captain Buchan states that the tribes of Indian people there are altogether melting away. " Q. To what do you attribute this ? A. To the Micmac Indians, stirred up by Englishmen, and to our own people, who are destroying them. (2- Whom do you mean, by our own people ? A. Our fishermen and settlers. Q^. What number of the aborigines, who you say were very numerous a few years ago, do you suppose now remain? A. I apprehend none." And when this startling answer called forth another question, and it was said, " Why do you think there are none ? " — it brought out this awful tale : that in the year 1823 (as late as that), the last man and the last woman of those tribes of aboriginal inhabitants, to whom the God of heaven had given that portion of His world, being seen on the outskirts of an English settlement, were one after the other shot by two outlying Englishmen, who said they did it because they feared their violence ; and so the earth was cleared of them. Did there go up no cry to heaven against this highly-favoured land, when the last of that ancient people breathed out his soul thus in agony ? Oh ! it is fearful to contemplate so black a picture ; but it is wholesome, if it leads us to exertion. There is no use in shutting the eye in sentimental horror, which starts back from having such facts mentioned. The evil is in the facts themselves, not in the knowledge of them. It is a blessing, when a Christian people knows them, if it leads that Christian people to exertion. For, when I am called on by this Resolu- tion to press it on the merchants of this great city, as their especial duty to help on this cause, is it saying too much, if I declare my inmost belief that the prosperity (I might almost say the existence) of this country depends on the answer they shall give to it ? It is the very damning spot, which is at this moment on us, as a people, that we are apt to imagine that God has given us wealth and greatness for ourselves, and not for Him. What else is the root of all that evil, which is now spreading through S6 Babylon an Example of Abuse of God's Gifts. certain parts of this country, abusing the name of social Hfe, whilst it poisons the very foundations of all social life ? What else is the evil but this, the believing that man's highest end is to make himself what he calls happy, instead of serving the Lord his God ? What is it but to take out of the world the one true rule of certain right, and to substitute for it the crook- edness of every man's inventions ? And this, each one of us does (he does it practically, if he does not do it in profession), when he dares to allow himself to think that God has given him the abundance of all things, that he may live in luxury and plenty, that he may clothe himself in the silks and damasks of the earth, and repose on its pillows of down, whilst he lets the work of God stand still, that he may provide, at will, for himself and his family, and do nothing for the glory of his Saviour. It cannot be : there is a perpetual decree in the courts of heaven, " Them that honour me, I will honour ; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." England may boast of her arms, and glad herself in her arts, and she may see the genius of her politicians, and the might of her warriors around her, until her own heart is confident in her earthly strength ; but if that decree goes forth against her, as an abuser of the gifts of God, that which ate out Babylon of old, in spite of all its gates of brass ; that which levelled to the dust the mighty walls of the great city which was built of old upon the plain of Assur ; that which has beat down every nation hitherto which God has ever lifted up, because, being lifted up, it abused the power which He had given to it, as a mere instrument of its own greatness, instead of using it to spread His glory ; that will as surely eat out England also from the face of the earth. It may be that to others besides myself, the signs of such coming judgments are already but too evi- dent. It may be that in this vast city, in the midst of its splendour and its wealth, there are some who think of Nineveh, and the forty days of permitted repentance. There may be some who believe, as I do, that God is now giving to this land an hour of awful trial ; seeing whether it will repent and truly give itself to labour for His glory ; and that, if not, then our Com7nerce an Agent for extending Christianity. 8 7 Nineveh, too, shall be destroyed. God give unto us the spirit of repentance and of earnest working for Him ; and then we build surely ; we lay a foundation for national greatness on that which cannot fail — on the word and pledge of the J\Iost High. Doubtless, for this very reason, the necessity for com- merce was ordained on high. For, from the natural course and tendency of Christianity to make human life more valu- able and society mere secure, it would follow that a Christian people would be soon a thriving people. Then, as riches increased, they would become the traders of the earth, and grow into a commercial people. All of which was, doubtless, planned to spread the triumphs of the cross ; that in the interchange of various nations the knowledge of the truth might still be spread ; that the stream of commerce might bear forth everywhere upon its bosom the blessed message of salvation through a Saviour's name. Doubtless, it was just as distinctly the intention of God that commerce should be hallowed by being made the instrument of spreading the truth, as that of old the gift of miraculous powers should be hallowed by being used simply in the work for which God gave it. And if this be so, commerce, until it be thus hallowed^ is an abuse of God's gifts, and therefore a provocation of His anger. Therefore it is that with all humility of mind, but, at the same time, with the deepest conviction that this is the truth of God, I would use this opportunity to impress upon the heart of every one here present, that, if he loves his country, — and there has not been an allusion to our common land to-day which has not shown that the heart of this great city still beats true, that we do love our land, and desire God's blessing on it ; — on every one, I say, who loves his country, I would earnestly impress this truth, that it is not by talking idly of our greatness, — that it is not even by attending here, — that it is not by such easy demonstrations of good feeling, but by a spirit of self- sacrifice for God, that we can hope to turn aside the judgments which our past neglect has earned, and to bring down bless- ings on our land. In doing which there is one great induce- ment to work through the means of this Society. 88 Divisions among; Christians a waste of Pozuer. The Lord Bishop of this diocese has set before us the plain national duty of providing for the spread of Christ's Gospel through our colonies. Now what is the great hindrance at this moment to our true fulfilment of this duty? It is not that we are not ready to make sacrifices for it; this, indeed, is something ; there will always be, in such a case, man's common selfishness to overcome ; but this is the ordinary friction — the common wear and tear of the machine, for which every wise merchant will make allowance ; but this is far from all. Any one who duly estimates the true amount of religious feel- ing and religious principle to be found within this country at this moment, must own, that, as a nation, we do very little in this work, compared with what might be expected from our principles. There is, then, somewhere some great waste of power; something which, over and above these common hindrances, does clog and weaken our endeavours. What, then, is this? Let not the truth be disguised. It is our religious divisions at home which prevent our doing God's work throughout the world. I will not stop now for a moment to cast a stone at any one division of professing Christians. I will not attempt to weigh and portion out the blame between ourselves and them. I pass this by wholly for the present ; but I say, wherever is the blame, this it is which shortens our arm, that we are in religion a divided people. It is not that any one party which has any weight in this country dare stand up and say, we will not spread Christ's truth ; it is that, when that point is conceded, no one knows in what way we can begin the work together. We allow the common duty, but we have no principle of practical co-operation. It is this religious division which prevents our multiplying churches at home ; it is this which prevents our becoming the very heart of Chris- tendom ; the sender forth of light throughout the earth : a glory which God seems to have designed for England when he made England what it is. This it is which withers her mighty arm, that we have too long forgotten that it was the Saviour's promise, " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, because ye have love one to another." Never yet has God's work S. p. G. the Missioiiajy Ann of the Church. 89 been done prosperously by divided hearts ; never yet, except in the unity of the Spirit, has the bond of peace been spread throughout the earth. But, then, if this be the case, what is the practical inference which we should draw from it ? There is one body which we, at least, this day are satisfied is right, and that body is the Church. Let us act through that one body on this corrupting mass. Let the unity of Christ's Church redress the divisions of a disunited people ; then shall God's work be done by us, even to the ends of the earth, and it shall return in blessings upon our head. And this is the true claim of this Society, that, in a degree in which no other can be, it is the Church's organ for this work; that, from antiquity of origin, and practical identity of being, it is, as is no other, the right arm of the Church. It is the Church's missionary arm which we call upon you to strengthen. It is for you to settle whether our colonies shall or shall not be outposts of the faith— daughter Churches of our own. There is one thought more, not, I trust, too sacred for this place, which I desire to leave upon the mind of those who hear me. It may be, that, as a nation, God does not intend us this high honour ; it may be that the days of our country's pilgrimage are numbered : God only knows. But it must be that a little while longer, and this nation, aye, and all the great scheme of nations, of which it is a part, will have passed utterly away, and be no more. It must be, that all the confusions and dis- turbances of our now busy politics, and the greatness of our name, and the treasures of our wealth, shall pass away from God's wide universe, even as a fairy cloud melts into nothing on the bosom of the sky. But, there is in each one of this passing multitude, there is in every one of us here present, that which cannot pass away with the time which is fleeting from us. There is in each one of us an indestructible principle, which is woven on no mere web of time, and so which will not unravel with its threads, but which has within itself the eternal existence of Him who gave it. Each of us in the separateness and individuality of his own soul, must be when time is no more ; aye, and each one of our actions must be, for each one 90 The need of Self-Sacrifice for Christ's sake. has a golden or a fiery counterpart in that eternal world. Suffer me, then, to say earnestly to every one here present, — work yourself while it is to-day. You, at least, whatever is the issue of the world, may yet labour in God's great field. And, ventures of faith for Christ's sake, — sacrifices made for Him, — the denial of some enjoyment, — the giving up of some per- mitted indulgence, that we may the better glorify His name,— these things are cast unseen and unknown into the great womb of the future ; but there they ripen, every one, into celestial jewellery, and they shall be brought forth and strung together, and wreathed into crowns for those who dare " to use this world as not abusing it," and to give up things present, look- ing for a recompense in eternity. Of every such an one amongst us, it is most true, that, in the full significance of those most pregnant words, "his work is with the Lord, and his judgment with his God." May He give, this day, to ever}^ one amongst us, the blessed spirit of readiness to make a sacrifice for Him ; that when, in the great day of reckoning, we shall meet again what we here possessed and used for a season, we, of God's mercy, through Christ, may find these earthly things ready to '' welcome us " there " into everlasting habitations." IX. Upon our duty to impart the gospel to the HEATHEN, &C. — Marylebone, London, June 25, 1846. The only difficulty which I confess I feel in entering upon my branch of the subject is this, that it is one which so involves in its very announcement the broadest and most general prin- ciples of Christianity, that it is difficult to add anything by way of argument to the simple declaration of the duty. The plain dictates of Holy Scripture, and the very constitution of the Church of Christ, both alike imply this duty, and bind it upon the conscience of every one who admits the one to have come from God, and the other to have been founded by Him. The words of Scripture I need not repeat here, they will be fresh in the memory of all. The constitution of the Church, if it means anything, in its very simplest idea, is this, that it is to be the witness for Christ throughout the world. And He who in His infinite wisdom chose to make man's salvation depend upon man's exertion, He who committed the wonderful work of gathering in souls to Himself, not to the hands of angel minis- ters, not merely to the direct and unseen visitations of the blessed Spirit, but to the agency and to the instrumentality of men, He has thereby made it an absolute law for those to whom He has given the boon of Christian faith, that they shall, according to their means, make that faith known to those who as yet know it not. And this broad principle, underlying altogether everything which we are here to-day called upon to pledge ourselves to do, cannot need from me amplification or explanation before such an audience as that by which I am now surrounded. And yet I really hardly know any objec- tions to this work which can require an answer. I remember 92 Subscribers to Missions sitpporters of other works. but one applying to our general principle, by which, as far as I know, any one has practically been misled. And that is the objection that is sometimes taken, that with such a mass of uninstructed people at home, we have a prior obligation to exertion amongst them, and that until we have effectually leavened the whole mass of our countrymen here with a perfect knowledge of the way of Christ, we have no right to attempt to go to the heathen, and attempt to gather them into His fold. And yet what is this objection worth? Surely, we must see, at the first glance, that it is permitted by God, that there always should be within His Church this line of demarcation between one class and another, that there should, alas ! always be too many who reject the truth, though it be brought home to them in the plainest and most direct manner. We know that the Church of Christ has been founded by Him with this awful condition, that her witness shall be often rejected by those to whom it is most plainly delivered. And if this be the case, can it by possibility be the duty of the Church, in any place, to wait till this impossible condition shall have been ac- complished, before she begins to discharge this other, her most bounden work. In fact, the objection arises from another source than that which is professed. It is not here the head which wants convincing, but the heart. It is not that men require to be shown by argument that it is their duty, but to be made in their consciences to feel how great the duty is, and how binding upon them is its fulfilment. Now, the plainest and most practical answer to the objection is this, that the men who raise it, are not the foremost in promoting, by any sacrifice, analogous schemes of domestic improvement. You may prove this in a moment, for if you will turn to any list of subscribers to our great missionary institutions, you will find, uniformly, the very self-same names there which are also to be found connected with the labours of those other institutions which are seeking to promote the same good work at home. Surely it is plain that Christian charity, — by the very rule of its action, by the essential law which it obeys, by the source from which it springs, even the God and Father of us all, — Expansiveness of Christian Charity, 93 that Christian charity is, and must necessarily be expansive and wide-spreading ; that where it is true and real for those at home, it will be just as true and real for those abroad. But if any one is troubled for a moment longer with this objection, I would only ask him to try it by this one practical proof. If he had a case of great suffering and trial at home for which he was anxious to collect the sympathy and alms of Christians, to whom would he go with any expectation of success ; would he go to the man who had sheltered himself against the claim of those afar off by the plea that he thought we should begin at home? Would he not instinctively know that another excuse would shield again that same selfishness from this new and equally troublesome demand ; and would he not go straight to him whose open hand he had seen gladly extended to aid these ministrations to the necessities of the destitute heathen ? An objection has also been taken, and taken, as I believe, in some quarters with perfect sincerity and truth, to some details of the proceedings of this particular Society, whose cause we are this day advocating. And this objection, therefore, is not un- worthy of our notice. Now, let me say at once, that in advo- cating the cause of this Society, I do not mean to say one word against kindred Societies which are doing the same work with- in the Church of Christ. Our simple object is to show that the instrumentality we recommend to you to-day, is an instru- mentality worthy of your notice, and such as you may usefully, and therefore ought to employ. Now, I say, that the objections which have been made to this Society are to be met at once by this single consideration ; it is, after all which can be said against it, a fair representation of the Church of Christ estab- lished in this country, — of its excellences, and its defects. We do not mean to say, that it is impossible to find fault with this or that of its acts in times past, or that it will be impossible to find fault with this or that of its acts in the time to come ; be- cause we claim only to be an association of weak and fallible men, but yet an associated body of Christians doing, to the best of our knowledge, and to the best of our means, the 94 Occasional Personal Failures inevitable. highest, the greatest, and the most needful work which can be done by any of us. And now, one word (for here is where the objection especially touches us) as to the character of the agents we employ in this work. And here I will only say, that a knowledge, now extending for some years, and reaching in some degree intimately to the conduct of this Society, has convinced me that the greatest care is uniformly taken in the selection of our missionaries; and that what is judged fitness, is this, a real desire to promote the salvation of souls through Christ Jesus, according to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. We profess nothing more, with nothing less are we contented. We may have had those who have dis- appointed our choice ; alas ! such disappointments are inevit- ably consequent upon working through human instruments. Was not St Paul disappointed when John Mark turned back, and went not with them to the work ? Was not again St Paul disappointed when "All men forsook him," or when Demas left him, " Having loved this present world" ? And does it not show, therefore, that even from the apostles, even from ins^Dired men, was withheld the power of so accurately reading the heart of another, that they might choose for instruments in this work those who, upon trial, in which is the only proof, were found not to be that which they had been deemed ? But then this we say, that we are ready, whenever any defect is proved, to set about providing its remedy ; that we do not uphold error ; that we do in the sight of God desire this and this only, — as we have received the truth in this Church of England, so simply to administer that truth in the conversion of the heathen to God. And therefore, if this objection falls to the ground, the original duty remains binding upon each one of our consciences, upon us individually, and upon us as a national Church, and therefore I may say upon us as a nation, that we should heartily, and in earnest, support the cause thus com- mitted to us. Now, with regard to individuals, it is exceed- ingly difficult to enter, upon such an occasion as this, into such details as shall enable them to see whether they are acting up to the claims of duty in this respect. The utmost that can be Selfish Neglect of National Duty, 95 done is, to lay down certain general principles, which we trust may be appHed to the conscience of one and another. But with regard to our national duty, the task is somewhat easier, be- cause the selfishness of many individuals running together into the common selfishness of a nation, manifests itself in such plain and broad lines, that it no longer admits of being explained away. Look, then, at the discharge of this duty of our nation towards our Indian Empire, and see whether we, as a nation, are free fi'om the plainest charge of neglecting selfishly this highest work of God. Let us only remember this one fact, that there are many separate items, for instance, under our excise laws, which raise a far larger sum as a tax upon this or that commodity (commodities perhaps either hurtful, or only used as luxuries among us), than all which we are able to raise from the Christian charity, and fehe Christian benevolence of the Christian population of this great country for the noblest of all works. Here then, I fear, is the charge brought home to us ; here is the selfish self-sparing of one and of another, manifestly running together into that broad line which, even if we would, we cannot overlook. For after all, what are the claims which God has upon this nation and upon this Church? How are they to be estimated } Surely, by the blessings which He has given to us to enjoy, and the opportunities of service which He has given us to improve ; and this will include both blessings spiritual, and blessings temporal. If He has given to us a Church, in which there is a remarkable purity of doctrine ; if He has preserved that Church by wonderful inter- positions of His hand, when all men seemed to be against it ; what is this but a fresh obligation upon us, who are the receivers of these benefits, to labour to impart them to others ? There is, as it seems to me, a widely-spread mistake current on this point. Men say, " Well, after all, we do not do so much as we should do, as a Church, abroad, but we have a good deal of purity at home." Now, if we have, it is, I con- tend, an additional call to labour in the cause of God, — for whose gift is that purity ? Whence comes it in any measure 9 6 The Exainple of Five Great Empires, among us ? Of whom is it, that amongst us the sacraments are duly administered ? How has it happened that the gross superstitions which in this land heretofore overclouded men's minds have been swept away ? Who swept them away ? Who, but God, by the breath of heaven ? And who gave us all our spiritual blessings, but He himself? And surely if we have re- ceived them, the very reception only binds us to greater exertions in His cause. Instead, therefore, of being able to set off our home purity and devotion as a counterbalance against apathy abroad, it only tends to make our apathy abroad the more eminently culpable. For God has given us these good things at home that we may labour the more earnestly abroad. And this applies to our temporal as well as to our spiritual blessings. Can any man believe that God has raised England up to its wonderful pre-eminence upon the earth, — to an empire, above which none of all those which have towered up for a season, and then by the hand of God been swept away, when they have accomplished, or failed to accomplish, their destiny, has ever risen? — Can any man believe that this Empire has been given to us only for our own aggrandisement, only for the stor- ing of our houses with every luxury, comfort, display, and beauty which can be gathered from every part of the earth ? He must have read, I think, the records of God's dealings with other nations with an almost blinded eye, and with a most impassive sense, who could have come to any such conclusion. What is the history of all those five great empires which, one by one, overshadowed this earth ? What is the history of every one of them, as we read them reflected in the records of the sacred prophet? what but the history of a people raised up by God to do a mighty work of one sort or another, a work of chastise- ment, or a work of blessing ; who have been tried for a season, to see whether they would accomplish it ; and then, if they failed in that their trial, have been put aside, as men put aside the blunted instrument which will not execute the work they need performed, and another taken in their stead. Now, reflect for a moment upon the position of England with regard to this especial work. Look at its Indian Empire, to How India was acquired. 97 which the noble lord Avho moved the first resolution addressed himself; consider how God has given us that country, — how marvellously He wrought to put it into our hands. That noble lord has said that that Empire has been acquired by many shameful means. To a certain extent, I am prepared to admit there is tmth in the assertion : undoubtedly, many of the indi- vidual actions through which that Empire was obtained were such as no man can justify ; but, taken as a whole, I am not prepared to admit the assertion. I believe that sovereignty to have been put into our hands in a great measure against our will. I see territorial aggrandisement going on^ when those by whom it was effected not only did not seek after, but really did not wish to possess that territory, v/hich was, as it were, thrust into their hands. In all this I see the hand of God raising up the British Empire in India, and committing to it a sway over a hundred millions of our fellow-creatures, for whom Christ died ; and so considered, it appears to me an operation of His providence as wonderful as any that ever marked the history of man upon this earth. And then I ask you, and I ask myself, wherefore did God give us that Empire ? Could it be for any other purpose, but that, through our instrumentaUty, that Gospel, which is for the healing of the nations, should be made known to every tribe, and people, and district of that vast and populous continent ? And so, again, when we see China opened by our arms, with no premeditated scheme on our part to effect that end, but by events which followed one another in what we may almost call a natural sequence, — each one of which dictated the next, so that we could not say beforehand, '• Now, we will open China," — but were forced on by a power leading us on day by day, in darkness and un- certainty as to whither we were going, until at once, and almost beyond expectation, China opened to us its hidden recesses of wealth and population. And why? Surely that this vast family of the human race might, by our instrumentality, be gathered into the fold of Christ. There has been at this moment put into my hands what I think is a good illustration of this, an analysis of the Scriptures, with reference to the 9 8 Why China has been opened. social duties of man, compiled by Mr Montgomery Martin, and translated into Chinese by Dr Gutzlaff, a second edition of which has just been published in this city of London, to be circulated throughout the wide extent of China. This is to be, by English manufacture, multiplied and increased, and then to be sent out as the companion of British commerce, bearing the message of salvation to the crowded multitudes of that Empire, with whom God has now brought us into contact. Now, can any reasonable man doubt that China has been opened to us in order that we should so labour, and not that we should buy our tea a fraction cheaper ? Will any reasonable man tell me that the providence of God led on a Christian people into that war in which so many of that unhappy people perished un- avoidably, in order that the English people might buy that luxury some penny a pound cheaper than they could have bought it otherwise ? I declare that it seems to me tantamount to denying the government of God to harbour such a thought; to let our souls contract themselves to such miserable limits as even for an instant to allow the imagination that such motives as these could give rise to all that wonderful array of circumstances in w^hich we are placed. No; it was that by ''the ships of Tarshish first," that by a people originally formed by His creative hand with all the natural endowments which secure national pre-eminence, and then taught by Christianity the strength of energy, of patience, and of prayer, — it was that by the Anglo-Saxon race, which, wherever it has planted its firm foot, has said, " And I will be the master, in the strength of God ; " — it was that by such a nation, raised and ennobled by Giristianity, He himself might work His work of mercy on the earth, that God put into our hands that instrumentality which it is now ours to use, or ours thanklessly to refuse to employ. And now I would beg of this meeting calmly to weigh the alternative. What is involved in the refusal to employ these means? What, but saying that we will not be the instruments in that work for which we were designed ? And what else is this but to secure our being thrown aside as the Signs of the Times, 99 blunted arrow ; that, instead of us, another weapon may be drawn out of the exhaustless quiver of the Ahnighty? It can- not be, but that He will resist us as a nation, and as a Church, if we refuse to do His bidding. Surely the history of Jonah was not written in vain for such a nation as this ?' " I will send thee unto Nineveh ; " — and he fled from the voice of the Lord God. But did not God find him out with the wings of His hurricane, and His voice of the storm? And did not God prepare him for His work by that three days' unknown sepul- ture in the depths of the sea ? And so- it may be, that if we will not do God's work gladly and joyfully, we shall be taught to do it by suffering and by punishment, — or it may be that we shall be cast utterly away, and another sent in our stead. Few men, I think, can look calmly and dispassionately into the state of things within and around us, without seeing abundant tokens to- justify such apprehensions. Surely that which has been the fall of other mighty nations, has gone already far in its course of evil amongst ourselves. Is there not amongst us much of that luxury and selfishness, much of the destruction of mutual trust, and mutual co-operation, which render the foundations of society unsound ? Do not wealth and civilisa- tion often build up the towering edifice to a height which will only make its fall the more signal, and the more pitiable-, whilst they sap the basis upon which all must rest ? And are- not some at least of the signs of such fearful evils around us in things- spiritual and civil ? Who does not feel that in many respects there have been, and there are, signs of danger amongst us spiritually ? Perhaps one may apprehend them principally from one quarter, and another from another, but do we not all admit that dangers there are ? and how can we expect that God would visita Church which declines to do His bidding, when He has made that bidding signally clear ? how but by cursing it at- home with lukewarmness, division, and barrenness, by blowing upon its labours " so that when it went out full it came home empty?" Let those, then, who have read with trembling any- of the signs of the times, see whether here is not our fault, that when God gave us this mighty work to do, we shrank 100 The Nation 7'esponsible for its Government, back, and abused to our own luxury and indulgence alone, what He gave us that we might save souls and glorify His Name. And if this be so in things spiritual, is it not so also in the things of this world ? Who has not heard of the shaking of a people which God is about to turn upside down ; and is not this again the very way in which we might expect Him to visit us — by the shaking of all trust in the mutual relations of social, civil, and pohtical life ? Are not these the signs of coming national judgments ? and can we doubt, that if we, as a nation connected with the heathen nations, have been slack and remiss in fulfilling what our commercial and pohtical relation to them required from us, we might expect that God would visit this slackness, by just those judgments, the distinct harbingers and signs of which have been suffered to make themselves manifest among us ? And if this be so, how are we to turn them aside ? It is easy to say that the Government of the country' ought to discharge such claims of duty; this is exactly one of those miserable subterfuges by which men put aside from themselves a plain call of duty ; for, after all, what is the Government of this country ? Is it not the very boast of Eng- land that it is a self-governed country? and is not this true, in a measure which it never was with regard to any people of the earth ? is it not perfectly clear that the Government of this country must, in the long run, pretty fairly represent what is the opinion, the character, the disposition, religious, moral, social and political, of the people whom it governs? Do not we perfectly well know that a Government which the na- tion felt to be an utterly irreligious Government, would soon fall from power? and what does this imply? why that the Government of the country does represent the moral and poli- tical character of the people which it governs ; and, therefore, when you say that the Government of the country is at fault in not doing more to Christianise the colonies and the heathen around them, you condemn yourselves ; it is your fault that the Government does not do it. If you, in your station, were setting a better example — if you were leavening society around Diffictdties of the Government with Missions, loi you with a spirit of greater self-denial, love, and consciousness of responsibility, the Government of the country would not long be faulty in those respects for which you upbraid them. You yourselves, depend upon it, by your prayers, your labours, and your example among those around you, might do much to remove those faults which you content yourselves with idly, and, therefore, shamefully remarking. This charge, I think, should come home to every one of us who are assembled here to-day. And then, further, what are the difficulties of the Government of this country as regards this question ? There is nothing gained by false delicacy here ; the difficulty of the Government is this — that upon religious questions we are a most divided people. The difficulty is this — not that we do not admit that this work ought to be done — not that we do not admit there would be a blessing in doing it — not that we do not admit that there is even danger in leaving it undone, — but that we cannot agree how we are to set about its execu- tion. So that the religious divisions of our people are the cause why Christ's work is not more thoroughly done in this country. It is because we do not really love one another as we ought, because our hearts are cold, that our arm is weak in this the mightiest work which man can set about, the evangeMsing of the earth ; and therefore I say, that the remedy, to a great extent, is within your own power. Let each of us set ourselves against this dangerous, this besetting evil, against a cold heart, against a self-exalting spirit, against a judging spirit, against a suspecting spirit, against these evils within ourselves, which make us as we are, so fearfully divided. Let each one say, " I see that the mighty designs, for the accomplishment of which this people was raised up, are being altogether inter- rupted by our thus allowing the spirit of religious division ; I see that the great work of Christ upon earth is interrupted by our religious dissension ; I see that every exertion which is made for the civilisation and conversion of the nations is paralysed — that our hearts are too narrow and contracted for great designs and glorious accomphshments ; and, therefore, with God's help, I will set my face against these evils ; I will 102 Love the soin^ce of Self- Denial for God, endeavour first to make myself a man of love, and knowing that nothing can open the heart, except the gift of that God to Whose service I desire to devote myself, therefore my aim and my prayer shall be, that He will give to me, and to all around me, a spirit of unity and a spirit of love ; instead of thinking that our divisions are matters of no moment, I will witness, everywhere, that they are withering the right arm of God's choicest instrument." This work must begin in our own hearts, and thence it must spread to our families, and so to all around. It must be sought, first from the laying on of God's hand upon ourselves ; from our own souls being watered and refreshed by the dews of His gracious influence ; and then it must be strengthened and increased by the habitual exercise of self-denying, loving actions. You cannot sit at home and do nothing for others, and in such a course of selfishness win the great blessing of a loving heart. You must begin by acting upon the little love which God has given you, and in acting heartily and simply upon that little love, the walls of your narrow heart will, through His grace, expand themselves, until they be fit for the habitation of the God of all love. You must begin by a love which makes you self-denying, if you would do anything to redress these grievous national evils. And my earnest trust is, that the result of this our gathering together to-day will be, at least, to do this good, — that among some of us who have assembled here, this conviction shall be strengthened, " By God's grace, I must keep my own heart, — I must seek for greater love myself, if I would have this mighty cause prosper on the earth." X. Upon the extension of the missions of the society for the propagation of the gospel IN mVilK.— London, Nov. 26, 1857. I SHOULD entirely sympathise with the feehng of reluctance, which was expressed by my right rev. brother who preceded me, to speak upon this subject, if I thought our business to- day was in any degree to express any opinion as to the mode in which the British Government in India was in future to be conducted ; because I feel that to offer the slightest opinion upon that, which seems to me one of the most difiticult and embarrassing questions which can possibly be proposed to a Christian people, or to a Christian Government, would here be perfectly out of time and place. I believe that none of us ought to express so much as the slightest approach to an opinion upon this great question, until he has before him facts, and the results of inquiries, which, I believe, no man in England or in India at this moment can have. But I do not under- stand that in any sense to be our business here. Neither is it that we are met together to throw any blame upon any par- ticular persons, parties, or officers who have been engaged in the past government of India. Therefore, so far, I entirely agree in that with my right rev. brother, and I am sure that this was all he meant to say upon this point : because as to looking back— not for the purpose of blaming individuals— but of taking a calm and Christian estimate of what has been the discharge by our nation as a nation, and our Church as a Church, of the trust which has been committed to it, that I hold to'be one of our bounden duties upon such occasions as these. I can conceive nothing, and I am sure that there was no word which fell from my right rev. brother which was intended to contradict this, more offensive to Him m Whose 104 ^-^^^ Chtcrch Interpreter of God's Intentions. service we hope to go forth with renewed alacrity, than to refuse to take His rebuke as from Hirn, and to look back with deep contrition in His presence at those things which have deserved His rod. It seems to me that it is a special function of the Church to exercise this prophetical faculty for the dull undiscerning world. She stands amid the perturbations of nations, among the afflictions which the Almighty sends upon them : she sees the hand come forth upon the wall, and trace in burning char- acters the mystic sentence ; she sees the wise men of the earth retire with pulled confusion from the enigma which they cannot interpret ; and, calm in her faith, strong in her trust in the justice and the love of Him whom she serves, and instructed by His written Word, she reads the writing which the world cannot decipher, and interprets to the peojDle the behests and the intentions of the Highest. It seems to me to be her special function, upon such occasions, to take the tone and language of that prophet who, when he desired to have revealed to him what God was about to do with His people, prepared himself for the illapse of the Revelation, by humbly confessing his own sins, and tlie sins of his people, which had brought upon them the miserable Babylonian captivity. There- fore I confess openly, that I feel that what has fallen from Mr Puller is a well-founded charge; and that we must acknowledge our shortcomings as a people in this matter, if we would do acceptable service to God, and if we would awaken the Christian heart of this nation to a sense of its most imperative duties. We are not met here to complain of one another, but in order that from this room there may go forth, through all the differ- ent circles which have their centres here to-day, an influence which shall awaken one determined resolution in the heart of this Christian people to rise up, as they have never risen up before, to a sense of the great ends for which God has committed to us this great trust. Now, when I look thus at our responsibilities, I do subscribe with an aching heart to the charge brought by ]\Ir Puller, not against the East India Company, nor tlie Indian Government, PoLcy of Indian Government to Christianity. 105 nor the Government at home, but agamst the whole nation : because, though it is true that the separation of the people of England from our Indian possessions is marvellously com- plete, yet the freedom of the English people is such that, sooner or later, it does make those who administer its affairs represent fairly what is the great mass, good or evil, of its opinions and desires : and this makes the blame rest on the nation, and not on its agents. I subscribe, therefore, for my- self to the charge brought against us. I have no doubt that we did not intend to encourage heathenism. God forbid that such an accursed thought should be in the breast of any man ; but I believe that we were afraid and ashamed of the God of our Christianity; and that we based our administration in India upon a compromising half-support of heathenism, rather than on the belief that as God's providence had given it to us, so God's -providence would keep it for us. I think it is of the greatest moment that we should understand what this sort of timidity really means. Was not the greatest crime which this earth has ever seen committed upon its face, justified, and brought about by that same reasoning which has been used to justify our policy with regard to Christianity in India? What was the argument of those who betrayed the Lord of life? " If we let Him alone, the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation." The trust of God's ancient people rested rather upon the sufferance of the heathen, than upon the might of God's everlasting power ; and by this wretched cowardice they were led into their uttermost guilt. And has not this been our reasoning with respect to the spread of Christi- anity in the East:— "If we are bold in professing our faith, the Brahmins and the Mussulmans will come and take away both our place and nation " ? Is not this contrary to the writing written in the Book of Truth which we can hardly at this moment read without trembling?— " Whoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of ^Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." If we are ashamed of this faith,— and I will not io6 Growth of the Indian Einph^e. weary you with details of proof that we have been ashamed of it, — is not what we have seen the very aspect of such judgment as Christians have looked for ? Is not such punishment one of those means by which God forces a Christian people to contem- plate the position which it has almost unawares assumed ? We must never lose sight of the way in which our Indian Empire has grown up. At first our settlements there were mere com- mercial depots along the coast of the country ; we had no notion of governing the people, but day by day, grain by grain, our dominion grew, no man knew how, until it embraced the whole country ; and still the old tradition, the commercial timidity, remained, which prevented men from seeing all at once that, from being barely tolerated merchants, they had become the rulers and administrators of one of the greatest empires which God had ever suffered to grow up in the world. From that miserable and hideous dream God has now awakened us, and awakened us by just such a judgment as those which the prophets of old were in tiie habit of interpret- ing to the people of their time, as signs that God had a quarrel with them, and intended to draw them into a more true and perfect obedience to His will. And if we answer to His word, I doubt not that we shall have reason to rejoice that God has so chastised us. I believe that the administration of India would not have been changed as it ought, and, as we hope, it will be changed, but for this mighty convulsion, which may be compared to those great convulsions of the earth which entirely alter in a moment the w^hole face of the globe, lifting level plains up into peaked mountains, and plunging lofty hills into the depth of some vast inundation. Who can doubt that God has so dealt with us, in order that we may assume, in a spirit worthy of Christians, the new posi- tion in which His right hand has placed us ; and act, as w^e never yet have acted, with true Christian zeal and courage in the administration of our Eastern Empire ? It is easy to say that this is only general advice. It must be general from the nature of the case. We have to do with principles ; it is for others to consider how they may be carried into practice, and Mere Edtccation msttfficie7it in India. 107 assuredly in principle there is much to alter. For there is nothing which the English people more utterly dislike than timidity in the administration of affairs ; and yet, though it is alien altogether to our national character, I believe that it is the feature which has been stamped upon our religious admini- stration of India. Such has been our fear of confessing the Lord, such our practical expectation that without His perpetual help we should be able to maintain our empire, that we have been led unawares into what may be truly called alien to our national character, and even our national faults. We, whose fault it is that we are always ready to thrust our fists into the face of every nation on the earth, to play the braggadocio with ©very people under the sun, have actually cowered before the Pagan idolatries of India ! The resolution v/hich I have to propose calls upon us to pledge ourselves to a new line of conduct. It sets forth the necessity of establishing missions in the presidential and other principal cities, with a view to bringing the truths of Christianity before the minds of the upper as well as the lower classes of India — that is to say, of endeavouring, by a great scheme, with the only arms which a Christian Church can use, openly and avowedly to assault the high places of idolatry in that land. The cobweb notions which have infested some brains, of educating Mohammedans and Brahmins, until the polished heathen shall be capable of par- ticipating in a silken administration, which shall seek the happiness and good of all, have been swept away by the besom of the Cawnpore destruction. Why, the man who has shown himself to be the most under the power of that spirit of evil which has been let loose in India for our chastisement — Nana Sahib himself— is a man who has that kind of education in considerable perfection, and who passed among our country- men as a pleasant and highly-accomplished gentleman. Ah ! how like the tiger of his own jungles, when, sleek and smooth, with its claws soft as velvet, it plays with the little innocent whom it seems to guard ! How like, also, the same tiger in its moment of fury, when it has given itself up to the gratification of io8 Intellectttal Character of the Hifidics. its brutal passions, and when its vile nature has burst forth in all its hideousness and atrocity ! A polished Brahmin, or a polished Mohammedan, is a savage still : and I trust that henceforth, instead of confining ourselves to the cultivation of the native intellect, we shall administer India, not merely for our own temporal advantage, nor merely for their intellectual development, but for the true benefit of the people, by bringing home to their understandings and their hearts the ennobling and saving influences of Christian truth. And how is that to be done ? Not by fraud or violence, not by leading the natives to suppose that they shall please England, or gain earthly advantage, or avoid punishment by assuming the Christian faith, but by letting all our public acts, and, as far as possible, our private lives, declare that we are Christians, that we glory in belonging to Christ, and that we hold India for the good of the people, because we are Christians. Let us declare that no man shall be injured because he chooses to become a Chris- tian ; but that as long as we hold dominion in India there shall be protection for all. That is the first thing. Then, negatively, we must not any more dream that when we have got a few of our modern notions, — gathered from our Pi?i- 7iock^s Catechisms and the like, — into the minds of the natives, and left them strangers to God, we have made them capable of exercising power ; because we must hold that we cannot have trust in those who believe not in our Lord, and there are many facihties for our making them acquainted with our faith. For the Hindus, so far from disliking your attempting to convert them, if you do it with the only arms which you can lawfully use, have a love for the intellectual exercitation which it im- plies, even while they remain attached to their native faith. Like the old Athenians, they love to hear and tell of something new, and therefore we have an opportunity such as no people ever had before of spreading the Gospel among the heathen. For we daily meet with them in our ordinary path of business. We have by power achieved a mighty conquest of all their own tribes, and of their ancient conquerors; and we have the farther advantage of standing upon the vantage-ground of a better Why Gwalio7^ remained Faithful to Engla^id. icg civilisation, and higher intellectual gifts. How far the power of this our mere position would reach, if we were but truthful to our trust, was brought strikingly before me a few days since by a gentleman connected with one of our highest families, who had been a resident in India for many years. He told me that upon one occasion the Rajah of Gwalior, whose successor has stood so faithfully by us in the present mutinies, said to him, — " How is it that you English have so great a command over us ? " His reply was, " It is because you pray to an idol, which can do no good to you, while we pray to the God of heaven, through His only Son, and our prayers are heard." The man was still for a moment. At last he said, ''I believe you are right." Mark, in connection with such an incident as this, how curiously you may trace the hand of God in this last outbreak. Why did that man's family remain faithful to us? I verily believe that it was mainly on account of the moral and religious influence which the Resident had of old obtained over that man's heart. He had got to trust him implicitly. The Resident had helped him to recover a large debt, of recovering which he had almost despaired, and when it was paid it came home in bullock waggons, and the Rajah had sent to say that he had ordered a certain number, containing ^400,000, to stop at the Resident's door as his share. Of course the Resident's answer was, " I cannot take a single penny from you. What I have don£, I have done as a matter of right and justice." The Rajah sent for him next day, and said to him, " What a fool you were not to take the money ; nobody would have known it, I should never have told it." " But," said the Resident, " there is One who would have known it — the eye that sleepeth not would have seen it ; and my own conscience would never have left me a moment's rest." Upon which the Rajah said, " You English are a wonderful people ; no Indian would have done that." When the Resident was going away, the Rajah sent for him and asked him for advice as to his future policy. " I will give you this advice," said the Resident; " it is very likely that troublesome days will come, and if they should, and things should for the time look as if our power 1 1 o N'ccessity of a Native Ministry in India. would pass away, do not be misled by such appearances. It may appear as though the rule of the Company was going to be swept away. Don't believe it ; it never will be ; and those who stand firm by the Company will in the end find that they have made the best choice." The Rajah's reply was, "I believe you are right ; " and he transmitted that doctrine down to those who came after him. There, I believe, is the history of Gwalior remaining firm, when so many other districts have fallen from us, because Christian principles had there been thus incidentally brought to bear upon the ruler of that people. Now, something like this is what we propose to do by missions in these days. The proposal to train young natives so that they may be fitted for the work of the ministry among their own countrymen, is of the first importance. I believe that this step is essential to the true conversion of any nation to the faith. There is no record upon the face of the earth of any nation being permanently converted, until the ministers of Christ's Church v/ere reproduced out of the native stock. With the ministry of a stranger there must always be separating influences at Avork ; but with that of natives, there must be many allying and welding influences. The mere fact of being spoken to in the beloved native tongue would have a great effect. Close to our doors, in Ireland, we know hov/ the sound of the native tongue goes home to the hearts of the people ; but in such a land as India, it will have ten times the effect. [Moreover, it is not possible to find men enough here to preach the Gospel to 180,000,000 or 200,000,000 of people — one in six, remember, of the whole human race. Therefore, without training native youth, it is not possible for us satisfactorily to perform the work. And oh ! how different will be that training from that which they now too often receive through our means. For, alas ! our past education of what is called " Young India," has done much to alienate the most active portions of the native mind from all faith in Christianity. There is now an enormous demand for the works of all our old Deists for the rising generation of India, so that, to all the ancient super- Need of more Bishops m India. 1 1 1 stitions of the country, there are superadded the destructive infusions of doubt, which have been produced out of the seething mass of those who in our own land have lapsed into speculative unbelief. Instead of such training as this, we pro- pose to educate the youth to be bearers of the truth of Chris- tianity to their fellow-countrymen, and fully to profit by this design, we must have there a great increase of bishops. This meeting is not called for the purpose of promoting an increase of the Episcopate in India ; but I do not mean to shrink from avowing, that it is our opinion that more bishops are necessary. We want many more bishops there ; and, what is more, with- out bishops, we never can adequately discharge the work of spreading the Gospel there. You want bishops in India now, for the same reason that you Avant generals in a time of war. In time of peace, you are satisfied with an army which merely discharges the duties of a police, without any great general. You can do then with an old general, whose infirmities prevent him from mounting his horse ; but when a state of actual war- fare comes, then at once you find that such men cannot be the generals you want. It is the same thing with regard to bishops. You must have combined movements. Your efforts must be united under one head — you must trust to Christ, the Head of the Church, and therefore to a duly organised Church acting under His own officers. Therefore, if you would increase your native priesthood, you must increase your bishops, and you must not act as you did when you committed to the care of the Bishop of Calcutta the distant province of the Punjab, which no man living can administer as Bishop of Calcutta. Our missions, too, require to be administered with more vigour. I freely admit that in this respect we have made advances of late years ; but it was only while the brother of my right rev. friend near me (the Bishop of Jamaica) was Bishop of Madras, that the distinctions of caste were abolished, even in our own Christian missions. That alone is a fact which may account to us for our not having prospered more abun- dantly than we have done in this w^ork committed to us. But, if we really set ourselves to do God's will in this matter through 112 The Mutiny an Effort against Christianity, India, there will be no limit to the blessings which He will bestow upon our work. I read the promise of these blessings even in these our present sufferings. I remember that the last and fiercest outbreak of the old heathendom against the Church of Christ, in that terrible persecution of Diocletian, immediately preceded the conversion of the Roman Empire to the faith of the Crucified. And why did it? Because those powers of darkness which stirred it up, reading the signs which men's hearts furnished forth, saw that the time was rapidly approach- ing when Christianity must trium.ph, and so they gathered themselves up for one last and terrible effort to put down the faith of Christ. And so I hope it has been in India. The god of this world has read in many respects the signs of the coming time, and has gathered up his servants to one last, but, I believe, utterly hopeless, effort. For I doubt not that if we rise now at the call of God, and indeed begin His work, we shall be enabled to carry it out far more abundantly than it has ever yet been permitted to us to do. My right rev. brother, at the commencement of these pro- ceedings, expressed a wish that we had some one among us who has himself been in those scenes, and who could speak with that force which practical experience alone can give. Since I came into this room a letter has been put into my hands from the Lord Bishop of Madras, to that admirable Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which began those Indian missions of ours, and at length handed them on to her younger sister, the Gospel Propagation Society, which seems to furnish the witness which my right rev. brother desired. The Right Rev. Prelate writes : — ''Ten or eleven clergymen whom I know, most of them with wives and families, are among the slain. Two promising missions, Cawnpore and Delhi, the last the most promising I have known, the missionaries, their wives and families murdered by assassins, the churches, schools and catechists' houses destroyed, the catechists, schoolmasters, and the whole body of native Christians cut off." You see it is the cross which is most hated ; the white skin Native Christians faith fit I to the Government. 1 1 3 in its measure, but the cross stamped upon it most bitterly of all. My right rev. friend goes on : — " How wonderful are the dealings of the Almighty in per- mitting all these things ! but He doeth. all things well. I rejoice to find that the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has determined to renew these missions. Oh ! it will be a fertile soil watered with the precious blood of so many martyrs — men, too, as I can testify, who counted not their lives dear to them in the cause of Christ. If, as I believe will be the case, these deaths will produce a glorious result in the harvest of souls reaped from them, the cause for which they lived and died will be the gainer. They, being dead, will yet continue to speak in all coming time." He goes on to say — " Surely many a noble youth from our universities will spring forth to 'be baptized for the dead,' to succeed to the ranks of the departed, to enter into their labours, and to reap the reward of the conversions which, through God's mercy, shall follow their toils, their trials, and their death." Already his prophecy has been fulfilled. Since I entered this room 1 have heard that two men of mark, rank, and pro- mise from our universities, have sent in their names as ready to go forth and take up the standard which has dropped from the hands of the martyred servants of our Lord in India. The Bishop adds : — ''There are two facts resulting from the mutiny which I hope will not be forgotten — viz., that wherever Christian influence has most prevailed, there has been least cause for fear, and most attachment to our Government; and where there has been most jealousy to keep men from its influence, there the violence and bad passions of the mutiny have been most prevalent." Here is the witness who was desired at the opening of the meeting. Hear the voice of the Bishop of Madras, witnessing to you from what he sees around him of what has occurred and of what, in God's providence, may be expected to be the issue of it. And, my Lord Archbishop, surely amid many H 1 1 4 The Faithfulness of God. things which may make the heart sick, we may derive comfort from the reflection, that England is still permitted to enjoy opportunities for spreading the truths of the Gospel, such as no nation since Christianity was founded ever before possessed. Yes ! and I doubt not, if God is pleased to give us a mind to do His will, a spirit of prayer, and a spirit of united labour, that there is before the English Church and nation a bright and glorious future. God is not like unfaithful men. He does not cast away the instruments which have well performed the duties He entrusts to them ; and I doubt not. if we attend to things spiritual in India as we have done to the lesser things of this world, above the ancient honours which God has given us, shall arise the new honour of being the converters of the East. As the noblest jewel which adorns the regalia of our ancient throne, and shines on the fair brow of England's Queen, has come to us from India, so, beside and above our maritime supremacy, our commercial greatness, our colonial extent — beside and above that blessed spirit of safe and rational liberty which we have been enabled to retain and exhibit for so many generations to a wondering world — shall stand this new " mountain of light," — rescued and enlightened, because evan- gelised — India. XI. Upon the work of missions in india. — Lincoln, November 1864. The Dean, in those very striking remarks that he made to us, put before us in a way that I hope we shall always remember, the great truth, that the reception of the whole revelation of Christ, unshorn of any of its glorious proportions, must so delight the heart that receives it, that it must perforce compel him to be the instrument of spreading it ; and he said — almost giving- us a catchword for afterthought — that it was nothing but receiving, " a revelation which revealed nothing, " which could account for men being apathetic about its spread. I think it was a great remark. There is one other single sug- gestion — perhaps the converse in one respect of that — which may account for the same phenomenon, and that is, when men have come to believe that that which is revealed is not a revelation. That is the other side of the same truth — when they have come, I mean, to think that, after all, what God has given us in His blessed Gospel is not certainly a direct and specific and, therefore, certainly true declaration from Himself, but is a sort of emanation out of the Christianised reason of man reaching after what he desires, and so developing itself into a sort of beautiful vision, which floats airily before his eyes — a revealed truth which is not a revelation : that will account for it too. But, my dear friends, if we do believe indeed in this, not as something which the human mind has developed out of its own internal consciousness, in its reaching forth after some- thing better, but if we believe in it as the very Word of God, declaring Himself, and His counsels, and His salvation for the creature that was made, then taking it, on the one side, in its fulness, and holding it, on the other side, in its authority, I 1 1 6 The Growth of cur Indian Empire. think it is impossible for us not to glory in being its spreaders, and to rejoice ourselves in making it known to our brethren. This is really the work of these two Societies, and pre-emi- nently of the Gospel Propagation Society, of whose work I would speak this afternoon ; for its work lies in those parts of the earth which, as you have just been reminded, God has specially committed to us. I think no Englishman can look back on what we have done, or rather omitted, in this matter as a nation, without feelings of self-reproach, and without feelings of alarm for our own beloved country. We have been great apostles of liberty throughout the world ; we have been great apostles of commerce throughout the world ; we have been great apostles in the combination of these two with civilisation throughout the world ; but it does seem to me, looking closely to it, that we have feared to be great apostles of Christianity. Take those parts of the world where the trust committed to us has been the most complete, and therefore where the opportunity of service has been the widest. Take, for instance, the history of the deahngs of Christian Britain with that marvellous Indian Empire which God has committed to us. How strangely that Empire grew up. How it grew up in many instances, not only without the design of those who were the instruments of founding it, but contrary to their inclinations and against their convictions. How we intended at first to have nothing more than mere trading places upon the distant river, and how necessity drove us, if we would retain that to which we had a right (the trading place upon the river bank), to continually spread the margin, and by degrees to alter the holding of that which we had reluctantly consented to receive. How in this way, from little to little, not by the great designs of men at home planning the subjugation of a distant empire, but by being compelled each day, often for the sake of preserving the lives of our own people, or of those who had been committed to our protection, to take empire which we were unwilling to handle, until it has grown into that mighty Empire in the East, the marvel of the world, and the envy of Obstacles raised by Government to Christianity, 1 1 7 our rivals. Well, then, with regard to such an empire as that, so manifestly a gift to us from the hand of God, surely, as a Christian people, we are pre-eminently bound to honour Him in it by making our holding of it an instrument of spreading His truth. And yet I must say, and believing it, I will not disguise my belief, that we have been singularly remiss in that great Empire in maintaining the truth of our Master. We have been, I believe, timid, as we never should have been timid, as to main- taining the cause of liberty or the interests of commerce, when it came to the maintenance of the truth of Christianity. We seem to have had an impression that if we did but avow ourselves to be Christians we should shake our mastery over that people. What do we read ? At last when, after many efforts, a Christian missionary was admitted into our Indian dominions, how slowly and reluctantly — not the people on the spot, whose eyes might be blinded with prejudice, but how reluctantly did the great senate of this Christian nation consent to it. Do you remember, that when the Gospel was first preached under the auspices of this land, our missionaries were compelled to go to a native settlement, because the English settlement would not allow them to preach the faith on its borders ! And when the charter of the East India Company came before Parliament to be renewed and re- modelled, when one, to be the son of whom is my greatest earthly honour — when he in the English House of Commons pleaded the cause of Christianity, and declared openly his belief that we should forfeit all if we were false to it — when he did obtain, after the greatest and most continued struggle, the admission upon a narrow division of an almost fruidess general proposition, which declared that it must be the duty of a Christian people to endeavour where it could, without injury to its other endeavours, to spread the truth, and hardly got that, but took it as an instalment, that upon the third reading of the bill that was struck out as being too strong an admission for a Christian people ! And then, when at last, when days had mended a little, and it was determined to send a bishop out 1 1 8 Exiinction of the Stittee in India. for our own people in India, I dare say you remember the remark of that man himself when writing home afterwards — a singularly moderate, calm man, free from everything like vivid views, of a wide, well-sustained and well-regulated judgment : his remark was, that " after all they seemed to have smuggled a bishop into India." They were so afraid that if that suspected bale of goods was seen by those, as they supposed, devoted heathen, to come, contrary to Hindoo protection, upon the shore, the whole Conservative principle of India would have risen and flung it into the sea. Well, that was the mode in which we proceeded. Then, again, when we were told of those horrible pollutions of the soil by the burning of the widows, it was bravely declared that if we interfered to stop a single suttee, the extinguished flames of that suttee, would be the extinguished light of our empire in India. One courageous man, however, without con- sulting the Government at home — because happily there was 110 electric telegraph in those days, or he would never have been left to do it — prepared a careful despatch, asking leave to do it, knowing he could not get an answer for eight months, and put his resolution into effect two weeks after ; and when the cautionary despatch came back, saying, " Don't venture upon it," it had already been done. If it had not been for the courage of that man, that step would never have been taken. I do say then, that the history of our Christian dealings with India, has been a series of acts of leligious cowardice which has disgraced our Government of that country. This is not, my friends, merely a notion of a man at home, of one bigoted, as a divine, to the notion of spreading the Gospel. I was talking over this subject with that great man who, at the last resource, our Government has sent forth to be the Gover- nor-General of India — that great man Lawrence — to whom, and ^o his brother, under God, we owe so pre-eminently the maintenance of that Indian Empire — and he told me that he agreed to the very letter with all this, and he said, " I can go further, and I do declare that I believe that what more tended to stir up the Indian mutiny than any one thing, was the habi- Origin of the Rebellion in India. 1 1 9 tual cowardice of Great Britain as to her own religion." He said, " It had a twofold effect, and I witnessed it myself in India. It led many of the natives to believe that we were altogether atheistical, and so not to be trusted, and it led the more thoughtful ones to say, ' These men do believe ; it is impossible for men to believe and not to care about their belief, therefore their apparent unconcern is only a veil thrown over some deeply-contrived scheme which is to effect their hidden purposes,' and so the cowardice which lay upon the surface was so palpable to their eyes, that they took it to be something which was to draw their attention away from a secret scheme of forcing them into Christianity, against which they rose into that terrible rebeUion." Well, now if this be so, could anything be more marked, than that the shaking of that great dominion was a judgment from on high on the people to whom He had given that power, in order to warn them, that if they would not there do His will, the Empire should be taken from them — that they, too, had been weighed in the balance and found wanting? Yes, sir, upon other walls than those of the Babylonian monarch, the fingers of a hand come forth, and trace the mystic symbols which warn those who neglect Jehovah, of empires cut short by the mere utterance of His mouth. And so I beheve it must be with regard to us, unless we do altogether adopt a new policy. It is delightful to me to know that in going with the Archbishop of Canterbury as a deputa- tion from this city to the Secretary of the Indian Board, in order to press upon him the foundation of a new Indian bishopric, he, with a rapidity of intellectual apprehension which so very much characterises him, said, " Now I know what you are come for, you want a new bishopric in India. I see its importance. If I dealt with you officially, I should listen to your speeches. You would each talk for twenty minutes ; I vv^ould reply in a speech of twenty minutes, and then bow you out of the room. Instead of that, I think I had better say at once, that I have written about the very thing to Sir John Lawrence, to learn whether he approves of it ; that what he ap- proves I will approve ; now let us talk about something else." As 20 Loss of Faith in Old Superstitions of India. to what Sir John Lawrence will approve, I had no doubt, and therefore I went away with the Archbishop of Canterbury with great confidence, that if Sir John Lawrence's life is spared, and Sir Charles Wood remains at the Indian Office a few weeks longer, we shall have that great boon to Indian Christi- anity. I am convinced that this is a moment of the greatest peril with regard to that great country. I want you to consider what the state of things in that country really is. We have shaken the faith of the Hindus in their own religion to the very utmost. We have educated their young men, and edu- cation is fatal to the Hindu superstition. With regard to a great many false religions, there is no direct contradiction between a faith in the false religion, and the knowledge, for instance, of the phenomena of natural science ; but the pheno- mena of natural science are so mixed up with all the greatest absurdities of the Hindu religious faith, that you cannot make a man a natural philosopher without shaking his faith in the Hindu religion. Well, we have made the Hindus natural philosophers. They no longer hold with the old notions which they have received, as matters of faith concerning the world in which they live, and the heavenly bodies over them. They cannot hold them, but they cannot give up these without giving up their faith. The consequence is that we have — not from the side of Christianity, mind, but from the side of a pure and absolute unbelieving theism — destroyed this religion, with- out giving them any other religion in its place. The whole Hindu mind in India is shaken in its belief to the very utter- most. Now good may come of it. I do not believe myself it is the true way to convert the heathen, but still great men, and wise men, and holy men, have believed that it was the way. I remember Dr Buchanan says in his Chrisiiafi Researches — and anything from him is well worth weighing — that " looking at the present state of India, it seems to me almost necessary to eradicate all existing notions of religion, before you can sow that land with the seed of Christianity." Well, that is what you have done. I don't believe it is the right way. However, The Mahometans in India. 121 you are now in the condition of having done that. What, then, are you to do ? If you leave that native Indian mind as it now is, with its existing faith shaken, and you take no great means to give it a new and a true faith instead of it, what must be the result ? Is it possible that the mind of fallen man can develop Christianity out of its internal consciousness ? You know what becomes in this land of ours. If you plough up a field of wheat, and then leave nature to replant the field, what do you get ? You won't get wheat, you won't get barley, you won't get oats, you won't get roots ; you will get every con- ceivable variety of useless, tangled, and poisonous weed, for that is what in fallen nature is sown upon the empty ground. And that is what you will get out of the empty heart of the Hindus, unless you sow Christianity broadcast in their land. Therefore I believe this moment is a most perilous time. You have brought that nation into a condition in which it is just qualified to become a people of absolute unbelievers, denying all revelation, with its morals, miserable as they are, degraded yet lower, so that it may pass, even as Southern India has passed from that very state before, from the terrors which haunt the human mind, into the worship of the devil himself, because you have not taught them to look up to the Son of God. Well, you have still the Mahometan population there ; you have done, as yet, but little with regard to them. Now it seems to me that the Mahometan population has a very firm hold on a certain contracted measure of truth. It believes in revelation, and that is an immense thing. It believes, to a certain extent, in the mission of our dear Lord, and that is a great step. It is because it holds something that you have not educated it out of religion, as you have educated Hindus out of all religion. I was talking the other day to a man who knows India thoroughly, and he said this to me : " I believe that the Mahometans, with all their difiiculties, will prove ultimately to be the believing section of Hindustan, and chat the Hindus, with their idleness, and their softness, and their apathy, and their wonderful ingenuity, and their marvellous 12 2 Difference between Hmdns and MaJiometans. mathematical gifts, will turn out hereafter to be the great assail- ants of all revelation whatever." There is the state of things into which the holding for these many years of an almost absolute dominion over millions of Hindus and Mohammedans has brought that great peninsula of India. I ask you, as Chris- tian men, if a nation calling itself Christian — and being Chris- tian, thank God — can, by any misapprehension or timidity, have executed such a mission as that, without being in the greatest peril of having its abused dominion wrested out of its hands ? It was almost wrested out of our hands the other day, but God has granted us another time of trial ; and if we take the counsel of the seer of the old Babylonian monarch, and altogether renew our life, it may be a lengthening of prosperity and tran- quillity to us in that great Empire, But then it must be by undertaking the work heartily. I have no doubt, from the reports given to me of that work by those who know it thoroughly, that if only this Society, and the bishops of our Church in that land, were really enabled to make a true and thorough effort for God, there is no limit to that which may be given us as our reward. The very unsettledness of the Maho- metan mind, the very emptying out of the Hindu mind, might, if we rose up to the greatness of the opportunity, give us the time, and give us the means of inscribing upon that vacant page, the blessed characters of the truth of Christ. But then we need men of education. It will not do to send out there men of no education. The Hindus are men of infinite subtlety of mind. The Mahometans are men of a very firm grasp of whatever they hold. They are all very censorious as to the lives of those who call themselves Christians, and, alas ! they have miserable examples before them. Therefore, we must send out men who have the gifts of intellect, who have, beyond everything else, the firm grasp of faith, and who, because they have the firm grasp of faith, lead lives of love and of purity. If you will enable this Society indeed to fulfil at this moment its desires, and to answer these calls, I believe there may be a success granted to us, such as has not been seen on this earth for many centuries. Method of Gospel Progress. 123 Remember it has always been the way of God's deaUngs in this matter, that men have waited long, to try their faith, but that when the beginning has been made, the end almost has been obtained. How long did Germany resist the gospel ! and yet when St Boniface went forth from this our own land, every wood, every waste, every single morass, of that then wild country seemed to echo, as though by a miracle, with the blessed Name, and the nation was converted. Look at it as it is in nature. How slowly does the tide rise to the edge of some bank which has hitherto resisted its progress ! How long does the bank hold out ! How strong does it seem against the weight of the pressing waters ! But some one small hole gives way somewhere and the waters begin to pass ; and then, widening for themselves the orifice as they sweep through that little opening, that which yesterday seemed to be an impassable barrier, to-day is a forgotten obstacle. So is it, my brethren, with these dealings of God in the spreading of His truth. The prejudices of the native mind, the resistance of the old super- stition, the hindrance of the interested priesthood, these all foi centuries seemed to repel the life-giving stream, and to hold it within the narrow bounds of old observances, but when the day known in the chronicles of God is come, it seems but a little opening, and a trifling change, but they who can read the counsels of the Highest, mark in it the spring-tide of the powers of love, and they know that if then, rising to the necessities of the times, you force the current through that one Httle channel, the labours of centuries will have been accomplished in a night ; and the prayers of witnesses and of martyrs who have laid their lives down, and thought nothing done, will have granted that blessed moment of grace to the work of those who stand after them in the world. Therefore, for the love of this waiting people, for the glory of our Master's name, for the honour of our Church, for the blessedness of our nation, I would venture to say to you — let us make new efforts, put on new courage from fresh desires, and may the God of Bethlehem grant this His gracious accomplishment ! XII. Upon the supply of men for mission work IN INDIA. — London, May 25, 1859. It will be perceived that the special object of the resolution is to obtain a supply of men. We have to thank God for having given us of late very large funds for carrying on the missionary work in distant parts of the world, but we still lack, and we lack in every field of the Church's labour abroad, that which is more costly in the giving, and far more effectual in the gift — the gift of men. For this work we want men of faith, ready to give up home, with its security and its comforts, to labour for the love of Christ, in distant fields of missionary enterprise. This, indeed, is the great want which straitens the arm of the Church in its work. It can only be by God's gifts to our younger men, or by the pouring out of His Spirit upon them, by His infusing into them something of the noble desire which filled the hearts of such men as Henry IMartyn and others of old. It is only by such means as this that the great need can be supplied. This is the great want of all, and especially for the vast field, pointed out by the resolution, in India. The reports of missionaries in every part of India tend to show, that it has been the lack of a right exhibition of Christian character on the part of professing Christians, which has proved a great stumbling-block in the minds of the natives in their estimation of Christianity. Not merely for the direct missionary work, but to raise the whole tone of Christian life among our own countrymen, nothing is more important than that there should be a large infusion of the highest type of Christianity passing to and fro through Indian society, and spreading and fixing those principles of morals and conduct which, thank God, belong to the Church of England. In our Kind of Men needed in India, 125 direct mission work in India, it is most important to remember that, in dealing with the natives of that country, we are not deahng with savages, but with men of intelligence, trained to a high degree of subtlety, and educated in widely-spread systems of a theology of their own ; men who must be met by those capable of entering the field of argument with them, and de- monstrating to them the superiority of the Christian faith, at once by their lives, and by their intellectual power. Well, then, if the want be so great, what has this meeting to do with it? Much every way. Are there no Christian mothers in this room who will devote one son out of many to this work, and train him up in it ? Are there not those in this room who might faithfully undertake such a service, instead of remaining at home ? I exhort the members of the Church of England to lay this matter to heart, and to see that the necessary labourers are supplied. And is it too much to expect that that should be the case, that men should go for a term of years, and give the prime of their lives to this work, and so earn to themselves a " good degree ; " going forth first to gather the heathen people to Christ, and then coming back to witness with power to those at home of what they had seen in heathendom, and to recount the struggle between Christ's everlasting truth and the " doc- trines of devils " ? They might trust safely to the faithful teaching of their Bible and prayer-book. Only the other day I received a letter from Dr Kay, a name not unknown in that meeting, which bore testimony to the truth of that principle. Going beyond this, however, his correspondent said that their real want was that of a bishop in Tinnevelly. That was the call made from one who had been labouring many years in the work. The history of these Missions showed them every- where that, wherever a bishop has been sent out, the clergy had multiplied in a manner never before known in those districts. If, therefore, what we need is, that there should go out many clergymen with the love of Christ in their hearts, with the truth of God's Word, that they might daily distribute thereof, to labour, by the strength of God's grace, in the appointed places of God's Church, we should also strive to increase the gathered 126 Condition tip on which Empire is given in India. centres of spiritual life by planting in every district a bishop of the Church to head his clergy. That was what the late Bishop Wilson, of Calcutta, enjoined, and before long we might probably hope to hear of the founding of another See in India. I trust many will be found to give a practical answer to the appeal so directly made for more men. We do not scruple to give up our sons to fill other and lower positions — civil posi- tions — in India, and in the British army. God knows how sore the parting is to those that send them, and how many an aching thought follows them to that land where duty keeps them ; but is it less becoming that we should send them to this holy warfare, than that they should occupy a place in the ranks of Britain's army ; and is the one to be made of less consideration, and to be held as bringing a lower reward, than the other ? Let us see to the truth of this matter. The em- pire in India has, indeed, passed through a wonderful series of events in the hands of the British people, and our beloved Queen now possesses what was once occupied by the moguls and other potentates of India. But we must regard that Empire as being held by us that we might do God's work there, and woe to us if we fail to do it aright ! There is nothing plainer in God's Word than this — that the course of God's judgments against the impenitent might be marked by the circles in which they moved, growing narrower and narrower, nearer and nearer, as you may see exemplified in the case of Pharaoh, who went on obstinately resisting God's dealings with him, till the first-born of every house in the land was cut off. And has there not been times of judgment for Britain in the East ? We have experienced convulsion after convulsion, until the late dire calamity befel us ; and God's intimation seems to have been called down, that unless more faithfulness were displayed in doing the work which He has appointed, a subverted empire should make manifest the judgment of the King of kings. Seeing, then, the position in which we stand, I desire most earnestly that the appeal which has been made may go home to many a young man's Christian heart, and that Man's War and God's War. 127 Christian labourers will be ready to offer themselves to go forth to this distant field. I pray that men may be raised up by God's grace to do the will of their Lord faithfully. We have seen God's works in His deahngs with men, and if ever there was a time when we should lay them to heart, it should be at the present moment, when we see the stirring of the nations which are driven against each other in that insensate and diabohcal war; when Christian men are employing against each other every implement of death, and carrying misery and wasting into peaceful and abundant districts, which God in His great mercy had crowned with every earthly blessing. Now, when we see the mad ambition of men in high places thus monstrously devastating God's earth, is the time for some to rise up and say, " God's work must and shall be done in God's earth, and here am I, send me to do it." XIII. Upon our Indian empire. — Plymouth, Nov. 6, 1867. At the time of the Indian mutiny, when the heart of this country was very much moved with regard to its Indian responsibihties, and when family after family had had brought into the midst of itself, and its own light, a sense of what God might in a moment do if He suffered the waves of insubordination in that country to rise against its EngUsh possessors, there was a large sum of money collected with a view to making the missions of the Church in that country far more effectual than they had ever been. This sum of money was not to be funded, and its interest used, but it was itself to be employed in direct missionary work. It has been so employed year by year, and it is now entirely expended. In the spending of this money, certain machinery of missionary work was created in India, and the question, therefore, now is, shall that machinery be abandoned because this fund is exhausted, or will the Church at home raise any funds to enable that machinery still to be con- tinued in work ? Now, I think, there can hardly be any question more important for Christian England to settle, and to settle thoroughly with herself than this. What is the responsibility she has incurred in undertaking that great Indian Empire? We need not have had anything to do with India. The British people were at the other end of the earth from it, but partly from our national character, and partly because of our great commerce, we have year by year established a mighty empire, belonging to Christian Britain, in that great peninsula. The way in which tliat empire grew up was in itself most remarkable. Its founders had no intention whatever of founding a British empire there. Originally, the merchants and speculators who settled in India only wanted plots of land on which their houses Resp07isibility attending Dominion, 129 might be built, where their goods might be secure, and where they mjght trade with the country around. But the necessities of commerce year by year forced them to enlarge this holding of the native land. Then came troubles and insurrections, making it necessary for them, if they remained, to take some part or other in the internal affairs of the country. Wars, rebellions — these things forced more and more upon the representatives of this country the same line of action for many years after we were beginning to settle in India. There was nothing the English people and the English merchants more wished to avoid than troubling themselves with any Indian Empire, but by little and little the great trust was, as it were, put upon this people. Then came in, no doubt, national ambition and the strife with other European countries, and so it became at last an acknowledged fact that we were to undertake the administration of the affairs of that great peninsula. I say, then, what is the responsibility which a Christian nation takes in assuming such a charge as this ? Must it not necessarily be, first, that we should govern the people righte- ously ; and must it not be, secondly, that we should govern them for their own advantage ? Is it possible that Christian people Hving at the other end of the earth can assume a dominion over millions of men of another blood and of another habit altogether, and be justified in the sight of God in using that charge only for their own national aggrandisement, or for the growth of their own national wealth and comfort ? Does it not come as a matter of course, because we are under the govern- ment of a righteous God, that, in assuming that dominion, we assume the responsibility of administering it for the best interests of the people over whom it extends ? What, then, is the best in- terest of these people .^ Can it be sufficient to stay rice famines and internal wars, and to prevent those miseries which weigh always upon heathendom in its best estate ? Or is it not of necessity a consequence that we should endeavour to convey to them the best blessings which God has given to us, and to make our rule over them the instrument of conveying these I ;o Right Discharge of our Duty to India. blessings to them ? Well, then, what are these best blessings? Certainly, so for as this world goes, there is, first of all, security of property, security of life, security of family safety, and then, next to this, liberty conjoined with that security. These are the greatest blessings of this life, which it is our duty to endeavour to extend to them. But upon what foundation are those blessings of this life to be rested ? How can property be secured, how can life be secured, how can the sanctities of the family be maintained, how can they be made fit to enjoy any real measure of liberty? We must educate the people, if we mean to be safe, if we mean them to be peaceful, if we mean them to enjoy family life, if we mean them to know anything of national liberty \ and what is the education of the people ? Is it teaching mathematics ? Why, a great many of the Hindus will go far beyond Englishmen in the readiness with which they learn any amount of mathematics ; but is that educating the man? Is not the education of man of necessity the education of the higher part of man ? It is no more educating a man, if you simply educate certain of his intellectual faculties, than it is if you educate certain of his external natural limbs. There must be the education of the central, governing, enlightening part of the man, if there is to be real education. And how is man to be educated ? He is to be educated, as every one of us Christians knows, by being trained to look up to God as his Father, to Christ as his Redeemer, and to the Holy Ghost as his Sanctifier. He is to be brought into the new company of regenerate manhood, and trained in this his passage to the eternal world for the grander destiny which is before him. Well, then, if this is the responsibilrty which a Christian nation assumes — assumes, mark you — it assumes the charge of endeavouring by the means God allows to spread through such an unbelieving population the knowledge of Christ, which is its own best birthright. And how is that to be done? Clearly not by force : just as certainly not by fraud. You have no right, as Christian men, to force religion with the sword on a conquered people, as the followers of Mahomet have done. Neither have you any right by trickery to try to Right Discharge of otir Duty to India. 1 3 1 lead them into what you think will be for their good. Not so are the victories of the Cross to be accomplished. But then you are bound, as in the sight of God, first of all to profess your own Christianity, and to make provision for your own people being maintained in it. And then you are bound to offer the Gospel, with its privileges, to each one of those persons who have come under your rule, to allow them to have the opportunity of learning the blessed truths that you yourselves know, and to become fellows in the blessed fellow- ship into which you have been admitted. And unless a Chris- tian people, in assuming such a responsibility as this, does m the sight of God indeed endeavour to discharge this duty to its subjects, it must, if weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, be pronounced to be altogether wanting. And, my friends, have we read God's Word to &o little pur- pose as not to know that though a nation may be long borne with, though it may be tried time after time, though the mercy of God does not visit its first transgressions with the certainty and extremity of punishment, yet that, if it continue in its iniquity, it brings at last upon it the judgment of the Almighty? Well, if this is the truth written from one end of God's Word to the other, I say we come, I think necessarily, to this con- clusion, that unless Christian Britain is indeed using the opportunities God has given it for the Christianisation of its Indian subjects, it is failing in its trial, and it must bring upon itself the judgment of its God. Now, my friends, have we not had warnings of this already? What was that Indian mutiny, which led originally to the foundation of this fund of which my resolution is speaking ? What was that but one of the warnings that God sent ? We had become puff"ed up with the sense of our own security. There was a time when men used to talk very lightly of our dominion in India. Then they came to call it a dominion of opinion; and they came by degrees to think that dominion of opinion was. of so solid a basis that nothmg could ever shake it. But then came a whispering rumour of the sending round throughout the countless tribes of that people certain signals, and certain unknown watchwords; and 132 The Lesson of Tyre, men awoke on a morning of bloodshed to find the whole peace of the peninsula threatened, and the whole power of England needed to put down the insurgent rebellion. What, I say, was this but one of those warnings which God's providence sends to nations and to peoples to remind them that in all these things they are but administering a trust, that there is a reckon- ing for them, that there is a Judge over them, and that, if they fail in the discharge of their duty, that reckoning, though it be delayed, is sure, is strict, and it may be at last destroying? How have all the great empires that have been one after another raised up high on the earth, and have cast their broad shadows over it, been destroyed but by such means as these? The least, the apparently most weak instruments, have ere now destroyed these mighty seats of power. Look at that great city which once vied almost with England in commerce in the old world — the city of Tyre. Read the prophecies in God's book against that city in the time of its greatest magnificence. See the dark hints of the mode in which destruction would come upon it, and then look to the result, and you find that that sea which had wafted the nations of the world into a capa- cious harbour because possessed of a new current, which, man knew not why, was suddenly developed by the fall of a neigh- bour hillock into the sea. The harbour became charged with sand, and each wave brought its own share of the coming judgment, until there settled down the sand which silted up the harbour of the world, and made the queen of the earth's com- merce sit barren in her widowhood. Nothing, I think, in the world is m.ore remarkable to men that will think about it, than this secret course of the Divine judgment. As I swept down your coasts to-day along the railroad, my eye rested on solid, massive walls, which man has placed there to keep the sea off from the railway, that there may be no interruption of the traffic between the metropolis and this part of the kingdom. And then I looked below that massive wall, and saw how God curbed the sea in its excess — not by raising these evident and apparent bulwarks, but by setting the sand to be tlie boundary of the sea, by a perpetual decree, and that, though its waves The Advance of Russia in Central Asia. 133 swelled and raised themselves against it, that feeblest of instru- ments was enough to curb the strength of the ocean, and bid it stay within its assigned limits. My friends, it is just so with the dealings of God now in the world. People say there comes a spirit of insubordination, of discontent, of questioning, and the like. It is the sand upon the Tyrian Sea beginning in judgment to silt up the harbour of the world. It is the judg- ment coming in its light beginnings, to see if it will be suf- ficient to awaken the sleepy heart into a more true and zealous working for its God. What is the present advance of Russia throughout Central Asia? What is that advance, which seems forced upon Russia, which, when you go into the details of it, you find is no fixed purpose of an ambitious extension of a dominion which the most thoughtful minds in that country know to be already too large, but that it is impossible for it to remain where it is, impossible to cease that perpetual extending of its armed settlements throughout the whole plain of Central Asia, until it is by degrees bringing the margin of that great Sclave dominion to immediate junction with the dominion of the English in India ? What is that, again, but a rising tide which may at any time break out in devastation, unless the Curber of the ocean bid it retire again within its banks ? And so here we come to the conclusion to which I want to bring you. We have this charge to administer. It is given to us that we may bless India by Christianising it. If we refuse to do it, some other people will be raised up to do the work of God there, and we shall be put down because we refused to do it. And what is the reason why we do so little ? I believe the main reason is a sort of despairing feeling in people's minds as to success. They say, " You have done little hitherto." That is one of the first arguments. Now, instead of having done little, if you measure the amount done by the sum you have laid out in seeking to do it, I say a great deal has been done. I quite grant you very little has been done ; but I say the reason of that very little is, because Christian England was 1 34 Why Missionary Results are Small. late in beginning, feeble in executing, and still is irresolute in undertaking the work. Just for an instant try it, and see if I am exaggerating. Supposing Devonshire at this moment was a heathen country. Supposing there was entrenched in it a priestly class addicted to Pagan superstitions. Supposing the people of Devonshire were scattered over it as they are now, and supposing that the Church in some other part of the world determined to endeavour to Christianise Devonshire ; and supposing they sent, in order to do it, three single mis- sionaries to undertake the work, and that when they had gone on for some twenty years, and had done what you may guess they would do in such a country, they said, " How little has been done ! We had better give up attempting to Christianise Devonshire, because they have done so very little yet ! " What right had you to expect them to do more ? Yet, my friends, the whole number of missionaries who have been brought to bear on British India up to this time, compared with the popu- lation of British India, bears a less proportion than my three supposed missionaries would do to Devonshire, if she were in heathendom. Well, then, when men tell me they despair of doing anything because so little has been done, I say, com- pared with your exertions in the work of God, there has been a great deal done. There has been in Southern India a very large conversion to the faith of Christ, and, besides that, there has been working by little and little in almost imperceptible increments throughout India a great preparation for the work of evangelising the country, a great shaking of the old beliefs, a great tendency created in a sort of hovering spirit in the minds of men, to see what there is in the religion of those strange people who exercise such a wonderful control over all their countless numbers. And these are just the ways in which the providence of God prepares for some mighty and some speedy working of His grace amongst men. It is just like the rising of the natural tide. You may see where men have set up a bank to keep it within its limits. You see the tide rise and rise almost imperceptibly, and as long as it does not absolutely overtop it, that bank holds back its swelling. It may have Preparatio7i of India for Conversion. 135 held back the waters for years, and men say it will hold them back for ever. But at last comes one tide which rises just three feet higher than any other has risen, sweeps over the bank, first in one place, and then in another, and in the sweep- ing over widens each orifice that it has just created, and with- in a few hours the bank is prostrate, and the inundation is complete. Now, it is just so with regard to the preparation of people for receiving the Gospel of Christ, and everything intimates that so it is at this time in British India, and that if now, in the blessed liberty of the everlasting Gospel, this country would rise as one man, and offer the blessings of Christ heartily and thoroughly to that waiting population, this very generation might see a work of Christianisation going on in that peninsula which has not been seen since something like the fourth century of the Christian era. Therefore, this indeed is a question for us. It is all very easy for men to say, " But there are no means by which we can do it." Who is to limit in these things the power of God ? Is it not His intention that the earth should be Christianised ? Is it not His will that it should be done through the instrumentality of man? Does He not commit to us, in giving us this empire, the special charge of doing it there ; and who, when He says the word, shall resist His working?" Look at one of your own great estuaries at the mouth of one of those your Devonshire rivers. Look at it at the dead low tide, when you see a series of banks of sand and the like, upon which the sea-bird is settling to get his food. Say to some man, "How can you cover that? It won't do to let it lie in that state of mud, let us cover it again with water." Who can do it? Who can manage without an almost infinite cost to cover that expended sand or mud but God, who has placed high in the heaven over us that orb which commands the rising tide and the sea ? And as He speaks the word, the water rises; at His bidding the feat is ac- complished, and the waste is covered. And we are dealing with the power of the same Almighty hand when we seek, with faith in Christ, to spread these offers of salvation over the stagnant flats of unsanctified humanity. Therefore, when a man says 136 The Law of every Good Work, it is impossible ; he is speaking of impossibilities to Him that is Almighty, and of difficulties to Him who speaks and it is done. The whole question for us EngHsh people really is this — God has committed the charge to us. God will be with us, if we seek indeed to set about its execution; and God will, as He has ever done, give to us, if we work for Him, the guerdon of His rich reward. But if we refuse to do the work, it must be done by others; and I confess that I do feel that if this people of England, who were roused to make one single exertion by the sufferings of that mutiny, were now, when these few years have passed, to drop what they then undertook, I think it would be one of the worst omens for our beloved country which could be conceived ; that under the threat of an immediate necessity we were ready to work, and upon the restoration of peace we threw our shoulder back, and left the Indian people in their misery. And yet, remember, in this room to-day you will, to a certain extent, settle the ques- tion; and if, by self-denial, you make some real offering, which will enable the Society to maintain, perhaps, one missionary for another year, it will bring a blessing down from God, it will be an example to others, it will spread round you. For this is the law of every good work, it is productive of its like and its kind among friends, and here in this room to-day, if God help you to, in some degree, get rid of your selfishness and your narrow-mindedness as to the spread of the Gospel, you will be doing, over and above your immediate offering, work for God, and that work may spread upon every side, until England takes up the charge God has laid upon it, and secures herself to be for the next generation the first of the peoples, because she is the truest to the work of her God, and the fore- most in the maintaining of His faith. XIV. Upon south Africa, india, ^tc— Chester, Oct 12, 1857. Having already twice addressed large audiences in this city in behalf of this Society, it is difficult for me again to speak on the subject without wearying those who take the deepest interest in the matter. My object will be not to attempt to convey to you any new information, but rather to stir up the minds of those who are already devoted to the work in which we are engaged. You have already heard from Canon Blom- field a brief but comprehensive summary of the work, and of the achievements of the Society, to which the first part of the resolution refers. You are aware of the great work which God has permitted the Society to do, in founding a Church in that great sister land on the other side of the waves of the Atlantic ; and the only estimate we can form of the importance of that work is by endeavouring to represent to our minds what the state of that great country would have been — what its relations to Christianity — what its relation to our own land and to our- selves — if there had been no Church Establishment in our pos- sessions in North America; how certainly the divisions which already separate us would have been augmented to the highest possible degree ; how the faults which we see in the character of our Transatlantic brethren would have been magnified to the greatest extent ; and the only body which would have held together under such circumstances, and made an aggression upon the people of that land, would undoubtedly have been the Roman Catholic Church, whose errors every one of us conscientiously condemns from the bottom of our hearts. I think it is useful for us sometimes to pause and look at those faults which are frequently made the subject of ridicule, and T38 American Natio7ial Pectdiarities. of tart insinuation against our American brethren — useful, for this reason, because some of them are naturally the magnifying of certain national peculiarities of our own, which the Church at home has kept down amongst us, but which, not being subject to the same restraints in America, have gone on to their natural conclusion, so as to present the same kind of image which a man may see of his beloved countenance when he obtains a view of it in a faithful magnifying glass, and wonders at the distortion of his features, which appear much larger than in the mirror in which he has been accustomed to contemplate them. Looking thus at our American brethren, we may see what that nation would have been when it had risen, as it was intended to rise, to the highest position of material wealth, physical strength, and greatness of numbers, if that one healing element which it pleased God to diffuse through the labours of the Gospel Propagation Society had been wanting in the growth of that people. The work which was done by the Society in North America is now being done in Australia, in New Zealand, in South Africa, by the agency of the same Society, and under very similar conditions ; and I think no man can doubt that every one of these centres of distant English population is intended in God's providence to become the seed-plot of future nations. As to Australia, it is perfectly manifest that the vigour of our race, meeting there with a land singularly suitable for its natural development, with its great seaboard, with its great command of timber, with all which makes that country what it is to the English who have settled there — I say, looking at all these things, it is perfectly certain that Australia is the seed-plot of a future mighty empire at the other side of the globe. Now suppose for a moment that empire had grown up unchristian — suppose such a centre as Norfolk Island, as it was a few years ago, had been set free from British control, and been allowed to shoot forth its stream of wickedness through that vast archipelago — what a centre of abomination would it have been for the whole mass of that population ! We may be indolent in spreading our faith and our truth, but, as has been said, The Colonies without Christianity. 139 with an almost frightful wit, there is one who keeps no holi- days, and takes no days of rest, and that is God's enemy and ours, working through the perverted instincts of fallen hu- manity ; and therefore, unless we actively counterwork the evil, the whole of that part of the world must be contaminated by the influence of England, and so-called colonisation. Let us remember how God in His providence knits together men's crimes and punishments, and see what it would be for Eng- lish commerce, to have nests of pirates in those distant seas, hating, as they soon would do, English competition, with their own sea-coast quite at hand, and ours distant, destroying alto- gether that commercial superiority of the English race upon which, perhaps, more than anything else, its greatness has, through God's blessing, been based. When I see these coun- tries rising into the independence of nations, it is of the utmost conceivable moment for the spread of Christianity, for the pre- servation of every blessing to our species in these distant lands, and for the continuance of our own mercies at home, that we should diligently exert ourselves to plant with the people of our blood the Church of our fathers. And just the same remark ap- plies to New Zealand. Very few can doubt that these islands, the antipodes of our own, the island homes of our race on the other side of the globe, the only populations almost on the face of the earth which have in any degree kindly mingled with our own, are destined to become the seat of a great maritime empire. All the arguments which I have used apply to New Zealand, with this addition, that there the aborigines of the country have a distinct claim upon us, inasmuch as we have occupied their land, restricted their hunting-grounds, injured them in many ways ; and unless we undertake, as in God's sight, their spiritual tutelage, determining, God helping us, to give them in return all that British Christians can give them, we shall be found faulty before Him, and be deposed from the dominion which we have unrighteously employed. (After explaining the constitution of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and its method of choosing missionaries, &c., the Bishop thus proceeded) : — I am in 140 The Encoiiragancnt of Mission Work. the habit, whenever I am in London, which I am offi- cially a considerable part of the year, of attending the com- mittee meetings of the Society, and of reading the letters which come from all the distant missions. Deeply interesting that correspondence is. I hardly know anything more moving than to turn out of that busy stream of vicious life which is sweep- ing perpetually through the public thoroughfares of London, into those quiet rooms belonging to the Society, to read the accounts from our missions in India, in South Africa, in North America, in Australia, in Ceylon. Each and all of these come to us with- their spiritual wants, their spiritual struggles, their spiritual desires ; and we are made to feel how, amidst all our busy world, there really is the heart of Christian life beating truly, and sending through God's mercy that circu- lating blood which is keeping the whole frame in health, going from London as a centre to the very remotest part of the world. Our difficulty is not only in spreading missions, but even in maintaining those we possess already. Letter after letter comes to us, from which it is quite plain that if ;£^5oo, or ;^iooo, could be allotted to it, some mission, which might produce a permanent effiect to the world's end, might be opened or strengthened, but to which we are perpetually compelled to send the same answer, that we have no funds at our command ; and this, although everything is cut down to the smallest possible figure — although we are continually with- drawing grants from every place in which the Church is able to support itself — a process now going on most largely in North America. Remember that our duty is not to attempt to main- tain the Church in the settled North American colonies, any more than it is our duty in the ancient city of Chester. Our business is to send out to the poor colonists the seed of life, that they may sow it for themselves, and that it may grow up, and multiply, and feed them from their own fold ; and so we are withdrawing our grants from wealthy colonies, and yet not a post leaves our shores without our sending back this answer — "We are unable to do this — we are not able to maintain that." In the meantime the salvation of souls is at stake. The Caffre War, 141 What is going on has been most instructive. The CafFre war might, humanly speaking, have been avoided, with all its loss of life and expense, if we had determined, God helping us, to bring Christianity home to the Caffreman's heart, and to weld him into true union with ourselves. But we left him as a heathen, and as a heathen he treated us. And now the same thing is going on again. God has given us, at this moment, at the Cape of Good Hope, a man combining great power of mind, a strong will, and the true Christian character, and he has served there as an English Governor, and a brave English soldier, and, above all, as a Christian man. And what does he say? Another and a more frightful war is inevitably in store for this country, with far greater expenses, and far greater risks, unless we make the population who are now craving to be taught our religion — unless we make them Christians. He says it will be the most uneconomical, the most wasteful pro- ceeding you can adopt, to leave these people in their heathen- dom, the prey of every heathen propensity and impulse, when they are calling on you to convey your religion to them, and you may through its conveyance make them your friends for ever. The great leading chiefs of the Caffres, manifestly under the working of God the Holy Ghost, have requested the assistance of missionaries at their courts to teach their people the blessings they see Christianity has given to the white men of England. And observe how directly this acts. We had last year great trouble in that land. And from what did it spring? From this circumstance — One man, a fanatic, who had great influence with his brethren, went about among his brethren teUing them the time was coming when the white men would be driven out of the land, and men of their own blood would possess all that had been accomplished by the labour of others. He advised them to kill the cattle, telling them that they would be again raised from the earth and given to them in their strength after the struggle was over. He per- suaded numbers of people to follow his recommendations, and brought matters to such a crisis that, but for the knowledge and vigour and wisdom of the Governor, we should again by 142 The Welding Power of Christianity, this time have been engaged in a bloody war with that people. Now mark how the opportunity of removing such evils would occur, if the people were taught the direct personal will and rule of God. But, setting that aside, and looking at secondary causes, do you not see that the only way in which the dissimilar particles, in which the men of the two bloods and the two faiths, can be brought together, is that there shall be safety to the master race, so that through it, as the welding instrument — the only one which ever did weld together men of different kinds — the true faith of Christ in the one Church of Christ, the native blood may be brought into the true har- monious unity of brotherhood with the Christian people of our land ? But so far from the funds of the Society being adequate to the requirements of such a work, we are unable, day after day, to discharge what is our bounden duty in the sight of God. And what shall I add more? Surely I may say this : Can God have given to Great Britain its position among the nations of the earth for any one other purpose than that, first in Christendom and next in Heathendom, it should be His instrument for the raising and purifying the earth — for hastening the day when the- elect shall be gathered in — the mystery of unrighteousness rolled like some mountain cloud from off the darkened surface of the earth, and the long-tarrying day of blessedness break upon the redeemed race in the second advent of the Lord of Glory? I ask any Christian man among you, is it not per- fectly plain to any one who takes the trouble to think, that God has given us, to use for Him, great worldly prosperity, high social advantages, and, far above all, great spiritual blessings, the purity of our faith, the Bible in our own tongue, and in that wonderful translation which is given us as one of the chiefest parts of our heirloom, which, let us one and all, God helping us, keep and hold fast in spite of all opposition ? Has He not also given us the singular gift of immunity doctrinally from those gross superstitions which have afflicted the rest of Western Christendom — those miserable perversions of His truth, those additions to it, those subtractions from it, which do so grievously endanger God^s Purpose for England, 143 the souls of so many among our Roman Catholic brethren ? Is it possible that God can have given us those advantages on one side, and then on the other the perfectness of our Church organisation, which, from the beginning. He gave the Church of Christ in bishops, priests, and deacons; and can any- one say that we, the Anglican branch of the Church of Christ, are alone upon the face of the earth to possess these two great advantages together ? We know that the Roman Catho- lic possesses a clouded-over and most superstitious faith, and that those who share with us in the reformation of those doctrines possess not the organisation of the Church in its per- fectness, and that already, as a consequence of that want, they in many parts of the Continent hold not the whole of the faith in its purity, but that Socinian glosses and errors prevail, latitudinarianism in its highest degree exists as to God's re- vealed faith and the authority of Scripture ; and we know that these things infest them as the natural consequence of the lack of that which God has given to this land — the Church in its purity of organisation — the Church in its purity of doctrine — evangelical truth held in apostolical order. Almighty God has given us that, and, at the same time, in giving us an arm of strength, giving us ships which multiply our presence in every part of the earth, giving us colonies which enable us to repro- duce our race and our Church wherever the sun rises and sets, He has intended, if we rise fully to the dignity of our birth- right, to make the English branch of His Church, spread now throughout America, spreading now throughout Australia, seated in New Zealand, carried out in South Africa, blended with the blood of Africa in the West Indies, entering from Sierra Leone into the northern parts of Africa — that with this apparatus for spreading it, and this gift of God's truth to spread. His purpose for England is that she shall be the regenerator of our race and the maintainer of the purity of Christendom. Well, then, if that be so, let me ask you— Are we discharging our duty ? It has been well said that there is not a luxury upon which a tax could be put that would not bring in a larger 44 Income of Wesleyari Missionary Society, amount than the whole income of this Society, and yet no Chancellor of the Exchequer would think it worth while to establish machinery to collect su'ch a tax. And yet that is what the zeal of Christian England — that is what the love of souls in Christian England — that is what our gratitude to God for the unnumbered mercies with which He has crowned us is able to rescue from our selfishness for the promotion of the greatest works. And I must say there is another thought worthy of observation, and that is that our Wesleyan brethren, who do not number amongst them so many persons connected with the higher ranks as we have the honour to do, raise for their missionary society a larger sum than we are able to obtain for the Gospel Propagation Society from the wealth of the Established Church. All honour to them— all thanks to God for any such manifestation of Christian zeal in any Christian body. But, oh ! shame to us to suffer ourselves to be so out- done by those who are not the stewards, as so many of us are, of so many of the good things of this world. It is impossible to allow such a state of affairs to remain without great danger, because God is a God of judgment ; because when He gives, as He has given us, power, place, and truth, that we may use it for Him, although He tarries long, although He does not speedily call for the reckoning, although He bears long with the unfaithful steward, at last the day of reckoning does come, and comes surely. And if this be true, it is not possible for us to go on neglecting the charge God has given us without drawing down the judgment of God on our heads. Our responsibihty is great, and if we neglect it we must expect to be smitten — to lose the gift of peace, to have the channels of grace diminished, to have less love, less faith, less holiness at home. And which of us can contemplate this without terror ? My rev. brethren, if you can wake each parish to give itself up to the work for Christ's sake, we are as assured that greater gifts of grace will fall on that parish as a parish, as we know that when the clouds of heaven are big with their fertilising drops God is going to give to the natural earth those showers which increase its fertility. There could be no worse 7 7ie Curse of Sp ii^itital Selfishness. 145 sign, no worse augur for a parish, than that it should be in- different to the spread of Christ's truth. You remember that curses come swiftly. When our Lord spoke His curse to the barren fig tree, " No man shall eat fruit of thee again for ever," what followed ? No lightning shaft scathed it in the sight of all — no hand of man was shaken against it — no axe was lifted up to hew it down, and yet the next day, when the disciples passed that way, the tree was withered. His voice had stayed the secret and unseen currents of the hidden life. It drew no more that unseen vitality through those thousand channels which ministered to its being. And so the time of the with- ering came. And even so it is with ust. A man, a parish, a Church, becomes cold and careless, and its grace is dried up. That is the history of the Eastern Church, That is the history, depend upon it, of many a parish and many a man among our- selves. And, my rev. brethren, let me say to you as one who for eighteen years shared your parochial life, all my own experience abundantly confirms the truth that there is, under God's blessing, no instrument so effectual in a parish as that of getting the people to appreciate their own blessings, by being zealous in the work of Christ, and in spreading them to others. We ought to do it in this way. We must not say that it is a taste which it is laudable for them to gratify, but an in- evitable duty which they must perform — that it is just as much a corollary of the advantages which they share in spreading the Church around them, as that they should be meeting in prayer, naming the name of Christ, or doing any of the most natural or inevitable consequences of their being Christians at all. Here seems to be the danger first — the withering of our spiritual character. And what must follow? Surely the putting us down from those earthly advantages which have been given to us in order that we may do God's work. What is done to the miserable mutineer in one of our own armies ? Is he left in the Queen's uniform ? Is he left with the Queen's arms in his hand? Does he go on receiving the pay and the mess? No; he is a rebel and a mutineer, and he uses his arms for other purposes than those for which they were given, and he is K 146 W/iy God has given us Pozver in India. stripped of them. And what of a Christian land, wearing Christ's livery, lifted up to do Christ's work in high places, with Christ's arms in its hand? What becomes of it, if it becomes unfaithful to the Lord of hosts, and uses for its own selfish gratification what was given to it for other purposes ? What but that it, too, shall be stripped of its misused advan- tages, and put down from that abused height of power. And when the resolution alludes, as it does, to the crisis of this our fortune, and our missionary work at this moment, it alludes, of course, to those events which occupy the minds and hearts of every one of us at this moment, to the seeming beginning of such judgments in our territory in India. Oh, my brethren, if ever there did come forth upon the wall before us the fiingers of a hand writing mystic characters, to be read by the eye of the prophet of the Lord, surely, surely, it is that outbreak ! It is hardly for us in our time to venture to speak on the subject. We feel that it is so essential that at this moment the hearts of this people, as one man, should be knit together in order to do that first work which must be done by us — I mean the putting down of murder, bloodshed, and in- subordination, with the arm of might ; it is so essential that the heart of this nation, as one man, should accomplish that object, that one hardly dares to say anything which can even seem to turn the attention in another direction. And yet something one must say. We hear every now and then, at this moment, people muttering that India costs us a great deal — that it is very sad to be associated with heathen people who can suddenly break out into such outrages as these. Such suggestions are thrown out like a straw on the surface of so- ciety, and it is becoming the subject of current discourse, whether after all it might not be better to give up India. I will not enter into the great political interests at stake at the pre- sent time, but I say as a Churchman, we have no right to give up India. God has entrusted that country to us, in order that we should hold His peace there, in order that we should give His Gospel fair play there, in order that we should do what is possible to convert the people to the truth. Looking at the Responsibility of otcr Position in India, 147 question simply in a religious point of view, I say that we have no more right to dream of the abandonment of India than a constable would have to release a man who had offended against the law, in order to avoid resistance and bloodshed. We are about to put down that bloodshed and resistance, and we are bound, while God gives us the power, to hold India. But, then, we are to hold it for what ? We are to hold it for Him — we are to hold it for the benefit of the native races — we are to hold it, that, by holding it, we may be able to proclaim the name of His Son, and the reign of His Spirit, and the evangelisation and the regeneration of the race of man. My brethren, we can hardly say this without our thoughts revert- ing to the fact that we have held India for a hundred years, and inquiring how during that hundred years we have dis- charged our trust. I have already detained you so long that I cannot enter at any length into this subject, but I will venture to say a few words. One hundred years ago, after the battle of Plassey, God gave us the command of India. We took possession of it. Step by step we cemented our power over it, and gained victory after victory, many of them in the most dangerous time of the history of England : and when we are trembling with anxiety about the fate of our gallant troops, when in almost every house and family the greatest suspense exists, relative to some friend, let us think how great must have been the anxiety of the nation at that period. We should remember that when the Duke of Wellington was conquering in battle at Assaye — when Lake was obtaining those great victories which cemented our power — there was at Bculogne a camp of Frenchmen under that wonderful man Napoleon, there encamped to invade the heart of England. And yet through all these mighty difficulties God carried us. And now, I ask, how have we discharged our obligations ? In the year 1 84 1 I undertook a similar task to that which I am performing this day, and advocated the claims of this Society in a distant part of England, and I then said, what I now repeat, that I believe the history of our administration in India exhibits a series of instances of timidity as to Christian principle which 48 Indian Governme7it and Christianity, the history of no other people on the face of the earth can parallel. I believe we have tried to the very best of our power to do justice to the native races — I believe that we have en- deavoured, whenever we found oppression and wrong exercised upon them, to relieve them from that oppression and wrong. I believe that we have solved the problem which no other nation ever did solve, of preventing governors by extortion enriching themselves to the wrong of the people whom they govern. I believe that in .these things we have done very much. I believe that our social neglects, such as not suffici- ently cultivating the land, want of irrigation and railroads, in all of which respects I admit we have been faulty, are not in- tentional neglects. But I must say that I do believe that in standing up for the faith of Christ we have been habitually, conscientiously, shamelessly timid. Will it be believed— it will not be believed by those who do not know it as a matter Qf fact — that until the year 1783 a missionary was not allowed to reside in British India? When Dr Carey went out, what was he obliged to do ? He was compelled to go to Serampore, a Danish settlement, the Danes not being quite so timid as our governors about the faith of Christ. When Dr Judson went out from America, he was driven out of British India into Burmah, because the British Government would not allow him to remain in British possessions. In 1783, when the charter was renewed, one, whose name it is my blessed privi- lege to bear, stood up for truth and right in England's senate, and proposed this resolution—" That India must be held by the British nation for the moral and religious good of the natives thereof." And what was done? The words were struck out of the bill before it was allowed to pass. In her highest hall of legislation, deliberately and avowedly, England — Christian England— rejected the bare general avowal that it was her duty to care for the moral and spiritual welfare of her Indian population. And what followed? Twenty years later, when the charter was again renewed, he and a band of faith- ful ones wrung from a reluctant Indian Government the admis- sion that Christian missionaries should have a licence to dwell Degradation of a Sepoy Convei^t. 149 in British India, and they wrung it from them in the face of such assertions as these : — " That the morals of Hindooism were quite as pure " — ay, it was spoken in the House of Com- mons — "that the morals of Hindooism " — oh! read them at Meerut and at Cawnpore — "were quite as pure as the morals of Christianity, and were better and fitter for an Oriental people." Then came certain improvements in our treatment of India. But what? Do you not remember that Sir P. ]\Iaitland was sent from Madras because he would not, as governor, order Christian soldiers to fire salutes before the idol's car? Because he refused to do that he was sent home to Christian England as a dishonoured man. Do you not re- member the account which has just appeared afresh of a Sepoy in the Bengal army who, having been converted by God to the true faith of Christ, was — not at the demand of his fellow-re- ligionist-s, not at the demand of his fellow- soldiers, but througli the miserable timidity of our own authorities — deprived of his rank and position in the regiment because he had become a Christian ? Do you doubt when you see what the heathen Sepoy race has done — do you doubt whether God is not right in the sentence that He has thereby executed ? When you know how that noble-minded man dwelt in privacy and retirement for years — that when he was offered other pursuits he said, " No, you have disgraced me in my regiment ; I will go and serve in that, and do nothing else " — that he remained unem- ployed till the Burmese war broke out, when he sent in his volunteer offer to serve under the Queen's flag — when you know all this, can you doubt how it must have looked in the Court of Heaven when that edict of degradation went forth, signed by Christian England, against a converted Sepoy ? Well, then, here is the state of things. Now I, for one, firmly believe — firmly — that God will give us one other trial in India. I believe the crisis of England's greatness — the crisis of her own possession of her Christianity will depend upon the way in which she will use the trust if it is again committed to her. And therefore I desire every one of you, as Christians, and as Englishmen, to study this matter — to be ready to take a posi- 150 What our Policy in India shotild be. tive attitude of resistance, if God blesses our arms, to the re- settlement of the Indian question upon anything but a Chris- tian basis. Let there be no mistake amongst us on this point. By a " Christian basis, " God forbid that I should mean, or that 3'ou should understand, that we ought to use one iota of force, of fraud, or of earthly favour, to draw one man into the profes- sion of our faith. No such thing. Our duty seems to me to be a perfectly simple one — that we should, in the first place, maintain peace, truth, and quietness ; that we should say, " No man shall be punished for his religion, disgraced for his religion, or suffer for his religion." But having declared that, we ought to declare with as bold a front, "We are the ser- vants of the Crucified — it is our grace, it is our blessing, it is our birthright ; we desire to see you so, because that faith, and that only, will elevate you here and will save you hereafter." We are Christian men administering to heathen nations. We will not attempt by force or by favour to draw a single heathen man over, but we will make no secret of our own Christianity, our own belief, that we hold our power on this condition, that we should use it for God, and with this responsibility, that it will be taken from us if we use it for ourselves. That, my friends, seems to me to be our Christian basis ; and if every Christian man will firmly assume that attitude, the government of Eng- land will see what its necessity is. and, I doubt not, will gladly do that which you will compel it to understand it must do, or fall. And then, God helping us, who can forecast the amount of blessedness which may be in store for our Church — who can say how far she may not be intended by God, in coming ages, to be at once the minister of truth to the heathen, of purity to our Roman Catholic brethren, the means of giving a fixedness to the forms of the Church to those who now lack them — the centre of light, of truth, and of Christian warmth for an evan- gelised and a grateful world ! XV. Upon the evangelisation of the native tribes OF SOUTHERN AFRICA. — London, May 21, 1858. It was truly said by Sir James Brooke that at this moment the thoughts and attention of a meeting like this must, to a certain extent, be directed prominently to the great charge which God has given to us in the Indian peninsula ; and I think we can- not separate it from that part of the world to which I wish, for a few minutes, to draw your attention — we cannot separate the interest of that part of the world, or the work which God has committed to our charge there, from the Indian question which is pressing upon us. Because, after all, what is the great value of the Cape of Good Hope to England as a nation? No doubt its value consists in this — that it is the half-way house to India, and that the maintaining it in our strength is essential to our maintaining, unshaken, the Indian Empire which God has given to us : and, therefore, we must look at the question as mixed up with the great question before us. Those who look at it in that point of view cannot behold, without considerable alarm, what has recently taken place. Our Governor at the Cape has recently found one of the great chiefs endeavouring to stir up war by putting forth secret proclamations, in which he has called upon all the men of Caffre blood to join with their dark brethren in Delhi in driv- ing the white intruders into the sea ; so wide, you see, is the range of evil, and wide proportionably must be the range of truth. And then, I think there is another very important consideration. If our work is to be accepted of God, it must be done in sincerity and in truth; and if it be done in sincerity and in truth, there will be this mark about it, which 1 5 2 Influence of Slave Trade i7t Africa. is the universal mark of sincerity — namely, that it will be a work not done here and there under the pressure of some particular inducement, but that it will be done heartily every^vhere where God has given us the opportunity of doing it. But I confess I should tremble for the rejection of our efforts in India, if, because at this moment India is our political anxiety, the cause of Christian missions flagged in any other part of that wide Empire which has been subjected to British influence. And there are other reasons why I think this particular part of the world, to which my resolution refers, has a very special claim upon our interest. First of all — and this I wish every one present particularly to remember — because we have a great debt of past wrong to repay to the African people. Sir James Brooke has pressed upon you the important considera- tion that insecurity as to life and property, in its highest degree, is of itself an utterly deteriorating thing to man, and makes all attempts to civilise and bless him for a time almost impossible • that you chain down every thought of his nature to the provid- ing for his immediate physical wants, and make it impossible to draw him from the supply of them to the higher necessities of his spiritual nature, which do not press upon him with such an immediately susceptible weight. Remember what we as a nation have done in preventing the civilisation and happiness of that great continent, to the south part of which my resolution refers. Take the testimony borne by that eminent traveller, Dr Livingstone, to this fact. He tells us that he can trace, over and above the innate evils which everywhere beset heathendom — the natural blackness of fallen man in a state of alienation from his God — he tells us that he can trace, as by a line which can be drawn with its own black mark upon your map, how far into the interior the accursed influence of the slave-trade has penetrated ; and he can show you that within that mark every native and natural evil product of heathendom has been augmented a thousand times by the direct influence of civilisation, and of nations calling themselves Christians. I know we are always tempted to put off a past thing of this kind, and to say, "We have done with it." So we The Cape of Good Hope a Base of Opei^ations. 153 have. But remember, it is the universal rule of God's dealing with us, that we cannot shake from our own responsibility the consequences of our former faults ; that we have no right to do it ; that the only way in which we can hope to be accepted as sincere, is not by forgetting past faults, but by endeavouring diligently to undo the evil which those past faults have occasioned to others. Now, this is the duty that we have to discharge. Remember the vast, teeming population of that great continent, and remember that Britain, for many years, was, far more than any other nation of Europe, guilty of encouraging, defending, and practising that slave trade. I ask you, then, are we not bound, under every obligation which can bind Christian people, to repay them for that evil in the only way we can — by giving them civilisation and its blessings, by the only medium by which it can be conveyed to them, the- gift of Christian intercourse, and so of Christian truth ? There is one other consideration which binds this duty strongly upon us. God has afforded us great opportunities at this time for doing this work. In giving us possession of the Cape of Good Hope and the country around it. He has not only provided a basis for our operations, but He has also brought us into connection with those particular tribes of native blood who are best adapted, in many respects, to receive Christianity from us; and who will be the best bearers of the blessed message, when they have received it, to their brethren of the same blood in the interior of that country. Then, can anything constitute a stronger obligation than God has imposed upon us in this respect — giving us a work of evil to undo, and giving us the power of undoing it ; giving us also, as He has given us, the warning in our past disasters, that He expects we shall undertake its undoing? And we have this great en- couragement for exertion. The people of Africa are not like the unbelieving people of the great continent of India, to which my right rev. brother the Bishop of Calcutta is going. They are not possessed by one great subtle commanding system of religion of their own, which preoccupies the ground, and makes them unwilling to receive the message of revelation which we 154 Characteristics of Africans. have to give them. They are in this respect in a most remark- able position amongst unbeHeving people. They are very free to receive our faith. The hindrances among the African tribes are hindrances which belong rather to the infancy and youth of the human race. There is a remarkable childlikeness about their character, — a readiness to teach themselves. The great evils from which the prevailing temptations of such a people come, are sensuality and subdivision ; the being brought under a multitude of petty chiefs, with separate interests, stir- ring up war and tumult in the land, and preventing any growth in civilisation and in nationality ; working, with the natural sensuality of our fallen nature, in a land abounding in the immediate necessaries of life : these are the two great hin- drances with which we have to deal. But these are hindrances not to be spoken of in the same manner as those difficulties which exist where we have a great settled philosophical religion to meet, which accounts for everything we may say to the people on an opposite theory, and so preoccupies the ground of argument. It has ever been found where the Gospel has been brought to this people, that there is a remarkable readi- ness to receive it. Dr Livingstone testifies to this in every page of his history. The people evince great kindness to all those who go amongst them for the sake of doing them good, and not with the odious character of slave-traders. We have the opportunity of reaching them, and there is a most important work before us. God has enabled us, through the noble efforts of an individual, to found a bishopric, and take possession of the land in the name of the Lord. And whereas when the bishop went out there was not one clergyman of our land labouring outside Capetown in this work, our labourers have been multiplied since ; in God's strength, we ventured to undertake the work of missions upon the apostolic model. This, then, is the work committed to us. We want greatly new funds. At tlie present moment there is one of the greatest possible openings for the work that can be conceived. A multitude of the leading chiefs of that district have, for reasons of their own, intrusted their sons to the care of our admirable Kaffir College at Cape Town. 155 Governor at the Cape, Sir George Grey; and the sons of these chiefs, the future chiefs of all these tribes, are committed to the instruction and tutelage of the Bishop of Capetown. Is it possible to conceive a greater opportunity of usefulness than that? And what is the difficulty in the way of our making use of that opportunity ? God has, in his providence, given us a friendly Governor — a man showing great powers of mind, sterling English character, courage in the field, sound counsel in the chamber, and bowing his knee before God, and acknow- ledging him the God of all nations. God having put it into the hearts of these chiefs to intrust their children to our care, what is the difficulty in our way ? It is this, and this only : that the Society has not any fund wherewith to establish a college in which these children can be taught ; and unless you here find the means, the opportunity must pass out of our hands, and these young men must go back untaught because Christian England refuses to teach them. This is the position in which we stand, and I do think there is great peril in refusing to respond to such a call as this. It has been said by those who went before me, that the times of the Church's adversity were nominally the times in which the greatest efi'orts were made for God's glory. Yes, nominally. But the history of the Church gives us other examples too, and we should do well to read tliese as to read the times of greater prosperity. Our Lord tells us why these times came. He says, " Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." No doubt of the purpose. But what if it does not bring forth more fruit? Is there nothing that tells us of his dealings with the individual, with the people, with the Church, which being in this way chastened that it may answer to his call, refuses to answer to that call, and lets the oppor- tunity pass? Is there not written such a sentence as this — Then, after that, thou shalt *' cut it down ? " Is there not written such a sentence as this — that the Lord shall " weep over the city of Jerusalem?" Why? "Because that thou knowest not the day of thy visitation." Ay ! the infinite mercy of that loving heart could not win peace for the 156 The N'orth Afi^ican C/mrch. Church that knew not the day of her visitation. And if it is a time for peril, is it not a time too of peril for us ? Does not Africa itself give us an instance of this ? Turn you back for a moment from the time of the history of the Church to which your attention has been directed, when, under the persecution of Diocletian, the Church did answer to her Lord's summons, and when the brief sowing-time of anguish burst out into the blessed harvest of success — turn your thoughts to the north of Africa. How was it there ? There was a time when the whole of that northern belt of Africa was bright with Christian light — there was a time when Cyprian and Augustine knelt, and prayed, and wept, and suffered, and ruled in the great Churches of Northern Africa — there was a time when, with the Church's rule, temporal prosperity abounded, when that pecuHar part of North Africa had almost superseded Sicily in becoming the great granary and storehouse of imperial Italy — when its rich, fields, its abundant pastures, its beautiful woods furnished to the mistress of the earth all that she needed for her luxury and her pomp. And troubles began to come. And we now can see why they came. We can see that that belt of Africa was contented to be a belt — that she thought she had the light of the Gospel for herself — that she stood there and made no sign to the heathen people below her — that she did not try to gather them into the Church — that she did not re- produce the Church in the native Church — that she was con- tented to be the Italian offshoot of the Church, was contented with the Italian principle, and that those who were admitted into Itahan privileges left the native tribes unconverted — a wall of darkness edging the light of Christ's truth, a wall of barbar- ians lying beyond the irrigated district of civilisation which Christianity had so abundantly watered. And the earthquake began to heave the land, and there was darkness overhead, and there were rumblings beneath, and the people were terrified — but they did not read their lesson. They went on, and on, in their dream of having their Churches for themselves, and their bishops for themselves, and their symbol of Christianity for themselves, never seeing that God was waking them up as a Mahometan hivasion of North Africa. 1 5 7 nation to know that they had received only to impart. And as they did not learn the lesson, the danger thickened, and the evil day darkened. And so, when the Mahometan swept, as God's avenger, over the land, mark how the very neglect of duty became the instrument of vengeance. The colonist had no one to fall back upon — he had not a mighty Christian gathering in the natives which should have arisen round the Christian teachers, and rolled back from them the fierce Mahometan invasion. They were but the tenants of the soil, come from a distant land, and began to think at once of going back to their own shores. And the wave of judgment swept on. It uprooted Church after Church, city after city, episcopate after episcopate, until the billows of darkness grew up gigantic like the sands of the neighbouring desert, where the light of the Cross had but a little while before beamed for the healing of the people. And can we doubt that all this was God's uni- form way — that it was no exception — that it was no sudden, no unusual manner of dealing ? Is it not His universal way to give a trust ; to require the discharge of the trust ; and if the trust be undischarged, after warning, after forbearance, after clemency infinite, to remember judgment, and to hand over to another the opportunity that has been trusted to him who would not perceive the day of his visitation ? And, then, have we not every reason to use our best efforts for the improve- ment of South Africa? Is this not quite plain when God has put it into the heart of a man like Dr Livingstone to go, as he expresses it, and open the way for commerce and missions and civilisation into that land — when God has made it even our material interest in the highest possible degree to civilise that land — because that is not to be overlooked ? You all know that the one thing on which the wealth and industry of England so much turns is a more abundant supply of the great staple commodity — cotton ; and that if we could find any way by which to supply the cotton market in the manu- facturing marts of this country with an abundant supply of that raw material, without drawing it from the United States, you would not only greatly increase the prosperity of England, 58 African a S^cbstittite for American Cotton, A but give the only real and intelligible blow to the accursed system of slavery in America. Well, then, at this very moment you find this much-desired product growing abund- antly in those districts of Africa ; and all you have to do is, as Sir James Brooke has said, to secure life and property there — which you can only do by Christianising those tribes — and you may have an unmeasured supply of that desired article from those African tribes, and you may at the same time undo the evil of the old slave trade in Africa, and undo the evil of that slavery which we, the people of Great Britain, have fixed upon our American descendants as their greatest shame and their greatest wickedness. I say that here is a really direct charsre from God that we should undertake this work — that we should undertake it now — that we should undertake it thoroughly, and carry it through in His strength. And let us remem^ber this : we camxC together, as we have, thank God, this day, a great concourse in this room. Now, the nature of such a concourse is this — that we warm one another's hearts — that the cold phlegmatic man rises a httle above his phlegm and coldness ; he catches something of the warmness of his neighbour near him ; and if you could catch him at that moment, and endeavour to make him do something for God and his brethren, he would do it, and wonder afterwards how he came to do it. But God means us to be affected in this way — He means to make use of these things — He means the catching sympathy to be a help to us against the pressing and over-pressing selfishness which is the strength of our phlegm and our coldness — He means us to do it, and at once. But what does the enemy know? He knows there is this tempta- tion ; he can whisper, — " Everybody is going to do something, and so I need do very little." And that which God intends to be the instrument of raising us individually to individual exertion, may, in the hand of the tempter, lead us to do nothing individually ; and if we do nothing individually, we are good arithmeticians enough to know that we do nothing collectively. And therefore, I say, don't let us go away with our hearts warmed, with our intellects brought to bear on th^e Feeling should lead to Exertion. 159 matter, with our feelings kindled toward it, without doing some- thing, lest this great evil fall upon us — the evil of exhausted feelings which have not led to exertion. Oh, my Christian brethren, remember that there is no more deadly state than when a man has suffered his feelings to be excited for the sake of the excitement of those feelings, and not for the sake of the corresponding action to which those feelings ought to lead ! The difference is everything. It is the difference between the way in which the benignant warmth of God^s summer draws out of the fertilised earth the harvest which is to be the abundance of nature, and that heat which from the volcano's mouth casts from it, with the most visible effluence, its scoria and its fire, to leave around the wasted root of the exhausted mountain the ashes through which no blade of grass finds its way, and the lava which produces nothing either for man or for beast. And if we go from a meeting like this, warmed by God's gift of sympathy with which He has roused our nature, to sink back again, without one exertion to the contrary, into an accustomed evenness of respectable selfish- ness, the scoria of deadly feeling will settle deeply upon the roots of our life, and fruit there will be for God none, and produce none for man. Mfi XVI. Upon new openings for missions, and the want of means to meet the call which comes FROM THEM. — London, May (^, 1867. This resolution seems to me to advance, in the first place, two facts, and then to draw an inference from them. The two facts are — that there are a great many new openings, and that there are not the means of meeting the calls which come from them. A few words taken from the report will show the facts. I read this — "Out of twenty-three applications for help made to the Society this year, not one could be assisted from the general fund." I think the two facts are proved, and if so, does not the inference follow even as I name the facts ? It seems to me there are but three simple suggestions I can make to this great meeting, to stir them up to something like new exertions in their work. First, I would say, let us get rid of that damaging way of looking upon these subjects which so infests our mind — looking at them as abstractions — talking about "openings" and "calls," things which never address themselves to the feelings of any spiritual heart. Let each of us endeavour to see what these things really mean. I suppose every one has read the description of what has been experi- enced of terrific drought in the natural world. When you come to read the details the whole scene alters. First you see animal life in all the struggle and spasm of extreme suffering, sinking and dying upon the burning earth ; then the mother turning aside her face that she may not see the parched and famished infant, which she places in her weakness upon the ground, die before her eyes. Then it is that we actually see what the general words so imperfectly present to the eye. Let us do the same with these spiritual calls. What do they mean ? Impatience of Missionary Appeals. i6i Souls, my Lord Archbishop ! Souls thirsting for the water of life, with the better and the deeper Ufe dying out within them be- cause there is no supply — the emigrant father seeing in his son's soul the wasting of the life which he took out with him from the beloved land, because there is no means of grace to keep that life alive — men and women in whom the very memory of our earher Christianity is expiring — those whose heart God has touched, and who are beginning to turn with a longing eye to the gospel, but who receive no answer to the entreaty " Come over into Macedonia and help us " — these are the facts that lie beneath those simple-sounding words. How do the an2;els of the Presence look at them ? How do those who see the working of God's plan in the earth look at neglects such as these ? This, I think, is the first thought in its simplicity. And the second is this. Look off now from those wanting your aid, and take a still higher flight. Think of Him who has designed to employ you in this great work, and then try and comprehend what it is to do it insufficiently, or to turn aside from it undone. I think that is the way to view the matter. The real feeling in the minds of a multitude of people is this — " "\^^e are so tired of being perpetually asked ; we never go to one of those meetings but we are told there is some new call : it seems as if the more we give the more we are asked to give : the more men labour the more men are required to labour. We are getting quite sick of the perpetual system of spiritual mendicancy." Now it is not often spoken out just in that plain language I have used, but I believe that feeling is a very general one in the minds of people, because I am assured the great majority are lukewarm in these matters. What I want to do is to help myself and every one of you, my brethren in Christ, to rouse yourselves out of this lukewarm- ness by looking at the matter as it is ? And what, after all, is it? Is it not that God is setting before the Church of England at this moment opportunities of serving Him such as were never vouchsafed to her at any former time ; such as if they are not now used, may be speedily withdrawn from her ? This is the secret of doing duty in any L i6'> Loss of Opporhtnity the neglect of Duty. rank of life, and in any sphere of work. The calls multiply as the duties are done honestly. In such a position as that in which God's providence has placed your Grace, how is it ? If you turn a deaf or a neglectful ear to the multitude of applica- tions that come to you from your diocese — if a wearied soul that seeks for refreshment finds that he comes in vain — if the man in the midst of difficulty who comes for direction finds that he is put off with a miserable commonplace — if the man who comes in the burden of his spirit for sympathy from his spiritual father is met instead by some awful platitude which he feels does but at once damp his energy and mock his need — if this be the case, what is the result ? Why, the result is very soon that that spiritual father finds he has got a mighty easy fife of it. People cease coming. When men have gone in the midst of their thirst where they expected to find a cool spring, and find, instead of clear refreshing water, nothing but dry ashes, they are not likely to come again next day with a cup to get it. And so it is if they come in vain to where they ought to find a blessed fountain of spiritual life breaking forth for nourishment, they cease to come where they find ashes in- stead of the water of life. And what, then, is the history of the life upon which this change is passing ? Is it not simply that duties undone, and openings neglected, close upon the neglector, and that his life sinks into the dulness of an even, enjoyable level, because, as he would not do his work when God would let him do it, the opportunity was taken away from him ? Nature, that mighty parable of spiritual things that God has set around us at every turn, seems to teach us the same lesson. Look at the great ocean when the breath of heaven blows upon it with all its majesty and might. See how it rises ! See how every wave lifts itself up heavenward, catches the light of the sun, and breaks in sparkling beauty its praise to the mighty Father above ! And why is it all alive with beauty? Because the breath of heaven has breathed on it, and because it answers to that breathing breath. And how is it when that breath has ceased? Is not that lately sparkling and magnificent sea a dull, dead, stagnating calm; the ships The Tendency of Modern Literature. 163 upon it languidly flapping their useless sails, and the burning sun pouring down upon it as if it were but a salt lake? And why ? Because the breath of heaven has ceased, and with it the elasticity and life of the answering emotion. If that is the parable, let us apply it to these spiritual things. If exertion does but increase openings, and therefore the call for labour, what is that but saying that God is accepting the service, and that He is stirring it up with the breath of His life-giving Spirit? And what is the ease after which our craven spirits so often pant, but the stagnation of being from which the breath of heaven has withdrawn its life-giving influence. Every- thing, then, tells us that our Church— ay, and our nation too — are at this moment in a state of mighty probation ; that great issues for good or for evil are before us ; that there are opportunities of service opening to us such as there never were before. Ay, my friends, and they are opportunities for failure too, such as were never known before. No man can have studied the literature of the present day in England, and the whole of Europe, without perceiving that one mighty tendency pervades it — an impatience of admitting the truth of the super- natural life of God amongst us, and weariness of it. There is a resolution to hide unnatural powers in a multitude of explana- tions derived from natural sources, and an inclination to ex- plain away the whole truth of God as a Personal Being stand- hig beside His creature in this his time of trial, and working with him and for him by a very spiritual presence. If this is the danger of the present day, surely England must be peculi- arly exposed to it. And observe that the wider our explanation of mere natural causes, the greater is our danger, unless there is a corresponding increase of the internal life in the centre. It is the history of all great organised forms. A very large man requires a very large heart, otherwise the circulation at the extremity becomes exceedingly weak, and the man will soon die. A dwarf has naturally a very rapid circulation, and you will see him trying to stand on tiptoe, and dancing about the room as if he were an animated ball. But the great man is often apt to be languid at the extremities, and so our great 1 64 The Tendencies of the Age. novelist has told us that all the giants he knew were very good- natured and very indolent. This extends to Churches and communities. As we expand and spread over the earth, there is a tendency in that expansion to a languid circulation, and with it division, corruption, and death. The only way in which this is to be counteracted is by the heart of the Church at home beating more warmly, and with a still stronger pulsation, so that the extremity to which the life-blood is to be sent may be extended to the furthest space of God's earth. We being then at this moment upon our probation, — entering, as I be- lieve we are, upon times of new and increased difficulty, — having these grand opportunities of service, we are most mani- festly called upon by the voice of God to organise ourselves with a new simplicity and earnestness. Grounding our earnest- ness upon a simple belief in the presence of God with us, let us do His work, and, instead of wearying at the multitude of fresh openings, see that each such fresh opening is but one new gift of God to us as a Church and a people. That will enable us to claim our place in that mighty confederacy of which the angels of the Presence are but the higher performers, and men upon earth, in their own spheres, the lower actors, by whom the name of Christ is to be magnified, and the glory of our God promoted. When I look at the peculiar dangers of the present day, the way in which there is undoubtedly a tendency to sestheticism, to waste the precious zeal of the Christian heart in mere feeling, or in mere display — when I see on the other side a growing tendency in very reaction to cast aside the mighty external organisation of the Church through which the grace of God acts — when I see the faith of the Church threatened at once by a tendency in a few (a very few comparatively) to superstition, and in a vast multitude to un- belief — when I see these features upon the world around us, I feel this is the time to be firm and steadfast. As has been already well said, it is the bravest, most Christian, and most English thing to look difficulties in the face. Let us not dive under the bed-clothes whenever we hear a noise, let us be de- termined to find out where it comes from, and if it be a ghost, Diffictilties inseparable from Life. 165 let it declare its ghostship ; and we will tell it we have a name better than it, and that we are not afraid of difficulties, for that we have learnt the lesson, that no great thing ever was done without difficulties, and that if a man tells us all the difficulties are gone, he may just as well tell us we are dead persons, for every living man has difficulties daily, and the stronger the life in him the more his difficulties. When people tell you there are so many difficulties in the present day, and ask you whether you do not think you had better be quiet, it is exactly as if you said you had better lie down and die, because God has set you a work to do. No, my friends, the great thing is not to be afraid of the bugbear, nor even of the real difficulty ; but taking Christ's name, Christ's Church, Christ's ordinances in His Church, Christ's blessed Word and promises, to go where the difficulties are the greatest, and succeed in the might of that power which is greater than they. And I am convinced that there is that special blessing about faithful action ; that it does so tend at once to stir up and renew faith, and give us warmth in our religion, and with that warmth the necessary guards which keep it from running into excess, that no prescription for the English Church or community at this moment could be more certain of succeeding than that which this resolution prescribes, of rousing with a new spirit of self- denial, and doing on every side the mighty works God's gracious goodness permits you to attempt. XVII. Upon the need of special exertions. — Salisbury^ Atcgttst 17, 1865. After the enunciation we have already heard of the general principles upon which our efforts in this cause ought to be based, it will be quite sufficient if, in the fewest words, I venture to suggest one or two considerations which seem to me to mark the present time with a speciality of call, and to require from us a speciality of exertion. I think the aspect of things, both abroad and at home, does mark, to every thought- ful person, who will look carefully at it, the present as a very special time, requiring special exertion at our hands. I do not know where we can look, throughout the great missionary field which God has committed to this country, without seeing something that seems to demand, at the present moment, new efforts and greater endeavours. Look where we will, this is the case. If we look, for instance, at our attempts with the North American Indians, I think the cessation of the American war has left a miserable disorganised population, thronging many of the towns — not a true American population, as I heard from Bishop Coxe yesterday, who are returning in the most wonderful manner to the i^ursuits of peace and industry — but a population consisting of the very dregs of the whole earth, men who have crowded together with no American interests, but in order that, like the vultures of the air, they may have their share in feeding upon the dead bodies that war spreads everywhere about, and who now, left without this miserable food, are looking wildly and eagerly around for some other way in which they can at once expend their energies and maintain their life. Looking at those people, and seeing how likely it is, in the contingencies and troubles of nations, that Call from the Sandwich Islands, 167 the time may not be far distant when our account shall be closed as the great dominant power in British North America — when the account shall be called for at our hands, of what we have done in all these centuries for those poor Indian people, I see in the waiting moment, in the hush of the pre- sent, in the continuance to us yet for a little season of the power of working for them and for God, a cry to us to be up and doing, before the night sets in upon us, which, upon my ear at least, works with almost a startling emphasis. And if I look to other parts of the world, really it is just the same. There have been allusions made already to the Queen of the Sandwich Islands, who for a little time is tarrying amongst us. I think the state of things there is really a loud call to us to do something for God. Many, perhaps, in this room know that one of the special motives of that royal visit to this country is to try to stir up amongst the English people a resolution to do something at once for the population of those islands, under the conviction that if the next thirty years do not see some total moral change wrought in that people, they will be exterminated from the face of the earth. Is not that a call ? If you know that, in another half century, unless you from England send out the means of training the young females of those islands in habits different from those which visits from English ships, calling without any object save that of immediate pleasure and gain, have inflicted upon a docile and thoughtless race — if you know that another fifty years may make your vices, in great measure transplanted in those islands, the means of eradicating that people from the face of the earth — if you know that at this moment there is everything to help you — the throne filled by a monarch determined to do all he can to carry out your missions — a people craving for them, wearied out with the mismanagement and maltreatment of American Puritanism, shrinking exceedingly from the Mariolatry of Romish worship, and turning to the Church of England, and saying, "Will you give us the faith? Will you give us the morals of true Christianity, without these terrible alloys?" Is not that a call, I ask, to every one to be doing something more? 1 68 Call from South Africa. It is very easy for people to say that the population of the Sandwich Islands should be doing what is necessary for them- selves. I was talking, the day before yesterday, to the Queen, who said, " We are so poor a people that we cannot do it. Our people are not like yours, great manufacturers and agri- culturists, having a large stored-up capital, and able to dc anything they will. We have little more than sufficient to give us the merest clothing, and the barest elements of food, and the effort must be made from your country, if Christianity is indeed to pervade my people." Here, then, is a call which can hardly be exceeded. When God does give a Christian nation an opportunity of doing something, and seems to intimate that, unless it is done, the opportunity will be taken away, it surely is a special direction from Him that we should go over into that Macedonia and help them. If you turn to other places — if you turn, for instance, to the Cape of Good Hope, you will find that everything there gives a summons to England. That judgment which has unsettled the Colonial Episcopate is a call to us. It says, '' You are now in a position to work perfectly free in all the strength of your apostolical ministration. The State withdraws its aid — the State withdraws the golden fetters which very often limit the exertions of those who labour." But this is not all. There are two other reasons which seem to make that country, at the present moment, loud in its call. First of all, we have the fact of the miserable state of the wretched colony of Natal. I think that that is as loud a call as can be. Shall Britain send out, in one of the highest offices of its Church, one to teach the heathen man to distrust the Word of God? Shall not Christian England drown that miserable voice by a universal declaration of the truths of Christ's everlasting Gospel ? The whole history of the Church teaches me this, if it teaches me anything ; that the effort of every single heresy to pervert the Church has been read by believing minds to be God's oppor- tunity for exalting the truth ; and let us read so the troubles of Southern Africa. If we want another reason, it is to be found in our having such a man as Bishop Gray, of Capetown, Call from Melanesia, 169 at the head of that See. Do you not think that every single man in Christendom who held the faith of Christ, felt his heart burn and his arm strengthened, when he knew that Athanasius was there, leading the hosts of the faithful ? Did he not feel transfused within himself, the lion heart, the noble loving spirit, and the unmastered intellect of that great champion of the faith? Why was it that in all the great continental wars the Duke of Wellington estimated the presence of Napoleon in an engagement as equal to 30,000 men? What did he mean by that but that every single private in the French army would be roused to exertions that nothing else could kindle within him by the knowledge that he was fighting under the eye of the great General himself? I say, then, that God having raised up a man as brave, as simple-minded, as great in the comprehension of his duty, as loving in his heart, and as faithful to the truth as is Bishop Gray, of Capetown, it is a call to every single English Churchman to use the oppor- tunity for God and for his Church. If I turn further to the islands of the sea which lie to the north of New Zealand I find a like call. How long shall we keep Bishop Patteson? How long will God continue to us that gift ? How long will our mission there be directed by the won- derful intelligence of that most remarkable man — a man to whom God has given the power of acquiring language almost as it was given by the supernatural afflatus of the Day of Pentecost —how long shall we have such a man going to the savage people upon those different islands, winning their hearts and gaining their confidence? Ask one of your large merchants, if he hears that a particular market is open, does he say, " I will consider it, and next year, perhaps, I will send out." Does he not rather say, "This very day it must be done, or the opportunity will have passed?" And is not opportunity the law in Christian ventures of faith, as it is the law in the noble achievements of commerce ? And if God has given this great man in that particular field of labour, is it not a call to you this day, before you leave the room, to strengthen us in sending help to him, because that help can be administered 170 Call from Nczu Zealand. now which cannot, perhaps, be administered next year? Then, come back to the islands of New Zealand themselves, I see in the cessation of the war there a mighty call to us Christian people. I must say that I think a great deal has been said concerning those engaged in that war, which has done no honour to our Christian discernment, or our Christian truth. I think we very much goaded those people into their insurrection. I think that the man who has just surrendered himself to the British — this Maori King — owed his great power over his fellow-countrymen to intrinsic gifts of greatness from God, which should make us honour him, even though he has been our foe. I believe that he is not only brave and just, but that throughout the war, even under the utmost provoca- tion, no single deed has dishonoured the arm of that native chieftain. If this then be so, to what is it owing? Why, to the Christian training which was given to him by ourselves. People may say, " If he be a Christian, why did he quarrel with us ? " I reply, why do we quarrel with the French ? why have we wars in Christendom ? Is the fact of our engaging in war with any other nation a reason for giving up Christianity and again worshipping Woden ? No ! Of course war is a sin ; it arises out of the evils of our nature ; it is the most terrible of scourges, and the most horrible of evils ; but still we have no right, when we see two nations engaged in a contest, to turn round and say that Christianity is an unreality and a sham. On the contrary, in those things which have made modern wars so unlike what wars once were, we may see what Christianity has done, while in war itself the evil of the Fall abides still, and is not wholly subdued even in the hearts in which Christianity has taken up its abode. But now there is a pause and a breathing time, and that, to my mind, affords the loudest call to all the Christian people of this land ; and if they use it, they will certainly secure this secondary effect besides the first, that the New Zealanders will be treated more fairly by the Government, and more wisely by those whom the Govern- ment has set over them. But while New Zealand affords a great call, I think of all calls Call from India. 171 in foreign parts, India is, at this moment, the loudest. I think the hush and the pause there, are calls to us to do God's work, such as no other nation under heaven ever yet received from Him. Only think if, when you rise to-morrow, the telegraph should have flashed across the news of another universal up- rising in India ! How many hearts would it make sad, even to the very dregs of sadness ! And only think, next, how easily such news might be flashed across, upon mere rumour — one of those unknown things which like the breath of an infection spread over the minds of men, suddenly come in the clouds of the night, and settle down in the dews of the morn- ing. Putting, then, the two things together, the greatness of our recent peril, and the completeness of the present calm, does not the uncertainty of the continuance of our power in India, constitute a claim upon us not to trifle with what God has given us an opportunity of doing there — an opportunity, I repeat, such as I believe, has never yet been given to any Christian people upon the face of the earth. I believe that we never had such a power of doing good — never such a power of spreading the truth of Christ, if we would be but earnest in the spreading of it. But there are people who say, " See, how httle has been done." Yes ! But how little has been attempted in India. What do you think of sending over, as Dr Kay told us at Oxford the other day, amongst very clever Hindoos, and very bigoted Mussulmen, one unsup- ported missionary to a district of country about as large as Great Britain and Ireland ? What do you think of that ? And yet you hug yourselves with satisfaction and say, "We have sent out missionaries, but they have done so little." What if you sent one man to overthrow the French army ? Would you feel surprised if he did not cut down all the French soldiers, and if the French army did not run away from his might, and concentrated efforts ? What do you think, then, of sending one unsupported missionary to storm what Mr Walpole well described as the strongholds of the prince of the power of the air, in all the darkness of his usurped dominion? There are, at this moment, calls for missionaries 172 , Intolerance of Unbelief, in India such as were never made to any Christian nation before. And, furthermore, I venture to think that if we turn from the field of labour abroad, and look at the state of things at home, there is really a like voice everywhere. I read it in the suggestions of those free-thinking ideas which are soiling so many an innocent, I was going to say, but so many a spirit which has no mind or meaning to receive the infection of unbeHef. I have no doubt myself that the last attempt upon the truth of Christ will come, not with any open denial of its verity, but with a courteous admission of its truth. At the same time, there will be a sapping of its distinctive features. I think the aspect of men's minds at the present time shows us that this will be the form of the danger — universal toleration, toleration not only amongst Christian sects one towards an- other, but a deep respect for religiousness everywhere ; always providing that it is not that troublesome thing which by being believed affects men's conduct, is any limitation upon their thoughts, or ever troubles what is called the course of society. If so, they will all agree to put it down. I have no doubt my- self that unbelief contains within itself the seed of the most intensely hating persecution the world has ever yet seen. Instead of being tolerant, I believe it is the very perfection of intolerance. I believe that the very moment it has achieved its own victory, toleration will be the thing above all others it will hate with an intensity short only of the hatred the Evil Spirit himself has for the simple faith of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be so, I think, because unbelief, in what- ever form it comes, is the exaltation of the human intellect, and the human will, over the voice of revelation and revealed knowledge. It is thwarted to the utmost the very moment that it is met and confronted by the mighty rock of revealed truth. The stream flows on with the most delicious smoothness when there is nothing to thwart it. "Let us all love one another; let us be tolerant of each other's views ; if you choose to worship the devil, worship him, if you only do it quietly ; if you choose to worship an anti-devil, do so, if you do so quietly ; let us go Unity to be obtained by Missionaiy Efforts. 173 on altogether in our worldly ways and worldly thoughts, hold- ing nothing that may be troublesome or disagreeable." Any- thing disagreeable in religion is such a shocking thing. Well, then comes the most disagreeable thing possible, the revelation of an absolute truth, which says — " We will have nothing to do with this fellowship of evil. You are leading men into absolute destruction \ you are promising them liberty, and making them slaves ; you are handing them over to the devil under the pre- tence of liberty and emancipation from their shackles." And forthwith, these men turn upon this stern declaration of the eternal verity of God, with all the hatred of the human heart which the great Rebel himself can stir up within it. Believing then, as I do, that there may be heard upon the winds these footfalls of the coming of the great Antichrist — that this which we hear whispered there, and see spreading we know not how through the air, is just the precursing atmosphere which comes before his advent — I say it is the time, if ever the time was, for those who fear and love the Lord to rouse them- selves up, and to be working mightily that they may establish indeed the hiding places of His faith throughout the earth. Yea, the very desires of spiritual men point to the same thing. I suppose one of the greatest desires with those who are in earnest in religion, and which is altogether new to the present time, is the longing for greater unity in Christendom. And how is that to be obtained ? Most directly and immediately, I believe, by great missionary efforts. If you are able from this little island to spread the Gospel throughout India, through- out Australia, and throughout North America, go where you will you will feel that unity and catholicity which are the marks the Lord God hath promised us of His truth, and of His faith, when its purity and strength are most amongst men. By these means you get directly the result, and fulfil the very words of the Psalmist : " Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have chil- dren, whom thou mayest make princes in every land." This will be reflected back upon Christendom, and, breaking through medieval corruptions, may destroy the usurped supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the very keystone of the iniquities of I 74 Warnmgs of God's Jtidgments, that great system of evil. For if you can come back to those who are under all the evils of that system, and show them that your Church is not the Church only of this Httle island, but the Church also of India, America, of Australia, and of all the other hemisphere of the earth, surely you can see that you confront their pseudo claim to catholicity with an unanswer- able argument why we should be united together into one. There is one other reason I will touch upon. It seems to me that there are many things which at this moment ought to warn us, that though they may be turned aside by His mercy, upon our repenting and turning to Him, this is a season when the judgments of the Lord are abroad. Who can doubt that it is so ? when we read only to-day in the Cathedral of God, " I will send plagues upon men and upon beasts," could any of you help thinking of the signs of the present time? Is not the mysterious disease which has entered amongst our cattle at this moment — is not that, if the Bible be true, one of God's writings upon the nation's wall, warning them to turn to Him ? Look at the columns of your newspapers — you will there see that men who have studied the matter cannot agree even upon the first principle as to whether it is an im- ported or indigenous disease — where the seat of it is, or what its treatment ought to be. They seem to think that the greatest wisdom lies in killing infected animals at once, burying them out of the way, and hoping for the best. Surely, such a judgment as this will reach everywhere if it proceeds in this land. Think of the price of meat, which has now become such a necessity. Think of the effect it must neces- sarily have upon the health of men. If numbers of the poorer sort, through the cupidity of sellers, or the watchlessness of buyers, are fed upon diseased meat, there is a certainty of disease falling upon them sooner or later. Then remember the whisper rising now almost into a voice, of the onward march of the old pestilence of cholera, which I remember so well in this city at its great visitation. It is again rustling upon the breeze of the evening : and is this not another of God's writings upon the wall, warning you that you do His work, and The danger of Small Endeavours, 175 turn to Him with a new zeal whilst yet the opportunity of turning is left to you] Oh, my friends, may God give us such a spirit ! And if He does, above all things, let me say to you, beware of small endeavours. There is nothing, I think, so dangerous in things spiritual, as that which the great Duke of Wellington warned us against in matters national — the fret- ting sore of a little war. Let us not be satisfied with insigni- ficant missionary efforts — the sending of one or two men to confront heathenism in India. Each one of us must know that our offerings are very little — the very least that respec- tability, or a moved conscience will let us offer. Surely, in our deahngs with God, we should be large-handed, and large- hearted in our aspirations after success. This is the great lesson of all ; that which we do, we should do thoroughly. And there are two ways of doing it, both eminently necessary. First, by every one who can, taking part this very night in giving material assistance to missions upon a new scale ; and, secondly, by sending out with that material aid, the Church of Christ, in the greater perfectness of its own spiritual strength. It is the feeblest of all feeble things to send out a weak Chris- tianity to convert a strong heathenism, I know of nothing more dreadful than the thought of sending out a minister of Christ to Zululand, who shall have so weak a hold upon Christianity, that the Zulu man's stronger grasp of heathen doubtfulness shall wrest from the hand of the Christian man the Bible that God has put into it. Our duty, then, is plain : and we may be successful, if every one of us has a determination, first to pray, next to labour, and thirdly, to bear witness upon all occasions, that we will send out the Church of Christ, as God has given it to us, in all its perfectness — that we will endeavour to send out, not the weakest and the poorest, but the best and the strongest to this great struggle for the faith of Christ; and then, as it is not given us to go out and take upon ourselves the brunt, the burden, and the glory of the fight, let us help them, as the weakest woman could help the chiefest of the apostles, by wrestling mightily for them in our prayers to our God. XVIII. Upon the universities' mission to central AFRICA. — Cambridge, All Saints' Day, 1859. The resolution which I have been requested to move is this — " That the Oxford and Cambridge Mission to Central Africa is entitled to especial support, not only because there is great reason to hope for a very favourable reception of the Gospel on the part of the natives of Central Africa, but also on account of the important bearing which the proposed operations of the Mission have upon the civiHsation of Africa by the extinction of the slave-trade." The tone and tenure, as I understand it, of this resolution, is intended to draw the thoughts of every one in this meeting to the union aimed at in this particular movement of the work of a direct Christian mission with the work of intro- ducing lawful commerce, and, if possible, the colonisation of Africa. The resolution points to the union of these as affording sure grounds for hoping that, under God's blessing, the greatest results will follow our efforts, and that we shall be enabled especially to aid in the final extinction of that great bane of the human family, the horrible and accursed slave- trade. Now, Sir, I think it is of great moment that we should clearly see that, in supposing the probability of such great results of Christian missionary efforts working in combination with commercial schemes, we are not attributing to commerce anything which we may not lawfully assign to it, or expecting from it results which God has not taught us by experience to anticipate. Commerce, as it seems to me, if regarded in its widest scope, is a mighty machinery laid down in the wants of man by the Almighty Creator of all things, to promote the intercourse and communion of one race with another, and especially of the more civilised races of the earth with the less Co7nnierce and Christianity, 177 civilised. It is like that wonderful machinery which by means of the great Gulf Stream brings, as it were, upon its bosom an atmosphere across the Atlantic which raises the temperature of our climate to the height on which the fertility of our country depends. Only consider for a moment the wonderful instances of God's providence in nature working to this result which force themselves on our attention. Take, for example, this fact, that those regions which produce naturally the least of the productions which serve for the subsistence of man, are the regions which are inhabited by the most active, and the most energetic, and therefore the most energising nations. Thus God has provided that the riches of the earth should be most abundant where the people are the least energetic, and that those who want what is produced in those more favoured climes should possess the larger amount of energy. Such are the natural provisions for the spread of commerce : and now, remember that commerce is capable, on the one hand, of being raised into an instrument of blessing, and of being made, on the other, into an instrument of curse. As this commerce must exist for the supply of the wants of man, it follows, I think, that Christian nations are bound to seek to impregnate commerce with their Christianity, and so to carry to the ends of the earth those blessings of religion which are the chiefest of all possessions. It is too well known for it to be necessary for me to enlarge upon the fact, that commerce has, in many instances, introduced among distant nations of the earth the vices of civilisation without imparting to them its blessings ; that it has taught them to blaspheme that holy Name which should always be mentioned with reverence on earth, but has not taught them to use it in prayer. And here is a special reason why, as regards Africa, we should seek to impregnate our commerce with Christianity, and to prevent it from be- coming an instrument of evil — viz., that in times past commerce with Africa has, as you all know, been a special minister of evil. It is one of Dr Livingstone's great remarks that he finds a border-land of violence and rapine and suspicion always extending a certain number of miles beyond the margin which M 178 Evils wrought by an Unsanctified Commerce, Christian commerce has yet reached. What a terrible con- fession ! Commerce with Africa has been for years, to a great extent, that commerce in the bodies of men which God's Word so emphatically condemns. Surely, then, commerce has there been made most emphatically an instrument of evil. Those engaged in it have pursued a course resembling that which has been taken with regard to that noble river which flows through our metropolis. God gave us that noble river, not merely that we might freight upon it the riches of all lands — that we might receive on its broad breast from other countries the raw materials of our manufactures, and despatch and exchange the manufactured goods of our own country ; but that it might bear upon its bosom health and strength to thousands of our working population. And what, with all our boasted civilisa- tion, have we done with respect to it? We have made it a receptacle for all the pollutions of a great city, and have turned God's blessed instrument from a minister of strength and good into a minister of disease, weakness, and evil. That was what we did in our commerce with Africa. God meant England's commerce with Africa to bear upon its bosom the blessed light of Christianity — meant it to carry to those dis- tant nations a rational liberty — meant it to teach them to respect the rights of their fellovvmen, and to entertain a high value for human life among each other. Instead of all this, commerce was turned to every evil account to which the human heart was capable of applying it. You miade your commerce with Africa a commerce of crime ; you charged that great institution of Providence with a message of wrong to the countless tribes of that country ; and therefore, I say, there is a special reason why your commerce with that land should now be made to aid Christianity, in the fact that what God meant to be a harbinger of good has been so long made an instrument of working the foulest evil. Then there appears to me to be another special reason why we are called upon to take part in this work. I think that in rais- ing up such a man as Dr Livingstone, God has made a distinct call upon England to rise up and perform this work. We read special Features of Dr L wings tones Character. 179 in the Book of Judges — and let me say we are too apt to read that book as if it was the history of some entirely bygone state of things — we read of God's raising up one man and another to do some mighty act, and to give rest to His people for forty years; but surely it is God's practice now no less than it was then to raise up a mighty man, who shall stand up in the power with which He has invested him, and caJl upon his- brethren to follow him in his enterprises of greatness. I think there are in Dr Livingstone's character many special features which mark him out as intended by the providence of God to head such a movement as this. I have here one or two letters which have recently been received from him, and from which I will, with your permission, read one or two extracts, in order to illustrate what I mean. Let me say, then, first of all, to take the lowest ground, I think that remarkable patience of fatigue, remarkable bearing of sufferings, the power of enduring and the will to endure — are peculiarly conspicuous in the character of this great man. I am not sure that v/e are not apt, in consequence of the distance of the field of operations from us, to think less of these features of his character than we ought to do, and unduly to lower our estimate of the sufferings which are actually endured in the promotion of this great enterprise. Let me, then, draw your attention to one simple and humble statement of the way in which Dr Livingstone has made some of his great discoveries. He has been giving an account of the progress of his steamer upon the river, and he says — " Here the rapids are caused by rocks, and the first one we came to this little asthmatic steamer gave in. As she is only one-sixteenth of an inch thick, we were afraid to haul her ; so we went forward on foot to examine the rest of the stream. We examined thirty miles carefully, and with no slight difficulty succeeded in ascertaining that the worst cataract will not prevent a steamer capable of going twelve or fourteen knots an hour from ascending when the river is full. The only people who knew of it, the Badema, declared that it was totally unapproachable ; not even an elephant would go near it, nor a hippopotamus, nor even an alligator; a man i8o Illustration of Dr Livingstones Characte7\ might perish from thirst within sight of it, but unable to go down and drink. Our party had now been reduced to Dr Kirk and four Makololo. The latter showed me the soles of their feet, blistered by the hot rocks, and such a rocky track I never saw. Our good new English boots were worn quite through in a fortnight. It took three hours to travel one mile. The rays of the vertical sun, drawn together by the converging mountains, made the rocks feel as if they were in a furnace. We could not hold on more than a second, though our danger was great of being dashed in pieces by letting go. On urging the Makololo to make another effort, they said ' that they always supposed I had a heart till tlien. I had surely become insane ; they only regretted that Dr Kirk could not under- stand them, as he would certainly return, though I would not.' It was the worst bit of travel I ever went through, and after a single fortnight of thirty miles, we all returned lean and haggard, as if we had been recovering from illness ; but we saw the cata- ract at last." You see the man in that Not all the leanness, not all the hardship, not all the suffering could scare that man away from accomphshing a purpose which he was told could be effected by no living thing — '^ no, not even by an alligator." Now, I say that in the raising up of such a man as our leader, there is an evident call to us to exert ourselves. God has given a leader of the people, in order not merely that he should give an account of what he has witnessed beyond the border-land, which he describes as always dangerous, being like a ravelled edge, exhibiting the vices of both races and the virtues of neither j but that, under his guidance, we should apply ourselves to endeavouring to remove a state of things altogether reproachful to our past commerce as a people. The natives have been taught by the Portuguese slave-traders that the only object with which a man can look upon a fellow- man is that by force and fraud he may seize him or circumvent him, and so accomplish the grand purpose of selling him into slavery. Now, here is an illustration of the kind of heart which Dr Livingstone has — the human heart which is in him, and which he retains in the midst of all his toils and difhculties. Catholicity of Dr Livingstone' s Spirit, i8i He is here speaking of the wonderful growth of cotton in one part of Africa, and he says — " Here cotton grows ahnost without care ; in fact, they call it indigenous. It makes me almost cry with vexation to see the infatuation of the itw Portuguese pedlars who attend to nothing but ivory ; and with all their scrambling get only about 2000 lb. of it annually." See how fresh this man's spirit keeps. How open are his sympathies to everything that is great. He says — this is from a private letter, but I cannot refrain from breaking the privacy — " I feel every day more and more impressed with the idea that a colony of our own hard-working Christian people is the only means that will put a stop to the slave-trade entirely, and render us independent of the produce of slave labour. This is the land for cotton and sugar, and yet the few Portuguese here export the labourers to a worse soil. I don't like to say much beforehand, but in July we return to the Lakes, and I believe to open up the whole of Eastern Africa ; but my heart is really sore to think the Portuguese stand in the way. They have an idea that a company will be formed, and they as masters of the soil will become rich without taking their cigars out of their mouths." That is it ; your lazy man, who can never take his cigar out of his mouth, cannot conceive of such honest labours. " If you can do anything towards bringing the idea of a colony prominently forward, you will perform a great service. I mean a Christian colony — a bodily transplantation of all our peculiari- ties as a Christian people, and for a specific object, extending all our energies to the extinction of the trade in the bodies of men." Let me now mention another feature of Dr Livingstone's character, which has been spoken of by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I refer to the broad catholicity of the man's spirit. While he is in the midst of his African labours he hears of a noble-minded woman having given of her means to found the Bishopric of Columbia in the farthest extremity of the earth. If there were anything narrow in his mental constitution he 1 82 Catholicity of Dr Livingstone s Spirit. would be afraid that this lady, who had been his special friend, might perhaps have her sympathies a litde distracted from his work, and be drawn away by this new pursuit, and we should not have been surprised if he had written a word of caution not to forget the old love when she was looking on to the new. But his spirit was too heroic — to use an expression applied to him by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; too great for any such petty jealousies to find their way into his mind. There- fore he writes to this lady, in a letter with which she has entrusted me, in view of this meeting, in the following terms : " I do most heartily thank the Author of all good who has put the noble idea into your mind and given you grace to reduce it to practice. May He return your kindness to unborn generations in abundant measure, and grant the influence of His gracious Spirit that your intentions may be more than realised. Nothing has cheered me more for a long time than this bit of news." He then goes on to speak of his own hopes of the civilisation of Africa, and here again there is an exhibi- tion of the same noble spirit and his desire for the prosecution of his own work, in what he believes to be the most effectual manner. He says — " I am becoming more convinced than ever that a small English colony in the highlands of Africa is indispensable to the working out of her civilisation, and pro- ducing a sensible effect upon African slavery. Should my wish ever be realised, I meant to apply to you for a clergyman. I did not soar so high as a Bishop, but I believe that I might go the length of a clergyman. Were Englishmen, with their religious institutions, along with them here, slavery in this region would be an impossibility." Now, that is characteristic of the man whom God has, I trust, given us to lead us on in this great enterprise. We have in him qualities which are most rarely found combined in one individual ; and seeing that he is so patient, so laborious, so judicious, so catholic in his temper, I say that, God having raised him up, we are as much bound to follow in the path which he has opened for us, and which he has pursued with such vigour, as the sons of Israel were bound to flock around the standard of a mighty leader. Africa as a Cotton Field. 183 And then there is another important consideration which bears upon our work. Every one who knows much of the manufacturing interests of this country must be aware that one of the greatest problems which has to be solved is, how those interests are to extend themselves, nay, even main- tain their present eminence, whilst they are so absolutely dependent for their cotton supply on the growth of the slave- cultivated plantations of America. It seems to me that God is as distinctly calling us by our necessities as a nation and by our want of this commodity for our home manufactures, to open new grounds for its cultivation by the civilisation of Africa, as if a voice from heaven speaking in our material ears told us that the prosperity of England was bound up with our doing His will in that great continent of Africa. Another reason why I think we are bound to follow this great pioneer is, that his work is so closely connected with the South of Africa ; and I must be pardoned for saying, in the presence of Sir George Grey, that in having given us him again as the Governor of that dependency, God has given us a new call to instant exertion in this work. This is not my opinion alone. I received the day before yesterday a letter from the Bishop of Capetown shortly after Sir George Grey's departure. The Bishop writes — " His recall staggered and excited the country from one end to the other. Addresses innumerable to the Queen, and public meetings, followed. Twenty thousand people lined the streets from Government House to the Quay, and the carriage was drawn' by the crowd. He has made provision for my Caffre College very thoughtfully during the interregnum. But the future of the college, if Sir George should not return, will be very uncertain. At present the Caffre youths remain under my roof, and very good lads they are. Whether Sir George will come out again or not, I know not. I trust that he may, because there is a work to be done here which I believe no other man will or probably can do." Now, then, I say that God having given us back that proconsul, as he has been called, to administer the affairs of that distant province, is a call upon us not to let the opportunity which is 184 The Duty of Reparation to Africa. this moment presented to us pass away. There are, however, other considerations of the most pressing nature at this moment. You have had repeated to you this morning the warning words of Dr Livingstone, " It has pleased God to open to you the way; take care that it is not closed." There are threats already of its being closed. In this letter of Dr Livingstone to myself he enlarges upon them. He states that the Portuguese are determined to undertake the protection of the slave-trade in those parts ; he states that they are lending themselves largely to what is called the free emigration of the French, in which he says these free emigrants are sent chained and manacled, lest they should make their escape, if they should have a moment in which to do it. In one of his letters he speaks of a chief who had had his own daughter carried off, and sold to a Portuguese padre. He had, it appears, himself formed a plan of rescuing this girl, but he had failed in his endeavour, the padre refusing to restore her; and he adds, "If the people of England did but know what \kiQ.%Q^ padres were in distant parts of the world, they would value their own clergy at home a great deal more than they do." There is yet another reason why I think we ought to exert ourselves in this work, and that is, that we have a duty of repara- tion to perform towards that injured part of the world. God is at this moment, for beneficent purposes of His own, reversing, as it seems to me, the common rule of His providence, which rarely allows the wrong-doer to restore to those who have been injured by him what has been taken from them, or to make restitution for the past in such matters. God is at this mo- ment giving England an opportunity for the civilising and the Christianising of Africa which our fathers never possessed, and which, probably, if we neglect it, our sons will not inherit. And, Sir, let me say that, in estimating our national guilt in relation to the slave-trade, I think that the greatest wrong perpetrated by us is not our having exposed the natives of Africa to the horrors of the middle passage, and afterwards made them the bond slaves of England in her distant colonies. The master evil is this, that throughout the central parts of The Master Evil of the Slave Trade. 185 Africa Christian men have taught the savage what he never learnt before, to engage in wars for the very purpose of making captures of his brethren, and so have enticed and drawn them on into every conceivable abomination of man-stealing iniquity. This is the gigantic evil, the accursed fruits of which you are called upon to repair, and it seems to me that this institution is going the right way to work, mingling, as I have said, a Christianised commerce with direct missions, while this direct mission is to be carried on under the guidance of an apostohcally appointed leader. Dr Livingstone has infused his own spirit into some of the Makololo, and, as it were, multiplied himself; and so I trust that, if a Bishop be sent, we shall have at the head of the mission one who will not be the first in indulgences, in ease, and in softness, but first in labour, and danger, and in endeavour, and who will, through God's grace, be enabled to breathe into those who are under him the spirit which belongs to the God-sent leader of men. If we believe — and who of us does not ? — in the apostolic constitu- tion of our Church ; if we believe that its orders are not men's cunning invention, but Christ's enduring gift ; if we believe that by acting on Christ's own word we shall secure Christ's blessing, then I say that the plan of leadership that has been adopted is based on the calmest sagacity, as well as on the boldest faith. And I feel it to be a high privilege to be allowed in this great hall to speak these words, because I know that I am addressing myself to England's youthful heart and youthful intellect. Never let us forget that in reference to His great designs, God has entrusted the execution of the work, rather to the dictates of what men would call the enthusiastic movements of the soul, than to the duller and slower con- clusions of the reason. Never did man do anything great unless he trusted to the double nature that God gave him, and found the spring of action in his spirit, if he found the restraint of action in his judgment. Why, when I look back at what Cambridge has done, I am reminded of such a man as Henry Martyn, who cared not for home or father- land in comparison with his work, and whose great object 1 86 Entlmsiasts the Fulfillers of God's Designs. \Yas to go into distant districts of the earth to proclaim the beloved name of his Master. And, I ask, if God had not given nobility to a Christian man's enthusiasm, would he have girded up his loins and gone forth on such a mission ? The lives of such men have not been lost because they died early in the cause, the labours of half a century having been gathered up, as it were, into two or three years. Oh ! no. Sir ; you must concentrate the light in order to make it luminous amid the darkness. It is not amidst the paucity of great ideas, and great sacrifices, that the work of missions is likely to be effect- ually accomplished. When men like Henry Martyn have finished their career, others may be expected to move in the same orbit. The memory of such men lives ever to encourage those who follow them. It seems to me as if even now their voices hung upon the charmed air, and called upon us in our day to follow their mighty example ; and on this day especially, when we have been blessing God publicly for all His saints departed this life in His faith and fear, I can scarcely help feeling as if they were beckoning us onward — as if the hand of one and another before us were pointing out to us the path which must ultimately lead to the most perfect blessedness. Pardon me, if I say that amongst them there seems to me to be one, trained for his after deeds of greatness within the walls of your own college, who is beckoning me by the specialty of my position to take up, in however feeble a manner, the work which he so nobly began, and to witness, though it may be with inferior powers to his, to the next generation, that England can never be clear from the guilt of her long-continued slave-trade, till Africa is free, civilised, and Christian. XIX. Upon the universities' mission to central AFRICA. — Manchester y May 23, i860. The resolution which has been put into my hands is this : — " That Christians of every communion, and more particularly all members of the Church of England, may be expected to co- operate zealously and generously in such a work as that of the direct evangelisation of Eastern and Central Africa." I rise with great pleasure to endeavour, in a very few words, to recommend the adoption of this resolution to this great meeting. In one respect certainly I think I may claim some- thing from this meeting, for it has been my singular good fortune to have been able to prevail upon my revered friend, Lord Brougham, who has addressed us so eloquently to-day, to appear amongst the men of Manchester, and speak on this great subject. I rejoiced from my heart to see how you welcomed that honoured man, not only because of the great powers which it has pleased God to give him, but because for so many years those powers have been so generously given to the cause of humanity and freedom everywhere. But there was this especial gratification, because I saw in him, and I know that you saw in him, the one remaining heart and voice, the one remaining living example of that great band of our fellow-countrymen, noble in design, great in object, gifted in talent, who, under God's blessing, wiped off from the escutcheon of Great Britain the accursed blot of slavery. It seems to me a singular felicity granted to my noble friend, that he should have been permitted to see the accomplishment of the great work to which his ardent youth was given, and that he should be permitted in the wisdom and moderation of age to help us forward in reaping the legitimate fruits of that 1 88 Testimony to Lord Brotcgham. mighty sowing. He reminds me — and I know he will forgive my saying it — of one of those things w^hich geologists call " outlyers." You all know what an outlyer is. It is one of those rocks connected wdth some neighbouring stratum, -which, be- cause it is of a harder material than the rest, has not been swept aAvay, when the softer materials which were once embedded around it were carried off by some mighty cataclysm, but which, having in itself a mighty principle of coherence, endured those adverse waves, and now stands up and lifts its head to heaven, testifying in its singleness what was the history of a multitude who once stood around him. My noble friend has spoken of the evils of the slave trade, and of the blessings -which you are to introduce into Africa, with the blessing of God — the bless- ings of civilisation, and of commerce, and of liberty j those things which always have been united together in the history of man ; because never has commerce flourished without liberty was its twin sister, and never has liberty endured unless morals were its nursing mother. My noble friend has dwelt upon this, and I am not going to enter upon the ground he has trodden. My resolution carries us to the religious aspect of the question, and they are connected together most closely in this way ; we may depend upon it that great as are the triumphs of civilisation, and great as is the work of commerce, it does need the deeper, the more enduring, and more transforming influence of the love of souls, for Christ's sake, to induce the man enjoying all the advantages of civilised hfe to give himself and his life — as my reverend friend here is about to do — to dwell in the midst of all the adverse influences of heathendom and of savagedom, in order that he may reclaim his brethren from a slavery worse than death. Well, now, the resolution leads us to that, and I would endeavour in a very few words to press upon you what seem to me the great motives which ought to induce us at this moment to take part in this work. I am not going to argue with you, the men of Manchester, who have been long engaged in missionary works all the world over, the general abstract principles of missionary work; it is quite needless, Cape of Good Hope a Safegttard for India. 189 and it would be a shameful waste of your time. What I have to do is to show why it is that that missionary spirit should, at this moment, especially address itself in this particular direction. Now there are several reasons why it should do so. In the first place, we are at this moment as a people so connected for good or for evil with that great continent of Africa. The very fact that we possess the Cape of Good Hope is a wonderful call upon us. Remember, we could not maintain, humanly speaking, our great oriental possessions in India — upon the preservation of which we have spent so much, and upon the preservation of which so much of our wealth depends — if that half-way house, that natural citadel, jutting out upon that promontory, pointing into those stormy seas whicli roll ever round the Cape, were in the power of an adverse European nation. God has given us that as a safeguard for our Indian dominion ; and I say, in giving us that, He has given us the basis of missionary operations in Africa ; and, in giving us the basis of missionary operations, He has given us the call to use it in that way. But, then, this is not all. At almost every point of that African coast England has, more or less, some possession. It is really almost amusing, at first sight, to see the way in which our English institutions have found their way amongst these blacks down the Bight of Benin, and all down that coast of Africa. I lighted the other day upon what really will amuse this great meeting, — an instance of this which brings it before our eyes with such exceeding detail and minuteness, that we can see it in a way we cannot upon any general ex- pression. In the middle, then, of that Cape Coast, there broke out one day lately a dreadful strife between two of the separate African tribes, who bore the names of Bentil and Intin. Well, these tribes went out, according to an old custom, to fight out a great grudge. Intelligence of this affair reached the municipality of the Cape Coast, and as this sort of thing leads often to great evils, his worship the mayor interfered directly with the view to stop this great trial of strength on the part of these two tribes. Now I think the fact of there being a mayor at the Cape Coast, tells the whole story. You go Prevalence of English Customs in Africa. see how English customs and English influence prevail. No matter that we are speaking of an altogether different country to our own, where, instead of seeing white faces, we see the black faces of the negro men, swarming in great numbers, — there is his worship the mayor, just as ready as his worship the Mayor of Manchester, who sits at my right hand, would be if an outbreak happened here, to proceed at once to take measures to put the commotion down. Now mark how this system works. I read, " His worship the mayor imparted the news to his honour the chief justice, and the judicial assessor, and requested the assistance of the military to keep order." It is, you see, exactly in order, everything going on just as it would do at home. Very well, " Then the chief justice at once communicated with the officer. Lieutenant Williams, who promptly ordered out the troops, put himself at the head of a detachment of fifty-seven men, and set out to keep the peace." His honour the chief justice accompanied the detachment of troops, in order to see that all was done ac- cording to order. And now we come to one or two of the little incidents which certainly we should not have in Man- chester, because by some mistake the troops were conducted first of all by a wrong road.. I am quite sure that would not happen here. This, we are told, was through the stupidity and wrongheadedness of those who sent them ; and that you all know could never have occurred here. Then they were, in consequence of this, most unnecessarily knocked about in the sun. Well, we should not think that a particular evil in Manchester. However, at last they reached the place, and they found the intended quarrellers scattered about. Each man had a flint musket, or a cutlass, or two or three knives. The chief justice, who was in a very weak state, having only partially recovered from a late attack of fever, went about amongst the rioters to endeavour to induce them to retire to their homes. See how England comes in again, " Not having succeeded, his honour at length read the Riot Act." But even this had no effect. " It was now about five o'clock, and appearances seemed to indicate that hostiUties were about to Original Colonisation of Africa. 191 commence;" — and now comes Africa in altogether, head and shoulders ; — " when an incident occurred that might have proved very serious. The chief justice sat down to rest, but in doing so he disturbed a great black snake, which had been reposing there, and which immediately yielded up the place to him." The editor of this paper, which is printed in due form at Cape Coast, adds, "It is quite a mercy that the animal, hidden as it was in the long grass, had not been trodden upon by the judge, for in that case mischief must have ensued." Even African snakes you see dislike to be trodden upon by the white man, and therefore it is natural that the Africans themselves should dislike to be trodden upon by white men. I quote this just to bring home to this great meeting, as it brought home to my own mind, this great truth, that we, the English people, have so intimate a connection with those people in Africa, and that, because of that intimate connection, we have a special charge from Almighty God to convey to them the truth we ourselves have received. The next thing I would point out is this, the field there is ripe for the harvest. There never perhaps was a people upon the face of the earth who for very many reasons were so ready to receive the teaching of the Gospel as the people are who inhabit the great peninsula of Africa. It is very curious to trace the history, as we can trace it chiefly through language, of the original colonisation of that great peninsula. It is quite plain that from Egypt of old there issued forth two streams of men — the Coptic race — who travelled down the eastern coast of Africa until they got a little beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and then turned the corner ; and the negro race — who travelled down the western coast, taking possession of those great swamps and lands uninhabitable by any other people than those who are found on the whole western coast of that great peninsula. After a time the negro people, about half way down, crossed the peninsula, and came in contact with the Coptic race who had settled upon the eastern coast. We find all this in the record of their languages. We find in the Coptic language, which is a very remarkable language, because it is what the 192 OiHgin of Zulu Kaffij" Races. writers upon languages would call a " sex-denoting language," which marks it ofif from all others — they give peculiar names to all the rivers and mountains. For instance, the Kie is a name which no one who knows those languages can doubt for an instant to be a Coptic name. Well, but we find the Negro people now in possession of the Kie, and having added one of their own terminations to it, calling it the Kiesama, marking precisely, as if written upon a rock, the history of the inter- mixture of those two tribes. From that mixture sprang the better race of Kaffirs and Zulus, a nobler race physically than the remains of the Coptics, who are now the Hottentots, or the Negroes, who are spread down the western coast. But there runs through the whole of this multitudinous tribe of men, certain great natural and spiritual, as well as physical linea- ments ; and, it is especially these that mark them — a certain childishness of character, a certain impressionableness of character, docility, readiness to receive, but very little readiness to retain any impressions whatever ; cheerfulness, merriment, great kindliness of nature, with no fixed form of heathen religion, which has exalted itself into a natural system, and so put up barriers against the spread of Christianity. Now then observe, my friends, this — these people must have travelled down into that great peninsula of Africa at no very distant time after the period when, for the sins of the old earth, the deluge had swept them away, and men had been started forth once again upon their great mission of replenish- ing the earth, with the freedom of the faith of God restored to them. In this state they entered Africa, a country marvellously fitted for the dwelling of men in abundance and in comfort ; because Africa differs essentially from most parts of the earth in this, that the productiveness of its soil, in all except those places where sterility is gathered up into itself in its deserts, is such as is not equalled in any other part of the world. A remarkable fact was mentioned to me, since I entered this building to-day, by a reverend friend of mine, that Mr Burke, — with that great prophetic glance which he was cast- ing evermore into all the great moral and civil subjects BiLi'ke on the Productiveness of Africa. 19 which came before him — mentions in a private communication to a friend, that he has come to the conviction, from the evidence brought before him, that instead of Africa being, as it is supposed, an inhospitable country for the dvveUing of man, it will turn out, when it comes to be truly known, one of the richest and the most fertile countries on the face of the earth. Well, that great prophecy of that mighty genius has been shown to be true by all the discoveries of more recent times. Sir George Grey, that noble-minded man, our governor at the Cape of Good Hope, has given me personally astonishing accounts of this wonderful fertihty. He said that the differ- ence between the herbage, for instance, in Africa, and the herbage he was well acquainted with in Australia and in New Zealand, was greater than could be conceived possible ; the extreme succulence, and the extraordinary healthfulness of the growth of all the herbage of Africa being something perfectly wonderful. He told me, for instance — because he is one or those men who are a sort of hero-men, great in everything, being just as great as a hunter of wild beasts as he is as a governor of men (and at this very moment he is going to take out our dear young sailor prince, that he may have good hunt- ing for a month up in the high grounds of the Cape of Good Hope), that he once shot one of those great boks, and as there was no one near to help him to carry it away, he threw himself down, being well tired by the chase, until some one came up. They came soon, and he rose, and he found that his clothes, and everything about him, were scented with a sort of aromatic perfume, which was the result of the peculiar aromatic growth of the herbage upon which these flocks feed. You see the result of this. There is no country on the earth which so abounds in the graminivorous creatures as that great region of Central Africa does, with antelopes and boks, and springboks, and every conceivable bok that the heart of man can desire, or the natural man can conceive. All these boks run, and jump, and swim, and eat, and feed, and nestle over those fertile fields of Africa ; and God, who always produces those cor- relatives in His natural government of the earth, accordingly N 194 Origin of the African Slave-Tirade. has stocked that land with those mighty feline and canine animals, which in turn live upon all those great graminivorous beasts ; and so Africa is in point of fact at this moment the great centre of all life amongst the animals of God's creation, rejoicing together in the abundance which the God of nature has given to them. Well, then, into this land, so furnished for man's inhabitation, with rivers and with minerals, and with abundant vegetable produce, which we are now drawing at a great rate from it, man enters upon the scene, and man at that time possessed at least the knowledge of the true God ; and almost at once it seems that he went again headlong into the corruptions and superstitions which we still find pressing down, to the very dust of the earth, the morals and the intellect of the African people. And what does this teach us? Well, the receptivity of the people teaches us this, that if Christian men will indeed bring the message to them, there will be a readiness to receive it. And the deterioration of the people in the midst of all the blessings God gave them shows this, that there is no help, no hope of any internal succour, unless the Gospel is brought to them from those who now have the lamp of truth, and have the lamp of truth that they may enlighten others with it as well as themselves. Well, then, this is the point which it seems to me ought at this moment to induce us to make some real hearty efforts for carrying the truth of God, as com- mitted to us, amongst these people — that they need it greatly, that they are ready to receive it, that we have special calls to impart it, because God's Providence has specially connected us with that people. And one thing more I must add — what my noble friend has dwelt upon, and which I will now take as proved — because we, the children of slaveholders, have to cut off the entail of curses, by reversing the inheritance of wrong which the slave- traders inflicted upon Africa, It seems as if the slave-trade, as far as we can trace the history of the accursed thing, arose, thank God, not with Christians, but amongst the Mussulman tribes of Arab birth, who, about eight hundred years after Christ, penetrated far into Africa, and possessed themselves of Effects of Slave- Trade m Africa. 195 many strongholds, chiefly along the coast. But, alas ! Chris- tians were too ready to learn the lesson, and to carry on, and even to aggravate, the evil which the Mussulman had begun' And never let it be forgotten, that all those horrors to which my noble friend has alluded, tremendous as they are — and I know he would tell you that at once, because I have heard him say it — all those horrors are not the principal evil of the slave-trade, but, as it were, cries and shrieks of misery making themselves heard above the low murmur of the universal evil which the slave-trade has inflicted upon Africa. This great evil was this : First of all it taught man to regard his brother, not as his brother, not even as the producer through labour of the material wealth of the earth ; but it taught him to regard his brother as having no other value than this, as a chattel that could be converted into gold by being kidnapped and sold out of the country. And so, you see, it introduced uni- versal distrust between man and man, and it also necessarily destroyed commerce. Why, it was only the other day that we heard from Dr Livingstone, that a party of natives who were coming down to the coast with goods, engaged in trying to make the lawful commerce of Africa more abundant, were seized when near the sea-coast, after their goods had been exchanged, and were themselves kidnapped and carried ofl". Now, then, you can see at once that this must altogether destroy the possibility of there being any trust between man and man ; and you know here, of course, how commerce altogether depends upon trust for its very existence, not to say its extension. Therefore, the slave-trade first of all destroys the possibility of any lawful commerce in Africa, and then next it led to those wars which have devastated the whole of that continent ; because when one tribe had been injured in a slave-hunt, that injury created in the breasts of those who were left a grudge of the most inveterate hostility against those who had either perpetrated, or assisted in perpetrating, the wrong. They waited their time, and when they saw they had an opportunity, they sought to revenge upon that tribe the wrong which had been inflicted 196 Livingstone on French Emigration System. upon their own, and made war upon it, carrying off in turn the men of that tribe, and sold them as slaves, thinking they were thus avenging the quarrel of their ancestors, and spreading throughout the whole continent the principle of mutual blood- shed and war. This was the great evil which was wrought. Well, now, I say that we, the people of England — inasmuch as at one time we were the great slave-trading people — must not only do what, thank God, w^e have done, wash our hands of the iniquity, but we must do more ; if the entail of curses is to be cut off from any people, or from any man, he must not only leave the old sin off, but he must endeavour, as in God's sight, to undo the evils of the old sin to the very utmost of his power. It is by such work as this that those evils are to be undone. My revered friend Lord Brougham has mentioned to you those ancient allies, the Portuguese, of whom he spoke, let me assure him, with the most becoming respect. He has also mentioned the Spaniards, and he has mentioned our brethren of America ; but there is another people who at this moment are doing a work of evil, and it is only just to those he has mentioned that we should bear them in mind too, be- cause the work is done in a very peculiar way. This letter I have received myself from Dr Livingstone, and you shall hear his words, and you will understand what I mean. He says : " Add to this French emigration, which is really slave-trade, going on at Quilimane, depopulating a country not very well peopled ; sending labourers to a French colony which cannot raise sugar without guano, while on the whole of the delta of the Zambesi" (from whence this letter is sent) "it grows almost without care — in fact they call it indigenous. It makes me almost cry wath vexation " (says this good man, who is not much given to the crying mood) ''to see the infatuation of the few Portuguese pedlars, who attend to nothing but ivory, and with all their scrambling get only about two thousand pounds of it annually. The people on the Shire brought cotton to us in bags on our second visit, though a year had not elapsed since we had told them of a market. Had we any agency such as How to undo the Evils of the Slave- Trade. 197 Sierra Leone supplies to the Niger, we could send some bales next year, but we have none." I have asked you to mark this for this reason ; I have brought my argument, you see, down to this, that it is our bounden duty, as a religious matter, to undo the evil the slave-trade has inflicted, by introducing civilisation and lawful commerce : and now I have shown you, from the evidence of Dr Livingstone, who has gone out there upon this noble embassy, that he believes the sending out of a Christian mission there — the settling there some such point of civilisation and religion as Sierra Leone, upon the west coast, is the con- dition for restoring a lawful commerce in sugar and in cotton to that great eastern part of Africa. I will give you another, sentence in another letter of his, because it is even more to the point. The letter was written from Tette, and was dated 15th July : " I am becoming more and more convinced that a small English colony in the high lands of Africa is indispen- sable to the working out her civihsation, and producing a sensible effect on American slavery, and I lately ventured to tell Lord Malmesbury so. Should my wish ever be realised, I meant and would apply to you for a clergyman. I do not soar so high as a bishop, but I believe in you the length of a clergyman. I would have the church to be the first building. A colony of Germans is on its way out here, with a lot of Portuguese ; were they Englishmen, with their religious institu- tions along with them, slavery in this region would be an im- possibility. I have more confidence in my countrymen and countrywomen than any other people under the sun." Then he adds these most touching words : " I think we are mak- ing the safe way for our countrymen. I hope the Lord will accept our service, and bless it, so that we may be a bless- ing both to Africa and to England. I long very greatly to see the way open for the help of the English honest poor, as well as that of the native African." Well, then, it seems to me that these are the great and special features of the case which mark out this particular field of work as appointed for us by God at this time ; and I believe 198 National Character a Source of Disicnioii, that great will be the reward if we in this England enter boldly upon that field God has opened for us, and do His bidding in it. I believe that on every side He has provided blessings to reward such conduct. This resolution speaks of one thing which I may not pass over : it says that Christians of all denominations, as well as more particularly all members of the Church of England, may be expected to co-operate in such a work. I believe that nothing promises so much to us the restoration of the unspeak- able boon of some religious union as community in religious works of love. I need not tell this meeting what England, ay, what the world loses through our want of unity in these matters ; — how it cripples our hands, how it weakens our re- sources, how it makes us suspicious of one another, how it damps our prayers, so that they will not ascend in one mighty stream upwards to the throne of grace. And of what are these differences bred ? They are bred of prejudice, of mis- understanding ; their haunt is in hearts that deal least in love, and most in controversy ; their dwelling-place is where men care more to differ about trifles than to unite about essentials. Therefore, I say, if God is to give back to this people of Eng- land the blessing of a united heart in religious matters, it seems to me the way to receive that blessing is that we should unite, wherever we can unite without a sacrifice of fundamental prin- ciples, in this one mighty work of spreading the faith of Christ in the dark places of the earth. I believe that these differences of ours are a good deal the result of our national character. If you see two Englishmen, who do not. know one another, travel- ling together in one of our railway carriages, there they sit side by side, with nothing more of a barrier than a sort of gouty leg which projects into the carriage and parts one from the other ; and there they will sit for a whole day without interchanging a word, as if they were parted by walls of adamant. But put those very same men together at the other side of the earth, in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and they will rush into one another's arms and embrace one another — Mission Work a Bond of Union. 199 — 1 for the cordial love both of them bear to old England and the old home. And depend upon it that there is in the religious sympathies of our nature very much the same law at work. Here at home we look with magnifying glasses to find out how we can differ from our neighbour ; but there, where we come to see what it is to know the name of Christ, or not to know it ; what it is to have the everlasting Gospel, or not to possess it ; what it is to have the blessings of Christ's Church, or to be estranged from them ; — when we read in the hideous characters of blood and lust and violence which human corruption has written so broad upon heathendom, what it is to be without the faith of the Lord, then we become ashamed of magnifying needlessly our points of disunion ; we begin to see that what we thought were principles, are very often nothing more than prejudice, and so we act together, where we can act, with a heartiness of will, and a unity of feeling, which, under God's blessing, brings at least concord between our souls. And therefore I say it is not, as it seems to me, in speculating at home whether we can pare down this difference or exalt that, but it must be by uniting together each one, according to his own convictions of truth, in spreading the common truth, that God may intend to give us back those inestimable blessings of united hearts. And so I say to this great meeting to-day : Don't stand upon trifles in such a matter as this. Remember the old word of our blessed Lord himself about men who strain at a gnat, and yet are able to swallow a camel. Look at the purpose we have in view, that we are about, God help- ing us, to send England in England's character, England's industry, England's commerce, England's religion, to be a nucleus round which, as we hope, God will gather a multitude of men of the other blood, that that nucleus, so gathered round, may become itself a mass, instinct with Christian life, to spread its life-giving influences amongst all the heathendom around it. Look, I say, at our purpose ; look — if he will let me say it to you, and he will bear, for the sake of the cause, even the look of you, one and all — look at the honest English 200 Mission Work a Bond of Union, face of my friend here (Archdeacon Mackenzie), who is going at the head of that mission, and say whether on your consciences you can refrain from having your share, whatever it may be, in the mighty work (if God will) of sending out England's faith, England's institutions, and England's industry to the injured descendants of our brethren in Africa. XX. Upon the universities' mission to central AFRICA. — Liverpool, May 2/\, i860. My lord bishop, the resolution which has been intrusted to me is — " That the Oxford and Cambridge Mission is entitled to the general support at this particular time, not as a new Society inter- fering with others already engaged in missionary work, but as temporarily organised, with the special view of meeting a want for the supply of which no other organisation at present exists ; and this meeting, therefore, undertakes to use its best endeavours to assist in acquiring the necessary funds." My lord, I beg to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the very kind welcome which, not now for the first time — though for the first time in this town — you have been pleased, in your brotherly kindness, to give me into this, your diocese. I thank you also, my friends, for the kind way in which you have received me upon this errand. I came amongst you compara- tively as a stranger; and yet, surely upon an errand of Christian love, it is just our privilege that in a Christian land we are stran- gers nowhere, but brethren in the Lord everywhere we go, and look our countrymen in the face. Now, my lord, the subject which I have specially to speak upon in this resolution sounds, I think, as I read it, a little dry ; but it is very necessary, I believe, that it should be for a minute or two dwelt upon. It is the organisation of a great unorganised body, as this resolu- tion seems to express it, that you are called upon by this resolu- tion to supj^ort. The resolution tells you that it is no new Society, and that it does not come into competition with any- existing Society. Now, I think that is a very important fact. I am not at all fond of multiplying upon every new occasion 202 Evil of Multiplying Religiotis Societies^ new Societies. I think there are two great objections to such a multiphcation — first, that you waste funds, which ought to be concentrated on the subject you have in view and make them furnish the machinery in greater abundance. It is just as if a man was able with a single machine to produce the whole amount of certain goods for which he had an order, and then was foolish enough, instead of making it with that machine, to go and make a second machine to produce some of these goods, every one of which he could get at half the expense if he had employed his existing machine. That is a great evil. Now, I am bound, first of all, to show you that you are not falling into this evil in aiding what I should call this attempt ; because, in point of fact, there is no expense of organisation in this attempt. The expenses of organisation are, you must know, first, a house, a goodly ink- stand, a supply of pens, a quantity of paper, a well-dressed man sitting at a well-covered table and looking respectable. Well, now, we have none of these. We meet in the room of the Gospel Propagation Society, for which we pay nothing ; we use their paper, for which we thank them ; employ their pens, for which we are grateful ; write with their ink, and make the best use we can of it. The whole expense really that we incur is that we have for six months engaged one clerk at a pound a "week ; and that is the whole expense, first, middle, and last, which we are at : and therefore, I think, so far as this evil of multiplying Societies goes, the people of Liverpool will say we are tolerably free. Well, now, the second great evil of multiplying Societies is much greater than this. There is such a tendency amongst us, even in pursuit of the very best things, to run into rivalry; and the moment a lot of people have set up a Society, or have joined a Society, or become interested in a Society, they are tempted to love the Society rather than to love the object for which the Society is formed. And, my lord, if they become very much devoted to a Society, unless you will do the work with them through their own Society, they would rather, of the two, you did not help them ; and I am afraid, very often, that they would rather the work Livingstone' s Appeal to the Universities. 20 v) was not done at all than that it should be done throus-h another Society than their own. Well, now, it really appears to me that all this is as utterly unworthy of the Gospel of Christ, and the Kingdom of Heaven, as it is possible for any narrow-minded thing to be. Now, my friends, we must not lose the substance of loving Christ and working for Christ in our admiration of the best constituted and the best executed Society which Christendom ever produced. I should be very sorry to multiply Societies even for this great work. But we have multiplied none. This, in point of fact, is the echo sounded from the battlements of England to the voice of that man — Dr Livingstone j it is the echo of his voice, and not the creation of any new Society. Without profaning the words, I would say, that just as the great forerunner of the Lord sank his own personal being in the single idea of the office that he was fulfilling, and spoke of himself as nothing more than as the voice crying in the wilderness, so is it with this attempt of ours. Dr Livingstone came down to my own university. He went to the sister University of Cambridge. He came to those two learned bodies, which have been thought by some rather too exclusive in some things in their dealings and privileges, and I say he came to them, a man of neither university — a man of the northern part of this our common countrj^ — a man who has been educated in some peculiarities of the Christian faith diverse from that which is identified with those universities ; but he came a man with the love of Christ burning beyond all other powers in that great heart of his ; he came, having been enabled by God, to form schemes for blessing his own country, through making his own country the instrument of blessing others, which marked the greatness of the mind which dwelt within him ; he came, and in the simplicity of faith, and in the sincerity of love, he delivered his message to those two univer- sities, and forthwith — I will not say the bones were dry over which he prophesied — but forthwith there was a shaking amongst those bones, and " bone came to his bone," and there rose up, with no concert, and no fixed intention beforehand, but as the echo of his voice, there rose up the steady determination com- 204 Response of Universities to Livingston^ s Appeal, municated from Cambtidge to Oxford, that this call should be answered, and that the English Church should, as he invited it, send forth men to tread upon the pathway he had opened into the fastnesses of error and of darkness. And this is the whole aim of this association. The leading men in those two universities consulted together, and they agreed that they would endeavour to collect funds, and to see if men would undertake the work ; and the same spirit of God which had put it into their hearts to devise this, put it into their hearts to select my rev. friend beside me, who has opened the proceed- ings to-night (Archdeacon Mackenzie), to give up his beloved university, and to go upon the errand of mercy to Africa. And, my brethren, you may not know how great a sacrifice it was ; yet it is but right that you should know. I will just tell you this. The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge — no mean judge either of men or things — said himself, that Archdeacon Mackenzie was the only man he grudged to the Colonial Church from the University of Cambridge. Well, then, this is what we are doing. In point of fact, we have no Society. It is the Christian feeling of England appealed to on behalf of a certain number of men who are going out with the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ, and with the instrument of Enghsh civilisation. If it pleases God to prosper the mission, our plan is to let it fall back, if it should become in any degree permanent, upon the Gospel Propagation Society, and to invite the other great missionary Society of the Church to use its field as one where their missionaries may labour. I have myself expressed within the last week our earnest desire to the secretary of that great Church Society — tlie Church Missionary Society — that they should use the path which we hope to open, and send their missionaries to labour with these, our brethren, in this great work of evangelising Africa. I do trust, then, that this may be well understood. In fact, it is as little as it is possible to be a Society at all. It is more the Church acting without the instrumentality of a Society, than the creating any new association. That being the case, the resolu- tion calls upon you to pledge yourselves to aid in this work. Condition of Men witJiont Christianity. 205 You have heard from those who have gone before me how great the call is. You know yourselves what a land must be in which Christianity is not. Why, what is it amongst ourselves if from any portion of society Christian influences are at all thoroughly excluded ? How in a town — how in some great town like this — if there is a little quarter of the town from which the influences of Christianity by any accident are excluded — if there is any place where the evils are crowded together, where, because they are crowded together, evil dares to show its brazen countenance unabashed — how deadly becomes the scourge of the evil in that separated place, where it is no longer bound to pay the homage it does elsewhere to the Christianity that surrounds it. And yet, remember, there is a perpetual breaking into that moral and spiritual darkness of the luminous atmosphere which is dwelling all around it in the Christianity that surrounds that spot. Well, then, what must heathendom be, where the fallen nature of man has none of these healing accidents — where there is none of that tone and temper of raised feeling and affection and principle, which Christianity gives even to those whom it does not savingly reach, — what, I say, must the state of society there be ? Now I ask you, my friends, to aid in a practical simple endeav- our to plant in one of the worst of these places our own bless- ings. The plan is this — not to make an English colony. I should be sorry if any went away with that thought. The plan is a perfectly different one. It is merely to have that amount of English Christianity, and of English civilisation, that shall serve as a nucleus round which the native people can con- gregate — from which those native people can receive that healing influence, draw their brethren to themselves, and so become a .healed negro population, and not an English adscititious colony. Now, my friends, we ask you to make some real sacrifice in order to carry this work out. We told you that between ;^io,ooo and ;^i 1,000 had been collected. It has been collected mainly from the poor — from all the agricultural districts of England, who really have, as you have heard to-day, far less to do with this matter than 2o6 TJie Shire Valley recommended, this great emporium of Liverpool — far less on every account. The question is — Will you, God putting it into your hearts, will you give something commensurate with the call upon yourselves to enable this work really to be followed out ? It is of the utmost moment that it should not be delayed for many reasons. Suspicions are arising ; the face of the world is unsettled ; the aspect of the time is dangerous. We have at this moment that great man Dr Livingstone ready to lend his aid in settling this mission in the Shire Valley. He has written to me repeatedly, pressing it upon me as the one thing he desires. He said to me in his letter, " If you only give yourselves to this — if you will only get settled there a small settlement of our fellow-countrymen, with their religion and their institutions, you will have done the work of a life, I will answer for it." Well, we have got that man at present there, and he, strong in his wisdom and his love, is ready to work with us in the settlement. We have got, in the Governor of the Cape, Sir G. Grey, a man most eminently endowed with all the qualities of greatness — bravery, simplicity, and largeness of view ; as well as, above all, with a warm Christian heart within his breast, who will give every assistance which the Government can give to the carrying out of our great design. But who shall say, if this work is not undertaken, who shall say that another year will enable us to do it ? War may have come with all its discordant notes, breaking in upon the harmony of Christian enterprise. We may have lost those instruments which now we possess, because it is everywhere God's way to give to people instru- ments, or rather to lend them instruments for a time, and if those people rise not to the loan of such instruments, then to take them back again in His anger, and so the work is done by another people, because those who had the first opportunity refused to do it. Then the question simply is this : Will the people of England — and will you undertake, my friends, to do your share ? Be sure that if you do, the reward from our God is certain. Never did people — never did individuals — never does the Church undertake heartily the work whicli God The Rewards of doing God's Will. 207 asks it to do, without God rewarding abundantly such service. We have seen it in this very case. The twenty milHons that England gave to redeem itself from the curse of slavery has been already mentioned in the course of this evening. Do you not know that no act perhaps of modern times tended so much to raise this country in the eyes of the whole of the European States — to raise it, not as to the notion of its morality, but to give an idea to them of its wealth and power, and of the danger of intermeddling with it, than that England should have been ready to sacrifice that, to them, almost fabulous sum of twenty milhons, in order to redeem herself from con- tinuing an act of injustice ? And so, depend upon it, it will be in this work. It will increase the blessings, through our own spiritual means at home, to the individual life of individual men, in quickening us to do the work God has given us to do at home, in provid- ing for the great populations of our great towns, in quickening, and giving to our people a more complete, and a more thoroughly Christian education ; and in all this, we shall have, my friends, a return from the God of grace for this our brother whom we have lent to Him. And so it will be in every single part of this work. It is impossible to cast into the mighty ocean of God's purposes of love our own single offering, without those offerings being transmuted into something glorious above their feeble nature by being cast into that ocean which embraces them. And on the other hand, which of us shall dare to expect that the blessings God has given us so abundantly as a Church and as a nation shall be continued to us if we neglect to do His work ? 1 walked to-day with my kind host, your honoured towns- man, Mr Brown — I walked with him to-day upon your noble quay. I heard from him something of the tale of won- der of this, your wonderful community. He told me of the fifty years which had elapsed since he first knew the town, and of the growth of its population from ninety thousand to half a million. He told me of the yearly addition now to its numbers of some ten thousand more. He told me how those quays had grown, as commerce from every part of the earth 2o8 Thoughts suggested by Liverpool, had flowed into it with such increasing abundance, so that now it would take a man a walk of fourteen miles to go along the whole of these quays of yours, upon which are now disem- barked all the wealth of every wealthy part of this globe. I looked round upon your town, and saw its buildings rising in magnificence — saw how God had put it into the heart of this man to give that noble library upon that noble site. Ay, and I felt, and I know you will feel, that great as is that material gift, the gift of the heart that planned it was a greater gift to Liverpool than the gift of the library itself. I looked, and I saw your churches rising upon every side, and testifying every- where that you were caring for the souls of men, and minister- ing to them the unsearchable riches of Christ. I saw, even in the poorer parts of the town, what, when I came to inquire about them, I was told, were the buildings furnished, in order that the most abject of your people might be delivered from their cellar life, and might live in health and comfort above the earth. I saw this, and I thanked God that He had given to the people of Liverpool, not only great wealth, and great opportunity, but a wise and understanding heart to appreciate and to use His gifts. I saw it, and as I stood upon the quay, that good man said to me, " Look, look at that arm of the sea flowing in round yonder point ; see all this mass of wealth, these forest masts filling these mighty docks ; and there are no ships of war guarding it ; a navy might come in, and what should we do to resist them ? " What a tale was it, after all, of God's gift of peace and security, and righteous confidence in themselves, because they believe that God will be with them, which possesses this mighty English people, as one man, at this moment. Well, I saw it all; and the thought rose within me. Are we using these gifts for the Giver — are we returning to Him according to His gift to us ? Now, that is the question I would ask you to put to yourselves. Ah ! my friends, it is not the first time, nor is it the hundredth time that those blessings of God have been showered upon some people, and because that people upon whom they were show- ered used them selfishly for themselves, the very gifts became The Lesson of the North African Church, 209 their ruin, turned into poison to them, both as to their bodies and as to their souls. How is it written in His Word? "That the sins of Sodom grew with the fulness of bread, and the abundance of idleness ; " but we cannot say that the idleness which is meant was simply sitting with the hands folded and doing nothing. There is another meaning in it j it is the not using for the Giver the Giver's gifts. And, I ask you, if God has given us the faith in its purity ; His Word in our own tongue, ay, in the accents of our beloved fathers ; if He has given us formularies with which to worship Him, venerable from their antiquity, and beloved by us for their devotion ; if He has given us His ministry and its organisation in a Church, for the purification of ourselves ; — I ask you, has He given us all these that we may stand before Him in spiritual selfish- ness, folding our hands in spiritual idleness ? No ! He has given them to us for Him, to bless others in their use. There is an oath on high, that he that doeth not the will of his God shall be cut down from the post to which he was elevated that he might perform it. Ah, this very country of Africa may give one fearful lesson to us this night. Cast your eye one single moment, in thought, over the whole of the northern coast of Africa. What is it now? The Mussulman possesses it. Its goodly lands are laid waste, and the French wrangle with, and slay the Arab in cruel fight again to possess it ; and the name of Christ is hardly heard upon it. What was it ? A Church, in which once five hundred bishops met together in their solemn synod : a land which fed neighbouring Italy, and the abundance of its harvest was looked down upon by a favouring heaven, rendering back again of every fruit that maketh man's heart glad and man's labour productive. And why is it changed ? Because there came to possess it men who, without imparting anything, clutched in spiritual selfishness what God meant them to distribute. They allowed the people of the interior of Northern Africa to live on in their ignorance, without mak- ing any attempt to evangelise them ; and so, when the flood of Mohammedanism swept upon them, they were destroyed, O 2IO England's Mission, because they confined themselves to the sea border instead of evangelising the people living in the interior of the centre of Africa, who might have swept that invasion back across the sands into the sea, if the Church had used its opportunity and united that people to Christ. There is a lesson for us, and God forbid that we should not learn it. I thought, as I looked upon that great arm of the sea which I saw to-day, sparkling like brilliants in the sunbeam, as the westerly wind chafed it into a gentle mimicry of motion — I thought that if the whole of that space was filled with great ships of war, if it was commanded from every post by your Armstrong guns, is it not written that, " It is in vain to keep the city, except the Lord keepeth it ? " and unless He keeps it, or if He looks upon it in anger, what will become of your boasted fortifications, and your most cherished defences? Oh, there are still, depend upon it, for the eye of faith, angel squadrons encamping round about God's people, and prayers, in mighty phalanxes, defending His Church ! Let England be true to England's mission \ let her understand that it is hers to keep the faith in its purity — to spread the faith in its truth ; that it is hers to teach her people to love Christ, and not to wrangle about Him ; and then to lift up the cross of Christ in the face of a world, longing in its dumb agony for the enfran- chisement, which that alone can give. Let England in this way rise with the greatness of her opportunity, and the God of wisdom, and the God of battles will preserve her virgin soil from being tainted by the foot of her enemy, and enable us to hand on to our children's children what we have received from our venerated fathers — the lower gifts of prosperity and power, and the higher gifts of the purity of the faith, and the abundance of worship. XXI. Upon the universities' mission to central AFRICA. — Leeds ^ May 25, i860. Like the preceding speaker, I, on first looking at this resoki- tion, thought that it bore a little too much of a business character, but still I justify it from the semi-imputation cast upon it ; . for I can see in it a great principle bearing upon the work we have met to promote. The meaning was this, that commerce was enjoined upon them as one of God's appoint- ments by which His truth should be promoted. It is a great truth which it well behoves us to bear in mind, that in the providential arrangement of God, one part of the earth pro- duces that which other nations need, and it is this arrangement which lays at the foundation of all intercourse between one nation and another. Providence might have so arranged that each country should produce all that its people required, but such has not been the case, and in that very fact we have a confirmed incentive to interchange and intercourse between distant peoples. Men are to be led into these great exertions, not only by an appeal to the highest principles of morals, but also by those other motives which guide a great commercial people. The Almighty Ruler of the earth saw that it was for the happiness of man that nation should hold intercourse with nation, and not be sealed up in its own separate individuality, so the necessities of commerce were laid, by His wise ordinance, deep in the very constitution of the world. You can see at a single glance how the happiness of the human race is promoted by this. In the first place, labour is promoted by it. You can see the effect of being an entirely sealed-up people if you 212 Commerce God's Institution. looked at that nation which commerce had just made England acquainted with, Japan. Do you think that the glimpses which we have had into the social institutions of Japan will make the hardest worked man in the town of Leeds willing to exchange his condition of hardy labour for the utmost abun- dance that Japan can furnish him, with a Japanese life instead of an English one ? It is God's institute that there should be a necessity for commerce, and what was His purpose in it ? He might say at once, that inasmuch as Christianity had the effect of training the human race to a degree of excellency which it could never attain in non-Christian countries, as it gives value to life, as it gives dignity to labour, as it gives security to possession, it will certainly tend to make a Christian people a wealth-producing people, an exporting people, and so a commercial people. The providence of God, too, has ordained that when Christianity is placed in any great centre, it should be borne everywhere by the natural power of commerce itself. Just as the temperature of some of the British Isles is raised to such a pitch by the balmy breezes of the wonderful Gulf Stream that they are enabled to produce the fruits of the earth in abundance, so commerce, led and driven on by the necessities of man upon its broad breast, as it encircles the earth, is intended to carry, even to all the world, the blessed message of salvation, to bless the people to whom it is sent with a purer, a warmer, a more invigorating, a more fertilising breath than that which dwells upon the broad bosom of the Gulf Stream as it travels its trackless way across the billows of the Atlantic. If I turn from theory to practice, the same thing is borne out. St Paul, when he went forth to preach the Gospel of Christ, settled himself, in the first instance, at Corinth and Ephesus, the great centres of population. So the example of the first ages shows that the God of nature is the God of grace, and that commerce and man's commercial necessities form a channel through which the Gospel message is to be carried to every habitable part of the earth. This is the great meaning of the resolution which has been proposed. It says that there is a great probability Connection between the Gospel and Commerce. 213 of there being an important trade in Central Africa provided the Gospel be introduced there. " What," some simple-minded man might say, " is the con- nection between the Gospel and commerce ? " There is a great connection between them. In the first place, there is little hope of promoting commerce in Africa, unless Chris- tianity is planted in it; and, in the next place, there is very little ground for hoping that Christianity will be able to make its proper way unless we can establish a lawful com- merce in the country, because there is at this moment an unlawful commerce which checks the spread of Christianity. An unlawful commerce has got possession of the land, the immediate result of which is, that it supplies the necessities of the leading men of that country. Unless England can provide another machinery for supplying those necessaries, we cannot get a hearing for Christianity. We must not preach to the people to live in poverty, but give them, by another commerce, the opportunity of getting lawfully what they now get unlawfully ; and then shall we stop the accursed slave-trade, and make a silence in the land, through which the voice of Christianity might be heard. England has the greatest possible opportunity of doing this, and, as the resolution said, a great trade will spring up, if we would only take the proper means to make it spring up. The land is very fertile, producing abundantly various necessities for man. Not only can ivory be obtained in abundance, not only through the vast multiplication of all graminivorous animals is there an opportunity of great increase of wealth, but the land is remarkably fertile for the cultivation of the cotton plant, upon which the prosperity of this country, and especially of the large manufacturing emporia, so greatly depended. You will substitute a free-grown for an American slave-grown cot- ton ; and you ought to remember that you now receive that important raw material from a country which might at any moment become a hostile nation. A war might break out between the United States and England, and what then would become of the supply of cotton to the great manufacturing 2 14 Constitutional Libei'ty in England. emporia of this country ? It would be entirely stopped, and it is not too much to say that, in the event of such a thing occurring, millions of mouths requiring food would be driven to the utmost extremity of suffering. But Africa is a land which not only possessed a soil for producing cotton, but, humanly speaking, it can never become one of the great political nations of the earth, and therefore cannot, through the changes of political life, cease to supply the raw material which is so greatly needed in this country. It seems to me that all this marks this important fact, that it was the intention of God to make it the interest of this, the most active, the most ingenious, and the freest people on the face of the earth, to be up and doing, and to be earnest in the far more important work of spreading His Gospel throughout the world. Was it written in vain by the prophet, " and the ships of Tarshish first"? Was it not meant that God had given us our com- merce and our naval supremacy — that industry, that patience which had enabled us to subdue the earth, wherever we had settled j that He has endowed us with our wealth, with our mutual trust in each other, that we might, as the crowning work of all these blessings, be the instruments of spreading the truths of the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other ? If this is the interpretation we are to put upon His manifold blessings to us in these material things, do you not think that our civil institutions, our great constitutional privileges, our unexampled liberty has been given to us that we might promote His glory and not our own ? In no nation did they combine to the same extent the constitutional and personal liberty as in England. In America personal liberty had sunk to the lowest point, and in that free country it was truly said that every man had the liberty of beating his own nigger. If we cross the water, the spectacle we see on the Continent is one which ought to make us deeply thankful that God has given to us such great blessings as we enjoy. People across the Channel had talked of Englishmen having lost everything but their ancient fame, that they had forgotten how to fight; but they knew how nobly their old valour shone forth in a good Commerce and Christianity. 215 cause, and how many of their sons and brothers had shown upon the plains of India, to say nothing of other plains, that English- men had not forgotten their fathers' old art of standing firm to the death in a good cause. Ay, and if anything could have shown how it pervaded the nation, it was the response which had been made to the insulting speeches uttered by vain men, as if they would ever suffer the virgin soil of England to be polluted by the tread of the invader. What was that answer ? Why, that every man began not as a paid soldier, but as a lion- hearted Englishman, to prepare himself, so that he might de- fend his wife, his sister, his mother, or his daughter, against all enemies. We have much to thank God for ; and how can we show our thankfulness ? Not merely by praising Him with our lips, but also by devoting our lives to His service, so that we may dp all that He has enabled us to do. If we would retain the blessings which God has poured out upon us, it must be by crowning those blessings, by becoming a truly Christian people, and raising in the Church established amongst us a new and living power, which shall lift us above this world, with all its debasements and corruptions, and make us free indeed with the liberty wherewith Christ hath made His people free. If this is the work, then, which God has given us to do, I ask you in His name, "Will you rise and do it?" You have heard of the debt we owe to this suffering country of Africa, and of the necessity of our paying it. No other country can do it. The Portuguese cannot ; the French can- not, and Spain cannot do it. Indeed, if it is to be done at all, it must be by British hearts charged with the faith and love of the Christian religion, and bearing, as the means of opening negotiations with that people, the product of strong British arms, and nimble British fingers. As I have already said, the resolution embodies a great truth. It makes commerce to be very much like one of those wires which modern science has stretched from one end of the earth to the other. Commerce is the wire, Christianity is the circle ; the fire of heaven unseen, unknown, passing light- ning-like among those distant nations, and speaking at the 2i6 Lancashire and Yorkshire. other end of the world the marvellous message of liberty to man, of " peace on earth and goodwill towards God." I ask you, then, with the greatest possible confidence to help in this great work, and call upon you to make some sacrifice, even before you leave this room. My noble firiend has spoken of the white and the red rose. I do not know which you are to represent, but this I can tell you, that the Lancashire rose has done well, and that the petals of the Yorkshire rose must blossom to their utmost extent, or they will have to yield the palm to their neighbours. Several gentlemen in Lancashire have put down their names for ;£'ioo each, and I believe that Yorkshiremen will not be behind. It is said that all Englishmen share in the glory of having wiped away the slave-trade. It was Yorkshire which began, it was York- shire that carried the abolition. You are the children of those men — you are not a degenerate race — you have risen in every- thing — in your buildings, your wealth, your manufactures, your commerce, and also in your habits ; and I pray you that you will let God see you rise as one man to the mighty privilege of being, not the conquerors of men, but in Christ's name the vanquishers of evil and the deliverers of souls. XXII. Upon the British Columbia mission. — Maitsion House, Londofi, Feb. 27, 1862. My Lord Mayor, it gives me great satisfaction to move this resolution : — "That the Mission to Columbia, so generously founded by Miss Burdett CoUtts, deserves our continued and liberal support." It gives me great satisfaction, I say, my lord, to move this resolution, and to see this meeting presided over by your lordship, within the city of London, and that for this reason : I believe there is no question which more intimately connects itself with the commerce of this great people than this question of Christian colonisation from Great Britain. This is the question to which this resolution refers. God put it into the heart of one noble-minded woman, having from Him the means of doing it, to say that, at least as to this colony of British Columbia, it should, from the first, be, according to the holding of our own Church, a Christian colony. Now, my Lord Mayor, it seems to me that no question at this moment is of much more importance than this. We hear sometimes docti'inaii'c opinions put forward, with the show of great clever- ness, and with something of the authority of considerable names, which tell us that Great Britain would be a greater country if she dropped her colonies, and confined all her energies to her own shores. My Lord Mayor, I think that the wisdom of that great — for great he was — and far-sighted man, who commanded the energies of the gallant people across the Channel, in that long struggle with us in the latter end of the 2 1 8 The Value of our Colonies. last, and tlie beginning of this century — I think that his wis- dom was displayed, and that his decision in the matter was directed by a far deeper philosophy, when he said that there was no use even in France, with all her broad acres and her fair extent, contesting for the empire of the seas with England, unless she had the three things Great Britain had, and she had not — namely, ships, commerce, and colonies. But then, my Lord Mayor, if this be true — and I believe it to be a truth so patent that except to a doctrinaire who can see nothing that is patent, it must be at once evident — it is also true that your commerce must follow to a great extent the spread of your colonies. For the demand for your wares which you make at home must be directed by the tastes of those who order and purchase them, and the tastes of those who order and purchase will have grown with them gradually in the perpetual training from boy- hood to youth, and from youth to manhood, and be the habits and tastes of the mother country \ and therefore, if you would have outlets for your home manufactures, you must have pre- pared tastes to call for those manufactures at the other end of the world. Now, if this is so, it stands at once to reason, that if you sweep away the settlements of the British people in distant parts of the earth, you will sweep away with them the tastes which create the commerce, which nourishes the wealth of the country at home. But then, my Lord Mayor, if this question is so connected, as I believe it is, with our greatness, there follows immediately this great moral responsibility with it, that in founding these colonies we are bound to reproduce the home country in its moral and in its religious features, and not look to receiving external benefits merely, from the con- sumption of our manufactures, while we are careless as to what kind of new peoples we create at the other side of the world. You will remember, my Lord Mayor, that wise saying of that great man Lord Bacon, when he told us that there was hardly a deeper immorality whicli a people could commit than that of planting the earth with the basest sort of men. To avoid, then, that baseness, we are bound to endeavour to reproduce our own land with its religious and improving principles, because the very Colonial Temptations. 219 activity of our character — the very pushing and busthng nature which belongs to us Enghsh people — the self-asserting habits of mind which belong to us — the governing tendency which is rooted so deeply within us, — every one and each of these, if they are not controlled, modified, elevated, etherealised, by that blessed faith which our God has given us, will be continu- ally leading our descendants in those distant countries, under the pressure of temptations which must often be very strong, to reproduce the exaggerated forms of our own faults, because they lack the hallowing influence of our own faith. And there is everything in such a colony as this to make those tempta- tions of the strongest Everything, my Lord Mayor ; because, in the first place, there our nation is brought into contact with aboriginal people, unable from lack of strength to make any great stand against us ; who are thrown, therefore, almost as instruments into our hands, and so peculiarly liable to be used as simple means of our gratification or our gain, instead of being treated as a sacred deposit, whom God has committed to us to be by us elevated into the glory of a Christian com- munity. Now, that statement which we have had made to us to-day by our indefatigable secretary, Mr Garrett — and let me say, in the presence of this meeting, that when I say our inde- fatigable secretary, Mr Garrett, I do believe that to his untiring exertions in this cause a great part of that great success which these figures reveal to us is undoubtedly due — that statement brings to our minds some very important truths. Picture to yourselves. Christian men and women — picture to yourselves what it is which that statement produces before us. Think first of the great rush there has been of men from this land to that distant part of the earth. Now, remember, in the first place, that at all times such a draught of the home popula- tion is sure to draw off, not the quiet, not the most orderly, not the most settled, not those upon whom home influences have imprinted the deepest tint, but those who are a little unsettled, those who are ready to try something new, those in whom the home print is least marked and least defined. 2 20 The Goldfinder s Life, For it is those who are the least happily attuned to the tone of things at home, who go away from us, led on by a spirit of adventure, expecting to find in the new society something that may suit their tastes better than what they leave at home. And then we must not lose sight of this — for there is no use shirking this question — that behind this set of men — who have perhaps no evil about them but unsettledness — there comes a rank of men with much more definite evil about them — men who have found the moral restraints, and perhaps the legal restraints, of home a little, perhaps very irksome, and who would fain be without those moral and legal restraints. Every new colony, my Lord Mayor, must to a certain extent be like the Cave of Adullam when King David harboured in it ; and it is a good thing when there is a King David to be at the head of these men, because men of broken means and depraved characters flock there \ and men seeking to use every possible advantage, good or bad, that may tend, as they think, to their own gain, flock there ; and unless there is a man with a strong head, a strong hand, and, above all, a strong soul, such as we may conceive King David had in the Cave of Adullam, such men, instead of being a bodyguard of such a leader, become little better than a horde of bandits. In every new colony there must be these dangers ; but in this colony these dangers are aggravated. Wherever great accesses of wealth are to be obtained, not by the slow and ennobling processes of a gradual industry, not by those processes which make men great in the noble pursuit of high-minded merchan- dise, which open the heart, and make men like my Lord Mayor and others, men of whom we are proud in this great British community, but by being snatched at, where money is to be got by the quickest and the most unscrupulous eye, by the strongest arm, by the longest liver, by the man who will risk the most and grasp the largest share — when that is the condition of making wealth, then we, every one of us, know that the pursuit of wealth is dangerous, and the great acquisition of wealth often debasing. Now, this is the history of the goldfinder's life. It is the history of men removed from all the ordinary moral and The Goldjinders Temptations. 221 social restraints which formahse into Christian features our ordinary love of adventure ; men apart from the influences of the Church — apart from the blessed influences of family; men who need, according to the touching words of that letter of Mr Brown, to be " followed up into the crevices of the Rocky Mountains by these missionaries," if they are ever to hear that Word of God's truth again. Ay, and even more — these men, as it was intimated there, have but a short harvest of a few weeks in their gold-fields ; and then, all unused to the posses- sion of wealth, all unfitted for its spending, all unable to invest it, with no calls of the family upon them, no natural and healthy outlets for their new infusion of this new gold, go down for the rest of the year to some city upon the border of that land, and find there the leeches of dissipation and corruption, of lust and of drunkenness, ready to relieve them of the plethora of that unusual fulness, and so are exposed to a new form and set of temptations, against which nothing but habits of morality and religion deeply ingrained into their own nature will defend poor weak human beings suddenly subjected to them. So that in the use of these, the love of acquiring, dangerous in itself, is united with a habit of spending, which is fatal in itself, while they are weaned from everything which, in the common life of such a land as ours at home, is marking upon the most rugged nature its own holy influences — influences which act not in the way of direct command, not in the way of direct exhortation, but even as the atmosphere acts upon the rugged- ness of some great Alpine promontory, wearing it down by degrees so infinitesimal in their separate parts that the eye of man never notices the transition, but yet wearing off the sharp- ness of this rock, and clothing the bleakness of that with a little vegetation, and lighting up a third with a beautiful glory, so that at the end, when these influences have passed over them, though no eye of man has noted the change in its progress, the most impassive eye cannot but observe the change in its completion. When those influences which at home are being brought to bear upon every one of such rugged natures are wholly absent, to what do we not subject our 2 2 2 The Need of Colonial Bishops. fellow-countrymen? And therefore it is all - important, in founding such a Mission as this, that we should from the first send out that faith in Christ, and those means of cleaving to Him, which, of His great mercy to fallen men. He has provided in the Church of the Redeemed. And this is the meaning of sending out the Bishop of Columbia at the time when the colony of Columbia was founded. This was the great idea which God of His mercy put into one generous heart, filling the hand which waited upon that generous heart with the means of accomplishing what her spirit had conceived. And then, my Lord Mayor, suffer me to say that I agree entirely with what Mr Garrett has brought before you as to the ex- ceeding importance of having all missionary operations in such a colony as Columbia combined in the one hand of a resident bishop. For all reasons it is most important ; most important for the reason stated by Mr Garrett — that it gives such an opportunity of getting men of the right sort to go out as clergymen and reside there. As to this, the presence of the Bishop makes the widest difference. While that statement was being made, I remembered what I have read of two armies, in one of which, whenever there was to be a forlorn-hope, it was the custom for the oflicer to walk to a certain place at the head of the men and then stop, make a low bow to the men, and, pointing to the city to be stormed, say, " Now, gentle- men." But in the other army the custom was for the officer to lead on gallantly at the head of his men to the breach ; and it was wonderful to see how the officer who walked on boldly at the head of his men was followed, and how the man who pointed the way was siirrotinded. Now we have got, thank God, at British Columbia the man who has walked in at the head of this forlorn-hope, and who says to his brother clergy- men, not, " Gentlemen, go out to Columbia," but, " Gentlemen, come out to Columbia ; come round me, and you shall find a heart at least able to sympathise with you in all your difficulties, and able and willing to let you cast the burden which belongs to the governor from the governed on the governor." And then only see how this produces concentration of design Concentration of Aict/iority t7i the Colonies. 223 and rapidity of execution. When new circumstances arise at the other end of that great continent of America — some sudden new state of circumstances, such as the discovery of those new gold-fields with their immense wealth — only consider how the time would be lost if you had to write back to a committee in London. You state the facts, and they must be well considered. A good many meetings are held, and there is much delibera- tion as to the best way of treating the facts. And, perhaps, after all — as is generally the case in matters of that kind — a compromise is arrived at, by which it is decided "that at present there are not quite data enough to show how we ought to act, and therefore we will write out again." And so in about three years' time we are able to send the inquirers a definite answer how they certainly ought to have acted three years back. And just then another despatch arrives, stating that the whole case is altered, that these gold-fields have been left, that the people have gone to a new district, that matters are altogether changed, and that therefore they want new directions. But by the time the despatch has been considered, and new counsels have gone out, the circumstances have changed again ; and thus, to change the illustration, let us suppose the case of a man who has broken his leg ; suppose that when the accident takes place, instead of having an hospital near, putting the patient into bed, applying the splints, and making the limb whole, you have to send to the other end of the earth to ask whether or not he should have the splints put on, and in what way you should treat him. Of course the answer comes back, " By all means put the splints on;" but by that time the man's leg has been healed a year and a half, and he has perhaps got an inflammation of the lungs instead. Well, my Lord Mayor, I have tried to put the case in a way to come home to the com- mon sense of every man in this room, because it is a common- sense question with which I want the people of England to grapple. If you would have concentration of effort — if you would have rapidity of execution where slowness of execution is ruin, you must adopt, in such a colony as British Columbia, the plan that has been adopted here, and to which my resolu- 2 24 What a Colony shotdd be, tion points — that of sending out a thoroughly Christian man, clothed with the authority derived from the apostles of the Lord, to stand in the apostles' place, and do the apostles' work. Well, my Lord Mayor, the other question which this same statement brought before us seems to me to be, next to this, the most important we can deal with. I mean this. There will always be, in the founding of a distinct colony, under all circumstances, the greatest difficulty in providing anything like a due proportion of the sexes ; and, unless you can do that, there will be, in the first place, no taking posses- sion of that distant colony as a home by the men that go there. Now, do let every one think of that. You make it an impossi- bility that any one of those people you send there can look upon that new land as his home. You deprive it, of necessity, of the first conditions of home — of the possibility of family life, and of fixing the plant in a transplanted home life, in the new and distant soil to which you send it. Now this of itself is fatal to the notion of a colony. It turns the colony into a mere distant and transitory dwelling-place of the most adven- turous, and generally of the most lawless of the population at home. You must give the opportunity for home life to repro- duce itself in the distant land, if you mean to take the com- monest means possible to transform the distant settlement into an abiding colony. And, then, I need not dwell upon those degrading moral abominations which will be introduced into the population of that young state, unless you bring about an equality of the sexes. You first make any true relation between the aboriginal people and the settlers an impossibility. I am not going to dwell upon it, but I know, from letters I have myself seen, that the great hindrance to Christianising the natives of that country arises from abominations which from this cause have sprung up in the colony. And how can it be otherwise ? With a degraded people to deal with, with people used, under their heathen system, to a low " squaw " estimate of woman, how is it possible but that, in pouring forth from this country a mass of men, not governed by high moral or re- ligious principles, you should be doing to that native race the The Progenitors of Nations. 225 most deadly and the most irreparable wrong? It must be so. And then remember, every one of these evils recoils upon your own colonists. Thus you deeply taint the young colony. The more you degrade its moral sense, the more deadly is the evil which you do. Those men are to be the progenitors of nations. Remember in our own majestic volum.e of Holy Writ some of those speeches of dying patriarchs to their children when they give to them the paternal blessing. See, as the spirit of pro- phecy rests upon the dying man, and he puts his hand of bless- ing — guiding his hand discreetly — upon one and upon another as the spirit of prophecy falls upon him, and looks on into the distant generation and sees into what this stripling shall grow. Remember the words of blessing; remember the words of promise and of prophecy ; think of the dwellings of Shem, and of the blessing of the Lord God of his fathers upon Japheth ; and see what it is to plant nations, and what is the responsibility of imprinting a character of good or evil upon their progenitors. Well then, if this is so — and if a Christian land so plants its colonies, that, taking human nature as it is, it must, in the very act of colonisation, be implanting forms of vice of the most hideous aspect amongst those who are to be the progenitors of coming peoples — see how certain, how awful, and how long- lasting, are the black lines of evil which it is tracing upon that distant part of God's world. Now it is no use shrinking mawkishly and morbidly from such things, and saying, " Let us hope for the best." That is the saying of the desperate gambler upon the very edge of his ruin. Down to that time he does his best to calculate results, but when that time is come he sinks into the wretched apathetic selfishness of ^'- hoping for the bestf'^ And I say we must not merely ^^ hope for the best," with regard to these new settlements, but, the cure for these evils being pointed out to us, we must determine, God helping us, that we will supply the cure. That cure is hinted at already in the statement that has been laid before us. Only let this meeting — and I doubt not there are some practical men in it who will really take the matter up — only P 2 26 EviigTation of Wo7'k}io2isc Girls. let it weigh the circumstances of home life here, and of life there, and see how God has seemed to have fitted the one to the other, so that we may remedy these evils. Only consider the number, for instance, of young girls brought up in the various union workhouses of this country. Every one of you knows the misery of that life — the miserable promise of it for the future. You know how far the experience of Poor Law In- spectors, and the testimony of every one connected with the system, is uniform, that these young girls, having no future before them, being brought, as they pass from girlhood into early womanhood, into perpetual contact with the worst of their own sex, whose miseries bring them back to the work- house ; and the worst of the other sex, whose idleness has taken them into it ; that these young girls become demoralised ; that there is no future before them, and that they often become again in after-life the wretched inmates of the very same asylum, to hand on to the next generation of girls beyond them the taint of evil which they received in their own day. But then comes the question, " What can you do for them ? " Now, I say, let any practical man in the House of Commons address himself to the subject, and let him consider carefully, with those who will help him in it, the way of providing that the parish shall be able to forestall the certain expenses it must be at in maintaining these girls in the workhouse. Let them, instead of that, before the time of girlhood is over, be sent to these new colonies of ours — there received and cared for by Christian people — thence passed out, first into the different services for which there is such an exceeding demand in these new settlements, and then naturally, by the taking up of society, into the characters of wife and mother ; and let all other lawful means be used to promote the emigration of females of other classes too, and you will have to a very great degree relieved this question of these awful conditions ; you will have made homes in that distant land ; you will have made morality possible ; you will have made Christian homes a fact ; you will have made the elevating influences of woman's society and of family life a healing blessing to those adventurous souls. The Waste of Beneficent Capacities, 227 This, my Lord Mayor, is what I find recommended in the statement we have had laid before us to-day. There are two great conditions — and two only — to be fulfilled : the one is the providing that there should be a home in the colony to which our young women can go ; and the other is the provid- ing for them on the passage, the shelter which they need to keep them from evil. Now it seems to me that at this moment God has given to us the opportunity of fulfilling both condi- tions. Through the Bishop of Columbia, we can secure a home out there; we are secure that there shall be a man whose first care it shall be that the interests confided to him shall not be neglected, and the souls given to his charge not lost. And then for the other, we know that at this moment there are in this land at home numbers of ladies well bprn, well bred, well educated, who are led more and more, when God's providence seems to have parted them from family life at home, to give themselves to the wider service of the Church, and to let those sensibilities, which have been wasted upon lap-dogs, be given to the salvation of souls. I confess this is a subject upon which I hardly like to trust myself to speak. When I think of what a Christian Englishwoman's mind is — of the amount of tender compassion for suffering which fills it — of the way in which all that may be drawn out, if but a vent is given for it, to make it the blessing of the generation on which it is to be spent, and when I know that in this land there have been women after women capable of giving this blessed service to their God and their kind ; who by the laws, as it is called, of society, have been compelled to waste upon the most worthless objects the most beneficent capacities, I do feel an indignation rising within myself, that we have not before this provided nobler spheres of action for these noble creations of our God. Well, my Lord Mayor, to some degree this is, I thank God, remedied ; and I know myself Christian ladies, who for the love of Christ would, at my own desire, go forth to British Columbia, for the mere sake of taking out such girls, and bringing them there. I know they would thank me for having given them the opportunity of so serving theii 2 28 Similarity of Colonial and Ho77te Life. country, their race, and their God. I say, then, we have the necessities provided ; and only let every man who has the leisure — let every man who has the opportunity — from his place — especially in the Lower House of Parliament, under- take this, as men of old have undertaken great causes com- mitted to them by God's providence, as the abolition of the slave-trade ; let them undertake it in that spirit, and God helping them, their names, not in England only, but in those healed distant colonies, shall go down upon the golden roll of heroes and of saints, upon which, thank God, shall be written the name of the founder of this bishopric, and the nourishers of this Mission. And, my Lord Mayor, let no man think it to be an unim- portant matter for the nation at home. To a very great degree what our colonies are, that we must be at home. The blood that flows through those distant extremities returns by the law of vitality to the heart which furnished it. From the colony back to the native country return perpetually the influences of vice or of virtue, of infidelity or of faith. It must be so whilst the living intercourse is quick and lively as it is at present; and therefore, if you make your colonies diseased you will make England sick. Ever in the natural body it is so. The slightest injury at the extremity of the smallest limb of the body taints, as the blood passes by it, the living current, and returns with a load of corruption to the heart. And so it is, depend on it, in the great vitality of this great people. We are nourishing sores for our destruction, or we are nourishing healthy limbs for our strength in every one of these colonies that we found. This has been illustrated, my Lord Mayor, most beautifully, you will remember, by one of our great writers. This upgrowth of the colonies of England has been likened to a young tree, not killed by the overhanging branches of the parent oak, but itself growing up under the shelter, to take in due course of time the parent's place, and exhibit another full-grown oak to another rejoicing generation. But then, if you would have it so, you must plant the oak and not the upas tree; you must plant that which shall diffuse its own The Lesson of the War in America. 229 vitality and health around it, and not dififuse what shall be a poisonous influence in this earth of God's. Ay, my Lord Mayor, and you may carry the figure further. These vigorous plants of ours, as they grow up, must exercise a great influence upon the mother country at home. What have we seen so lately in America but this great lesson ? Who of us has not with a bleeding heart seen the miseries that have come upon our brethren and descendants upon the other side of the Atlantic? Any voice that tells me that the English people rejoice in one of those afflictions is a voice of falsehood which I utterly repudiate. We have the deepest sympathy with their well-being — we have the most earnest desire to see them shake off the evils of their present state of society, and rise to the full greatness of redeemed humanity. We have the deepest interest, even politically and socially, in their welfare. And so it must be ; and this is what I would, before I sit down, point out to this meeting. Every one of those plants, as time goes on, will either be a shelter and a strength to the parent oak, when in old age it begins to be a little withered — it may be — in some of the extremities of its boughs, and, putting on the symptoms of agedness, begins to lose something of the abundance of a wanton growth. Then will come the question. Shall these trees you have planted round it grow hostile to it, and, as the winds of heaven agitate them, threaten that mother plant ; or shall they shelter it with a loving embrace from any enemy that may come upon it, and show that it has planted a goodly seed to be the rejoicing of the nations? XXIIL Upon the Hawaiian mission. Hall of Wiston Park, Sussex, September 1865. The Sandwich Islands are twelve in number, eight of them being inhabited, and four of them uninhabited. They form the northernmost islands of the great Polynesian Group throughout which is spread an unbroken wave of human life. Though some of these islands are separated by trouble- some seas, yet they possess a far greater unity in the spread of the great human family, over a given number of geographical miles, than is the case with any neighbouring continent. The people are confined to three distinct families of the human race. There is the long, lank-haired race with which we are so familiar in Australia ; those called the Palagian race of negroes, with hair crisp, instead of long and lank ; and the third, which is the noblest, are what may be called the Malayan Polynesian race, are descended from the old Malayan stock, but modified by insular influences. In a long course of years they have become the masters throughout the whole of these islands, and especially in that group with which we have to do. They are a very fine, noble race of men, looking at them, first of all, merely from a physical point of view. Their stature exceeds considerably the average stature of men, and they have all those qualities naturally which, in savage life, most startle and fill the eye of those who look upon them — great activity, great courage, which was shown in old times in war to a terrible extent. They use no defensive armour, they wear no clothes, nothing but the barest girdle, yet there is no skulk- ing in their fighting. The natural bravery of these people is Natural Cotcrage of the Polynesians. 231 shown scarcely more in war than in their national pastimes. It is the same with our own race. In our pastimes we must have some sort of prowess to make it palatable. Our boys hardly ever find pleasure in sport unless it be attended with a certain degree of danger. As a Swiss governess in an English family once remarked — " The young masters are never con- tent unless they are breaking their necks in play." Now, I think it is a happy thing that it is so; whether it be in climbing mountains, or in field sports, or at cricket, when the ball must be delivered as from a catapult, to the danger of breaking their legs, before they can enjoy it. And it is the same with these Polynesian islanders in all their national sports. Two or three of them will swim out into the sea to attack a shark, with only a knife to protect them ; and they will not dispatch it at once, but will plague it, and dodge it, and make it snap at them. Their young ladies also exceeded our young ladies in this sort of thing, for to fling themselves into the rapid streams, or to precipitate themselves from a height of forty feet into the sea, is one of their commonest delights. I wish that you should have a correct picture of the people we have to deal with. They are a frank, brave, and thoughtless people ; liable, therefore, to great temptations if they have not some high principles on which they can rely to give them stability ; and, this too, is helped on by all the influences of their insular position, and a delicious climate, knowing nothing of the vicissitudes of the seasons, to brace them up to exertion. During twelve years in which the thermometer had been kept, it never fell below 6^, degrees, and never rose above 90. Theirs is a perpetual bright, common existence, with scarcely any call for exertion, nature supplying bountifully all their wants. They had nothing to export except sandal- wood ; their needs are provided for with the slightest amount of labour; and my experience is that nobody works who can help working. Therefore, in a country like this, where the people live without work, where there is no occasion for industry, the people are not blessed with that bridle for turn- ing a curse into a blessing, which, after all, is the great safety 232 The Princip le o/^^Ta boo . ' ' of those who have not become subject to a healthy reHgious influence. These islands, till a comparatively recent time, were ruled by separate chieftains ; but a great man rose up amongst them, King Kamehameha, who subdued them all, and brought them all under his government. At that time the people were all idolators, subject to an idolatry of the fiercest kind — that law of '' taboo," which is one of the severest laws ever exercised by a priesthood, and which, I believe, extends to every place to which the Malayan race can be traced. The principle of " taboo " is this : — The priest has the pov/er to put the mark of "taboo" upon anything he chooses; he can put it upon time, upon labours, upon amusement, upon the people, upon towns and villages. Suppose, for instance, the anger of the priest is directed against a village, and he puts his mark upon it, all labour and all pleasure is suspended in the whole community ; they dare not even speak to each other ; and this is continued till sometimes the people are absolutely approaching starvation before the " taboo " is removed. This power is exercised by the chiefs and the priests in compact together. But when the power of the chief in these islands was broken down, the power of this idolatry was also doomed. The great conqueror, Kamehameha, struck the first blow at this superstition, but he refused to receive Christianity. A story is told by the missionaries how the king, upon being urged to become a Christian, said to one of them, "You say your God can do anything ; jump off this precipice and see if He will save you ; if not, I will not accept Christianity." You see here the old craving of the natural mind for a physical sign, and refusing every other inducement. This king lived and died a heathen. His son, who succeeded him, was a weak prince, sensual, and given to intoxication; but the widow of the late king was of a very different character. She was a kind of Prime Minister, a sort of Home Secretary, like Sir George Grey. (I do not mean to say, though, that Sir George is an old woman ! ) She was not a Christian, but she had a great horror of the Destruction of Idolatry in Hawaii. 233 " taboo," and a great contempt for its followers. One special thing that moved her indignation was this : — The system of "taboo" was specially oppressive towards women, — making woman the simple instrument of man's pleasure, and not his companion. No ancient book but one spoke out for woman as man's equal, and man's companion in everything. This proud and high-minded queen had the feelings of a woman, and she determined to get rid of the system. She tried in vain to get her weak-minded son to dare to put it down. He hated it, and intended to suppress it, but he trembled before the threatenings of the hateful priests. So, when he was gone to sea on an excursion, she determined to strike the blow herself. Everything was prepared for a feast, and, on her son's return, she announced that at this feast the women would sit down with the men, a thing hateful to the priests. The king would even then have evaded the risk, but this great woman compelled him to face it, and a death-blow was thus struck at the " taboo." Here is a thing never heard of respecting any other heathen people ; without another faith, without the test of Christianity, the people rose up against this abominable idolatry, and put it down with a high hand, having nothing to substitute for it. Forty thousand idols were cast down ; some were burned, and some cast with scorn into the woods, where they were seen grinning and rotting for many a day. This great change hap- pened in the year 1819, and in the following year American missionaries landed, and, according to their mode, commenced preaching the Christian faith. When these missionaries came to this beautiful island, where such great things had taken place, it was hardly possible to conceive anything more lovely than the prospect. Rocks rising abruptly from the sea to a height of 14,000 feet; two pinnacles towering grandly above the rest, one capped with snow, the other dark and black from its volcanic character, as if they rould reach to the empyreal itself. And then the island abounded in natural cascades, pouring down from a height of 4000 feet into the sea ; and the base of the volcanic hills are 234 Failure of Ptiritanism in Hawaii, rich with vegetable mould, and produces, under a beneficent climate, every kind of verdure and flowers of beauty. The people brought up amidst such scenes as these, naturally formed in their own minds a peculiar sense of beauty, like that which grew up in old Greece in ancient times. They wore no dress but girdles of peculiar and varied flowers or leaves, with wreaths to shade their brows from the sun. Now, imagine these people — these children of nature, children of the air, children of light, children of the sun, children of beauty, disporting themselves, for the most part, in the open air, living in the utmost conceivable freedom, taking their greatest pleasure in the dance, dancing many times a day, dancing almost every evening — visited by the descendants of the stern old Puritans of New England, if anything rather more severe, sour, vinegar- like, carr}ang with them the iron code of Connecticut, the most severe ever inflicted upon any people on the earth ; tak- ing peculiar examples from the Levitical law, and applying them to Christian times, by a strange mistake which pervaded the old Puritan mind, that Christianity found its excellence by a retrogression to Judaism. I hope no one will think that I wish to say a single word contemptuously of these people. I honour and revere their nobleness of character ; but I think that we ought not to re- cognise error, and if I believe Puritanism to be not the reve- lation of the Gospel, I am bound to say it out, and to trace in it, as respects these men, why they failed of accomplishing their high mission. They produced a great effect by their noble exertions. By them many were awakened from their slumbers to accept the good and to reject evil. They did reveal Christ the Lord, the everlasting Gospel of truth, and the ever-blessed Spirit, whose abundant visitation was never wanting at such times, and they were enabled to call men and women too out of their heathen darkness, notwithstanding the errors contained in their teaching. I cannot remember a nobler, a grander example, than one of their own converts presented, which I will endeavour to describe. There is in these islands one of the greatest volcanoes in the world. One of the chief gods of the / f / How Belief m Pell was Destroyed. 235 country was supposed to reside in the volcano. A vitreous ex- halation sometimes comes from the mountain, and it floats in the atmosphere almost like hair, and the superstition was that this exhalation was the grey hairs of Peli, the goddess of the moun- tain, and when there was an unusual flow of it, the priests repre- sented that something had been done in the island which moved Peli to indignation, and that she was shaking her white locks, and tearing her hair. Well, the convert of the American missionaries, to whom I have referred, was determined to follow up heathenism to its last resort, which was down in this volcano. So she asked the priests, — " Will you believe that this faith is nothing, if I descend to the edge of the crater and sprinkle into the volcano these sacred berries which it is not lawful to touch ? If Peli does not interfere, and I return in safety, will you believe in my God, Jehovah, Jesus ? " They said they would, and then this woman set out on her mission. When she had descended a little way into the crater she was met by one of the priestesses of the goddess of the mountain, who advanced toward her with threatening gestures, and long dishevelled hair. This woman came to her, trusting that she might wake up the old superstition ; she threatened her with the utmost destruction if she persevered ; she told her that the wrath of Peli would break out and destroy her in a moment. What was her answer ? She went silently down side by side with the priestess till she stood on the very edge, and then, with the berries in her hand, she addressed her calmly — " Jehovah, my God, is the Lord of heaven and the Lord of earth, and He can protect me here, and I cast these berries into the volcano that they may bring up against me, if they can, the wrath of your false gods!" Having done that, she mounted the side of the crater, and the power of "taboo" was annihilated. This was as grand a spectacle as could be wit- nessed ; this poor, half-taught woman had sufficient faith to scorn the threatenings of the old superstition, and triumphed mightily over its power. This one incident is sufficient to justify me in honouring and respecting the work done there by these missionaries so far as it went. 236 Puritan and Romanist Teaching Contrasted, I think it would have been a great sight for men and angels to see what Christianity could effect, had it been brought in all its full perfection to such a people as I have described these islanders to be, but they were called upon to abandon every amusement as sinful, and all innocent pleasure, and the line which separated it from vice was lost. Had they been brought to perceive that Christianity really made more joyous the people that received it, then might the regeneration of the islanders have been completed ; but, alas ! these teachers did not lay hold of the national mind. Their teaching had a tendency to take from them the good things of this world, and so it became very hateful to the people. Then came the Roman Catholics, and reaped largely from the errors of the Protestant teachers there. They at once met all the wants of the people, and taught them an easy form of religion, joining on by imperceptible degrees, instead of a perceptible regeneration, the old ways of the island to the profession of Christianity. But the Roman Catholics have done a great deal, and I honour them, too, as I do the other missionaries, for I never will believe those to be right who talk of there being no good in Roman Catholicism because it differs from our faith in a multitude of things. I will say this much — we Church of England people are thoroughly convinced that neither that form nor the Puritan form is the true and proper exhibition of Christianity as the apostles taught it, and as the world for ages had received it. Therefore, we have no ground of excuse for not embracing an opportunity given us by God for preaching the truth to a people, in the fact that the truth had already been preached to them in an imperfect manner; therefore it is no ex- cuse to us for not establishing our own Church in those islands that there were Puritans and Roman Catholics before us. It seems to me that a call has been made to us. The late King wrote to our Queen, asking her to send over the Church of England for the saving of his people. That King looked, as a true father of his people, upon their wants and sufferings, and he saw, as a consequence of the existing evils, that another The Call to Hawaii. 22^j generation and a half might see the extinction of his people. There were 70,000 people in those islands, but, for want of increase of the race, the absence of the birth of children, — from the terrible visitation which the sins of the population was bringing upon them, — it was calculated that, unless a thorough moral change could be introduced, a generation and a half hence they would be spoken of as a race that were. When in that condition, their King, whom God had set over them, wrote to our Queen for help, for the saving of his people. He was supported, and helped in every one of his efforts for good, by her (Queen Emma, who was present at this meeting) who had come among them to-day to testify her interest in the work, and to raise a bulwark against the evil. In 1793, when Van Couver visited the island, the same request was made to Mr Pitt, but in the then troubled state of Europe nothing was done till, as it were, the other day, when this new call was made to us. This call has been listened to, and there has been consecrated for those islands a Bishop of Honolulu, and as many priests as we can afford have joined the mission. Some sisters of mercy have also gone out to take charge of the schools, and try the effect of that example on plastic infancy which the virtuous woman must exercise upon young womanhood, and to present to the young of Hawaii the moral of English purity of life. But at this moment every effort is cramped by the miserable deficiency of means. Apart from this consideration, everything is in favour of the Mission. We have the King on the throne for our friend, doing everything he possibly can to aid us ; therefore, it must be considered as a singular opportunity given to this country to lead this people through Christianity to morality, and so save them for this world and for the world to come. Vast efforts have been made by the Roman Catholics. I believe France regards the matter as a great political object; and certainly it is so regarded by America; and, undoubtedly, the islands are of great import- ance to us, so much so that in 1843 an Enghsh officer was fooHsh enough to make the attempt to seize them ; but this act was instantly disallowed, and confidence was restored. 238 Want of a good Church at Honolulu. The people are partial to the English, and certainly their friendship is really of value to us, because these islands are the natural halting-place . of the stream of commerce in that distant sea. For the reasons I have stated, the French Roman Catholics have an almost unlimited command of monqy, and a perfect machinery of churches, priests, and sisters of charity. The people are going over to the Roman Catholics in large num- bers, because of the substantial buildings and magnificent churches they have erected, which have given the islanders the belief that their Mission, at least, was fixed in these islands, whilst the English had not yet one good church erected. Now the building of one substantial church at Honolulu would manifest to the people that the Church of England had taken root there, which would be the one thing needful, for the people themselves prefer the English Church infinitely before the Roman Catholic. I cannot refrain from mentioning that in our necessity they helped us. During the cotton distress they sent as much as ;£"5ooto Manchester. Let us send this back with interest. Which will best stand before the Judge at the great day, the giver or the grudger of the Gospel ? The natives cannot build their churches. The Roman Catholics, with the aid of money from France, have been able to build a large church, and there to exhibit every rite of their showy and meretricious worship. The English Church worships in a wretched hovel. What must be the effect, then, on the native mind ? If we would not surrender the people of these islands to the teaching of Rome, we must be up and doing. There is a great need of some means to check the immorality of the young girls. This can only be done by the example of English ladies teaching schools, thus getting beforehand with the evil. So we are sending out Christian ladies to train the girls, and Christian priests to train a native clergy, and thus your alms will save a native people. Shall we not listen to such an invitation? Shall we refuse in our selfishness, or shall we answer their cry, and save this interesting land ? From one gentleman present I have just received £^0 for this work. Melanesia7i and Hawaiian Missions. 239 The poor of Brighton, and the inhabitants of Kilndown, have also given well at the offertory, and I trust the presence of this noble lady amongst us may rouse the great heart of the English nation to the work. I hope that a theory I am very fond of will be realised, and that Bishop Patteson, from the south, and Bishop Staley, from the north, will meet in middle way in the Pacific, and plant the victorious Cross in faith in a recovered Archipelago. XXIV. Upon the islands of the pacific. Mold^ August 1858. I AM sure in nothing is the universal adage more strictly true than in missions, " There is that giveth and yet increaseth/' and " He that watereth shall be watered himself." Depend upon it, zeal for the spread of Christ's Gospel in any parish is not only a mark of that parish having reached a certain amount of true Christian feeling, but also draws down upon it, accord- ing to the laws of God's gracious goodness, that benediction of His grace which makes the institutions of Christ in His Church blessed to the souls of those who live therein. The resolution to which my remarks are to be limited refers to the islands of the Pacific. I saw the other day a letter from the Bishop of New Zealand, who is so much engaged in this work, giving this remarkable testimony. He said, ''I have now just concluded one of my voyages, stopping and landing upon a very large number -of islands, and in every instance I have gone in an unarmed boat, and in no one single instance have I ever met with any- thing but the heartiest welcome and the most affectionate kindness." He then goes on to give a singular characteristic fact. He says, " As for having in such voyages ever met with what philosophers have called savages, my experience leads me utterly to disbelieve in their existence. All the people of these islands are men in every respect of like passions with us. Instead of their being actuated by feelings of brute ferocity, they are, like ourselves, kind to those who treat them kindly, and ready to defend themselves against what they are prone to suspect secret treachery, or what they know to be open The Law of Retaliation amongst Savages, 241 aggression." Now it may be said by some of you, " But there have been great exceptions," and you can remember cases in which boat's crews, such as that of the Harriet schooner, and the like, have been seized and the crew murdered with great brutaUty. But the more the cases are examined into, we find that such things have been acts of retaliation and not acts of original occurrence. The case has been this : some ship, some boat's crew of some white nation commits an outrage, — and •remember these islanders cannot tell the difference between one white people and another, — it may be a French ship ; and in one instance an English crew suffered because a French ship had committed some frightful excesses on an island, and mur- dered some of the chief people, — and feeling, as, alas ! all uncon- verted men do feel, that they have a great debt of revenge to pay for the slaughter of their friends and families, they wait anxiously for the next boat's crew which shall land. And when another crew, meaning kindness and friendship, land on the island, they are murdered by the poor blinded natives, under what is discovered to be a desire for retaliation, which they believe a duty for injuries done to them. In these things we see distinct indications from the hand of God that we should be the more diligent labourers amongst those islands of the Pacific, that we should be the bearers of the blessed message of Christ to those our brother islanders in that distant part of the world. Surely, in many cases, — for instance, in that of New Zealand, where we have undertaken the government, we cannot have any sort of question on the matter — our duty is plain. But, with respect to many of the islands, they have been visited long ago by English ships and sailors, and I grieve to say, as many of you know, they have received from the crews of those ships nothing but sin, disease, misery, contami- nation, and drink ; that has been our teaching. I remember being strongly struck by reading an account of one of our captains who landed at an island where he believed the Eng- lish had been, and where the only English words which the natives knew, and which they shouted out as they paddled 242 How we first Peopled Norfolk Island. their canoes to the ship, were revolting oaths which their Eng- lish visitors had taught them. Men who had been accustomed from their infancy to lisp " Thy kingdom come ; " saved by God's providence through a thousand storms, kept through ten thousand dangers, and brought at last to cast their anchors in the peaceful haven of that charming island, had taught its people — what ? To lisp a prayer to God ? — to murmur in supphcation the name of Christ ? No. But by blasiDhemies, the sense of which they could not understand, to dishonour the name of the great God. I knov/ hardly anything more touching than the use we put Norfolk Island to ; it is just the spot of all the world which, if any one wanted to draw a poetical description of what Paradise had been, he would select ; there seems to be given to it every- thing which the prodigality of God's goodness could give to any spot, — beauty of every kind, and of which nothing can be conceived more delicious ; on every side landscapes which gladden by their every aspect the heart of the man who gazes upon them ; and we, from this end of the earth, went there to our antipodes, we peopled it, and with whom ? We peopled it with the most dreadful criminals that the world could have produced at the time. I do not know whether many of you remember an account of a man who was tried for a dreadful murder there, and who, when he was brought before the judge (he was tried at Sydney, before one of the chief judges), and when called upon for his defence, said, " I was led into it by the people by whom I was surrounded. I will tell you what it is, my lord j it seems to me when a man is sent there, the heart of the man is taken out of him, and the heart of a beast is put in." There was the population with which we at that time furnished the island. Does not our taking possession of God's island in that distant sea ; does not our having cast upon it in this way all the dreadful evils of our own lapsed Chris- tianity; does It not call upon every Christian heart to endeavour to undo the injury and to redress the wrong by making every island which, in its fertiUty and beauty, adorns the bosom of Rajah Brooke and Bor7teo, 243 the deep, a centre of light and Christian influence to all the tribes around it ? Here is a charge God has given us there to increase His Church. At this moment a very important matter is about to be settled, which regards this question — the offer made by Sir James Brooke. I heartily wish the whole Christian mind of England would awake and speak out its convictions. You know Sir James Brooke went out originally in nothing but a pleasure yacht, and being a man of very ardent mind and strong will — a sort of king-man amongst men — not content with yachting it about amidst orange flowering groves, and then, after an absence of a few months, coming back again, conceived a great work amwngst the Malay race. For his great deeds he was made a Rajah, and was given possession of an empire, and has now established a dynasty in those distant parts, and become protector of a nation. But he has had a great deal to bear ; he has been called by every bad name that man could apply to another in the English House of Parliament; he has gone through his storm of obloquy, which every man, woman, and child, must go through at some time or other, if they will be true to God and to Christ. He has gone through all, and borne it nobly, and bravely, and triumphantly. And now we have got a bishop there, and you cannot think the difliculty we had to get him appointed. I am sure it cost me and many others a great many months of labour, kicking down mole-hills, and crushing down little, idle, foolish obstructions, and breaking through cobwebs, which were being continually woven, and rewoven, as often as brushed away, by troublesome spiders. At last we got him there, and there he is likely to be ; and there we have a new centre of light, which, if we will only strengthen, will spread all over the island of Borneo. It is a thing of great moment to us as a nation in a commercial point of view, as well as view- ing it in the light of our duty as a Christian nation ; for with, I hope, a growing Chinese commerce, we need some half-way house, as Java once was, to answer the purposes of the old post-houses, where the coach changed horses, and the passengers 244 How we Lost Java. refreshed themselves in the middle of their journey — where the ships may touch and get provisions, and water, and coal, and pass on to their destinations. We lost Java through the strange mistake of a great man, now gone from us, who was at the time at the head of our foreign affairs. He set himself against the work of spreading the Gospel, arguing that we should not be continually meddHng with religious matters — ''Why not let them have their own religion? it was good enough for them: why be making such a stir about it?" That was his way of talking, and Java was lost through it, and with it went our only guard for our Chinese trade. But now God has opened a new standing-place at Sarawak and through- out Borneo, and we must truly and earnestly seek for the con-, version of those races, and estabhsh the Church of Christ at the other end of the earth, which, as a nation, we are bound by the highest obligations to accomplish, and for which He will increase and multiply the resources of this nation in the highest possible degree. Here is another call to labour ; and the question for you is, "Will you, by strengthening this Society, allow it to carry out this important principle, that wherever England exists as a nation, there England should be as a Church ? " It is the duty of every nation to whom God has given the light of the Gospel ; and above all, to whom, as a people, God has given such great power and such great wealth, and such great faculties of mind and body ; and above all, to whom He has given that pure and reformed Church which has been the instrument of making you great and keeping you great ; it is above all things the duty of such a people, that wherever they settle as a nation they should settle as a Church. And, therefore, will you not, wherever your flag floats, in every one of those beautiful coral-crested islands, circled with a belt of waters, whose sparkling spray beats on their coral reefs, and in the tranquil beauty of whose deep lagoons stands reflected the glorious loveliness of their flowering groves, and in whose bosom the light of heaven seems given back again in all its brilliancy, tempting the eye down its clear and quiet depths to contemplate and admire the branching corals Pacific Islands Described. 245 beneath — islands enriched with beauties everywhere — and where, too, the people seem to be led with joy to receive your message, — will you not be the preachers of the everlasting Gospel, and so discharge your obligation? or will you, by refusing to fulfil your trust, force your Almighty Benefactor to withdraw His gifts from your grasp, and give them into the hands of a more faithful people ? XXV. Upon the success of modern missionary enter- prises. — Salisbwy, Sept. 8, 1864. I SHOULD be really quite ashamed of appearing again another year before the people of Salisbury, if I did not do so simply in obedience to your (the Right Rev. Chairman's) desire, and therefore I hope that those who hear me will think that I am ■ not intruding upon them, but that I am merely doing the work set before me by the Bishop whom God has put over them. As to the great object which has brought us together, after what has been said by Mr Raikes, very little remains for any one who speaks, except just to point out the necessary deductions which follow. Observe you there the eye-witness's report. You have the detail of facts set before you. You have first the true estimate of what man is without Christ. You have next the estimate of what is really to be done, in the way of labour, by those who go forth as the agents of this Society. You have thirdly the result of those labours : and I say that to any man who himself believes in his Bible, in his creed, and in his Lord, the statement of these three facts must stir up his heart, and make him desire to have his own share, before it is too late, in the greatest work that God can permit to man. And what you have heard with regard to India from Mr Raikes is, I assure you, precisely what I have myself heard from that great man to whom Mr Raikes has alluded as his own friend. Sir John Lawrence. I have gone through the whole matter with him, to endeavour to test for myself my own impressions of what our duty towards that country is. Patiently and laboriously he went through the whole matter with me, and I assure you that there was not a word which Why England was Late in the Mission- Field. 247 has fallen from Mr Raikes to-night which was not subscribed to by that great man, in those interviews with which he favoured me on this subject. And remember you have there the soldier — you have there the politician, both of the highest class j and you know how the tendency of the pursuits of the soldier and the politician is of necessity to drive the mind into reality, into a doubt about all sanguine expectations, into something of a disrespect for all immaterial influences which are not brought to bear directly upon things with which those pursuits have to deal. If, then, a man with that education of mind, that practical hardening of the intellectual faculties, and that suspending of the vagrant powers of the imagination which high command in the army and high trust in politics have a tendency to give — if he entertains these impressions to the very full, you may, I think, be perfectly certain that it is not an exaggerated or one-sided statement of facts. And what we are doing in India we are doing in other parts of the world with which we are connected. Late, it is true, did we begin the work, owing to a variety of circumstances, and I think it very important that we should thoroughly look one at least of these in the face, in order that we may see why it was that the Church of England was so late in the foreign mission-field, because unquestionably that Church long had shown very considerable warmth in labouring for those at home, while it did next to nothing for the spreading of the Gospel in foreign parts. So true was this, I daresay some of you will remember, that it was a great charge thrown out against her in the last century by some of her leading opponents, that she did nothing for the spreading of the Gospel beyond her own dominions. Now mark the reason ! At the time of the severance of this Church from the rest of Christendom, all the machinery which had been then created for carrying on this work was actually taken from her at a blow, and she had slowly and by degrees to form any kind of machinery that she could for the prosecution of the missionary work throughout the world. That machinery has in every age grown up in the same way. It has never been created by a corporate act of the whole 248 Progress of Ancient and Modern Missions. Church, but it has been created by the zeal of individuals whose hearts have been stirred up to this particular work, and who have formed a brotherhood, or a sodality, or a society, with like-minded spirits, who, having obtained the sanction of the Church in high places, have devoted themselves to it, and have thus by degrees awakened the minds of their brethren to its high and vast importance. It took, of course, and of neces- sity, a long time before these nuclei of great exertion could form again in a body, which was left at the moment of the Reforma- tion without them ; and so it happened that, comparatively speaking, it has only been at a recent period that any great missionary works have been undertaken by our Church. But since they have been undertaken, what have been the results ? So far from these works having been fruitless in any part of the world, I believe they may be compared, without the least danger of suffering from the comparison, with any like labours undertaken at any time, and by anybody in the Christian Church. We deceive ourselves in the matter in this way j we look back to the little beginnings of Christianity, and we see how widely it has spread ; we then look at one of oui: ovrn missions, founded, perhaps, fifty years ago, and we see that it has not evangelised India, whereas the old Christian Church evangelised the whole world. "Surely," we say, " there must be something wrong here." But what is it a man leaves out in the calculation ? Why, he forgets that it is 1800 years of prayer, of labour, and of self-sacrifice, that has pro- duced the work he now sees. Instead of comparing fifty years of his Church's labour with that result of the 1800 years, in order to draw anything like a fair and reasonable comparison, he should compare it only with fifty years of ordinary regular Church labour, out of the 1800, in the same work in which the Church is engaged now. And I believe it would stand the comparison. I believe it, because it is not God's way, as I read the history of the Christianisa- tion of the earth, to give at once great results. On the con- trary. He tries the faith and the patience of His people by making them wait for the great day they are longing for; and, Mission to the Sandwich Islands. 249 indeed, if it were not so, men's love would soon lose itself in the simple gratification of success. And as God employs man to convert man, that in the process of conversion, the heart of the converter may be built up in the faith, it is needful for him that he should wait, and pray, and labour — that he should render himself up in self-sacrifice, still perhaps seeing little, but leaving his labour and his reward with his God. This I believe to be the fact throughout the world. In one mission, in which I myself feel a peculiar interest, from presiding over the committee in London — the new mission to the Sandwich Islands — there has been the most marked success since the Bishop of Honolulu was sent out. On his conversion, the late king would not join the Church in a corner, but required that in the face of his people, in the chief church of his chief town, the Bishop should confirm himself and his wife, because he would not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which he had received. Then while he was engaged in the translation of the English Prayer Book into the language of his own people, he was suddenly cut down by one of those mysterious providences of God which so frequently occur, in order to try our faith, and to throw difficulties in the way of first successes. But in his queen, the king has left behind the very pattern of a Christian widow — a saint in the midst of all the dreadful debauchery of those islands — standing amongst her people a pattern of purity and love, with her whole heart bent upon this — as she herself expressed it in her last letter, which came into my hands only a very short time ago — '' that it may please God, through the agency of that Church you have sent us, to save the remnant of my people from that destruction which is coming upon them." You will thus observe that the very moment we acted upon our true principles — the moment we sent out the Church in its perfectness, not supposing that there was to be in that distant part of the world, a sort of cheap, economical religion — the moment we did not content ourselves with sending out a catechist and a Bible, while we kept back our bishops, priests, and deacons, as a kind of reserve luxury for the Church at 250 Objections against Mission Work. home — the moment we acted in faith, and sent out, not a part of its revelation, and a part of its discipline, but the Church in its completeness, results have immediately begun to follow which are full of auguries of good, if God only gives us the faith to persevere. Here really is the question, and how is it put aside ? How is it, that when these righteous resolutions begin to make them- selves felt, they are checked by the outward world ? For it seems impossible that zeal for God can anywhere be inflamed, without the dull world coming in with its palsying whispers to put down the power it hates ! " Why, if this were to spread through the community," says the selfish worldly man, in his own meditation, '' it would be uncommonly dangerous to me — by and by I should be obliged to engage in the work, and ' that would be intolerable. If everybody begins to admit that the becoming a Christian necessarily involves the taking an interest in the missionary work, and the preaching of the name of Christ to the heathen, as a debt we owe to them, I shall not dare to show my face, or be able to retain my own. So I will begin to whisper it down, lest it should become troublesome." And so the dead, palsying face of the world's hatred of all zeal for God is ever present to whisper some objections — just to hint a fault, or a hesitating dislike — because it knows full well that this is just the way to put down the zeal of men. And what are the suggestions that are made? They are such as these. In the first place it is said, " It cannot reasonably be urged that those colonies of ours have any claim upon us, or that we owe them any debt. They are rich, thriving bodies — why do they not support the Church for themselves? How can it possibly be said that there is any debt upon Christian men at home?" Who ever said there was a debt owing to these rich and thriving bodies ? There is the fallacy. A rich, thriving body is perfectly able to provide for itself, and the Propagation Society never sends a sixpence of money to any such. It is not a fact that the exist- ence of people on the other side of the ocean constitutes a claim upon us, but it is fact that our poor emigrant people, Answers to Objections. 251 who are thrust out by the crowd at home into the wilderness of the world, have no means of reproducing the Church amongst themselves, and that creates the claim. They are our own flesh and blood whom the nation suffers to go out, and because we send them out they have a claim upon us for the blessings of that Christianity which was their birthright at home. There is the answer to fallacy number one. Then comes another fallacy — "There are people who want the Gospel at home. You say that there is a greater debt owing to the people abroad than to the people at home." Who ever said that? No one ever said it. But I have said, and I repeat it now, that the man who urges this as an excuse why he should not give towards spreading the Gospel abroad, is the very last man that any one of us would think of applying to for a shilling towards spreading the Gospel at home. Here is the answer — the practical answer — of every Englishmen. If you want help in the building of a church or a school, to whom do you go ? Do you go to the man who has already built churches and schools and has put himself at the head of every self-denying exertion for the good of the people at home and abroad, a man whose name is known, as thank God in this neighbourhood we have had men whose names have been known, as synonymous with self-spending, and with using high places and high gifts for the general good — do you go to such a man as this, or to the close and narrow-minded man who says, " Oh, there are so many poor at home that I cannot do any- thing for you abroad?" You know, my friends, to whom you go, and there is the answer to fallacy number two. We do not want to draw away from the people at home the aid we send to the people abroad; but we want to warm and excite the Christian sympathy first of ourselves, and then of all those around us ; for the more we warm and bless those at a distance, the more ready shall we be to give to those who are at home as well. But then there is yet another fallacy and other whisper- ing of the world. " If the question is whether it is better to drop a shilling into the missionary box, or spend it on some selfish enjoyment, there cannot be a doubt that the former 252 OiLT Debt to the Heathen. would be by far the best course. But that is not what you mean." Why, my friends, this is the very thing that we do mean. We say that men are too much in the habit of spending upon themselves while they are forgetful of the needs of those abroad, and that unless the love of Christ, and the working of a new life within them, counteract their natural selfishness, they will live and die with contracted spirits, and grasping hands, not using the gold that will perish in their clutch. All our difficulties are the work of these miserable suggestions. Scatter them, my friends, to the winds. One word of the apostle's writing is an answer to them all. It is an exaggeration, is it, for our archbishops to tell us that we owe a debt to the heathen people round about our colonies, and to our poor emigrants there ? What said St Paul upon the matter ? Did he not count that he owed a debt to the Jew and the Greek, to the Barbarian and the Scythian, to the bond and the free ? Did he not know that woe would be written against him in the eternal counsels unless he preached the Gospel of Christ to every creature under heaven ? I appeal to you, then, for aid to-night, and in so doing I feel that I am speak- ing to those who have been working increasingly in this blessed field. The report which has been read by Mr Smart is full of encouragement. It shows me that you are not given to these selfish counsels, that you have been waking up to the great trust God has given you in the possession of the Church of Christ, and that you have gone on increasing in your labour. And I have not a doubt that you will increase in it yet. This dio- cese of Salisbury has given much of late to this blessed work. It sent out the good Bishop of Calcutta to head the great central diocese of India. It sent out my dear brother, the Bishop of Brisbane, to head the work of the Church there ; and gave INIr Deane to go out to the Pongas River, to live, and pray, and take possession in his Master's name of that distant African settlement. Thank God for what you have been enabled to do ! and I beseech you let no whispers of the world dull the energies of your spirit in the future. For what is the work in which we are engaged ? Is it not that which brought Mission Work identical with that of Christ. 253 the Lord of life from the presence of the Father, to be the Babe of Bethlehem, and the Redeemer of mankind? If there was no special blessedness in seeking out the lost and lifting up the ruined, why did not the fallen race of humanity perish from the earth that it had defiled, and the almighty power of the Creator breathe itself out into a new creation of beings without sin ? Redemption is the absolute denial of this creed of selfishness. It was the desire of lifting up the lost which brought the Virgin-born upon this defaced earth. Follow, then, those footsteps, and be assured, every one of you, that if your work is done for Him, if it is stamped with self-denial, if it is offered with secret prayer to Him, if it is given with a real desire to spread His kingdom, that you are fellow- labourers with all the mighty host of God's accepted and per- fected servants. And think you not that the saints in Paradise, crying in their supplication, " Lord, how long?" also take their part in the blessed enterprise of regenerating the earth, and hastening the mighty accomplishment ? And rest assured that when you yourselves are taken to your blessed rest, and stand with the spirits of light upon the battlements of glory, with the Eternal Son upon the throne of mediation, you will see that no higher office can be committed to man than to labour, and to pray, and to deny himself, in order that his brethren who are afar off may be made one with him in Christ. XXVI. Upon the disappointment at more not being DONE BY MISSIONS. — Bristol , An Extract, The only thing which lingers, I believe, in the minds of most people is this, a certain disappointment at more not being done for the money. Is that, or is it not, a reasonable and faithful conclusion ? I do not think it is right. In the first place, I think it is not true that there has not been a great deal done for the money raised. Look at the foundation of the Church in America, and there is the firstborn child of the Gospel Propagation Society. Look at what has been done in the whole peninsula of the south of India. There there are whole districts of regularly communicating and worshipping Christians, and that work was begun by the Gospel Propaga- tion Society. Look at New Zealand, look at the fringe of land round Australia, look at the change wrought in our West India colonies by sending out the Episcopate to them. Estimate these things in the scale of faith, and say whether, instead of being disappointed at the littleness, we ought not rather to marvel at the greatness of the success which God has given us. And this is not all. Let us remember for a moment, in esti- mating the results, what has been the reflex action of this missionary exertion upon the Church at home. It has been said by a Pope of Rome, when looking out on the divisions of Christendom, that the only thing that satisfied him that the Church of England lacked the mark of Catholicity was, that she had no missions to the heathen. Thank God that reproach has been wiped off, and in the wiping of it off, merely through the instrumentality of this Society, there has been a marvellous reflex action on the Church at home. It must be so. It is Bishop Mackenzie and Henry Martyn. 255 impossible to doubt that the revival of zeal, the multiplied services, the increased communions, the larger gifts, the heartier prayer, the multiplying of ministers at home, are some of God's gracious gifts in return. Look at the careers of Henry Martyn and Bishop Mackenzie. It has been said, how much more good would they have done if they had stayed at home \ how many more years they might have laboured ; and how many more people they might have reached. Do you believe this ? I do not. Such living examples of the truth of Christianity, in such cases, are more valuable than if they languished out their well-chosen periods to ten thousand fashionable audiences. From the martyr's grave beside that distant African river, from the grave of Mackenzie there comes sounds of vigour and truth, speaking home to true hearts; and the voice of Henry Martyn hangs as a perpetual echo in the charmed land in which he gave his life for his Lord. XXVII. Upon the disestabijshment of the colonial CHURCHES. — Salishiry, August <^^ 1866. I HAVE no doubt the body of this audience, as well as my- self, has taken notice that up to a certain point in the speeches which have been addressed to us, every single speaker has said that, as there were so many others going to speak, he should say but very little. When they got very near to the end of the meeting the thing dropped, because it could not be said that there were a great many more to speak. The subject, however, was not used up. I have now a turn for myself, but, as such a great number have already spoken, I need say next to nothing at all. I have had a tolerably good experience of public meetings, and I have universally observed that what made a meeting successful was sharp, quick firing. There must not be very long shots, even from very great guns, but there must be a considerable succession in the volley shoot- ing. Then, under the general law that no meeting, however good, should exceed an hour and a half — an hour was better — and as this meeting has already lasted nearly two hours, it is impossible, upon the general principles on which I act in life, for me to detain you more than a few minutes. The report which was read at the beginning of the meeting opened, I think, with rather a melancholy strain, but for myself, I really do not think there is any very great reason for melan- choly in this great cause of ours. One ground of melancholy I altogether dismiss — viz., the small diminution which has occurred in the funds of the parent society because there have been fewer legacies. I think that a legacy, if bestowed instead of a life gift, is an abomination ; and I would not advise any What an Established Chicrch is. 257 person present to defer giving what he ought to give, because he means to leave it as a legacy. Those post obits are abomi- nations. On the other hand, if a legacy were left by a person who used to give, as I am sure you are going to do liberally at the door, it is a very bad thing, because it shows the loss of a good friend. Therefore, the fact of there not having been a number of legacies filling up the list is not the least source of unhappiness to me. On the contrary, it shows me that the friends of the Society have got into the habit of giving while they are alive, and that most of them are living and not dead. I do not deny that the great work which we are gathered together to support is in one of those crises which from time to time mark all great endeavours to spread the Kingdom of God. The crisis, indeed, is greater in my estimate of it than in the estimate of my right rev. brother the Bishop of Brisbane. I think there is a very considerable crisis and strife passing upon the connection of the Church of England at home and the Church in the colonies ; and, believing this, I think it is far better to look it in the face, instead of acting the part of a timorous bird, which, w^hen danger comes, hides its head in the bushes and thinks it is safe. It is the part of a brave man to walk up to the threatened difficulty, to look it in the face, and see if he cannot knock it down. The difficulty in this case is a real one. The question is — How there shall be maintained a real, living unity between two branches of a Church, the one of them being Established and the other not Established. It involves a great many points of nicety and difficulty j for let us observe what the real meaning of having an Established Church is. It is not that the State gives endow- ments to the Church of England — it is not that a bit. But the State has given a great deal, and it is no use to attempt to shut our eyes to what it has given. An Established Church, then, means, not an endowed Church, for a Church that is not Established might be more richly endowed than an Esta- blished Church j but an Established Church means, that a nation, having, and allowing that it has, a religious conscience, selects one particular sect of professing religionists to be the R 258 Established and Isfon-E stab lis hed CImrches. instructors of the people in religion, and the exponents of its own religion. That is the meaning of an Established Church; and from that comes a vast number of consequences — the position, for instance, of the bishops of the Church of England. The social and legal position of the bishops of that Church does not arise from their descent from the Apostles of our Lord. My right rev. brother from America, the Bishop of North Carolina, is just as truly a descendant and representative of the old apostolical body as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the reason why one has a social status, and a legal position, which the other has not, is, that in England there is an Esta- blished Church, while in the United States of America there is not. At home there is still an Established Church, which the nation adopts as the exponent of its religion ; but in some of our colonies there is no Established Church, but the self- same body, holding, however, a different set of relations to the common nationality. This is a difficult and a perplexing matter for us to have to arrange. But if the Church look the difficulty in the face, it need not be afraid of it. For myself, I have not the least fear what the result will be. I will not enter into the question whether it is better or worse that the Church in the colonies shall not be EstabHshed. It is a fact, and Englishmen, in their wisdom, accept facts, instead of speculating how things might have been if such and such an event had not occurred. We know that the sun gives light by day and the moon by night, and if a man were to speculate on what the result would be if the moon were to give light by day and the sun by night, he would not get a great number of listeners. What we want to know is the fact, and then to deal with the fact, God helping us, as true, honest, believing men. This, then, is now the fact, — it has only come to light lately, but it is an undoubted fact, that in a great part of the colonies there is no Established Church, — that the great body which is EstabHshed at home is unestablished there. Immediately upon this discovery mark what happened. In the first place a number of very ex- cellent, good people — the old Church and State people — ran The CImrch Prioj'' to Establishment. 259 about just in the way that domestic animals in a farmyard ran about in a thunderstorm. They fancied that the storm was sent on purpose to destroy them, and accordingly they went rushing about, exclaiming, " Oh ! good heavens, what is not going to happen? The Church and State are going to be broken up ; we must take away everything that we have given to the bishops ; we must put them down j dear me, we are dreadfully frightened." There was a little thunderstorm, and the domestic fowl ran about dreadfully frightened ; but I see not the smallest need in the world for such an apprehension. I would say, '' My dear Church and State friend," if there exists such a person in the room, "let me calm this perturbation of your distracted spirit. The Church was one before there was any Established Church. When it went forth from Jerusalem, from Antioch, from all the different centres from which it spread itself in the world, it was wholly and entirely unesta- blished, dear Church and State friend, and yet it remained in unity. It remained in unity, because it had one Creed, one Apostolic descent, one Bible, the same Sacraments, and all these centering in and leading up to the one same Divine Lord, reigning in, and over, His Church." And so, I thank God, it is now. Our Church in the colonies might, it was discovered, be no longer connected with the State, and might no longer enjoy State advantages, but they had with us "one faith, one Lord, one baptism." They were knit together into that indissoluble union which the Church of Christ alone could afford, which could overstep oceans, which could bind together Celt and Saxon, which could unite men under different forms of government, and with altogether different interests, because it addressed itself to a deep, underlying, redeemed humanity, of which those other differences, great as they seemed, were but the external accompaniments. Therefore, I have not myself the slightest fear. I believe that if we are only true and faithful to the truth which God has given us, instead of an injury, God's providence would bring some great benefits out of those things which cause such apprehension to so many. I am not cast down even at the darker cloud which overshadows one 26o Lukewarmness the Danger of the Chinch. particular portion of the colonial Church. It has been the history of the Church from the beginning that its faith has been tried by such adverse circumstances. It was hardly launched before even apostolic lips exclaimed, ''Demas hath forsaken me; he hath loved this present world." It is upon the dazzling snow-field that the slightest black shows itself, and the very indignation and zeal which has been stirred up in the English Church by that to which I refer, is a proof that amid abounding rebukes the heart of that Church is yet true to the faith of her Lord. Therefore, I am not afraid. You all know that there are some people who will run abroad at such a moment as this, saying, " See how all these attempts have failed ! People have been attempting to build up English bishoprics abroad, and see, the whole thing has exploded. They have been talking about con- verting the heathen ; of having but one great branch con- nected with the English Church, and see how it has all come to an end." And what does all this mean ? Why, it means this, that such people have always hated the missionary work. It means that they have never been with it in heart. They did not dare to speak out at the first, but in the day, as they thought, of rebuke, they utter the blasphemy of their unbeliev- ing hearts. In the natural world, the moment a thing breaks, what a number of men there are who had discovered that there v/as no strength in it. If a great nation was defeated, the very man who had previously said it would be sure to crush its enemy, came out in a calm, pleasant way, and said, "Ah! I always knew it would be beaten." Oh ! those wise, after-event prophets, they are the disgrace of themselves, and of those Avho listen to them ; but they never broke down an army, and they will not break down the army of the faithful. No ! the only danger whatever, the only one single danger is this — that we who believe in Christ should become luke- warm in the matter. There is no other fear, depend upon it. But mark you this lukewarmness may come in two different ways, both of them fatal in the result. In the first place, luke- warmness makes men careless of self-denial, and therefore of Why the Last Century was not Missionary. 261 other necessary exertions to spread the Gospel. Why was the mission work of the last century almost nil! Because it was a lukewarm time in the Church of England; because it was a time when sermons were read by numbers, and admired by multitudes, in which the name of the Lord Jesus was scarcely mentioned, and in which the love of the Incarnate was never inculcated. Those men could make no great effort to spread that which had so very small a hold upon their own hearts and souls, and so the cause languished. And can we altogether wipe off from ourselves at this day the same reproach ? Re- member what you have heard since you have come into this room — that the allowance of missionaries to India, after all the time we have held the country, is what? — one missionary to a million of souls! Now, just for a moment, try that fact by what you have at home. The diocese of Salisbury contains 600,000 souls — just above half a million. Now, give to the diocese of Salisbury the allowance we give to the people of India. What would you get? Just one half clergyman for the whole diocese I What would that allowance do? Even with all the existing Christian feeling, what would be that half clergyman to keep up the standard of Christianity in the dio- cese of Salisbury? What if Wiltshire and Dorsetshire were full of heathen ; if old systems and superstitions were entwined with the habits of the people ; if the depraved appetites of poor fallen humanity were connected with great and gorgeous displays, and those, too, connected with a hierarchy which lived in abundance upon the wild imaginations of the people, and you were to send half a man to try to convert those poor heathen to Christianity, what would you get? A very half and half result, depend upon it. And yet that is the measure by which we have doled out our missionary men whom we have sent hitherto to convert the multitudes in India ! There- fore, I ask, have we not cause — though, thank God, there has been great improvement — to condemn ourselves still for great remissness and half-heartedness amongst us ? Not that there are no better signs. I thank God there are. Your own be- loved bishop has just been summoned to take part in the con- 262 Ltikewarmness to be Got Rid of . secration of three more colonial bishops. I cannot say what joy the announcement gave me. This extension of the colonial episcopate seems to me like the Romans selling by auction a bit of ground that was in possession of their enemies. In the day of rebuke, when people are saying that the Colonial Church had failed, the Church of England is sending out bishops to three newly constituted sees, to take up the work which men said had utterly passed away. I, as well as others, am full of hope and confidence, but at the same time I see a great deal of lukewarmness to get rid of before we can rise to the real cause of God. I say this even upon the lower mechanical ground ; but there is yet another working of lukewarmness far more deeply to be feared than the one to which I have referred. Did God ever do anything yet by lukewarm men ? Has a lukewarm Church ever yet exalted His name or subdued the earth ? Does a lukewarm man ever convert his brethren ? Does he not rather sink himself into the pattern of a dull, lifeless respectability ? Does not nature teach us a lesson ? Can we do anything really mighty, even with natural agents, unless those agents are gathered up into some intensity and vigour? If we take from the fire a lukewarm coal, can we carry the burning to another pile ? If the iron taken from the fire to heat the water were lukewarm instead of hot, will it convey heat to the mass around it? Will it not lose its little warmth in the colder element? India itself teaches us this lesson. A cargo of Wenham Lake ice, in which we so much delighted in hot weather, was sent out to India, but it melted because it had not been frozen down to a sufficiently low temperature to hold its own. Nature must be concentrated in its essential work- ings, if we mean even in nature to do anything great with natural agents. Art tells us the same thing. What is the meaning of the revolution that is now passing over the army and navy, except the necessity of concentrating force in every arm — that even our bullets shall not go lukewarmly out of Brown Bess any more, but be sent whizzing out of the mouth of the rifle. I saw a cannon on Southsea beach yesterday, capable of throwing a shot of 600 lbs. It was to go whizzing Concentration of Force Necessary. 263 out of the cannon to send a ship down. Art, it will be seen, must concentrate itself into a superlative degree of vigour if it means to do anything — if it means not to be lukewarm in send- ing its bullets and balls against an enemy. And the law is universal. You may depend upon it that it pervades the realm of grace as it rules in the realm of nature and of art. If you will look closely into the history of the spreading of the gospel, you will find this the universal rule — that God uses instruments of every shape and of every earthly fitness. The fisherman of the lake, the publican at his seat of traffic, the lawyer taught at the doctor's feet, the beloved physician taken from his art, they differed in every respect save this — that the soul of every one was full of the love of Christ; each knew in whom he had believed, and therefore, for very love's sake, he must witness to his brethren of tliat which he had himself found. Yes ! from the beginning to the present time it has always been the same. St Paul was a mighty instrument in God's hand, be- cause he loved his Lord with such an abundance of affection; and if, as the enemy said, our missions have not succeeded as much as they ought, there was a lesson for us which we might learn out of their mouths. Christ's Gospel cannot have lost its power ; the Lord's arm cannot have been shortened ; the apostolic office, because it was of Christ, cannot in itself wear out with time, for time is not as to the instruments of the Lord. If, therefore, there has been less success in our foreign missions than there ought to have been, the cause must be found in the lower love of the Church at home, where something, at least, of the heedlessness of lukewarmness has come upon its love, so that it ceases to wield that one mighty power with which God has ever beaten down the resistance of the world. Then take home the lesson. Your dear bishop gathers these meetings together for this very purpose. He gets, as he has to-day, from America, from India, from Australia, those who come to speak to you words of truth and soberness; he gathers his right rev. brethren from their dioceses, and why? It is that from those who hear them, as from a living heart in this diocese, there may flow out into 264 The True Upshot of Missionary Meetings. every parish, into every district, living streams of that all-per- vading love which alone can make us blessed at home, which alone can make us fruitful abroad. God, in His mercy, grant that such may be the fruit of this night's gathering : more prayer, without which all is vain ; more labouring and giving, without which prayer is hypocrisy. Might God grant it, for depend upon it the day is closing. By every sign the Lord has given, "the night cometh when no man can work" — the night, but with it the true day. Let us think of Him who will come again, as He was seen to ascend into heaven ; let us use the remaining hours in winning the ungathered souls, and let every one of you cherish up the Master's words, " Blessed is that servant whom, when his Lord cometh, He shall find so doing." XXVIII. Upon the difficulties caused by the disesta- ■ blishment of the colone Salisbury^ September 12, 1867 BLISHMENT OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES, ETC. — My right rev. brother (the Chairman), stated at the begin- ning of the meeting, that he thought the danger of it was that it was over-numbered. Now I confess that I think the real danger of it is its being over-platformed, — for you have had such a number of speakers, all bringing forward such exceed- ingly important things, that one thing had a tendency to drive out another, and therefore I think it would be very much better if you will allow me at once to sit down. The Bishop of Orange River has told you about the locusts, and I have been thinking about them ever since. The Colonial Bishops have come to tell us what they have seen ; a great layman like Mr Raikes has come to tell us what he has seen ; and they might be called flying locusts. We were told, however, that the walking locusts were the worst of all. Now I am a walking locust, — one of those fellows who keep walking, walking on, eating up everything that other men have stated. If, however, I must say a word, I had better say it at once, and have done with it. The depressing tones in which the dear Bishop of Cape Town has spoken must have made a deep and forcible impression upon all of you, but I am sure that the sympathy of the meeting, which is eminently his due, is with him, and that, under God's blessing, it will be a comfort to him in pushing forward with the great work which has been committed to his care. I am quite certain that my Right Rev. brother finds in England, wherever he goes amongst hearty Church of England people, a perfect unanimity on one matter 266 The Diffimlties of the Transition State, — honour to him for the stand he has made for the truth, and the most earnest desire possible to join him in that stand. But as has been aheady so well said by the Dean of Cork, the difficulty before the Church is not to make up its mind whether or no these strange doctrines, to which reference has been made, were the truth of God, but to find out the mode in which, legally and properly, the Church at home is to aid the Colonial Church in carrying out its own conclusions. The difficulties on this point are very great indeed, and that for the reasons which have been so well set before us by the Dean of Cork. Great changes are passing, necessarily passing, over the constitution of the Church of our fathers. Originally it was the limited establishment of a single island, with a colony putting forth its hand, and holding a very bare existence in the neighbouring island of Ireland, and no Deans of Cork came over in those days to enlighten us here in this country. A wonderful change, however, has of late years been passing over this Church of England. The Church had been expand- ing herself throughout the world. Her colonial extent is infinitely greater than her home extent at this moment. The number of bishops abroad is exceeding rapidly the home episcopate. At the same time, of necessity, the Church abroad is passing from the condition of a Church in alliance with the State, to a Church which is altogether free ; and the transition moments in great bodies are always moments of exceeding difficulty. To know what of the past is to be continued- how we are to change from the old state into the new — is a highly important and difficult question. For men who know that the dealings of God's providence are by gradual steps, that the intimations of His will are by whispered counsels, and that the strength, after all, of His people, is quietness and not rashness, the difficulty of making the transition from one state to another it is almost impossible to exaggerate. In the very heart of those difficulties the lot of my honoured brother has been cast. It seems long to a man in the mere pain of bodily anguish as the moments creep over him in his Sympathy with the Bishop of Cape Town. 267 strife, in the middle of the amputation of some limb, in the setting of some broken bone. How long the moments seem : and yet they are but moments, and in comparison with the long age of the Church, they are scarcely moments. That there should be such suffering — that we should have to wait long for consolation — that we should have to mingle many prayers with our resolutions, to strive with patience till the cloud broke, and the light showed itself, seems therefore to me, according to the whole history of the Church from the be- ginning, to be necessary for the discipline of man. I will venture, then, to say to my honoured brother, in the name of this meeting, " Be not cast down, thou noble-hearted man ; thou art maintaining the true standard ; thou hast with thee, though thou mayest not see them, 4000, nay 40 times 4000, who have not bent the knee to the Baal of modern miserable substitutions for Christianity." There is one part of the Mission field, respecting which I wish to say a word, because from my own diocese one of the noblest sons of the Church has gone out to be chief pastor of that land of which Mr Raikes has spoken. He has written home to ask the Church to give him help in one particular mission, and I want to name it to you, because it might be that some heart will respond to the call, and help my right rev. brother in some way or other. He wants men first — that was the great thing — then money to aid him in supporting men, and above all, our prayers to make the work effectual. Are we to be cast down in this mission work ? When we come upon these missionary trials, we appear altogether to forget the trials of St Paul in his mission to the Corinthians. In the first burst of his apostolical zeal, shortly after the outpouring of Pentecost, the difficulties in the way of converting the Grecian race, not from the vices of the heathen, but from the sins of a Christian community so recently founded, were the burden and grief of his heart. Therefore are we to be cast down when these difficulties meet us? It is the heritage of the Church to find difficulties, and to magnify the grace of God in overcoming 268 Missions to the Hill Tribes of hidia. them. Now my dear brother, Bishop INIilman, says that one great reason why we have done so Httle, comparatively, in India, is, that we have too entirely confined our mission to the Hindu people. He stated that in all the mountain ranges of India, there are still multitudes of the older and conquering tribes of India, men of robuster minds, as well as bodies, than the effeminate Hindus of the plains, and yet we have never attempted missions to them. If we would but send mission- aries to the ghauts and places were they are to be found, the Bishop of Calcutta has not the least doubt that we might look to a most successful gathering in of that people, and that we might use them, even as it has been our policy to use the stronger tribes, as native troops. We never enHsted into our army the effeminate Hindu of the plain: and so in this Christian warfare, if we would but send the Bishop the means of founding a mission among the people of the mountain ranges, he has no doubt that, God's grace helping him, he will be able to report a great result in a very short time. "Whence the necessity for such an appeal? Why are not the funds of this Society sufficient for all purposes ? I do not think there is a want of interest in the mission work generally, but I be- lieve the fault is that we love too much our own comforts, and do not sufficiently realise what the Christian condition of life is. The words which were brought before us with such power by the preacher in the morning, possess deep significance, '' Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening." Aye ! but it is only till the evening ; and upon how many of us is that evening already beginning to close in ? And what have we done? Has the regenerate man gone forth to his work and to his labour, and has he done it for his Lord? If not, how will he dare to meet Him? I heard by chance as I travelled on the railroad the day before yesterday what seemed to me to be a wonderful illustration of this. A large farmer at no -great distance, with heavy crops to reap, and the grain all ripe in the ear, hired ten men to cut down those fields during the fine weather that prevailed before the The Real Obstacle to Mission Work. 269 recent rains fell, in order that God's blessed gift might be harvested and stored in his barns. He had made bis engage- ment with them, but they adjourned to a pubhc house and drank instead of going out to cut the wheat. The owner saw the clouds gathering, he heard the wind begin to whisper, and still he could not get the reapers to reap. At last the rain began to fall, and he said almost in despair, " It is too late. The wretched men have left my harvest to perish." We have been told to-day that earthly things are types, similitudes, and parables of things heavenly, and is it not so here ? Has not the great Master of the harvest His ripened crop ? And has not man after man in this room been hired by the great House- holder to do His work on this earth ? Has He not rung again and again into the ear of the tarrying loiterer the words, " Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour till the evening." The task must' be accomplished. Are not the seeds shedding in that spiritual harvest? Is it not true that in the mystery of God's dispensation He has made the salvation of one depend upon the labour of another? and are we not letting those souls for whom the Master died, pass away, ungathered into the garner, because He cannot rouse us to go forth and work ? The real difficulty, I believe, is, that we do not enough consider our lives as hid with Christ in God. We are sinking back and taking a too worldly view of life. We are too much losing sight of the fact that every regenerate man's life has passed through the greatest conceivable change which any created thing could pass through. To sink back into the ordinary life of eating and drinking, searching out this amusement and that, spending the time as we call it, getting through the day, spending upon ourselves and upon our pleasures what was lent to us to spend for the Lord, is indeed letting the regenerate life fall back into unregenerate conditions, losing sight of the fact that we are in Christ, and must give an account at the last day, not as the heathen man will, but as those who have been in Christ. As my dear friend your Bishop has told me to sum up the meeting, I 270 How to Save Souls, would urge your serious attention to the fact that it is not by talking about these things, and listening to what might be said about them — it is easy to Hsten to such words as we have had to-day— nay, it is not by feehng about them, but it is by working as long as the day lasts, that we can hope to save souls for the Master of the harvest. XXIX. Hindrances at home to the progress of MISSIONS. — Salisbury, August 6, 1863. At the request of your Bishop I appear before you again to endeavour, if it may be, to say any single word which may warm the heart of the diocese here in its cathedral city towards the great work of God. At the same time I would much rather sit and listen to the Bishop of Columbia, while he was stating facts which were well calculated to warm our hearts. But one must not choose for himself, and so I will say a few words. The whole business of the question is included in the state- ment which has already been made. The whole income of the Society is about ;^74,ooo, — ;2^7o,ooo being from subscriptions, and about ;!^4ooo more from the interest of various legacies which have been made to the Society. There is a falling off this year, owing to the great drain upon the different charitable gifts, through the manufacturing need, of more than ;^4ooo, and there is a call for at least ^^20,000 a-year of increased expenditure, if the -missions already commenced and in action are not to be dropped. The Bishop of Cape Town, than whom there is not a more practical man living, pressed upon the committee, when he was last in town, the state of his own diocese, and its needs, in a way which, I am perfectly certain, would have moved every heart here if they could have been present. The Bishop has since written to thank the committee for a very small increase of the grant, but he added, in words that were well worth weighing, coming as they did from such a man as that, that he hoped they would be able next year to do something much more considerable for the needs of that part of the earth ; for if not, the work must be abandoned. That 272 Drought in SotitJi AfiHca, was his calm, deliberate judgment, and I am sorry to say that since that letter was written, the drain upon that particular mission has been enormous. That awful drought which every now and then visited that unhappy land of Africa, has come upon it this year with almost unexampled severity, from the Cape of Good Hope up to the latitude of Lake Nyanza. Between those points there has been one wide-spread and desolating drought, and the distress has been so extreme that the Governor of Cape Town has borrowed on his own responsi- bility, without waiting for the assembling of the colony to give him power, ;^6o,ooo for immediate distribution amongst the starving people of that country. All the clergy of the diocese are in deep distress, and are scarcely able to maintain their own lives and the lives of their families. This will show the great drain there must be in that part of the country, and that unless the funds of the Society are increased we shall not be able to repeat the small extra grant that was made this year to that diocese. Precisely the same thing applies to Graham's Town, and our other possessions which God has committed to us in that part of the world. If, then, this is the case, how is it that, with the great wealth of our country, and with the real amount of hearty religion there is amongst us, there is so much difficulty in raising the necessary funds, and that the limit is so soon reached of the highest amount that Christian liberality can be stirred up to? There are several combin- ing causes, and one is the great difficulty which every one labours under of not being able thoroughly to feel for what is so far offi God has made us, for the wisest purposes of course, necessarily affected by what addresses itself immedi- ately to our imaginations, and to our sensations through the senses of the body, rather than by the things which are far off. You will all recollect what Dr Johnson said, that it was a humiliating thing to think that the most humane man in the whole country would actually feel more if he knew his little finger was to be cut off, than he would if he knew that 10,000 heathen were to perish in an earthquake at the other end of the world. This being the case, it is necessary to take How hidifference may be Co7tnteracted. 27, means to counteract this evil, and some of those means are those which Christian people generally are very slow to use. One very important means which might be adopted, is the making ourselves acquainted with the details of missions, so as to bring home to our own minds the work for which we were asked to subscribe! Instead of doing this, people are content with coming now and then to a meeting, and giving something, and then going away again, but how will that warm the heart ? I would ask the careful housewife how she would get on if when the urn was filled with cold water, the heater was only put in now and then for a moment and then taken out again ? AVhy, they would have very bad tea. And so when the only warmth they had was that which was imparted by these occasional statements, the coldness of the natural selfishness, and of those worldly feelings and habits which our daily life produced in our spirits, would be too strong to be overcome by such spasmodic and occasional interferences. Then another important point is to pray for the success of these missions. I do really and in my own conscience believe that if you will make it a matter of duty every day to pray to God specifically for some one mission, which circumstances may, perhaps, give you more interest in than any other; if every time you came to the Holy Communion in the interval which the time of administration to others gives you, you would make it a point to intercede for the work of some one mission, and to pray for its bishops and clergy by name ; if while you are pleading in that great act of the Church's intercession, and are showing forth the Lord's death till He come, you would unite to your holiest feelings an act of direct intercession for some one of the Church's works, under God's blessing you would find that you would be able to maintain a more lively interest than you ever yet had done in the great work which the Church is doing upon the face of the earth. I believe it to be of the greatest importance that you should do this. In the first place, unless you do it the work will not be done, and that is a great thought. Who can tell how far already the blessed day of the Lord's return has been S 2 74 ^^ly Mission Work is Especially Ours, delayed by the unfaithful indolence of the Church? In the hidden counsels of God by which that day was fixed, when the mystery of iniquity should be accomplished, and the regenerate earth enfranchised from sin, and garnished again with the bright presence of its Lord — that day, fixed in those secret counsels, could not come till the elect are gathered, and the Gospel has been preached for a witness to all the earth ; and so each effort, each prayer, each self-denial you make, is indeed hastening on that blessed accomplishment, ending, so far, the tale of man's toil, and sorrow, and bereavement, and bringing in the glory of the Lord in the salvation of the elect. This work is the work of the Church of Christ, and the Church only can do it ; it is the work pre-eminently of the Church of Christ in this land, both from all God's gifts to it, and from God's requirements at its hand. It is the work of the Church here from God's gifts to it, because we alone, amongst the people of the earth, at this time possess at once the perfectness of the Church's organisation, and the simplicity of primitive doctrine ; because we have the Word of God, and are not afraid of sending it to every one in the tongue in which he can read it; because we alone have those prayers which have come down to us from the very earliest times of the Church, when the blessed afflatus of the Spirit dictated forms of devotion to men of God ; because we have those prayers to put into the mouths of our converts, and to enable them to join in the universal supplication of the Church Catholic. Then we have in our own natural constitu- tion that habit of wandering, with that marvellous love of home, without which everything else would wither and decay. We have from God those two gifts — the love of home, which makes the most distant wanderer ever longing to come again to the humblest home in which his infancy was cradled, and a spirit of wandering which makes him go all the world over in order that he may gather riches, and acquire fame, and gain know- ledge ; peep into volcanoes' mouths, and gather little leaves from the under-side of distant plants, uneasy unless he is ever gratifying that appetite for knowing, acquiring, visiting, subduing every part of the world. Our clever, bustling, enter- The French Withottt Gift of Colonisation. 275 prising neighbours across the channel are a great deal cleverer than we are, but they cannot succeed in this. The French have done a great deal in Algeria j but they have no notion of making a French colony there which should really identify itself with those who are living there, in their strength becoming strong, and in harmony with them becoming rooted there. It is given to the English to do this, and wherever we have gone this is our tendency, a tendency which has been given us by God that we might use it for Himself. But there are many objections made to the work, and some say that we are wasting resources which had much better be spent at home. Whenever any disaster comes upon a mission, the dead, cold voice of the world always comes droning out its melancholy hum, saying — "This is just what we told you; why did you not stay at home ? why in the world did you go to these people ? we told you you would very likely die, and that you would have some trouble or other ; you would have been snugger if you had stayed at home." Why to be sure they would, and we do not want the dull, cold, selfish world to hum that into our ears. Do you not think that our friend there knew when he went to a foreign land that he would have been a great deal snugger if he had stayed at Great Yarmouth ? He did not go for snugness \ he did not go there that he might have his comforts more abundantly around him : but he went because the Spirit of the Lord bade him go and lift up there a standard amongst a distant people, and he knew that this could not be done without self-denial, without not counting his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish the work which God had given him to do. This objection is constantly recurring, and it presents itself in such a specious manner that it needs to be most carefully guarded against. It professes to care a great deal about people at home, and about the poor in our great cities, but it so happens that the persons who talk in this way only took an interest in those at home just at the moment when they \vere applied to for help on behalf of those abroad ; and then having served its turn in the great flourish of smoke which shut out the heathen world 276 The Spiritttal TeacJiiiigs of Nature, in the distance, like all other things that did smoke, instead of breaking into a great flame, it died out with a hiss. If, indeed, there was any truth in this objection, it would be con- trary to the first principles of God's government. There is nothing round us in nature which did not testify to the truth so far as nature revealed God, that it is in imparting to others that the home blessing is secured. Look at the world around us, and what other lessons do we read? Looking up into the heavens and seeing the sun diffusing light, and warmth, and life, and gladness to a world, we know that God has set it there to exist in its brightness by dispensing light to what would otherwise be a darkened universe. Let us come down to the earth and see how it is there. Let us look at the river in its earliest rise, springing from the seething mists' which hung over the moss of some distant fell, until it had collected itself in its first fulness, and then beginning to pour itself down the mountain side in a living stream, leaping from rock to rock, and, even in the action of that leaping, mingling itself with the oxygen of the atmosphere around, and keeping its own bright purity by that very motion which God had made essential to it, and so flowing down the hill-side, ministering to the lone bird upon the distant fell, and to the thousand other animals which gathered from it every day their refreshment and their life. Does not this river teach us that if we would have we must spend, and that if we would enjoy w^e must scatter? Applying this to the spiritual world, our experience must surely tell us how tru6 it is, both of the individual and of the Church at large. What is the history of those melancholy cases which are now and then met with in the Christian Church, of men who are manifestly consumed by a perfectly morbid religious selfishness, seeming to think that they are placed in the earth, and that the Church is placed round them, simply that they might have created for themselves by the machinery of the Church a certain round of pleasurable sensations, which they call their religion ? How unlike are such men to the Lord Jesus Christ when He stood on earth as a man ! How unlike those who caught from Him the first light of the The Troubles of the Universities^ Mission. 277 heavenly kingdom, and in whom humanity was lifted up almost above the corruption of its fall ! How unlike the burning sentiments of St Paul, who was a man full of sensa- tion and of emotion, and upon whom, but for a corrective principle ever at work, this same thing might have come ! And what is that corrective principle ? It is that those men entered into the great ideal that God's truth was a deposit to be used for God's glory, and not a jewel to be gloated over in the secresy of their own enjoyment ; and so they began to impart as soon as they had received, and to bear the witness to others as soon as it had reached their own hearts. What is true of the individual is also true of the Church at large ; and if you want to do the work at home^ the best way is to do the work at God's bidding abroad. The time .of greatest depression in connection with the mis- sion work is when it seems as if some great trouble or disap- pointment has come upon us. It is then we have doubts as to whether we ought to have undertaken the work ; and this is doubtless a trial permitted by God to test the sincerity of His people. Such a time has now come upon us, and I will, there- fore, say a word or two about it. There was hardly a mission of late years^ which, on many accounts, gave greater promise of usefulness than the mission of the two Universities to Central Africa; that mission which was first headed by Bishop Mac- kenzie, and which is now headed with the same nobleness and spirit by Bishop Tozer. The tale which has just come from the mission is a very disheartening one. Dr Livingstone (from whom I have received a letter by the last mail) attributes the first cause of failure to the tremendous increase of the slave trade in that part of Africa, which unawares to those who had planned the undertaking had sprung up, in consequence of that scheme of Negro emigration which the French Government had adopted in Africa, but which they had since happily abandoned on the earnest remonstrances of the EngUsh Government. The people were willing to hear; the upland hills did not greatly disagree with the European constitution ; and everything was going as had been predicted, when this horrible increase of the 278 Famme in Central Africa. detestable slave traffic, carried on by a few miscreants under the Portuguese name, though in direct hostiUty to the Portuguese Government, filled the whole of the country with such a state of insecurity, and war, and death, and famine, and misery, that it was impossible for the missionaries to maintain their position. Still in this state of things their hearts did not fail them. Mr Scudamore, who seemed worthy of the mantle which had fallen upon him from Bishop Mackenzie's shoulders, was gathering a body of men around him, when the unhealthiness of the low situation to which they were driven by the slave trade, brought him to the grave which had been opened so shortly before for Mackenzie; and then, just when their spirits were most de- pressed, there broke out this tremendous drought, which even in the civilised parts of South Africa has brought famine and death in its train, and has, therefore, brought it a thousand times more to those uncivilised and barbarous parts to which the mission has gone in the fear of the Lord. Dr Livingstone, in a letter to which I have before referred, says, " The dead bodies of the starving people float by me in such numbers that even the alligators, who abound in the river, are so gorged with human food that they can take no more ; and the dead bodies float by unattacked by these monsters of the river. Where Captain Wilson thought we might export 30,000 pounds of cotton I see the few remains of the native tribes eagerly gathering the grass of the field to shake out its little seeds, if haply they might prolong life by that miserable diet." Through the great care of the Bishop of Cape Town, flour and other things were sent up to the mission, and it was hoped that they would still be able to obtain the animal food without which European life cannot be supported ; but at last the drought came and destroyed all the domestic animals. In the last letter which I received from Mr Rowley, that gentleman stated that he was going to try to get some goats, but that if he could not get them they could not keep the weaker of their party alive; and so even at this time, before Bishop Tozer could reach them, they may have been compelled to drop doAvn the river, and for the time to abandon the work. Now this seems to be a complete failure. But The Fruition of Self- Sacrifice, 279 do you think there has been anything lost or wasted ? Does any one of you beHeve that the Church of your fathers is not richer for every one of those noble-hearted men ? Do you not think that the Church's heart has been warmed by these things, and that it would be better far to have even a repetition of failing missions than that there should be a dead stagnation ? Oh ! yes, from that lonely grave upon that distant river's side, depend upon it there will stream into many prepared hearts whole volumes of desire, of love, and of the elements of self- sacrifice, creating for the Church at home, and creating for the Church abroad, means of support which in no other way could have been obtained for those who must labour in suffering, in loss, and in self-denial, in order to show their love to Christ and to their brethren. I have lately received a letter from Dr Krapf, in which a desire was expressed that the men who had made this noble venture for Christ would not be dismayed and abandon the work because of these troubles. Dr Krapf said that he had had the same trial before, and that he took it as a warning from God that he must go to another place where he would have greater success. Failures should not dishearten us, but should only incite us to fresh exertions, and thus draw down fresh blessings from our God. It is the old story — " I will not save you by the whole host, lest you think your arm has saved you ; it shall be by the men that stoop down and lap in the stream that deliverance shall come to Israel, lest Israel shall magnify itself." This, then, is the case, and I do believe in my conscience that for us as individuals, and for us as a Church, if we would keep the truth of Christianity living, and sparkhng, and moving in our hearts and in our Church, we must act upon that wonderful text — "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth \ and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." XXX. Upon the visits of colonial bishops to England, ETC. — Salisbury, July 31, 1862. I THINK that it is impossible to overvalue the benefit to the Church at home of the return, from time to time, of such men as my right rev. brethren who have preceded me, to tell us what is being done in distant lands. It is very well for sneers every now and then to be uttered by those who know nothing about it, about Colonial Bishops being at home, but I will maintain that it is for the benefit of the colonies — that it is for the benefit of the home Church, that there should be this free inter-circulation of its best heart's blood. The practice, I say, is purely primitive. What did the Apostles do, after going on a missionary tour in distant Phrygia, but come back to narrate to the Church at a central home, what it had pleased God to do by their hands ? And I think that each one in this room will, from this day forth, have a more complete under- standing of why it was that St Paul called men in the ofiice of my right rev. brethren, " Messengers of the Church,"' than he ever had before, after hearing the statements of this evening. It singularly illustrates the great truth, that it is essential to us, as a nation, as a Church, and as individuals, that we should be hearty and self-denying in missionary works, and for this reason — it teaches us, I think, how impossible it is to maintain the Christian temper at home, if we are sluggish as to this matter. Certain and very great features of the Christian character are called out by the spreading of the Gospel, which are called out by nothing else. It is just like a man saying that he did not know what was in him — that he did not know what his own powers were, until some new situation, or new state of duties, Vahte of Home Episcopate tatcght by Colonies. 28 called for their exercise. Then if they were in a man, these things came out, and in coming out they perfected, and gave him a power and a breadth of character never seen before. It is just the same with the heart and mind of the Church in any particular age, and in any particular country. There are great Christian features of character, which, in the stagnation of non- exertion, cannot be called out in a Church ; and I believe that the lack of missionary work during a great part of the last century was as certainly of the fruit of the sluggishness of the Christian Church, as on the other hand that sluggishness v/as the fruit of missionary inaction. It is, therefore, perfectly impossible that there can be a due value of what the Gospel of Christ is unless in our different parishes people are stirred up to extend to others the blessing which they themselves have received. They became careless about it ; they did not know what it was to be without it ; they did not know the blessedness of receiving till they gave, or of possessing till they understood the privilege of receiving it. And so it runs through the whole circuit of the Church of Christ. A Church that is not spreading itself became directly a Church which cared about the lesser instead of the greater things of the law of Christ. If you look closely at it, you will see that the points which an expanding church must attend to, are first of all, purity of doctrine, — the maintaining the creed, the symbol, and the Word of God in its purity ; because that is the converter of the unconverted heart. In the next place, there must be a care for the organisation of the Church ; and I have no hesitation in declaring my belief that there has been a manifest growth in the estimate of the Church people of England, of what the home Episcopate is, since we have sent forth the Colonial Episcopate. Instead of regarding a Bishop as a sort of embossed ornament, to stand at the top of the banister, and to be seen on going up and down stairs, people had at last come to understand that if he was worth his salt he must be what the Bishop of Salisbury is — the hardest workins: man in his diocese — a man who was ever devisinsf schemes for spreading the truth and binding hearts together ; for quickening the devout, for doing away in his diocese with 282 The True Cmtse of Cohesion. that economical conscience of which the Bishop of Tasmania has spoken, and for leading the people to understand the blessedness of giving and spending, and entirely casting themselves forth upon the work of Him who has redeemed them. Now observe what must follow. If this missionary work leads the Church from comparatively unimportant topics, to dwell upon the most important — if the mind of the Church becomes full of the sense of maintaining the message in its clearness, the ministry in its entireness, the work in its hearti- ness, see how it must come back upon the Church at home. What else can be said of a Church which is maintaining these particular points than that it is in a state of great spiritual healthiness ? What is it that helps men who are in earnest and hearty, not to fly off, as men who are hearty and in earnest are often inclined to do ? Why, it is the same in nature. If in winter we made the fire hot, one of the coals would not stay within the grate, but come bouncing out into the middle of the room. And so with hearty, earnest men — there is a great tendency to come out of the grate, to come out with their own individual views, to the great trouble of the Church and of society around. Well, then, how are they to be bound together ? Not by letting the fire out : that will never do. Not by bringing their zeal down to zero, and allowing them to go on sleepingly, and comfortably : that will never do. The secret must be found which, while it maintains the heat, will also have the power of binding them together into one. And what of all things is the best to accomplish this ? Why, the acting together for great common causes upon great common principles. There is no object more miserable than the man, who, when he is shown some mighty work of God like this, and a lawful instrument for doing it, begins to define, and speculate, and doubt, and question, and wait, and let the work be undone until he can have every single hand made and fashioned according to his own notion of what is the beauty of a hand, rather than take the hands as they came, and make them all work the work of the Lord, with a right will and The Vahte of Bishop Mackenzie s Career. 2 S3 anited energy. This matter is also of importance in a political point of view, although that is a much lower ground to take. There is a wonderful example of this, which, without dwelling upon it, I wish to lodge in your minds. For many years I have been trying to press upon the Church and the Nation, the duty of making a great effort in Africa to promote the growth of cotton as one means of putting down the accursed slave trade ; and I have repeated, over and over again, at missionary and other meetings, the argument that, in the event of some great change, some mighty outbreak of war in the civilised family of nations, we shall be depending upon one single field for the growth of that cotton which is essential to our manufactures. Let us, therefore, do God's work in Africa, by the special means which He has provided, in leading the people to cultivate the cotton plant, and at the same time be preparing them for the Gospel of Christ. The point is one which I have urged for years, but it has not been attended to ; and what is the result ? What are those cries of misery from Blackburn and other towns ? what are they but the visitation of God upon us, because, having given us the opportunity, in Africa and in India, of spreading His Gospel by encouraging the growth of cotton, we had neglected to do it in times past. It is an instance of the Avay in which, if we had been really hearty in this work, even as to the things of this world, God would have given us our prosperity. But the opportunity has been lost. We have not remembered that the gifts of God are to them that use them, that the grace of our own ministry at home will wither or increase as we seek selfishly to keep it to our- selves, or unselfishly to extend it through the world. Can any one of you, who not many months since heard the voice of my dear friend, Bishop Mackenzie, think that the Church of Eng- land reaped no blessing from his short career of life ? Will not the heart of many a man at home be warmed to better service, as he heard or read of what God had enabled my brother to do ? Will it not raise his own standard, quicken his own prayer, and make easier his own self-devotion, if he followed him to his grave upon the banks of that African river, 284 Bishop Mackenzie s Last Words, and read, as I have read, from the flood-stained pages of Bishop Mackenzie's diary, such words as these : — " Burrup, my com- panion, is very low. We are both more or less struck by the fever. If we should both be down together, God, He who brought us here, can take care of us." If any man saw, as I have done, the very last entry upon that water-stained page, the text, " I am persuaded that neither principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus ;" if any man could read that, and know that there the pen dropped from the feeble hand, and the fever began its fatal ravages, would he not himself look death more calmly in the face, from witnessing the power of God of upholding a man's spirit when everything else fails. And it is a fact well worth knowing that there is no lack of men ready to take the late Bishop's place. Only yesterday I was engaged with the Bishop of Cape Town and others in selecting the names of certain persons who are well fitted for the work. Four were then selected, and out of those four we endeavoured to select one who would be the fittest to head the mission. In one case, a person who is unknown to me had written to say that, if at the expiration of six weeks no fit person could be found, I was at liberty to open a sealed letter containing his name, and that in spite of family hindrances he should be prepared at once to undertake the work. I thank God that the Church of England has such hearts within her, and I regard it as a proof of a return of blessings for her labours in the missionary field. XXXI. Upon acting on right principles in mission WORK.— Salish^ry, July 30, 1868. I THINK I may congratulate my right rev. brother in the chair upon another very successful meeting of these societies in the cathedral town of Salisbury, for he has gathered together a goodly assortment of hearers and a large phalanx of speakers, and has enabled us to hear again, which, I am sure, is a sub- ject of congratulation to all present, my dear friend, the Bishop of Cape Town, before he leaves us. The voice of my right rev. brother hangs ever in my ear when he is at a distance from us, pleading for the good, the rights and the true, and reminds me perpetually of what we at home, in our compara- tive ease, ought to attempt when we thought of what he (the Bishop of Cape Town) was doing, and suffering, and devising for the good of the great commonwealth of Christendom. I believe that the presence of such a man amongst us is an unspeakable blessing ; and instead of giving in for an instant to that miserable vulgarism which sneers at Colonial Bishops com- ing back from their work to the mother country, I believe that while there is a painful necessity often for them to leave their distant dioceses, it is an almost unmixed blessing to the Church at home to have them return to feed our too often flagging energies with the sight and the sound of their greater self-devotion. One word, I think, I ought to say in reconciliation of the last two speakers. If, as I believe, I rightly understand my dear brother, the Bishop of Cape Town, he did not mean to say one syllable against Lord Napier of Magdala. I say this because the Bishop of Cape Town had told me before of one or two things which showed his interest in that brave mans 286 The Lepitimate Encourao-enient, .^^.^,,^^^^ ^,.^^... ^.^ career. What he did mean to mark, and I thought it is an important thing to know, is this, — that if England contented herself with having rescued her captives, and having done this great act of right, retired from the country, and left it, it might be, to Egyptian aggression, doing nothing whatever for the Church of Christ in that land, she would have an account to render for opportunities neglected, and the honour of her God slighted. But I trust that it will not be so. My own antici- pation, in common with Mr Raikes, is that what has happened in Abyssinia will open up a way by which the zeal of England will be enabled to work through that ancient, that decrepit Church, breathing something of Western life into its old Eastern indolence. And not only may I congratulate you upon the greatness of this meeting and the character of the addresses which have been delivered, but I think on looking back upon the past year, that there really are different appearances in this great missionary subject, which may well encourage us in our work. I never like to turn to what are called successes and prosperous reports for encouragement. In the first place, those things are often very much exaggerated, unintentionally, by the persons who sent them, — men of sanguine temperament — and they are apt to mislead. But there is this certain evil, however true they are — the record of their having been talked about in England went back into the distant land, and destroyed the simplicity of the work there, by leading the people to suppose — for sooner or later they would hear of it — that they are the subject of great interest to the Church of England. Therefore I never look for en- couragement to flourishing reports and particular descriptions of successes here and there. The one really legitimate ground of taking comfort is this — if we saw the Church at home, and the Church at work in the missionary stations, acting more completely upon right principles, it seems to me that that is one ground of real comfort. I think the several appearances which may give us comfort are these. No man whatever who believes that Christ did institute a Church with a certain fixed system, and committed to that Church the work of converting llie Real Woi'k of a Bishop. 287 the world — which, of course, every real English Churchman believes — no one can hold that, and compare the present universal feeling in the Church of England as to the principles on which missions should be conducted, with what it was a few years back, without feeling that great ground had, through God's grace, been made. Why, I perfectly remembered the time when it was considered almost a ridiculous thing to talk of sending out a bishop with any mission. ''Why," it was said, " he would have but a few clergymen to keep in order, and what is the use of a bishop if it is not to keep the clergy in order?" Now that is the last object, according to my notion, of the whole work of a bishop. A bishop is not a police constable. He is not a magistrate, who has these wretched, ill-conducted clergymen always before him to try and keep them in order. Not a bit of it. If he has anything particularly to do with the clergy and laity of the diocese, and understands his position, he ought to be the mainspring of self- denying exertion. He ought to show himself a man of work, a man of truth, and a man of love, knowing that God having put him into that position, there would spread, through God's grace, from him to others, useful influences far above his deserts, if only he set himself to do the will of God in that position. He is to be the fellow-helper of every man labouring for Christ, the sharer of his joys, the deeper sharer of his sorrows j and for such a man as that you have not far to look in this diocese of Salisbury. Well, if that is the truth of the matter, in what part of the whole field of the Church's work are bishops so much needed as in heading missions ? Where are the dangers greater ? Where is the promptitude more required, or unity of action more important ? Where are trials greater, and where more should be the son of consolation ministering comfort to every downcast spirit ? If bishops are not to be police-magistrates, or empty figure-heads, no mission can pros- per unless it has a bishop to conduct it. Such a thing was thought almost madness a few years ago, but now it is almost equally an admitted principle. Even if we took, what there always must be, the divisions of the Church upon certain 2 88 The Pan- Anglican Conference. matters — men, the natural temper of whose mind leads them some one way and some another — High Church and Low Church — both sides are agreed upon this \ and in this very year there has been two, at least, if not three, applications from the great sister society, the Church I^Iissionary Society, for bishops to head their missions. Does not this mark a won- derful and great increase in the right principles on which missions should be conducted from what they were a few years ago ? It all involves this, that the work of missions is not a taste to be cultivated in individuals, but a work to be done by the Church of Christ; and therefore we may, if we can trace these things, take comfort, believing that God will, as our system is made more His system, give us success in His good time. And we may take comfort, too, in beUeving that a Church is not going to be thrown aside, which, through His grace, has been waked up to a perception of what its duties are. In the course of this year, not only had these encourag- ing symptoms increased among us, but we have also seen that to which allusion has already been made, viz., the courage with which in the Synod of this province error has been con- demned, and the causers of error cast aside. That / also held to be a ground of comfort. Then, amongst the important events which has occurred since I last had the honour of speak- ing in this hall, has been the holding at Lambeth of a council of the bishops of the reformed communions in unity with our own beloved Church. It is impossible to overestimate what the effect of that gathering has been in every way. Only four days back, the Archbishop of Canterbury showed me a letter of which, I think, I can give pretty nearly the words, containing an account of the effect produced in America. It was a letter from a very influential man in New York, and was to this effect : — "I am unable to say what the effect of that gathering at Lambeth has been in your own Church in England, but I can tell you what it has been upon the Church of America. It has woke us up to a wholly new condition of things. In the diocese in which I live the fruits of it are to be seen on every side, in increased zeal, in new churches, in multiplied Extensio7i Essential to the ChtcrcJis Life. 289 missions, in sisterhoods beginning to spring up — in all works of spiritual life beginning to flourish and abound.'' These were the legitimate consequences of bringing together, into visible and tangible union, these scattered units, so that each could realise what his position was, and return to his own separate sphere of labour, not as a unit, because it was the real con- dition of labour in the Church of Christ that no man is a unit, but one of a body indivisible, of which all faithful people, living or dead, are members, and of which our ascended Christ is the Head. All these things, I think, may give us hope and con- fidence and spirit in this holy work of ours. The one thing, perhaps, in which we are most deficient is, that in the particular department of giving money there has been less amendment in principle than in any other. I am not speak- ing so much of the amount, as of the principle on which the money is given. I hold that contributions in aid of the mission- ary work should not be the result of the excitement of such meetings as the present, or of such sermons as many of you have had the gratification of hearing at the Cathedral this morning. Nothing is so dangerous as to let one's feelings be kindled and then die away without any corresponding action. It is a most dangerous thing to have the feelings kindled, and not follow the kindling up with some act of self-denial. In saying this I must be understood as not speaking against great collections. I trust you will have a very great collection, indeed, the greatest you have ever made yet ; but what I mean is, that it must not be allowed to rest with that. What we want thoroughly to leaven the mind of the Church of England with is this — that it is an essential part of the Church's life that she should be spreading herself, and therefore, that in every separate parish there should be a special organisation for the spread of the Church — that it is impossible for a parish to be in a good condition when it is contributing nothing habitually to this good work, as it is for a galvanic battery to be in a living state when it is not giving out shocks. It is only a dead indolence that could go on with an introverted eye and introverted energies. You know that a man who is perpetually 2 90 Danger of Suppi^essed Emotion. talking about the state of his health is sure to be a sickly man, and that the man who is perpetually talking about his own feelings is sure to be an exceedingly morbid man. You know that if you tried to shut up steam in an engine, you would soon have a tremendous explosion. Again, if you blow out gas-lights, instead of letting them burn, the room becomes smothered, and everybody in it is nearly choked. It is the same in the case before us. It is intended that the emotions of our nature should be kindled by the love of Christ and man until they have illuminated the darkness of the whole earth; but if instead of that streaming out of our excited feelings, we allow them to remain unlighted, the result will be as certainly to choke the miserable people in this and other lands, as the lamps in this room would have choked those present, if, when blown out, they had not been hghted up again. The first practical thing to be done is this — every parish should have a missionary association. I venture to say this with some degree of confidence, because the diocese to which I belong, although one of the poorest, contributes more than any other diocese, more even than the large diocese of London, towards the Propagation Society. The reason is this. The clergy do not in all dioceses form parochial associations for the Society ; but I myself am convinced that it is the only way in which the work can be done. The times in which we live press this upon our minds. The spirit of my very dear friend, Archdeacon Denison, never flags, but still he has a keen eye for the dangers of the times, and for its evils too. The Archdeacon never speaks against any denomination, or against any man — but still, somehow or other, he has the great power of perceiving what influences are at work that ought not to be, in other denominations, and in his own too. If it be, as he has told us, that certain poison drops have been infused, and are being infused, into the old constitution of this country, that is all the more reason for work. When in Eastern countries a man was bitten by a deadly serpent, an old Indian told me that the first thing to do was to make the man run up and down in the sun as hard as he could. " Don't let the blood stagnate," Necessity for Increased Activity in Missions. 291 he said, ''' or the man will die : feed him with Eau de vie and Eau de luce, but keep him running, and if you can keep him running over twelve hours he will do." If, then, drops of poison had, as the Archdeacon has stated, been infused into the heart of the country, let us get up and run ; let us be more active than we have been yet. Let us take the good spirits — let us have a good deal of the assistance of the Eau de vie and the Eau de luce; that is to say, let us be more active than we have ever been in the work of Christ — let not the blood grow cold, and curdle, and creep, lest if there be poison cast into the great system it should work its work of ill, and make this land and this Church a mark of God's judgments, instead of a beacon light of God's blessings. But supposing it to be the other way. There may be some who think that our being thus poisoned is the best thing in the world — that we have been too much asleep, and too much given to old Tory habits — but that, through the remedies, we were much more alive than we had been. Very well. I am not here as a politician. I do not say which side I think right, but whichever side is right, it is just the same. If it be true that we are springing into a new life, this is then the time beyond all others to do something quite new in this missionary work. For this reason, times of growth, unless they are watched, and unless the growth is kept healthy and right in its shape, are likely to become the parent of grotesqueness and deformity. Look at the growth of the tree. If, at the moment the tree is casting itself forth into new limbs and new life, it is left shadowed over by other trees, — if insects are left to bite its tender bark, what are the results ? Deformed and crippled development, wens and cancers, fruitlessness and death. As long as the tree does not grow, these things do not matter, but when it begins to cast itself forth into prodigality of life, then it becomes essential that it should be watched, in order that it may cast out that life according to the due order its Creator intended for it. So if England is rising to new activity and new life — if it is not in danger of the poison drop — then, I say that is all the more reason why we should seek to have that growth 292 Work for Christ the Sign of Life. according to the will of Him who has given us the power of growing, and that we should be developed, not into some great selfish system which we think a system of increased Hberty, but a system of increased work for Him — labour for His Church, labour for the souls He has committed to us — that our life may be according to the normal proportions which, in the mind of Him who created us, existed before the world was — that we might grow in all things according to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Whichever way it is I come to the same conclusion. If, God helping me, I can minister to one brother clergyman, to one lay Christian, male or female, the suggestion, that in this next year they shall do something that they have not done in the last, — that they shall pray one prayer more earnestly, and practise some one self- denial more diligently and secretly ; grow in some one growth of love towards the souls of those around them, and the souls they can help at a distance, then indeed I shall feel my right rev. brother's kindness in letting me speak once more here has been overpaid, if but one such amber drop could be wrung out of one heart to distil its sweetness and its beauty to our dear Redeemer's praise. XXXII. Upon the extension of the episcopate in THE COLONIES. — London, April 20, 1853. There is one special point in the next resolution to which I have to call the attention of the meeting, relating to two very- distant dioceses in our colonial empire, but two dioceses so far connected that they may be viewed under a similar aspect. We are upon a great scale reproducing our own nation in different parts of the earth; but there are many parts of the world against the occupying of which with our race Providence appears to have placed insuperable barriers. In many parts of the earth the climate is unsuited to the life of Europeans ; and again, there are others in which, while Euro- peans can live, they can never become indigenous. It has been held, by those who have investigated this subject, that Europeans settUng in India, and intermarrying only among themselves, cannot continue to exist above three generations. But this is not the case in that part of America which belongs to us, nor in that distant part of our possessions — Australia. There it is manifest, I think, that Providence intends there should be reproduced in time our own race and our own institutions. Now, my Lord Archbishop, we come to an important con- sideration. The destiny of a colony which is to be the seed- plot of future nations in any part of the earth, renders the deliberate planting it one of the most serious responsibilities which a Christian people can incur. The prescient eye of those who in the early times of English colonisation took a great view of the duties and the consequences of what they were doing, marked out for us who came after them this 294 Lord Bacon on Colonisation. grave consideration. It was laid down, indeed, by Lord Bacon, that England, or any other Christian land planting the world for the sake of reproducing itself, ought to guard with the strictest carefulness the instruments she employed ; and that great man went so far as to say, if she did right, no bank- rupt escaping from his difficulties, no murderer rushing from his crime — nay, no heretic or schismatic, should be allowed to settle in any such young land, because they would reproduce in it their own evil ; they would be naught in the new land, and they would return to the old land with the means of inflicting on it aggravated injury. A deep and philosophical reason lies at the foundation of this opinion. It means this — that in reproducing our own race in any distant land, we must bear in mind that the evil of our character will reproduce itself naturally ; but that, as the good must come from God above, we must endeavour to secure the true establishment of Christ's Churchy in order to teach the people how to seek for it, and to provide means for their obtaining it. And so, surely, it has been. Pushed wherever they may be, the active men of our blood and race carry with them the stern activity of the Anglo-Saxon race j but do they carry nothing else ? Is there not among them an undue eagerness for money? Is there not a great tendency to sacrifice things eternal, in the exaltation of things temporal? And thus do we not repro- duce in our new colonies our own worst features ? I must openly profess that I trace most of those features which we are too apt to ridicule or blame in our American brethren, to this cause. We see, therefore, in them the exaggeration of our own faults ; our faults as they would have been in us if the influence of Christ's Church had not checked their develop- ment. So that the fault is ours ; for can we say that we in former times planted the English nation in those lands with the great, and healing, and regenerating influence of the Church of Christ.'' Shall we then now repeat this conduct, or shall we amend .'' This is no less than the issue. The planting of the Church under Bishops is, I contend, in point of fact, the planting of the Church of Christ. We are Episcopate Shoidd Head Missions. 295 following the apostolic model, and acting upon Scripture pre- cept, in, from the first, establishing the Episcopate to head our missions. I am disposed to. rest the main confirmation of this principle on grounds which have not been taken by any one who has as yet addressed this meeting. Reference has been made exclusively by previous speakers to the advantages which follow on the setting up of the Episcopate, evidenced in the increased number of clergy which invariably accompanies it, and I heartily concur in the truth of these statements. But I would claim for this principle of action a higher sanction than this. I believe that it is marked out for us by God Himself, in His revealed word. It is altogether a new idea of the day and age, that we ought first to set up the Church with Pres- byters and Deacons, and when they are sufficiently numerous, to set a Bishop over them. And this arises from a deep mis- understanding of the nature of the apostolic office ; for in the apostolic times, when there was only one order in the Church, it was the order of the Episcopate. The Presbytery and the Diaconate were evolved out of the Episcopate, and not the Presbytery and the Diaconate run up into the Episcopate. And then as to the office of a Bishop there is a wide-spread and lamentable mistake, against which I would fain bear my witness : — I protest against any such view of the Episcopate as shall make the Bishop to be nothing more than a sort of chief policeman, over a number of inferior clergy. I abhor that notion. Were it indeed the true one, I declare that if it were possible, I for one would even desire to cast away alto- gether the burden of that office ! No ; the Bishop is one who should be the friend, the helper, the guide of his brethren. In toil, the foremost to undergo it ; in danger, the boldest to face itj in self-denial, setting the example of endurance. And I thank God that we need not refer back to the earliest times, for examples of sucli men and such lives ; I will do no more, in his presence, than refer to my brother the Bishop of Cape Town. But to be all this, or any of it, the Bishop must not be a name, but a living reality ; you must have the presence, the 296 Wide Extent of Australian Dioceses, labours of a living man; and in order to secure this, it is essential that the dioceses should not be of too great compass. The resolution with which I am entrusted points to the vast extent of the Canadian and Australian dioceses. The diocese of Toronto, which it is proposed to subdivide, is not less in length, from east to west, than four hundred miles ; while the distance of Western Australia from Adelaide, of which the resolution speaks, is not less than fifteen hundred miles by sea, and the Bishop of Adelaide is compelled to undertake a three weeks' voyage in journeying from one part to another of the diocese committed to his oversight. How is it possible that the work of a Bishop can be done under such circum- stances as these ? Nor must it be forgotten that our Church in the Colonies has to contend against the Church of Rome, which is compact and rendered strong by apparent unity of system, however erroneous and deeply superstitious it may be ; and that unless we strengthen our own Church by that unity and coherence which the Episcopate can alone, under God, supply, she will be attacked in detail and destroyed piecemeal. XXXIII. Upon the extension of the episcopate in FOREIGN LANDS. — Chelmsford, Jitly 27, i860. I NEED not read the resolution,^ as it has just been read by my venerable friend, Mr Cotton, and I think, after what that gentleman has said, it will not be necessary for me to add much to establish the truth of the great principle which it con- tains. Not only for the direct bearing of the establishment of the episcopal office on the work connected with missionary efforts — though this is the first object — but secondly, for what an awak- ening to that duty implies at home, we may with great thankful- ness acknowledge the effect of that principle. Mr Cotton has stated the leading grounds why missionary efforts succeed better when so headed ; and you will let me suggest one or two more. One is that it is the organisation of the Church — a great organisa- tion that came from the Lord himself, for the fulfilment of His will and the promotion of His holy work, and our Church in England adopts it. It must be evident to all who have diligently read the Holy Scriptures and other books that there have been from the time of the apostles three orders in the Church — bishops, priests, and deacons ; and that being our understanding of the will of God, we cannot expect His blessing on the work in which we are engaged if, in carrying it out, we drop one part of that principle. Others may do so. We throw stones at no one ; and we are quite ready to admit that any man going forth and proclaiming what he thinks the truth in its simplicity * "That this meeting views with unqualified approbation the exten- sion of the Episcopate abroad, under a conviction that it is a principle of action in exact conformity with the commission of the apostles as — ' witnesses unto Christ — unto the uttermost parts of the earth.' " 298 Origin of the Episcopate. and sincerity has a right to expect the blessings of success on his endeavours ; but as the members of the Church have received from the Lord the belief that their institution in its perfection must have a certain organisation, we cannot claim His aid with a less organisation ; and therefore, believing it is the will of the Lord, and the best on the part of the Church, it is our bounden duty to introduce Bishops into the missionary work. In other enterprises, when matters, as it were, are sleeping, when there is no danger, no emergency, no special call for action, the leaders of the people may for a time abrogate their commission, and no one suffer harm. An army, for instance, while lying quietly and peaceably in its entrenchments, will work itself, and can almost do without its commander's eyes, and courage, and constant watchfulness ; but let that army march into the field to meet an enterprising, bold, and skilful enemy, and what will it do without its leaders ? It is a time of action, when all the daring and skill of the commander are required. So it is in the missionary work of the Church. The necessity of the organisation alluded to may not be so apparent in a time of ease ; but in a time of the strongest exertion against the dark hosts of the infidel, and of the evil spirit trying to oppose the spread of the truth, to mislead the wavering, to alarm the weak, terrify the timid, we need pre-eminently the presence of those whom, as we believe, the Lord has constituted the leaders of His Church. All experience bears this out. From the beginning, it is true, the spread of the Gospel was not limited to the apostles. Those who were scattered by perse- cution went everywhere preaching the word. There was not a man or woman thus driven forth who did not preach the word of life, and little children, in the simpHcity and purity with which they lisped the truth, became teachers to the unbelievers. But while this is true on the one hand, it is also true on the other that this enterprise was committed, when it could be committed, to the hands of apostles and bishops. Therefore, from the beginning, we have this organisation ; and our own Church gives us good examples of the success which has attended it since it was adopted. What the Episcopal Office is. 299 And in connection with this point let us bear one thing in mind — that nowhere can the Church be said really to have accomplished her mission where she has not reproduced herself out of the native stock and blood. So long as her clergy, schoolmasters, and catechists are of foreign stock and blood, it is a foreign church, making an aggression on a new people, seeking to establish a new church among them ; but a church it is not till the natives have produced the ministry of Christ in the new stock that has been sanctified by the faith ; and that cannot be till Bishops are supplied to see to the train- ing, and to send forth by ordination new ministers of the word from among the converts. Therefore it is important that our missions should be conducted on this model — first, because if they are not so, we are not acting up to our principles ; and next, because of the numerous defects that must attend them if not so conducted. But there are other reasons, which embrace in themselves much for which we should be thankful. The presence of this large assembly here to-day implies that we at home are coming to a more due comprehension of what the episcopal ofiice is — that all are beginning to understand more generally what it means — that it is not the gilded top of a great national establishment — that it is not the end of labour, to which men are to work their way up as a means of ease, and honour, and dignity. It means the first in labour, in sacrifice, in employing every power the Lord has given us for the welfare of His people, and the spread of His Word. It means that where there is danger we should be found in the front, and not in the van of those who seek for ease and honours. We are thus awaking to a sense of the important fact that a Bishop should be a working man, setting an example to all, loving all, and labouring for all. We are getting rid, too, of the idea that a Bishop is a sort of special policeman over the clergy of the diocese — an idea that is an abomination ; and it is now felt that he is as a father in the midst of a family of sons, bound together by one universal union and sentiment in carrying out the greatest and the noblest enterprise that God ever committed to redeemed man. o oo The Best Needed for Mission Work. There is another reason, too, why this complete organisation of the Church should be carried out. It is important to the missionary work that we should give to it the best, and not try to put our God off with the worst. We should be sensible that we are to do the work with all our might, and should under- stand that we are not to give to it the jaded ends of lives, and the parings of superfluities, and the sweepings of charity, but if the offering is to be accepted at all it must be an offering of man's best, given because the best only is that which he is to offer. Well, I believe that in the dead time of the Church and the nation the feeling was that the people at home must have Bishops because it was a good thing to have them, but they were too costly an article to send out to the colonies. I thank God that is a notion that day by day has been fading away amongst us \ and having become sensible of our duty in this matter, my desire is that we should act on the great principle just laid down, each resolving to give the best we can to Him to whom we owe every blessing we enjoy at home. We should remember that there is the mark of the cross stamped on the offering, and without the mark of the cross on our offering it cannot be acceptable. Only let us apply this to the amount which we give on this occasion, for this is the easiest mode of assisting in the work, but perhaps it is one of those things that do with most certainty tell what our character is. It is like the spirit in the thermometer, which readily answers to the least touch, and shows upward on the self-recording line the point which the heat has reached, and down to the mark which the cold has penetrated. Oh ! if we try the value of our Christian zeal by that thermometer, we shall ask ourselves, " What is it I propose to spend on myself, and what to give to God ? " For, though this is the easiest mode of assisting, it is the thing that, like the mark on the thermometer, will tell us what is the secret condition of our souls. Indeed, this is an occasion on which it is most impor- tant that we should individually, parochially, and nationally exert ourselves. Individually, because a man cannot be in a healthy state while he is not doing something for The Effect of the Comnmnion of the Chmrh. 301 others. When a man is blessed with benefits, is it good for him to use them for himself alone instead of extending them to others ? No ; it is not good for himself — it is not good for others ; and, if he engages in a work of this kind, without a proper and earnest spirit, what follows ? Spiritual selfishness. He looks at everything by the amount of excitement it will give to his own mind, and by this he measures every one of the gifts of God. Thus, the policy of selfishness is on the man's whole life. It is exactly like the case of the Israelite who endeavoured to hoard the manna sent by God for the sustenance of His people in the wilderness ; the moment he hoarded it it bred worms and stank. So it is with the gifts of God ; if, instead of being used with a firm desire that every man, woman, and child shall partake of these blessed gifts, they breed worms and stink, becoming to the man's own internal being the means of a wretched spiritual self-com- placency. Then, as to the necessity of exerting ourselves parochially — every parish is bound to be an organisation for spreading the truth of God. The effect of the holy communion in the Church is to build up the faithful in it in the perfection of Christian love. And what is that perfection ? That it should shine out like the blessed sun in the heavens. But suppose, instead of that — instead of endeavouring to extend the truth and benefit to others — the parish uses all these spiritual benefits for itself, what is the result ? No doubt this — that the smiling and saving streams of grace are curtailed and dried up, and it becomes like the land of Judea, once the most favoured of God, down whose hills and mountain sides flowed the streams of rich and blessed abundance, but which now lies in dreary desolation. Then let us take it as a national question — For what can God have lifted up this people of England but to do His work on earth ? For what are our ships, our vast commerce, our extended colonies, our enterprise and energy, given to us ? — for what but this, that we should do His work, and that the beneficent flow of our commerce shall bear on its bosom the blessed message of salvation? Some say — "If you throw away these energies abroad, the people will suffer at home." 302 History of the American Church. Suffer at home ! Does the exhibition of the love of any Chris- tian man's heart for the glory of God in a distant clime render that man's desire less to make the child at his knee learn to lisp the evening prayer? We might as well go into our fields, and, looking at one of the giant oaks which has twined his gnarled branches against the storms of a hundred years, and say — " It grows so luxuriantly on this side that I shall find it dead on the other." Why a man must be a fool to argue in this way. The luxuriance on one side is proof of the luxuriance on the other. And so it is with Christian charity, its sacrifices, its labours, its love to its fellows, and its fruits. Then how can we expect the blessing of God on us as a people if we neglect His work abroad ? We have some example of this in the case of our oldest colony of America. Year after year there came prayers to send out to them the Church in its completeness. When I was writing the "History of the American Church" I was allowed by the late Bishop Bloomfield to inspect the archives at Fulham Palace, and I found them loaded with applications and prayers of this nature. Why was it not done ? Because worldly policy in the coldest and darkest period of this nation's history interfered and prevented it. So strong was the conviction on this matter in the mind of Bishop Berkeley, that he resolved he would never rest till the work was accom- phshed, and he extorted a promise from the prime minister of the day that if he went he would send out the Episcopate. The Bishop went to Bermuda, and he has left marks of his life there till this day ; but when he sent to ask whether the pro- mise was to be fulfilled, the reply was — "If you ask me publicly and officially, no doubt it is ; but if you ask me privately and as a friend, certainly it will not be kept." That is the way in which Sir Robert Walpole thought he could govern manly and honest England, by a system of venahty and corruption. The Church was withheld from America, and when the time came that the ties between the mother and the daughter were sundered, it was found that we had not made firm the bond as we should have done — that bond snapped, and our daughter became our deadly enemy ; but the last America Lost through Apathy of the Chzcrch. 303 persons who were alienated from the EngHsh union were a handful who still adhered to the Church, and the first shot was fired from a building which had been erected to draw them away from the faith of their ancestors. What would have been the result had we given them the Church in its com- pleteness? What might have been the effect if, with the same Episcopate, the same laws, and the same institutions, America, by slow transition, had taken her lot by the side of her mother? But all that was lost, as I verily believe, because there was a wretched apathy in the Church, and a miserable worldly policy in the state denied to America the Church of England in its purity and strength. And are there not on the horizon now clouds larger than a man's hand, that should induce every one to ask himself — "Are we, as the most favoured people on earth, doing, as we should, the behests of the Giver of those gifts ? " I ask you to put this question to yourselves — have you ever made a real sacrifice that others may possess the blessings of Christianity, that their sons and daughters may have the blessings of Christ's Gospel and Christ's Church ? I see here many ministers of different parishes, and I would say to them, that the mere fact of there being a parish church and a parish organisation implies that there must be a parish effort for spreading the Gospel abroad. I mean a united and general effort, for I know, as it is said a man has a taste for poetry or a taste for painting, so it is said a man has a taste for missionary work ; but if we are not actuated by a living and earnest zeal, we are not alive to the great principles of the Lord in our own hearts. We must take an interest in it, or we apostatise from our principles. God has opened to us new opportunities, which our fathers had not ; and this Society is ready to carry out the prayers of Christians. On every side, from every part of the world, there come to it cries for assistance, which for lack of funds we are unable to meet. Is this as it should be in rich, abundant, and luxurious England ? Can it be true that Christianity has disseminated itself throughout the land, if there is wanting the energy to carry out the first duty of the Church by spreading 304 The Came of God's Blessing on a Nation, It over every part of the world? Let this not be said in this neighbourhood. Let every clergyman resolve that his parish shall take part in carrying out this work, and then God's blessing will rest on all, as members of this mighty nation ; for those who water others shall be watered themselves. XXXIV. Upon the necessity of a native ministry. Jubilee Meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Lo?ido?t, Jtme 17, 185 1. — Chairman, H. R. H. Prince Albert. May it please your Royal Highness — Ladies and Gentlemen : The resolution which has been committed to me is as follows : — "That, notwithstanding the success which has attended the labours of the Society's missionaries in heathen lands, the best hope of bringing the various races of the earth to a knowledge of Christ, must always depend, under Divine providence, upon the efforts of a native ministry." After what has passed at this meeting, and at this hour, it will be my purpose to confine what I have to say within the narrowest possible limits, and the resolution which has been committed to me seems to con- tain two propositions which it will be my duty just simply to state, and to enforce with the very fewest possible words. They are these ; first, that it is the bounden duty of this nation and of this Church, to care for all the various races of the heathen, for this is implied in the very wording of the resolu- tion ; and, secondly, that the way in which alone it can hope to discharge this duty, and to carry out this mission, is by settling among these various tribes a native ministry, which, in the language and with the blood of that people which it seeks to rescue for Christ, shall approach them with the spiritual powers given by our Lord to the ministry of His Church. Now, Sir, it will take very few words of mine, I think, to enforce in such a meeting as this the proposition, that a church never can truly be the church of any new people, until it is reproduced out of the blood of that people. It is perfectly U o 06 Church Fitted to Co7istitution of our N attire. true that the first missionary efforts amongst every people, must, by the constitution of things, be made by those who be- long to another land — by the members of some land which has already received Christianity. And as this is necessary, so, blessed be God, it is true that the faltering accents of such men, who have gone forth with a mighty love for man, and a simple faith in God, when brought home to the hearts of those who hear them by the working of God's Spirit, have power enough to break do^vn all the resistance of old supersti- tion and of national habits, and to plant the Church of Christ in that land. But, under these circumstances. Sir, the work is done at a manifest disadvantage ; and if we suffer it to rest there, we act contrary to the first principles of the Church of Christ, and contrary to the constitution of our nature, to which the Church of Christ is, in every respect, fitted and assimilated. It is contrary to the constitution of our nature, because that which comes to every one of us in the beloved accents of our mother tongue, comes even at first with an advantage which cannot be possessed by that which comes to us in a strange tongue, or in the broken accents of one faltering forth our own speech. And, Sir, I think we may see this principle acted on by God himself in the history of the Church of Christ, even from the beginning. Can any one of us forget that the very first outpouring of that Divine Spirit, whose living agency was aroused to found the Church and to build it up, was marked by this outward sign, that people of all tribes and languages did all hear them speak in their own tongues the manifold works of God ? It is contrary to the constitution of the Church to endeavour thus to spread the faith, because it is one of the first principles of Christianity, that we should, in teaching it, take advantage of all that before it has been true and real amongst those to whom we speak, and from it as a vantage ground to advance to further triumphs. Now, on this prin- ciple, it most eminently becomes us to take advantage of the great law of family life, which God has made co-extensive with the existence of our species. We should endeavour to seize Christianity and Family Life. 307 upon these natural appointments, and by their aid to draw those who know as yet little beyond them to the knowledge of that which will afterwards be the true sanctifying and en- nobling principle of family hfe itself Now this cannot be done until the Church is reproduced out of the native stock and elements of the country to which it goes. Until then it is at best but a garrison of strangers — it is truly a foreign religion ; it is that which is necessarily alienated from all family life ; it is, indeed, in its earliest beginning an element of dissension and of division in famihes. And so it must continue to be until it has reproduced itself out of the native race ; so, until there are some who can address fathers, and mothers, and brothers, and sisters, with the just aid of the affections which gather round such relationships; until there are some, who, having been themselves penetrated by the truths of Christian- ity, speak first of all to those who are linked to them by the ties of blood which the Almighty has made so potent to move the hearts of men. And then. Sir, this is not all, but further, the very essential nature of the Church of Christ is, that it is a leavening and self-incorporating principle, that it is not to continue a foreign thing, external to any people whom it es- pouses, but that it is to penetrate their whole life, and that for this very purpose it is gifted by God with powers of self-adap- tation and expansion j that it is not even to be a mere science of philosophy, learned by the intellect, and handed on as an intellectual science, but that it is to show itself to be, indeed, a new spiritual life, reproducing itself out of that people, and moulding, leavening, glorifying, and purifying all that it finds amongst them. Thus it may be seen to possess a various con- stitutional character in each separate nation in which it plants itself, whilst it has certain great lines of common truth, common organisation, and common blessedness. And so. Sir, if this be the case, we may hold that no mission has as yet done its work, which has not yet reproduced the Church which it came to plant in that nation which it has visited, — which has not gathered teachers, pastors, evangelists— I will say bishops, — which has not gathered, what the noble Earl before me so well 3o8 When Supernatural Assistance is Withdrawn. described, the instruments of the principle of increase, from the new race in which it is planted. Now, Sir, as at the first the powers necessary for the work of converting the earth were given supernaturally at Pentecost, for this plain reason, that the uninstructed fishermen of the Lake of Gennesaret could in no other way have acquired the mastery of languages which they needed, and when they had thus gathered in their first converts they, out of them, ordained elders in every city ; and as it is according to the dealings of God always to withdraw supernatural assistance, when, by the faithful and diligent use of His ordinary gifts, the same result may be obtained, so we may see that it must be according to His will, first, that the command of all tongues, which He gave at Pentecost by an immediate illapse of the Spirit, should now be obtained by the slower process of training in those languages ; and then, next, that the first converts should be trained by human means to take up and carry on the work of conversion amongst their brethren. And then, Sir, if this be so, what is the other proposition which my resolution declares ? Surely it is one which needs even fewer words than the one on which I have spoken. It is that to every one in these tribes of the earth, we, the Eng- lish people and the English Church, have a direct mission from our God. And can we acknowledge any less responsi- bility ? Is it not, in the very first place, the very correlative of ourselves possessing the truth of Christianity, that we should spread it wheresoever we can, as far as God enables us ? Is it not the very same voice which has instructed us in our own hopes, and has given us our own blessings, which has said — *' Go ye into all the world, and make disciples of every crea- ture?" And all the after-indications of God's providence j)oint us to the same duty. For it is a necessary condition of the law of government of free moral beings by a Supreme Creator, that He should mark out their several duties, and lead them in their course of obedience by the indication of external circumstances ; and therefore in these external circumstances, rightly considered, we may read just as distinctly a direct Civilisation without Moxy. 309 command, as if a voice spake to us from the heaven over us, addressing our natural ears. When, then, God has given to a people or a Church a special power of doing any work, the gift of that power of doing the work is itself a direct charge to do it. Now, sir, if we consider the case of many people of this earth, — if we take, for instance, the case of inland nations which have as yet but little communication with the world without,— and contrast for a moment their position with the position which the providence of God has given to this kingdom of Great Britain, we see, I think, that never was there laid on any people such a charge of doing this work as there is upon us. Surely it is the very correlative of our maritime greatness, of our colonial strength, of our having a language which now is spoken from one end of the earth to the other, of our having institutions at once so elastic and so strong that they will bear transplanting and re- naturalising in every part of the world — it is the very correla- tive of ail these gifts that we should be bound, as by a voice from God, to spread that truth, and to plant that Church, which it is His great and beneficent intention should be spread as wide and preached as broadly as the wants and miseries of man extend. But again. Sir, I think that no Englishman, and, indeed, no thoughtful man of any nation, can look back to the whole history of the intercourse of civilised nations with barbarous tribes, without feeling that over and above this general duty, there has been incurred in almost every single instance a debt — a deep and wide debt — to those people, and that we owe them, not only on account of the general claims of human- ity, but also as an act of retributive justice, this greatest of boons — the making them acquainted with the Gospel of Christ. Surely, Sir, we Englishmen must feel this. It is said in language of the highest eloquence, because of the strictest truth, of one unhappy period of English rule in British India, (they are the words of a living historian,) — -"Then was seen that most fearful spectacle, the presence of the power of civilisation without its mercy." And he goes on to describe 310 Present Indian Policy of Efigland. that time. He shows how at that single interval— a single exception, and a black one, in the bright day of British rule in India— India was regarded by the greater number of Eng- lishmen merely as a country in which they could in the shortest time accumulate the greatest means of physical en- joyment with which to return to England. Thank God ! Sir, that time has passed away. Thank God ! Sir, I believe we may say it fearlessly, that greatest problem, which no heathen nation, however civilised, was able in any measure to solve —how a distant, a helpless, and easily despoiled people could be governed with the most exact justice, with the most bene- ficent kindness, with the most far-sighted liberality— that great problem which Rome endeavoured to solve, and which not all her persecution of such men as Verres ever enabled her to discover— has, I believe, been solved in the rule of British India in a way which it would be impossible almost to excel. I thank God that so it is : that this return for those past oppressions has been made to India. But, surely, our past as well as our present relations to that land bind on us one further necessary duty; that is, that we should not only give such people justice — that we should not only give them peace, the safe possession of that which they have earned— nay, that we should not only give them secular education, and the means of enlarging their intellects ; but that we should give them that which is our choicest gift, that which alone can make all other gifts worth the having,— the knowledge of themselves and of their God, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures; with the powers of renewal and life which are stored for all in Christ's holy Church. I trust then, Sir, that I am suggesting to this meeting no- thing exaggerated, nothing to which they may for a moment give admission under a warmth of feeling, but to which, when this warmth has passed away, they may look back almost with a blush, when I would beg them to pledge themselves this day to their belief in the truth of this proposition, and to practical acting upon it; that it is the duty of every Eng- lish Churchman to be doing something to give to every dis- Our National Duty, 3 1 1 tant tribe of the earth, reproduced in men of its own blood, the ministry of Christ's Church. I cannot doubt for a mo- ment that this is our national duty ; and if it be our national duty, it must be our only national safety to discharge it ; for woe be to that people, however great, however wealthy, however enlightened, which shrinks back from that special duty which the Ruler of the world has committed to its charge. It needs no strange and supernatural interference with its des- tinies, for the judgments of God to accomplish their purposes of wrath on such a people. He has so bound things to- gether in this world, that they who in their day of oppor- tunity will not do the duty to which by that opportunity He calls them, find themselves unawares superseded by others who undertake the vocation to which they were faithless. And see how the blessings of obedience, or the curse of dis- obedience, naturally wait for us. If through His grace we do spread throughout the world our own Church, and our own faith, in each one of these native tribes, we shall have established bonds of connection ; we shall have established instruments of future intercourse; we shall have laid a cer- tain foundation (and though this motive may at first seem to be a low one, yet let us note it, for it is always right to mark the ordinary providential arrangements of God for carry- ing out His great purposes) — we shall, I say, have laid a sure foundation for further mercantile intercourse, with all the blessings which accompany such intercourse, because we shall have reproduced, in a great degree, that which is the seminal principle of our own habits, and which will natu- rally make that nation seek for its own advantage by future intercourse with us. But if, on the other hand, we shrink from the discharge of this duty — if we let another nation be the evangeliser of the earth— what do we do but hand over to that other nation, with its discharge of this duty of evangelising the earth, all those correlative, social, and national blessings, which God would otherwise have given to us ? This, Sir, is tliat to which I trust the meeting will pledge 312 Divisions Conseqite7it tipon Activity. themselves; and I rejoice to know that, not in this room only, and on this occasion, and under this presidency, such duties as these are felt, and such engagements as these are formed — I rejoice, Sir, to know (and I know that you will sym- pathise with that joy), that through many a village parish from one end of this land to the other, the hard-working labourer and the ill-paid artisan puts weekly by his penny or his sixpence for the objects of this Society. Sir, you have spoken and others have spoken of divisions, and of sorrows, and of grief of heart; and God knows how they press upon those to whom in any degree the duty of government is at this time committed in His Church ; but yet let us not look only, as you bid us not look only, at the picture's gloomy side. For in some measure these evils are, after all, the necessary correlatives of intense and active life. There may have been times of greater quietness in the Church, but were they always times of equal activity? There have been times of greater union ; but when men are asleep they do not find out their disunion. I say, therefore, Sir, taking up the note you struck for us at the beginning, whilst we lament, whilst we pray and labour against such disunion, let us take comfort too. Never can I believe that this nation of England, or this Church of England, are for- saken of God, when I see them doing the works for Him which at this moment we are permitted to do. A laborious ministry, a multiplied episcopate, a Church spreading itself into every land, every year seeing God's Word translated into some new tongue, and articulated by new mouths — these are not the signs of a deserted or a falling Church. Sir, even what we are doing to-day — the keeping the Third Jubilee, presided over by you — a beginning which will be re-echoed in every part of this wide-spread empire, — even this is full of hope. For here is a work in which all participate ; from the poorest member of our Church, who, in grateful acknowledgment of God's past mercies, brings his hardly spared penny, up to you, Sir, who, from beside the throne Signs of Activity, 3 1 3 on which our beloved Queen sits, lead us on to-day in this our high emprise, all have one common object, and discharge one common work. And this is a sign, I humbly trust, of God's presence with us. It is a promise of united and there- fore of successful enterprise, which may enable us to throw aside, with thankful, although with humble hearts, ten thou- sand auguries of evil. XXXV. Upon the reason why the missionary efforts of THE church of ENGLAND WERE NOT EARLIER MADE. — From a Lecture on India and CJmrch Mis- sions^ Readings November 23, 1857. In entering upon this wide field I think we ought first to take a few general considerations into account as to why it is that we ought to be a missionary people at all j why we ought not to be contented with having our own blessings at home, and trying to make our own people better^and God knows there is work enough to be done in that way to occupy a whole generation — why we ought not to confine ourselves to that, and why we should, instead of doing so, be endeavouring before we have become perfect at home to try and carry the knowledge of Christ throughout the world. The first reason is a very simple one. It is this — God's way as we found it in the beginning of the Church, when the holy apostles, full of the goodness of the blessed Spirit, began to work, was not that it should be made perfect at home, but that it should be spread everywhere at once. And that really to a Christian man is a sufficient answer. We find that the first apostles, when there were a great many evils to be overcome in the Church where it had been already planted, instead of waiting till those evils should have been corrected, spread themselves over the face of the whole earth to bring in the masses who had never heard of the faith. And the reason for this was plain enough. Never in any way are we to suppose that even the Gospel of Christ itself will bring all who hear it into the fold. On the contrary, you know perfectly well that our blessed Lord has left to you an universal rule that even where the Gospel was spread of Christianity Ilhistrated. 3 1 5 preached it is, comparatively speaking, the few whom it possesses so thoroughly to make them new men ; whereas the majority, from the love of this world, reject it in its purity. Therefore if we were to wait, knowing that, it never could spread at all. But, on the contrary, every new place in which it is preached, where it lays hold of a certain number of souls in its power, is to become a new centre, from which it is to shoot forth into the darkness. Just as when boys take the burning wood which they have lighted, and in the darkness strike it against something, and you see the sparks flashing and spangling, and shooting themselves into the thick darkness around, so it is with that light of the Church. It is to strike against heathenism, to dash its sparks of life on every side around into the thick blackness, and it is, where it lights upon congenial hearts, to do even as those sparks do — to light up another fire, which fire in its turn is to be a new centre, from which centre is to be cast forth into the darkness again until at last the Gospel has been preached to all nations under heaven. Now, you see that this is the beginning. And then not only have we here in this, as they of old, the pattern and the example of the first Church, but we have the distinct words of our Lord, because He foresaw all these difficulties. He knew that man would be slow to believe. He knew that the few would be gathered together. He knew — who better than He who wept as He did over hard-hearted Jerusalem ? — He knew the hardness of the heart of man, and the difficulty of bringing it to its true peace. And therefore He laid down the rule, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." And therefore, observe, we come to this conclusion — that wherever His Gospel is planted there it is the duty of those who have received it — even though as yet at home it has by no means asserted its undoubted supremacy — it is yet the duty of those who have received it to pass on that word of truth to those who have as yet known it not. And this, to me, always appears to be a very remarkable argu- ment, because it shows the oneness of the God of nature with the God of grace. I think the whole of nature around us, when we 3 1 6 World of Nahire and World of Grace. come to read it in the light of Christianity, is a sort of parable ex- pounding its truth to us. There is nothing good, there is nothing great, there is nothing living that the God of nature has given us in this world, which does not by the very law of its own being impart itself even in its own existence a condition and law of existence to all things that are round about it. Look at the sun ; what does it do ? Fancy the sun in the firmament not imparting light, colour, and life, and all the means of vegetable Hfe to everything in this world. Fancy such a thing. And what have you fancied ? You have fancied the extinction of the sun \ because while it is the sun God has sent to rule in the natural heavens, it must by the very law of its being impart itself, and its colour, and its light, and its living influence to all things that it can reach in this universe. Look at the stars which spangle the sky. Look at the moon waiting the interval of the sun's rays to cast its glory on this planet and those who dwell therein. Look at the fountain of water which breaks out from the sides of the hill — look at that water as it sparkles and descends down the hill-side, breaking from rock to rock — look at that water murmuring and dancing along its pebbly bed, and ask yourselves why it is that it is unlike the water that is dammed up in some deep sepulchral pool, covered with weed and scum, and avoided by living creatures, because of the pestilential vapours that are bred from its unclean breast. Why is the difference? Because the one is imparting to every animal, every bird, and every vegetable thing which is nourished round about its track, and the other is bedded up in its own obdurate selfishness, and imparts itself to nothing. And so it is if you examine it through nature. What is the growth of the corn but the same law — life imparting its influence to all which can be profited and fed by its increase ? And so I say the law of nature bears exactly the same stamp with this law of grace, both of them coming from the same God and the same Lord. To have is to impart. There is no secret for preserving it in its purity but this one, — spreading, increasing, thrusting itself forth, ministering to their souls, giving of its own plenty, fulfilUng the word of the great Lord, ''Freely hast thou received, What Rome Was, 3 1 7 freely do thou give." Here, my friends, is the very beginning. A Church of Christ founded anywhere must, if it is to keep for itself the pure faith of Christ — it must be an imparter of that faith to those who have not got it. It is planted in the world for this purpose. It is under the action of this, its original charter, it is bound by this as its great original condition, it must give as the condition of keeping this what it has received. And now then, to come from this general proposition to the history of the particular effort with which we have to do. You may ask, — How was it possible, whereas the religion of Christ was planted in this kingdom of Great Britain so many hundred years ago, that this Society can only date, at the furthest, two hundred years back? A grave question, and one worthy of being answered. Why, brethren, this was the reason : — In this country, as you know, until a comparatively recent period, a part of that great western Christianity, which only in Rome had its centre, had spread itself over the west of Christendom. Now, among the many corruptions of that western Church at that time, this was, perhaps, the head and very much the cause. in one way, of all the others — that earthly ambition had con- tinually tended to gather up in the City of Rome, in the Bishops of Rome, and in the hierarchy of Rome, all the power of the Christian Church which owned in any degree subjection to Rome, It is quite impossible to conceive anything more clever, more astute, more exhausting to the powers of the human mind, than the multiplicity of means, touching family life, touching political life, touching civil life, touching the civil law of nations, touching, of course, pre-eminently religious life, than that whole series of expedients, and rites, and arguments, and facts, and arrangements by which Rome had continued to draw to itself, as the only living centre of action and of thought, all the energies of every people that had submitted themselves to her spiritual domination. It was very much, indeed, like what you see in the autumn time, when you may perceive a o 1 8 Rome as the Centre of Missions. vast, intricate web hanging from the side of one tree down to the shrub below, every one of those single threads conducting to the same central point, and that central point with one single thread from it leading to the place where that cunning insect, which has divided the whole, sits ready to bring its presence by an almost omnipresent readiness to every part of that great w^eb, so as to seize as its own prey that which comes into any portion of it. That, my Christian friends, is the history of what Rome was. I don't mean to say that there were not those connected with it who were in many respects good. There were. We never do the cause of truth good by undervaluing the other side. In times of great barbarity — in times when robber chieftains disputed with tyrannous subjects • the command of all those western kingdoms, no doubt there was often a shelter for the poor — a shelter for the oppressed, and a shelter for learning and virtue under this vast colossal ecclesiastical power which had been raised up, and at that time was the only opposite influence to the violence and oppression which had spread itself so widely over the earth. But we are here to deal with one particular point. The effect of this is to show you that Rome had drawn to itself the whole machinery for discharging its great duty on the earth — the evangelising the world. Everything was to go forth from Rome. The whole machinery was there. There was the body which governed every attempt in every part of the world to send out a mission to heathendom. It was the centre of the mighty web. There could not come from the English church, nor from the French church, nor from the Belgian church, or any especial church — there could not go forth any such efforts, because each one of those who was moved to such efforts was bound to go with those desires to Rome, as the fountain head, to receive from Rome his mission, and to go forth from Rome. Aye, and remember that the people of Great Britain were just as much possessed by that belief as any other part of the world, that every great appeal went to be settled at Rome, that every earnest man who was desirous to Hemy VIII.' s Share in the Reformation. 319 convert the heathen was drawn to Rome, if he was judged worthy of the work, in order that from Rome he might be sent forth. And you will see that the whole machinery was moved from the extremity. It was just like the finger of a man endeavouring to think for itself whether it should go a journey to Brighton ; if it did take such a step, unquestionably it would be crushed and severed from the system. And so would any English Christian if he dreamt at any time of devising such a scheme as this without going back to the great centre ; the only result would have been that he would be cut off from the great system. Then when it pleased God in His infinite mercy to grant that a purer light of a restored faith should rise up in this our land, when our fathers under the most wonderful leading of the providence of God shook off that vile yoke which for so long a time had failed all our religious endeavours, the very lust of one of the most profligate and tyrannous of our monarchs that ever ruled, by God's wise and blessed providence became the occasion of favouring the true hearty love of a purer faith, which at that time was slumbering in the breasts of thousands of his subjects. The power of the King did no more do it than does the pitchfork you put into some smoking heap which the moment you move it is ready to break into a flame — I say the King no more caused that breaking forth of the purer faith than the pitchfork caused the bursting forth of the flame. The fire had been there sleeping, it is moved, and then it leaps up with its thousand tongues and illuminates the darkness of the sky. It was the pitchfork which moved the mass, and allowed the slumbering fire to declare itself. But mark what followed. There came first of all years of struggle for the reformed and perfected Church. The fires of Smithfield every now and then broke out, seeking to destroy the bodies of those who held the truth, and from their fires lighting in the darkness around sprang the purer repetition of the one great bright light of Christ's faith. Then after that there was that mighty revolution in the other direction, when the country was torn asunder by o 20 Boyky Oidginator of Church Missions. a lawless form of religion, which resented all fixed faith and fixed morals, and would have wasted itself in the barren assertion of the duty of individuals to be a Church in them- selves, instead of assembling together under the faith of Christ's teaching. And these great waves rolling upon the strand, first one and then another, in their blackness occupied not only the civil and temporal, but the whole religious mind of this country for generations of men, until they had come clear, as things do com.e clear, by the settling down of the dregs, and the exhaustive process, by which it had, as it were, cleared itself, as we know things do clear themselves when they ferment and cast the scum at the top and the dregs at the bottom, and the good, solid, sound liquor comes out in the midst. And so it was with this people of England. And then it was that they began to look around, and they found this, that they had no mission, no way of teaching the heathen man, that they were spreading the Gospel nowhere. And why ? Because, mark you, the machinery was at Rome ; they had never been used to do anything for themselves. And so when we were cut off, when we were severed from that old Roman connection, all the missionary agency which hitherto we had been able to use was cut off from us by the same blow which severed us from the corruptions of that greatly superstitious body. And so there was to be formed again for us as a Church, a new machinery through which this work of Christ was to be carried out. It was not until about two centuries ago, when this nation had so settled down from all those vast turmoils and difficulties which belonged, first of all, to the old superstitious faith, and then to our wrenching ourselves from it at the Reformation, that the minds of good people began to turn to the need of this external exertion. And the first beginning ot it was among a few pious laymen in the Church of England. I am bound in justice to say that the movement began with the laity rather than with the clergy. One man especially, of noble birth — all honour to him as a philosopher and as a S.P. C.K, The Parent Missionary Society, 321 Christian — a man ahead of his generation by many degrees — Boyle by name — he was the original suggester of the Christian Knowledge Society, which was the first beginning of any movement in this our reformed land, among any sect or denomination of Christians, for spreading the truth among the heathen people abroad. XXXVI. Upon the duty of the inhabitants and visitors of watering-places to support missions. — society for the propagation of the gospel MEETING — A berystwith. After urging the duty incumbent on us as a Nation, as a Church, and as individuals, to labour for the extension of the Church, and after setting forth the Society's operations, the Bishop continued : — I ask you not to waste any feeling that must be kindled in the heart by looking this subject in the face — not to let it waste itself as the extinguishing taper which burns out and leaves everything in the dark ; but in the moment of feeling, T ask you to make some act of self-denial by which this mighty work may be helped forward. Specially I would ask you to give your names as subscribers. I care not materially for what sum, if you only give what you feel you can give, be it only half-a-crown, or five shillings, or a pound in the year — if it be only such a trifle as that, and there is hardly a man or a woman here to whom it would not be a trifle ; yet if you resolve now, God helping you, to be a subscriber to this Society, you will be doing one thing to make the work more effectual, and enable us better to meet the multitudinous claims coming in upon us from every part of the earth. Of course those who are only visitors here cannot put their names down here as subscribers ; but do it at home, and give us an earnest of the gift by the present sacrifice. I know the excuse made by the inhabitants of these water- ing places on such an occasion as this. " We live mainly," they InhabitLtnts and Visitors of Water i7ig-P laces. 32 say, " by what comes to us in the season, and we cannot be expected to do much ; the visitors ought to do it." That is not true. You who live here have a duty to perform. You who live here are bound to send from this place aid to the heathen world, and to the poor emigrant to a distant land. You cannot expect the blessing of God upon your daily work, if you withhold from Him what is due to Him. You remem- ber the old trial of faith, " Do as thou hast said, provide for thyself and the child, but make me a little cake first." And what came of it ? The barrel of flour did not waste, and the cruse of oil did not fail, from which the offering had been taken, until the Lord sent rain upon the earth. Well, I have told you what the Inhabitant says, and now I am going to tell you what the Visitor says. The Visitor says, — " This is a meeting at Aberystwith, and I am come from a distant part. I shall give at home. I am not going to give anything here, that would be quite out of the question." And so between the two, such Societies as these get nothing; because the poor man residing here trusts to the liberality of the visitor, and the visitor trusts to the liber- ality of the resident. I hope I have shown that the resident has no good excuse, and I think I can do the same thing with regard to the visitors. I saw some of the visitors walking, as I have been walking by the sea-side, and delighting in that beautiful coast ; watching the waters chase one another, and throw themselves over with that curve of unequalled beauty with which the bounding wave throws itself upon the hissing strand. I have seen them looking with me upon the sea-gulls as they cast themselves on the crest of the billows to get the food with which God feeds them out of the foam. I have seen them as the wind saluted their cheeks and ministered health to their frames. And are they to return nothing to God who gives them here all these blessings ? Are they to come here, and, as it were, skim off the cream of the beauty of nature and of health, at the sea- side, and see no correlative obligation ? To say, I take all from the God of Nature, I give nothing back to the God of 324 Parochial Associations Urged. Grace ? No ! if you would have health and enjoyment m this your tarrying here by the sea, which, remember, is His, because He made it, give to Him as He has given to you, and be sure that you will not give in vain. Remember the very fact of your being here shows that there is some superfluity somewhere, or else you would not have come. Take out of that superfluity and give to the Lord. It may be that some of the parochial clergy are here, and I should like, in the absence of my dear brother, the Bishop of the Diocese, whose mind I know I speak, to say a few words to them. There is nothing which so helps our home ministry, as interesting our people in the missionary work of the Church. Instead of diminishing the collections for Home Work, it increases them very soon four-fold. Nobody, and especially no Briton, is interested in a losing cause. No- body, and especially no Briton, takes an interest in a thing that is almost dying or dead. He says. No, let us go to some- thing better. But if you represent the Church as it is, as a conquering army, terrible with banners, and carrying its victories over every part of the earth; and if you get a poor man in your parish to take any share, if but by subscribing a penny with his prayers in this great work, depend upon it you have bound him to the Church by a bond which, because it is spiritual, will reach deeper down into the great centre of his heart, than if you had stuffed his head with twenty thousand conventionalities. Therefore, I say, for our own sake, let us see that we do, in every parish, have' our parochial association representing this Society, the great Handmaid of the Church and nation. In this work, I am sure, he that lendeth to the Lord may look with joy upon what he has lent, because he shall most undoubtedly receive it again. XXXVII. Upon the death of bishop patteson. — Convocation, Feb. lo, 1872. It gives me very great pleasure to be able to be present and propose, what I am sure every one in this House, from your Grace to the youngest SujOfragan, will unite in with but one feeling of sad satisfaction — the testimony of our admiration for Bishop Patteson's self-sacrifice, and at the same time our deep regret for Bishop Patteson's loss. I do not propose to alter in any respect the wording of the resolution as it has come from the Lower House. It is an honour to any branch of the Church to be thought Avorthy of presenting to our Lord the offering of a martyr's blood. The whole history of the Church teaches us the truth of the saying that " The blood of the martyr is the seed of the Church ; " and I, for one, can- not doubt that so it will be here ; — that that self-devotion of a life, so much more even than the self-devotion of the last act of a life ; — that the self-devotion of that good and now sainted man's whole life, — his giving up home and home prospects, home affections, and a position at home which might naturally have placed him in the front of our own Church, — giving all these up with a glad heart and a ready and willing mind, that he might make the name of Christ known to those unhappy men in darkness and in the shadow of death ; — that that devotion of a life was the true prepara^tion for martyrdom, and that that which gave its significance to the last act of such a course is what we contemplate to-day. Well, I have no doubt that there in that remote part, through God's grace and mercy, it will be productive of the most blessed consequences. I think that at home, too, it ought to raise the 326 Bishop PattesoiCs Death. tone of the whole Church to have such an example rising out of its midst. And when, my lords, we know that we have here amongst us one who sowed the first seed of that Mission- one who was indeed a father in God to him who has now been taken by this path of martyrdom to his rest, it brings home that distant island to our very side with a vividness which ought to create in our minds a corresponding glow. There- fore, while we do express our deep sympathy with all those at whom this blow was struck, and our great admiration for him who has given himself up to the martyr's death, I trust that it may also, amongst us at home, tend to quicken our devotion to that faith in Christ for which he lived, and to that zeal with which he died. I heartily rejoice in the Upper House of Con- vocation of this province being called on to unite with the Lower House in this graceful and proper act of expressed sympathy ; and I will venture to move so far that we in this House adopt as our own the memorial which has been sent to us from the Lower House. If it should meet your Grace's sanction, I should wish to add one thing to it, but separated from it. I do not now propose it, however ; but I should much like to add an address, in which the Lower House should be asked to concur, to her INIajesty the Queen, praying her Majesty to take such measures as may be necessary to • stop that accursed trade in man which has led to this immediate act. I will not now do more than throw this out as what I hope I may be allowed to propose, because I would not mix it up with the adoption of this memorial. XXXVIII. Upon the duty of supporting missions as the SPECIAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. — Reading, Nov. 12, i860. After some introductory observations, the Bishop said : — Now as to this great Society. You have heard that there has been, upon the whole, a very considerable increase in the funds contributed to it from this diocese. Let us thank God for that. But let us not be content with doing merely that duty. Let us resolve each one to ask ourselves whether we are discharging our share of the duty as we ought to do. I have no hesitation in saying that it is not done throughout England, even where it is the most done, as it should be done by us. I believe one of the great reasons why it is not done is, that there are a very large number of people to whom the duty of giving has never been thoroughly brought home. I believe there is a vast floating readiness to do our duty in this way, which really does want to be called into action. I have seen repeated instances of it. I saw a remarkable one the other day. At a meeting of this very Society it was my special duty, representing the Society, to state its case at length. The effect of that which was stat©'' at that meeting was this — that one gentleman present, a meik- ber of parliament for that part of the country, possessed of large means, and realising with those means vast respon- sibilities, said, with great simplicity, that the duty of giving to this Society had never been properly brought home to him — that he had once given a donation to it, and then thought that he was free from any further charge. He, how- ever, then realised the fact that he had been doing much 328 Missions Injured dy Machinery of Societies. less than he ought, and he became a subscriber of ;£"5o a year, the very same amount which our excellent Archbishop of Can- terbury subscribes. I believe this is only an example of a great many more. The truth is, that in many ways the great mis- sionary work of England is injured by the machinery of the Societies through which it works. There is a cramping of the mind — a cramping which is almost inseparable from the working of Societies. Men cannot pray for the success of a Society as they can pray for the success of a Church. ]\Ien cannot labour with the same large-heartedness if they look at it as the work of a Society, and not as the advancement of the work of the Lord. This not only affects the soul in its higher functions of prayer, but also in its lower operations of alms-giving, and so is the cause of that miserable guinea subscription, that degrading system. It is quite natural to give a guinea to an ordinary Society, it is a most unnatural thing to give a guinea for the spread of Christ's kingdom and the salvation of souls. Therefore^ what we want is to have the cause more before us, and to labour for the cause, less in a Society spirit, and with more of the expansive- ness of the Christian heart. In doing this we shall bring blessings back upon ourselves — upon our religion, our families, and our country. We want it exceedingly as members of this nation of England. We want it for all reasons — because it is impossible that the signal blessings which we have received from God should be continued to us, and handed down, unless we use them for His purposes. We may see these purposes in secondary things — such as our insular position, which makes this country the pivot of the commerce, the civilisation, the thought and the activity of the world. Yet this very position which gives us a wonderful opportunity for doing God's service, also gives us, through our separation from all other people, a certain angularity and a profound conviction that everything of our own is better, wiser, richer, stronger than anything else in the whole world. You all know that this is our national weakness. You may see it in everything around us. Look at all the foreign caricatures, and what is old John Bull always The Ill-Effects of Otcr Instclar Posit io7i. 329 doing, but bustling about with a predominant sense of his own wisdom in everything he undertakes ? Look across the Atlantic, and there you see an Englishman under a magnify- ing glass. Place your hand under a magnifying glass, the result is that you see an unpleasant monstrosity of skin. The American is an Englishman under a magnifying glass. It is our fault. If we had been true to our duty, and when we colonised America had sent out the Church in its integrity as we ought to have done — if we had not refused them the English Episcopate — if we had not forced upon them slavery with all its horrors, the American might have been a true representative of the ancient Briton. We took across the Atlantic to that great nation the representation of our follies, and withheld from them the very system which God had given to us, and which was meant to bless the Avorld. And so you may see the magnification of the Englishman's faults. Such has been our conduct with regard to our colonies in all the rest of the world. Such, too, is the result of our insular position, and how is it to be counteracted ? By making that spot of the earth a spot from which shall beam forth those messages of love and kindness to the whole world. In this way will our self-complacency be molten down by the internal ardour of our Christian affection ; and these traits of our national character, like the dross, when put into the refiner's pot, will be burnt up by the bright flame of a true Christian love. And so we may see, my friends, how the blessing would reflect upon us ; and it is the same as to our hearty support of the Christian polity. We can do nothing, depend upon it, which so directly tends to enlarge the heart of every people, as to make them feel their own Christianity, to make them love their own Church, and endeavour to spread the work of God abroad. Now many people are afraid that if they do this, they shall throw away some of those sensations of earnestness which are specially wanted at home. I know that in many small parishes the clergyman says, " But I can hardly main- tain my parish school, and if I were to introduce into my parish an association for the propagation of the Gospel, I 00 o Home JVor/e not Injured by For^eign. should throw away the few shilUngs or few pounds I now get for my school, and therefore instead of benefiting my parish, I should do it harm." It is altogether a fallacy. Why is it that the men of the parish give so little for those immediate wants ? Because their hearts are not thoroughly warmed with Christian love. That's the reason. How can you warm them with Christian love without getting them to exert themselves, under the help of God, in acts of love ? It is like the wheel kind- ling with its own revolutions. Get the man to begin his action, and you will get him very soon through the friction of action into a state of heat, developed out of himself through action. It is exactly like what you tell a man to do when you want a supply of water from a hard pump. You say when he has got a little drop out of it, pour that little back again into the small hole, and it will make the sucker act with greater vigour. Now I am afraid my friends in the small parishes are content with the little drop in the pail, instead of pouring it back to make the pump suck. If I could only get them in every single parish to begin to teach people the secret of the blessed- ness of spending for God, there would be an increased supply of Christian liberality arising out of the very earnestness created. And, therefore, I am quite confident that there can be no blessing so great for this country as the encouragement and carrying out of this principle. If we allow the blood to curdle around the heart, instead of encouraging that heart by mighty pulses to send it duly to every extremity, trusting through God's universal law that the veins shall duly send it back again when it has done its duties in those extremities, and feed again the heart, which again shall oxygenate it, and shoot it forth to every extremity of the body ;— if instead of that, with a miserly and miserable physical ignorance, we say, —Let us curdle it round the heart, that it may keep warm there,— we shall kill the action in our selfish sluggishness. And so it must be with these great objects. When India feels the resources of English love, when North America feels the resources of English love, when we have at St Augustine's students educating to go forth to every part of the world, and A Bishop for Tinnevelly Needed, 3 3 1 in the beloved accents of the Church, preach the Gospel to their brethren, does any man of decent sense present in the room think that England's Church will be starving her children at home, when it has learned to love and do its duty to those abroad ? And really if the work is to be done, it must be done in this way. Another thing, we must employ men of the country, if we wish to evangelise the natives. And Bishops of the Church must be planted in all distant parts of the earth. It is our bounden duty to have a Bishop at Tinnevelly, with its 45,000 converts and its large body of communicants. Why have we not a Bishop to ordain men of that blood, and with a strong hand and with a wide arm, not to gather in a few chance ears of corn, but to reap the mighty harvest which the love of God has ripened for our sickle ? Another thing, we are to provide for those who are to be the clergy, and ultimately, I trust, the Bishops of those distant lands. It is necessary that we should have the opportunity of bringing these men to England for training. Consider the difference of being brought into the heart of Christendom, there to see w^hat Christianity really is, and being able to catch but a faint reflection of its light as it flashes along some distant peak which is but just able to catch and to reflect the passing radiance upon them. We want to bring them home, to steep them with Christian influences, so that they shall be really ready to commence their work when they return, just as the comet starts upon its distant travel, through distant places, warmed by its approach to the mighty sun, from which it has drawn its heat. This is the work we have to do, and to do it it is necessary that our hearts should be in it, our prayers with it, and our purses open to it. The last is the most immediately practicable, and I would strongly urge upon all present that there is in this good town of Reading, a desire to lift up this part of the Church to something nearer to that level which it is our bounden duty that it should reach. XXXIX. For the society for the propagation of THE GOSPEL. — Bath, December ii, i860. I WILL confess, my lord, that it is not without some anxiety that I appear the first time before an audience in this ancient city, to advocate any great cause of our united and apostoHc Church. I could wish that I had every power and every faculty at full command on such an occasion. Indisposition makes this out of the question, and therefore I shall throw myself on your kindness, as far as possible, to receive the best efforts I can this day make. When first my friend on my right (Mr Markland), and your lordship (the Bishop of the diocese), requested me to undertake this office in this city, I felt there was a peculiar reason that might justify me in making it an exception to my common rule of going nowhere where I was not officially or personally connected, because I did feel that Bath had an especial claim on one bearing my paternal name. I can never forget, my lord, the visits which year after year, through my youth and early manhood, I paid to this city, that the age of him who set Africa free might be lengthened by its healing springs ; and as I walked with your lordship to the meeting to-day up the streets of your ancient city, the eye of fancy almost enabled me to see that venerable form beckoning me on to do that, to the utmost of my power, which he was enabled so signally to do — to make Britain a blessing, instead of a curse, to the kingdoms of the earth. Now, my lord, as to the great principles on which these efforts of ours rest, I think it would be idle of me to waste time in speaking. You all admit the duty of sending the Gospel and the Church, of which you are members, to every part of the heathen world. Any man who denies that, denies The Subterftige of Selfishness. 333 Christianity. We must begin further off with such a man ; — we must begin to demonstrate to him the truth of the ever- lasting Gospel, and the obedience due from every Christian to its eternal laws. Even where there is coldness and apathy to the work, and the general proposition as to the duty is admitted, it is much the same. We must begin, if we would do anything effectual, by warming the heart with the true love of Christ, because it is impossible to love our brother truly, unless we have learnt to love him under the aspect of that Divine coun- tenance of love. And therefore, indeed, little need be said on the general principles to such a gathering as I see in this room to-day. There is but one single subterfuge — selfishness, which, so far as general principles are concerned, admits even for a moment being dwelt upon. It is sometimes put forward that we, who advocate foreign missions, draw away an amount of strength and zeal which, if it were spent on our own popula- tion, would work a great change upon the population at home. But I think the answer to this is patent ; for, in the first place, we have no right whatever to improve on the laws laid down by Christ for the government of His Church. It was a law laid down by Him — "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." That the Church interpreted it rightly in saying that this was to be done before, and not after, the perfect conversion of our home population, is proved by this, that in this way the apostles understood it. Were there not at Jerusalem, or Antioch, or any of the other Christ- ian centres, multitudes unconverted, and yet who ever heard that the apostles' zeal was bound down to those existing centres? Is it not notorious to every one of us that the apostles felt bound to extend their labours to the widest cir- cumference of the earth, knowing that it would come back with redoubled power when they had worked the work of God abroad ? We are apt to quote, and I think it is well to do so, the few golden aphorisms that fell from the Duke of Welling- ton, being stamped as they were with such broad, plain, honest . sense. They were a sort of oracular utterings from ,34 Wellington's Testimony to Missions. ' ' The good grey head, that all men knew, The heart to all occasions true, The tower right firm to every wind that blew." Those of you who have read that interesting book called "Boswell's Life of Johnson," will remember that at times persons hankered to get out of old Johnson his condemnation of something they wanted condemned. They went to the great bear of the day, and said to him, "Sir, you won't do this! You must think this very maudlin ; " and how every now^ and then he turned round upon the tempter, and tore him to pieces in the presence of the whole assembly. Now one of these men once went to the Duke of Wellington, in the same sort of spirit, and put the question to him—" Uy Lord Duke, do you approve of these missions to foreign parts when so many people at home are ignorant and uninstructed ? " The inquirer thought he should get a "rise" out of the old soldier; but what he did get was this. The great Captain, in the loud, shouting, military voice which marked the outcoming of his deep-rooted conviction, said :—" What does the Commander- in-Chief say about it? Does He not say, 'Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?'" ^ Thus settling the question and trampling upon his tempter in this impres^'sive way. Well, I think we may let that general objection go, and consider that the Duke of Wellington cut it up, as he did a great many other shams in his day. But beyond the question whether or not it is our duty to extend the Gospel of Christ, comes the practical question,,— What instrument is it best to use in spreading it ? If every man will set himself down, being a member of the Church of England, honestly to settle that question, fully meaning to do all he can when he has settled it, it will be comparatively unimportant. But selfishness lurks under such a question, and many who admit the general proposition, that it is a duty to do something, when they come to the second proposition —then it is their duty to do it, say, " Oh, no ; we are not quite sure whether that is the right way of doing it. ^ There are a great many different societies, and 1 am glad of it ; but Prwiary Claim of the S. P. G. 335 I am not sure that your society is altogether in every respect what I could wish it to be." And old selfishness whispers behind, " Don't give, don't give ; " and thus the man quiets his conscience by listening to this old selfishness. It is there- fore necessary that we should use the best instruments rather than inferior instruments, and this makes it so important to show as to any particular society I may ask you to support, ask you to collect for, or give to, not only that its main quali- fications in spreading the Gospel are good, but also that the society is one that has a special claim on your attention. I believe conscientiously that this Society has the first claim on every Church of England Christian. I believe this, and I say it openly and at once, as I want to get no man's help under false pretences, that it is the rival of no other society, and need not injure any other. So far from that, both, properly treated, help each other; and so far from a town or city giving less to the Church Missionary Society, because it helps the Propagation Society, universal experience shows that it will be exactly the other way. When I was first put in charge of a large parish of some 15,000 inhabitants, I found a committee of the Propagation Society and a committee of the Church Missionary Society working with some sort of antagonism one to the other. I said. This will never do ; I belong to both societies, and can take no part in these jars. Let us unite them together, and collect for the Church of England Missions, and divide between the two societies whatever is given, in common, allowing, of course, any one to make special dona- tions to either. What was the result? Until they did this the Propagation Society collected only ;£; in the parish, and the Church ]\lissionary Society ;^i7. But the very first year after the change the one collected ;^72, and the other jQ^z- It must be so. The work of Christ cannot be done, depend upon it, in a narrow-spirited, contracted, exclusive way, with- out injury to the work, and without most dreadfully endan- gering the workers. I say, then, my friends, I believe this Society has the first claim, and I will show you why, for two reasons. First, because of the object undertaken ; and 336 Object of the S. P. G. secondly, because of the machinery with which this object is carried out. And, first, the object. The whole world lies before us, when we look abroad from this favoured land, needing the light of the Gospel, and needing the establishment of the Church of Christ in its purity. Especially does heathenism so lie before us, and the question is, where are we to go, and how are we to undertake the work? Has God, is the question for you and me, given any intimation to us where we are to go ? We must not give way to the mere inclination of our own mind ; for we read in the Acts that the Apostles, and St Paul especially, did not go where he most desired, because the Spirit suffered him not ; he went in another direction, because . he gathered assuredly that there the Lord had sent him. Now, where is the Lord calling us? How shall we solve this ques- •tion? We shall have no voice from heaven to answer it. We must read in the providential arrangements of the world what is the answer to it. What is the providential arrange- ment that gives us the answer? Surely, it is this— that as the great stream of our fellow-countrymen is flowing forth con- tinually into the desert, it is our first duty, for their sakes and for the sake of the heathen around them, that we first of all consider them. Is not this the universal principle ? Remem- ber, " if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." And can that apply to the bread that perishes, and not to the bread that endureth to life eternal? Now, remember that this stream of emigration is necessarily of the poorest people. It is but here and there that a man provided with the good things of the world at home leaves the abun- dance and power of gratifying every single passion or desire which educated and rich men have at home, to go and bury himself in a distant part of the earth. It is the poor that go ; it is those who are thrust out of the hive, because, if they would exist, they must swarm. It is those who are discontented at home, poor at home, and needy at home, who find the law of home society in a great measure at variance with their inclinations. TJie Cojiseqiience of Spirihial Neglect, 2ill and so cast themselves into the distant desert. Now you can see at once that these are the very men to whom it is impos- sible, when first going out, to plant the Church of Christ in its completeness. How can they obtain and pay a clergyman when they are wringing a hard and difficult subsistence from the yet untilled and reluctant earth ; how can they provide a Bishop over them ? No, just as you send out with the first colonists the seed corn which is to be reproduced in the staple food of the future nation, so you must send out with the first colonists the seed corn of the Church of Christ, in all its truth and its organisation, which is another day to be reproduced amongst the people who shall grow out of that colony. Now, where this has not been done, what is the conse- quence ? We read in one of our own reports of a missionary going for the first time to a distant part of the North American continent, where a handful of British settlers had been long estabhshed ; he comes among them, and finds that no single minister of God's Word and Sacraments has been amongst them since their settling in the waste. What does he find as the result ? That Christianity has so died out amongst them that they have forgotten the very landmarks of the holy city ; that they do not know which is the Lord's day in the week ; that Christian baptism is gone ; that the very habit of giving children Christian names is gone ; and that the children are named by some accident of their appearance or of their birth- place. The very countersign of fellowship in Christ had died out with the long death of the reality. Is not this a frightful thing when we consider that a lapsed Christianity that has gone back into heathenism is, as we might expect it to be, the very worst and most deadly form which heathenism itself can exhibit. Well, now, think of the great river of human life, of everlasting souls, which this emigration of ours, whicli we deal with in figures so lightly, really implies, and then, if you can, endeavour to follow out each of those individuals into the distant land. Think of him not only in the time of health, and with the inestimable fulness of spirit, when, perhaps, he may throw off all thought of the world to Y 338 The Sto7y of a Poor Alan's Donation. come; but think of him, my beloved Christian friends, in the hour of sickness, when he stretches for the first time those limbs which have been so strong to labour, on some pallet of feverish suffering, longing but for one word of that blessed Gospel which once in its abundance he so heedlessly slighted. Follow him and think what it is. A friend of mine told me that, when attending a meeting of this Society in Yorkshire, he was exceedingly struck by the appearance of a man, evidently of the very lowest class— an old man — who came and gave thirty shillings as a donatmi to the Society, saying, — " I wish that put down for me this year." The look of the man struck him as being remarkable, and he asked a friend near who he was, and was informed that he had been a labouring man, was worn out, and was living a widower, in a miserable hut on the heath, and kept himself by keeping a number of bees. My friend followed him, and said, '' I observed you gave thirty shillings ; you are a very poor man, and can ill spare it." He replied, " I am but too glad to give it." My friend said, " Do tell me how you came to think of giving it." He said, " It is a long story, sir, it will tire you to hear it ; I need not tell you all. I will tell you shortly ! " And the story was this. " I and my wife had but one son, a boy of infinite promise — so clever, so beautiful, that we spoilt him utterly. We thought he would make a great figure in the world, and raise himself and us. But he went altogether wrong, became the companion of the most dis- solute young men in the town, was utterly ruined, and at last committed a great crime against the laws of his country, and was transported to Sydney for life. Our hearts were broken — I need not tell you that— as our son, flushed with health and strength, left for Australia. Very soon after he got there, it pleased God to strike him down with sickness, which continued for two or three years. At the end of that time it was thought to be all over with him ; sickness had laid him low in strict confinement, and he laid upon the bed as though of death. He did not know the name of Christ, or how to call upon Him in his extremity, when a missionary of this Society visited him The Stojy of a Poor Mans Donation. 339 in his rounds. It pleased God to soften his heart and to bring the truth home to him ; he was an altered man. Just before this, his pardon was sent out, and a mere wreck, he was allowed to come back to England, and found his way to his home. We saw he had not many years to live after he came. He told us his story. He said, ' I am happier now than I ever was, father, in my days of wild enjoyment!' We nursed him to the end ; and the very last thing he said was this — ' Father, I owe all to that Gospel Propagation Society ; and while you have a shilling, give part of it for your son's sake to its funds.' He had hardly spoken the words when he breathed his last, and his mother and I clasped our hand on his dead heart, and said, ' We will never have anything without giving part of it to that Society which has been the instrument of our son's salvation.'" He added, "I have carried it out; it is now seven years agone, and what I do is this — I set apart the best hive of the year, and whatever it sells for, I bring it on the day of the annual meeting of the Society." My dear friends, living with me in the abundance of Christian privileges, with open churches, open Bibles, faithful ministers, and with the consolation of that blessed Gospel visiting us and ours in every moment of sickness, think, I be- seech you, upon your fellow-countrymen, outcasts in the waste, and upon those whose dying pallets would have none to speak to them of Christianity unless this Society sent them. Well now, it is, I do think, an indication that our first duty lies to those, because our first duty is to our own. The very same thing is the way of fulfilling our duty to the heathen people. What is the great argument to the heathen of the truth of Christianity ? — the life of a true Christian man exhibited before them. Here is the greatest of all miracles. What is the great hindrance to the spread of Christianity ? — the wicked life of professing Christians. What can so well turn a man away from our Gospel and our truth, as to have it set before him in its clearness, and then to see those who profess to be moved by it living without God in the world ? How can we answer such an argument as this — " All that you say is 340 The Bible alone not the World's Converter. excellent, but how is it that we live better lives than you ? " There is no answering it. Therefore, for the sake of the heathen, it is our first and special duty, my friends, that we should make every outpost of the English nation an outpost of the English faith j and that cannot be, except we use such means as this Society provides for the planting of the Gospel of the Church in these distant lands. It is all very well to say, " Oh, we can send out Bibles." Oh, an inestimable boon ! Don't let any man suppose for an instant that I undervalue it. That book ! it is the light of our paths ; it is the guide of our footsteps ; but it is not God's will that the Bible alone should be the converter of the world. It is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. But if you wanted to repel an in- vader, would you send a hundred thousand swords without a hundred thousand hands to wield them ? I trow not. And if God's Word is true when it says that the Bible is " the sword of the Spirit," remember you must send hands to wield that sword. Well, but you say, " Send missionaries, too." Yes, missionaries, too ; but, mark you, if you are going to send hands to wield the sword, you must see what sort of hands. You must send men that have been drilled. The great Captain again comes in here. You remember one day that he was talking about an invasion, and some countryman said to him, " Oh, we can send thousands of peasantry to help you." Turn- ing round in his usual bluff way he said, " How can I get them out of my way ? I can do nothing until they are gone." This is the meaning of our volunteering, and God be praised for it ! — our drilling, our rifle exercise, and God be praised for it ! We are not going to rest upon the empty vaunt, that no enemy shall stand upon the English soil, without having a good and sufficient ground for saying so. That good and sufficient ground is trained hands with good arms in them. If it is the best of all arms, the sword of the Spirit, and you send out hands to wield it, remember it must be the right hands. It must be a trained hand. It must be, above all, a commissioned hand. You don't allow who will to drill your soldier army. There must be the Queen's acceptance of The Necessity of the Living Ministry. 341 the offer, and the Queen's authority for the drill. So it must be in our Christian army. There must be the commission of the King of kings ; there must be the authority of the Lord of lords. I say there must — I say it in the hearing of English Churchmen, without the possibility of contradiction, and I am speaking to English Churchmen,— because the English Church lays it down in the Book of Common Prayer, which, as an English Churchman, I don't wish to see altered, — it lays it down that to all men diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, it is evident that there have been from the time of the Apostles these three orders in the Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, Now, then, I say that we have no right whatever to expect the blessing of God if we improve upon that order, and think we can do the thing cheaper by not sending out what God has appointed. I have no doubt that those who do not believe in this, if they believe in the great verities of the Gospel, may look for a blessing from the preaching of those verities of the Gospel upon what they understand to be the plan of God. I say not a word against them ; but this I do say, that we must, if we mean to have God's help in anything, act simply upon what we ourselves believe to be God's appointment. And, therefore, I do say, for English Churchmen the question is settled on this point. It is not, my friends, a great indul- gence of our tastes to have my right rev. brother at the head of this diocese ; it is not because it is a seemly thing to set a polite Bishop over you ; it is not because he does his part so well and so gracefully ; it is not because you all like, as you all do, to have an English gentleman — a thorough English gentleman — at your head in whatever you do ; all this is quite good, and true and excellent; but that is not the reason why we have Bishops abroad. When you have come to the end of all this, you are not near it. It is because we read in the Book of the Gospel that Jesus chose Twelve, whom He also named Apostles, and sent them forth to preach the Gospel. That is the reason. It is because the Church of England has received this — because the Church of England holds this, therefore the Church of England is just as much bound to act upon it in ;42 The Use of Social Advantages. her missions abroad as in her home proceedings.^ Well, then, that being the case, you must send to our colonies, you must send to those outposts of our civilisation, if you mean to do your duty by them, not only Bibles, not only missionaries, but you must send out the Church of Christ in its fulness, as the Church of England has received it. Now observe, this Society, as I have shown you, sends first to the colonists; next it acts upon the heathen through the colonists' character ; but then, thirdly, it acts upon those of the heathen first who are connected with us, by the providence of God, either through our empire, or through our extended commercial relations. I say this, that God just as much intimates to us that these are to be the first whom we are to endeavour to convert, as if He had declared it to us by the voice of heaven ; because, observe— what is the first thing to make a heathen man listen to your message? You must, in some way or another, prove to him that you are superior to him, or else why should he Hsten to you? If he believes, first of all, that his state— his religious condition, his social- condition, his poHtical condition— is as good as your own, why should he exchange his present standing place for your standing place? Now, he is not able to appreciate spiritual differences ; but he can appreciate social differences. You are therefore bound to use your first impressions of superiority, which your power in arms, which your power in social matters, at once give you with the heathen man, as an argument why he should listen to you concerning the truth of that faith to which faith you trace up your superiority. This takes precisely the same place in the present day which miracles took in the early Church. The miracle only drew attention to the truth of the doctrine. Do you think that a miracle ever broke down the heart of man ? Do you think a miracle ever taught a man to look for pardon? No, it startled him. It was a circumstance that led him to say, ''The man who can do this has something about him I have not got. Let us see what it is." A miracle in the early time was precisely in the same relation to the preaching of the Unsectarian Character of the S. P. G. 343 Gospel as our social superiority is now in the eyes of the heathen masses. And mark you, it is our duty, in those parts of the heathen world where we can, first to show the heathen our social superiority, which is to lead them to attend to our religious teaching. Now, then, when I have said this, I have really said all which is peculiar to this Gospel Propagation Society. It makes no profession whatever of belonging to any particularly exalted or purer section of Church of England Christians than another. Its first principle is a disavowal of all such sectarian profes- sions. It says. We wish to represent the Church of England in its work; we wish to carry out the Church of England system in its work. We wish to have no interior light — no interior doctrine. We want to represent that which Andrews, and Hooker, and Taylor, and a host of worthies now at rest, have, through God's goodness, handed down to us — what is embodied in our Prayer-book, what is professed in our Articles, and what is lived out, thank God, in the great body of our Churchmen. This is far more than profession. Consider how a Missionary Society may, if it was so minded, spread peculiar opinions anywhere in the world ! How could it do it ? It must do it by choosing missionaries of a peculiar character, who would explain common doctrines in a peculiar sense. That is the only way it could do it. Now, the Gospel Pro- pagation Society, to avoid the possibility of such things, says that it will not leave to any committee, which may at any moment vary in colour, as all of us may, to have the last voice in the choice of our missionaries, but that they shall be chosen either by the Colonial Bishops in their own dioceses — then we remit the responsibility to them — or they shall be chosen by a board of examiners, clergymen of the Church of England, appointed by the Archbishops of the two provinces, and the Bishop of the metropolitan diocese. Is it possible for the wit of man to devise any scheme by which more certainly sectarian or ultra opinions of any kind can be kept out of the mission- ary band than that adopted by this organisation ? The only objection that has ever been taken, that I know of, is this : 1^^ 344 Objections to Individttal Bishops Answered. " Yes, but perhaps I shall not agree with the particular opinions of one of the Colonial Bishops ; this Colonial Bishop may appoint a person that I don't entirely agree with ; I would rather that the Gospel was not preached, than be preached by that man, with whom, from the assumed difference between myself and the Bishop, I may possibly disagree." I think we may deal with it in this way. That man is not sitting down very hungry to the feast, or else he would not find such difficulty himself in carving his joint. Let us look at the truth of the case. If it is an appointment of Christ that where men are to be converted to the faith of the Church, the Church is to be superintended by Bishops, how can we Chris- tians sit at home and hope better to make those whom we send out to distant dioceses effectual than by trusting the Bishop residing there with their selection — the Colonial Bishop who must have gone out (because the temptations which necessarily wait upon his position at home are all absent there) to that far distant work because the love of Christ was in his heart, and from a desire to save souls ? Well, then, this is really the case. It is whether you will help this right arm of your own Church in this mighty work of evangelising the world. Do you this first, and then, I say, you will have earned yourselves the right of giving to other societies after ; and the more you give the better I shall be pleased. I, for one, subscribe to many of them — to every one which does not seem to me to go counter to any direct Church principle. I rejoice to do it ; but I feel that I buy my privilege of assisting others by doing my duty to the Church first of all. I do hold that it is impossible to over- value the importance of the question which is thus at issue. I believe that England is in the great crisis of her great trial. Everything seems to bespeak it. The very news which the daily papers are bringing us at this moment from distant China, does it not speak to every heart ? Whatever may be our opinion, and some of you present may know that I have a strong opinion myself upon the beginning of our quarrel with that empire ; — the question now is, not whether that Our Duty to China, 345 beginning was right or whether that beginning was wrong ; but the question for every Christian man of common sense and Christian feeUng, is how, accepting the present state of things, shall we use that state of things most honestly, for God and for man ? That is the real question. Supposing that all this is absolutely needed, which alas ! we are doing in that land, we may at once lament at it, and yet rejoice in the bravery of our soldiers, and the English feeling of our people. My friends, there is not one of you that does not know that we are bound, as a nation, to demand those of our fellow-country- men who have been by treachery made captive, and to require, with the utmost force of the right hand of this people, that they should be restored to us. We know that we are right there. But are there no other duties that follow? If we have opened China in this way, as we have by violence, are we not bound to see that up that open avenue marches justice, truth, and peace to that unhappy people ? Are we not bound to do it ? If we do not, Avill our Armstrong guns shelter us from the thunderbolts of the Almighty ? No ; it is the question of questions. We are connected at every turn with this distant land. If we are not fulfilling the mission God has given us to them, we must be put down, and that mission given to another. And, remember, not only directly but indirectly it is by such efforts as these that such results can be obtained. Far more is attendant on such meetings as these, and by the efforts I hope you will make through such meetings, than the mere sending out of missionaries. The Christianising of Great Britain's policy depends upon such meetings as these. Ever as we are exercising, every one of us, as we all do, consciously or unconsciously, power upon the government of this country, it follows that no government in the country can dare to violate the deep-rooted conviction of this land. Let this conviction be brought to bear upon these Chinese questions, and we may be sure that justice will be mingled with mercy, and with the assertion of our rights, Justice and humanity to the conquered. Oh, think, think, my friends, for a moment 34^ The Thraldom of Heathenism, what these people are. It occurs to me, even while I speak, that you may realise it in this way. Put yourself in thought for a moment in that Chinese dungeon with those two brave men of ours who lately breathed their last in it in the midst of cruel suffering. Put yourselves in thought with them ; suppose that the last scene was not over when the booming of the Armstrong guns began to announce, in that dark dungeon, that the right arm of England's avenging might was about to break their prison door. Think how they would have listened to those guns ! Think how they would have encouraged one another to hold on! ''I told you w^e should never be for- saken, for England never forgets her own. I told you that even in this deep dungeon we should be found out and rescued." How they would wait for deliverance ! And how must those who were set free, when their doors were opened, and they went unscathed back again to the English tent — how must they have felt that it was indeed a blessed thing to ■ belong to such a faithful people as ours. Well, my friends, our thoughts are with these two men ; but is there not a deeper dungeon? Are there not heavier chains? Are there not deeper ruins ? Oh, is not heathenism a blacker dungeon, hopelessness a darker night, the chains of godless superstition a heavier fettering? And are there not those prison doors waiting even now to be opened by your emprise, to set those many victims free ? Ah ! remember what it is to belong to the Christian army, to fight under the King of kings ; to know that in each one of these forsaken souls there is one for whom Christ died, one to whom Ave are bound to bear the message of redemption ! And let us in our day see to it, that we, in this mighty emprise, show the same vigour, and zeal, and earnestness, as \ve show in every other earthly matter, and the blessed victory is ours. I rejoice to know that in your diocese this has been the case. I rejoice to know, from the paper put into my hand, that while ten years ago the diocese raised ^£"1500 per annum, it last year raised ;£'26oo. I rejoice to know that this increase was from the multiplication of parochial associations and of local efforts. Not from great Increase of Ftuids from small Gifts. 347 gifts, but from small gifts of the multitude of Christian people. I rejoice for these two reasons : — First, because I say we may hope that the multiplication of prayers is answered by the multiplication of alms ; and then next, because I am deeply certain that just in proportion as we labour for others, is the blessing we receive ourselves ; — that as spiritual selfishness makes even Christ's gifts in His Church appear an empty channel to our souls, so where parishes are increasing their work abroad, I feel certain that they are multiplying their graces at home. May God of His mercy grant you to see from this great city, and from the other parishes of this diocese, a like increase ! May He make His own words good to this awakened diocese — " He that watereth others shall be watered himself." THE END. GARDNER'S SERIES OF COTTAGE STORIES. Coloured Frontispieces. Fcap. Svo, cloth boards, is. Trials of Rachel Charlcote. 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