THERE are few of our readers, we are persuaded, who have not read the Bishop of Calcutta's late admirable sermon preached before the Church Missionary Society, and prefixed to their Report for 1846. If human means can give a fresh impetus to the exertions of the Church, what more affecting spectacle can be conceived, than an aged prelate, worn out with labours at home and abroad, delivering his farewell address to the friends whom he believed he should see no more in the flesh? The peroration of his sermon we believe is equal in point of pathos and sublimity to any composition in the whole range of ancient or modern eloquence. We cannot resist the temptation of quoting it:

"But, O thou Almighty Father, we are of ourselves without power: be pleased to stir up thy strength, and come and help us!

"Vouchsafe, O Eternal Paraclete, to breathe upon our dead, sluggish hearts, that they may live!

66

"O Divine Redeemer and Lord of all, who, after shedding thy most precious blood, art as a lamb that was slain, pleading for a lost world, and waiting for all things to be put under thy feet; look down in thy pity upon us: bedew our very souls with thy blood: let this blood raise us up ministers, missionaries, confessors, martyrs. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most mighty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously. Let thy name endure for ever; let thy name be continued as long as the sun; let men be blessed in thee, and all nations call thee blessed. Yes; blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be thy glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with thy glory. Amen and Amen.

66

Brethren, I have done. I commend the sacred cause of Missions, and especially in India, to your prayers. I am re-embarking, if God permit, for the scene of my dutiesbaptized for the dead. Receive, I pray you, in love, this my last testimony to the blood of the Lamb.

"I shall see you no more at our anniversaries. But we shall be assembled before the judgment-seat of Christ. Let each one of us see to it, that we meet then on safe ground. Satan's wide-spread empire is made up of multiplied individuals. Let us take care that Satan is cast out from the heaven of our hearts; and that we believe for ourselves, each of us, in the blood of the Lamb, and bear our bold testimony to it, each in our own sphere, even unto the death.

"Then may we humbly hope that, being washed, covered, plunged, hidden in the blood of the Lamb, we shall pass, as one of our commentators sublimely speaks, 'under that purple covering triumphantly to glory.' Deo soli per Christi SANGUINEM Sit gloria in sempiternum."*

God of his mercy grant that Bishop Wilson's sermon may stir the Church like a trumpet, and call forth fresh recruits for the army of the Lord of Hosts, now invading Satan in his own territory. The present times have been called the Era of Missions; and while Protestant missions have mightily increased, the exertions of Rome have been redoubled. The funds of the Popish propaganda, which in 1823 amounted only to £916, were £161,408, at the last Report.t

Thus, not only have we to combat heathenism under all its multifarious forms—to wage warfare with Brahma, Buddha, and Mahomet, but we have also to contend with the paralysing influence which Popery exerts on our efforts. We are beset at every turn, in India, in China, in Siam, in the isles of the Pacific, by a bastard Christianity, fitted, from its own encouragement of idolatry, to allure our converts but newly awakened from the deadly sleep of heathenism. Let Protestants remember that, if they relax their exertions one iota, leave one missionary station deserted, Rome is ready to step in and take their place. She has emissaries for every nation,

*Elliot. Horæ. Apoc. † Bishop of Calcutta's Sermon, p. 27.

every clime. A deserted missionary station is like a spot which has been cultivated as a garden, and then abandoned to fall back into a state of nature. But a flower, springing up here and there, marks where cultivation once existed, and distinguishes the spot from the wilderness around. So, those stations which have been abandoned by Protestant missionaries, will retain for a season traces of the cultivation under which they once were, and become more susceptible of Romish tillage than the bleak wilderness of heathenism. Let us recollect that every missionary station once occupied and then deserted, will either relapse into heathenism, or furnish easier work to the emissaries of Rome.

How sad to read such accounts as these: "In 1813, two missionaries from the London Society reached the Island of Java, one of whom, Mr. Kam, shortly proceeded alone to the Moluccas; the other, Mr. Sapper, laboured among the Chinese at Batavia. His reception and his early successes were most encouraging, but he died in 1814; and as no missionary could be sent to supply his place till the summer of 1819, there could then have been scarcely a trace of his ministry, and Mr. Slater must have been obliged to begin the work afresh, as much almost as if no missionary had ever preceded him, and then had likewise to begin the work alone.

"In November, 1807, Messrs. Chater and Carey, from Serampore, established a mission among the Burmese at Rangoon; but in 1811, Mr. Chater relinquished it; and Mr. Carey was left alone till 1813, when he also relinquished it; so that when Mr. and Mrs. Judson arrived in 1813, there was no convert, no school, no spiritual effect whatever discernible, and the mission had still to be commenced.":

Earnest exertions are called for, both to strengthen existing missions, and also to add fresh portions of the territory of Satan to the Lord's vineyard. As to the first point, how true are Mr. Noel's remarks, although

* Noel on Christian Missions, p. 333.

some of the stations to which he alludes have been better, though still inadequately, supplied.

"Several other instances, in illustration of the mischief arising from the feebleness of missionary force, occur to my recollection, but the evil is too obvious to need illustration, and this being the case, it is melancholy to reflect on the number of places where the labourers are so few. Agra, Gorruckpore, Chunar, Cuddapah, Coimbatoor, Chittoor, Allepie, and Cochin, important places, and far asunder, have but one missionary stationed at each. Some large cities are still worse supplied, a few having only a catechist, and many being without any missionary at all. In all these cases, it must be apparent, that in the ordinary course of things very little fruit can be looked for. The missionary is overborne by his work; his schools interfere with his translations; his preaching and teaching forbid attention to his school; if he takes care of his flock, he must neglect the neighbouring district; if he itinerates through the neighbourhood, he must neglect his flock. Business, sickness, whatever carries him from home, suspends the operations of the mission. If exhausted and ill, he must see the mission fall into confusion, or he must work on and die. How many deaths in India may probably be traced to this cause; and should these feeble missions receive no accessions of strength, how many more will occur!"+

Then, as to the second point, the call upon the Church to become aggressive, as well as to maintain the positions she already occupies, what Christian can read without burning shame the beginning of the Church Missionary_Report on China! It is headed, Failure of the Rev. G. Smith's Health-urgent need of Labourers for this Mission." The Report goes on to say, "In the last Report it was stated that two clergymen had gone out as missionaries to China; and the earnest hope was expressed that others would soon follow them to that inviting and important field of missionary labour. The

Committee have now the painful duty of stating that while the call for help from China has become still more urgent, and the way for missionary effort has been made still more open by late imperial decrees of toleration, not one additional labourer has been found to join the two who had gone forth; and that one of the two, the Rev. G. Smith, has been compelled to return home by the failure of his health."

Oh shame on Christian England, that such a sentence should be written! What will the adversary say? Shall Popery pour forth its missionaries into China, and Protestant Europe hang back from the conflict? Will not Rome, feasting her eyes on the sad spectacle, cry out, as she has done ever since the Reformation, that Protestantism is no nursery for self-denial, and the blood of martyrs is a seed foreign to its soil? And then again we shall have the intellectual scoffer bringing forward his lying taunt with fresh confidence, that the Church of England has but one heroic name in her missionary annals, the name of Henry Martyn. Lord of all, stretch forth thy mighty arm, and save thine own church. Raise up fresh martyrs, evangelists, and prophets amongst us. Breathe on those dry bones that they may live! "We are inert. The immense number of families enriched by India are asleep. The spiritual Church shrinks back. Selfishness lays its icy hand on the warm seat of life. The mother starts at the thought of parting with her beloved son. kindred interpose between Christ and the testimony to his blood before the nations. Our universities and colleges refuse the flower of their students."

The

"Other scenes of duty are instantly supplied with candidates. The doors of those who have to dispose of civil or military stations in the same country, with the same climate, and greater danger to health, are crowded with eager applicants. But when the blood of the Lamb, and the word of testimony, and the salvation of the Hindoo, are concerned, then the domestic affections begin, for the first time, to be disturbed, and difficulties and heartlessness obstruct the way."*

While we thus supinely rest on our oars, preferring ease at home to bearing Christ's cross abroad, the deleterious influence of Romanism is actively at work, poisoning the minds of the heathen against a religion unpolluted with idolatry. We shall close these gleanings with an anecdote illustrative of this point, and taken from an exceedingly interesting book, lately published by Nisbet and Co., entitled "Missionary Journals and Letters, written during eleven years' residence and travels amongst the Chinese, Siamese, Javanese, Khassias, and other Eastern Nations," by J. Tomlin, B. A., which we cordially recommend to the notice of our readers. The incident occurred during Mr. Tomlin's second missionary visit to Bangkok, the capital of Siam, and is narrated pp. 357, 358 of his work. It took place during a visit to one of the Bangkok pagodas.

"While going round and viewing these idols, a crowd of persons gathered about us, with two of whom, a boy and a young man, we had a smart contest; they contending earnestly for the honour of their idols, and we for the true God. The boy was of a hot, bigoted spirit, and exceedingly unwilling to yield to us, though he could not answer the common-sense arguments we brought against him. We were, then, in the presence of a gilded and gigantic idol, standing erect, about thirty-five feet high, half the size of Nebuchadnezzar's image. If he be a god, we said, he is able to defend himself, for he is both big enough and old enough. We are now speaking against him in his presence, let him answer himself; but the idol remaining dumb, with unchanged

counte

nance, the lad was obliged to admit that he could not speak, nevertheless, said he, "he is prâh" (a god.) We admonished him to fear the great God of heaven, whose eye was then upon him, and heard what he was speaking against him, though the idol could not, and would be very angry with him, except he repented and served Him alone. The young man then entered the lists with us, and

* Bishop of Calcutta's Sermon.

began by saying, that while we were speaking against the idols, we ourselves worshipped some; then putting his two forefingers across, making the sign of the cross, you worship this, said he. No! we replied, we worship nothing of the kind, and those who do are idolators, though they profess to serve the true God. The word of God, which we have, forbids us to worship that and every image or figure whatever. A middle-aged person, who stood by and heard all that was said, now interposed, and told the young man we were not the same with the Fârang (Europeans) who live in Bangkok. The religion of these men, said he, is tang hak (different); they do not worship that idol (the cross) like the Fârang here; they reject idols of every sort, and worship the God of heaven alone in their hearts. This

man was of a mild, pleasing manner; a good while before he opened his mouth, we took him for a friend by his countenance, and by the evident, though silent, satisfaction he showed in hearing us; and when emboldened to testify in our favour, we regarded him as a brother. Though entirely ignorant of him, he knew something of us and the truth. We felt as if the Lord had brought him to the place, to be an impartial witness to the truth, at a most critical moment, and about a matter in which our testimony would probably have had little weight. He did not inform us how he had obtained his knowledge either of ourselves or our religion; but naming the three persons in the triune God, he gave us to understand, he had more knowledge than we anticipated.”

YOUNG people should accustom themselves to discipline their minds. The mind cannot stand still, it will be occupied with something, and num

Those who have been accustomed to watch over their own thoughts, can testify to the extreme difficulty of fixing them on any object really worth

ponsibility for their reason and intellect, allow their minds to be wholly occupied with trifles. Now, if we allow ourselves to fill up our time in a trifling manner, our minds become weakened, and unconsciously engrossed with childish pursuits, till they seem, in our estimation, the chief end of life. I am not merely alluding now to a love of dissipation, a taste for what is termed "the pleasures of this world," or devotedness to that degrading frivolity-adorning the per

son.

We may be free from these things, and yet have the mind vacated of really useful and laudable pursuits. But let us consider of what this, our immortal part, termed mind, is capable; to what an extent of cultivation and refinement it may be brought.

other pains taken, to discipline the mind, aud learn to fix the thoughts upon subjects really worth working out. And here I must revert to that trivial occupation, the favourite fashion of the present day-"Worsted work." What hours and hours many young females spend upon this employment! and is it likely that the mind should be profitably occupied whilst devoted to the patterns, colours, and exact stitches of worsted work? You may say "the mind needs relaxation." Be it so. But why not let that relaxation be sought in other-more important and useful channels-one connected with the advantage of our own health, or with the comfort of our fellow-creatures. Such relaxations as these would enable us to