there shall be formed local Boards, upon similar principles, to superintend the interests of education within their districts. Connected with the Cathedral Body, and under the special authority of the Diocesan Board, it is designed that there shall be a central school, for the joint purpose of training schoolmasters and parish clerks for the diocese, and choristers for the Cathedral; it being a part of the plan that the elements of music shall be here taught, with a view to the general improvement of psalmody. In some leading town of each Rural Deanery, there is to be a commercial school, under the government of the District Board. The Committee of the National Society undertake to prepare a list of books of religious and moral instruction, to be revised and enlarged from time to time, with the sanction of its Episcopal members, for the use of schools in union with the Society. Such, I believe, are the main outlines of the new project. The project, however, is new, only bearing date on the first day of this month; and the present is, perhaps, its first public announcement. It will undoubtedly receive modifications adapting it to practice. The successful working of the machinery will obviously depend upon the cordial co-operation of the respective Deans and Chapters, as well as upon the approbation and assistance of influential laymen. I can only say that in the project, as far as I have been hitherto able to consider it, I perceive nothing but what is useful, practicable, and in the highest degree desirable. I earnestly hope, therefore, that it will receive encouragement in those quarters which can alone render it effective."

Heartily joining with his Lordship in his wishes for the success of this plan, we earnestly recommend our readers to lose no time in actively co-operating with it, and thus giving the most convincing proof to the world that they are determined that the people of England shall be trained up in the principles of her pure and Apostolic Church.

The Claims of our Colonies: a Sermon preached at the Meeting of the Marlborough Committees of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, on Friday, the 27th of July, 1838. By EDWARD, Lord Bishop of Salisbury. Salisbury: W. B. Brodie and Co. 8vo.

WE are very glad to find that the cause which we had the gratification of advocating in a former number, the increase, namely, of the means of religious instruction in our colonial possessions, has been so well and so zealously enforced by the Bishop of Salisbury. After speaking of the duty incumbent upon Christians in general of doing their part towards spreading abroad a knowledge of our most holy faith, his Lordship pro

ceeas to speak of the particular obligation under which this nation stands, as the mistress of a vast and boundless empire, to publish amongst those colonies which are placed under her authority, and look up to her for protection, the glad tidings of the gospel of peace. The Bishop describes at some length the peculiar circumstances of our different colonial possessions; we wish we could extract the whole passage, but we must content ourselves with a portion only :—

"It has pleased the Almighty, in his inscrutable wisdom, to place this island which we inhabit, inconsiderable among the nations of the earth in its own extent, at the head of an empire the most widely spread that this world has ever seen, and equalling, in the number of those who obey its laws, the most populous kingdoms of the earth. North and south, at equal distances from either pole, are they of the same name and race as ourselves. East and west the sun never sets on those who own our sway and speak the accents of our tongue. What the psalmist applies to the heavenly bodies may almost be said of us-that there is no realm or clime where our voices are not heard -that their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world. Well were it, were those voices ever employed, as the silent teaching of the heavenly luminaries is, in declaring the glory of God, and showing forth his handy work! Well were it, did they endeavour to set forth that undefiled law of the Lord which converts the soul-that sure testimony which giveth wisdom to the simple -those right statutes which rejoice the heart-that pure commandment which giveth light unto the eyes. But if such is the position in which God has placed us, think ye that in this mighty prerogative of power no responsibility is implied? Think ye that the Almighty has thus confided to us the spiritual as well as the temporal interests of so large a part of his creatures, and will not require at our hands an account of how that trust has been discharged? May we not believe that in the counsels of his Providence our wide spread rule is designed to be a means, by which the blessings of redemption may be brought home to heathen lands, and His faith be established, and His name honoured among the nations of the earth! Let us then a little consider what is the peculiar situation in which we are placed in this respect-what are the advantages for the service of God which it offers what are the imperative duties which it entails. In British America, England is mistress of a country, compared with which these islands are but a mere spot upon the face of the globe-a country of boundless range, where all is on a scale to astonish those accustomed only to the features of nature as presented to ourselves.......Not to speak of that interesting, though ill-fated race, the native inhabitants of this land, from whom we have wrested its dominion, but thousands of whom British subjects, although still strangers to the faith of Christ, wander in the woods which were once their own-not, I say, to speak of these, though we are debtors too to them, hundreds of thousands of our fellow countrymen are already inhabitants of these regions, and their

numbers are daily swelled, not only by the ordinary increase of population, but by the multitudes who are thronging by thousands from our own over-peopled land to those shores which lie open to receive them. The foundations of a mighty empire are indeed there. On us, haply, it depends that they be laid broad and deep in the knowledge of God, and in the faith and love of our Redeemer Christ-on us it depends to aid their spiritual destitution in these untrodden wilds, and, in their feeble and infant state, to care for them as brethren in the Lord. And this is a sphere of exertion which has ever been the peculiar care of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The very existence of our Church in these regions may be said, under Divine Providence, to be its work; and ever since has it struggled, through difficulties hard to be described, to enable the ministration of that Church to be supplied in a measure in some degree adequate to the demand. It is painful to reflect that this, which should be a nation's work, has been repudiated by the authorities of the nation, at the moment when the aid of the national funds was most needed: and that much of the difficulty under which this Society now labours arises from the withdrawal, by the Legislature, of a grant of 16,000l., by which the nation used formerly rather to acknowledge the claims upon it than to discharge them."

We wish we could continue the picture which the Bishop draws of the nature of that vast colonial empire which Britain possesses, and of the consequent responsibilities attached to the possession of such a power; but we are compelled to stop, and must content ourselves with extracting the concluding paragraphs of the Sermon, earnestly hoping that they will have the effect of rousing the attention of the public to the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, so as to induce them to make up by their contributions that deficiency in its income which has been caused by the very liberal and Christian-like economy of the State:

"I have now set before you, most imperfectly, the general sphere of the duties which this our Society endeavours to discharge; and I cannot but feel assured, that its objects are those of which every one will admit the importance, while the vastness of their extent must clearly call for our best energies in our endeavours to attain them. Time will not now allow me to enter upon the question as to the mode in which this may best be done; and I will not think so ill of your Christian zeal as to endeavour, by exaggerated appeals, to draw from excited feelings what cooler judgment would withhold. Let every man do according as he is disposed in his heart; not grudgingly, nor of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.""

I will rather ask you, with all cool consideration, to put to yourselves the question, whether, as Christian men, ye are doing your part in this labour of love? As men who have the necessaries, and some of the superfluities of life, are ye devoting any portion of your worldly means

to promote the spiritual and eternal interests of your fellow-men? Do ye contribute in any degree, however small, to that great work of Christian edification, which it is the object of the Church, by means of this Society, to carry on? It were easy, surely, to spare, and yearly to devote, some few shillings, at least, to this end. It were easy, surely, to collect small sums among yourselves, and to give them in, as a joint contribution, to the service of your Lord. It were easy to many of you, and should be pleasing, too, to enrol your names among those to whom the Society owes its support; and thus to contribute, according to your means, to the propagation of the Gospel in heathen lands, and the building up in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ our fellow-subjects in those wide-spread regions of the earth which it has pleased the Almighty to place beneath our rule."

A Funeral Sermon preached at the Old Church, Calcutta, on the Decease of Baboo Mohesh Chunder Ghose. By the Rev. KRISHNA MOHANA BANERJEE. 12mo. Calcutta: Bishop's College Press, 1837. Chelmsford: re-printed by Chalk, Meggy, and Chalk. 1838.

A SERMON delivered in a pulpit of the Church of England by a Clergyman by birth a Hindoo, on the occasion of the death of another converted Hindoo, is not only a literary curiosity, but is interesting and important in the greatest degree on far higher grounds. It is a striking fulfilling of those promises recorded in Holy Writ, which tell us that the pure faith which our blessed Lord came on earth to publish to lost and fallen man, shall spread over the whole world. It is an unanswerable reply to that sneering question which has been so frequently asked by the scoffer and the lukewarm : "How shall the Indian cast off his superstitions and become a Christian?" It is one of the best proofs of the excellent effects which, through the blessing of God, have attended upon the efforts of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and is at the same time one of the strongest arguments which can be brought forward to induce persons to enrol themselves amongst her members.

To witness so interesting an event as this, and one which we do not hesitate to pronounce as pregnant with the most important consequences to the religious welfare of the eastern world, we ourselves would not have hesitated to travel a very considerable distance, and we are sure that those Europeans who were present, if they were at all imbued with religious feeling, must have been deeply penetrated with a sense of the omnipotence and wisdom of the Almighty, and must have been ready to exclaim, in the fulness of their hearts, "With God all things are possible !"

The sermon before us would be creditable, as a composition, to any English writer; but considered with reference to the source from which it proceeds, can scarcely fail to excite feelings of surprise in those who peruse it. It is dedicated to the Archdeacon of Calcutta, and appears to have been published in consequence of his request. We extract one or two passages from it, that our readers may be enabled to judge of the style in which it is written:

"The consolations which Christianity proposes to man in this world of sin and sorrow are very remarkable. It inspires the penitent sinner with hope, and it heals the wounds which the conscience receives from the conviction of guilt. It preaches good tidings unto the meek; it binds up the broken-hearted; it proclaims liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. In the midst of mental perturbation caused by sin, the Gospel becomes truly the pearl of great price. We are herein assured of the love wherewith God has loved us, and of the wonderful way opened for our salvation. While nature is silent on the great question concerning human redemption, Christianity assures us that God willeth not the death of a sinner, but is ready to receive those that come unto him by faith. While we are sinking down under the weight of our sins, the gracious invitation sounds as music in our ears- -Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God himself tells us, that if we turn unto him, believing in his Son Jesus Christ, though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.' The Son of Man came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost; and no one that cometh unto Him will He in any wise cast out. These are gracious expressions, and calculated to call forth joy and gratitude. What thanks can we render unto God for the peace which he has granted unto us through the Gospel!" P. 7, 8.

Speaking of "the authority on which we receive the momentous truths of Christianity," our Author says:

First, then, with reference to the Divine Authority of our religion-it is comforting to reflect that we have the privilege of being directed by the Deity himself in our way to salvation. The Apostle writes not the momentous truth according to his own judgment, but he writes what a voice from heaven' dictates. The mysteries of Christianity are all founded upon Divine testimony. We do not pretend to have received a knowledge of them by our own speculations; and the infidel breaks through all the rules of propriety when he would have us measure the truth by our own weak and imperfect reason. Our faith stands upon a rock which cannot be shaken: we have the Word of God himself as our authority for the doctrines we profess. The Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists were all inspired penmen, and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.' We speak not things which human wisdom teaches, but which the Divine Wisdom