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nouncing the name of Greenfield-the most extraordinary linguist I ever knew, whose death I deeply deplore, and at whose funeral I was an unaffected mourner. Now Greenfield told Bagster, that he never proceeded to the work of translation without earnest and importunate prayer for the help and guidance of God; and I have no doubt that this is true of all the translators whom God has raised up in connexion with your Society. I do not know how many translators, or how many translations there may have been; but if I were a Director of the Society, I would move for a report of all the translations, and of the money spent upon the various versions which have been brought into existence through the efforts of its Missionaries, believing, as I do, that such a statement would prove exceedingly interesting, and would produce an excellent effect upon the general interests of the cause. I fear that I have proceeded too far. I will only add, that, while I venerate the past, and feel that the memory of the just is blessed, I exceedingly love and delight in the present and the living men. I look upon the names of Tidman, and Sir Culling Eardley, and Prout, and John Angell James, and Halley, as names which shall go down in light, and glory, to other ages, just as the names of the men of a past generation have come down, surrounded with loveliness, to our own. I like my company; I feel it to be an honour to be here. I look around with delight and joy on my venerated fathers and brethren in co-operation and concurrence in this great work. I remember, last year especially, being exceedingly struck, as my eye glanced along this platform, upon those who have grown grey in the service of the Society; and they seemed to me to be like so many shocks of corn standing in a field, ripe and ready for the hour when the great Harvestman shall be pleased to gather them home. You remember the story of the barbarians breaking in upon the senate of Rome; you remember that it is related, that when they saw the dignity of the Senate's mien, and observed that they continued their consultations, unterrified by the barbarian soldiers, they started back and said, "These are gods, and not men." I look round on this platform, and I do not say of my brethren and fathers, "they are gods," for they shall die like men, and depart from this scene like all other human creatures; but I do say they are beings, honoured while they live, and that, passing into eternity, they will leave behind us their names and example, and we shall have cause to rejoice that we were associated with them in their endeavours to propagate the Gospel of Christ unto the ends of the earth.

The Rev. Dr. BEAUMONT, in seconding the

resolution, said: Amongst the names which have been mentioned, there are some to which I must be permitted to allude. Morrison has been named; Milne has been named; and their names have been associated with the great work of translation. Honoured, indeed, are they who translate the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And who are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ?-and who, like four great trumpets, are sounding, east, west, north, and south, and telling a dying world, what Christ has done and suffered to save it. Honoured, indeed, are they who translate Paul and Peter. Morrison and Milne were confederates in that work. Of Morrison, who made the original translation into Chinese, I shall be excused for saying, that he was my brother-in-law. Milne, the son of Dr. Milne, the coadjutor of Dr. Morrison, a fellow-worker with him in that grand achievement, is my son-in-law. That Milne, now in Shanghai translating the book, had no small share in effectuating the amount of translation already reached. "Well," you say, "that's no merit of yours." But, I say, I feel the reflection of their honour -the fringes of it touch me. To have a brother-in-law who opened the fountain first of all to the Chinese, and to have a son-inlaw who has carried on the same work, is, I think, reflex honour enough, in the way of translation, for any modest man. Mr. Chairman, I have, in making these remarks, divaricated from what I intended to say. Mr. Chairman, the object of this Society is to diffuse the gospel all round the terraqueous globe. It is to enlighten the world-the whole world. Do you ask me what I mean by enlightening the world? then I ask, Who you are, that put to me that interrogatory? Are you a philosopher, so-called? Is the light that you patronise what is called intellectual light? Then, I say, in that sense our object is to enlighten the world. What a mass of intellect is lying in the dark, encrusted, covered, coated with superstitions and idolatries, which have been accumulating for centuries and millenniums! Did the Almighty Creator make anything for waste? and especially, I ask, did he make that mighty thing, intellect, for waste? Oh, how much of it lies waste on this our planet! Carry forth the gospel! There is nothing so exciting, so stimulating, so improving to intellect. Carry the torch of the gospel to every human being! What a blaze of intellectual light will follow! Our object is, I say, to enlighten the world. Perhaps you ask, What do you mean? and I ask, Who are you that put that interrogatory? Are you a moralist? Is the light you desiderate for the family of man the light of morals? Then, I say, come along with us; then, I say, join this Society,

give your patronage to it, throw your £500 Bank of England note into its treasury. The system of morals taught by this Society is simpler than that of Aristotle, purer than that of Plato, more spiritual than that of Seneca; morals as pure as the morals around the throne of God in heaven, the morals of the fifth chapter of Matthew. I don't wonder at the words of that rich, proud Indian Nabob, who, one day, in going along the streets of Calcutta, with all his superstitions hanging about him, was drawn to a certain spot by the sounds which proceeded from the Missionary school. Being thus drawn into the school, he heard the boys reading the fifth chapter of Matthew. He stopped and listened; his eye flashed with a fire to which that orb was unaccustomed; his person expanded as he listened, and when they had done, he said, "Well, if you will only live that chapter as well as you read it, I will never say another word against Christianity." Mr. Chairman, the object of this Society is to teach the planet called the earth the morals of the fifth chapter of Matthew; not merely to teach children to recite a beautiful lesson, but to teach both parents and children to walk according to the same. I say, our object is to enlighten the world. Perhaps there is some one still who asks me, what I mean by enlightening the world. Who, and what are you, that put to me that interrogatory? Are you a Christian, and do you want to know whether the light that we are anxious to propagate everywhere is evangelical light? Yes, yes, that's it. We are for turning the world "from darkness to light," by turning it "from the power of Satan unto God;" and you never, Mr. Chairman, will get the world turned from darkness to light till it is turned from the power of Satan unto God.

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lighten the world, forsooth ? Yes, the light is travelling on; and, as it is with the flux of physical light which passes through great distances in going towards its terminus, so the nations which are near the light are groping for the light. Don't accuse me of getting warm on the occasion. Where, where, is an enthusiasm tolerable if not in such a scene as this, with such a theme as this? Talk of enthusiasm! Did any one accuse Milton of enthusiasm when he wrote a book which has come down with such honour to posterity? Were Raphael and Rubens entirely innocent of enthusiasm ? If they had not had a spice of enthusiasm, you would not have had such fine pictures from them. And were Newton and Boyle void of enthusiasm? If they had been, they would not have made such fine philosophical discoveries. Were Bacon, and Locke, and Watts, without enthusiasm? If they had been, I suspect you would not have had such fine logic at their

hands. But what have I to do with these men, with Milton, and Raphael, and Rubens, and Bacon, and Locke? Come along with me into a sacred inclosure, and look at Abraham expecting a son, and believing that he would have a posterity more numerous than the stars, though he was at the time an old man, and childless. Talk of enthusiasm! Come along with me, and listen to Isaiah singing, and singing of the wilderness and the solitary place becoming glad for the presence of the Lord, and singing about a thorn being changed into a myrtle-tree, and a bramble into a fir-tree. Talk of enthusiasm! Listen to Isaiah again, while he is singing about the wolf dwelling with the lamb, and the leopard lying down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and about a little silken thread being put round their necks, and a little child leading them. Talk to me of enthusiasm! There is a name, Mr. Chairman, which my own feeble lips have recited since I commenced,-Paul, Paul, -who says, "All the way round about from Jerusalem to Illyricum, I have preached the Gospel." Single-handed! He did the ministrations of the Mediterranean himself. Talk of the vital principle! talk of the reproductive power, as the last speaker did! talk of the multiplication principle! talk of the atomic theory! Here it is; and the true atomic theory is in the progress of evangelical truth and evangelical principles. I will not proceed. I ought to have been elsewhere at this moment, but I have for the moment been entangled and held fast by my friends here. There are, Mr. Chairman, two names which have not fallen, I think, from the lips of any speaker on this occasion, and, as I was at the Tabernacle last evening, I may, perhaps, be excused for saying, that that constellation of names comes over me with a little more than the ordinary power to-day, I mean Whitfield and Wesley. Whitfield!-a man who, when his head was of snow, had a heart of fire, and a tongue compounded at once of the tongue of Demosthenes and Apollos, who blew the silver trumpet of the Gospel in England, Scotland, and America, the tones, the vibrations, the reverberations of which have not ceased yet, and never will cease till they are swallowed up in the blast of the Archangel's trumpet! And as to the £500 note,—if it really be a fact that it was given at the door of the Tabernacle, I think the man who gave it showed a most discerning taste in giving it at that door. There is another name, -another star in that constellation,-John Wesley-the little man who went to Oxford, and perambulated in her colleges, and dived into all her libraries of science and learning, and extracted and abstracted all that he thought worthy of appropriation, and laid all

up in the cavities of his well-packed brain, and walked away one fine morning, never to return! A modest man was he, forsooth; for, soon after he was heard to say, "I am a man of one book, and my parish is the world." And he rang the chimes all over England, climbed up all her hills, insinuated himself among all her villages, threw light around him like so many rockets; and, after planting thousands of schools, and after raising innumerable little chapels up and down the conntry, he died at the age of 88,-what with? leaving behind him what, do you think? A few old silver spoons in London and Liverpool, a well-worn clergyman's gown, a wellabused reputation, and the Methodist Connexion. I say, esto perpetua-last like the sun! Ay, Whitfield,-Wesley, that constellation which rose on our island with such bright aspect and such blessed results: may we look to both those stars, catch their radiations, and follow in their wake, till the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

ALFRED ROOKER, Esq., Mayor of Plymouth, said: Sir,-It is with great pleasure that I address you as chairman of this meeting; and I am sure that nothing but stern official duties could have led the gentleman who previously occupied the chair to leave the position which you so honourably fill, to forego the privilege of being for a little longer the key-stone of that great arch builded after the model of the sanctuary, and sanctified by the Divine blessing. It is not an honour only to occupy that chair, but it is an honour to be permitted to stand up before this meeting, and before the country, to advocate the great principles and the cause of Christian Missions. It is a cause, too, endeared to all our hearts by many tender recollections. Reference has been made to those who have fallen in the field. My beloved and honoured father, who was called to his rest during the past year, when a young man, was invited, with other young ministers, to constitute a part of the first gathering in London. He took part in its services, and felt through his whole life consecrated to the cause; and even on his dying bed, the last audible prayer which he uttered was, that the knowledge of God might extend through foreign lands. Oh, sir, I feel this to be a high honour.

"My boast is, not that I deduce my birth

From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth; But higher far my proud pretensions rise,

The son of parents pass'd into the skies!" I solemnly ask the prayers of this great assembly, that we, the younger men, may be baptized for the dead, that we may be prepared, when we see their places vacant, the standards fallen, and the sword lying on the ground, to enter upon the contest, to raise

the banner, and even, if need be, to blow the trumpet, and to rejoice that we are privileged to take part in such a blessed work. As to the resolution which I am to support, it is not one of mere routine, one which can be materially affected by the question, whether the collection has been made to-day, or is to be made next Sunday. It is a resolution of deep solemnity, and involves great responsibility; and you are asked to declare earnestly, not only as the representatives of the Society in London, but as its representatives from different parts of the country, whether you are prepared to respond to the resolution. Sir, it is a modest resolution. It is no appeal for an increase of funds to extend the operations of the Society; it simply raises the question, whether you are to hold your own, -whether ground already occupied by you is still to be occupied. Sir, I am not addressing this vast assembly only; I am not ignorant of the fact, that the words which are uttered here will vibrate through the Christian world. It reminds me of a discovery in science, and a more marvellous discovery I do not know. A little time ago, when magnetic observatories had been established in different parts of the world, it was discovered that not a single storm could take place, not one movement could be effected in the magnetic currents, but the whole system vibrated in response. What seemed a solitary and isolated storm, bursting upon a rock in the midst of the ocean, was, at the same instant, felt in all the magnetic observatories throughout the world; everywhere the quivering of the needle showed that there had been magnetic disturbance. In like manner, Sir, I trust that the resolution which I hold in my hand will produce a magnetic disturbance in every Christian heart and mind throughout this country and the world. Unless we, as Christian men, rise to the emergency, and do what we have undertaken to do, the effect will be felt painfully in China,-it will be felt in India and Africa,-and the inquiry will be heard, "Are we to be deprived of the Society's help?" Sir, this resolution refers to the financial statement which has been laid before you. I do not know whether I am right in disclosing it; but, at all events, it is the fact, that while the past year has been a year of prosperity throughout England; while it has been a year during which wealth has been poured into our ports, and Free Trade, in which we glory, has been diffusing prosperity throughout the land; while all this has been going on, the regular income of this Society, its ordinary revenue, has decreased. The only resource on which prudent men can rely, that arm has been crippled. And wherewhence does the deficiency arise? Is it in the agricultural districts, sunk and depressed,

as it is said, by the results of Free Trade-a statement to which I do not give credit? No; but the deficiency has been in the contributions from Yorkshire, and Lancashire, and the northern parts of the kingdom. I am sure we need only state the fact, to prevent the recurrence of such a calamity. You ought to know the fact, Sir; this meeting ought to know it. And if there be this want, if there be this deficiency, where can we turn for help? Can we go down to the Philistines, and sharpen our weapons there? What hope can there be from the world for real help to Missionary exertion? None. Up to a certain point the men of the world see a moral beauty and loveliness around the field of Missionary labour. They see the wilderness blossoming as the rose, and they say, "How beautiful this is!" They see devoted servants of Christ, men who have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus,— the best and noblest definition of a Missionary that I ever heard,-and when they see this they admire it. But they have no sympathy with the great central truth of Missionary labour, "The love of Christ constraineth us." I am not now uttering fiction; I am not alluding to the works of thirty years ago which have been mentioned to-day, but to the current literature of our times, and I must say, that a more complete exemplification of the worldly spirit I know not, than is to be found in the leading articles of the Times newspaper. Why, sir, only a month pastI speak not of the character of the enterprise, nor of the wisdom and carefulness shown in the design-it appeared, that a man full of love to Christ, and burning with a desire to save souls, had left all the comforts of home in order to visit with others the desolate and tide-worn wastes of South America; and there, Sir, bequeathing to the Church a diary which can hardly be read but with a tearful eye, he, and all who were with him, died.And what is the response which the world, through the columns of this paper, gives to this noble, this glorious effort of self-denying love? If he had been a man who had perished in some Polar expedition,-if he had gone out to Timbuctoo,-if he had left his bones to bleach on the sandy deserts of Africa, the world would have been told of his noble enthusiasm for the progress of science; but, Sir, when it is the earnest and devoted Missionary of Christ, who had nothing to inspire him but the love of his Master, and whose chief desire was to save souls, we have nothing but the expression of a hope that this example may prevent others from following in the fallen man's steps. And then, Sir, in that very article I read with pain, and not with wonder, "What should we think if these Patagonians, having much to do at home,

were to venture to England to teach Puseyism?" Is that the way in which our Missionary work is to be regarded? It is of no use appealing to the spirit of the world. Then we will go to the Church; we will take this resolution, and we will read it to our Churches. I speak as a layman, and I speak with due submission in the presence of those who are my elders and my reverend fathers in the ministry, and I hardly venture to offer a word of counsel; but, if I might, I would just venture to say, that we, the laity, want more facts about Missions. I think it is a great delusion, that every thing that is put in print is read. In many parts of England, I have been in the habit, not unfrequently, of attending Missionary prayer-meetings. I would venture to say on this occasion, principles on the Sabbath-dayfacts for the week-day! I would venture just to suggest, that on these occasions we should have less of the minister and more of the Missionary. I venture to say, that if, on these occasions, we could reduce the addresses, and get facts from the MISSIONARY CHRONICLE, we should be more benefited. And I say this fearlessly, because I confess, before this assembly, that, burdened with business and worn with the toils of daily life, many of us feel that then the facts from a Missionary Report would come gratefully to us, if read to us from month to month. It frequently happens that we read only the short articles; and if our ministers would cull from the Missionary Report, even if we had read it before, facts-simple facts,

we should then have general interest excited in the Missionary work. Then, Sir, there is just one thought which I wish to utter, and it is this: If we appeal to the Church, and as laymen we must appeal to the Church, as ministers you must appeal to it, do not let us appeal to the Church alone in its corporate character. I value these Associations; I value such a Society as this; but I feel that, even in the constitution of such a glorious and such a noble Society, there is sometimes a danger lest we should lose the sense of individual responsibility, and throw on a dim and indistinct corporation that which we ought to do ourselves. I would, if it were possible, that when these Societies are builded up, and when any effort is to emanate from them, and to be concentrated in them, it should be done, not through the Church to the individual, but through the individual to the Church. Each individual should feel more and more his responsibility to Christ, and less his reponsibility to the Society. And if it be so-if truth is to advance in this way, then we need not fear the alternative. Contract the sphere of your exertions, Sir? You cannot do it. God has laid down our sphere for us.

"The

field is the world." We may be unfaithful to our duty; we may not cultivate the whole of that field as we ought; but still the sphere remains, and within that we must labour. But, then, think for a moment, if that be the alternative, to reduce the sphere of Missionary labour. Let us summon them before us; let us bring them up one after another. With what sphere of labour shall we begin? Let us bring before you the representative of China; let him be on the platform to-day, and let him plead his cause. Will he not tell you, that you prayed for China, and that you longed earnestly that the door might be opened for an effectual proclamation of the Gospel in China-that you had surrounded the wall of China with the voice of prayer; and at last, in answer to your prayers, the wall fell flat before you. And will you now abandon that field? The representative from India will be there, and he will tell you that God, in his Almighty Providence, has committed a vast and mighty empire to your hands; and it will be urged, I think, that you must not forsake it. And the inhabitants of Tahiti will be there, and they will prove, by your earnest desire for their salvation, by your first and early love, that they cannot be left.

And Africa must not be forsaken. We have let loose war in Africa; the spirit of desolation is there, and we cannot now withdraw the olive-branch of peace. I do not know where we should begin, Sir. We cannot begin anywhere; for although what we have done in time past has been so encouraging, we have not done so much that we can afford to retire. It is encouraging to look back upon Missionary effort, and see how vast the result has been. We see it widening and deepening:

"Like some bright river, that, from fall to fall,

In many a maze descending, bright through all, Finds some fair region where, each labyrinth past, In one full lake of light it rests at last."

That must be the determination; we can consent to nothing less than this; we have talked of light permeating the whole world. What do we at present? These stations of ours are but so many centres of light, belts and zones of light around the world. But the whole world must be illuminated. I recollect, not many years since, being on the mountains of the Tyrol, and seeing scattered along the paths of its precipices the small torches which had lit the travellers, the night before, over those dangerous ways, and they had fulfilled their purpose; and I can imagine that any one looking on those dark mountains, and seeing those lines of light, might be grateful-oh, abundantly grateful-that they were leading safely along those dangerous paths many to safety, to happiness, and to home. But, Sir, I remember, not long

afterwards, being upon one of the higher Alps very early in the morning, long before the sun had risen: those mighty overland Alps immediately before us, their peaks running far up into the grey sky of the morning, -we waited patiently and with desire, and we perceived what we were expecting. That mighty peak of snow began to glow like a torch; and then by degrees, shining lower and lower, the glorious sunshine flooded mountain, and valley, and lake, and as the clouds began to rise, they were tinged with its splendour. Oh! Sir, it is just this with our work. We have torches all the world over, but we want the glorious, perfect light, and, until we have that, we must not be satisfied, but hope for the blessed consummation. And why should we not hope? The past is full of promise-the present is full of encouragement. Look on every side, and see what your Society and kindred Societies are doing. There is surely much to encourage And then the future-prophecy fortells it; signs and portents are full of hope, and we wait for the accomplishment, just as the solitary watcher in space waits for the approach of that full-orbed planet, which is to be his home of light for ever. And come it will"the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness:" and, Sir, if found faithfulif, by God's grace, we are permitted to be faithful to our trust-for us there shall be the green pastures and the living waters, and the full fruition of our joy, when the whole "earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." You believe that? Then can you refuse to adopt the resolution?

us.

The CHAIRMAN put the resolution to the meeting, and it was passed unanimously.

The Rev. JOHN SUGDEN: Mr. Chairman and Christian friends, I will not detain you above one minute. The resolution which has been put into my hands is to this effect:

"That Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Bart., be the Treasurer; that the Rev. Dr. Tidman be the Foreign Socretary; and the Rev. Ebenezer Prout be the Home Secretary for the ensuing year; that the Directors who are eligible be re-appointed; and that the gentlemen whose names have been transmitted by their respective Auxiliaries, and approved by the Aggregate Meeting of Delegates, be chosen to fill up the places of those who retire; and that the Directors have power to fill up any vacancies that may occur."

I would just say, that I stand here as the representative of my missionary brethren, and I feel exceedingly happy that this resolution has fallen into the hands of a Missionary. It gives me an appropriate opportunity of testifying our love and affection to those who sustain office in the Society. I can only say, my Christian friends, that the honour and

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