inducement to love their neighbours as they love themselves. Then, just with the wane of Socialism came the wide distribution of the Scriptures. In our Manchester districts, in one single year, 97,000 copies of the Word of God were sold among the people. Oh, happy, de

word shall not return unto me void." The artizan has been sitting in his cottage, like the eunuch in his chariot, reading the Scriptures, and your agent has gone, like Philip, and joined himself to the chariot, asking “Understandest thou what thou readest?" and then has begun at the same Scripture, and preached to him Jesus. Yes, we must gird ourselves for the work; we must cast ourselves on the rich resources of our noble voluntary system. That system which in the first ages carried on Christianity so well, has lost little of its might and vigour now. That system which in Scotland some men have employed, when they descried and found, under the shadow of Benloven and Pentland, mines of gold and silver. Oh, let us put to the test in England! Our work is great and noble; let us try to raise it to its full dignity, never disparaging the efforts of those who have toiled so well for the temporal prosperity of the nation. Let us remember that our high vocation, as disciples of Jesus, is to scatter spiritual blessings on every side, to invoke the influence of the Spirit of all grace; and never may we desist to pray and labour, till ours is the happiness of the people whose God is the Lord.

our eyes; both are absolutely necessary to our full discovery of truth and perception of duty. Let us never dash the two instruments one against the other. We should do no good to either, but perhaps do great injury to both. Indeed, I cannot conceive that we take a right view of these two great Societies, unless we re-lightful omen! We know who has said, “My gard them as parts of one great whole. They are not rivals, they are auxiliaries; the one is absolutely necessary to complete, to implement, the efforts of the other. All that our foreign Missionaries can do is to light up the great thoroughfares of the world, and put a lamp here and there in the midst of the great darkness; and happy and honoured is the man who is permitted to kindle or to watch the flame; but this, after all, is not doing much good, unless there be some such Societies as yours to spread the illumination wider, to carry it into every county, village, and cottage in the land. Success to both. Let never a whisper be heard of one against the other. The resolution alludes to the discouragement of the agents of your Society, and the Report which we have just heard states, that one of the chief discouragements is in connexion with the existence of the Established Church. Now bear with me if I attempt, for a moment, to express on this matter what I believe to be your own sentiments as well as mine. There is a distinction most clear and obvious to every one of us, which our opponents on this question will persist in overlooking, I mean this:-it is one thing to be a foe to the establishment of the Church, it is another thing to be a foe to the Church that is es- Rev. C. E. BIRT, of Wantage. It has been tablished. With regard to the Episcopal church brought as a charge against the religion of the in this land, with some modifications-important New Testament, that it supplies no room and modifications I admit-I think we can all sin- allows no scope for some of the noblest virtues cerely say we are not its foes; only let it but that adorn human nature. Friendship and stand by itself, with no other head but Christ, patriotism, so highly exalted by every other and no other support than the contributions of system of religion, it has been declared, receive its friends. Happy in our estimation the day no countenance from the doctrines of the Gospel. that shall see all men Christians, even though They who bring this objection against our it shall see them all Episcopalians. The king- Christianity want the candour to distinguish bedom of God, in my opinion, is not meat and tween the expansion and the elevation of virtue, drink, but righteousness, joy, and peace, in the and what they would regard as its extension. Holy Ghost. That is one thing; but on the Our patriotism is not that of Greece and Rome, other hand-and with all solemnity I would say made up rather of various antipathies towards it-let the Episcopalian Church remain esta- other countries, than anything of charity or coblished, or let any other church take its place, hesion at home. The patriotism of Christians, for it would be much the same, and we see in like every other virtue that is formed in the that one fact, the source of innumerable mis- school of Christ, is sanctified by the Spirit of chiefs; we see religion secularized, and not the God. The patriotism of Christians will never state Christianized: we see the grand hindrance be found to clash with universal benevolence. to the union of the godly, and one of the great We shall not seek the prosperity of one country obstacles to the conversion of the world. My at the expense of the general happiness of manresolution speaks of circumstances that are kind; but as Christians and Englishmen we favourable, as well as of some that are dis- should feel the claims and attractions of our couraging. In the north of England we have native land. The land of our fathers' sepulchres, been rejoicing in a decline of Socialism as a the land which is ruled substantially by equal great and awful system of infidelity. It has de- law, under the administration of a gentle soveclined like every one of its predecessors, and reign, to whose constitutional force her loyal consolatory it is to the Christian to remark, and affectionate subjects bear testimony with how, while there may be awful infidelity, infidel one acclaim that it is without a flaw. We do systems must be short-lived; they are all feel the attractions of our native land, where suicidal; they carry the elements of self-des- civil and religious liberty is enjoyed to a greater truction within themselves. How delightful in extent than in any other country in Europe, the north, has it been to know, that the agents where opportunities for the propagation of the of your Society have gone to the adherents of Gospel to those at home and abroad are greater this wretched system, and presented to them than in any other nation under heaven. But in wholesome and heavenly socialism, which our love of country we must be allowed to enteaches men first to love the Lord with all their force the Scriptural principles we hold. We hearts; and this lays them under the strongest | are told that righteousness exalteth a nation,

the lengthened shadows which coming events cast on the sunset of life are the heralds of that universal shade which will soon envelope all.

and where there is no vision the people perish. | prince and prevail with God? Has our personal Therefore is it at such a meeting as this our liberality been in accordance with the claims of thoughts and our inquiries are naturally directed the great object that we contemplate in the Misto the religious faith of our native country. sionary field? Are we spending and being spent When our survey is pursued over this favoured on the great cause of our common Christianity? land, are we not constrained to admit that the The proper point to which this meeting should scenes which pass before us are those of spiritual be brought is prospective. What shall we now destitution and distress? I would ask, what is do for our native laud? One thing we can do the religious condition of the masses who in--give to this subject more serious thought and habit our cities and great provincial towns. I more solemn reflection than we have hitherto heard with great delight the witness borne from done. Let us consider how far the question of one of the most populous districts of the land, our personal and active interests in the Home that an odious system of infidelity was on the Missionary cause is connected with the evidence decline. I yet fear infidelity will prove the of our personal piety and the faithfulness of our hydra-headed monster that, when one head is attachment to Jesus Christ. Then, when we severed by the sword, another will take its are brought to comprehend that the Missionary room; for, under my own observation, looking spirit is not an accessary to the Gospel, is not abroad, past the narrow confines of my own ac- the mere adornment of the Christian character, quaintance, in the great population of our cities that the Missionary spirit and Christianity, and towns, I discover social evils in full-blown rightly understood, are one and the same thing, enormity, invading the peace and security of how can we be found otherwise than as refamilies, destroying all domestic ties. Looking deeming the time? I look around the platform abroad, I observe the avowed act of irreligion, and gaze upon this assembly; brethren and by which I intend the entire absence of the Christian friends, it is the afternoon of life with very name and semblance of the fear of God, many of us, when the most unreflecting labourers declared and avowed impiety, undisguised are casting glances at the declining sun. The atheism. When we turn our attention to the largest portion of the day's work remains incomspiritual state of our rural districts, there may plete in comparison with what they have done be some sensation of relief; when, however, whilst we are dallying with the fresh hours of we pass from the high fever of fierce passion so the morning as though they were endless. Ay, rife in crowded cities, spiritual evil is presented" the night cometh when no man can work," and before us in a more melancholy form. In the rural districts of our land we are brought into contact with the immobility of ignorance and superstition. The spiritual evil there presents itself, not in the active, but the passive form, and I call upon those who, with myself, have daily intercourse in that class of society, to testify, with me, that the agricultural mind is, generally speaking, whether by the hopes or fears of ignorance, impassive. They trust, as they are taught to do, for regeneration and remission of sins, in the performance of an unintelligible ceremonial. Their religion consists in a cherished reverence for forms and services, consecrated places, and the functions of the priesthood. Of the way of reconciliation propagated in the Gospel they are densely ignorant. They have a name to live, and they are dead. What has been done for our native land? I rejoice that I can appeal to the Report. That Report goes to this extent,-that nearly 100 agents of your Society are filling up stations of usefulness, and in subordinate stations the amount is more than 300; that 1000 Sabbathschool teachers are instructing nearly 8000 children in the elementary truths of the Scriptures; that 500 converts, during the past year, have been added to the number of the faithful. I mention these things, not as a ground of premature triumph, but only so far as this is, that we have no longer to do with speculation, but with facts,-no longer to do with experiment, but with proof; and if we are now wanting in faith and energy and action, where shall we be when He cometh to find faith upon the earth? What have we done personally for Christianity? Our accountability is great; we have received grace that we may dispense it. Has our conversation been seasoned with the salt of the Gospel; have our prayers been earnest and fervent; have we, in the energy of faith, risen up from the dust of debasement to wrestle as a

The resolution was then put and carried. The Rev. J. BROWN rose to move the second resolution :

"That while this meeting is thankful for the amount of agency employed by the Society, and for the measure of success which has attended its operations, it is strongly of opinion that the state of the country requires that the operations of the institution should be graetly extended, both in the agricultural and manufacturing districts."

There is, perhaps, no feeling more congenial to the Christian heart than gratitude and thanksgiving. It is, I think, a topic of gratitude, it is, and it ought to be, a time of thanksgiving and praise, that in the past year this Society has been enabled to sustain ninety agents; that the labours of these agents have been extended over 223 stations; that by the ministration of these agents 500 human souls have been added to the number of the professed followers of Jesus Christ; that there are somewhere between 7000 and 8000 children under Sabbathschool instruction, with upwards of 1000 teachers. Regarding this latter sphere of oper ation simply, it is utterly impossible for us to form anything like an adequate idea of the amount of good which may thus be accomplished. The numbers to which I have just reterred are speedily uttered; it requires no minute analysis to grasp the amount; but it does require what no one in this assembly can give -an amount of power which no one here pos. sesses to estimate the length of time, the extent of country, the duration to which these benefits may extend. Why, the truth imparted to these children in youth may be handed down by them, without any instrumentality from this or similar Societies, from age to age, and, perhaps, be but

spoken, when the last trumpet shall blow, and pidly, progressing. I think we can see them in the dead be raised. Yet, the resolution which this vast city. My friend, who has just spoken, I have just read states, that this meeting is has observed that he has traced them elsewhere. strongly of opinion, that a greater amount of That noble river, the pride and shame of our agency ought to be employed; that this Institu- city, bears on the myriads that carry moral detion should be enlarged in the sphere of its solation wherever they go. The claims of the operations; and I think whatever has been or Lord's day are losing their hold upon the popular shall be recorded is but as the earnest of what mind, and where there is not positive contempt we ought to do-is simply an indication of how of religion, there is absolute indifference and much good has been done by a simple amount carelessness. One of the points which strikes of agency; and, therefore, under what deep ob- us most strongly in observing the present state ligations we are placed, to bring into action the of society is this, that, in the various movements utmost amount of agency at our command. It which are made the great object at which the surely cannot be an adequate contribution to the actors aim, is the popular mind. Infidelity is, spiritual necessities of this our native country, in this respect, distinct from what it was in that the Baptist community should have but former times. The assaults on religion come ninety agents directly employed by them. Surely not in ponderous tomes, they are addressed not the paltry sum-for paltry and contemptible it to the secluded, they are designed not to adorn is-of about £5000 is not the amount which the the shelves of bibliotists, they come to us in the whole of the Baptists ought to contribute for the ephemeral publications of the day, they come evangelization of their native land. There are, in the witty epigram, and the licentious poem. in the age in which we live, indications that, if When the pastor in this sanctuary is preaching at any time, there are strong calls upon us to be the Gospel of the blessed God, when he is unup and doing, that time is the present one. The folding the unsearchable riches of Christ, almost age in which we live is emphatically the moving within his voice the gospel according to Adam age. In commerce, in politics, in religion, the Smith, the mystery of the Wealth of Nations, is spirit of inquiry has been awakened. Opinions proclaimed to others. It is not an uncommon which passed current, unquestioned for centu- thing for us to see in the metropolis lectures on ries, are now disputed and rejected; systems, a science, on the drama, on social states and theories, principles, to which the human mind social pursuits advertised for the very day-the has paid homage for centuries, are now openly only day in which the masses can attend to their impugned; authority, as such, is of no avail souls. Now, the point to which I bring these whatever. We quarrel not with this spirit, we observations is this. Here you have a Society love this spirit; but we cannot fail to observe designed immediately for the mass; it is inthat in this conflict of opinion and thought the tended to visit the scattered poor of the agricul anti-christian elements are numerous, potent, tural districts, to come into contact with the and compact. They meet us in every quarter dense mass of impurity. Your agents are men to which we turn; they appear before us in of ardent and deep piety, men of untiring zeal various relations and different hues. That Re- and perseverance, men who preach the simplest port which has just been read has referred to truth, and that in the simplest way; men who some of these. The spirit of infidelity, the last go and leave the tracts containing truth behind which we should have thought would have been them, who scatter the Scriptures where they go; called from its tomb, is now awake. The liter- and if you would take your proper part in the ature of our day is imbued with it to a great ex-great conflict going on, you must do what you tent. While the learned of foreign lands are can, not merely to bid God-speed to the Society, transmuting the plainest truths of the Christian but to oil the wheels of the great machine which writings into meaningless mysticism, the liter- is to regenerate our land. The period at which we ature of our land is making these truths the butts are now arrived is not merely one characterized at which they throw their shafts. The philoso- by great and stirring movements, but one, too, pher is frequently a sceptic, the ignorant is fre- in which our principles, as Voluntarists, are quently a scoffer, and it is not too much too say, placed in the scale and weighed. This is to that we are progressing towards that state at all the season of temptation and the period of which Gibbon says pagan Rome had arrived, trial. As Voluntarists, probably we have never when all religion was regarded by the people as stood in similar circumstances before; even equally true, by the philosopher as equally false, those in high places now recognize the point at and by the magistrate as equally useful. Infi- which we aim. They see that, when we disdelity is not the only spirit that is awake, nor pute the right of the state to educate, we disis it, perhaps, the most dangerous and fatal. pute the right likewise of the state to maintain Catholicism in its various forms is at work; Christianity in alliance with itself. Grant the silently does it attempt to imbue the masses; former, that the state has no right to educate, proudly and vauntingly is it heard in the senate; virtually, the latter too is granted. I have and noble lords can declare now, what in heard it said, that it is one thing to oppose former time was never heard in St. Stephen's, measures when they are in prospect, but when that the antagonism between Protestantism and they have been adopted, and can no longer be Popery is a deadly one, and that they entertain averted, it is another thing to consider what confident hopes that the struggle must issue in steps we are to take with regard to them.I the extinction of Protestantism. In that senti- have heard it significantly said, that we may ment I fully concur; the battle is deadly, protest against measures, and then avail our Protestantism will be extinguished, but it will selves of their provisions; that is, when interbe extinguished by the overthrow of the system preted, we are, by our actions, to give the lie against which it protests. A mere glance at the to our words. Nay, there are not wanting state of our country will perhaps convince us noble lords who do not deem us beneath their that immorality and vice are steadily, if not ra- notice. They scatter their smiles and blandish