ments with wondrous grace and condescension. | not circumscribe your sympathies by the cliffs They express their confident hopes, that when of our native land; I would not drain your the momentary irritation has been soothed hearts by the ties of language and blood away, when the revolt of passion has been sup- Christianity has nothing circumscribed or repressed, when reason has been restored to her strictive about it. Let it not be supposed that throne and her authority, then we will retrace our cultivation of Home Missions will affect in the steps we have taken, and with penitence the least the Foreign: while we are thus aimaccept the boon which we have hitherto de- ing to make our native land truly, as well as in spised. If the opposition we offer to these name, a Christian land, we are doing the utmeasures be upon principle, no change of cir- most we can do for foreign countries. If the cumstances, and no decision of senates can world is man's field, the Gospel is to be first affect them. The rise and fall of empires, and preached at Jerusalem. Home operations are the lapse of ages, touch not principles. They the Eden we would fain cultivate, and from the are as immortal as the minds in which they garden of the Lord we will render fragrant our dwell, and as immortal as the resources of work; we will adorn humanity; and it is not truth from which they proceed. There is no till home, our native land, has been fully Chrisdivorce from your principles: you take them for tianized, that the voice in heaven to which that better and for worse, for health and for sickness, Report refers, will be heard, when it shall be for richer and for poorer. They are not sails said, "Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent which you can set to catch the favourable reigneth; the kingdoms of this world have breeze, and which you can furl when the ad- become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his verse gale shall blow. They are not hot-house Christ." plants, on which the air of day may blow, but which the air of night is not to touch-they must be battered by the tempest and strengthened by the blast. If you recognize these truths, you must act them out, and in reference to this Society. That Report has borne testimony to certain quarters whence opposition comes. What has in past time come, is but little compared with what future times will produce. Your agents engaged in a single village, under the frown of the esquire and the parson, are the men who will be the first to be tempted. The members of these churches, scattered, some over a long tract of land, in humble circumstances of life, while perhaps their daily bread may be on one side, and their consciences on the other, will be the first to be assailed and to feel the power. Now, I call upon you to sympathise with these men whom you thus send forth; to strengthen their hands by your labour, to sustain them in the work in which they are engaged. If, at any period, fidelity to your principles demands this, this is that period. It cannot be concealed that there are men who think that we have no faithfulness to our principles. They think we have protested against an establishment because we have been shut out from being in an establishment ourselves. They bring their tentative processes, -this one of education is but preparatory to a tentative one with regard to the Church. Touch these and the leprous spot will extend throughout the whole system. Fidelity to Christ demands more than fidelity to principle. Moral principle comes from Christ-he is its lord and master. Fidelity to his cause requires that you should send forth more labourers, and sustain cheerfully and heartily those you have already engaged. I am convinced we are not sufficiently impressed with the importance of Home Missions. To whatever cause it may be ascribed, the fact is indisputable that that sweetest of all words, "home," loses its power and popotency when associated with Missions. The claims from a distance exhaust the ocean; and, when the church at home comes to call for its share, the fountain is dry. Nay, there are some who can pass the putrid courts and loathsome lanes, which, perhaps, abut their dwellings, and think little of the misery and crime existing there. Let me not be misunderstood. I would

;

Rev. J. H. HINTON: I am happy in having an opportunity of expressing before this auditory my deep sense of the necessity, importance, and value of the operations sustained by this institution. By far the larger part of my life I have resided in three of the districts which are under its culture. The first in Oxfordshire, the darkest county probably, as Oxford itself is the darkest place in England; the next in Pembrokeshire, the third in Berkshire. For the last nearly ten years, residing in this vast hive of human beings, I have seen little of the country. The report which has been read this evening seems to carry me up on some eminence from which I survey the districts with which I have been partly conversant, and other districts too, and I behold in them at once the desolations of ignorance and sin, and also the results of the hallowed industry and fertilizing power which have been expended upon them. I should not be very happy in this survey, even if all England were a converted land, and if there were not in it an impenitent sinner left; for I hold the baptist denomination-and this Society is in part its representation-to be in possession of a portion of Divine truth possessed by none other. It would be not only quite fair, and quite right, and quite necessary that this portion of Divine truth should have its chance of diffusion and triumph too as well as all the rest of the mass to which it belongs; and I should not consent, even if every person in the communion were a Christian indeed, that that part of the word of God which relates to believers' baptism should be thereby practically sup pressed. But I rejoice the more, not because England is in a condition in which vast multitudes are ignorant of God, and in the way to ruin; but since this is the fact, I rejoice the more that this Society carries out not simply the peculiar truth held by our body, but the general truths held by all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We preach the gospel; we teach men the simplest, but there fore the most important verities of Christianity, and carry thus into operation a system of means of Divine appointment of the most urgent necessity and most blessed adaptation for man,—a deed in which it might seen we were entitled, and might reckon upon the approbation of all good men and the co-operation of the Lord

money, we would not offer it to the Church. Let them know that the Dissenters will not take it, at whatever sacrifice. I feel that I am to maintain that ground, even if I saw every effort I could make or promote for education snatched away from me. It is, I suppose, a scramble for children; a pitiful scramble, that will dirty everybody's fingers that meddles with it. Be so; whatever sacrifices it occasions, let it come. We have for the most part had fair weather for our profession of religion, though not wholly so. Our forefathers maintained their consistency in many a struggle; and what are we, that we are to set down as a rule of Divine Providence that no storms are to light upon us? Or if, instead of the storm it be the sunshine, are we, whose forefathers faced the first, going to be coaxed by the instrumentality of gold? If, when the tempest came, our forefathers wrapped more closely the cloak, are we, now that the sun is shining, going to cast it away? No; the principle is the same in both cases, whether the State terrifies us by saying,

God Almighty. What is it to say that there is opposition to such a course as this? If, indeed, the opposition came from quarters of avowed iniquity, we should understand it; but what is it to say that opposition to such a course as this comes from any body called Christiancomes from the Established Church, or a portion of the Established Church of this country! Why that is not at all events in the direct line of apostolic succession; for one of them said, that even when the gospel was preached out of strife and contention, which now it is not, he therein did rejoice, yea, and would rejoice. It is, however, quite true that the agents of this Society do meet with difficulty; and another thing is quite true, they are likely to meet with more difficulty. The report of the Society has glanced at the cause of this, and one of these causes is with great justice specified as consisting of the recent act of the Legislature, whereby a system of education under the aid of State patronage has been sanctioned by a very large majority of the lower House. This educational measure would un-"You shall go to prison," or saying, "Here is doubtedly aggravate the difficulties of the agents of this Society: it would do so, whether it apply for the Government grants towards the support of schools or not, for it is of the vicious nature of this measure, that it angments the wealth of the rich, and robs the poor; that it increases the strength of the strong, and aggravates the weakness of the feeble; and let us, as we may, apply for these grants, and get them too; if we do get them, it will still be to us a comparative diminution of strength, and an aggravation of difficulties. But what will it be, if we do not apply for these grants, if we shall conduct our schools as best we may, and so have them brought into direct disadvantageous competition with schools that are receiving money from the public purse, which unquestionably, as far as resources are concerned, will have immediate facilities for meeting expenses? We shall suffer much. The advantages held out by schools that take the grant, will tend materially to the embarrassment of schools that do not take it. That is net to be con

cealed from us. Then great difficulties are before the agents of this Society in common with others; and it is a question of the greatest importance, what shall be done? Shall we or shall we not ask for the Government grant? We are none of us going to be bribed out of what is a principle with us. We are none of us going to barter our consciences for gold; it has been an insult, when we said our consciences forbade us taking money from the public purse, it has been an insult and wrong to offer it. I do not think that any man, who felt the freedom of his own conscience, would have ever offered to buy mine. But if a knave has asked me to sell my conscience, it is at the time more incumbent upon me than ever to prove I am not a knave, but an honest man. If ever there was a time when I would have sold my conscience, it is not now. When men are looking on with a sly sneer, and saying, "He will take the money after the measure is passed, though he make an outcry now."-No; this is a time when statesmen should be taught a great lesson, and conscience should be demonstrated in a way that cannot be mistaken. Legislators have said, if we believed that the Dissenters would not take the

gold for you, if you will admit our aid in re ligion." If I once take its gold, upon what ground can I deny its right to imprison or to persecute? It is the old devil in an angel's form, and it is for us to make this coaxing angel know that we see, what I think the Bishop of Norwich said he saw in our opposition to the Educational Scheme, the cloven foot. And as for religion making its way in difficulties, as for any notion that the gospel cannot prevail except in fair weather, as for the idea that there will be no triumph of Christianity, where obstacles are thrown in it way-away with such a notion as this. I do not mean to say that Christianity goes on better for persecution; but we know that in persecution Christianity has triumphed, and that to its success it did not require tranquil times. When it was first launched, it was in bitter opposition: it has gone through many persecutions, and it is the rock against which many waves have broken themselves; but it stands firm, and shall stand to the last. There are just two things for us to do; first, to see that our weapons be exclu sively of heavenly temper; do not let us be induced to use any instrumentality of which we caunot say, as the Apostle said, "Our weapons are not carnal." In the next place, let us employ them in that firmness and consistency which God our helper promises. It is not a strife be tween man and man; is not a strife between the potsherds of the earth; it is not Churchmen against Dissenters, unendowed classes against endowed; but it is the power of God, against the devices of men, the instrument of God's ordination, and the power of God's Holy Spirit against the pride and corruption of man's heart. Who is he that hath God on his side? If we have any suspicion that the cause in which we are embarked is not the cause of God, let us begin to retire, and lay by our ex ertions, and have done. If it be, with what a feeling-a deep, profound feeling-should we engage in it! What we preach is the gospel of salvation; it is linked with the power of God, the power of God to salvation, by the energy of his own Spirit, in every man that believeth. Let tude of expectation, in the deepest bumility, us not only work, but work in the cheerful atti

The resolution was then put and carried.
Rev. J. BIGWOOD, of Exeter, rose to move:

"That this meeting has heard with regret, that the annual income of the Society is considerably below the expenditure; that it would hope and pray that the special circumstances which have tended to increase its debt during the past year may speedily be removed; and would earnestly entreat the churches, by means of general, stated, and, as far possible, simultaneous collections, to place in the hands of the Committee sufficient funds not only for the maintenance, but the augmentation of its agency."

prayerful for that influence on which our triumph | the fear of God in their hearts go with that gosdepends. "Let the sea roar, and the multitude pel in their hands into these villages, and they of isles tremble, we have no fear; God is our will be successful in evangelizing our countryrefuge, even the God of Jacob, our strength and men, overcoming obstacles, and spreading the our salvation." influences of the truth. This is the only means calculated to advance this object, and the only means we can employ. If we seek any other means we shall fail. Do we hope to bring men to Christianity by wealth? We have no wealth equal to those who oppose it. Do we intend, by splendid buildings, to bring people to it? They have learning and resources at their command, and we cannot compete with them in these points. But when we go with the simple truth as it is in Christ, we have something that arrests attention-something new, something unearthly, which will find its way to the hearts of our fellow men, and by the influence of which we shall eventually succeed. It will be truth triumphing over error; it will be something coming from heaven triumphing over hell, God triumphing over Satan. It is by the use of this simple instrumentality that we hope to accomplish the conversion of our fellow men to Jesus Christ. How is this to be attained? We must have money to accomplish this; but a little will do a great deal. It is not with this Society as with others, that a large outlay must be made before the work is attempted. If we have a few hundred pounds, we can set a labourer at work. A plain meeting house is sufficient, and a plain man will be sufficient to accomplish the work. He may preach on the Sabbath and teach in the week. This is what we want to combine the preaching of the gospel with the teaching of the youth in the scattered villages. If we do this, we need not care about the Government grants, we need not take the money. I wish that this point might attract more the attention of Christians in this country. We must have education diffused throughout the land, and in this manner we instruct as well as preach. We must have men who care for the souls of children, to train them up in spiritual as well as secular knowledge. This is the education that will do good. If I had time I could show it is not the want of education that is the cause of crime in this country; but I will simply commend the resolution to your adoption, and, in connexion with it, the claims of the society. I urge you to contribute of that which God has given to you. The resolution speaks of the expenditure exceeding the income. You want to pay the debt, and to have money in hand by which you can carry on your various efforts. Will you not come to the Society's help? Shall it be said that you long for the conversion of your fellow creatures, and at the same time you come not to the help of those who were ready to seek to accomplish the object? Let it be seen that your practice is in accordance with your principles; and as you desire the salvation of your fellow men, so you are ready to contribute of that which God has conferred upon you, to accomplish this work.

I do not intend to occupy the time of this meeting for more than two or three minutes: but there was one remark made by the last speaker to which I would wish now to direct attention, that it may be impressed on your minds and influence you in that which comes to be performed by you to-night; that is, the action of giving to the Baptist Home Missionary Society. In order to our success in any object, it is necessary we should have an exact idea of the nature of the object to be attained, the extent of that object, and the adequacy of the means we employ for its accomplishment. If these things are impressed upon our minds, we shall then with eagerness pursue the means, and we shall be triumphant in the pursuit. Just for one moment to apply this to the subject of Home Missions. The object we have before us is the regeneration of our fellow countrymen. We are anxious that our kindred, according to the flesh, our brothers and sisters in Great Britain, may be brought under the sanctifying and ennobling influence of the gospel of Christ. We have, in aiming at the accomplishment of this object, difficulties to contend with. We have a system of corrupted Christianity so nearly like the true, that many mistake the imaginary for the reality. We have a priesthood dominant and intriguing, who, by a kind of fictitious reverence and status in society, exert their influence over the minds of men. We have the seal of Parliament put upon this institution. We have an aristocracy, whose interests are combined with this institution, supporting it. It is aided by all the advantageous circumstances of wealth, learning, and gentility. It is against this we have to contend; and in the villages of our country especially its influence will be felt, and particularly in the county from whence I come. Those who are under the guidance of the Bishop of Exeter, are the individuals who oppose your agents in their work, and are most successful in their opposition. I know a village where the clergyman forbids the inhabitants, and they are fools enough to obey, to receive a Dissenting teacher, whilst the people are taught that baptismal regeneration is in accordance with the will of God, and that, admitted into the church by baptism, they shall be heirs of everlasting life and glory. Whilst we have these difficulties to contend with, let us inquire whether the means we possess to overcome them are adequate to the end at which we aim. What are these means? The simple gospel as it was given to us. Let those men who have

Rev. J. HIGGS, of Sudbury, in seconding the resolution, said: The subject of this motion involves the fate of many churches, which it is of the utmost importance for us to endeavour to maintain. If the funds of this society diminish, if its Committee should find itself in a position in which it shall be incapable of assisting in the support of the ministers of these churches

Donations and Subscriptions will be gratefully received on behalf of the Society, by the Treasurer, J. R. BOUSFIELD, Esq., 126, Hounsditch; or by the Secretary, THE REV. STEPHEN JOSHUA DAVIS, 33, MOORGATE STREET, LONDON. Post Office orders should give the name in full. Collector for London: MR. W. PARNELL, 6, Benyon Cottages, De Beauvoir Sq., Kingsland.

J. HADDON, PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY.

THE

BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1847.

MEMOIR OF SIR WILLIAM SINCLAIR,

OF DUNBEATH, BART.

BY THE REV. FRANCIS JOHNSTON.