not be embarrassed in your attempts to set it forth. Men, whose own opinions on religion are crude and undigested, will be apt to convey erroneous notions of the subject to others. How, indeed, should those be intelligible to another, who do not understand themselves? And, if this hold good among people of our tongue, if an indistinct thinker is sure to be an obscure interpreter, it is manifest that a preacher, to whose mind the Gospel is not present with extraordinary clearness, will be easily confused and disconcerted when propounding its sacred and mysterious verities to the uncivilized, who are little used to intellectual operations, whose language is a very imperfect vehicle of general notions, and that language imperfectly understood by the preacher himself.

Let me further invite you to consider this place as intended for a school, not less of moral discipline, than of literary culture. Neither are you to be trained for the ordinary life of Christians, but for a state of extraordinary duties, privations, and trials. On this account, there must be some peculiarities in the form and method of this Establishment; which you will, I am persuaded, interpret candidly, should you not, at first, apprehend their utility. To model this Institution exactly by the pattern of other Academical Establishments would indeed be a fatal error. Much, that might be suitable for young men who contemplate no Ministerial Service away from home, or beyond the circuit of civilized life, would be highly unsuitable for you, who are launching into quite another sphere, wherein you will have to do and to suffer what would never fall to your lot in your own country. You will, therefore, agree with me in thinking that it ill becomes the Foreign Evangelist to be self-indulgent-to be curious about his food and dress, and studious of ease and attendance. The ulmost possible independence on ex

ternal circumstances is the right qualification of a Missionary; by whom, indeed, the mortification of the body should be carried to a singular extent; who ought to be sublimed, so to speak, by the fervency of divine affections into an almost immaterial nature, and to be known only as a pathetic and importunate voice resounding through the moral wilderness, and publishing the glad tidings of Christ's pacification in countries which are still as a howling waste, through that primitive curse of rebellion against God, which nothing else can mitigate but a knowledge of the Great Restorer and Saviour of Mankind.

You hardly need to be reminded of the importance of cultivating a frank and generous temper, suavity of manner, and mutual benevolence. One spirit, I trust, will circulate throughout this family; and nothing like jealousy, envy, strife, or bitterness ever gain a footing among us. It is among the great ends contemplated in forming you into one household, that you should know and love one another. You are brethren, by a triple tie: for you are Christians; you are about to become Christian Ministers; and you are alike destined to a department of Christian Labour, with which no other can be paralleled, in the same extensive field, for arduousness and dignity.

MY LORD, AND GENTLEMEN

IN assuming the Government of this Institution, I confidently reckon on the good sense, the right feeling, and the pious tempers of the Students. Such an Establishment cannot be carried on without order, and order must be defined and sustained by laws: yet no onerous and galling exercise of authority will be called for, if a spirit of order and just subordination prevail. It will be my endeavour to wave, so far as is compa

tible with my office, all magisterial ascendancy; to enforce no restrictions, which are not prescribed by the welfare of the Institution; and to make those who are under my direction feel themselves to be friends and fellow-labourers with myself, in respect to the ultimate object of our Society-the publication to all people, of every clime and tongue and colour, of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

But what can the wisest regulations avail, and what the most vigilant superintendence, unless the power and goodness of Jehovah go with us? Be importunate suppliants, my dear Young Friends, at the throne of Grace. Beseech Him, without whom the most religious efforts must be abortive, to keep you in constant remembrance of your high and special dedication to His service; and to enable you to exhibit, in every feature of your conduct, the Divine impress of "HOLINESS TO THE LORD." The plan of our Seminary, Gentlemen of the Committee, may perhaps appear, to a cursory glance, more vast and comprehensive than is warranted by the present state of the Society. But the Gentlemen, to whom chiefly the construction of a plan was referred, thought it wise to make the compass so wide and to lay such broad foundations, as should suit the magnificent edifice which they have figured to themselves in no distant period of futurity. And, assuredly, there is much, both in experience and in prophesy, to warrant their expectations. There is much to encourage a confi. dent hope, that what has hitherto been witnessed of Missionary Ardour is but the first flush of that Christian Spirit, which has at length waked up to contemplate the nations that are sitting in darkness, and to acknow. ledge the cruel impiety of withholding from the destitute Heathen that bread of life of which we have enough and to spare. The efficacy of such a spirit, concentrated in a Society like ours, cannot fail, God

helping us, to be immense. How astonishing has been the growth of the Society thus far! What a magnitude has it now attained, beyond its infant promise! Let us hope, then, that its present expansion will appear as inconsiderable, when a few more years have given you another period wherewith to contrast it, as it now looks mighty in comparison with its pigmy station but a few years ago. Already it has outgrown the rules and processes of the nursery. From a puny plant, sorely 'nipt by frosts, and but little sheltered by friendly power, it has sprung up firm and erect: it abides in strength; and it stretches to the ends of the earth its branches, loaded with the fruits of life and immortality. And since its prosperity has been purchased by no irreligious compliances, no abandonment of principle, no temporising expedients, but has been won by a wise and irreproachable deportment, we have the strongest ground of assurance, that the Lord God Omnipotent is with us. Should the hopes arising from these considerations prove abortive, no severe inconvenience is likely to result, from the necessity of somewhat contracting the present scheme of Missionary Education. But should the anticipations of the Committee of Visitors be ratified by a benignant Providence; should the field for Missionary Exertion rapidly extend; should demands multiply upon us for Labourers of a superior cast-men fitted by their talents and attainments to cope with the acutest adversaries of true religion, and to confute the caviller as well as to instruct the

docile; should warmer suns and more abundant showers relax the frozen tracts of Heathenism, and cause them to develope a boundless fecundity-it may then, perhaps, be admitted, that, in laying so broad a basis for Missionary Evangelization as is laid in the present Establishment, there has been exercised a fore

With respect to myself, Gentlemen, to whom you have delegated so im. portant a trust, it would be difficult, I believe, to avow the conviction which I entertain of my manifold incapacity, without seeming to em. ploy the language of affected humility. And yet, not to entertain such a sentiment, when entering upon a situation, to which abilities and acquirements of a high order would not be more than adequate, would argue a sad unacquaintance with myself, and a preposterous arrogance. God is my witness, how deeply I feel the need of much human help, and still more of the continued instructions and monitions of the Holy Spirit, that I may prove, in some degree, equal to an undertaking of such magnitude and moment.

I am persuaded that you, My Lord and Gentlemen, so fully appreciate the difficulties with which the outset of such an Institution is apt to be embarrassed, that I have less to dread from the severity of your judgment, than I have to expect from your candour and indulgence, My mind is also fortified by the reflection, that I shall have those at hand, to whose superior knowledge of the concerns of the Church Missionary Society, to whose accumulated experience and practised talent, I may have recourse in every exigency. Of their ability to smooth the path of my duties, no doubt can be entertained; and I expect from their wise and friendly communications the most important benefits.

May I add, in conclusion, that I

derive much encouragement from the religious solemnity with which the business of this Institution has opened. The prayers offered up this morning will be recorded in heaven; if they spring, as I verily believe they do, from a truly Christian sense of the value of immortal souls, and from a transcendent love of the Redeemer. In that day, when the redeemed, of Jewish and of Gentile stock, shall be folded together under the visible charge of the one im. mortal Shepherd, the effects of this religious approach to the Lord and of these united supplications for His special blessing, shall be fully and triumphantly recognised. Your prayers for us, my Christian Friends, must not however terminate with the worship of this day. Pray, I beseech you,daily and fervently, to the Prince of Missionary Evangelists, the first Messenger of the everlasting covenant, that He would send us now prosperity; that He would behold and visit this vine, and make it strong and fruitful for Himself. For these Students pray, that they may be Men of God, endued with an apostolic spirit, incorrupt in doctrine, exemplary in conversation, mature in spiritual experience, and furnished with all needful gifts to go forth in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. And pray for their Teacher, that he may himself be abundantly taught of Heaven; and that he may receive supplies of grace proportionate to his deficiencies, to the constant duties of his office, to the emergencies for which human prudence can make no adequate provision, and to the immense responsibility with which he stands charged before God.