am I told of the spiritual guilt and danger of persons in other quarters of the globe that are still unevangelized? Why, Sir, if idolatry be the great sin of the earth against its Maker and its God, I know no country under heaven on whose inhabitants, as they pass onward to eternity, there will be found a deeper brand of guilt, or omens of more terrible perdition. My second point is, that according to my humble judgment in the matter, and I try to be as candid and impartial as I can, there is no country in the world, in which there is, upon the whole, a more cheering and delightful prospect of complete and glorious success. I do not say that the commencement of the work in India is quite as easy as it has been found to be in various other places. There are reasons in the case of the Hindoo, which, if we would be rational and sober in our estimate, should lead us to conclude beforehand, that his conversion will not be found quite so facile or readily practicable a thing, as the conversion of the Hottentot, and the Negro, and various other classes of men to whom I might refer. Sir, it is one thing to present the simple system of our divine and holy Christianity to minds previously unoccupied by anything that could be called a system, -minds comparatively vacant, and, therefore, in some sort, ready for whatever may be offered; and it is quite another thing to present the same system to minds that have been long preoccupied with an artfully-contrived and extensively-ramified system of error. It is one thing to present the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to a people who are comparatively uncivilized and barbarous, and with the incitement arising from the prospect of the temporal advantages that will ensue on its reception; and it is quite another thing to present the same Gospel to a people who are already civilized, and rivals to ourselves in many of the arts and luxuries of life, and who, as to their temporal concerns, have nothing to gain, in the first instance, by their acceptance of our offer. It is one thing to offer our religion to a class of men who, on their reception of it, have no sacrifice to make, except the cheap and advantageous sacrifice of their ignorance, and wretchedness, and sin, and who must be, as to their civil and social condition, as well as in other points, immediately and in every way bettered by the change; and it is another to present that religion to a people with the prospect of hardship, and grief, and loss, as the necessary and inevitable

But

consequence of its reception: and they are these points, and other points like these, that make the difference between the case of the Hindoo and the majority of those cases in which the labours of our Missionaries have been sooner or more easily successful; and they should have induced us to regard it as an axiom beforehand, that there would be much greater difficulty in the accomplishment of our object in that quarter of the world, than in many other parts to which the attention of the Society has been directed. in a case like this, what sort of reasoning is that which from a difficult beginning would infer an unsuccessful, or even a doubtful, issue? I care not about the difficulties that are connected with the commencement of the work; and I am not disposed to be discouraged as to the ultimate result, even by the apparent tardiness with which initial difficulties are surmounted. The question is, Have any converts at all been won over to the Christian faith, any Christian societies formed, any Christian churches and temples built? Or, even on the supposition that not a single convert had been gained, I would ask, Has any impression at all been made upon the existing superstition? Are there any signs, any tokens whatsoever, however few and far between, that any progress has been made, or any movement taken place, towards a general acknowledgment of the falsehood of idolatry and the truth of Christianity? Then, Sir, on the principles of fair and sober calculation, I was going to say, on the principles of mechanical philosophy,— let the same means which have effected this disturbance of the native superstition, and this advance towards the acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel, be persevered in, and the result, though it may be distant, is as certain as if it were already realized. The axe that is sharp and strong enough to sever though it be only a single fibre of the root of the great upas-tree of Hindooism, will be found sharp and strong enough to sever a second, and a third, and so on, until the last fibre by which the tree is sustained in its position shall give way, and its own weight shall bring it, finally and for ever, to the ground. The

mining implements which have been found effectual to pick out though it be but a single stone, from the foundation upon which a gigantic superstition has raised its hideous and frowning structure, will be found effectual to pick out a second and a third, another and another; and as the work proceeds,

crack after crack with ever-widening yawn shall show the increasingly enfeebled condition of the building, until the whole shall fall, it may be, by one sudden and overwhelming crash,—a ruin from which it shall be raised no more. I can enter, I did enter at the time when he was speaking, into the feelings of joy inspired into the heart of Mr. Young, and, through him, inspired into the heart of every individual in this assembly, in his review of the success with which God has been pleased to bless the labours of our Missionaries in the West-India islands. But only

think of a continent like that of India, with its one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants, turned from the worship of idols to serve the living God; the myriads of its cities, and its towns, each ornamented with a temple to Jehovah, and all its mountains and valleys vocal with his praise; and think, at the same time, that very probably, in respect to religious as well as political influence, this may be found to be the key that shall unlock the rest of Asia; and you have such a prospect of reward before you as you will look for in vain through all the world besides. And may I be allowed to say, -if I am not trespassing on the time of the Meeting, that I think it would be easy to allege reasons for believing that this "consummation so devoutly to be wished may be much more within our reach than is very frequently imagined? Amongst other things, I would observe, that the very law of caste itself, which now operates, as Dr. Wilson knows, as a very formidable barrier to our success in India, in reference to individual conversion this very law of caste itself, I say, may, in the future working of our enterprise, become, in some respects, a help rather than a hinderance. How does it work at present? A Brahmin, or some person belonging to one of the higher castes, is converted to the faith of Christianity, and makes a public profession of that faith, connecting with such profession, as is generally the case where the conversion is sincere, a direct renunciation of the law of caste, as unauthorized, and absurd, and injurious in its operation; and the effect is, that the caste to which he belonged sever him at once from intercourse with his kindred and friends, and visit him with various penalties besides, of a distressing and afflicting nature. And the shock which is created by his separation from the community to which he had belonged produces a

vibration of thought and feeling that is felt from one end of India to the other; and it is the prospect, the dread of this convulsive shock, with the probable effects to the individual himself by whom it is occasioned, that constitutes one of the great barriers in the way of individual conversion: but the shock that is produced in cases of that kind, and the agitation and inquiry thence ensuing, cannot be entirely without their use. And, as the number of conversions shall be multiplied, it may be that that very law, that very sympathy of caste, which now creates so great a difficulty in the way of individual conversion, may be overruled so as to become, in part, the means of bringing whole families and tribes together into the fold of Christ. I am not defending caste in the abstract. It is in itself undoubtedly a serious and gigantic evil. It is in India at the present day one of the fiercest and most formidable manifestations of that wrath of man which counteracts the righteousness of God; but in this respect, as in so many others, God may make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he may restrain, until the pride and prejudice on which the law of caste is founded shall be finally transmuted into that law of love which shall make all one in Christ Jesus. I will mention another point, and it shall be the last. There is, according to my humble view, no other country in which, with such openings for usefulness, and with such prospects of success, so little has been done. Considering that all India, yes, the whole of that country, from the Himalaya mountains in the north to the extremity of Cape Comorin, is now open to the instruction of Christian Missionaries, and the stir that was made in this country and elsewhere, not many years ago, about "the introduction of Christianity into India," I am ashamed to think that at the present day there should not be more than about one hundred Protestant Missionaries to be found throughout all the continent of India, from all the Christian Churches put together. Considering, further, that the perishing millions of that country have been laid, by the providence of God, especially at the door of the Churches of this country, that we might give to them of that bread of our Father's house, of which we have enough and to spare; I am ashamed to think that the American and German Missionaries should bear so large a proportion to the total number there employed. And

still further, (I trust my honoured fathers and brethren will bear with me in this remark,) considering that we talk to one another, and to the public, about having "the world for our parish," I am ashamed to think, if I may be bold enough to say so in such a place as this, that we who wish to be considered a peculiarly Missionary people, should actually, at this day, be doing far less in India than any other of the great sections of the Church that have sent Missionaries to that country; and that eleven European Missionaries should be regarded as being all we can afford at present to meet a case so necessitous, and at the same time so promising, as that of Continental India. I would appeal upon this subject to the General Committee; but, in the present state of our finances, they are not perhaps the party to whom the appeal ought to be directed. sometimes been tempted to desire, if possible, to withdraw Missionaries and the supplies connected with them from some other quarters, which have appeared to me to have received more than a proportionate share. I do not now cherish that desire; and, if I did, I could not hope to succeed in its fulfilment.

I have

But

something beyond our present doings must be done for India, or, I solemnly affirm, we are disgraced in the presence of the sister churches, and, what is infinitely more important, we are, as I believe, verily guilty in the sight of Him who has required us as well as other sections of the Christian church to 66 go into the world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature." I am not asking you to increase the number of stations in that country, in the present state of our finances; but on behalf of India, and of our brethren who are labouring there, I would earnestly request, that this Meeting, and our friends in general throughout the country, would be pleased to take the case of India, as they have already taken the case of the West Indies and of Africa, into their generous consideration, and would supply to the Committee the means whereby the stations already occupied may be adequately manned, in order that those hearts which are now fainting with longprotracted expectations may at length be relieved, by the assurance that labourers will be sent out to their assistance. Let this be done, and the result will be, not merely a blessing on the Indian field, but also on other departments of the Society's operations; and especially in that quarter of the world, it may be expected that those who now 66 go forth weeping,

bearing precious seed, will come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them." I have great pleasure, Sir, in seconding the Resolution.

The motion was then agreed to.

The REV. FREDERICK J. JOBSON, of Leeds, was next introduced by the Secretary. He said, Mr. Chairman, on rising to address this large assembly, it is somewhat encouraging to me to see you in that chair. No person in this Hall has greater veneration than I have for the Right Hon. gentleman who presided over us during the former part of this Meeting. His character, as a Christian and as a friend to Missions, is too well known to need any representation by me; but, highly as I esteem his character, and much as I value his presence, yet to one, who for six years past saw the working, in London, of the central wheels of the machinery of our Missionary Society, it is encouraging to look upon your familiar face, and know that a gentleman practically acquainted with the whole system of Wesleyan Methodism is now at our head. Your example of labour and benevolence is inspiring to us all; and I am certain that I express the sentiments of thousands in this Hall, and of thousands out of it, when I say,

May you long live to contribute and to labour in connexion with this great cause." As to the cause itself, I rejoice to know that it requires not my advocacy this day; for the speakers who preceded me have said sufficient to engage your sympathies and exertions on its behalf. Combining all the information we have received concerning the operations of the Society in the past year, what is our Report? It is a Report of almost universal success. Thank God, we are not met together to hear of disheartened Missionaries, of many abandoned stations, or of exhausted liberality. The fact to which my Resolution refers is a motive to encouragement,—the extinction of the OLD DEBT, which for years past has sat like a night-mare upon us, paralyzing our energies. Paralyzing our energies, did I say? Not so! for you have proved at the former services of this Anniversary, and will prove in the year before us, that our energies are increasing with our joys in this great work. It is true, there are reasons for regret, mingling themselves with our reasons for rejoicing. The annual income is not equal to the year's expenditure by several thousand pounds, and we are therefore restrained in our rejoicing by the remembrance of the deficiency. Thus our combined experience to-day is similar to

what we have individually known when, presenting ourselves to rejoice before the Lord, we have remembered our defective services, and have been checked in our rejoicing. Leaving, however, the financial Report, and looking only to that of Missionary labour and success, we have unrestrained freedom in rejoicing. Of that success, in general, it is not my intention further to speak; but if I attempt to particularize, the difficulty is to know what part of the abstract of the Report, which has been put into my hand, to select as the basis of my remarks. Some have spoken of India, some of the West Indies, and of the black children in distant lands; and the question is now, Of what have I to speak? Certainly, it is, just now, the most important question to me.

There

are, however, two parts of the Missionary work mentioned in the Report, which have not been referred to by the preceding speakers, and which have evidently fired the heart of the writer of that Report; I mean the South Sea Islands, and Western Africa. There is a glow of feeling expressed by him, when representing those scenes of evangelical culture, which proves that he is deeply interested in them. And can we wonder at this, when we think of the stirring facts recorded in the Journals of Freeman and Waterhouse, and which have been issued through the medium of the Monthly Notices within the past year? The heart of that man must be enshrined in the ice of a polar winter, if it beat not with gratitude to God, for the great work he has lately accomplished, by the instrumentality of his servants, in those parts of the world. The South Sea Islands have for years been the attractive scenes of Christian philanthropy. man of science, when reading of those islands in the beautiful book of the martyred Williams, and when reading of the work of the mason-insect, as it exists in subterraneous caverns and in hills and valleys clothed in vernal beauty, cannot but have delight; but we as Christians have to contemplate the moral changes that have there been wrought, and the scenes of moral and spiritual loveliness there to be found. And how great are these! In former days our thoughts were associated with the murder of Captain Cook, and with the unholy feasts of tatooed and bleeding cannibals. But what a beautiful contrast is presented to us in the Journal of the faithful, diligent, muchloved, but worn-out and now sainted, Waterhouse! What a change! what an affecting scene is that described of his

The

welcome to the shores of New-Zealand by the Christian natives! How impressive and morally sublime, when they assembled to listen to the tidings of salvation, as delivered to them by the messenger of Christ! How touching the incidental proofs they gave of their knowledge of the Scriptures, when, accompanying their spiritual Overseer in his journeyings, they quoted the words of Paul, as to the office of a Bishop, and the cloak he left at Troas! How reproving to many British Christians their love of the divine precepts and promises; as evinced in their writing them upon the sand, carving them in the bark of trees, and in graving them in the rock! How great the change! Men that we contemplated a few years ago crouching before a monster-block of wood or stone, and trembling before a motionless idol, now assembling with Christian cheerfulness in the house of God, and feasting together in love! Where are the men of taste and refinement that kindle into poesy at the sight of the calm, the sublime, and the beautiful? I defy them to produce a scene, which poetry, with all the fairy strokes of her rainbow-pencil, has sketched, to be compared with the scenes of evangelical culture presented to us in the South-Sea Islands. On the Sabbath-day, say your Missionaries, there is a silence not known in this proud city of London, a silence never broken save by the chime of the worship-bell, as it calls the natives to worship in the house of God, or by the song of praise which, amid the vast solitude of the waters of the great Pacific Ocean, is heard ascending to heaven. Eternal praise to God for the success vouchsafed to your Missionaries in the South-Sea Islands! Western Africa, as a field of Missionary labour, and of Missionary success, is not less interesting. I do not know how it is with others, but when I read the Journal of Freeman, I feel a quickened movement in my veins, as I accompany him in thought in his hazardous and successful enterprise. On meeting together in this Hall, in former years, we heard of his Christian courage in the audience-hall of the fearful King of Ashanti, who had blocked his cornice with the skulls of conquered enemies : now we hear of him at Badagry, near the horrible fetish-tree and fetish-hut, setting up, on lofty pillars, a house for God; we behold him, as we peruse his Journal, marching through the streets of Understone, as it is lined with black savages, with no military protector, and

with nothing in his hand but the peaceful "ensign of the Root of Jesse," to preach to the King and to his courtiers the unsearchable riches of Christ. We have seen him proceed to the grim palace of Dahomi, a palace embattled with the skulls of men slain in war, and beneath its walls he bent his knee, and by his example taught us to pray that "the habitations of cruelty may soon become the abodes of peace. I remember, when first reading of the marches of Alexander, I was much excited; so also, when reading of the invasion of this country by Julius Cæsar; and who could read of Napoleon's bold march across the gigantic Alps, and not be moved? But I am much more moved and excited when reading of Freeman's march into the interior of Africa. There is one scene incidentally noticed in the Third Journal of Freeman, that I would dare to compare with any ancient song or classic story that any of the learned men behind or before me might produce. I mean that scene, when, near the encampment of Addo, by his morning hymn of praise to God, which he accompanied with his accordion, he charmed the natives from the camp of war to listen with evident delight around his tent. We have read of Orpheus, who with his lyre and song gathered the wild beasts from their dens, and even allured revengeful demons from their dark abodes; but such pictures of fancy are far outdone by the scene of truth exhibited to us at the door of Freeman's tent, when he sang his morning hymn, and, accompanying it with his accordion, brought the sable men of war to bend around, and listen to him in charmed silence. There are other scenes celebrated in history and in song that are far inferior to the scenes of Missionary enterprise outlined to us in the Journal of the truly apostolic man of whom I speak. It is recorded of the conqueror of Mexico, that, when he had landed his troops, he gave his boats to the fire, so that death or conquest should be the result. But look at Freeman, without a military attendant, walking calmly through the streets of Understone, lined with blood-stained savages, as he goes to proclaim, in the palace-yard of death itself, the Saviour to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Men may call me an enthusiast, while I thus speak; I am prepared to pass through the world with such a character, for the sake of Jesus Christ; but I appeal to you, as to the superiority of moral greatness to mere warlike grandeur. Enthusiast as I am, however, when speaking

of Western Africa, I have judgment sufficient to determine that other parts of our fallen world are not inferior to it, in their claims upon us. The claims of India, as just now shown, are as large, yea, larger, than those that can be put forth for Western Africa, or the South-Sea Islands. After all, if we are to speak comparatively, what are a few islands thrown up by insects in the South Pacific Ocean, or a thin strip of poor embowelled and down-trodden Africa, when compared with India, where human beings, and they our fellow-subjects, too, hive together by thousands and millions? India has been declared to-day to be the seat of Satan's empire; and so it is; and doubtless there will be decided the momentous question, Which shall prevail, light or darkness, truth or error? Consider this, and act as you were called upon in the Financial Report of to-day; give, beg, pray. Hear it!-in that vast region, your Missionaries can preach the Gospel without restraint. By the side of the red-granite temples of idolatry in India, on the banks of its sacred waters, before her haughty Priests and her deluded people, your Missionaries can go and proclaim "the truth as it is in Jesus." I subscribe to the sentiment so forcibly expressed by my beloved friend and former colleague, Mr. Crowther, that it is to our disgrace we do not send more Missionaries to India. Our national honour is not free from suspicion, nor our Christian character from inconsistency, unless we send more Missionary agents to India, where thousands of our fellowsubjects are perishing daily under the destructive power of idolatry. It is time for us to think seriously of this! Men have trifled too long. Poets have written very fine things of India. They have sung of her rocks of gold. They have described her as reeking with perfumes, and as sparkling with gems; and other things they have said, which I have not time to mention: but the fact, that thousands and millions of human beings are daily falling into perdition, is a matter of surpassing interest, and ought to arouse all our energies on their behalf. I do not know how it is to you, but to me there is a tenderness, a pathos, an earnestness, and a power, in the pleadings of men that have been in India, when they are asking, nay, demanding, more aid, which I do not find in the pleadings of others. Let us arouse ourselves this day; and according to the recommendation of this Resolution exert ourselves to the utmost, so that the