Gratifying as these totals were, yet, if the statistics of each metropolitan division were examined, the disproportion between the efforts of the churches and the exigencies of the people was most affecting and admonitory. The census of 1841 gave the population of the metropolis as 1,870,727 persons, which showed that, after all the progress the Society had made, yet there remained 1,583,000 at this moment untouched by the efforts of its benevolent agents. In making that statement, however, the Committee had not forgotten that there were kindred Societies, and other bodies of Christians, happily engaged in the same work, and were employing other instruments and agencies to raise the moral character of our fellow-citizens. The prayer-meetings and cottage-lectures had been greatly honoured of God. Dur ing the past year considerable prosperity The V. THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. THE Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting of the subscribers and friends of this institution was held in the Great Room, Exeter-Hall, on Wednesday, May 4th: the Right Hon. Lord Bexley in the chair. The REV. A. BRANDRAM read the Report, which he informed the Meeting would be much shorter than Annual Reports usually were; an announcement which elicited a significant response of applause from the assembly. The Committee commenced by expressing their deep sense of thankfulness to God for the marked success which still continued to attend the operations of the Society. The issues for the year had amounted to more than 800,000 copies of the sacred Scriptures. In France, the Agent of the Society continued his labours with untiring zeal, and most pleasing results: 146,050 copies of the Scriptures had issued from the press during the year; 95,194 had been put in circulation by Colporteurs, 84 of whom were, more or less, employed by the Society. The total distribution since 1820 was 1,692,659, of which 961,504 had passed through the hands of the Society's Agent during nine years. The French Bible Society had issued, in the course of the year, 60,272 copies of the Scriptures; and their total issues amounted to 458,070. From the depôt at Frankfort, 42,914 had been issued. The German Bible Society continued to prosecute their work, with more or less zeal, annually distributing about 100,000 copies. The Prussian Bible Society, with its numerous Auxiliaries, still took the lead: 35,436 copies had been printed during the past year, and 27,000 were now in the press. The Hungarian Association had issued 11,864 copies, making for five years a total of 54,500. Since the commencement of the operations of the Society in Belgium in 1835, there had been issued 97,332 volumes; and during the past year 9,750; but, owing to the violent opposition to the agency in that country, there had been a decrease in the distribution. The Netherlands Bible Society had issued 12,080 copies last year. From St. Petersburgh, 11,754 copies were issued; making, since the commencement in 1828, 81,208: the Society there had been furnished during the year with 1,495 copies, in English, German, and Hebrew. Another edition of 25,000 of the Finnish version were in the press. The Finnish Bible Society had distributed 278,000 copies; the Swedish, 14,905. The Central Prussian Bible Society had issued since its establishment 1,776,400 copies. From Spain and Portugal there was little or no encouraging intelligence. At Athens the work of disseminating the Scriptures was proceeding favourably: 5,627 copies had been issued. A translation of the Old Testament into the Persian language was about to be printed. In British India the number of copies of the Scriptures, in whole or in part, printed in the course of last year was larger than had been printed in all the thirty years preceding; and to that might be added many thousands of copies printed by other Societies. The Calcutta Association issued during the past year 36,378 copies, making a total of 359,305. At Madras 25,072 were distributed last year. Two Reports from Bombay, received since the last Anniversary, speak favourably of the operations there. Under the present circumstances of China, of course, little of an encouraging nature could be expected, a check being put upon the direct introduction of the Scriptures amongst the Chinese; but 500 copies of the New Testament, in their language, had been forwarded for the purpose of being intrusted to benevolent and pious individuals who might accompany the warlike expedition to their shores. From Singapore 3,445 volumes, in various languages, were issued during the year. At Sydney, Van-Diemen's Land, &c., the work of Bible circulation, under the superintendence of local Associations, was proceeding with success. In the islands of the Pacific the desire to possess copies of the word of God was universal; and the supplies sent out had been received with joy and thankfulness: 5,000 copies had been forwarded to Rorotonga, and 3,000 to that island where the lamented Williams laboured so long. From South Africa the intelligence was of the most gratifying kind. The Bechuana version of the New Testament, printed under the superintendence of Mr. Moffatt, had arrived; and was received with so much delight, that it may be said to have made the solitary places glad, and the wilderness to blossom as the rose. The people surrounded the waggons, and, immediately on the boxes being taken down, were eager to purchase; and most of the payments were made in sheep and goats. A grant of English Bibles and Testaments, and some in the language of the natives, had been made in Fernando Po, and to the station of the Church Missionary Society in Abyssinia. The persecution of the Christians in Madagascar was still as severe as ever; but, amidst all their sufferings, the converts maintained the faith, cherishing the sacred volume as the source of their consolation. Some of them had desired a fresh supply, their old ones being worn out. A successor to Mr. Wheeler, the deceased Agent of the Society in the West Indies, had been found, in Mr. James M'Murray, many years Agent to the Mico Charity; and he had gone out with a large supply of Bibles and Testaments. The Society there had received 7,350 copies during the year, and remitted £916. NovaScotia and New-Brunswick had been visited by an Agent. From Toronto £300 had been received; and 9,522 copies of the Scriptures had been issued last year. The Association had ordered 1,300 in the same period. At Montreal the total number issued was 55,478; and a Bill had been passed by the Legislature to admit the printed Scriptures free of duty. 1,000 copies in the language of Greenland had been forwarded. The American Bible Society had received subscriptions to the amount of 118,860 dollars, and issued 150,202 copies during the past year. With reference to the domestic proceedings of the Society, the Report stated that— The total amount received during the year, applicable to the general objects of the Society, including subscriptions, donations, legacies, dividends on stock, and contributions of Auxiliary Societies, is Compared with last year, showing an increase of Amount received from sales of Bibles and Testaments Total amount received from all sources is The issues of the Society have been From the Depository at home From the Depôts abroad Copies. 584,544 231,007 815,551 14,038,934 Total issues of Bibles and Testaments since the commencement of the Society The total number of Associations and Branch Societies, in connexion with the parent institution, was 2,828; and 100 new ones were established last year. The Report concluded by asking, after these statements, whether the Committee were not justified in calling upon their friends to join them in exclaiming, "Let the Lord be magnified, who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants." The BISHOP of CHESTER wished that the Report could have been accompanied by that which was read thirtyeight years ago. He said, it was only by contrasting things as they were then with the results of the operations of the Bible Society, that they could form a just view of what this country and the world owes to its exertions. He added,-For another reason, too, I should be glad if we could take this survey of the Society's operations: I think it would go far to rekindle the ardour of some, which, I grieve to say, has been sadly chilled in this country. I think it would not only encourage us to further exertions, but also tend to mollify the feelings of those who are extreme to mark what they think amiss in the constitution or measures of this Society. I would go back to the time when the demand of this country for printing the Scriptures was satisfied by 20,000 or 30,000 copies in a year; when men would have been startled at the thought of 800,000 copies being required by this Society; when throughout the Roman Catholic population of Ireland, the Scriptures were an unknown book; when, with regard to the principality of Wales, it was hopeless to procure a single copy; when you might go over the greater part of the continent of Europe, and scarcely find a copy of the Scriptures to be procured, even at the largest price; when there were but thirty-seven translations of the Scriptures into foreign languages, and most of those chiefly confined to the knowledge of the curious and in this way would I meet the objections which we sometimes hear against the constitution and plans of this Society. I would, in this respect, take an example from the great Athenian commander, who, when assailed by calumny, replied to his accusers in one word, which brought to the knowledge of the assembly the recollection of his victory; and that word was "Marathon." His enemies calumniated him, but his friends deigned only to repeat "Marathon!" So when we are told of our indiscriminate associations with others, and of our imperfect constitution, let us answer, that we have 137 translations of the Scriptures; that we have circulated 14,000,000 of copies of the word of God; and have more than 7,000 kindred or affiliated institutions. LORD GLENELG, referring to the past history of the Society, said,-There have, indeed, been days of darkness; but surely, if, in the time of the infancy of this Society, when its powers were yet immature and unknown, we were not induced to abandon its cause, the present is not the period we should choose for relinquishing our support. Now, when, in every part of the habitable globe, its labours are extended and its success is recognised, when we hear of 14,000,000 They of copies having been circulated throughout the world, 800,000 being issued during the last year, when we hear of 7,000 kindred Societies, when every sun lights up some memorial of our triumphs, and every moon repeats the history of our success, this is not the period, of all others, when we are to be dismayed and tremble for this Society; this is not the period when we are to doubt of its success, to relinquish its banners, or despair of its final triumphs. There have been days, when the great, the learned, and the wise, set themselves in array against this Society, as yet unconfirmed in its strength, and untried in the exertion of its latent energies. But, if assailants were not wanting, neither were there wanting champions in our cause; and those who then conducted the Society, some of whom still continue among us, though others have been removed to their reward, went forth to the battle, not trusting to human armour, not arrayed in the panoply of mortal arms, but they sought and they found their victorious weapons in the armoury of God. went forth to the battle, not regarding those who differed from them in this country as enemies: those were not the enemies against whom they marshalled their array. No; the enemies they fought were ignorance, and vice, and iniquity, under whatever shape, in whatever land; whether under the smiling aspect of an over-elaborate civilization, or the more obtrusive and disgusting vices of heathenish atrocities. These were the enemies whom they pursued; and they went forth to the contest in the spirit that animated every heart in that selected band of three hundred, who, on a memorable occasion, in a state of weariness and hunger, came to Jordan's bank, faint, yet pursuing. The time of faintness is, I trust, past; but the time of pursuing remains. So long as there are territories to be explored, so long as sin and vice are to be subdued, so long the pursuit must be continued and wax hotter from day to day. We know that it is destined, that the sacred volume which we circulate shall one day be the law of the habitable globe. We know that all the events and circumstances of this state of things are forming, and collecting, and concentrating together, to one great object, the establishment of one magnificent dominion, under that great Potentate to whom the eternal promise has been given, "I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." At what period that glorious consummation may arrive, it is not for us to say. This rests in the mind and will of Him with whom "a thousand years are as one day:" although in the present aspect of things, one might perceive somewhat of approximation to that grand consummation in the general movements throughout the globe, in the justling and hurrying together of great events, in the varying positions and diversifying phases of the great states of this world; in all these things we see some preparation for that great period. VI. THE BRITISH REFORMATION SOCIETY. THE Annual Meeting of this Society was held on Thursday, May 5th, at the Hanover-square Rooms: Mr. Finch in the chair. The Rev. Denis Browne hav. ing opened the Meeting with prayer, The CHAIRMAN said, that in his opinion, the Tractarians and the Roman Catholics stood precisely on the same ground; and they would both seduce us from the true rule of faith. So long as we looked to the Bible as the sole rule of faith, in humble dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we were safe; but if we once took the traditions of men, and the fallible interpretation of men, mixing the one with the word of God, and substituting the other for the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we should be on the high road to defection and apostasy. Tractarians, with the Roman Catholics, would alike persuade us to take tradition and the interpretation of the Fathers, as part of the rule of faith. They did not The deny that the Scriptures contained all that was essential to salvation; but they held that private judgment, without the apostolic tradition, was liable to lead us astray. They also referred us for the standard of church excellence to the very same period to which the Church of Rome was so constantly recurring, the Nicene age, the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era. It was, therefore, most important that the vices, errors, superstitions, and fanaticism of that age should be exposed, and that it should be shown by reference to the best historical writers and the works of the Fathers themselves, that the church then needed reformation as much as in the sixteenth century. He was prepared to show from the writings of one of the most learned of the Fathers, a writer of the highest eminence, and often appealed to both by the Tractarians and the Roman Catholics, -he meant Chrysostom,-that the great errors of Popery existed even in that early age. The Chairman then proceeded to read at considerable length extracts from the homilies of Chrysostom, proving that baptismal regeneration, the efficacy of penances, alms, fasting, &c., in atoning for sins committed after bap tism, the purification of the soul by fire suggesting the idea of a Romish purgatory, the propriety and usefulness of prayers for the dead, the superstitious veneration for the sign of the cross, the tombs of martyrs, invocation and patronage of saints, with the whole system of mockery and fanaticism, were all to be found in the works of the Fathers, and more or less sanctioned and set forth by Chrysostom himself. He also alluded to the Arian heresy that distracted the church, and the lamentable account given by that writer of the moral degradation of the people. If such, then, was the state of religion in the Nicene age, was it to be wondered that the Tractarians, who were always referring to this as the purest age of the church, should have introduced so many errors into their writings? But to what a state would England be reduced if she adopted their standard! She would at once embrace three-fourths of the Romish system, and be in the fair way of adopting the remainder. He was persuaded the Tractarian controversy would lead to very beneficial results: if it did no more, it would, at least, sweep away that blind veneration which was entertained by too many for the fourth and fifth centuries, unveiling the vices, the heresy, the divisions, the fanaticism, the superstition, and false doctrine that prevailed at that period, and leading men to look more entirely to the Bible and the teaching of the Holy Spirit. would also stimulate them to be more grateful, and to estimate more highly the truly divine work of the Reformation. It DR. STOREY read the Report, which stated the names of the numerous places which, during last year, had been visited by deputations from the Society; and announced the determination of the Committee, not merely to engage clerical Missionaries, to conduct discussions in the large towns where Popery was making the greatest strides, but also to raise a fund for the gratuitous or cheap circulation of tracts, to neutralize the obnoxious publications of the Roman Catholic Institute; and also to establish a course of leetures, to be given in the Town-Hall of Oxford, upon the errors of the Romish Church, and the tendencies of Tractarianism. The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, and the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee, were announced among those who had volunteered as lecturers. The REV. MR. MORIARTY, in moving the adoption of the Report, said He would tell the Meeting an anecdote of one of his own flock, who had been born a Papist. A poor Irish peasant had received an Irish Testament, and read it privately, but still attended the mass, always taking care to have it in his pocket. He heard a Romish Priest one day preach from a portion of Scripture. And here he must observe, that the activity of the Protestants had now compelled the Priests to preach ; although before it was thought enough to say mass. In fact, they used to content themselves with Latin prayers and Irish curses, as the saying was; but now the Priests were obliged to preach. On the occasion he alluded to, the text was, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave thee suck." So far, so good, undoubtedly; but the Priest preached up the Virgin Mary as the object of faith, and hope, and love, and placed her on the throne of Christ, for the sinner to look to, pray to, and depend upon. He went on constantly repeating the words, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave thee suck," until the poor peasant got perfectly impatient; and, turning up the passage, called out, "Why don't you repeat the rest, Sir, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and do it?"" No matter what amount of truth the Church of Rome possessed, the poison that was invariably administered along with it completely nullified it. The true catholic faith, so far as she had it, was hid under a heap of corruption and rubbish, which kept it from the sinner's view. There was food among them, but the sinner was compelled to fast upon husks. The principles of the Reformation had given us light, life, and liberty, made us prosper in this world, and were fitting us for eternity. Never, then, could they abandon that which they felt to be the true glory of England. Let them confine the Pope to his own dominions in Italy. He and all his Popish Priests were intruders and usurpers here. He hoped this Society would give them all notice to quit. The REV. MR. CUMMING said, Another claim which the Church of Rome sets up is, the beauty and splen dour of her ritual. I refer to this, because I find that Mr. Sibthorp has specially dwelt on it in his pamphlet, as one of those circumstances which bind him to the Roman Catholic communion. Now we might admit all the beauty and splendour of her ritual, and forms, and ceremonies; but the Jews had as splendid a ritual, and yet they crucified the Lord of all, and put him to an open shame. It has always struck me, that the elaborate decoration of any part of Christianity indicates that something is wrong, hollow, or spurious behind. If one of the busts of Canova, or a statue from the chisel of Praxiteles, were placed before you, would you think of having a tailor or a dress-maker to hide their beautiful symmetry and proportions, by the draperies of modern dress? Who ever thinks of gilding refined gold, painting the rose, or adding fresh perfume to the violet? Christianity is so majestic in its own inherent grandeur and simplicity, that it needs only to be seen to be beautiful in the eyes of all that know and love the truth as it is in Jesus Christ: ornament defiles it; decoration destroys it. These are the efforts of man to adorn that which receives its real glory from heaven. The beauty of the true church is within: "The King's daughter is all glorious within." The beauty of Christianity is a moral and spiritual beauty; as it is written, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bring good tidings!" They might be the naked and unsandaled feet of the Apostles; but if they brought good tidings of great joy, they were beautiful in the estimation of every true and sanctified believer. Another assumption of the Church of Rome is, that she has built all the magnificent cathedrals. Herod raised the most stupendous cathedral the world ever saw, and the Jews contributed to its erection ; but its porticoes resounded with the cry, "Not this man, but Barabbas; away with him, away with him! Crucify him, crucify him! " And the very steps of that gorgeous temple were died with the blood of holy martyrs. It is possible to raise a stupendous cathedral, and to make it only a mausoleum for the mouldering dead. It is possible to construct a gorgeous altar; and yet it may not be a place where the glory burns, but on which the eye of faith can read, "Ichabod, the glory is departed." The REV. BAPTIST NOEL, in the course of his speech, said,-Perhaps you were tempted to smile, when you heard some of the extracts from the books for |