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they should perish, he would go himself
to their assistance. He knew the diffi-
culties of the country. He had struggled
with the difficulties of the language, but
He knew the dan-
had mastered them.

gers of the climate, which had sent him
home emaciated and all but worn out;
but he had rallied, he had recovered, and
felt fit once more to go to the scene of
usefulness. There were difficulties there,
which persons in this country knew, and
could know, but little of. They were
not such as might be supposed here;
they were not the crossing of lands with-
out roads, or of waters without bridges,
and the evading of serpents and tigers
on the way; but they were difficulties in
the world of mind, and such as he had
had to struggle with and overcome.
Another thing, and he had done. He
hoped no one would suppose that we were
the only persons who sent Missionaries
there. We should find that the ground
was already occupied, and perniciously
so too. There were the Roman Catholics.
Whether Puseyism was considered as
Romanism or not, there was Romanism
there; and he had gone amongst them,
and seen them worshipping blocks of
wood and stone, carved with their own
hands, in the most idolatrous manner.
And there were Socinians. He had had
Socinian tracts put into his own hand.
The Socialists had, likewise, found a
footing there, as though they did not
know that the Hindoos were already
Socialists almost to a man; and actually
in Leeds the other day, in one of their
publications, the Socialists jeeringly said,
"Any body at all conversant with India,
well knows, that no respectable or de-
cent native, whether Mahommedan or
Hindoo, will condescend to listen to
their" (the Missionaries') "trash for one
moment. None but the refuse of the
populations of Calcutta, Madras, and
Bombay, will brag that they are Chris-
tians: and a glass of brandy would convert
But while infidels
them by hundreds."

thus slander our cause, the Society was
well aware of the importance of its Mis-
sion, it sent out salvation to the soul;
God had opened the way; he had given
the field; and he (Mr. Cryer) only
asked the Meeting to give the money, to
support the instruments with which to
carry forward this great work. Only let
India have assistance, and it would open
the path to all Asia, and God would re-
store to those who gave every penny
which they had generously contributed
to this great cause.

The Chairman was about to put the
Resolution to the Meeting, when

The REV. DR. BUNTING interposed.
He felt inclined to move an amendment
The amounts now
to the Resolution.
entered upon his book towards the liqui-
dation of the £15,308 (the half of the
debt) were, he believed, about £15,203,
and he hoped the whole would be made
up before the Resolution was parted
Which twenty of those present
with.
would undertake to make up the ba-
lance ?

MR. FARMER rose, and said he would
pay the whole.

The REV. DR. BUNTING then said, -He had now the heart-felt pleasure of announcing, that ONE HALF of the debt was virtually swept away; and he had to add his hope that the other half, with all the interest due upon it, would be speedily cancelled also.

The original Resolution was then, by consent, amended to the effect, that ONE HALF of the debt had now been paid off, and expressive of confidence in the friends of the Society that the remainder would likewise soon be liquidated. The Resolution, so amended, was put and carried unanimously.

[It is due to the liberality evinced on this occasion by our friends, to state, that, on a more careful inspection of the account, after the close of the Meeting, it was found that at the very time when the preceding conversation took place, letters had been received (some of them during the Meeting) by that day's post, containing additional donations, by which the sum required for the discharge of one half of the debt had been, in fact, already more than completed. Mr. Farmer has therefore generously directed that his second contribution of one hundred guineas shall be transferred from the account for which he had at first intended it, and shall be entered as his donation towards the extinction of the remaining half of the debt, and of the interest.]

The REV. JAMES DIXON said,-I am desired, because I happen to occupy a particular position, as President, for this year, of the Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, to move the important Resolution which I shall take the liberty of reading. It is

"That, deeply impressed with the importance and necessity of a Native Agency for extending the Missionary work in heathen countries in general, and especially where the climate is unfavourable to the health of Europeans, this Meeting most cordially approves of the Resolution of the Committee to set apart a larger portion of the Annual Income of the Society for the better

training of Native Teachers in Africa, India, and Ceylon, the West Indies, Polynesia, and other parts of the world." I feel great pleasure in having the honour to submit, what I conceive to be one of the most important Resolutions of the day, to the attention of the Meeting. I happen to have a very deep and decided impression of the very great necessity of the measure adverted to. I cordially approve, and I take the liberty of saying I am the type of the Methodist Connexion in the expression of this opinion, -I cordially approve of what has been done in this department, and I trust more will yet be done. Mind is mind, every where; man is man; religion is divine, wherever it is experimental and genuine; -spiritual gifts co-exist with it, and we have a right to expect, in the progress of our work, if that work is of God, that everywhere these spiritual gifts will be imparted, and a pious, talented ministry will and must be raised up, to carry out the great work. It wants, however, the fostering care and attention of the Committee, and of their agents abroad, and I am sure that the great end we contemplate the conversion of the world will not be effected otherwise than remotely and distantly by our exertions, but by the preaching and the pastoral labours of men raised up in every climate. But we shall have occasion to watch over them, superintend them, train them, and establish Theological Institutions for converted natives in every principal or central District of our foreign field. The Resolution only adverts to a few portions of the Missionary field, the West Indies, Africa, India, and Polynesia, the most important parts certainly; but I hope to live to see the proper means for training such truly converted natives for a course of useful ministration to their countrymen established in every main and important part of the Missionary field. We are right in this;-I believe we are: it is a providential call of duty. Some such measures have been adopted, but they are only initiatory: we, therefore, must go on; for I believe the great work of God will be most successfully promoted by native agency in every part of the world.

The REV. WILLIAM ARTHUR, from India, felt that he stood, on this occasion, in circumstances to himself the most delightful, as regarded the prospects of India, of any in which he had been placed since his return from that country. It was generally admitted, and generally felt, that India had its peculiar claims; but there had been cir

cumstances connected with the great Missions of this Society, which had prevented those claims from laying hold on the Society to the extent to which otherwise they would. He had felt deeply delighted, and his heart had leaped within him for joy, on hearing Mr. Lomas, on Thursday morning last, direct the attention of the Society to that great field, as one from which great things were to be expected. Let but such minds as that possessed by that excellent man grapple with the subject, and then all the difficulties in its way would disappear, and every argument in its favour tell. He had felt greatly delighted also, on this occasion, to hear from his friend, Mr. Cryer, so admirable a vindication of the claims of that country, and so powerful an appeal in favour of aid being sent out to the brethren labouring there. It was really most astonishing to be in the habit of hearing places called "most important," and leaving India out of the enumeration. It had been well said, that India was not a mere out-post of Satan. Satan had in some places sown the tares, and appeared as if he felt that he might now leave the people to themselves to wallow in ignorance and in barbarism. In Asia it was otherwise. There he was taking the greatest pains; there he was reaping the fruits of his continuous labour, and wielding his influence over mighty nations. In India, no doubt, the influ ence of Satan's subtilty was to be seen in the grossest depravity. It was not an outwork easily cast up and soon to be taken. It was not a redoubt that was to be taken without great danger. It was a citadel, where the war would have to be carried on with the most uncompromising determination. India presented greater opposition to Missionary enterprise than any other part of the world; and it was no less strange than true, that, because of this, many persons had said, "Let us turn to the places from which we may look for the speediest return; let us send our Missionaries where, in a single year, we may convert the most souls." That was a proposi tion that ought to be fairly and fully weighed. It was a question between hundreds, and millions eventually. India was not a little island, but a mighty continent, requiring to be raised not merely from ignorance and idolatry, but from its own conceived greatness to another greatness, of which it had never dreamt. The Society might be able to convert more men in one year in other places, than it could in India; but it

con

would never be able eventually to achieve the mighty victory anywhere else that was to be achieved in India. It was a continent, opening up nexions to other mighty and influential nations; and it was a country, moreover, possessing incalculable wealth, and now greatly under the sway of Popery. That was a sketch of the people we had to contend with,-a sketch of the opposition and conflict that warred against our Redeemer there; and were we, therefore, to turn away from it, and say, "We will take the feeble opposition first, and go only to the point which we can attack without fear or danger?" Why, Chusan fell before the British arms in a few hours, but mighty India required a struggle of many years; and which, he would ask, was the worthiest conquest? Richness of return must ever be preferable to rapidity of return; and richness of return was eventually to be received from India. When whole empires were to be redeemed, and a claim made on the Missionary Societies, in furtherance of that great end, yet we were told to look out for an easy redemption, and not run our heads against violent opposition! Why not? Was that to be the tone of the Wesleyan Missionary Society? Was it to select the feeble points of the enemy's kingdom; not to go up where the battle was thick, but hang back and say, "We will not go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty ?" Surely not. This was not the disposition and feeling that ought to pervade the friends of Missions. It was not the spirit with which the great Author of our religion attacked the enemy. He did not turn away from opposition, but directed his first attack against that place, where not only the system of opposition was the most consolidated, but where the excitement was the most exasperated. It was at Jerusalem where he began his attack, and where the opposition was the fiercest. We did not go on in our own wisdom; and though it were a rock against which we directed our attack, our instrument being the word of God, it was and would be more powerful than "the hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." Our reliance was upon the majestic arm of the Almighty, which moved on towards the accomplishment of its ends, unembarrassed by any difficulties, and unimpeded by any dangers. The blessed Gospel was the instrument; and were we to file it down to some impotent thing, only to be used when men would quail before its first approach?

That

being so, the question came to this,Was this Society doing its duty in India? Nine European Missionary Ministers of our body amongst five hundred millions of men! Was that the true representation of Wesleyan zeal and Wesleyan love? Did we expect that nine men were to take an adequate share in carrying out this moral revolution there? If, instead of nine, we had ninety men there, we should feel her wants the more. There were those one hundred and twenty, or one hundred and fifty millions of men, all our fellow-subjects,-all bound to allegiance to us, all impressed with our national greatness,-all persuaded that our statesmen were the wisest and our soldiers the bravest in the world. They were not merely our fellow-subjects, but, taking them as men, they were all our brethren. Look at the whole of them, and was there one among them to whom, before the great Being we addressed as Father, we could deny the name of brother?a brother sprung from the same stock, endowed with the same immortality, lost in the same sin, hurrying to the same grave, and redeemed by the same precious blood as ourselves;—a brother, alienated from his father and from the community of his family; ignorant of his birthright, bound up in slavery, and hastening to destruction;a brother who was ruined, but who might be restored;-a brother who was lost, but who might be found ;-a brother who was dead, but who might yet live. Could the friends of Missions look at all those millions, and contemplate each of them in the aspect of a brother, and then say that they had done all they could and would do? Surely not. Let but that one principle be taken into consideration, and he was quite sure that the regular funds of this Society would be doubled, and more, in order that the benefit to India might be doubled, and more than doubled. But some said, We should not give from feeling, but from principle. He most heartily concurred in that sentiment; but what was the principle of the question between the Meeting and the natives of India ? He believed it to be this," Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Was it because the friends whom he addressed had studied their principles, and stood by their principles, that this Society was now in debt? Although half of the debt had this day been extinguished, still the Society was very heavily in debt. The Society had several thousand members more this than last year, and yet only a few more Missionaries. Was this

because we acted on principle, and because we loved our neighbour as ourselves? Or was it not rather because principle had been postponed to the cold feeling of a calculating selfishness? Let but the heart of every Methodist act on principle for a single day, and then, while the annual income would be greatly increased, the rest of this incubus of a debt would be shaken off at once, as the mountain, warmed by the returning spring, shook from its sides the winter's snow; and then India would, instead of having only nine, soon have many more Wesleyan Missionaries.

The Resolution was then put to the Meeting, and carried unanimously.

It

The REV. WILLIAM ATHERTON congratulated the Hon. Chairman, himself, and the Meeting, that at this advanced period of the day a Resolution had been put into his hand which needed no speech. It was a Resolution that would commend itself to every person's reason when he read it. would be accorded to by the views, the feelings, the judgment, and the taste, of hundreds who were present. It was a Resolution that required no explanation, no illustration, no proof. It did not require enforcing, and therefore he had only to read it. It was,

"That the cordial thanks of the Society are due to the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, Minister of the Tron church, Glasgow, the Rev. Dr. Harris, President of Cheshunt College, the Rev. John Lomas, and the Rev. Alfred Barrett, for their excellent Sermons preached before the Society during this Anniversary; to the Rev. James Dixon, President of the Conference, the Rev Robert Newton, the Rev. Thomas Waugh, the Rev. Dr. Hannah, the Rev. P. C. Turner, and the Rev. Thomas Cryer, for their very acceptable pulpit-services on the same occasion; to all other Ministers who have publicly advocated the cause of the Society during the past year; and to the Auxiliary and Branch Societies, the Ladies' Associations, the Juvenile Societies, and their respective Committees, Treasurers, Secretaries, and Collectors, both at home and abroad, for their very successful exertions on behalf of the funds of the institution, in which exertions they are most earnestly entreated to continue and abound: and that while recommending increased exertion, this Meeting solemnly recognises the importance of connecting with every effort and contribution to the cause of Missions, unceasing prayer to Almighty God for his furthering blessing."

The REV. WILLIAM M. BUNTING very briefly seconded the Resolution, which was put, and carried unanimously.

RICHARD S. CROOKE, Esq., of Liverpool, had also the pleasure to propose a Resolution which, he was sure, required no speech to recommend it. It would, equally with the last, speak for itself,

"That the cordial thanks of the Society are due, and are hereby presented, to the General Committee; to Thomas Farmer, Esq., and the Rev. John Scott, the General Treasurers; and to the Rev. Dr. Bunting, the Rev. John Beecham, the Rev. Dr. Alder, and the Rev. Elijah Hoole, the General Secretaries; for the valuable services which they have severally rendered to the Society, in the direction and management of its affairs during the past year."

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JOHN HOWARD, Esq., of Leeds, had much pleasure in seconding this Resolution. He seconded it most cordially, because he felt that to have been the Treasurers and Secretaries of this Society, for the last three years, must have been anything but a sinecure. A good deal had been said about the debt, and he as heartily wished it done away with as Dr. Bunting could wish for so happy an event. There were various opinions in the country as to the debt. Some censured the Committee, and found fault with them. His reply to all such observations was, 5 Go and take a seat at the Board, go and hear the appeals for help which they receive, before you form your opinion." He confessed, that he felt it to be probable that if he had a seat in that Committee, the debt, instead of having been £30,000, would have been £60,000. There had been proof of the necessity of an increased expenditure by the Society in what had been addressed to that Meeting to-day by the Rev. Mr. Arthur. If Missionaries from the north, and from the south, and from the west, could all have come forward, and made similar statements to those made by the Missionaries from the east, ample reason would have appeared why the debt should have been much larger than it really was. He had a deep interest in this cause, and that interest had grown with his growth. He believed the cause only wanted the opportunity of taking a proper hold on the Christian public generally, and then the most sanguine hopes of its sincerest friends would be realized. The Society was under deep obligations to the gentlemen to whom this Resolution referred; and if an additional proof of that obligation had been required, it was found in the

more than handsome manner in which Mr. Farmer had come forward to meet the call that had, a short time ago, been made on the Meeting by Dr. Bunting.

The Resolution was put, and carried unanimously.

MR. WAUGH here intimated that he had just received a note which stated, that an Irishman had sent £5 towards the reduction of the remaining debt.

MR. NEWTON likewise said, that he was authorized by a lady, who had just left the Meeting, to say, that she would give twenty guineas for the like purpose, for which he would be responsible. Several other sums, of considerable amount, were subsequently received.

THOMAS FARMER, ESQ., had an easy and a pleasant task to perform, in the duty he was about to discharge. In his own name, and that of his esteemed colleagues in office, he had gratefully to acknowledge the vote of thanks which had just been passed, and to express their thankfulness both for the continued countenance and support of their friends at this Anniversary, and for their liberal contributions during the year. They felt, also, particularly obliged by the presence of the Honourable Gentleman who had so kindly filled the chair today, and who, by his repeated attendance here, and by his influence in his native country, had afforded evidence that his interest in their proceedings had suffered no abatement. Having paid his footing, he might be permitted, though late in the day, to offer a few words in reference to the general subject before the Meeting. He had been told, the other day, that he was like Sir Robert Peel. He was at a loss to know, at the moment, in what respect he could possibly resemble Sir Robert, except, indeed, in the colour of his hair. There was, however, some similarity in their present circumstances. Sir Robert Peel had to contend with financial difficulties, and so, as one of their Treasurers, had he. Sir Robert Peel proposed to obtain relief by an income tax, and so did he. But as by some a property tax was supposed to possess advantages over an income tax, he should propose both; the former, on account of the debt; the latter, to increase the regular annual revenue of the Society. If he were required to give his authority, he would quote from Prov. iii. 9, "Honour the Lord with thy substance ;"

there he found his property tax; "and with the first fruits of all thine increase;" here, his income tax. In order to make his measure palatable, Sir Robert had proposed a new tariff; and he, also,

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had a tariff to submit, to which he felt assured that there would be no dissentient voice in this assembly: for, in the context of the passage he had quoted, it was written, "So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." But there was another difficulty in which Sir Robert was, and so was he; but then here he was a match for the Right Honourable Baronet. The difficulty, on the part of Sir Robert, was the inquisitorial way of reaching the case. The way in which he (Mr. F.) would get over this part of his difficulty was, to open a court in every man's conscience, and there have the question decided. He would place before the parties the case of the widow, who dropped her two mites into the treasury, whilst her Saviour, standing at a distance, beheld, and applauded the act. would present to them the case of Jacob, who made his vow, that of all the Lord should bless him with, a tenth should be returned. He would place before them the cross of Christ, and would inquire, "How much owest thou unto thy Lord?" Much had been said, by previous speakers, about principle; and he desired not to detract from anything that had been advanced upon that point; he felt that they ought to act upon principle in reference to their contributions to this Society. He would not presume to say how much every man ought to give; but he would recommend every one to reflect upon this subject, and, if he found he could afford to give more than a tenth of his income to charitable purposes, let him give a fifth if he was a man in business, and could not spare a fifth, let him provide for his family, and then labour entirely for the Lord. He had great pleasure in moving a Resolution of thanks to their Hon. and worthy Chairman.

DR. BUNTING was quite sure that this Resolution would meet with the most heartfelt concurrence of the assembly; and, in that approval, he sincerely and cordially concurred. He then put the Resolution to the Meeting, which was carried with acclamation.

COLONEL CONOLLY said, that if any thing could add to the distinction of taking the chair, it was the manner in which the chair had been so ably supported. They were all seriously embarked in this great cause, and the feelings of the assembly were so deeply interested, that he should be doing wrong to trespass further than simply to return the warm expression of his humble thanks.

The REV. T. WAUGH then engaged in prayer, and the proceedings concluded,

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