I do not disparage what has been done there by ourselves and by others. Noble men have entered on that great field of labour, and have toiled diligently and successfully; they have diffused a portion of truth among the population of India, the effect of which cannot easily be estimated; but, after all, and in comparison with the demands of that part of the world, what is yet done? I know that much will be done. I cannot but speak with confidence here: Christ's truth has wrought its way in many instances in India, and the recent struggles will, I doubt not, tend, in their final issue, to the furtherance of the Gospel; but the fields of India are yet to be reaped, the souls that are wandering there in darkness and in death are yet, for the most part, to be gathered to Christ. All that has been done is but a motive to renewed effort, and an encouragement to renewed hope. And what have we yet done for Africa? I do not forget what has been done for Southern Africa, a noble representative from which part of the world is on our platform to-day. We look with joy to Southern Africa as a field of Missionary labour which presents encouragements of no ordinary kind at the present and for the future. We look also with joy to Western Africa, where many a sinner has been brought to his Saviour, and where preparations are made for a larger dissemination of spiritual truth. what is the case in Northern Africa, which is seldom mentioned in our Missionary Meetings,-which has yet to find its proper place in our Missionary Reports: what is done for that part of Africa which once flourished in the enjoyment of Christian truth, which was rich in Christian churches, and in Christian teachers, too, forming fountains of light, whence truth and mercy were diffused in all directions? What is the spiritual state, for the most part, of Northern Africa now? Taking Africa as a whole, Africa, which in some of its provinces is becoming much more fully known to us, we may indeed say,What have we yet done? The work in its mighty extent is yet to be done; and, by the blessing of Almighty God, it shall be done. What have we yet done for other parts of the world which have been mentioned, and on which our thoughts dwell with delight? We think of the West Indies, and, indeed, of the western world generally, where the power and grace of Christ have been so wonderfully displayed, and where revivings are now found which will, I trust, prove to be revivings granted by the one Spirit of our God. VOL. IV.-Fifth SERIES.

But

And yet how much is still to be accomplished there! How much is to be done upon the continent of Europe, on which we have so scanty a possession! How much is to be done in the British dominions of North America,-and, indeed, whithersoever our eye can turn! One might indeed dwell upon the state of the world, even now after all that has been accomplished, with some feeling of dismay, if it were not for the assurance that Christ, our Lord and Master, is with us, and that there is still the promise of that Holy Spirit who will move upon the face of the darkest and dreariest chaos, until that chaos shall awaken into the beauty of a new creation. Happily to-day, when we are urging inquiries of this kind, we are urging them amidst a willing disposition which already exists. I have not been able to trace any intimation that our brethren in different parts of this country are weary of Missionary effort. Just the contrary. In those parts of the country where our Missionary Meetings have been wont to be held, they are still held in greater numbers, and yet with a higher spirit of Christian zeal. May I be permitted to say that we are not resting on our oars, that we are not ceasing from toil in the north, and especially in that part of the north with which I have for many years now been closely connected, I mean Manchester. I do not like to institute comparisons, unless it be for the purpose of bringing out what is cheering and gratifying; but with pleasure I advert to the fact that we lately held one of our District Missionary Meetings in the city of Manchester, in the Free-Trade Hall; and, in point of numbers, it might compare advantageously with the present noble assembly. I doubt, indeed, whether we ever had, at any Missionary Meeting, so large a number as was assembled on that important occasion. To my mind, the genial and expansive feeling-the warm and hearty responses to what was advanced in connexion with Christian Missions-all showed that the spirit of Missionary zeal was alive and growing there as it is in Leeds, in London-as is proved by the Meeting of this day— and I trust, in every part of the kingdom. We rejoice that God has given us successes; but we rejoice also that we have yet so much to do. I would even find some encouragement in that circumstance, and would gratefully own that God is giving His people the spirit, by His help and blessing to do what yet lies before them, and daily to anticipate that promised period when "the

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glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together," when Christ our Lord and King, shall have this purchased world as His own, and when all shall know and love Him, from the least even unto the greatest. Who, I would ask, could fail to be affected by the obituary of the past year, as it was briefly noted in the extract that has just been read, of Missionaries who have departed from their fields of labour, and have left their work to others? Among them are two, who were almost coevals of my own, and whom I knew from early days, the venerable Dr. Cook, whose character will receive its due estimation, and whose work in Christ will, I trust, for ever live; and the venerable Barnabas Shaw, who has closed his labours, and has left the light and blessing of his example, not to Southern Africa only, but to the Connexion, and to the church at large. I am reminded that this very day on which we are assembled is the anniversary of the departure to his rest of that great Missionary-the Rev. Dr. Coke. He passed away between forty and fifty years ago. How many have passed away since then! How we are passing away now! But the work lives! How great it is now in comparison with what it was when Dr. Coke fell! How great it will become, if we only persevere in our fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ! What gratifies us is if I may repeat it again that we are not, in any of these plans and movements, acting alone. There is a general spirit diffused throughout all the Protestant branches of the church of Christ, to act as with one mind and one heart in hastening the consummation which we hope and long to see. I should like before I sit down to say a word on the subject of Missionaries. Missionaries wanting ! Who is there among our young brethren whom Christ is calling to His work? Who is there that will consecrate himself and his services to-day to that important duty? Why should not our younger brethren have the spirit their fathers possessed? Why should they not come forward and rejoice in the honour and privilege, if approved, of labouring in distant lands for Christ? There is a call-a loud call -upon fervent young men who contemplate entering the Christian ministry to ask themselves "Why should not I offer myself to Him who gave Himself for me, and cheerfully go forth to other lands to the regions beyond-with His truth on my lips, and His love in my heart?" Let me be permitted also to

urge the importance of our friends gene rally combining and perpetuating their efforts, their personal exertions, their liberality, all they can do in support of this cause, which is the cause of Christ and of the world's salvation; and above all I trust that we shall never forget what was so devoutly and fervently mentioned in the opening prayer of to-day-the necessity of depending upon the visitation of the Holy Spirit of God. After all, we feel that our true strength -our only strength-is there; and we repose on those assurances which have never been repealed, that the time will come when the Spirit shall be poured forth, not on Jews only, or on the firstfruits of the Gentiles only, but on the whole family of man. May our prayers arise for that final and universal Pentecost, and may that Pentecost come! My Lord, I have great pleasure in proposing the Resolution.

The REV. DR. DIXON, who was much moved by the cordiality of his reception, said,-My Lord, the task devolved upon me would, under any circumstances, be sufficiently difficult; but the manifestation of so much kindness and love quite unmans me. I trust you will forgive the emotion I cannot but feel; and that you will extend to me your forbearance during the few broken observations I may be able to address to the Meeting. I have no difficulty at all in seconding the Resolution of my dear friend, Dr. Hannah, for the adoption of the Report. Rightly considered, my Lord, that Report is a very wonderful document. What does it contain? Not only the area of Missionary exertions, Missionary stations, and Missionary triumphs; but it contains also the development of religion itself in its genuine characteristics. We have here revivals of the work of God. We have the conversion of numerous souls to Christ. We have the budding of intelligence, and thought, and genius. We have native converts, who have just emerged from barbarism and cannibalism, beginning to preach "the unsearchable riches of Christ," and who, standing in the midst of groups of their countrymen in their beautiful islands, are strangely proclaiming the love of God, and the salvation of Christ. Why, my Lord, this warm picture is enough to stir the depths of every Christian heart; and I should be ashamed of myself if I could meditate for a moment upon this intelligence from Fiji without sympathy-deep Christian sympathy

in this work of God. My Lord, this is a very strange Report after the lapse

of so short a time, after so few years of work; but I think we Methodist people I know not whether owing to our creed or our character-are often a little impatient. We expect great results without much labour. Now, my Lord, it strikes me that this great Meeting must be well satisfied with the Report that has been made, that after only some fourteen or fifteen years' labour, these blessed and beautiful results are attained. But let us guard ourselves against one possible deception. Let us guard against the idea that this great work is our work. We come together; we see each other at any rate, some of you see each other; this is to you a jubilant Meeting; you congratulate one another; and, in the exuberance of your imaginations, you perhaps think this work which is reported, is your work, and you say, "What glorious Christians, what glorious Methodists we are, to be able to report such results as these!" My Lord, there have been other men in the field; there have been other advocates upon this platform; there have been other minds at work preparing the soil, and moreover sowing the seed. Many of those friends I used to meet; many of them I used to work with; but where are they now? They have retired from active life. They have retired to the grave. We have to congratulate ourselves upon a great work. But let us recollect this-let us acknowledge it with candour-that they in truth and in reality laid the foundation of this work; and that we are reaping the harvest. My Lord, allow me to say one thing: It is this, that we are not only doing work, but we are making work. Look at that glorious evangelist and traveller, Dr. Livingstone. Dr. Livingstone was a good Missionary. Dr. Livingstone did good work in the Cape Colony. Dr. Livingstone instructed the natives around him. Dr. Livingstone, wherever he happens to be in the order of God's providence, must be one of God's nobility. He is a great man, a man of extraordinary energy and extraordinary power. My Lord, in the Missionary field Dr. Livingstone did good service; but in his travels he has cut out work enough for the Christian church for a century to come. And this, if I mistake not, is the natural progress of events. The Report adverted to India. Why, you might have kept out of India if you had chosen to do so. But you have had to enter into these complicated affairs. Had Christianity been quiet, I suppose the India Board would have been quiet enough too. Had you kept David

Brown, and Dr. Buchanan, and Henry Martyn, and Dr. Carey, and Dr. Marshmann, and Ward at home; had you also preserved silence-(I think it was about the year 1813 the question arose on the introduction of Christianity into India)— you need not have been bound up in these complicated affairs, and have had to use your ingenuity and genius and political sagacity and foresight on the Indian question. Your work is creating for you great difficulties, and you have to meet them; you have to battle with them; you have to enter the fields of debate and the fields of controversy; and I venture to predict that this Indian question will engage your best talent for a great many years to come. But permit me to remark, my Lord, that I think there is one great advantage on the side of our Missionary friends, our Missionary Society; and that is, that we really have not to determine the political question; we have not to settle as to whether the old Government is the best, or whether the new Government will possibly be the best. We have not to vindicate the old Company. With your permission, my Lord, I will venture just to say one word not with regard to the religion or the morality of the old Company-but I will venture to say that it has been the most successful Government that has ever existed, as I think, in history and something is due to a body of men who have conducted a great affair with such talent and ability as to secure for this country one of the most anomalous things that ever existed-the possession of an empire, the largest that ever fell beneath the shadow of the Crown. Well, we have nothing to do with that; but I think, my Lord, that my friends around me will pardon me if I venture upon speaking a word for old men and old institutions.-There is another point. I think a part of the British public has done some injustice to the English part of our Indian population. Why, we have seen in the newspapers, and in writings and speeches, that our countrymen-officers, and soldiers, and civilians-have all been deeply tainted with immorality, and sin, and crime of every sort; and our young subalterns have been represented as boyish dandies, lolling in the sunshine of the East, enjoying its luxuries, and caring nothing about their duties, and all that. My Lord, let us guard against an injustice. I say this, there have been many Christians in India. Taking the English population of India as the datum of calculation, there have been more real

sound-hearted Christians in that country than in England. And so with respect to the greatest ornaments of the Christian church, both in your Church, my Lord, and in the Church of England, and moreover in our Church,-some of the greatest ornaments which have graced Christianity have been converted in India. Why, thirty or forty years ago, we used to have on our platform one, or two, or three retired Indian gentlemen or officers, advocating most intelligently and gloriously the interests of Christianity in the East. My Lord, let us do justice to everybody. It is not true that our countrymen in the East have been so bad as some party-writers have represented them to

be. Will you tell me, that the glorious men who met the revolt, who have fought your battles, who have exercised the highest, the widest, talent and capacity which were ever developed in the history of the human race; will you tell me that such men as Sir Henry Lawrence, and Sir John Lawrence, and General Edwardes, and the rest, and not amongst the least, the glorious Havelock, have been cradled in ease and voluptuousness, and I know not what kind of vices ? My Lord, great intellect, great moral force, great character, never sprang from the depths of depravity. And when I see these great characters standing upon the theatre of affairs, at a very awful and interesting crisis, and exhibiting those fine features, I must be permitted to demur to slanders which have been cast upon our English people in the East. But there is another question as to Christianity. I find that special pleaders, when they want to make out a case, take just as much as suits their point, and wisely repudiate everything else, putting it aside with great adroitness, in order to secure the triumph of their argument. Now the advocates of the Christian cause in India want us to exert ourselves, want us to use our utmost ability and power, to promote religion in that country. They have the right to ask us to do so. But I think it would be quite as well for them to give credit to the men who have gone before, and to give glory to God for the work which has been wrought. My Lord, there is good in India. There is more good in India than we are perhaps willing to admit just at present for our argument's sake. But has not the Bible been largely circulated in India? Have you not been preaching the Gospel, as we have been told, at the gates of temples, in the streets and cities, on the wayside, and everywhere you chose? And have you not

established even Christian schools, up and down the country, as you had the means and the opportunity of doing? And have you not won, at any rate, some converts to Christianity? Certainly you have. Well, then, my Lord, you have here a foundation to go upon; and I think it would be wise, on our part, to recognise the past, and endeavour to improve it. I feel a very great interest in the Indian question. In my humble apprehension we are very much connected with India. Now, supposing you leave India in its idolatry. Very well. Then you leave the whole eastern world in its idolatry. Supposing you bring India into the light of the Gospel, and of civilization, and into the enjoyment of such freedom as that which you are able to possess and enjoy. Supposing you make them British; supposing you transport Old England to the plains of Bengal; supposing you impress the English mind, and the English character, and English literature, and English science, and English jurisprudence, and English politics, and English religion, upon the millions of India :-supposing you do all that, then you have gained not only a great conquest on the soil, but, as I think,-your military Commanders talk about a base of operations, -you gain a base of Christian operations for China and everywhere. That is one great point. And, my Lord, I think my friends the Secretaries,-old friends of mine, who know I have no very bad meaning in me,--my friends the Secretaries will permit me to remark, that I think our affairs have come to such a point as to admit of a very considerable augmentation in our exertions for India and China. I find, my Lord, that your glorious countryman, Sir Colin Campbell, I find that Sir Colin, before he attacked Lucknow, took care to dispose of the rebels lying up and down the outposts, the smaller forces. He beat them, as you know, at Cawnpore, and his Lieutenants beat them I know not at how many places beside. Well, as soon as these outposts were conquered, and these suburban rebels were subdued, what did Sir Colin do? Why, he marched his forces to Lucknow, and soon disposed of that city. That is just what he did. Somehow or other we have been led in times past to conquer outposts. That is what we have been doing; and we have done it pretty well. I beg to remind you, that now the United States is occupied, that the American Colonies belonging to the Crown of England are pretty well occupied and pretty well manned; that our West India

islands are also pretty well occupied and evangelized; that the new world, Australia, is pretty well occupied; and that those groups of islands in the Pacific are pretty well occupied; and I am thankful to hear, from the Report of to-day, that— I know not how many-some two hundred or three hundred young evangelists are springing up out of that great work which has been wrought, who, we are led to expect, will be able in a great degree to be self-sustaining, and not only self-sustaining, but will become evangelists to other places. Well, then, you have cleared the way. You have little to do in Canada and the Colonies there; you have little to do in the West Indies; you have little to do in Australia; you have little to do in the Pacific Ocean. But you have a great deal to do in Africa; you have a great deal to do in India; and I would recommend your Generalissimo at the Mission-House just now to concentrate his forces, and march on India. I think, in the order of Providence, we are called upon to do this. It is a shame that we have done so little in India. For my own part, I accept, with my own understanding of the matter, I accept the remark of Lord Ellenborough, that Christianity has been the disturbing element in India. I think that it has been so, and that it ought to be so. We are labouring under a very great error if we suppose that we can introduce such a system as Christianity into the midst of such systems as Mohammedanism and Brahminism, without producing disturbances. You are sure to produce them. You ought to produce them. Have you not to level these monstrous systems to the ground? and will they shake gently and nicely down, just to spare your nerves? They will do no such thing. They will fall. We have heard the crash; and, my Lord, my own idea is, that the wonderful events that have taken place in India are for the furtherance of the Gospel. There are things that can only be done in judgment. When you have a murderer to deal with, you must hang him. Justice requires it. And the God of all truth, justice, and love, is a just God; and if evil things refuse to yield to the truth and to the tender mercies of our Christianity, they must be made to yield to the sovereign' will of God who reigns in the universe. He has, in my humble opinion, struck down these monstrous systems by a blow, that has reverberated to ourselves. And now, we, on our part, have a great task to perform. Will all Christian churches come up to their duty? Will they come to their

duty? That is the question. We want a good many great men. We want a good many Dr. Duffs. We want men of some calibre in the East. Well, the point is, that the Lord, who is the author of human existence, and the author of religion, can easily bring up from the depths of humanity suitable agents; and He will do it, if my friends at the Mission-House will be very faithful to their trust. I have remembered, my Lord, on one or two occasions, to address myself to the younger men of our Connexion; and I would now say to our young men, especially the clerics-I would say to them now, "Study India." I do not mean study it like schoolboys, in elegant extracts and things of that sort; but study it deeply, and study it thoroughly, and do not be afraid of its history and its politics. Look at the whole of the Indian question. Try it, master it; for somebody in our Connexion, as well as throughout England, will have to do great service for India. Let my younger friends around me determine to support this great and glorious cause as long as they live. And if you will permit me, my Lord, in my closing observation to say a word for their encouragement, I must declare that the very greatest pleasure, the very greatest excitement, and I like to be excited, -the very greatest measure of enthusiasm that ever glowed within my heart, and, if I have ever had any very tender, and very direct, and very ardent friendships, they have all stood connected with this Missionary work. It is the glory of the age. It is the glory of the world. It is great in itself. Its interests are profound and mighty. There are things which contain in themselves the elements of general truth; and your Missionary Societies are of that sort : they are a blessing of themselves, and they contain the elements of all truth and all happiness for mankind.

The Noble CHAIRMAN announced that the Resolution would be shortly supported by his Rev. friend, Dr. Guthrie.

DR. GUTHRIE said, when the cheering with which he was greeted had subsided, I rise, not for the purpose of speaking, but for the purpose of saying, and giving you reasons, why I am not to speak. The fact is, my Lord, as you will find, my name is not in the programme. I am here in the character or an intrusionist, much as I have done, and said, and suffered for non-intrusion in my own country. Indeed, I am here, in London, by compulsion. Your Secretary knows that when, some time ago, he