Society. But, as in opposing the Church Missionary Society it is absolutely necessary to provide some vent for the missionary feeling which has begun to flow with some power in the Church, (and which that Society has been, under God, the chief means of exciting) they are induced, with some reluctance, to place another Society in antagonist position, rather than to advocate its cause.

"Accordingly, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts is proposed by the party as a refuge and alternative. And for this purpose a contrast is drawn, in which, in general terms, a correctness of ecclesiastical character is attributed to the one, to the disparagement of the other; thus placing the two Societies in the unchristian position of jealous rivals, rather than of affectionate sisters. Against this, the friends of the Church Missionary Society have constantly protested in their different spheres; and have generally contented themselves with making such a protest, without entering into the rivalship which they deprecate. The course which the Committee have taken has been that of uniform silence; rather submitting to the unjust imputations which have been the result of such a comparison, than run the risk of presenting even the appearance of evil in exposing its injustice. The tone of forbearance thus put forth from the centre has characterized the great mass of the Society's friends; and, satisfied hitherto with the evidence afforded by the funds, of the comparative harmlessness of these unjust statements to alienate their friends, the attempt has only served to manifest the self-denying Christian feeling with which the comparison has been allowed to pass.

"The crisis, however, at which the Church Missionary Society has arrived, considerably alters the position of its friends in this respect; and renders it a duty to break the forbearing silence with which this comparison has hitherto been received. That which might have been praiseworthy before, when the progress in the Society's funds enabled it to carry on its great designs in spite of the aspersions of its calumniators, would be a sinful weakness now, when the stream that flows into its treasury has ceased to bear the necessary proportion to the demand of the waters of Life, which the perishing heathen have learned to thirst after. One particular sign seems to make it imperative upon the friends of the Society, that they should overcome their reluctance to expose the error which they

have hitherto met in silence. A very large number of Clergy were formerly in the habit of pointing to the deficiency of episcopal support enjoyed by the Church Missionary Society; and it was either plainly stated, or distinctly to be inferred, that if the bench of Bishops were with it, the Clergy in general would be with it also. The former of these events has occurred; but the latter has not resulted. The excuse has been taken away from such objectors; but very few have given up their objection. Time has been now allowed for the general patronage of the Bishops to become known, and for the objecting clergy to come forward with their subscriptions; but few of these have appeared. It is to be feared that the objecting clergy generally have borrowed a peculiar characteristic of the Tractarian party, in that they can half-deify Episcopacy, and find it impossible to differ from bishops, when bishops happen to agree with themselves; but they can disregard Episcopacy, and find it impossible to follow bishops, when bishops differ from their peculiar notions. A minute inquiry into the present statistics of the Societies would be extremely interesting. Of the 3360 clergymen who support the Church Missionary Society, probably one half are also subscribers to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. If these subscribers be deducted from the number of those who support the latter Society, it would leave 4420 who support it exclusively. That but a small portion of these have followed the example of the Bishops must be apparent from the fact, that the funds of the year, when the arrangement was made by which the Episcopal sanction became general, were not materially increased; so that neither by their own subscriptions, nor by the more important assistance of their influence with the laity, have these opposing clergy come forward, as might have been expected upon the removal of their stated objection.

"It is under the necessity produced by this important crisis that the present appeal is made, by an individual clergyman, entirely without the participation, or even knowledge, of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society; who continue to maintain their patient course of forbearing silence. There is too much reason to fear, that, by many, this course has been mistaken for concession and consent to the unjust disparagement put forth by the opposers."

This might be enough; but as we have explored the case so far, it may be well to proceed farther, aud Mr. Dallas enables us to do so in a most satisfactory manner.

"Before proceeding to shew that the Church Missionary is constituted in a more correctly ecclesiastical manner than the Incorporated Society, it may be proper to point out the Scriptural example upon which it is modelled; for it will not be difficult to trace its origin to the Apostolic times.

"It is a voluntry combination of the members of the Church, for the purpose of supplying the means by which ministers may be supported whilst preaching the Gospel to heathen people. This is the simplest definition of the Society; and one which shews it to be in exact conformity with the earliest models for Missionary Societies which is found in the New Testament. In Acts xvi. an account is given of the establishment of the Church of Christ

at Philippi, by the preaching of Paul. In chap. xvii. we find him at Thessalonica; and in chap. xviii. at Corinth, preaching the same Gospel to the Jewish and heathen inhabitants of those cities. In letters written subsequently by the Apostle to the Church at Thessalonica, we find him putting them in remembrance that, whilst preaching the Gospel to them, he would not be chargeable to any of them (1 Thess. ii. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 8); and in his second letter to the Church at Corinth, he not only states the same thing, but adds, that he robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do the Corinthians service,' informing them, at the same time, that the Christian brethren who came from Macedonia, supplied what he stood in need of whilst acting as a Missionary at Corinth. (2 Cor. xi. 8, 9.) In accordance with these statements, made to the converted persons at Thessalonica and Corinth, we find the acknowledgments of Paul to the Society of Christians at Philippi, who, of their own accord, in the beginning of the Gospel,' as he calls it, supplied his necessities once and again, while he was preaching at Thessalonica, (Phil. iv. 10-16); and, though Corinth is not mentioned, yet as the Philippian Christians are stated to be the only ones in Macedonia who thus communicated with him, we may conclude certainly, that the brethren from Macedonia were no other than the members of the Philippian Church Missionary Society, who are honourably distinguished above others by the Apostle, because they voluntarily combined to pay him his 'wages,' as he terms it, in order to support him while acting as a missionary,

and extending the knowledge of the Gospel amongst the heathen in Achaia. "This was the simple process amongst the first Christians. There could have been no impeding rivalry amongst those who gave their money for this purpose; no pressing of other machinery into missionary service in order to draw off alms into another channel; no sneering at those who gave money to support Paul in Achaia, nor proposing that they should rather support Apollos at Ephesus."

"We have seen the Scriptural simplicity of the general object and principles of a missionary society; and it remains to inquire whether the mode of carrying out these principles, to attain the object in view, be according to the requirements of ecclesiastical order, in the cases of the two Societies before us. In ascertaining, for this purpose, how the officers and agents are constituted, we must consider whether their appointment rests upon the basis of the fundamental laws, or the temporary arrangement of the existing executive. If any thing should be inconsistent with due order in the former class of authority, it may perhaps be remedied by the latter. If the secondary influence of authority should appear to be exercised in a manner inconsistent with due discipline, their acts may be tested by the primary constitution; to the spirit of which the acting agents may be made to conform.

"In examining the constitution of the Incorporated Society, we find, in the first place, that its highest officer, called the President, is to be chosen by an annual election, in the same way as the other officers; and must be appointed on the third Friday in every February, by such of the incorporated members as may make it convenient to attend for that purpose. An unfounded notion has very generally prevailed, that the Archbishop of Canterbury is the official President of this Society. This, however, is not the case. A reference to the Charter will shew, that though Archbishop Tennyson was appointed by the king to be the first president, it was because he was charged with the duty of forming the Society, by calling the incorporated members together in order to elect another president for the following year. It happened that the Archbishop was elected; and thus the Primate for the time being has been so appointed to the office every year. This affords an instance in which a serious ecclesiastical inconsistency in the constitution has been remedied, as far as it could be, by the practical working of the secondary authority; yet not without this unfitness in the arrangement; that the highest ecclesiastical authority is placed in this position by the votes of a body of mixed laity and clergy, annually repeated. Were it not for this yearly rectification of the original error, the exclusive friends of the Society would lose this favourite boast and there is nothing in the charter to prevent a number of lay members of the corporation, who may conspire to outnumber the clergy at the meeting in February, from nominating an opposing candidate for the presidency, whether clergyman or layman, and carrying his election by ballot. The vice-presidents are elected in the same manner, at the same time; and usually consist of the bishops, and other dignitaries of the Church, with some few eminent laymen. "It is, however, in the next grade of office that a more serious ecclesiastical defect is found. The incorporated members were all named in the charter. Twelve of them were constituted members by office; of which two were the Archbishops, and two Bishops (London and Ely). The other members were named without succession; and as they passed away, their places were filled up by the survivors. The corporation thus became a self-renewing body; and subsequently it was determined that the number of members should be increased, the vacancies being filled up by ballot. According to a bye-law (No. 18, in the Report for 1837, and No. 10 in that for 1838) it appears to have been ruled by the executive body 'that the corporation consist of the Bishops Bishops of the united Church of England and Ireland, the members appointed by charter, and of 300 other members.' This bye-law, however, must be taken in connexion with the two preceding, which rule as follows:

""8. That all subscribers of one guinea per annum, or contributors of ten guineas in one sum, and clergymen subscribing half-a-guinea annually, be associated members; and that from them the incorporated members be chosen by ballot.' ""9. That every incorporated member subscribe not less than two guineas annually to the Society, or contribute not less than twenty guineas in one sum.'

"From this it appears, that every layman may purchase the title of Associated member of the Society; and may thereby qualify himself to be a candidate for admission into the corporation, for one guinea per annum; and that a clergyman may stand in the same position by subscribing half that sum. Ifa clergyman offers himself as a candidate and is black-balled, he may go on with

his half-guinea subscription if he please; but if he be admitted as a corporate member, he must qualify for the office to which he has been thus elected, by paying four times the amount of his former subscription; the qualification of every incorporated member, lay or clerical, being a subscription of two guineas per annum.

"There are two serious defects in this arrangement. The first is, that the capacity of an ordained presbyter to assist in the councils which guide the Society, instead of being gathered from his letters of orders which testify that the Bishop has judged him fitting for the high office of the ministry, is submitted to the opinions of a mixed body of laity and clergy, and decided upon by ballot. This seems very like assuming an authority over the bishop in a matter entirely relating to spiritual things; and exercising it as far as the parties can extend their power. A clergyman is proposed as one of the managers of a Society, whose only concern is to provide for the administration of the Gospel to a certain portion of the Church: by coming in his character of an ordained minister, he brings the sanction of the bishop; but the board reconsider his fitness, and in the face of the bishop's approval of the individual, they disapprove. Whatever be the requisite qualification in their minds, Episcopal Ordination does not include it.

"The other defect alluded to, is the large increase of pecuniary qualification required; which is the same for a clergyman as for a layman; and in the present inequality of the incomes of the clergy, must effectually exclude many from the possibility of becoming members of the Corporation. This is the more extraordinary as an apparent distinction is made in the amount of subscription which confers the title of

'Associated Member '-a distinction which is apparent only, since that title conveys no privilege; and therefore the force of the regulation merges in the general liberty of every individual to subscribe just what sum he likes to any Society he may select.

"A notion has generally been entertained, and much stress has been laid upon it by many injudicious friends, who have taken no pains to acquaint themselves upon the subject, that all the bishops are, by the constitution of the Society, Vice-Presidents and Directors of its councils. This notion is entirely unfounded. We have seen that those bishops who are Vice-Presidents, become so upon their annual election by such members of the Corporation as

were among the most zealous in pressing forward to aid the institution? We are bold to say the clerical members of the Church Missionary Society; those who had already given proof of their attachment to the cause of Missions to the heathen, and who rejoiced to become acquainted with the elder Society, and to labour in its behalf. So far from the friends of the Church Missionary Society opposing the Propagation Society, they were among the most ardent in welcoming the King's Letter; they trusted they saw in it, as the event has happily proved, a revived era of Missionary enterprise in the Church of England; they spoke and preached upon the occasion, and their collections in compliance with the King's Letter were very liberal. Mr. Pratt, the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, compiled and published a highly valuable digest of the elder Society's reports, under the title of Propaganda, in order to inform the clergy, and excite them to exertion; and when Bishop's College was projected, the Church Missionary Committee immediately voted unanimously £5,000, without condition or restriction, in furtherance of the object; and grants were afterwards made enlarging that sum to £13,000.

But this zeal produced alarm in the minds of some of the few individuals who then engrossed the chief management of the institution, which depended almost entirely on its large parliamentary grants. These alarmists said, "We shall be inundated by persons of a certain class;" for already, by the accessions caused in consequence of the attention awakened to the Society's claims, the list of its subscribers had amounted to the prodigious number of three hundred and twenty.

In

By the custom of the Society up to that period, all persons subscribing two guineas annually, were, as a matter of course, balloted for as members of the Society, as in the Christian Knowledge Society, and were entitled to assist in all its deliberations. order, therefore, to prevent the admission of new men and new measures, yet at the same time not to lose pecuniary aid, a Resolution was concocted by a few individuals, and was passed in haste, by which it was proposed as deaths occurred to reduce the number of members to that originally mentioned in the charter, which was under a hundred; and to admit subscribers as "contributing members," but not allowing them, whether laymen or clergymen, to have any voice in the Society's affairs. The last name of those admitted under the old system was that of Dr. Dealtry; the first two under the new regulation were Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bickersteth; so that the alarming zeal of the friends of the Church Missionary Society was no phantom. In the course of time, when the panic had subsided, and when happily a better spirit had grown up, the admissions to corporate membership became less niggardly; but we cannot see why the old system should not be revived, as it still exists at the Christian Knowledge Society; or if this be inconvenient, why at least every clergyman who is a contributing member should not also be a responsible member ; and why laymen should not attend and vote at the general meetings of the Society; as is the ordinary custom in societies supported by voluntary contributions. The ballot for membership is found in the Christian Knowledge Society a sufficient check against improper admissions.