صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

able to stay so long. Many a man longs to go back to his work, but is forbidden. The Rev. S. Hasell, who was so well known as the Home Secretary of the Society, offered again and again to return. There are missionaries in England now who would rejoice to return to their missionary work if the doctors would permit it. I know at this moment more than one whose great cross it is that he is forbidden to resume his work. "To wait" is often harder than "to labour."

John-But, Mr. Story, there are many men who have done noble work, for a long time too, whom you have not mentioned.

Mr. Story. Of course there are Bishops Sargent, Horden, Burdon, Moule, and a host of others, some of whom are dead, some still at work. The fact is, if we mentioned them all, our conversation would last till to-morrow morning at least.

Ward.--Well, Mr. Story, I am bound to say that in some degree my doubts are set aside. It really does seem as if God had called England and England's Church to do a great work for Him.

Mr. Story. I am glad to hear you say that. Surely, now, you will try to help on so great a work. Never was there a time when the call to send Missions to the heathen was so great. China, Africa, Japan, and India are open, all needing far more men than we can give. It is almost heartbreaking to think of the earnest appeals for help which come to the C.M.S., and the many refusals which must be given to these appeals. Wilson. But what can we do? We have not much money; we can't go out ourselves; we seem very helpless.

Mr. Story. Remember the power of prayer. "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into His harvest." Remember that "the silver and gold are His," that He can move the minds of men who possess wealth to give of their wealth. Remember, too, how St. Paul plays men to pray that "the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified."

John.-Yes, we can pray; but I should like to do more than pray. Mr. Story. So you can. One heart on fire can do great things. It is astonishing how great is the effect of individual influence. If we could secure three young men in every parish in England with no more money and no more influence than you and Ward and Wilson possess, I will undertake to say that an immense amount of money could be raised, aye, and many men stimulated to go out into the Mission field. They would know the facts, and teach others. They would feel the duty of doing something, and make others feel it too. The longer I live the more I see that it is individual effort which does great things in the world. If you three young men will only retail what you have heard, and still more, so read the publications of the Society that you get to know more and more of the deeply interesting facts which are daily coming to our notice from all parts of the field, not only we but many whom none of us will ever see in this life will have cause to bless God that we have had this talk about the origin and progress of the Church Missionary Society.

OUR MISSIONS IN 1882.

UCH has been said in this number of the GLEANER

respecting the early history of the Church Missionary Society. But while it is good to look back to the Past, and remember all the way that the Lord our God hath led us, it is with the Present, after all, that we have most to do. Let us therefore take a rapid run round the world, and view the Society's Missions as they are to-day.

We will first take the steamer from Liverpool to West Africa. In about a fortnight we are landed at Sierra Leone, where the Society's first missionaries landed seventy-eight years ago. What do we see there? We see a peninsula about the size of the Isle of Wight inhabited by negroes of a hundred different tribes, the descendants of the slaves rescued in the early part of the century. Forty thousand of them are Christians, or nearly the whole population; and of these about half belong to the Church of England. We find twelve parishes, with churches and schools, all the ministers of which are Africans; and the only two white clergymen we meet are the Principal and Vice-Principal of the College at Fourah Bay, where African students earn the Durham B.A. degree without coming to England for it. We pay a visit also to the Grammar School, with its African Principal, which invests its profits in English funds; and to other institutions.

Not stopping to visit the out-lying Missions in the Sherbro, Bullom, Quiah, and Timneh countries, we go on by the steamer a thousand miles along the coast to Lagos, now a flourishing British possession, but formerly the great port for the embarka

tion of slaves. Here we find several more parishes with Native clergy, and congregations that raise large sums for church and mission purposes; and various Institutions similar to those at Sierra Leone. Taking canoes along the lagoons that line the coast, or up the rivers, we come to town after town with congregation and Native clergyman-Ebute Meta, Badagry, Leke, Ode Ondo, Abeokuta, Ibadan-6,000 or 7,000 Christians altogether.

Again steaming on eastward, we reach the mouths of the Niger, and, transferring ourselves to the Mission steamer Henry Venn we spend some weeks visiting the dozen stations established by Bishop Crowther, in the delta and 350 miles up the river-Bonny, Brass, Onitsha, Lokoja, &c.—not forgetting to shake hands warmly with the two African Archdeacons, Henry Johnson and Dandeson Crowther. We wonder at the Sunday congregations, in two or three of the churches above 1,000 people; and we do not wonder at the stories we hear of the devil's desperate efforts to mar the growing work.

We should now much like to make up a caravan, and march right away across the Dark Continent; but this is hardly feasible yet, so we make the best of our course round the Cape of Good Hope, passing many flourishing Missions of other societies, and, sailing up the East Coast, cast anchor off Zanzibar. For want of the Henry Wright, not yet at her post, we must suffer the miseries of a dhow to get to Mombasa; and there, close to the spot where Krapf laid his wife to rest forty years ago, we are astonished at the prosperous and peaceful village of Frere Town. Here, too, Satan has been busy; but here, too, the Stronger than he has caught away from him many precious souls. After a flying visit to Rabbai and Godoma, each with its little Christian community, we get back to Zanzibar, and crossing to the mainland, begin our long march into the far interior. Mpwapwa are reached in three or four weeks, and at each place an English lady welcomes us, who is winning the affection of all around her. Then we press on to Uyui, 550 miles inland; and then to the great Victoria Nyanza, across which we must sail for 200 miles to visit King Mtesa and bid God-speed to our brethren at his court.

Mamboia and

How we are to get back again may be a perplexity; but let us suppose ourselves once more in the Mediterranean, being landed, through the surf, at the ancient port of Jaffa. It is a delight, indeed, to take our horses and ride through the Holy Land, down to Gaza, and then up to Jerusalem, and then across the Jordan to Salt, and then back to Nablous and Nazareth, and to see at all these places, and at many villages en route, how the Society is setting before the bigoted Moslems the truths of a pure Christianity-which, alas! the sadly-degraded Oriental churches make no attempt to do. We pass on to Persia, and find the infant Mission so bravely founded by Mr. Bruce holding forth the light of the Gospel in the midst of dense darkness; and then on to Bombay.

Now we are in India. How can we see all the work there? Even if we miss the noble Missions of other societies, those of C.M.S. alone perplex us with their number and variety, and fill us with thankfulness for their success. From Bombay we go to Nasik, with its Christian village of Sharanpur, and to Malegam, and to Aurungabad, each with its Native clergyman. Then we come back, and sail away to Kurrachee, the westernmost port of India, and up the Indus to Hydrabad, and find that in the great province of Sindh, as large and as populous as Ceylon, the C.M.S. is entirely alone, with four missionaries. Taking the new railway we go on northward to the Punjab, and, conducted perhaps by Bishop French and Robert Clark, visit Lahore with its great Divinity College, and Amritsar with its many noble missionary institutions, and Mr. Bateman's Christian village of Clarkabad, and Mr. Baring and Miss Tucker at Batala, and Multân, and the new Medical Mission on the Beluch frontier, and the older Medical Missions on the Afghan frontier

From Green Land's Jey Mountains,
From India's Coral Strand
Where afric's, Sunny fountains
Roll down their Golden sand,

From many

an ancient River

a

palmy plain.

From in any
They call us to deliver
Their land from error's chain
What though the sping breezes.
Bluwseft v'er Ceylons Isle
Though every prospects pleases
And only man is vile.

In vain, with lavish Kindness,

of God are strown

The gifts of God

other

in his blindness

The Farago
Bows down to wood & Stone!

ван

lighteds

high,

(an we, whose souls are
With wisdom from on
Can we to men benighted
The Lamp of Life Leny ? ___

Salvation !

yea Salvation ! The joyful sound proclaim,

Fill cach remotest nation

stas learned Mefist's name.

W wast ye winds the story
And you the waters, soll,
Till, like a sea of glory,

It spreads from Pole to Pole !
Till, ver our ransoindo natures,
The Lamb for sinners stain,

Redeemer,

King, Creator.

In blep returns to reign.

FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL MS. OF BISHOP HEBER'S MISSIONARY HYMN.
previous, the Dean and his son-in-law being together at the
vicarage, the former requested Heber to write something
for them to sing in the morning," and he retired for that
purpose from the table, where the Dean and a few friends
were sitting, to a distant part of the room. In a short time
the Dean inquired, "What have you written?" Heber,
having then composed the three first verses, read them over.
"There, there, that will do very well," said the Dean. "No,

N Whit Sunday, 1819, the late Dr. Shipley, Dean of St.
Asaph, and Vicar of Wrexham, preached a sermon in
Wrexham Church in aid of the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. That day was also fixed upon
for the commencement of the Sunday Evening Lectures
intended to be established in that church, and Reginald
Heber, then Rector of Hodnet, the Dean's son-in-law, under-
took to deliver the first lecture. In the course of the Saturday

no, the sense is not complete," replied Heber. Accordingly
he added the fourth verse, and, the Dean being inexorable to
his repeated request of "Let me add another, oh, let me add
another," thus completed the hymn of which the above is a
fac-simile, and which has since become so celebrated. It was
sung the next morning in Wrexham Church, for the first
time.

[graphic]
[graphic]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small]

MAP like this, however carefully it may be done, cannot but be rather deceptive. First, the scale is too small to define the boundaries of the various religions with accuracy. Secondly, the same area frequently contains, as in the Turkish Empire, India, and North Africa, large populations professing different religions, which can only be roughly indicated by bars with different shading. Thirdly, it is not possible to have so many shadings in a wood engraving as we can have colours in a tinted map (as in the Church Missionary Atlas); so that all non-Protestant Christendom, whether Roman or Greek or Armenian, &c., has to appear with one shade, and Buddhism and Brahmanism cannot be distinguished, as they should be, from the simpler Paganism of Africa.

and in Kashmir, and the great Afghan Mission at Peshawar; rejoicing as we go to see both clergy and laity who were once Moslems or Sikhs or Hindu idolaters.

Turning eastward, and coming down into the great valley of the Ganges, we move on to Agra, and Lucknow, and Allahabad, and Benares, and Gorakpur, and many other places, with here a college and there an orphanage, here a Christian village and there a vigorous evangelistic agency, and schools of all sorts everywhere, and numerous Christian congregations. Then a tour southwards into Central India, to see the zealous young missionaries among the aboriginal Bheels at Khairwarra and the Gônds at Jubbulpore and Mandla; and back to see the similar work among the Santâls of Bengal, where two thousand Christians and four Native clergymen, the fruit of scarcely twenty years work, are ready to welcome us. Then down into Lower Bengal, visiting village after village in Krishnagar; and so to Calcutta, where the vacant places of Welland and Vaughan remind us how short the time is, and how weak the C.M.S. is in the capital of India, despite its Divinity College and Boarding Schools and Christian congregations, and work among all castes and classes, from the Brahmin graduate of Calcutta University to the poor leper in the hospital. Another steamer now carries us across the Bay of Bengal to Southern India. Landing at Masulipatam, we visit the tomb of Robert Noble, and his School, and his Brahmin converts; and then by boat and bullock cart travel over the flat plains between the Kistna and the Godavery, everywhere received by faithful missionaries and humble Christian villagers; not forgetting good General Haig and his Koi Mission far up the latter river. Then on southward to Madras, to see Mr. Satthianadhan and

Fourthly, the density of population entirely fails to be shown. The Christianity of Australia and North-West America covers as large a space in the map as the heathenism of India or China, although the latter comprises as many millions of souls as the former does thousands.

The Map, therefore, affords no true idea of the "darkness that covers the earth, and gross darkness the people "-of the immense mass of ignorance and superstition yet untouched by missionary effort. Still it is interesting as far as it goes; and for the relative numbers of souls professing different forms of religion we must look rather to the Diagram of the Population of the World printed in the GLEANER of Feb., 1881, and in the Church Missionary Almanack for this year.

his new church, and the patient labours of our English brethren among the proud Mohammedans; and then to Tinnevelly, where we must remain a long while indeed if we are to accompany Bishop Sargent to all the 875 villages where the 53,000 C.M.S. Native Christians live (besides many more of S.P.G.), and say a kind word to all the sixty C.M.S. Native clergy, and worship in the great churches with their immense congregations, and visit all the girls' schools that Mr. Lash started, and go over the scene of Ragland's itinerant preachings, where the Rev. V. Vedhanayagam now works so admirably. We must not tarry; we must cross the Ghauts into Travancore and Cochin, and see Bishop Speechly in the midst of his sixteen Native clergy and 19,000 Christians, and thank God for the colleges and churches and widely extended missions that tell of the labours of those who are gone, Bailey and the Bakers and Peet and Hawksworth, and many others.

Leaping, like Hanuman, the monkey-god in the great Hindu epic, across the straits into Ceylon, we find our missionaries labouring among two classes of people, the Tamils and the Singhalese, in the central hill-country covered with the far-famed coffee plantations, in the low country at Colombo and Cotta and Baddegama, and in the northern peninsula of Jaffna; and we rejoice to see growing congregations and faithful Native clergy of both races, and to inspect the flourishing schools of all grades at Kandy and Cotta and Jaffna. And the sight of Christian coolies who are immigrants from India reminds us that we must pay a flying visit to the little island of Mauritius, 2,000 miles off in the Indian Ocean, to see a similar blessing upon a similar work.

We now go on eastward to China. First we touch at Hong Kong, and look in at the evening preaching in St. Stephen's

Church, so vividly depicted in one of our recent pictures. Then up the coast to Fuh-Chow; and here we shall have to occupy many weeks in trudging up and down mountain paths to visit the hundred towns and villages occupied in the Fuh-Kien Province. Still we are only in South China: Mid-China comes next; and here, in the great slow canal-boats, Bishop Moule will conduct us from Ningpo to Shaou-hing, and from Shaou-hing to Hang-chow, and also to many smaller places, all with their little bands of Chinese believers. It is pleasant to see them, and we thank God for them; yet the overwhelming feeling is, What are all of these, missionaries and teachers and converts too, among so many? Even after visiting all the stations of all the societies in China, and counting more than forty thousand converts, we remember this is only one Christian to every 9,999 heathen!

But we must still push on towards the rising sun. Japan awaits our visit; and here, while admiring the great work of the American societies, we rejoice to find our own missionaries at Nagasaki, and at Osaka, and at Tokio, and at Niigata, and at Hakodate, and to meet many true and intelligent Japanese Christians gathered round them.

We are now looking out over the broad Pacific; and across that ocean we must speed our course. The mail steamer will land us at San Francisco; and thence another steamer will carry us northwards to the coast of British Columbia. Long before we reach Metlakahtla we shall hear its fame; and presently we find it is by no means a solitary post, but that at Fort Rupert among the Quoquolts, and in Queen Charlotte's Islands among the Hydahs, and up the Nass and Skeena rivers among the Kitiksheans, our brethren are at work. But we want to get across the Rocky Mountains. The easiest way will be to return to San Francisco, take the Pacific Railroad half across the United States, and then go by the branch railway north to Winnipeg, the flourishing capital of Manitoba, close by the spot where, sixty years ago, the early C.M.S. missionaries lived in a log-hut among the Indians. But we can still find log-huts to lodge in if we like. If only we give time enough-say three years-we may traverse those vast dioceses of Rupert's Land, and Saskatchewan, and Moosonee, and Athabasca, and find station after station, and missionary after missionary, until we stand among the Esquimaux on the shores of the Polar Sea. Our canoe-men and carriole-drivers are Red Indians, but they will sing their hymns and join in prayer together ere they dig out their snow bed at night or march on in the morning; and we thank God with full hearts for such trophies of His grace.

Which way shall we at length bend our course homewards? Let us take the annual ship from Moose or York in Hudson's Bay, and, escaping (D.V.) the icebergs of Hudson's Strait and the Labrador coast, we cross the North Atlantic and at last sight the Orkneys.

But stop a moment. Even now we have left part of our task undone; we have missed New Zealand! A special voyage must be made to get there; and what shall we find? In one part, where Marsden landed among the cannibals seventy years ago, and slept soundly in their midst, smiling Christian villages and pretty churches. In other parts, flourishing colonies of white men, with whom, in the Colonial Parliament, Maori M.P.'s debate on equal terms; while twenty-seven faithful Maori clergymen (besides ten others gone to their rest) are ministering to happy and prosperous Maori flocks. The devil here, too, has been busy, as everywhere; and his best instruments are not coloured men; yet we can rejoice in the thousands of Maori believers that have died in the faith of Christ, and the thousands more that live to praise Him.

So at last we return to highly privileged England with this prayer on our lips :

"Bid the glorious Mission speed from sea to sea,

Till the whole creation worship only Thee!"

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

1799. Foundation of the Society, at the Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate Street, April 12th. Rev. Thomas Scott, first Secretary.

Letter sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, trusting that he would be pleased favourably to regard this attempt to extend the benefits of Christianity," July 1st.

1800. The Archbishop of Canterbury, after thirteen months' delay, having at length "acquiesced in the hope expressed that the Society might go forward," the Committee resolved to "proceed in their great design with all the activity possible," August 4th.

First linguistic and translational work undertaken, in the Susu language; and proposals considered for similar work in Arabic and Chinese. 1801. T. Scott preached first annual sermon, May 26th.

Proposals for translation of Scriptures into Persian.

1802. Proposals for missionary work in Greece, Tartary, and Ceylon. Rev. Josiah Pratt appointed Secretary.

M. Renner and P. Hartwig, from the Berlin Seminary, accepted as the first missionaries of the Society.

1803. Henry Martyn corresponding with the Society with a view to missionary work (but took East Indian Chaplaincy instead).

1804. First congregational collections for the Society.

Renner and Hartwig sailed for West Africa, March 8th.

1805. First Local (congregational) Association started at Bentinck Chapel 1806. Second band of missionaries (three) sailed for West Africa. Paddington, by Rev. Basil Woodd. 1807. First C.M.S. grant to India: £200 for translational work. Slave Trade abolished.

1808. Mission at Rio Pongas, West Africa, begun.

Marsden proposed a Mission to New Zealand.

First Sunday school collection for the Society, on Christmas Day, at Matlock, £4 11s. 5d. 1809. First missionaries (Hall and King) sailed for New South Wales, August 25th, to reach New Zealand when possible.

1811. Admiral Lord Gambier first President of C.M.S. 1812. Claudius Buchanan, at request of C.M.S., wrote a work advocating an Episcopate in India.

1813. New Charter to East India Co. opened the door for Missions in India. Agra Mission begun by Abdul Masih.

S. Marsden

First large Associations in aid of the Society formed at Bristol, &c. 1814. First C.M.S. missionaries sent to India: Rhenius to Madras. Missionaries sent out in 1809 landed in New Zealand. preached first sermon there on Christmas Day. 1815. Greenwood and Norton sent to India (first two clergymen of the Church of England to go out as missionaries).

Rev. W. Jowett (first University graduate sent out: 12th Wrangler)
began Mediterranean Mission, at Malta.
Rev. E. Bickersteth appointed Secretary.

1816. Sierra Leone Mission begun; E. Bickersteth's visit; first baptisms, on Easter Day.

Travancore Mission begun by Norton and Bailey.

Basle Missionary Seminary established, which afterwards gave 80 missionaries to C.M.S.

1817. Benares Mission begun.

1818. Ceylon Mission begun.

1819. Constantinople temporarily occupied.

1820. C.M.S. Tinnevelly Mission begun by Rhenius.

Bombay Mission begun.

1821. First Female Schools in India opened for C.M.S. by Miss Cooke. 1822. North-West America Mission begun by West, at Red River.

1823. Up to this year fifty-three missionaries or missionaries' wives died in West Africa.

1825. Islington Institution opened, Jan. 31st.

Abdul Masih ordained by Bishop Heber-first Native clergyman in any
Mission.

W. Williams (afterwards Bishop of Waiapu) to New Zealand; and S.
Gobat (afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem) to Abyssinia.
First baptism in New Zealand.

1826. West Indies Mission begun.

Egypt Mission begun.

Foundation stone of New Islington College laid, July 31st.

Fourah Bay Institution, Sierra Leone, established. Samuel Crowther first name on the list.

1827. British Guiana Mission begun. 1830. Smyrna Mission begun.

John Devasagayam, first Native clergyman in Tinnevelly, ordained. 1832. W. Smith and Leupolt began their forty years' work at Benares. Deccan (Western India) Mission begun.

1834. Krishnagar Mission begun.

Slavery abolished in British dominions, August 1st. 1835. Earl of Chichester President of C.M.S.

Waiapu and East Coast (N.Z.) Missions begun by W. Williams. 1837. Attempt to establish a Mission in Zululand.

Hadfield (now Bishop of Wellington) sailed for New Zealand.

1838. Missionaries expelled from Abyssinia.

C.M.S. Cottayam College, Travancore, opened.

1840. New Zealand ceded by Maori chiefs to British Crown.

1841. Henry Venn appointed Hon. Sec. of C.M.S.

Archbishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of London joined the
Society.

Bishoprics of New Zealand and Jerusalem founded.

[blocks in formation]

1858. Oudh Mission begun.

Santal Mission begun.

Athabasca Mission begun by Archdeacon Hunter.

Speke discovered Victoria Nyanza, August 1st.

1859. Bishoprics of Waiapu and Wellington founded: W. Williams first Bishop of Waiapu.

1860. Mission to Kois begun, under auspices of Col. Haig.

Sarah Tucker Female Institution established in Tinnevelly.

1861. Lagos became a British settlement.

1862. New Church Missionary House opened, March 7th.

Sierra Leone Native Church organised on a self-supporting basis.
Hong Kong Mission begun.
Metlakatla Village founded.

1863. Madagascar Mission begun.

1864. Bishop Crowther consecrated, June 29th.

Rev. C. C. Fenn appointed Sec. of C.M.S.

1865. Volkner killed by Hauhaus in New Zealand, March 2nd. Kashmir Medical Mission begun by Dr. Elmslie.

1866. Bonny Mission begun.

1867. Missionaries expelled from Abeokuta,

Bishop Ryan's Letter to Lord Chichester began movement against East
African Slave Trade.

1868. Missionary Jubilee in Ceylon.

First English missionary (Rev. G. Ensor) sent out by C.M.S. to Japan. 1863. Rev. R. Bruce began Persia Mission.

First Native Church Council in Tinnevelly, February 12th.

1870. Bishop Hadfield consecrated to see of Wellington, N.Z., October 9th. Lahore Divinity College opened.

1871. Parliamentary Committee on East African Slave Trade obtained, mainly by exertions of C.M.S.

1872. Henry Wright appointed Hon. Sec. of C.M.S.

Bishops Royston, Russell, and Horden consecrated to sees of Mauritius,
North China, and Moosonee, December 15th.
First Day of Intercession, December 20th.

1873. Henry Venn died, January 13th.

Gift of £20,000 by Mr. W. C. Jones for support of Native evangelists. 1874. Church Missionary Gleaner started, in new and enlarged form, January 1st. Bishop Burdon consecrated to see of Victoria, Hong Kong, March 15th. Bishop Bompas consecrated to see of Athabasca, May 3rd. W. S. Price to East Africa, to revive Mombasa Mission.

1875, Rev. W. H. Barlow appointed Principal of C.M. College. Persia Mission formally adopted by C.M.S.

Frere Town Freed Slave Settlement established.

Seychelles Mission begun.

Important Conference at C.M. House on Missions to Mohammedans,
October 20th and 21st.

Prince of Wales met Tinnevelly Christians, December 10th.

1876, Victoria Nyanza Expedition started.

Fourah Bay College affiliated to Durham University.
The "Ceylon Difficulty" with Bishop Copleston began.
Mission in Queen Charlotte's Islands begun.

1877. Conference at C.M. House on Missions to Non-Aryan Races of India, February 21st.

Bishop Sargent consecrated for Tinnevelly, March 11th.
Bishop Stuart consecrated to see of Waiapu, December 9th.
Bishop French consecrated to see of Lahore, December 21st.
Constantinople and Smyrna Missions closed.

[blocks in formation]

BISHOP WILBERFORCE ON THE CHURCH
MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Extract from the Speech of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, at the
Jubilee Meeting of the Society, November 2nd, 1818.

HEN I fix my mind on the humble room in which, fifty years ago, were gathered together that little company of overworked parish priests, labouring together day and night in their holy vocation, in the midst of the almost overwhelming multitude of the world of this metropolis, and called to mind what glorious thoughts were then struggling in their souls-what mighty impulses God's Spirit was working in their hearts as I look back to that scene, I feel humbled with admiration and wonder at the means then used for producing these great results. I hardly know of any period since the time when the whole Church of Christ was gathered together in that upper chamber, with the door shut upon them for fear of the Jews, when mightier issues were struggling in fewer minds. It was purely and entirely a work of faith. They undertook that work, not as shallow and capricious men often undertake benevolent beginnings, to lay them aside at the first blast of a strong opposition, but gravely and thoughtfully, as men who knew that it was a great thing to labour for God, and a mighty trust to begin anything in furtherance of His kingdom. They saw the Church slumbering in the midst of the world, and, all unlikely as it seemed to them that they could arouse its slumbering heart, they said, Nevertheless, if God be willing, we will go forth in this undertaking."

[ocr errors]

There

Many were the difficulties that arose in their onward path. was first the difficulty which always waits on any mighty work of Godthe certain opposition to it always stirred up by the great enemy of Christ and man, and exhibited in the hatred-in the direct opposition-in the mocking scorn and often in the cold and pretended sympathy-of the world around them. But this was not their only difficulty. There was still a greater difficulty to be met and overcome. Not only were they met by the opposition of the world, but by the utter coldness and apathy of the Church herself. The beginning of this work was in what was perhaps the darkest and coldest time in the whole history of the Church of England-a period of coldness and of darkness of which we in these days, and with our knowledge of what now exists, can hardly have a conception, without going patiently back and inquiring into the events and circumstances of that time, and comparing the principles of action in every single department of Christian work, Christian labour, and Christian self-denial then current, with those which are now admitted and acted upon by all men. They lived at the close of a period when the Church was so apathetic, that not only had she done nothing towards her great work of evangelising the heathen, but allowed her influence at home to wither and decay in her hand, leaving our own increasing population to grow up in heathenism, and only showed her semi-vitality, or rather her anti-vitality, by casting out from her bosom that great and good man -that saint of God-John Wesley.

It was at the close of such a period as this, when all was darkness around them, that God put these thoughts into the hearts of these men. They knew that God's Word remains sure, and they determined to act upon it; and so the blessing which waits always upon faithful endeavours was vouchsafed unto them-not given at once, not given without days of waiting, without nights of prayer, without self-denial, without the frown of the world, without "fightings without," without "fears within "; but given in God's time, given surely, given abundantly. Surely we may thank God heartily that He gave them the zeal, that He gave them the wisdom, that He gave them the ability, to lay these foundations, upon which others since have built; that He suffered them in that day to freight their vessel with His truth; that He allowed them, in the daring of true faith, to set it upon the tides of His mysterious providence, leaving to Him to guide its course, leaving to Him to accomplish its adventure.

« السابقةمتابعة »