I. CHAP. establishment for the propagation of the gospel, such as no other Protestant Church had yet possessed." Royal This communication reached England in May 1819, and it awakened in the members of the Board of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts the most lively interest; and they gave it their unanimous and cordial support. Three thousand copies of the letter were printed and distributed among the members of the Society, and measures were taken for carrying into effect the proposed design. 37. A King's Letter, authorising collections the object. throughout the country in furtherance of the Society's objects, was granted, February 10th 1819; but not issued until after the receipt and adoption of the Bishop's proposal, and the publication of his letter. The Board had previously circulated an address to the clergy, and to the members of the Church generally, stating the origin and previous operations of the Society, and explaining their reasons for entering upon this new sphere of labour, in terms according with the Primate's recommendation of the subject to their consideration. In conclusion, they made a strong appeal to the sympathies of the Christian public in behalf of India, the present revenue of the Society being pledged for other purposes, to which they had been so long, and so usefully appropriated. Review of 38. About the same time, the Rev. Josiah Pratt, the Gospel Secretary to the Church Missionary Society, pubPropagation lished a work, entitled "PROPAGANDA," which exSociety. hibited a lucid view of the past labours of the Propagation Society. To this publication the Bishop of Calcutta bore honourable testimony. "I really think the Society," he remarked, "and therefore the Church, owes a great deal to this publication, though I dislike the title of it. I have put it into circulation as much as possible: and people are perfectly amazed that they never heard of a Society which has done so much. It is one of the most interesting exposés I ever read; and Mr Pratt has done us essential service. Mr Hawtayne,' by my desire, drew up a short account of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, taken from the Propaganda, and sent it to the Government Gazette, to prepare the way for fuller details hereafter." The Society's Address, and the Propaganda of Mr Pratt, prepared the way for the King's and the Bishop's Letters, and the appeal to the public was responded to in a manner that surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine. The contributions amounted to about fifty thousand pounds, a much larger sum than the Society had ever before realised from a Royal Letter. This was no doubtful indication of the general interest now awakened in the Church in favour of missionary objects, and it gave hope of brighter prospects for the colonies of Great Britain. The whole sum now collected was applied to the Propagation of the Gospel in India.* The Bishop's chaplain. The Propaganda was published anonymously, but the Bishop was right in the author, ง * Life of Bishop Middleton, vol. ii. p. 121. The Royal Letter was in the usual form, with the insertion of this special clause :-" That, induced by a variety of favourable circumstances, the Society are desirous of extending the range of their labours, and of using their utmost endeavours to diffuse the light of the gospel, and permanently to establish the Christian faith, in such parts of the continent and islands of Asia as are under our protection and authority; but that, owing to the state of their funds, which are altogether unequal to the expenses of such an undertaking, they are unable, without further assistance from our good subjects, to proceed in the execution of their designs." Gospel Propagation Society's Reports, 1819, 1820, 1821. СНАР. Grant from the 39. A copy of the Bishop's Letter being communicated, by the Propagation Society, to the Society for Promoting Knowledge, at a general Christian meeting of this Society, it was resolved, on the recommendation of their East India Committee, to grant the sum of five thousand pounds in aid of the Bishop's design.1 Know ledge Society. Grant from the Church Mission ary Society. Bishop's second 40. The Church Missionary Society also, at its monthly Committee in July 1819, after expressing its gratification at the zeal and promptitude with which the above Societies had adopted the Bishop of Calcutta's plan for establishing a mission college near Calcutta, and declaring its desire to co-operate in the same great and common cause, resolved to make a like grant of five thousand pounds for the same purpose "The Committee had the advantage, on this occasion, of acting under the counsel of a chairman, Charles Grant, Esq., who was, perhaps, of all men the most competent, from long experience and practical knowledge, united to comprehension of mind and elevation of principle, to advise concerning the true interests of India. They had also the benefit of hearing from Lieut.-Col. John Munro, late Resident at the Court of Travancore, and from John Herbert Harrington, Esq., late Chief Judge in Bengal, both just returned from India, the most decided expression of the probability of good likely to result from the Bishop of Calcutta's plan, if adequately supported.' 41. While the Church at home was thus preparvisitation. ing to enable the Bishop to accomplish this great design for India, he was performing a second visitation of his diocese. Early in February 1819, he 1 S. P. C. K. Reports, 1819, 1820. 2 * Society's Report 1819; Missionary Register 1819, p. 317. again assembled his clergy at Calcutta, and delivered to them a charge, in which, laying aside all reserve, he fully and distinctly exhibited his deliberate sentiments respecting missionary labours, and shewed how admirably he was qualified to illustrate that important subject by his knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity. He told them that they would but ill understand the extent of their sacred obligations if they contemplated, without any emotions of zeal, the prospect of moral and spiritual good to the people who surrounded them; that it became every day more difficult to detach the subject of missionary labours from discussions relating to the duties of the clergy in India. The concern that was so deeply felt for the condition of the heathen was, he said, highly honourable to their country, and, at the same time, peculiar to the Christian religion; for that Paganism but rarely sought for proselytes, and by Islamism conversion seemed to be valued chiefly as an instrument of conquest. Then, after expressing regret that the missionary zeal, which was prompted by the benign spirit of the gospel, was not always so happily regulated as to produce the highest degree of good, he shewed that this failure was to be attributed to a departure from the spirit and unity of the primitive ages. By the first preachers of the gospel, the diffusion of their religion was evidently identified with the expansion of the Catholic Church. To begin with the apostles: missionaries they were, indeed, in the most illustrious acceptation of the word, going forth in the power and spirit of Christ, and establishing churches whose members should know of no separation but that of place. And then there were evangelists, who were likewise missionaries in the strictest sense. Their office was to preach Christ to those who had never heard of His Name, and to deliver to them the divine I. CHAP. gospels. Another ancient provision for the extension of the gospel was the appointment of catechists. As the evangelists were sent among distant nations, to whom the name of Christ was possibly unknown, the catechists were to bring into the fold of Christ the heathen who resided in the neighbourhood of any Christian Church. The conversion of these was an object contemplated in every Christian establishment. All who expressed a desire to become acquainted with the Christian doctrines, were considered as standing in a certain avowed and public relation to the Church. Catechisms were compiled expressly for their use; and the catechumens were allowed to be present in the church during the sermon, and while certain prayers were offered for their illumination. Whatever the estimate, he remarked, which modern laxity may fix on regulations like these, they still shew what was the spirit of that system under which our faith was disseminated, and on which manifestly rested the approbation and the blessing of God. Then, after enlarging on the advantage of union among Christians, especially when labouring in the midst of the heathen, and also noticing the recent proceedings in England, in behalf of Christianity in India, he encouraged his clergy to endeavour to rise to the level of duty which their Church at home now manifestly expected of them. He solemnly exhorted them to personal holiness, and to pastoral fidelity, setting before them an awful representation of the guilt incurred by a forgetfulness of these sacred responsibilities. That the effect of these admonitions might not be lost in their generality, he proceeded to insist on various details of clerical duty; and concluded by earnestly charging them to take heed to the ministry which they had received of the Lord, that they might fulfil it. Even a small body of clergy, animated by the views |