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Their wailing reach'd thee! from the citron shades
'Twas borne in sadness o'er the ocean wave;
And Afric's children 'mid those alien glades,

And emerald-mountains, hail'd a hand to save!
And thou didst listen to the joyous lay,
That bade the captive fling his chains away!

Yes, on thine heart, and on thy inmost thought,
Lay Afric's thousands, with their ceaseless tears;
And long and fervently thy spirit sought

To shed calm gladness o'er their toilsome years;
To heal the bosoms by stern sorrow broken,

To win the stricken by love's blood-bought token.

Shall not glad spirits leap to hear thy name?

Thine link'd with kindred ones, the glorious dead?
Shall not a radiant, an undying flame

Of splendour round your memories e'er be shed?
Thrice blessed ones! the sons of Afric rise

To hail ye blessed in the upper skies!

Thou restest now, thy toilsome task is done;

Thy crown is radiant with a thousand stars;

Thy lyre is tuned, thy victory is won,

Thy rapture, sin, nor earthly turmoil mars:
O be thy mantle on high spirits cast!

Till as the rose shall blossom earth's dim waste!

Belper, 1845.

ADELINE.

MISSIONARY NOTICES,

RELATING PRINCIPALLY TO THE FOREIGN MISSIONS CARRIED ON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE METHODIST CONFERENCE.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY

SOCIETY.

(Concluded from page 624.)

DR. BUNTING.-My Lord, I fear I must interrupt, for a few moments, the regular proceedings of the Meeting, in order to say, what I do say with a very great deal of pleasure, that the exhortations of our admirable friend, Mr. Guthrie, have been, in several instances, already very much anticipated and acted upon. I hold in my hand that which will be accepted, I am sure, as one of the best speeches that has been or can be made on this occasion. I have the great honour and happiness of being allowed to present to you one of those thousandpound proofs for which Mr. Guthrie has called upon our wealthy friends, in imitation of Scotland's noble example. I have the honour to present a draft for £1,000 in favour of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, from one whose worth we all know, and whose liberality, on so many former occasions, we have been delighted to acknowledge. In addition to every former proof of his regard for this

great cause, Mr. Farmer requests me, for him, to present £1,000. I am not without hope, that we shall have other instances of generous imitation of the £1,000 example, so eloquently brought before us. I have now the pleasure of reading a letter from Mr. Isaac Crowther, of Morley, a name well known and much loved in our Connexion,-well and honourably known in the lists of our Missionary contributions, as well as in reference to every other effort in which the honour of God and the salvation of souls have been concerned amongst us. Mr. Crowther, I may take leave to say, has already been a contributor to our Missionary Society, on special occasions, besides what, for many years, he has given in the shape of a large annual contribution to our funds. In that special way, upon occasions of extraordinary emergency, he has presented to us sums little short of £3,000. [The Rev. Doctor here read the letter which enclosed a

cheque for £2,000, which the writer wished to be appropriated as follows:£1,000 to the fund for general purposes, and £1,000 towards the support of the Missions at the Gold-Coast, and in other parts of Guinea, and especially with a view to providing a Missionary for King Sodaka, at Abokuta.] Be so good, Mr. Guthrie, (continued Dr. Bunting,) as to report that in Scotland. Noble examples seldom fail, by the blessing of God, to secure noble imitations.

CURLING,

The REV. WILLIAM Chaplain of St. Saviour's, Southwark, said,-My Lord Marquis, I have been requested to move the following Resolution :

"That this Meeting offers its devout thanksgivings to Almighty God, for his sanction and furthering blessing still vouchsafed to the Wesleyan and other evangelical Missionary Societies, in their endeavours to spread the Gospel, with its attendant blessings, throughout the world."

My Lord, I have very peculiar pleasure in moving the Resolution, and in acceding to this kind request which was so strongly urged upon me by the Secretary of this most excellent Society. I come forward to-day, as a Clergyman of the Church of England; and I am glad to find myself in the midst of my Christian brethren and Christian friends. I feel that, in so doing, not only am I compromising no principle whatever of ecclesiastical propriety, but that I am identifying myself, upon this platform, with men who have identified themselves with the Church to which I have the honour to belong; and who, although adopting an independency of action, in some measure, separate from that Church, just because they feel that by acting independently they can better carry out the great purposes in which they are engaged, have yet shown all along, in all their actions, that they still consider the English Protestant Church-the Church of the Reformation, reformed in the blood of the martyrs whose memories we revere as possessing the strongest possible claim upon the veneration and regard of the people of this country. Who does not venerate the memory of John Wesley ? He was a remarkable man, a man sui generis, a man of an age; he was a burning and a shining light; he lived to a good purpose, being raised up by God, at a most remarkable epoch in the church's history, for the advancement of man's good; he revived religion in England to an almost unprecedented degree. John Wesley rekindled the dying embers of the fires that were

lighted at the time of the English Reformation. I delight to dwell upon his memory, because I feel that we of the Church of England, as well as you who are not so closely connected with that Church, are each walking in the heat of that fire which John Wesley kindled. John Wesley was no voluntary seceder from the English Church: he was no seceder at all. Therefore, my Lord, I say, that we in England's Church claim John Wesley as ours; and you claim him as yours. Well, then, he belongs to both of us; and I am content that good John Wesley should remain in that position, because, as long as the memory of that good man lives, and it must ever live in the affections of us all, as long as we have hearts to beat, and can appreciate Christian excellence wherever it is found, so long, I believe, by means of John Wesley standing between us, as a sort of middle man, there will be a link still binding between England's Protestant Church and the Wesleyan body; and, by means of that link, no dissolution shall ever take place, and we shall all strive together "for the faith of the Gospel." My Lord, as a Clergyman of the Church of England, I was exceedingly grieved and pained to hear it said, that this excellent Society had encountered opposition, in the discharge of its ministerial labours in foreign Missions, not only from that power which always seeks to retard and to crush truth, the tyrant power of the Church of Rome, but also from a source which, I should have thought, would have had little sympathy, if any at all, with the uncharitable practices of the Romish Church: I mean, some of the Clergy of the body to which I belong. I feel humbled and ashamed, deeply grieved and pained. But, my Lord, and my dear Wesleyan friends, if that fact has taken place, and I am sure it has, otherwise it would not have been mentioned so positively in the Report; if men belonging to England's Church have presumed abroad to speak so disparagingly of the efforts of Christ's Missionary servants among the Wesleyan body, and have sought thereby to undervalue their ministrations in the eyes of those converts whom they have been the means of bringing to Christ; then it must not be attributed to the fact that they belong to the Protestant Church of England, that Church which loves all men, and prays for "all who call themselves Christians," every Sabbath throughout every year; but because, whilst belonging to that Church, of which they have shown themselves

unworthy and inconsistent members, they cherish in their breasts, and are more than half inclined to encourage, the exclusive and despotic principles of the Church of Rome. My Lord, if it be any consolation to my dear Christian friends around me, I will tell them that they are not the only persons who are complaining of these parties. We have enough of them, and more than enough of them, both here and abroad. They may call in question the validity of your orders, they may say that they are really and in truth the successors of the Apostles; but I want to see in these men a succession of the apostolic character, a succession of the apostolic faith, a succession of the soundness of the doctrine which the Apostles preached; and, my Lord, my dear Christian brethren must know, that these men think as little of evangelical truth in the Church of England, as they think of evangelical truth out of it; and I am sure that, as they have little sympathy with their own Church, so their own Church has little sympathy with them; and the sooner we cast them out of that Church the better. I am sure, whatever may be the feelings of certain Clergymen, with certain opinions, belonging to England's Protestant Church, at home or abroad; and whatever unworthy aspersions they have sought to cast, either in their sermons or in their writings, upon the Wesleyan body; I am certain that those persons are the exception to the rule; for sure I am, and I speak now the feeling of a very large number indeed of my Protestant clerical brethren, when I say, that they entertain very different feelings indeed from those shown by these gentlemen, towards the body with which

you

are associated. I am sure that England's Protestant Church, as known in connexion with those who preach faithfully the Gospel within her pale, entertains the highest veneration, and the warmest regard, for the Wesleyan body, and that she wishes you the greatest measure of success in the prosecution of your Christian labours. My Lord, we feel thus towards the Wesleyans: we say, "You are never busybodies with other men's matters, but, according to the scriptural rule, you have studied to be quiet, and to do your own business; and we all feel, that you have done your business heartily, devotedly, and well; and that, throughout the prosecution of your useful labours, you have bad your eyes directed to one object, the promotion of God's glory." I came here, my Lord, for this reason, amongst others: I am very anxious for peace: I am very

anxious to live in friendly brotherhood with all; and I am sure, in this day, which is a day of peculiar danger, a day which may fill every man who is the most sanguine with serious alarm, I am sure that, in this day, we ought not to think of division, but we ought to consider how closely we can be agreed. It is of the utmost importance that we should, at this critical moment, and indeed at all times for the prosecution of Christ's work, forget those points on which we differ, and put forward, as prominently as we can, those points on which we are agreed. My Lord, we must be united, because disunion, just now, will destroy us. I cannot help alluding to passing events, and I trust the Meeting will forgive me for a moment for so doing. My mind is full, and what is in my mind must come out of my lips. My Lord, I wish we could do now, in reference to the common foe that is before us, what was done on the field of Waterloo. There they had a common danger, and common interest bound them together. They went into the field animated by one spirit. They certainly carried their several costumes, and they certainly took along with them their several differences as to political and civil government; but they forgot everything in their desire to crush the Corsican. They were bound together, and fought as one man, and crushed the tyrant; and the consequence was, that we have, since that period, been enjoying a long and a happy peace; by means of which the blessings of civilization, and the still greater blessings of the Gospel of Christ, have been spreading far and wide through the earth. My Lord, I wish that we of the Church of England, and you, the Wesleyans, and my brethren of all denominations, could be banded together at this particular moment, to oppose one common foe. That foe is the persecutor of all Christian churches; that foe is "the abomination that maketh desolate;" that foe is Popery. It has come into the field supported by Government influence; it has come into the field backed by a large majority of persons, of all motley creeds, in the House of Commons. if we only unite together, making the word of God the bond of our union, taking Christ Jesus as our one great Captain, animated by a spirit of Christian charity, burning warmly in all our breasts, having for our only foe the Prince of darkness in his various forms of evil; and if, above all, we keep our eye fixed upon and fight continually under the red banner of the cross of Christ; then we shall conquer. My Lord, I

But

may say, In hoc signo vinces. You will not conquer as Wesleyans, standing alone; you will not conquer as Independents or Baptists; you will not conquer as inembers of the Free Church of Scotland, if my friend Mr. Guthrie will allow me to say so; nor shall we conquer fighting under our own peculiar banner of the Church of England. No; we must all fight under one and the same banner. We must all occupy the field of religious warfare, at this moment, in the great and sacred name of our common Christianity; and then, I believe, we shall be able to drive the enemy from the field which he now occupies; to drive him also from the colonies, from which he must be driven; and so to prevent, in all future times, those interruptions to the works of your Missionaries in foreign lands, which they have so sadly experienced.

The REV. W. B. BOYCE, Missionary from Southern Africa, in seconding the Resolution, said, I stand before you, feeling a great interest in the British colonies, and British colonists, as well as in the barbarous tribes beyond them. I have spent fourteen of the best years of my life in connexion with a British colony, although beyond a British colony; and if I do not feel attached to the British colonists, I know not to what I should feel attached. The British colony of Albany, in the eastern province of the Cape of Good Hope, is, to all intents and purposes, a Methodist colony. Whatever of Christianity exists there, exists among the Methodists, with some few exceptions; for William Shaw, and some other Wesleyan Missionaries, were the first pioneers in that portion of the Lord's vineyard. We have, in that part of this British colony, some thirty Methodist chapels. There are a few Episcopal churches, supplied by worthy men, and two or three Independent chapels, and one Baptist chapel: with these exceptions, we are in fact the Establishment of that colony. But then we have not that part of the Establishment which implies the receipt of support from the public funds. That is the only part in which we are deficient. I do not think the Atlantic Ocean separates Africa from England. That is one of the geogra phical delusions which you learn from school-books. The Atlantic Ocean unites Africa to England, and I consider it a part of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The British colonies in South Africa being chiefly under Methodist influence, of course I look upon them as part and parcel of the Methodist church; and being a Minister of that church, I feel

my ministerial character connected with their character, and that whatever reflects upon their character reflects also upon mine. The British colonies in South Africa present the rare and singular spectacle of a large and influential community living in perfect peace with the native tribes; and, for a great number of years, there has not been a single instance of aggression on the part of the colonists, as a body, on the lands or property of the native tribes. I challenge any person to prove anything to the contrary. And may also state, that these colonists entertain none of those prejudices against the native tribes which are sometimes said to prevail. In one large chapel in Graham's Town,which would not be a disgrace to the first street in the metropolis, when we administer the sacrament of the Lord's supper, we administer it in three different languages, English, Dutch, and Kaffer, and sometimes in the Bechuana language; and delicate ladies and gentlemen come to the communion-table, and receive the sacrament, together with the Hottentot or Kaffer. We make a practice of mixing them together, to show that there is no distinction of caste,but that, when they come to the house of God, they come as disciples of Christ Jesus. I may say also, that these people are a Missionary people; for very considerable funds are raised in that part of the Cape colony, and a very large number of Missionaries are being raised up there, not merely Missionaries speaking the English language, but Native Missionaries. We have also, in the Cape colony, institutions of a peculiar character. We have an institution called after one of our respected Treasurers, Farmer-field. Another is called Haslope-hills, in memory of our former respected Treasurer. These institutions are large sections of country, which have been purchased for the use of the native inhabitants, who there cultivate the land, or follow various trades. They have established several villages; and we have schools and Missionaries amongst them, to whose support they contribute liberally; and in these institutions we are raising men, who, as native Teachers, will be the most efficient Apostles of Africa. With reference to the work beyond Cape Colony, I last month received a letter from that great man, William Shaw, informing me, that such has been the progress of the work in Kafferland, and such has been the number of Teachers raised up within the last few years, that next year, at the time they hold their annual meeting of

English Ministers, in the English language, they must also hold another meeting in the Kaffer language, for the Kaffer Teachers employed in the great work. When I consider the remarkable efficiency of Native Ministers, I view this as a most encouraging omen of success. One peculiarity of Kafferland is, that, as soon as a Kaffer is converted to the faith, he thinks it his bounden duty to preach the Gospel. He has no idea of keeping his religion to himself, but will assemble his countrymen together, and repeat to them, as well as he can recollect, the sermons he has heard; and when he finds himself at a loss, he exclaims, "I will tell you how the Lord converted my soul," and then relates his experience. This is the way in which our Christian converts in Kafferland preach the Gospel; and such has been the influence of their preaching and teaching, that the great bulk of the Kaffer people are believers in Christianity, and are as fit to be baptized as the great bulk of the people of England. But they were not baptized in their infancy, and, therefore, we do not reckon them as Christians. I feel somewhat disposed to find fault with our Secretaries, who, sometimes, when we say one hundred, put down fifty. I have seen, in a tabular form, an account of the number of Missionaries, chapels, and members of society, with Sunday-school Teachers, and there is also a statement of the number of individuals influenced by the Gospel; and they have had the conscience to put down for the whole of Kafferland thirtysix thousand souls. It is not a tenth part of the number, Sir; it is not a tithe of the influence which is felt in Africa. I mean to say, that the indirect influence of the Gospel in Kafferland, so far as the Missionaries and their agents are concerned, extends to ten times that number of souls. Our Missionaries in Africa have translated the whole of the word of God into the Kaffer language, and we have printed one thousand copies of the New Testament. That supply has been exhausted, and we are now printing an edition of five thousand, although your Missionary Report says three thousand. The same species of curtailment is there again exhibited. know the number is five thousand; but I will not contradict what is in print. I say, five thousand; the Committee say, three thousand : you may take which you like; but I superintended the printing of the first sheet of Matthew, and there were certainly five thousand copies.

I

The REV. DR. BARTH, of Wurtem

burg, (who was announced to the Meeting as the representative of the evange lical Protestantism of the continent of Europe,) was received with loud cheers. He said,-My Lord, I have only to say a very few words; and I congratulate the Meeting, that I cannot speak good English, because, if I could, you would be tired before I finished a third part of what I should like to say. When I stood on this platform the other day, at a Baptist Meeting, some ladies took me for a Roman Catholic Priest. I avail myself of this opportunity of protesting against such an assumption; and I do declare publicly, that I am not at all a Roman Catholic Priest, and that I have never been, and never shall be, a Roman Catholic Priest. Still, I hope to be inspired by the spirit of catholic love which loves all who love Christ. I feel intimately connected with every Missionary Society, because I am so much engaged with Missionary proceedings, having to publish four different Missionary papers in Germany; and I correspond with Missionaries in every quarter of the globe. My Lord, learn from your Report the necessity of going forward; and if you, my Christian friends, are called upon to double your gifts, and your prayers, do not say "No." Do not say "Yes here, and "No" at home. You are in the necessity to go forward, because it is impossible to go back. "To be or not to be, that is the question." If you be a Missionary Society, you must go on,-you cannot go back. I am not able to give £1,000; but I offer you a secret which is worth as much as £1,000, if you pay attention to it. When our celebrated German Reformer, Dr. Martin Luther, cast his inkstand against the wall, he thought he had killed the devil;-he thought he saw the devil on the wall, and believed he had killed him: but I can assure you he is still alive.

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The Resolution was then put by the Chairman, and carried unanimously.

The REV. THOMAS WAUGH indignantly repudiated the charges of bigotry and intolerance towards their neighbours of the Romish Church, which have been recently urged against the Protestants of Ireland, and related a most interesting anecdote, illustrating the "rhetorical artifices of a right honourable gentleman who maligns the Methodists. The following circumstance is worthy of permanent record; as showing the perils occasionally encountered by our Ministers in Ireland, and the friendly union which formerly existed between the Ministers of different denominations of

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