which they were entrusted, in the great Missionary work. He could not forget the striking expression of Sir Stamford Raffles, when he went to take charge of the Colonial government assigned to him. He said, "I am going to make a country; you must send me a ship-load of Missionaries." He knew well what he was talking about; he made a brief but very philosophical speech on that occa sion. There were no men like Missionaries to make a country; give but the Gospel of Christ, introduce true godliness, and they carried to the people not only the blessings of the life to come, but in their train, and consequent on them, all the blessings of civilization, industry, art, refinement, domestic comfort, and social security; which were all intimately connected, as the experience of this happy nation could testify, with the spread of the Gospel of Christ. Let them have the Gospel, and the most barbarous lands would be reclaimed: apply but the process of cultivation, the spiritual husbandry; send but the seed to the most arid wastes the earth contained, and the wilderness would become as an Eden, and the desert as the garden of the Lord. And, let it always be remembered, that to make a country was not only a very delightful work, in the contemplation of its results, but a most toilsome, a most important work. The men who went out to make these countries, would leave the impress of their minds upon the condition of society in those lands, it might be for ages to come. High, indeed, was the honour which awaited them in the far-off land to which they were bound; great, indeed, in the sight of God, and of every patriotic and well-judging man, was the honour which belonged to them for the toils they undertook, and the sacrifices they made; but surely these simple considerations would at once suffice, if he was not very much mistaken, to show, that the very best men which the Church could supply were eminently needed, in order to lay the foundation, and rear, so far as God might permit them, the frame-work of society, in those lands which they went first to Christianize, and then, by Christianizing, to civilize.

The REV. J. H. BUMBY, on presenting himself, was loudly cheered. He said, He thought, he should make a better Missionary, than a Missionary speaker at any rate, it would be more in accordance with his own feelings actually to enter upon the foreign work, than to stand up, on such an occasion as this, to make a speech. But, ever since he had been a Christian, he had been endea

vouring to learn, with Paul, in whatever state he was, therewith to be content; and, as a place had been assigned to him in the proceedings of the Meeting, he should endeavour, like the woman in the Gospel, to "do what he could." On the general question, he imagined, it could not be too frequently stated,-too deeply impressed upon their minds, that, in raising Missionary funds, and sending out Missionary agents, they were doing the work of God, the work which he had appointed, and to which he had given the seal of his approbation and the sanction of his blessing. To his mind, this conviction was essential, to save them from discouragement and to secure their constancy and perseverance. In the way of the conversion of the world to the faith of Christ, which was their professed object, there were many and mighty difficulties. To rescue this great globe, with its teeming population, from the influence of sin and the dominion of Satan, was no easy matter. But, what of all this? The cause in question was not his cause; it was not the cause of the highest archangel in heaven; it was not the cause of the mightiest potentate upon the earth; it was God's cause; and he was able and pledged to uphold it, and maintain it, and defend it, and render it ultimately and finally victorious and triumphant. When he looked back, through the ages that were gone, and thought upon what took place in connexion with the introduction and establishment of Christianity: how the religion of the Scriptures, everywhere despised and evil spoken of, made way against the edicts of rulers, the policy of statesmen, and persecution, and martyrdom: how it entered the nations of antiquity, and silenced their gods, and overthrew their altars, and turned the world upside down; and, when he called to mind the promises of the word of God, in reference to the cause with which they were identified, he did not care for difficulties, mountains heaped on mountains, Alps on Alps; before, God they were not so much as the chaff which the wind driveth away: for, "if God be for us, who can be against us ?" The conviction that they were labouring in a good cause was essential to secure their constancy and perseverance,-the constancy and perseverance of their Collectors and subscribers, and of all who took an active part in this work of faith and labour of love. Except they had something like established principles, which, like a chain of adamant, bound them to the work in which they were engaged, there was imminent danger of fainting in their minds. It was ever to be remem

bered, that they were not serving men but God; that it was an honour to be so engaged; that it was a high privilege to hew wood, or draw water, or be a mere servant to the Lord of hosts. God could do without him, without his agency, without his money; God carried on his work before he was born, and would still do so when he was dead: and though he had raised him up and privileged him to be a fellow-worker with Him in blessing the world, if he became unfaithful or unworthy He would put him aside and break him in pieces as a potter's vessel; others would be raised up, and the work would go on and prosper, although he might not be permitted to " pursue the triumph and partake the gale." It would be so if all the labourers were to throw down their spades; if all the reapers in the field were to throw away their sickles: other workmen would go up, and the crop would be reaped, not a single ear would remain ungleaned, and then would come the harvest-home of the creation, the jubilee of the universe; but no idle servant would be permitted to partake in its festivities, and triumphs, and joys. He imagined it was also important to keep in mind that their object was peculiar and definite. They aimed to preach the Gosnel of the grace of God, and thus to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; and here they separated and divided at once from multitudes of the reformers and philanthropists of the day. The latter talked about the march of mind; they said the schoolmaster was out; they anticipated the millennium of science, and art, and literature. Of course, the advocates of the Missionary cause did not undervalue learning and the arts and sciences; but they held, that if every nation under heaven were learned as Greece or Rome; that if every individual of the world's popula tion were a scholar; their work would be to do, and they would have to send out Missionaries to the east and the west, to the north and the south, to preach the Gospel of the grace of God. The object of every Missionary Society was, to preach "the truth as it is in Jesus ;" and, like the great Apostle of the Gentiles, they were "determined to know nothing among men save Christ and him crucified." They had examined the evidences of the Gospel, and they found it was "no cunningly-devised fable," but "the wisdom of God in a mystery," and "the salvation of God to every one that believeth; " and they had studied the genius of the Gospel, and found it was the religion of man,

adapted and suited to him in every time it supplied his wants, corrected his errors, enlightened his darkness, instructed his ignorance, provided for the pardon of his sins, and the renewal of his nature: it met him in trouble, and gave to him the "peace that passeth understanding," and the "joy that is unspeakable and full of glory : it met him in his feebleness and fear; and, in the midst of his wants and trials, it inspired him with courage, and supplied him with strength: it met him in bereavement, and when in the prospect of leaving his family in the midst of a wide world, and to strangers, and said, "Leave thy fatherless children, and let thy widows trust in me: " it met him in death, and removed its bitterness, scattered its darkness, and washed his person from corruption in the blood of sprinkling it met him in the intermediate state, and introduced his spirit to the souls of the righteous: it met him in the day of judgment, and inspired him with courage, and supplied him with boldness, and secured for him the merciful acceptance and approbation of the Judge; and did not leave or forsake him until it saw him through the gates into the city, where there are

fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. This was the religion of man, the religion which they wished to carry to every nation under heaven, to every island of the sea, and to every habitation of man. Besides, they had themselves experienced its power and blessedness. It had turned them from darkness to light; it had removed guilt and condemnation from their consciences, and given them peace and joy in believing. It was not theory with them; it was not speculation: they had tasted, felt, and handled the word of life. The bread which they offered to others they had partaken of themselves; the cup of salvation did not pass through their hands merely; they had drunk of it themselves, and could bear testimony to its life-giving, soul-cheering, refreshing, sanctifying properties. On occasions like the present, he always liked to have a word on personal religion; and it had struck him, that by these remarks he might be reflecting on some in that assembly. had known Missionary Collectors, and persons who attended Missionary Meetings, and gave to the utmost of their ability, to send the word of truth and the Gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth, who nevertheless were destitute of Christ themselves. O the folly of this conduct! It was to see others into the ark, and fall back themselves into the

He

waters of the deluge; it was to conduct others to their Father's house, and see them sit down where there was bread enough and to spare, and themselves to go back into the land of famine, and perish with hunger; it was to bring others to the Saviour, the great Physician, to be healed, and to remain themselves incrusted over and over with the moral leprosy of sin, that would eat like a canker through their souls. He prayed that God might grant to all the experimental knowledge of vital godli

ness.

The Resolution referred to "success. They had success; and he thanked God for it. They knew, in some measure, how to estimate the value of success. The soul was so important that to accomplish its salvation in but one instance would be sufficient to compensate for the labours of ten thousand men for ten thousand years. But multitudes of such souls had been saved. At this moment there were within the gates of heaven a great multitude which no man could number, who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. On the road to heaven, at this moment, there were tens of thousands as the result of Missionary labour. And yet it had been said, that Christianity had done no good. Would it be believed, at this time of day, that even an infidel should have the effrontery to say, that Christianity had done no good? But so it was. Men who hated the light, and would not come to it, called "good evil, and evil good, and put sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet." If he were to ask the negroes in the West Indies whether Christianity had done them good, they would say, it had melted the chains of the slaves, and raised many of them into the Lord's freemen. If he were to ask the women of India whether Christianity had done them any good, they would say, it had saved them from being burned on the funeral pile of their deceased husbands, and placed them in their proper situation in society. If he were to ask the Caffres and Bushmen of Southern Africa what Christianity had done for them, they would say, it had formed them into villages, and taught them the arts of civilized life. If he were to sail about the islands of the great South Sea, which, notwithstanding the richness of the soil, and the salubrity of the atmosphere, and the loveliness of their landscapes, were but lately the strongholds of idolatry, and the rendezvous of hell; and if he were to ask them whether Christianity had been of any use, they would say, it had given them the Sabbath; it had

Christian

built them places of worship; it had made their Kings nursing-fathers and their Queens nursing-mothers, and filled and covered them with the fruits of righteousness, and the flowers of Paradise. ity done no good! He would not believe an angel, if he were to say so. It had done all the good that had been done in the world; it had produced all the blessings of life; it had built all the institutions of benevolence that ever existed in any time or any place; it had made our land the glory and boast of all lands; it had converted every sinner that had been converted, and introduced every spirit into heaven that now worshipped before the throne; and when this Christianity should be universally diffused, the mystery of godliness would be finished, Paradise would be restored, and earth be exchanged for heaven. As he had been announced to the Meeting as a Missionary, it might not be amiss, if, for a few moments longer, he said something in reference to the scene of his future labours. New-Zealand, it was well known, was situate on the other side of the globe to that which we inhabit. It consisted of some two or three principal islands, which, in their dimension, and climate, and insular character, somewhat resemble the British isles. They were discovered first of all by Tasman, a Dutch navigator, and called by him Statenland; but little notice was taken of them until Captain Cook, in the year 1778, re-discovered and took possession of them in the name of the British Crown. They were represented as beautiful wild spots, overrun by luxuriant vegetation, and inhabited by a noble but savage race. A writer in "Blackwood's Magazine" had endeavoured to draw a comparison between the state of New-Zealand at the time, and of Britain two thousand years ago, when discovered by the Romans. He did not profess to know much about antiquity; but he did say, this was well worth looking at. Our island was not always full of light and blessing as it now was. There was a period when our forefathers painted their bodies red and blue, and wandered in the wildness of untutored barbarism: they were divided into innumerable tribes, who were almost in a state of perpetual hostility: they were idolaters, and had gods of wood and of stone: they were superstitious; they considered the serpent as immortal; the mistletoe was regarded by them with peculiar veneration, and when it was discovered, they gathered it with gladness, the Priest cut it with a golden knife, and it was received in a white

sheet, and thus the Priests deluded a superstitious people. But this was not all: they were murderers. On some occasions, human sacrifices were offered; and it was a solemn fact, that the stillness of their native forests was frequently broken by the dying groans of infant victims, whose infatuated parents sought to secure the favour of their deities, "by giving their firstborn for their transgressions." The New-Zealanders paint their bodies and tattoo their faces; there was among them no national bond of union; their Chiefs were jealous of each other's power and authority; their hand was raised against every man, and every man's hand was raised against them; they had a strong passion for war, a principle which they drank in with their infancy; they were trained to acts of cruelty by the example of their parents and friends; they were remarkably superstitious, and given to charms and spells; they had no idols, and little notion of a Supreme Being; their Priests were impostors and jugglers, practising the incantations of hell; they believed in the immortality of the soul, but they had no hope; they did not offer human sacrifices, as our forefathers did, but they delighted until lately in the horrid practice of cannibalism; and even now they preserved the heads of their enemies as trophies of their victories, and ranged them in rows on the tops of their houses: so that, beautiful as were these islands, they were full of the habitations of cruelty, and the abomination of desolation. Our countrymen might have been barbarous and savage as the New-Zealanders were; Missionaries from other countries might have been visiting our shores, and translating the Scriptures into our dialects, and building schools for the education of our children, and preaching to us the unsearchable riches of Christ. As we were now sending Missionaries to New-Zealand and other places, and receiving reports of success, so might it have been with us, in reference to some other nation; they might have been reporting, that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the white Heathens of Britain were ceasing to offer their children to idols, &c. But at an early period the word of the Lord came to us through human instrumentality; Missionaries, with love in their hearts, severed themselves from the endearments of home, and kindred, and country; they braved the perils of the sea and the desert, planted on our barbarian shores the standard of the cross, and preached to our heathen ancestors the unsearchable riches of Christ. Britain

was conquered by the Romans; and it was possible that the relationship subsisting between this country and Rome might facilitate the introduction of Christianity but the Gospel could not come to us by chance or accident, any more than it has been introduced by chance or accident to Africa, India, or the South-Sea islands: "How could they hear without a Preacher ? and how could they preach unless they were sent?" We did not know much about the men who came here first; but we know that they did not labour in vain; that they did not spend their strength for nought was plain from our Sabbaths of peace, and institutions of benevolence, in which every species of distress could find refuge, in which every variety of want might find relief: so that our country, as the Queen of nations and Mistress of the seas, in her personified genius, might be said to have on her brow the helmet of salvation, in her right hand to wield the sword of the Spirit, and to have her feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, the Gospel which she wished to send to every nation under heaven, and every island of the sea. New-Zealand had lately become the scene of much excitement and interest in this country. A plan of colonization had been formed, somewhat in the spirit of chivalry and romance. It had been proposed to call the country Victoria; that persons of all ranks, almost from the Peer to the peasant, should go out as settlers; that cities should be founded, and ports opened; that warehouses should be built, and commerce encouraged; that the natives should be moulded into scholars, agriculturists, and mechanics; and that this should grow into a great empire, equalling, and perhaps surpassing, the mothercountry! But the system was radically defective, as had been all former systems of colonization; and, with all its plausibility and speciousness, would be found to involve the New-Zealanders in utter ruin, if it did not bring down upon us the curse of injustice and oppression. Let Missionaries go to New-Zealand; let the natives have the Gospel, and it would raise their minds, and soften their hearts; it would abolish their wars and feuds; teach them to learn war no more, and "beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruninghooks;" it would teach them to till the ground and sow the seed; it would lead them to relinquish their frightful and vulgar ornaments; it would break through their spells, and dissolve their enchantments, frustrate the tokens of the

liars, and drive their diviners mad; it would teach them to "render to all their due, tribute to whom tribute was due, custom to whom custom, and honour to whom honour;" it would make "their wilderness a fruitful field and their desert the garden of the Lord." This was not all. The object in view was not secular, terminating with the world and time. Where Christianity came, the arts and sciences flourished, and the savage became civilized. But this was merely the richness and fertility which the river left as it rolled back to the ocean. Only let Christianity go to New Zealand; only let the Gospel be preached to the natives, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and it would not only give them the Sabbath, and houses of prayer, but it would make them new creatures in Christ Jesus, and convert them into a kingdom of priests and holy men. New Zealand had hitherto been rather injured than benefited by the visits of Europeans. It was a fact, that, in some instances, the savages had been corrupted by their intercourse with civilized men. It was estimated, that there were not less than two thousand runaway convicts in the islands of New Zealand, men of the most depraved character, men who had been called "the devil's Missionaries," and who, in their intercourse with the natives, teaching them new lessons of evil, too much resembled the arch-apostate and his angels, in works of iniquity and darkness. Something had, it is true, been done for New Zealand. The Church Missionary Society had valuable Stations and Agents, and the Methodist Society had a few Missionaries: but "what were they among so many?" The fields were white to the harvest, but the labourers were so scattered, that they could scarcely hear each other's voices, and they were ready to faint and be discouraged at the vastness of the work given them to do. A preparing influence had gone forth on the minds of the people. He was aware, that, in some instances, travellers, who had gone out on scientific errands, to trace the course of a river, or watch the transit of a planet, had been murdered; but the natives of New Zealand had received the Missionaries as heralds of peace, as angels of God; they had the utmost confidence in them; and there was no doubt that God Almighty had said to the barbarous tribes of these islands, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." He expected, in a few months to go to New Zealand; and he should hate his own heart, if, while it trembled at the importance of the work, it did not bound

with delight and gratitude at the prospect of going out far hence among the Gentiles with tidings of mercy. If he knew himself at all, there was no sacrifice which he would not make, no work he would not engage in, no cross he would not bear, so that God might be glorified, whether by his life or his death. He had now been eight years engaged in the work of the Lord. The five years which he had spent at Birmingham had been the happiest of his life. Nature said, "Stay at home;" friends, on the right hand and on the left, said, "Stay at home;" but

"He heard a voice they did not hear, He saw a hand they could not see:" And all that he asked of his friends, here and elsewhere, was, that they would grant him their sympathies and their prayers; that they would continue to love and support the Missionary cause; that while the Missionaries went down, as it were, into the mine, they would hold the ropes; and he hoped their Missionaries would be able to bring up many a precious gem, many a valuable jewel, which, in the mediatorial diadem of the Redeemer, would shine and sparkle with increasing brilliancy. All he had further to say was included in the lines composed by an old Methodist Preacher, favourite lines with him :

"The God of Abraham praise;

At whose supreme command,
From earth I rise, and seek the joys
At his right hand.

I all on earth forsake,

Its riches, wealth, and power ;
And him my only portion take,

My shield and tower."

Mr. Bumby resumed his seat amidst loud and repeated cheers, and the deep sympathies of the audience.

The REV. GEORGE STEWARD, of Manchester, observed, that the addresses delivered on occasions like the present, generally consisted of two kinds; such, for instance, as dealt in general principlcs, or such as dealt in facts; and he thought the combination of these two gave the perfection of the advocacy of the cause; showing its character, principles, bearings, and triumphs; the facts confirmed the prin ciples, and the principles explained the facts. There were general facts which referred to the general working of the system of Missionary enterprise; and there were particular facts, which referred to certain particular forms of labour. They were both interesting in their way, and might contribute to deepen our Missionary principles, to inflame our Mis