name. If we were not to improve the inhabitants of Ireland, they would come over to us in shoals, and bring with them their poverty and famine, their rags and disease; and I do not see why they should not. We must lift them up, or they will pull us down. Let us enable them to help themselves. This society adopts a course which will work out that end. You do not make them beggars; you go to them with the gospel of Christ: you go to them with education; and if the school is on the one hand, and the chapel on the other, I think that, between the one and the other, you will find that you have adopted the very best means by which its improvement can be secured. It is said that we hear of nothing but Ireland; but, what are you to do with it? You cannot get rid of it. The Irish are your next door neighbours, and you must make them what they ought to be-good men. I do not ask whether you will do your duty, but whether you will relieve yourselves from suffering. It is said, that there are too many people in Ireland. Why, they have only thirty-nine to every one hundred statute acres, whereas in England we have forty-three. Let us look to its vast capacity. It is capable of every species of improvement. There is wealth in the bogs of Ireland; there is wealth in its uncultivated lands, and better wealth than can be found in California. We want to improve what we know to be improveable in the people, as we want to improve what we know to be improveable in the soil. One of the mistakes connected with Ireland I have always taken to be this, some one great remedy has been supposed to be the one remedy for it. I have known that country for thirty-four years, during a considerable part of which I resided in it, and I do not believe that for any country suffering under such a complication of evils, there can be any one remedy whatever. Hence, I take all the remedies that have been suggested, and I place those provided by education and the gospel of Christ amongst the foremost. If this society is successful, it will light up tapers which will ultimately fill it with knowledge and power, and be productive of practical improvement by sanctifying the hearts of the people. I cannot deem that instrument light which is the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation. Now, as this society holds up this gospel in its schools, in its chapels, and wherever its agents are operating, you are wielding the mightiest power that Heaven itself ever did or ever will provide for the improvement of Ireland. I do not say with some, Away with politics. I can afford to believe that they may do much, but I do not think that they can do everything for Ireland. I think it right to encourage every plan that can tell beneficially upon the circumstances of Ireland, and therefore it is that I come here and offer up, with all my heart and all my mind, my best desires for the prosperity of this society. Give to Ireland more money. People say, You always end with money. That is not true; but we cannot begin or go on without it. Give this society more money, that it may have its chapels and its schools in every county in that kingdom. If it should be said by some who know nothing about it, that there is fanaticism in thinking that religion will make corn grow in Ireland, I tell them that religion, in its scriptural character, when it takes hold of the minds of the people, will produce that result. Wherever we see an educated and a religious people we never see a barren soil. I deny that a people whose minds are imbued with religion will ever allow their fields to lie waste. I now leave the society in the hands of this large and respectable meeting. It is, I perceive, some 1,600/. in debt. Who owes it? I wonder who would be put in gaol for it. No one here would acknowledge that it was a personal debt. Who owes it? This large and respectable meeting. Then, will they honestly pay it? The world will be satisfied that your Christianity is not very great, if you are willing to live and die insolvent. If I live until the next anniversary, I will come and see whether you have paid it. I hope you will encourage the hearts of the officers and committee, and that, if we assemble next year, we shall hear nothing about debt, and more about the progress of the society in the sister land. The resolution was then carried. J. TRITTON, Esq., in rising to move a vote of thanks to the chairman, said: I trust, as I have appeared amongst you for the first time as your treasurer, and, therefore, now look upon the society with new eyes, I may be allowed to say a few words respecting its present position. It strikes me, that it is far more satisfactory than when you met last year. You had then only half a secretary, for another large and influential society had become enamoured of him, and was doing all in its power to wrest him from you. But you have now a whole secretary, who devotes nights and days to the interests of the institution. Last year you had no treasurer, and that is an unhappy position for such a society as this. You have now a treasurer, who has but very small claims to your support, but who feels anxious to do what he can for the society. The report as to the spiritual condition of Ireland is much more cheering than it was last year. When I took the office of treasurer, I resolved to devote myself, heart and soul, to its service, and, having done so, may not appeal to you to support me in it? In response to Mr. Burnet's appeal, give us your money and your prayers. Let us have the latter, and we are secure of the former. The Rev. F. TRESTRAIL briefly seconded the resolution, which was carried by acclamation. The benediction was then pronounced, and the meeting separated. POSTSCRIPT. Our kind friend, the Rev. J. Webb, of Ipswich, says, "160 churches, giving you 107. each, would pay off your debt, and I will engage for the church at Stoke to form one." The idea is a good one; and we wish sincerely the proposal may strike our friends in the same way. We have received from a Steady Contributor, who will not let his name appear, 501. towards the support of either Mr. M'Namara or Mr. Moriarty; and Mr. Katterns, of Hackney, promises 10l. towards the same object. We hope one or both may be thus engaged, special funds being supplied for that purpose. The Committee are determined, and very rightly, not to incur any fresh liabilities. is not good for societies, any more than individuals, to get into debt. It As the accounts from Ireland are most distressing, and Mr. Green, who is now there, writes to the effect, that it is impossible for words to describe the scenes of misery which he has already witnessed, we think it right to state, that the agents are supplied with the means of relieving distress, as far as the state of the funds will justify, and that on the farm at Ballina, there are now employed forty men, besides women and children. The contributions received during the month of March will be acknowledged in the Report; we should not have room in the Chronicle for them even if twothirds of the space were devoted to that purpose. Subscriptions and Donations thankfully received by the Treasurer, JOSEPH TRITTON, Esq. Lombard Street; and by the Secretary, Mr. FREDERICK TRESTRAIL, and Rev. JOSEPH ANGUS, at the Mission House, Moorgate Street; and by the pastors of the churches throughout the Kingdom. OF THE BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE Annual Meeting was held at Finsbury Chapel on Monday, the 23rd of April. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather the attendance was very encouraging. Mr. ALDERMAN CHALLIS presided. After prayer by the Rev. Mr. MORRIS, of Southampton, the Chairman rose and said : I have great pleasure in meeting you on the present occasion, and for such an object as that which you have in view. I the more readily give expression to this feeling, because, whilst I rejoice in all that has been done abroad, and my sympathies go with those who desire that much more should be effected in that department of labour, yet I cannot help lamenting that more has not been accomplished for home. Allow me to congratulate you on the period at which this meeting is held. It is a matter of great propriety and fitness that we should commence those great meetings which show to the world the fruits of our Christianity, by presenting a report of what has been done in our own country. We cannot be too deeply convinced of the inseparable connection between efforts to diffuse Christianity at home and abroad. We cannot be indifferent to the diffusion of knowledge and truth throughout our land, without endangering the noblest institutions connected with it, and enfeebling the right arm of our strength. If the sun of British Christianity were to lose its light and heat, what would become of those foreign churches which it has planted and nourished, and which live by its influence and power? But the home missionary spirit is necessary to the prosperity of our own churches, to the growth of our own piety, and the increase of our own faith. This spirit is imperatively demanded by the state of our country. The enormous amount of ignorance and religious destitution presented to us in the reports of this and kindred societies, is sufficient to fill the mind with astonishment and dismay. Think of the fact that in Britain, in the nineteenth century, Christians form but a fraction of the inhabitants. Think again, that in the struggle which is going on in our country between good and evil, light and darkness, the church and the world, how frequently we see numbers, intelligence, wealth, and station, all arrayed on the side of evil. If we would lay these things to heart; if we would have those institutions prosper which are the glory of our country and the honour of our Christianity; if we would have our missionaries sustained abroad, and the little flocks which surround them encouraged by our efforts; if we would have our churches instinct with life, and blessed with a disposition to spend and be spent for the cause of the Redeemer; if we would have our own country free from sin, and suffering, and crime, sure I am that we must support Home Missionary Societies. Let me entreat you to-night to give the Home Missionary Society a united and generous support. The Rev. S. J. DAVIS, the Secretary, then read the Report, which, after alluding to the political condition of the continent during the past year, went on to say:— "While the tempest has raged around us we have been sheltered by a gracious Providence as in the cleft of the rock.' We have scarcely felt the remotest, the faintest vibrations of the shock which has upheaved the institutions of our neighbours. In the end we shall obtain, it is hoped, the substantial benefit without having paid the dreadful price of civil war. While abroad all things have been violently thrown out of their ordinary course, the peace of our domestic hearths has been uninvaded; our industrial machinery has performed its accustomed evolutions; the enterprises of trade and commerce have not been stopped for a single day; and the agents of our religious societies both in our towns and in our villages have gone quietly on with their 'labours of love'-summoning their countrymen to repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.' "Nor have the messengers of mercy been permitted to labour altogether in vain in the Lord.' The returns from some of your stations indicate, indeed, but little progress; there has been preparatory toil rather than the reward of labour; it has been sowing time, not reaping time; the ground has been cleared, the soil has been upturned, the seed of the kingdom has been cast in, and in due season the fields will be white unto the harvest,' the labourers will reap if they faint not. From a few of the stations the accounts are positively and afflictively discouraging. The labour and expense of years have appeared to result only in the trial of faith and patience.' The work must be abandoned, or begun afresh and done over again. But while a simple, honest representa tion of things as they are requires these modifing and humiliating statements, from the majority of the stations, and from some more particularly which in previous years were unproductive and discouraging, your Committee are thankful to be able to state that the reports of the missionaries are well calculated to awaken lively gratitude, and stimulate to more earnest and devoted effort. "The number of central stations supported either wholly or in part from the funds of the Society during the year is 111; the number of subordinate stations is 186, making a total of 297. The missionaries calculate that they preach the gospel weekly to about 23,000 of their countrymen; receiving very valuable assistance in their work from a considerable body of unsalaried "fellow helpers to the truth." In connection with each principal and in some of the subordinate stations there is a sabbath school. Large and small, the number of schools is 115, containing 7,000 scholars; about 1,000 teachers are employed in conducting their operations. Much has been said recently on the alleged want of interest, at any rate manifested interest, on the part of pastors in sabbath schools; much which ought not to have been said. The Committee cannot allow absolutely necessary henceforward to reduce their expenditure to equality with their income.' While the Committee have deemed it imperative to pass the above resolution, and will feel bound if re-elected to act upon it, they cannot but express the earnest entreaty and hope that some of the stronger auxiliaries will generously come to their help for the sake of the weaker; that the weaker, by putting forth their utmost efforts, will become less dependent on assistance from without; and that the friends of the Society, both in the metropolis and elsewhere, will augment their contributions, so that the equalization of the expenditure with the income may not seriously interfere either with the extent or efficiency of its operations. "The passing are not times for lessening; on the contrary, they imperatively demand the extension and improvement of home missionary agency. Although the majority of the churches of our own, and very many in some other denominations are composed for the most part of those who live by their daily toil, it is a melancholy fact that a large portion of the working classes of the community still manifest most afflictive estrangement from God and from his people. A false philosophy is engaged in teaching them that prosperity must be expected from without rather than from within; from the arrangements of the com the present opportunity to pass without expressing their decided conviction that, as a body, your missionaries are not only free from b'ame in this matter, but are worthy of the warmest commendation for their earnest efforts to render efficient this important department of usefulness. It has pleased the Head of the church to give efficacy to the word of his grace, not indeed to as great an extent as could have been desired, but in a measure far greater than we deserved, and which ought at once to induce thankfulness and encourage effort and hope. Comparatively small as are the mis-munity rather than from the efforts of the sionary congregations, for as soon as they become large and consequently self-supporting, they cease to be connected with the Society, the number of additions to the churches during the year has been 562; the present number of members is 4335." After giving a variety of extracts from the letters of the agents, the Report proceeds thus: Recently the attention of the Committee has been specially directed to a subject of grave importance, and which, as indicated in the last Report, has for some time given them considerable solicitude. Having, after preliminary discussions, appointed a sub-committee carefully to ascertain the financial history, position, and prospects of the Society, that body reported: That its expenditure is several hundred pounds per annum in advance of any income likely to be obtained from ordinary sources :-that the legacies of which they are at present advised are not sufficient in amount to meet existing liabilities:-that each auxiliary, with scarcely an exception, requires that the funds raised within its own limits shall be expended within those limits, leaving the Committee scarcely any resources for general purposes; and that the system pursned by them for several years of incurring heavy debts in order to supply deficiencies, has operated injuriously on the self-reliance of not a few of the churches, practically giving them the unfounded impression that the Committee have other sources of income than those which the friends of the Society themselves supply.' After receiving this report and anxiously reconsidering the whole subject, the Committee came unanimously to the following resolution:That the Secretary be instructed to lay before the auxiliaries of the Society the facts contained in the report of the sub-committer, and to apprize them that the Committee deem it . individual; from the virtue of society, as though there could be such a thing apart from the aggregate virtue of its members; thus placing in imminent peril their self-respect, self-reliance, self-government, and filling their minds with visions of social good most extravagant and pernicious, and doomed to the bitterest disappointment. A false Christianity, in the shape of out-spoken popery, or of a system essentially popish in doctrine and spirit disguised under other names and forms, besides contributing to confirm these delusive notions in relation to the present world, is doing unspeakable mischief by engendering similar notions in relation to the world to come, teaching that men may be saved by a ceremonial religion worked by a certain separate and peculiarly endowed order of their fellow men; the whole system being more or less directly the carrying out of the deep-laid scheme of a fraternity whose very name is identified with all that is execrable in duplicity, cunning, and cruelty; and who having twice become intolerable by their vile intrigues and disastrous intermeddlings, have twice been driven out of the greatest nations of Europe. Infidelity too leaves no means untried, nor allows any to fail through lack of earnestness, to draw away the thinking part of the population intellectually, practically, and in heart, from those true Christian teachings and principles, the hearty reception of which is essential both to present and everlasting happiness. Meanwhile emigration sends forth its thousands, and will, it may be safely predicted, pour forth its tens of thousands, to our colonies and other thinly popu lated portions of the world, who will prove a blessing or a curse, planting wherever they go either synagogues of Satan or churches of Christ according to the principles, and habits, and character they carry away with them from their native land. Surely under such circum stances as these the home missionary enterprise has claims on the attention and sympathy of the churches very far stronger than they have yet generally apprehended, and in the exhibition of which it is scarcely possible to exaggerate." Mr. J. R. BOUSFIELD, the Treasurer, then presented his accounts, from which it appeared that the total receipts of the Society during the year had been £4,644 10s. 2d., while the expenditure amounted to £4.645 7s. 11d., leaving a balance due to him of 17s. 9d. There was also a balance against the Society, due on loans, amounting to £530. The Rev. A. M. STALKER, of Leeds, rose to move : "That this meeting desires to express its gratitude to Almighty God that, while the neighbouring continent has been the scene of commotion and bloodshed, the agents of this and kindred institu- The institution whose interests we have as- The Rev. J. BRANCH, in seconding the resolution, said: I think it has been demonstrated that there is as great a necessity for efforts of the kind made by this society, among our rural population, as there is in the great metropolis in which we reside. I hope we shall never be brought into the position of doubting whether the gospel is able to do its own work. There is no class of the human family, however degraded, which the gospel has not power to elevate and to spiritualize. I had a great desire to see a man whose case was reported by a brother missionary, and I went to Westminster for the purpose. About four years and a half ago, that missionary went to a 3d. lodging-house, where he saw two men sitting by the fire; he addressed a conversation to them, read a portion of the bible, and requested them to kneel down to prayer. One of them had been a medical officer in the army, and they obtained their living by travelling into the country with papers, published on the Saturday night, containing a full and true account of the last dying speech and confession of a man to be executed on the following Monday morning. The missionary found that the medical man was possessed of great intelligence, and the latter commenced a discussion respecting the inspiration of the sacred volume. At its close, the missionary, in his manly, kind way, said, "My friends, in all probability I shall never meet you again, till I meet you at the judgment-seat of Christ; if I never do, remember that you will have to give an account for the statements I have made, that Jesus Christ will judge you, and that you will be condemned for your rejection of the gospel." Two years and a half passed away, and when addressing a company of juvenile thieves, two men came up and accosted him, whom he found to be these identical men. He inquired what they were doing, to which they replied, that they had talked over the matter on which he spoke to them, that they reasoned about it, and then began to pray over it; that they were not able to shake off the conviction that what he had told them was true, and that they had both reason to believe that they were truly converted to Christ. They had broken off their nefarious practices, and one of them has since obtained a situation to aid the chaplain of a gaol in disseminating religious truth among the poor unfortunate inmates. This case proves that the gospel is sufficient, by the power of the Spirit, to reach the heart of the greatest sinner, and bring him to the cross of Christ. I rejoice in the schools that you have formed. It is a great thing to apply the truth before iniquity has made deep scars in the moral constitution. This society is doing all it possibly can to save the chairman a vast amount of trouble in his magisterial seat. I hope that if he be spared to reach the age of threescore years and ten, as he walks down Newgatestreet, he will see a board on the building at its extremity, announcing, "These premises to be let-an eligible site for a spacious chapel," The resolution was then put and carried." The Rev. H. S. BROWN, of Liverpool, rose to move: "That while this meeting is thankful for the Christian agency employed by this and other societies for the evangelization of our own countrymen, and |