as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." The remaining part of the morning sitting was occupied with discussions in which brethren Roberts of Peterborough, Chapman of Louth, Allsop of March, Cox of Nottingham, and others, took the lead.

At two o'clock the Conference adjourned to the large school-room for dinner; and that being concluded, the business was resumed. Brother Bailey's paper, on "Native Agency," having been read, discussion on it, and on the other questions of the day, followed. The chief speaking at this short sitting was done by brethren W. R. Stevenson of Nottingham, Evans of Stalybridge, &c., and the proceedings were conducted and brought to a close in a lively, orderly, and happy manner.

After a hasty tea a large number of the brethren met in Committee: brother R. Johnson, of Hitchin, Chief Engineer of the Great Northern Railway, presiding. Brother W. Bailey, who had been requested, by the previous committee meeting, to return to India, now gave his answer, to the effect that Mrs. Bailey's precarious health constitutes an insuperable barrier to his return at present. Brother W. Hill was next applied to, and stated that his return is also prevented by family difficulties. The Secretaries were then wished to make inquiries respecting certain young men educated for the ministry who were mentioned as desiring to be employed in foreign missionary work.

At seven o'clock a public meeting was held in the spacious chapel, St. Mary's Gate: Alderman Longdon in the chair. The speakers were brethren Stubbins (formerly missionary) Jackson of Castle Donington, Clifford of London, Hester of Sheffield, and W. E. Winks of Wisbech. The character of the speaking was of the highest order, and the general conviction at the close of

the meeting, was that nothing superior to some of the addresses had ever been heard at our best Annual Associations.

This great gathering of the friends of the Mission was looked forward to by some with a measure of misgiving. Although the circular announcing it presented an intelligible outline of the proceedings comtemplated, thoughtful brethren, on meeting together, were heard inquiring of one another what the whole thing was intended to accomplish; and while no confusion marked the assembly, it might, in one sense, be said that "the more part knew not wherefore they were come together." In a little while, however, all vagueness vanished, and when a few familiar hymns had been sung, and some fervent prayers poured forth, the consciousness of a higher Presence seemed to be reached. Gathered together in Christ's name, and feeling Him to be in the midst of us, we became assured that some blessing would be obtained for ourselves, and that succour and help in this time of need would be given to our brethren and sisters abroad. The Special Conference will be a memorable event to the unexpectedly large number of delegates and visitors who attended it. This imperfect account of it will, it is hoped, give a little pleasure to the still greater numbers of sympathizing friends who were unavoidably absent from it. it. Reviewing, after the lapse of only a few days, the whole line of action that was pursued, and having regard to the appropriate place of concourse, we deliberately, and without any affected raciness in our terms, designate the 8th of December, 1868, THE DERBY DAY OF THE ORISSA MISSION.

We gladly make room for the address of Mr. Clifford, under the heading which follows this notice"Objections of Modern Scientific Men to Foreign Missions."

without waiting for every man's certificate of our sanity, it may not be altogether a fruitless task. "It is right to learn from an enemy;" and according to the professions of the Anthropologists, they are friends, seeking the same goal of truth as ourselves. They tell us we have made mistakes; and, indeed, it were very strange if we had not committed many, but whoever helps us to discover one of them, does us better service than he who selects our successes for his praise, or makes known the unimpeachable excellence of any of our plans. There have been bickerings amongst the missionaries of rival sects, and the rebukes administered to our petty and miserable jealousies have been well deserved. All our agents are not perfect, possibly one here and there a long way from being what he ought, and we are glad when our travellers point out their faults, and successfully set them a better example. It is allowed that there, as here, converts are not spotless, and that under certain favourable conditions hypocrites may be produced in painful abundance; and the knowledge of this may help us to a true philosophy of human nature. Moreover, it is a gain in the way of freshness, to have to confront new objectors; and therefore we proceed with some pleasure and sense of indebtedness to investigate the statements urged against modern missions to the heathen by some scientific men.

To begin at the beginning, we must consider the asserted incapacity of the negro to receive and adopt the Christian religion. The pure negro, we are told, shows a remarkable cleverness as a youth, acquits himself at the Mission school with honour, and gives brilliant promise of rising above the savage condition of his parental home. scarcely has he attained the age of fourteen, when lo! the fever of imbecility gradually sets in, ape charac

But

teristics rapidly develope themselves, barbarism re-asserts its dominion over its lost child, and there is no chance henceforth for any powers, human or divine, to rescue him from the vices and superstitions to which his depraved nature impels him. By a remarkable law, acting with all the force of iron necessity, there is in the case of this creature an arrestation of the growth of the brain at that age, owing to the structural conditions of his skull, so that it is for ever impossible for him to understand and accept Western Christianity.

Every one will see at once that the conclusion, "all Missions must fail," will not rest on this single statement. The pyramid is upon its apex and must fall. Missions to the Hindoos of Orissa, to the Confucianists of China, are not Missions to the negro; in fact, the negro race does not form one-hundredth part of the population of the globe, and since only one-seventh of mankind is nominally Christian, we may proceed with the message of salvation to all minus the negro, even without the serious reprehension of the priests of modern science so far as this objection is concerned. But even the negro must not be excluded from the sympathies and efforts of the Son of Man, unless it is proved beyond all doubt that "his place in Nature" forecloses now and for ever the chance of his finding a place in the kingdom of God. We must deal justly with him, although he is not, according to Captain Burton, a "very nice animal." There is a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Jeremy Bentham thought the brute creation deserved a more considerate and kindly treatment than it receives. Is it then just to deny the negro the rights of an inferior manhood, on the ground that his brain ceases to grow after a certain age? Is growth of brain to be the condition of admission into the kingdom of men? Does this

fix a man's place in nature, and determine his prospects of success as to grace? Because, if so, I incline to the opinion that others, not a few, beside the Cameroons and their neighbours, will knock at the door of that kingdom in vain. I fancy the negro might, in this respect, claim, without a blush of shame and fear of dispute, a close kindredship with many Englishmen; I am sure he may find many relatives in the Caucasian races, and it is not absolutely impossible that he should discover an uncle or two in the Anthropological Society itself. Stoppage of brain growth is one of the most familiar facts of human experience. No feature is more marked in ninetenths of the human race. The youth who has just left school laden with prizes suddenly collapses, and you hear of him no more.

The

cleverest woman of your acquaintance ten or fifteen years ago, has quietly subsided into a most respectable nurse. The scholar who took his degree with éclat, has by some misfortune found a competency. and shrivelled up into an infallible judge of old port and the best shag. A minister makes his position, and finds content, and paralysis of brain supervenes; or marries a fortune, and is attacked with bad throat, which soon, alas! produces a determination of the bad blood of indolence to the head. Look at the poor negro's photograph a little more minutely, and notice whether the resemblance to some pictures in your albums is not strikingly exact. "His memory is powerless, except in matters pertaining to his own interest," and we may ask, whose is not? What do we forget sooner that that in which we have no interest? "The action of the brain is weak, a little learning addles it." Any society of even literary men in the United Kingdom, will give you illustrations of that negro characteristic in scores. never thinks of claiming equality

"He

with the Aryan race," and what an insufferably long time it has taken the English people to learn their equality with their aristocratic rulers! "He is a Malthusian;" so is John Stuart Mill. Stuart Mill. "He is the victim of imitation;" so are we all, even to the verge of insanity. "He despises agriculture;" so did the British aristocracy only a few years ago. In fact, the further we go, the more clearly is it demonstrated that this negro, who is incapable of receiving Christianity, has a place in nature not many doors certainly from his enlightened English brother, who affects to despise him; and therefore we think we do no injustice, when we claim for him the chance at least, of obtaining some place in the kingdom of grace.

But is it a fact that the negro intellect and heart are impervious to all the genial influences of the Christian religion, and cannot by any process be brought to accept the message of God's love in the gospel of His Son? Have there been no genuine converts from the low and gross forms of idolatry which abound on the benighted coast of West Africa, to the purer and more spiritual worship of God in Christ ? What say our missionaries? They are not all deceived. They have not entered into a compact to cajole British Christians, in order that they may spend years in painful selfsacrificing toil amongst a people they never saw, and to live amongst whom is a slow but real martyrdom. Hear the voice of the Rev. W. Arthur. He said, at a meeting of the Anthropological Society, "Is the point in doubt whether the negro intellect is capable of accepting the doctrines of Christianity? That has passed out of the province of guesses or individual testimony into that of demonstrated fact. It is as much a matter of historical evidence that the negro intellect can accept Christianity as that the Anglo-Saxon can. Gentle