ary Society, should now be contributing for Foreign Missions less than we contributed twenty years ago? Is that, I ask, right? Moreover, let me tell you briefly of the progress which, while that diminution has been going on, our body has been making throughout England. Look at the increase of the Congregationalists among the middle classes during these twenty years, the increase of their wealth, the increase of their influence, the increase of their power, the increase of their numbers! Look at the increase of their Parliamentary representatives, and at the increased influence which they exercise in Parliamentary boroughs! And yet, after all, they are giving actually less than they did before for Missions. During this period they have built more than a thousand chapels; the number of chapels has been increased from 2000 to 3240, and the number of sittings from 650,000 to more than a million ! While all this has been going on, there has grown up among the Independents a taste for towers and lofty spires, for elegant windows of stained glass, and many other ornaments which tend to make the house of God look beautiful, until at last you have superadded heads of kings and bishops, saints and martyrs, and busts of angels, as large as life. My only reason for mentioning them is that I want to see their fruits. If you can do all this-if you can spend so much money upon your beautiful churches, with all their variety of ornaments, can you do no more for missions than you did twenty years ago? The massive tower, the lofty spire, the elegant window, the stained glass, the classic cornice, the carved pulpit, the ornamental panel, may all bear testimony to the respect in which the house of God is held by you. The pealing organ, the welltrained choir, and the clear, thrilling voices of the young, may all tend to elevate to a higher degree that devotion which swells out pure and holy from a loving heart. But is it all to end there? Shall we not see the fruits of this higher devotion? Shall all this splendour of ornament prove ruinous in the end? I trust not, sir. I am giving utterance to convictions which were formed in my mind five years ago, when I say that this is a point to which the attention of the ministers and members of our Congregational churches ought to be carefully directed; and I now feel strongly that if we would do our duty to ourselves and to our country, the annual income of this Society must be increased. I look beyond the special appeal which the Directors are now making, and consider what you are to do two years hence if you now send out these twenty missionaries. I am going to ask you presently to give us forty. If you send out these

twenty men, you must provide for them. If you would do justice to your growing mis. sion-if you would do justice to that God who is hearing your prayers-if you would do justice to India in its new position, and with its new aspect-if you would show that spirit of compassion which led our Saviour to command his apostles to begin their preaching at Jerusalem, to begin their work of love among the men who were stained by his blood as India is now stained with the blood of our countrymen, then what is requisite is that there should be a decided increase in the annual income of the Society. One word more, my friends. You are offering money to the Bible Society and the Tract Society; our great want in India at the present time is missionaries. We want more men; and to-day, sir, I stand up in the name of all my brethren in India, and ask for more men. Two years ago the Bengal Conference of Missions in the appeal which they put forward, urged that all the twenty societies who occupied mission-fields in India, should endeavour to contribute 100 men during the next five years. How many, sir, shall I ask for now, after this awful rebellion, this new proof of the folly and wickedness of Hindooism, this new proof of the great fanaticism and cruelty of the Mussulman? How many shall we ask for? You know it is related that the Sybil of old, when her twelve books had been refused, went away, and having burnt six, afterwards came with the remaining six, and demanded the same price for them that she had demanded for the twelve. These having been refused, she afterwards came with three, and ultimately she offered only one, still demanding the same price, and thus greatly increasing the relative value of that one, Two years ago we asked 100 men of our English brethren. Sir, we cannot ask a single man less than 200 now. I am not joking on this subject-I am sure that I am only asking what is right. Those who are best acquainted with the missionary work, such men as our friends, the Secretaries of this Society will tell you the thing can be done. Our own Society has offered to raise twenty, and I am sure that if the Directors were to ask for forty altogether within five years their appeal would not be refused. I repeat that we want men. You cannot convey the Christian Gospel to India, merely by means of books. Alas! there are some who think that if this country have but contributed a million of Bibles, it has done a great thing. But, sir, I am obliged to tell you, in all faithfulness, that if you give us a million of Bibles, at present we cannot circulate them. The people do not know how to read them. What we want,

therefore, is men-men who can preach, men who know the native language, men who will invite souls to Christ, that the work of God may be carried on through the appointed agency of his own servants, and the Gospel conveyed to men who have hitherto known nothing of its powers. When General Havelock advanced with his little army to the relief of Lucknow, he met with the most serious obstacles. His first attack was made upon the village of Ponao, held by no less than 27,000 rebel foes, burning with deadly hate to the English name, their hands stained with the blood of that frightful massacre which has now become a byword among all enlightened nations. The little band of 1500 men pressed calmly on. Twice they met the rebels, and twice they utterly routed them, obtaining an easy victory even over ten times their own number. But they were compelled to fall back, smitten not by man, but by the hand of God, who permitted cholera to thin their numbers, and paralyse their strength. But soon reinforced, and more numerous than before they advanced once more. Generous

to each other, brave, determined, they press on with rapidity, the enemy flying before them. They arrive at Lucknow, skirt the city, avoid the trap laid for their destruction, and commence the tug of war with an intense determination never to give way. They march along garden walls and loopholed houses, fighting at every step. They reach that dreadful archway, where the enemy's fire is so concentrated, and so ruinous, as to blind them by its blaze. The gallant Neil falls with many of his followers. Nobly is he supported. Not a voice is heard, not a cry raised: the bayonet and the bullet play their deadly work. They push on in silence, but with resistless vigour, and almost before the garrison were aware, they march into the residence. The Highlanders shake hands with the ladies, and toss the children into the air; while amid tears and shouts a cry runs through the garrison: "General Havelock is come; we are saved." Sir, Hindooism is a vast city, walled round by caste, by idolatry, and superstition, inclosing thousands of souls in ignorance and sin. We have to advance, to deliver those precious souls, and introduce them into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Many have fallen in the contest. The band of God has been heavy upon us, and we have been driven back. Our Achan must be stoned. We need reinforcements of earnest, zealous, enlightened men. Give us this new force; aid us by your sympathies; follow us with your prayers; then shall the city be destroyed, the prisoners released, and, though we fall in the conflict, our ears

shall hear the joyous shout of the converted heathen, "We are saved."

The resolution was then put and carried. The Rev. P. THOMPSON, of Manchester, moved the next resolution, viz. :

"That this meeting sincerely rejoices that the resolution of the Society to form new central missions in the interior of South Africa is about to be effected, with encouraging prospects of success; it entertains the highest admiration of the zeal and intrepidity of the Rev. Robert Moffat in the long and laborious journeys he has accomplished with a view to this object; and it earnestly commends him, with the Rev. H. Helmore, and the junior brethren, to the special guidance and protection of Almighty God in this new effort to convey the knowledge of salvation to the myriads of Southern Africa who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death."

He said the end of the geographieal feats referred to in the resolution, was the beginning of the Missionary enterprise. All honour to the noble band of men who engaged in the work, and carried it to a successful issue! Might the Spirit of God attend them on their way; might the influence of his Spirit attend their labours, that they might be enabled to infuse among the natives of the interior of Africa those blessings of the Gospel of peace which would lead the natives to say, more than ever, that they belonged to the tribe that loved the black man.

E. BALL, Esq., M.P., in seconding the resolution, said, that in his place in the House of Commons he should do all in his power to advance the cause of Missions in India, quite independently of any party consideration. Having said that, he would not trespass any longer on the attention of the meeting.

The resolution was here put and carried. The Rev. J. EDKINS, Missionary from China, moved the next resolution, which was as follows:

"That Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Bart., be the Treasurer, that the Rev. Dr. Tidman be the Foreign Secretary, and the Rev. Ebenezer Prout be the Home Secretary for the ensuing year; that the Directors who are eligible be reappointed, and that the gentlemen whose names have been transmitted by their respective auxiliaries, and approved by the aggregate meeting of delegates, be chosen to fill up the places of those who retire, and that the Directors have power to fill up any vacancies that may occur."

He was glad to have that opportunity of saying a few words in reference to the Mission in China. The Missionaries in China felt the utmost cordiality towards, and confidence in the authorities at home. They loved them "for their work's sake," and were glad of any opportunity of expressing their feelings towards them. He had himself only recently returned to this country, and, after an absence of ten years, he had felt peculiar pleasure in listening to such eloquent lan

guage in his native tongue, and which he felt to be far better than any other. The meeting had been told by Dr. Lockhart that the Society's Mission in China was a preaching Mission. They rejoiced that such was the case. At Shanghai they had no schools except some very small ones, and hence they devoted themselves to the preaching of the Gospel in the city, so far as the Chinese authorities would permit it. They hoped that the negotiations which were now going on would enable them to travel not merely two hundred miles, but two thousand miles into the interior, and to carry the tidings of the Gospel to numerous cities there. They had told Lord Elgin what it was they wished for, and they trusted that the British Christians at home, and more especially members of Parliament, would back them up by means of representations at the Foreign Office. Would the meeting permit him to advert for a moment to an article in reference to China, which had recently appeared in the Times, as it contained a mistake which he wished to correct. The correspondent of the Times in China had not been there long, and it was very easy, therefore, for him to receive wrong impressions. An interesting controversy had been going on with respect to the Chinese name for God. They had been told that in the primitive religion of the Chinese, the principal deity, Shang-te, was a great personal god, the great ruler of the world, the being whom the Chinese had worshipped from the earliest times; but, according to the correspondent of the Times, Shang-te had now become an abstraction, and the name was nothing but a synonym for reason. Now, after an experience of ten years in China, he had no hesitation in saying that this was a mistake. The cause of the mistake was to be found in the fact that in China opinions were constantly changing. There was an ancient religion, and there was a modern philosophy, and the two ought to be carefully distinguished, and it was through not observing the distinction between them that the correspondent of the

Times had fallen into error. lie entreated the meeting to support the Missionaries in their work in China. They were very few in numbers, and they looked to Christians at home to increase their number and to aid them by their prayers.

The Rev. Dr. HALLEY, in secording the resolution, said it would be a sad thing for the credit of their denomination, if, while they were adding expensive ornaments to their chapels, they allowed that to subtract from the liberality of their contributions to the cause of missions; nay, he would go further and say, that unless all this ornamentation were accompanied with increased contributions, it could not be justified by common sense, not to say Christian feeling.

The resolution was then put and carried. E. BAINES, Esq., said he felt great pleasure in now proposing

"That the most respectful thanks of this meeting be presented to Frank Crossley, Esq., M.P., for his kindness in presiding on the present occasion, and conducting the business of the day."

The resolution, after being seconded by EUSEBIUS SMITH, Esq., Chairman of the Board of Directors, was carried by acclamation.

The CHAIRMAN having acknowledged the

vote,

The Rev. J. ROWLAND pronounced the benediction, after which, the meeting dispersed.

THE EVENING MEETING.

The evening meeting, convened specially with a view to excite and maintain an interest in the objects of the Society among its juvenile friends, was held at Finsbury Chapel. The Rev. James Parsons, of York, kindly presided on the occasion, and impressive and effective addresses were delivered by the following gentlemen, viz., Revs. E. Storrow, missionary from India; C. H. Bateman; E. R. W. Krause, missionary from the South Seas; John Curwen, and Henry Ingram, missionary from Berbice.