Resolutions were passed, after free discussion, on the topics to which we have already alluded-viz.: The Statistical Returns-National Education -The Universities—And the German Persecutions. HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 66 The annual meeting was held in Finsbury Chapel, on Monday evening, April 24, W. Middlemore, Esq., of Birmingham, in the chair. Mr. S. J. Davis read the report, which, after referring to the census returns, and the five millions who never attend public worship, exhorted to renewed efforts by open-air and cottage preaching, visitation of the poorer classes, tract distribution, &c. The following are some of the statistics of the Society's operations:- Central stations, 101: sub-stations, 134; members in home mission churches, 4,475; additions during the year, 452; average weekly attendance, 17,535; Sunday schools, 113; teachers, 1,112; scholars, 7,255. The balance-sheet shewed that the subscriptions and donations for the year amounted to £4,376 11s. 3d.; the expenditure being in excess of that sum by £438 5s. 11d., which is the amount due to the treasurer. This gentleman, on account of illness, was unable to be present at the meeting, but he sent a donation of £10 towards the collection." Messrs. Aitchison of Newport, Evans of Swansea, M'Laren of Southampton, and Hinton of London, addressed the audience. Mr. Evans, in a hearty Welsh speech, invited the audience to visit Wales during the coming summer, where they would see beautiful scenery, and notice the progress of spiritual religion. "The people of England knew but very little, he imagined, of open-air preaching; in Wales it was very different, seeing that, not unfrequently, as many as ten thousand people assembled to engage in a religious service under the open canopy of heaven." Mr. M'Laren said, with regard to the census: "If our schedules had been ruled with three columns-church goers, chapel goers, and beer-shop goers, the last of these columns would have had a larger number than either of the others, and all but as many as both of them put together. I believe that where there is one man that says, 'I dont go to a place of worship because I dont believe what is taught, and sung, and prayed there,' there are ten men that say, 'I dont go to a place of worship because it is more comfortable for me to roll up my shirt sleeves, take my pipe in my mouth, and stand at the door all the morning, and go to sleep all the afternoon.' It is simply blind-I was going to say brute-worldliness, - the selfishness and sensualism that, in these great towns of ours, stand in the way of the spread of our gospel." But we must not be discouraged, we must work on, and try to save souls from death. Mr. Hinton made some excellent remarks on the census: "If it had not been for the existence of religious liberty, the country would have been in a very different state from what it is. Out of the 34,000 places of worship, only 14,000 belong to the Established Church. People are heard saying sometimes, where would have been the religion of England but for the Established Church? I say, where would it have been but for nonconformity? Just look at the facts of the case. Within the last few years some 3,000 and odd places have been built in connection with the Establishment, largely as the result of the stimulus imparted by the efforts of the dissenters; and without these there would be at the present time but 10,000 or 11,000; so that there are three times as many places now as there would have been but for the expansive power of a living individual christianity. Christianity spreads by the diffusive influence of individual piety. Because a man is a christian, he uses his endeavours to make another inan so. One christian is the element by which the whole kingdom is to be converted, for he has within him a BAPTIST IRISH SOCIETY. The annual meeting of this muchneeded and useful Institution was held this year in Finsbury Chapel, on Tuesday evening, April 25, Richard Foster, Esq., of Cambridge, presiding as chairman; who, in his introductory address, observed that it was now thirty years since he had first been called to occupy that position. Many of the friends of the Society, "who could not continue by reason of death," had passed away; but the good cause yet lived, and would live. Ireland needed our help, for there the blind lead the blind, and the priests of Romanism would neither enter the kingdom of heaven themselves, or permit others. But the providence of God, by famine or emigration, seemed to be working out the deliverance of the people. We must labour for the good of those who remain, who are not so much under the influence of popery as formerly. The Report was read by Mr. Groser. The Committee had, last year, sent a deputation to IrelandMessrs. Birrell and Brown of Liverpool, Dowson of Bradford, Stalker of Leeds, and Bigwood of Brompton, who had made observations, and some of their suggestions had been adopted. The funds were now in a more promising condition. power more potent than ten thousand | christian, a child of God, it must be churches, ten thousand endowments, by repentance and faith under the inor ten thousand official priests. They fluence of the gospel; each soul must may all go to sleep; one christian will become a new creature if it was to keep awake and be at his work every enter the kingdom of heaven. The hour and every day, while the Almighty work, therefore, of the christian church keeps his grace alive in that christian's was never done." heart. That is it to which is owing the great expansion of the various religious bodies found to exist in our country. In this respect there is a marvellous character given to the last fifty years. Our religion ought always to have been progressive, but during the last fifty years the progress of all religious bodies has been unparalleled. The Church of England itself has made in that period unexampled progress, Another thing brought out strikingly is, what we would hardly expect to find compatible with even that amount of religious liberty which we possess, that nineteen-twentieths of all the religious activity in England, comprehending Jews, Roman Catholics, and all the rest is evangelical. Nineteen-twentieths, I say, are found to maintain all the great saving truths of the gospel, differing about baptism, ecclesiastical offices, church government, and so on, but steadily maintaining and preaching the gospel of Christ in all its broad and essential features. That is a marvellous and a very pleasant thing, and it shews how God approves and loves the freedom of man's conscience and heart. God, in his grace, has given this favour to those who love him, that, amid all their diversity of sentiment, and the controversies with which their several distinctions are maintained, they shall be preserved in substantial agreement with regard to the great and fundamental truths of his gospel. He took the number of irreligious persons to be anything but correctly indicated by non-attendance at chapel or church. There were sixteen millions of persons born in every 33 years in England and Wales. Not one of them was born a saint, but every one of them came into the world with the corrupt old Adam in his heart, and if he was to become a "Local zeal has sought and forwarded augmented contributions. The cost of the deputation has been defrayed; and a surplus remains which the retiring Committee has great pleasure in handing over to its successors. At the close of the financial year, on the 31st of March, when the account was balanced, it was found that there were at the banker's, free from all claims, nine hundred pounds belonging to the Society. This in cluded one item, received two days before, which deserves to be distinguished from the rest as peculiarly encouraging. A native of Ireland, himself a fruit of the Society's labours, who was introduced into the fellowship of the gospel by one of our agents, and who has since been greatly prospered in a distant portion of the globe, whose handsome donations were reported last year as those of 'An Irish Emigrant,' has this year forwarded two hundred pounds, to be entered as from A Friend at Melbourne.' This constitutes one portion of that balance of £906 4s. 11d., which we have to transfer; and to which we trust that such additions will speedily be made as will justify the new Committee in commencing operations in some of those large cities in which they are needed, especially among the two hundred and fifty-five thousand inhabitants of Ireland's metropolis where we have not at present a single agent. The total receipts for the year were £2,569 11s. 4d., and the expenditure less by £906 4s. 11d. There was also a balance in hand on the Relief Fund of £274." Mr. Bigwood said they had never had such a financial report before. We have only had to ask and receive. Mr. B. bore testimony to the usefulness of the ministers, colporteurs, and agents of the Society. He referred to success at Banbridge, Conlig, and Belfast. More scripture readers were much needed. People would not be got by building chapels merely, they must be sought out from their homes and cabins. The Irish were becoming more willing to be taught. Popery is losing its hold on them. The emigrants bought bibles before they departed. An agent went into a house where a woman had thrown a nightcap over an image of the virgin, as if ashamed of its being seen. Certainly there yet were difficulties, but we must persevere and surmount them. Mr. Hugh Stowell Brown gave a lengthened report of his visit to Ireland, which is too rich in incidents and sug gestions for abridgment; and we therefore refer our readers to the Irish Chronicle for a full and correct report, which will amply repay perusal. Two things we may mention: Mr. B. would have more open-air preaching, and no violent and abusive controversy. Mr. Milligan of Dublin, said there were yet five millions of papists in Ireland. As might be expected, some of the reputed converts to Protestantism were of doubtful character. Parties with selfish motives had applied to him for baptism and fellowship. A man and his wife came. The man bungled, but the wife out with it: "Sure you may as well tell his Riv'rence; didn't we hear that your Riv'rence would give £25 to every couple that would join your church?" Mr. M. related several gratifying facts, and then pleaded hard for Dublin, where two-thirds of the people were papists; and where there were forty Episcopalian churches, but only about half-a-dozen baptist families. Mr. Aldis spoke on the subject of the appropriation of the surplus funds. Our labours must be more energetic and extended, and doubtless they would be attended by enlarged success. FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. The sixty-second Annual Meeting was held in Exeter Hall, on Thursday, April 27, S. M. Peto, Esq., M. P. in the chair; who referring to christian charity, remarked, that almost the only good thing he had obtained in the House of Commons was, the opening of his heart to the friendship of many who differed widely from him on some points but agreed in the main, and whom he esteemed as much as if they were members of his own denomination. Mr. P. then read an extract of a letter from Mr. Wilberforce to Dr. Ryland, dated December 20, 1814, as follows:-"I must indulge the strong disposition I feel to thank you for your last friendly letter, and to express the cordial gratification with which I welcome, and I trust I can truly say I return, your catholic, Christian sentiments and feelings. I cannot tell you how much I delighted in them. They seem to unite us more closely than if our opinions were on all points the same; and so they are in all points of any importance; for I cannot think that those things about which churchmen and dissenters differ are in themselves of any essential value. I rejoice to hear of your success in India. O that God may prosper still more and more abundantly the labours of all your ministers. But I must break off, being much pressed for time." Referring to India, Mr. P. said, "It is calculated that out of fifteen millions of females in Bengal alone, only 2000 bave yet any education at all." The language into which the scriptures had been translated by our missionaries at Fernando Po, it was now found was spoken across that vast continent to its eastern shores. This was an important fact. Excitement at these meetings had now passed away, but if we realized our duty as in the sight of God we should do more than we had ever done. Mr. Trestrail read the Report, of which we have not space for an abstract. The following remarks from one of our weekly religious journals are descriptive of the leading particulars. Especially is this the case with the Baptist Missionary Society, whose meeting at Exeter Hall, on Thursday last, was both interesting and effective. We are glad to find that the income of this society has increased £6,330 during the year 1853, and now nearly reaches £25,000. The great want of this institution is suitable men—a want, felt not only by missionary societies, but by Dissenting congregations at home. We believe that there have rarely been so many vacant pulpits, and a lack of suitable candidates to fill them as at the present time. In the wide field occupied by the Baptist Missionary Society two countries have engaged especial attentionJamaica and India. In each case the results are reported to be highly encouraging. Mr. Hands, in a striking speech, showed how much the missionary had done to improve the moral and spiritual welfare of the negroes in the West Indies, as well as to promote their civilization. Although his description may be a little overcoloured, the general results can scarcely be impugned. He stated that in Jamaica, out of a population of 293,000, no less than 50,000 were small freeholders, and that coloured men filled some of the most responsible and respectable stations in societythe House of Representatives alone containing twelve out of forty-seven members. At the bar and the press, and amongst magistrates, overseers, and clerks, the coloured population can boast of their representatives. In respect to crime, Jamaica contrasts favourably with the metropolis of the British Empire, and more communicants are to be found in connexion with the church of this population of 293,000 than in London with its two "The reports of the anniversary meetings which have thus far been held are much more worthy of perusal, and furnish a larger fund of practical and suggestive information, than usual. The speakers seem generally to have eschewed the too common practice of making the platform the medium for mere pulpit oratory. Business-like addresses, and carefully prepared statements on the results of christian missions, are an agreeable relief to the monotonous reiteration of commonplace sentiment, and momentarily-and-a-half million! Such are speciexciting appeals. Every year the friends of missions can point with increasing emphasis to the moral and social, as well as the religious effects of their enterprise, and claim the support alike of the philanthropist, the politican, and the christian. mens of the telling facts which exhibit the social and religious advance of Jamaica, and one of the most signal triumphs of missionary enterprise. In a like manner, though with results not so marked, Mr. Noel showed the revolution which christianity directly and indirectly is working in British India; how schools are multiplying, the obstacles to missionary effort diminishing, the English language superseding the native dialects, the hold of superstition upon the population becoming loosened, that 18,000, once idolaters, now worship the true God, and that native churches, under native pastors, are declaring their independence. The speeches of Mr. Hand and Mr. Noel gave a character to the meeting, while the address of Mr. Sheridan Knowles, once the celebrated dramatist, imparted novelty to the proceedings. The Baptist Missionary Society have reason to congratulate their constituents on the success of their annual meeting. The extent of the vast field now occupied by missionary enterprise was the topic of an address from Mr. Taylor, of Birmingham, whose statistics will be perused with interest. A band of 3,612 missionaries, native and foreign, scattered over the world to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, constitute a spiritual agency of great power and hopefulness. May their number be indefinitely increased!" Messrs. Manning of Frome, Taylor of Birmingham, Hands of Jamaica, B. W. Noel of London, and James Sheridan Knowles, addressed the assembly in lengthy and eloquent speeches which frequently elicited the warmest applause. DESIGNATION OF MISSIONARIES. On the previous evening, Wednesday, the 26th, the day of the General War Fast, instead of the usual sermon, the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society arranged for a special service at Bloomsbury Chapel, to commend to the Divine blessing the following brethren about to enter on missionary service in India, as the first-fruits of the proposed enlargement of the Society's Mission in that important field:-Mr. John Gregson, late of Beverly, Mr. J. H. Anderson, and Mr. Thomas Martin. Long before the hour appointed for the commencement of the services – half-past six-this beautiful_chapel was crowded in every part. The interest excited was intense. A great number of ladies were compelled to remain standing in the aisles during the whole of the services, and many persons left the chapel in despair of finding even standing room. The proceedings commenced by Mr. Brock giving out the 578th hymn, which having been sung, he read the 15th Psalm, and offered an impressive prayer. The hymn commencing "Hark! the song of jubilee," having been sung, Mr. Brock, in a few words, announced as the subject of an address to be delivered by their friend, Mr. Stowell Brown, of Liverpool, "The Field of labour to which their three honoured brethren were about to depart." Mr. Brown then delivered an appropriate and admirable address, after which Mr. Hinton presented the missionaries to the audience, each of whom, in turn, related his religious experience and the circumstances which had led him to offer himself for this service, together with his views of missionary work. Mr. Hinton having offered prayer for them, Mr. Winter of Bristol, gave the missionaries an impressive, devout, and faithful charge, from, "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not." The doxology was then sung, and these deeply interesting services closed. BAPTIST METROPOLITAN CHAPEL BUILDING SOCIETY. A Public Meeting in connexion with this Society was held on Friday evening, April 28, at Bloomsbury Chapel. Peter Broad, Esq., in the absence of Mr. Peto, was called upon to preside. The Chairman said that a letter had been received from their very excellent and warm-hearted friend, Mr. Peto, explaining the reason of his absence, and enclosing a check for £10 for the purposes of the Society. |