The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-28 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF OXFORD ON CHURCH

MISSIONS.
Tint Bishop of Oxford delivered a very eloquent
lecture on Church Missions and our Indian Empire,
at Reading, on Tuesday. After showing that the
Church of Christ must of necessity spread and
multiply, Dr. Wilberforce traced the history of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the
Christian Knowledge Society, and the Church
Missionary Society, all of which had sprung from
the same parent stem. Their various labours were
glanced at, and the history of the Church of England
missions was brought down to the present century.
His lordship said he did not propose to deal with
any other societies than those he had mentioned: the
field of the Church was occupied by them ; they had
a distinct vocation for their ministry, and could work
at home with perfect unity. He intimated that he
did not approve any other missionary societies con-
nected with the Church, because he believed those
in question were sufficient for the work ; they had
their machinery in full operation, whereas, in the
establishment of other societies there was only a
waste of that money in paying secretaries and agents,
rent of house, stationery, printing and advertisements,
and deputations, which ought to go towards the great
object of spreading truth abroad. His lordship then
proceeded to say :

And now let us turn to that part of the world which fills
so many hearts at the present time—the great peninsula of
India. Men used to talk of it as possessing a population
of 150,000,000, but the recent attempts of our Government
to estimate the population have shown that we cannot
estimate it at less than 140,000,000, and it is very probable
to all thoughtful minds that there are 203,000,000 in that
great peninsula, Hindostan. I ask you, is not that a field
large enough for us? Why, we raise in the Church of
England for these two great societies something like
200,00 W. a year. Two hundred thousand a year, and
200.000,000 of people to whom to preach the gospel. And
remember, if the gospel is to be preached, men must be
sent, and they must be supported, and there must be books
and means of transit. Therefore you see our endeavours are,
as it were, but a drop in the ocean of our wants, if
you take but that one country into account. But you may
add to that the whole of Asia, Africa, and New Zealand,
and the labours that are requisite among The few remaining
North American Indians, and many other places. We
have these colonies and dependencies, from which as
centres of light, from which as garrisons of faith, they
ought to go forth on behalf of England and on behalf of
England's Church a message of salvation, and the ministry
of the Word converting the heathen to the faith of Christ.
Well, then, my friends, here is the great call to support
this society, and here is the great field for it to labour in.
Its instruments are those of the Church of England, and
nothing else. It belongs to no peculiar colour or view in
it. It takes the greatest care that its agents shall be the
colour of the Church of England. Instead of leaving to
any committee, who may represent this or that colour,
power of choosing missionaries, it leaves to the two Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishop of Lond)n
to name from year to year clergymen of the Church of
England to be its missionaries, in order that there may be
no possibility of its giving a sectional or party tone, but ,
that it may represent the Church of England as it is—be
it in its strength or in its weakness, be it as it was of old
in its languor, or be it as it is now, thank God, in its
awakening strength. It seems to me that it is scarcely
necessary to add a word to show you that it belongs to
every Christian member of the Church of England to to
something to help us in t►.e Church. And surely if ever
there was a time when God himself took up this text and
preached to man on it, it was at this moment—it was
with regard to our colonial empire ; because you cannot
have read those judgments that have come upon us in any
other light than this. My friends, if you come to con-
sider that now for one hundred years we have possessed
that empire, and we have as yet done very very little for
our God—nay, tnat we have used it as a means of politi-
cal advancement, that we have used it as a means of
gaining wealth fur our own land at home, of providing
for our own children, of making ourselves great among
the people of the earth ; and if we were swept off that
mighty peninsula to-morrow we should scarcely leave
behind us, in any part of it, a mark or tract of our having
been a Christian people, that one thing alone condemns
us. And if you go into the detail of the history, the con-
demnation only becomes more signal and black. The one
ruling feature of our whole administration in this respect,
as to doing anything to encourage the faith of Christ or to
spread his truth, has been a most un-English timidity.
Mere un-English, because whereas in all other respects
now we speak our minds, we say, " Let what will come of
it, we will speak our minds." But we have not spoken our
minds about that: we have held our tongues about our
being believers in Christ. Nay, lam afraid we have done
more. We have been building our might to a great degree
upon the basis of heathenism. We built on caste distinc-
tion the foundation of our Indian power. The Bengal
army was ordered to recruit only from the Brahmin race,
in order, as we thought, that it might be a more trustful
body. That was the idea. But how has God fulfilled the
old tradition of Idie people, that when, instead of leaning