The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-26 00:00:00

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The anniversary meetings of the Liverpool branch of.
the Church Missionary Society were held in the Hall of
the Collegiate Institution, yesterday.
The morning meeting commenced at eleven o'clock,
the Rev. Dr. M'Neile in the chair. The deputation
from the Parent Society consisted of the Rev. F.
Close, of Cheltenham ; the Rev. G. T. Fox, of Durham,
and the Rev. F. F. Gough, missionary from China, who
has just returned from that country, and the Rev. J. C.
Ryle, rector of Helmingham, Suffolk. Amongst the
clergymen and gentlemen on the platform we noticed, the
Revs. F. Barker, J. Jones, W. M. Falloon, J. H. Jones,
H. Marlen, Gardiner, F. Parry, W. H. Wright, NV.
Hesketh, J. Wainwright, S. B. Sutton, D. James, J. R.
Conor, A. Knox, (Birkenhead ;) Charles Inman, Esq., .1-
S. Ball, Esq., T. D. Anderson, &c.
The meeting having been opened with prayer,
The Rev. Dr. M'NEILE rose, and said—My Christian
friends, once more our Church Missionary Society
presents itself before us, seeking its annual sup-
plies for the support of its missionaries, and catechists,
and schoolmasters, and all the et ceteras inseparable from
successful missions to the heathen. Once more we are
called to the devout and grateful consideration of the
spiritual riches enjoyed in this land, as contrasted with
the destitution which is still the characteristic of so many
lands. Everything in this world is comparative; and the
aspect presented by every object depends greatly upon the
medium through which it is seen, and the contrasts by
which it is surrounded. View England in comparison
with what it ought to be, considering its opportunities,
and with what every Christian heart desires that it should
be, and manifold are our wants. Masses of our popula-
tion, sunk in squalid poverty and brutal ignorance, engage'
our sympathies in their suffering, and demand our best
efforts for their relief and instruction. These supply
warm elements of appeal in sermons and speeches.
on behalf of our Home Missions, our Pastoral
Aid and our Scripture Readers' Societies. These
invite our attention in detail to the back streets, courts,
and alleys of our great towns, to the lanes and cottages
of many of our rural districts, and we sigh over the pain-
ful picture, desiring and combining to make England bet-
ter. But change the point of view : look at England as
a whole, and in comparison with other nations of the
earth, Pagan or Papal ; and then, manifold are our mer-
cies. Peace and comfort, social and domestic; civiliza-
tion, physical, political, literary ; cultivation of every ele-
gance, as well as every convenience of life ; wealth, com-
merce, and, above all, religion, pure undefiled religion,
the word of God in our native language, in various shapes
and sizes and types, suited to all, and brought within the
reach of all, accompanied, too, with illustrations, both of
geography and natural history, calculated to convey in-
struction, while they administer enjoyment to every
mind ; the Church of God, with government and or-
ders, and ordinances, which, if not perfect in their ad-
ministration (nothing entrusted to human management
can long continue perfect), are beyond comparison su-
perior to anything else of the kind to be found on the face
of the earth. These are the elements of appeal on behalf
of our foreign missions. Upon England so highly
favoured • upon Englishmen and Englishwomen, and'
English Children, partakers of these privileges; upon you,
my Christian friends, among the rest, we call, on behalf'
of the dark places of the earth, that you will help forward
the good cause, which has for its object to dispense'
among them also what you have bad so long and so freely'
dispensed among you, namely, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. The anniversary of our Church Missionary
Society is a season well calculated to remind us of two'
things ; first, that our Christian privileges are very great..
O ! how great, when contrasted with the condition of hea-
then lands ; and secondly, that our Christian privileges•
are not finecures. They are inseparable from respon-
sibilities. Their enjoyment calls aloud for their propa-
gation. There is a charge on our inheritance, and mis-
sionary exertion is a debt. There is a charge upon all
our temporal blessings and possessions. Taxes are
lawful debt. Their payment is enforced by the law of
the land. Missionary activity in some shape, either by
personal effort or liberal self-denying contribution, is
gospel debt. Its payment is enforced by the law of love.
If you pay your taxes, which every man must do or have
his goods distrained, what thanks have ye ? What do ye
more than others ? Do:not even the publicans so? But
if you join cordially in missionary enterprise, which no
man need do unless he likes it, this is acceptable with
God. The object of the Church Misssionary Society
is to pay this debt of love, and to give to every
man who hears of it opportunity to join in so doing-
It is armed on both sides. It has a collecting hand and
a distributing hand : a collecting hand which enters every
house and every church and every meeting, receiving con-
tributions from all classes and of all magnitudes, cheques,
bank notes, gold, silver, copper ; and a distributing hand
dispensing riches for eternity in the north and in the
south, in the east and in the west. The power and stretch
of the distributing hand depend upon the supplies heaped
into the collecting hand ; while the real success of both
depends upon the blessing of God. The Church Mis-
sionary Society has twelve principal missions, some includ-
ing a larger and some a smaller number of subordinate
stations, and of course of labourers. The missions area Western Africa ; 2. The Mediterranean, the chief
operations of which are in Syria and Palestine ; 3. Eastern
Africa, where the indomitable Dr. Krapf is making fresh
incursions into the Usambara country ; 4. Bombay
and Western India; 5. Calcutta and Northern India:
6. Madras and Southern India ; 7. Ceylon ; S•
China ; 9. British Guiana ; lO. New Zealand ; 11-
North-West America ; and last, the more recently:.
formed mission in the Punjaub—that very importand
region containing a population of five millions,
forming the geographical link of connexion between)
central Asia and what has hitherto been the northern
frontier of the British possessions in India. Our friends,
who have favoured us with their presence as a deputation,.
will enter into some particulars respecting some of these
missions, and I will no longer interpose between you
and the combined instruction and enjoyment which such
advocates of such a cause cannot fail to communicate.
(Loud cheers.) _

The Secretary, the Rev. H. CARPENTER, M.A., then
came forward and read the report, which was as
follows :

REPORT.
The Committee of the Liverpool Church Missionary Asso—
ciation have decided on holding their anniversary this years"
few weeks earlier than the time at which it was usually kelp
before. Our chief inducement for making this change was to..
secure the assistance of friends at a distance, willing to cone.
to us, as a deputation, to plead the cause of the Church Mis-
sionary Society; many ofwhom are generally so engaged by the
London meetings in May, that their help could not be ob-
tained for Liverpool in that month.
The result of the change, in this respect, has been most sa-
tisfactory. For we have had comparatively little difficulty in
finding a deputation for April. Among those whose well-
known devotedness to the Gospel of Christ will give weight to
their advocacy. of this cause, and prove, we trust, useful to all
of us, in stirring up our hearts to more zeal and activity, in
aiding to spread abroad the glad tidings of salvation, throug
our crucified Saviour.

And when we think upon the condition of the heathen,
"without Christ," " having no hope and without God in the
world," well may we be moved, by the advocates of missions,
to feel compassion for men, as they are, "sitting in darkness
and in the shadow of death."

And does not this society deserve our energetic support,
which maintains more than 160 missionary clergymen aocl
more than 1800 lay teachers, in making known "among the
heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ?"
Nor have their labours been "in vain in the Lord." Not to
of those who have "fallen asleep in Jesus," who wer
snatched as " brands from the fire" by the missionaries of
this society, in years gone by, there are upwards of 100,00
at this day more or less enlightened, gathered out of heathen
and Mahomedan darkness, and learning the truth as it is in
Jesus from the teachers of the Church Missionary Society, Of
these, nearly 16,000 are communicants of our church, of blame-
less lives, many of them advanced in scriptural knowledge an
spirituality of mind, and adorning the doctrine of God their
Saviour in all things.
And we are thankful to say that our missionaries are still
receiving, from day to day, fresh proofs that "God is with
them, of a truth."

A Hindoo widow lady of high rank, niece to Dwarkanatb
Tagore, who died in Europe, has recently avowed her resolu-
tion to renounce heathenism and embrace the Gospel of
Christ. For some years she has been studying the Bible, first
led to it by a converted heathen, a connexion of her own, who
died about two years ago, trustina• in Christ. She persevered
in searching the Scriptures amrd many trying difficulties,
arising from the opposition of her heathen relatives, till th
light of truth so shone into her mind that she no longer could
resist it. She has placed herself under the protection of native
Christian friends in Calcutta; and nether the threats nor the
promises of her heathen relatives have prevailed to shake her'
constant resolution to become a follower of the Lord Jesus.
10,000 rupees were offered to her, with many promises of kind
treatment from her heathen relatives, and permission to read.
the scriptures without molestation, provided she abstained
from a public profession of Christianity and continued unbap
Used. And these offers and promises were accompanied with
threats of personal violence, and even death also if she refused. -
But what was her reply ?
If you gave me ten million rupees, what good would they
do me, when what I want is the forgivenesss of my sins and
Christ
the revival rheevi
the salvation of my soul ?
f
"And as to your threatnings to kill me, you may kill the
body, but you cannot kill my soul."
May we not be reminded by this of the spirit of the martyrs
timeval ofof
the
ed
sameconfess
spirit,rs inn theo
se h t
witnessedo iye Church,
the Reformation in our own Church? This Hindoo lady is
not ashamed of Christ, or of his gospel. Shecounts all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus. She es-
rand o
es-
teems the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
of this world, because she "has respect unto the recompense of
reward." other examples of a like spirit in other lands
might be recorded.
The
populous city of Ningpo, in
China,
poora candidate needle-makerfo r
baptism
iii the
from our missionaries there,
who, after a long struggle, at last closed his shop on the Lord's
Pay, to the utter amazement of his heathen neighbours, is an-
other proof of the power of gospel truth over the mind of man.
His faith triumphed over all his anticipated losses. His faith
triumphed over the expected reproaches of his heathen friend&
He has resolved to forego his worldly gains for one day weekly,
that lie may hallow the day of his Lord and Master; and that
he may spend it in seeking after his salvation, which is better
than all this world can afford.
But we shall not say more of China, particularly as we have
one here this morning who has laboured in our missions'"?
field in that vast empire. We shall hear details of the difficul-
ties of the work there, and the encouragements attending it,
from the Rev. Frederick F. Gough, who has recently returned
from China.

The income of this association, we are happy to say, has ill;
creased during the past year. The total amount from al''
sources was 42,668, being 4 240 above what was received in the'
preceding year.
But we are persuaded that a much larger sum would be.
collected. if our friends would use their influence, and bring.
the subject of missions more frequently before the minds
those around them. Let the wants of the heathen be made
more generally known among the people—let them hear o
their miserable degraded position, and, above all, of the efficacy'
of the Gospel to save their souls. as proved in ten thousaar
instances among them. Let them be reminded, too, of
own privileges and responsibilities, and they will learn to value
those privileges more than ever, and to feel greater concern for
the spiritual destitution of the heathen.
This would soon tell on the annual income of this essoc;,„
ation. Why, for example, might not all the schools for the
poor of this town do what one of them did last year, froth the
boys of which upwards of £4 in pence were received by t
association ?
And if other sailors could be influenced to follow the exam r.
of one whose missionary box was his companion on the:
and which returned home with him full from the contributio
of his brother seamen—if others in different classes and occ,,,
pations could be induced to follow these examples, it wolualus.
tend to subdue selfishness and enlarc,e their hearts, as
extend the gospel of Christ more widely in the world.
The committee would strongly urge the importance of Trur%--
te rl y missionary meetings as one help towards accoroPli'"
this good result.
But, above all, let us never forget that all our success isug
the Lord. " Paul may plant, Apollos may watea,era-
God only can give the increase."—l Cor. iii. Let our
her this, anti follow our missionary in every, land 'l,"
prayers continually at the throne of grace. ten der,
will specially prize. ThiS is a help all of us ought to,.as ve/
but )yhich rely of us can truly say rte luge rendered •
Die is beiptbeY