The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-05-25 00:00:00

cot peered a ith the resolution itself. With the able speaker
who has preceded, me I want to know what the young men
Of England are about ? I would ask way it is that they ilo,
not•bind their attention to this 'hoist honourable awl ennob-
ling of all enterprises ? Is it because on such occasions as
these, they hear more of the'sacrilices that toe missiouary is
expected to make, more of the self-denial that he is to expe-
rience, More of the labours he has to undergo, than to hear of
the glorious work he is to perferin---tban of, th'et great re‘warsl
at the list? We know it is sufficient athongst many things for
a man of high imagination to content himself with his own
power. Milton knew he had written in n 1111101.611 Work, though
it was not received. He drew on, posterity, apd posterity an-
swered the bill. The mission-dry May draw on his imaginatibil
brighter prospects thin ever filled the breast of a Milton.—
(Apfilitilse:) I can hardly believe it to be possible that a man
can ue interested in the cause of the Church Missionary So-
ciety—can hear of its triumph, and hear of the diffieulties that
attend its enterprises, without regretting that the mantle of the
Missionary spirit had not fallen on his shoulders. .But with re-
spect to this society as connected with the church I would
speak to you for one moment. I have had the privilege of as-
serting before, in this very room, my own deep conviction that
the Church of England never stood higher as a church of God
and as a national establishment than she stands at the present
period. ( Loud applause.) lam delighted to be permitted to
repeat that assertion. She is rested on the ground of sound
principles, not on ignorant bigotry ; she has fur her friends the
affections ,if the people—(continued applause)—and, above all,
she proved that God had a church upon earth. 'lt was for an
opportunity of expressing those views that he had consented to
take that paper (the resolution) in his hand; and he felt satis-
lied Ihat,,were it not for the truths which he uttered, there
would have been a considerable degree. of impatience mani-
fested iii so humble an individual as himself occupying their
time. (Cheers.) The Church of England was glorious at
'hothe and triumplutnt abroad ; and he felt assured that in days
- yet to clime‘ there would arise, not only in England but every-
where else, liyirigsproofs of the fact that the church had seut
out men who' were the blessed instruments of calling many to
God—to believe in no sacrifice but the sacrifice of Christ—to
robe themselves in no embellishments bUt the robe which lie
himself has provided—to worship in no temple WhiCh is nut
coinfneneurate with the temple of his influence. A voice re-
,sp.onsive,to that which is heard at lMilie would soon be heard
abroad. He flung off the vile impeta thin that the Church, of
Enir,land-w-oUld ctasi herself with :04-Stacy—that she would de-
corate herself with the good things of Rome, and degrade her-
self with taking up some of the off-cast garments of the mother
of abominations. (Applause.)
The Rev. JOHN WM. CUNNINaIfANI. Vicar of HarroW, rose
to second the resolution, and was received with considerable ap-
platise. He said—Ladies and -gentlemen, it is My office to
,:second the motion respecting the diffusion of the Gospel in In-
dia, that has been presented to*you by my rev. fries-Id and pre-
decessor. If 1 may be allowed a home expression, -I should be
truly sorry if it were my duty to " drive the nail;" but when
having been.so driven, I May add that there is very little ditli-
i Culty : n clenching it. I. can truly say, that I feel it a great
act of presumption in 'presenting myself to this assembly to-
night, when I remember how 1 am backed by men whose praise
is known in all the churches, and who must be great orators
here, because they were great orators elsewhere; and, who be-
liins the very first among ourselves cannot want such poor crea-
tures as myself to come in aid of them. If I may adopt another
notable expressions! really do feel that in coming, I am not
-merely." bringing coals to Newcastle, but cinders to New-
castle. (Hear and a laugh.) In the remarks which I shall have
the happiness of offering to you to night, 1 must be permitted,
' if I 'venture to enter fur a moment into an explanation of the
sentiments of a dearly honoured friendwho spoke early in the
' suessines who is not now in the room. 1 ant so afraid that he
should be understood to say, that our dissenting brethren had
occasion to be ashamed of the religion they taught—(" No,
no")—but I merely on risingstate this,llest it should bethought
possible that he should entertain that sort of bigotry, but that
he simply meant this, when we have a good thing to seist, we
ought to send that which we conceive to be the best; we ought
to be ashamed if we do not send the best 'article • but it does
not follow that another person should be ashamed'. I entirely
concur with our dear friend, Mr. Woodward. I rejoice that the
Moravians and the followers of Mr. Wesley are peopling the
%odd with missionaries; and I would rather cut off toy right
hand, than that in the 2,000 miles in circumference from the
Island of Otaheite, nut a single island that has not cast their
idols to the winds through their exertions. No, as our friend
has toll us, the Church of England does not want bigotry to
hold her up; and now having touched on that point to prevent
a misapprehension of a man whom you all love—(hear)—
having said this, I would go on to another point. Perhaps,
ladies and gentlemen, when you did me the honour to give me a
sort of welcome when I rose to speak, you thought you were
welcoming a stranger. As a stranger, had I been one, I should
have been thankful to you. It shows at least that you are not
in the circumstances of the people of St. Kilda, of the islands
of the Hebrides, who are in such horror if a stranger comes to
the country that every man is said to catch cold. (Laughter.)
Perhaps we may to-night; but however, I had the honour of
being in this town when the first seed of the missionary society
was put into the ground, or, if I may so express it, when the
first egg was laid, and to-night we have the hatching and the
plumage, and I need not say, the song that has been crying in
your ears on the occasion. It may not be known to many
in this place, we had the great honour, I hardly know
how to account for it, of having the mayor of the town in the
chair of the society on that occasion. I can never be sorry to
exchange a mayor fur a chancellor, nor yet such a chancellor
as yours ; but if I am glad for the chancellor, I confess I feel
a little pity for the mayor who is absent. (Hear.) And I may
add too, we had the honour of assembling iti your great town-
'hall. I cannot say you are much improved on that point. (A.
laugh.) But, however; the meeting to night has impressed me
with an idea. Suppose I make a proposal, that all the persons
in this room should live as close together as at the present mo-
ment—(laughter)—you would say " how monstrous!" Why?
Because it is the nature of man to diffuse himself—to drink in
the balmy air of the morning, of which we now feelehe want.
But just as unnatural is it for you to crowd thousands where
hundreds only ought to stand—to put us in this sort of Bramah
screw of compression. (Laughter.) I say it is just as unna-
tural—more unnatural, to think of locking up Christianity; and
confining its apostles—binding and screwing them down into
this little corner of the world, when the gi-cat multitude out
of doors ought to receive it—when it ought to burst its bonds,
as you will go home to night, and carry life, light, and liberty
to every corner of the world. It is an essential feature of
Christianity that it will not be so compressed. They might with
equal justice, and it would be as useless, as to endeavour to
compress the sunshine, and lock up the north west American
winds, as not to give it free course to every corner of creasion.
And now I may go on, and say a little wore for that first meet-
ing, I have been exceedingly struck on coming 20 miles to
find several changes—much more reinarkable than the exchange
of another chairman for the chancellor, but this sort of change;
I find, that where there were a few clergymen preaching the
' gospel faithfully, there are multitudes. I find where one
preached, churches have sprung up in vast multitudes. I have
been astonished, in driving up the town to-day to see how these
churches hive multiplied in a very small space of time. What
do I Say to this; I don't venture to say that the Church Mis-
sionary Society has been the author of the change in Liverpool,
but I do say this, when I find, connected with certain events,
not in this place, but in all places where the circumstances are
accompanied with the same things, I have a right in some de-
gree to attribute it as cause and effect; and what I say is this,
I never saw a Church Missionary Society gain ground in a
town in my life, where, if von wanted a scliool, the school was
not soon built. (Loud applause.) Now ladies and gentlemen,
what I am wishing to state to you is this, that I really, and from
my heart, consider this society as stated to night, not only to
be one of the best, but the best : bUt I think it is one of the best
home missionary societies ; because it is a society that builds
Schools and churches., improves the ministry, and while it erects
its own buildines, it erects twenty others for the honour of God
and the salvation of sinners. A friend of mine told me the
other day, that he went through a village, and there was a
board, describing the benefactors of that parish. There was
'one vacant spot, and a clergyman said, do you knot the name
I should like to place in that empty space in that board ? The
name of the Church Missionary Society, because it has been
the greatest of all our spiritual benefactors; it has done ten
times more for oar parish than all our kindest friends; and it is
not surprising. You remember that the Apostle says, that he
remarks as one of the worst features of the most perilous times,
that men should be lovers of themselves. Now, the Church
Missionary Society and other similar institutions has a tendency
to effect this; it cures us of the love of ourselves. If I love
myself I cannot preach, I cannot pray, I cannot act for others,
and I cannot suffer for others. There is a something in selfish-
ness, which, ill may so express it, choaks and throttle's all the
best feelings of the mind, extinguishing goodness, wherever it
is. It is only where Christianity goes and bursts those bonds,
and it is only where that accursed principle of self•love breaks
its bonds that we get any good. And so it is that this society
becomes the best benefactor of Liverpool; and don't say that
we come here to drain your pockets; I say we come here to
offer to the people of Liverpool the highest of all possible bene-
fits, because we want to teach yoli to love yourselves less, and
to love God and his creatures better. (Hear, hear.) The rev.
gentleman who preceded me, in his most commendable zeal for
his own church and country, left the little continent of India to
my keeping. And having taken care of this comparatively
small number—having taken care of them, he very consider-
ately leaves 125 millions of people for me to deal with. That
Was not very charitable; and it was very well to say a few kind
things, though many of them would have been well spared as a
set off. But I wish he would allow me to say a word on that
point. Only last fortnight there was a gentleman loudly
praised before an assembly to whom he was to speak, and when
he spoke he told them this story, that when the Gauls were come
to the conquest of Rome, there was a lady who happened to be
of great assistance to them, and when they asked her what they
should give her as a recompense, she said, the ornaments on
your persons, and they threw them on her with such savage bar-
barity, that instead of being ornaments to her, they crushed
her to the earth. Now, I must say, there is nothing you can so
mischievously bang round the neck of a public speaker as orna-
ments of that kind; they don't embe, they crush him. The
reverend gentlemen then proceeded Mass a high eulogium on
Bishop Currie, whom Bishop Wilson, he said, had character-
ized as being, as far as human nature could be, a close copy of
our Saviour himself. It was gratifying also to know that Bishop
Spencer, his successor, had signified how cordially glad he
should be to be of use in forwarding the objects of the society
its India. In India, as had been stated by the Bishop of Cal-
cutta, the state of things was this: the old superstition was ra-
pidly breaking down—it was beginning to get weak at the joints,
and would soon tome to the ground. But it did not follow because
they got rid of a vicious creed, the natives would adopt a right one.
There is, said the rev. speaker, a miserable interval, which I re-
member some man sass of Certain persons who are neither
Jews nor Christians, but are like blank leaVes bet Ween the Old
and New Testament. (A laugh.) That is the case With many
of the Hindoos. They are philosophers, they are acquainted
with chemistry, they begin to learn that it is hot the sun which
goes round the world, or England which goes round India, and
they are really getting a very refined and intelleCtual people;
and here is the dahger, that they will put philoSophy in the
place of superstition, and instead of being stiperAtitions they
will become worse—complete atheists. I need hardly say to
you that it is better to believe in any christiahity ratfieir than
none. Better believe in the Creator in any shape rather than
settle down to the 'belief that there it ho creator. And I e
quite sure that it is as easy to raEciVer a people
m who lapsediort
of
n
into cothplete Unbelief as tb recover a people h
religion. But I can Well believe it will be more difficult
to se;
cover them froth the state in which half the men are in in this
country. I ant sure, if I myself had to pre
thoutand tithes sooner preach tie the moat bigoted
1 would ten
oted Hindob that
ever existed than I Would preach to what is called
n
c)alledano
E religion,uglis
h
rationalist; I mean a man who has got tn)
no soot, no hope at all. (Hear, hear.) The strongest part of
this arguMent is, not that idolatry stands strong—not that there
is no shaking in.the system, but it is in the mpre fearful cireuni;
i.e that nillholis have put off one belief, alio at this time
stance
a sort of caput inortuinn, without reason, without faith,
and in a state iu whit:6 no religion could suitsive. There were
enconragiug circumstances connected with India. They had
125 native catechists there, anti full license was given for the
preaching
of the gospel there, and christian ministers might be
seen preaching on the very steps of the pagodas, proclaiming
the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. He had been requested by a
member of the society of Friends, who was always foremost in
questions of public benevolence, so far to intrude an their att ' en-