The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-05 00:00:00

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE

GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

A meeting of this society was held in London on Tues-
day, at which the Duke of Buccleuch presided. There
were also present the Archbishop of Armagh, Bishops of
Winchester, Bangor, Rochester, St. David's, Chester,
SOdor and Man, and Jamaica, the Deans of Westminster,
Lincoln, and Chichester, Ven. Archdeacons Manning,
Sinclair, and Hamilton, Lords Cornwallis, Glenelg, Dela-
warr, Jerrnyn, Sondus, Littleton, John Manners, M•Ptt
Rayleigh, R. Grosvenor, M.P., Clive, Howe, Bolton,
and Sandon, M.P., T. D. Acland, M.P., Cardwell, MP',
&c., &c.
The following is the principal portion of the speech °,f
the Bishop of Jamaica on the occasion. His lordship sal°,
" I wish to impress on your minds the consideration that,
notwithstanding the exertions of this and , kindred socie"
ties, notwithstanding every effort of religious enterprise,
many of the colonies and dependencies of the British
crown continue in a state of deplorable destitution, and
that the Incorporated Society does afford, under God, the
fittest instrumentality for counteracting the evil' Nye de-
plore. But, my lord, is this destitution real and substan;
tial, or is it but an imaginary and exaggerated grievance'
I apprehend that, if we advance no further than to ascer-
tain the identical truth asserted in the first resolution,
which has passed this meeting, viz. :—that more than
40,000 persons, and they principally of the lowest order,
are, year after year, across the Atlantic or Australian seas,
and landed in some one or other of our immense colonies,
without any means of instruction or of public worship, our
case will be sufficiently proved. I mean not to invite
the policy of emigration. I mean not to deny that eon*
gration to a considerable extent is necessary, both to Of
country to be left, and the country to be peopled. But
do contend that, if the policy and the purpose of the times
do compel men to emigrate, the charity and the justice 0,
the times are pledged to provide the poor emigrants, °I;
least in the early stages of their history, with the means 0'
worshipping God after the manner of their forefathers.
But how has this first reasonable expectation been reak
zed ? I seek in vain in our Colonial annals for any proof
of its existence. I look on the mass of cur colonial pas'
sessions—l read their statistical returns, and I find large
districts still left without clergymen, townships rising
without churches, villages and hamlets growing into coo'
mercial and agricultural, and even political importance,
without the adoption of any predomination ; nay, without"
having any instruction, without a local habitation or 3
name assigned to our national faith. I would illustrate
this from a little personal experience. It is now some'
what more than five-and-twenty years ago since I first
trod the soil of a British colony ; nor shall I easily forge
the impressions made upon me by that exTraordinarf
scene. The island to which I refer was in vice almost
commensurate with our sister kingdom. The residence
of the Colonial Governor looks down upon a dim and
dingy, but densely peopled town, carries even hustling°
on its lofty height; troops were garrisoned on its castled
crags, and the proud pendants of England's sovereignty
were waving over its estuaries. In one of its 100 harbours
more than SCO vessels, having severally the flags of ever.
European power, were collected, waiting to transport the
produce of its banks, of its rivers, and even of its desolate
ictburgs, to enrich the coffers of their parent states. Ole
hundred thousand persons thus find employment 001';
shores, while thirty thousand more "went down tu'.",i
sea in ships, and occupied their business in great waters',
that colony, my lord, had territory, had commerce, brif
population ; and to consecrate that territory to sanctify
that commerce, and to guide into the way of truth thr!t
population, it had two missionaries of our holy Catbehe
Church. Passing thence into another colony, equal 1°
size, and more considerable in population, blessed with $
more genial climate and a more fertile soil, and cone'
quently assuming mire of a settled and agricultural cha;
racter, I found ele gen clergymen: while iu the adjoining
province, the very earliest scene of the colonist, not one-
tenth part of the people had the means of attendir.°
church. Now, it must not he supposed, that during this
period the society slumbered and slept, that she was un-
mindful of the deficiency and did not strive to apply the re'
medy. Had this been the case, the resolution which I ruble'
cate would be wholly untrue and the society unworthy of
yonr confidence and support. But on the contrary, under
the auspices of this, the much-neglected society, I have sell
the clergy of Newfoundland increased from 2,t0 28, white
those of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have been tit;
bled in amount and greatly improved in usefulness..
have witnessed the first introduction of its missionarreed
into the Bermudas, the practice of the western world,
the restoration of its missions, after an interval of nearly
100 years iu the distant islands of the Bahamas. I bane
seen proselytes won from heathenism, converts refortne.„
from Rome, and multitudes confirmed and educetectc;
the faith of their fathers by tkis valued institution. •`,
the character and conduct of its missionaries I can 015
bear personal testimony. They have been carefully se;
lected either by the committees at home or by the bishege.
abroad. They are, for the most part, whatever nra94
the few and painful exceptions, men strongly imbued
the missionary spirit, men of faith and prayer, men 00
consistent and energetic piety, men devoted to no strang,
and energetic opinions either of theology or church parL„lf
sanship. but intent upon one simple and leading object "
the society the propagation of the gospel in all its puricg:
On a recent occasion we have heard it asserted by a 'liter
tinguished statesman, who has exhibited, both in his Pli„
lie and in his private capa'city, a strong affection for W'
Colonial Church ; and the argument has been re-urged
to-day to a certain extent by the right hon. gentleman vilt,
preceded me, that " that which has been hitherto done of

Princes and governments must now be left to the spirit u'
associations to effect." Entirely concurring with these
illustrious statesmen in assigning such a duty to our ss:
ciety, I am very far from assenting to the inference that
the state is thereby abquitted of its responsibility to Pr °,:
vide any further for the sustentation of a national churc"
within our colonies. I know, indeed, as a melancho!l
truth, that the Legislature have, in the exercise of thlf
wisdom, seen fit to withdraw from the society their PT
tance which for years had been allotted to her stewar
ship, and consecrated to the promotion of religious truth'
But I know also that the wisdom of the Legisiaturepf
though claiming our respectful consideration, is not I°f d.
lible, nor are the acts of the Legislature, though demaol4
ing our entire obedience, like the law of the Med" of
the Persians, which altereth not. If, then, the clacauu!,o,
an unrighteous multitude, if the complaints of the latu,,e
dinariau and infidel could enforce upon our rulers _74
adoption of what I must call a mistaken and unhallo,
economy, it surely is not too much to expect that thed
monstrances, the humble, the respectful, but earnest o
le or
reiterated remonstrances of the churchmen of tlie
pire, may in time induce a wiser and more liberal sPulsti•
legislation, a spirit more congenial to the christien cove,
tution of the country. But, whatever may be our 0100
tations of future assistance from the state, it is cello
that the hour has arrived when the church must °fa(
herself to a pure, energetic, and condensed exertion',
her own perpetuity and extension; and I do not besinoti
say that one of the first and best modes of this eserol
to ensure her perpetuity must be to extend the
,gorotts/
through the medium of this society. Our appeal oth,
t lerefore be to every pastor, and through every P
to every congregation in this land. For more than 0300
ter of a century, the better part of my natural life, ietf;
had the privilege to be a fellow worker with this sue ea!
I have worked humbly with its committees at 'home, ,S 1
I have worked with God's grace, I hope perseveringly pd
its missions abroad ; and probably no person presePentg.
been so intimately acquainted with all' its movt'lbees;
Its errors and deficiencies, whatever they may lii•!ve orts'
are trifles light as air in comparison with the 111 ob.
good it has accomplished and is accomplishing. JO'
mit, therefore, that the incorporated Society is lc'
serving the confidence of the meeting."