The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-06 00:00:00

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY

The annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was
held on Tuesday, in the great room at Exeter-hall, London.
The Earl of Chichester took the chair, supported by the
Bishop of Ripon, the Bishop of Chester, the Bishop of Nor-
wich, and a large body of the clergy of the Church of Eng-
land. The body of the hall was quite filled. A large number
of ladies was present.
The noble Chairman commenced the business of the day
by an address to the meeting upon the state and progress of
the society. He regretted the present unsatisfactory position
of their finances, but urged them to greater efforts and more
zeal in the cause. There were some men, said the noble
lord, who thought that the church itself should be the great
missionary society, and whenever any intelligible and prac-
ticable plan was presented to them, which was better than
that upon which they now acted, let them give it their candid
and serious consideration. But let them not relax in their
present efforts. (Hear.) Let them not look coldly on any
institution which God had so highly blessed, and which they
were, therefore, bound to love and cherish in ➢reference to
speculations of untenable improvement. It was the case
with many reformers that they exaggerated the evils which
they proposed to mend, and were disposed to abolish that
which was, notwithstanding its defects, both useful and
beautiful, without first providing something which was more
useful and more beautiful, by which to replace it. Thus it

was with many ecclesiastical and political reformers, who
were disposed to despise existing institutions, because they
were not quite perfect, and attempted to bring about a state
of circumstances which never did and never could exist.
There were few of us who were not liable to become dis-
affected towards any object which we loved, if we constantly
heard it disparaged and defamed—few of us who were not
sometimes tempted to drop the substance in order to catch
at the shadow. (Hear.) He was induced to make these re-
marks because he had reason to believe that many members
of the church were disaffected towards this society by the
process to which he had alluded. Might God give them
better judgment, and teach them to love and honour an in-
stitution which he had so signally blessed. (Cheers.) He
trusted they would all give it their most cordial and uncom-
promising support, until God gave them some better instru-
ment for carrying on His purposes of love to this benighted
world. (Cheers.) After some further remarks the noble
earl concluded by calling upon the secretary to read the
report.

The secretary then read the report, which was of great
length and of an exceedingly interesting character. The
committee stated that during the past year a large and impor-
tant addition of episcopal patronage had been happily ex-
tended to the society. The Bishop of London having pnb..
licly expressed his opinion of the desirableness of connecting
the Church Missionary Society more closely with the heads
of the united church, and of the practicability of making
an arrangement for that end which should leave the society
at liberty to prosecute this work unimpeded and uninter-
rupted, communications on the subject took place soon after
the last anniversary between the right hon. the president of
the society and the Bishop of London, with the concurrence
of his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. The result of
these communications was the adoption of the additional
regulations. On being apprised of the adoption of these re-
gulations his grace accepted the office of vice-president of the
society. The following prelates had also joined the society
as vice-presidents, viz.:—The Archbishop of York, and the
Bishops of London, Bath and Wells, Chichester, Lincoln,
Peterborough, Sodor and Man, Hereford, Gloucester and
Bristol, and New Zealand. With respect to missionary la-
bours, the report states that in Western Africa between six
and seven thousand Africans, from upwards or forty tribes,
regularly assembled for public worship. Of these upwards
of thirteen hundred were communicants, and several thou-
sands of the children were brought up in the nurture and ad-
monition of the Lord in the society's schools. From Sierra
Leone mission £B7 15s. sd. had been received, of which
£43 had been contributed by liberated Africans. In advert-
ing to the Eastern African mission, the report stated that there
was existing a desire to possess copies of the Scriptures both
in the Amadhi and Ethiopic languages, and that the four
Gospels and St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans had been
translated in the Galla languages. Owing to the financial
embarrassments of the society, the committee had been
compelled to contract the operations of the Mediterranean
mission. In North India the exertions of the society's
agents had been very successful, and they had been of Tin-
nevelly, in South India. Their exertions in Bombay, Cey-
lon, Cotta, Nellore, at New Zealand, British Guiana, Tri-
nidad, Jamaica, and in North-west America, had also been
most auspicious. As to the finances, the receipts for the
past year amounted to £90,821, and the expenditure to
£llO,BOB, showing an excess of expenditure over income of
£19,987. It had been recommended that the expenditure of
the current year should not be more than £85,000, and with
this view the committee had taken steps for discontinuing the
society's operations in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Malta.
The reading of the report occupied nearly two hours. It
was adopted, on the motion of the Bishop of Ripon, se-
conded by the Rev. J. Cumming.

CONVERSIONS IN LIVERPOOL

(From Me Dublin Statesman)

Our friends in Liverpool, we find, are not sleeping on their
posts. Five individuals, as the report has it, renounced the
errors of the Apostate Church, on Tuesday last, in St. Si-
mon's, Gloucester-street. and were received into our com-
munion, with a suitable form of recantation, by the Rev., J.
R. Connor. Against the rank snd sex of these converts
calumny can do but little. We know too well the character
of Mr. Connor and his clerical associates in this work to
doubt for one moment the sincere conviction and full infor-
mation of the persons whom they have admitted into our
church. One of the converts was an English gentleman of
respectability, according to the phrase of the world—that is,
of known family and sufficient fortune ; another was one of
our r own countrymen; the remainder were females.
divinneerrulYth
This proceeding shows, by a very agreeable instance, that
the strange infatuation which prevailed amongst some of our
feared the ia
;:ityy in England in favour of exploded forms and ceremo-
aloliretiatotop
u p t popery,hew diday ahnoogte
altogether
retard
against the progress
no!
Papists, who, reaction
renun-
ciation of gross
Protestants, error. We honestly confess that we often
truth and liberty of be
of Puseyism on the minds of inquiring
1 Puseyism did produce
might with the absurdities of professed
tempted to give up the search after
to by popish conscience as utterly hopeless. That
priests
effect we know ; that it was ap-
pealedand strengthen this effect,sts and bishops, in order to increase
But the the letters and pamphlets fully de-
monstrate.infatuation is passing away, and the
ranks of error are diminishing
overturn nonery aihm.it..... in some little deeree. Tn

ehbii
piety,
. .enotityrahe::
oft thanttphheue public
theiivai
practical c
~......, r"v'-•r attogetner we require not ino.
faithful and simultaneous exhibit'
'While this affair informs us thaatters.
as well as theoretic, by our mini
are not negligent it also encourage."
hours of our Irish ministers in this clergymen in England
on Tuesday unsuccessful amongst the Roman CatkitircYs
exhibition of
anhing but
Y last was un
those
converts admitted into our body
Irishman, be it observed. We know well thedat
outward of per-
secution here—its power to prevent any
declaration in favour of truth. Hence a number of
who are-enlightened and conscientiously separated f°
Church of Rome are compelled by domestic persecutionsra the
remove to another country, to enjoy in open liberty 4
blessings of protestantism. It is painful to think that in this
way our ministers should not be permitted to see the fruit of
their labours; but it must be to them most consolatory to
know that their labours are by no means.