The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-24 00:00:00

tioti. The meeting had just heard read a resolution which
expressed thankfulness and gratitude to God Almighty,
for the success he had been pleased to vouchsafe to the la-
bours of the society during the past year. He trusted
they felt thankfulness and gratitude when the resolution was
put, that they perceived how much cause there was for
gratitude, and how much their hearts ought to rise up and
sing the praises of God. He was afraid, however, that he
should be found to have risen, to alter the key in which this
music was set,—rather to take their harps of praise, and
hang them upon the willows. The resolution he had to
move, as the meeting might have gathered, was therefore of
a different character to the last. It was as follows :—" That
feeling deep regret that at a time when God is so manifestly
blessing the labours of the Church Missionary Society
among the heathen, the Parent Committee should be com-
pelled by financial difficulties to adopt measures for contract-
ing the sphere of missionary labours abroad, this meeting
would earnestly press on the friends of the society the ne-
cessity of renewed activity in behalf of an institution
which has proved an instrument of blessing in many lands."
This resolution spoke a painful truth. It referred to the
financial difficulties, to the contracted sphere of theoperations
of the Church Missionary Society, and it told the necessity
for renewed exertions. To bring this appeal before them
would require much of the power of the Spirit of God, to
do it effectually. Oh, that his Holy Spirit might be with
those who had to speak upon it, and enable them to put
plainly, boldly, truly, and honestly before the meeting the
real state of the case ! In the motion that was made, and in
the report generally of the state of the society, there was
too much of the habitual supposition that things would go
right; too much of general statement without going into
particulars ; too much of the kind of feeling of the difficulties
of a commercial position when men were begining to feel
they were going a little wrong ; and that they might possibly
find something very differentiin the balance from what they ex-
pected. He feared this was too much the case with regard
to the Church Missionary Society ; but it was precisely a
state of things which required a close investigation. On this
occasion it was nothing more nor less than a duty,—they
must look the matter manfully in the face. He did not
scruple to say that the society was in a very serious con-
dition. It had arrived at a crisis which the active members
of the society had been endeavouring, should he say to stave
off? That would be the expression they might apply to
the case, but he would rather say, bear off, to ward off
putting their faith in the Christian liberality of the public.
But it had come at last. The society was in debt ; and the
debt bad been a growing debt, inasmuch as the funds which
had been laid by to meet the emergencies of the society had
been gradually swallowed up one after another. A very
earnest endeavour had been made from time to time to bear
up against the falling off, and calls were made upon the
whole of England upon this great subject. Those efforts had
been responded to to a certain degree ; funds had been raised ;
and although they had been raised during the year before last
and last year, the society now found itself £13,000 in debt.
(Hear.) Now this was a fearful condition; and in such a
place as this, where strict honesty in all commercial pursuits
was the very life of society, it was a bounden duty to shew
how such a state of things came to exist. It must be taken
into consideration, then, that there were continually fresh
openings for missionary exertions ; and the society was con-
tinually falling back upon that large and inexhaustible fund
of Christian love which they had hitherto been able to draw
upon continually, and upon which, with the blessing of God,
they would still continue to draw. It only remained to shew
that there were peculiar circumstances of necessity
for drawing much more largely upon the great fund of Chris-
tian love. The committee calculated upon the fond of Chris-
tian love in proportion as particular cases opened for sending
forth the power and the blessing of the gospel. There had
been such openings, and oh, how very abundantly! Who
had not read of the great opening at Tinnevally ? Who had
not read the religious history of New Zealand, of the Western
Coast of Africa, of Sierra Leone? Let the meeting glance
over them in their minds, and consider what, under such
circumstances, would have been the duty of the committee ;
would it have been their duty to go forth and enlighten.thesc
people, or would it have been their duty to stop and enquire
whether they ought to go on ? They had been drawn on,
and they could not have done otherwise; they could not re-
sist the opportunities; and when they looked back to see
whether they had the means to go on, they looked back not
to the balance sheet, but to England, to the Church of
England, to the glorious spirit of Christ shed abroad
so largely in the length and breadth of the land. (Ap-
plause.) They knew this was the spirit which distinguished
England ; they therefore went on and said, " the money
will come, the means will be brought, we will trust in
God ;" and they had gone on. (Hear, hear, hear.) It had
pleased God, however, to give them a very serious check ;
but if there were any person present, who, in the strictness
of commercial honesty said, " they ought not to have done
this, they ought to have seen that the means were supplied
beforehand," let them just put this case :—Suppose there
was a house here which stopped payment—a house of the
highest honour and probity, and when enquiry was made it
was found that their agents in America had withheld the
supplies which they expected—would they blame the house ?
They would at once say it was a lamentable case, but none
would be found to say it was dishonourable. Letters of
credit had been given but not answered, in the one case, in
the other it was not written down, but it was founded on the
impulse of the heart, and did not want writing. It was felt.
When the public gave their money to support this cause, they
gave a warrant for supposing it to come from Christian love ;
and that was the letter of credit which the committee of the
Church Missionary Society had used. (Hear.) If it came
to this, that the Society had stopped not payment, but work,
and the public said it was dishonourable, they must look to
themselves. He said, " stopped not payment, but work."
Did they not weep when they heard the report of the Church
Missionary Society in London, to the effect that they
must give up three missions and stop all the others from go-
ing on any further ? How lamentable was it that when youeg
men, qualified for the work of missions, presented themselves
at the institution in Islington, to be sent to on that labour,
they found the door locked and barred ! And who made
those bars and locks? Those who refused to grant the letters
of credit. (Hear.) They had no means of admitting ano-
ther missionary ; and the answer to all at present was—" you
must wait." Having enlarged on this state of things, the
rev. gentleman made an earnest call upon the public to in-
crease their subscriptions and to present liberal donations to
the society. _ _ _

The Hoii. and Rev. BAPTIST NOEL seconded the resolu-
tion in an able speech, in which after some prefatory observa-
tions, he said he should speak of the finanical part of the
question at the meeting to-morrow (this day). At present
he would simply say that he believed thecommittee had never
for a moment shrunk from the full examination of the finan-
cial condition of the society, had never shrunk from the re-
sponsibility of meeting their engagements, neither had they
failed to provide for the important emergencies before them.
The present emergency had arisen from a matter, the investi-
gation of which would, he doubted not, fully justify them
to every considerate mind. The rev. gentleman then took
a rapid review of the state of the African missions of the
society, and from which he showed the necessity of sup-
porting the society in all its extended operations.
The resolution was then carried.
On the motion of Mr. RIGBY, seconded by Mr. BOUT-
FLOWER, the thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Rec-
tor Campbell for his conduct in the chair.
Mr. CAMPBELL having returned thanks, a Doxology was
sung and the meeting separated.
The adjourned meeting will be held this evening in the
Amphitheatre.