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 preference 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 be 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 pub-
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 bad 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.