Farewell words by Rev. C. Bennett, J. M. THOBURN, M. E. C., Calcutta (CONVENER)." The following farewell words were spoken by three senior members of the Conference: THE REV. C. BENNETT, A. B. M., Rangoon, said:-This is one of the happiest days of my life. I never expected to see such a company of dear Missionaries together, and all devoted to doing good among the heathen. It is a most glorious sight. When we arrived in Calcutta there were not more than fifty Missionaries in all India, and now to see before me in one assemblage over 400, has produced such feelings of gratitude to the Giver of all good, that I have often nearly broken down, as we have met here day after day. To see the zeal of the young people in Sunday Schools, and other Missionary work, I can only express myself," God bless the young women, God bless the young men, and may a greater measure of His Spirit rest upon them all." Pardon me for using the word young. I suppose that twothirds of all those I see before me, have been born since I came to Burmah. God bless you all, and make you still greater blessings to India. More than sixty-three years ago, at the age of sixteen, it pleased God to make me a new creature, filled with astonishment and gratitude for sins forgiven. Within a year after, a voice seemed to whisper, you will spend your life in Burmah." This was resisted for some years, but in 1829 we arrived in Calcutta on our way to Burmah. In those days there were but few Missionaries in all India. There was not even a foot of Railway in all England, nor in all America. The Telegraph did not come until some ten years later, and the Suez Canal was later still. Steam was then in its infancy all the world over. Missionaries then came for life, and that life was not expected to exceed ten years-no hope held out that the home of youth would ever be again visited-but to live, labour, and die among the heathen. Now how all is changed! It seems almost a miracle. Instead of a five months' voyage on board a ship, rolling round the Cape, those of you from England can see the home of your childhood in 20 days, and those from America in 30 or 35 days. Then, there was only one three-storied house in this city, called a City of Palaces," and now what a change we see around And it is more or less so, all over India. The facilities for Missionary labour have been also enlarged in these days, and the sun of Missionary work seems approaching its meridian. 66 us. And now, my dear friends, before I take leave of you, let me entreat you in all your labours to "have faith in God." Your work is His, be perfectly willing that all the praise and glory be given to the blessed Saviour Jesus. I will close in the words of another, and say "JESUS only!" In the shadow Of the cloud so chill and dim, "Jesus only!" In the glory, When the shadows all are flown, Seeing Him in all His beauty, May we join His ransomed throng, THE REV. G. BOWEN, M. E. C., Bombay, said :-In the parable of the wheat and tares, the owner of the field said, "Let both grow together until the harvest." At present we are rapidly approaching the harvest time: events are rapidly maturing; formerly centuries were required for bringing about results: now it is far otherwise. We should remember that the ministries of nature which developed the wheat developed the tares: even so the wonderful inventions and facilities of this age belong to those opposed to Christianity. Agnosticism, spiritualism and other forms of error can use these to enable them to triumph. Let us therefore not rely so much upon these things, not even upon the expanded heaven of science, but upon our great Leader. The sun, we are told, is 800,000,000 miles in diameter: if a hundred worlds like ours were placed upon it they would make but a feeble, black line; how ample the expanse! And yet rays of light are sent down not only to this earth but to every one's feet. Even so the Sun of Righteousness sends His rays to you, to each one of us : great promises, invitations and gracious declarations pour forth from Him a mighty volume of love and light, to you. Lay hold of this thought, that the whole of the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ is given to each one of us. Christ sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high; the Holy Spirit dwells within your heart. "No man can call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit." Let this spiritual omnipotence come into your heart to cleanse and fill and use it. Christ said, " Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip?" The Spirit often says, "Have I been so long with you, and have ye not known me ?" Are we not often looking for the consciousness of the Spirit, instead of realizing the fact that the Spirit is present with us? Let us recognize His presence and seek for mightier manifestations. I am glad and thankful for the privilege of attending this Conference. When it was proposed to us in Bombay, in my short Rev. G. Bowen. Rev. Dr. sightedness I said, "No, we already possess all the information we need." But the past week has been a time of blessing and refreshing, and I have been glad to look upon the faces of so many earnest workers for Christ our common Master. REV. DR. NEWTON, Lahore, said :-One of the things which have been impressed particularly on my mind, in looking over this body of Missionaries, is the fact that of the men whom I once knew as the chief agents in the work of evengelizing India, not one is here. Again and again the question has risen in my mind: The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? When I Forty-eight landed in Calcutta, forty-eight years ago, the prominent Missionaries in these parts were Marshman and Yates, Pearce and Lacroix, Duff, Mackay and Ewart, Ellis, Thomas, and others; and then, in sympathy with these, and working harmoniously with them, Missionaries in reality though not in name, were Archdeacon Dealtry and Bishop Wilson. Where are all these fathers now? They have long since passed away, and doubtless they are now with Christ-where some of us expect to be very soon. years ago. The present A new generation of Missionaries has now appeared on the generation. scene; and some of these too are growing old. They are far more numerous than those of the last half century, and in some respects more knowing also. True, there were giants in those days; but, as it has been well said, though a giant can see further than a man of small stature, yet a man of small stature, standing on the shoulders of a giant, can see further than the giant. And so even those Missionaries of the present day, who may have less gigantic powers than the great men of a former age, have the advantage of knowing what those fathers thought and taught, and the additional advantage of the light thrown on their work by the varied experiences of many intervening years. The Missionaries now living may well therefore be more knowing than those of an earlier age. And shall I say they are more energetic too? This might be saying too much; yet if I am to judge from what I have seen and heard in this Conference, I cannot be wrong in saying that in some, at least, of the Missionaries of the present day there is no small amount of energy and true Christian zeal. When I consider the great variety and extent of the work reported at these meetings, and the success attending much of that work, and then, in comparison, look back to what was the state of What hath things when I came to India, I am constrained to say, What God wrought! hath God wrought! In speaking of work, we are reminded that the Bible says two things about it. First, when the apostles gathered themselves unto Jesus, it is said they told Him what they had done and what they had taught,-what they had done. And here let me say that it would be a good thing if we all, at stated seasons, reported our work to the Master, telling Him, in detail, what we had done for Him, and what we had taught in His name. It would stimulate us to greater fidelity. But again, it is written of Paul and Barnabas, that on their return from a preaching tour in Asia Minor, they rehearsed to the Church all that God had done with them. So the work has a Divine as well as a human side. God works to will and to do. What therefore has been reported by the members of this Conference, as done by them, so far as it has been marked by success, has really been wrought by God; and God should have the glory. I say again, What hath God wrought! What a door has been opened! and how many, constrained by the love of Christ, have already passed through that open door! When I arrived at Lodiana, my first station, accompanied by a fellow labourer from America, we found that our brother Missionary, Mr. Lowrie, who had preceded us by about twelve months, had been invited by Ranjit Singh, the "great Maharajah" of the Panjab, as the people call him, to visit him at Lahore. The object of the Maharajah was to engage the Missionary to open a school at his capital, for the education, in English, of the sons of his chiefs: but Christianity was not to be taught,--a condition which could by no means be accepted; and so the negociation was broken off. Now, we have about 1,600 young men and boys in Lahore receiving Christian instruction: and this has been going on for 30 years. I might say also, that when I first went up country, the only Missionaries beyond Benares, besides the pioneer of our own Mission, were four men of the class which in those days called itself "country-born." Now, in the same region, the foreign Missionaries alone are counted by scores, and the Native Christian population amounts to several thousands. When I came to India, a young lady also came, under the protection of my wife and myself, to aid in that part of the work which relates to females. But soon after our arrival in Calcutta, she was informed by the Missionary who had preceded us to Lodiana, that there was no work there for young ladies, and so it would be useless for her to go: and she did not go. Now, what a host of ladies have found an open door in every part of the Panjab! and how many hundreds-shall I not say thousandsof their own sex are taught by them the truth as it is in Jesus! This access of Missionaries to the women of the country is, to my mind, the most encouraging feature of the work we have in hand. Before closing I should like to say a word about the spiritua- Spirituality lity of the Native Church,-a subject which has already been dis- of the Native cussed in the Conference :-not that I have anything new to Church. offer, but I wish to urge, that if we desire to see a high tone of piety among the native members of our Churches, we must rise to a high standard ourselves. They naturally look to their teachers for a pattern as well as for instruction; and it may safely be affirmed that the spirituality of the converts, as a rule, can never be high, if our own spiritual standing is comparatively low. The Farewell verses. way to bring them up, is to go before, and draw them after us. So it was with such Missionaries as Paul and Silas and Timothy. Paul could say to the Thessalonian Christians, "Ye became followers of us and of the Lord .... so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia." This is the natural order. Christ, the Great Examplar; then the Missionaries, following Christ: then the converts, following the Missionariesand so, following Christ too; then these same converts becoming an example to other Christians. When we imitate Paul and his fellow Missionaries in this, we shall hear fewer complaints of a low state of spirituality in the Native Church. THE REV. DR. MURRAY MITCHELL, read the following verses composed by himself From various lands of various tongues we came, To see the finished mystery of heaven, We part, not as we met. Partakers all Of a fresh baptism of faith and love, The sacramental host can, with new hope, Tempered in heaven, whose edge was never turned- Until this land so dear, so sorrowed o'er, With all its load of misery and of sin, After long ages of transgression, turn And, pierced in heart with love-shafts of the King, |