collection as that which is being now made by the Bishops under the authority of the Crown.

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long preserve his name in the grateful recollection of the Indian Church; and which bids fair, under Divine protection, to become a greater blessing to these extensive lands, than any they have received from their foreign lords, since the gate was first opened by the Portuguese to the commerce and conquest of Asia, I mean, the excellent institution of Bishop's College, which is already, I rejoice to say, made available as a place of education, and already confirms the hopes, with which its projector delighted to contemplate it as the probable future source of sacred learning and religious instruction to the Christian youth, whether of European or native blood, through the whole of this vast Empire; and as the instrument, in God's good time, of making plain His way through the wilderness of the heathen world, and giving light to the most remote, the most obscured, and the most hopeless of the nations who sit in darkness.” Bp. Heber's Primary Charge at Calcutta, p. 34, 5. quoted in part by Le Bas, Life, ii. 335. "The best and most experienced friends of Christianity, (including all the Bishops of Calcutta,) have given their united testimony to the value and wisdom and probable utility of the Institution." Brit. Crit. 1831. No. 19, p. 207. “The [present] Bishop of Calcutta's opinion respecting the College remains unchanged. In a letter dated Sept. 11, 1835, he says, 'I am now much more master of the question than I was, and my deliberate conviction of its adaptation for eminent usefulness, is confirmed by all I have seen and observed. It is the Institution which India wants. Its Missionaries are already beginning to appear in the field of labour and success." Report Prop. Gosp. Soc. 1836, p. S7. "The unequivocal acknowledgment of the value of such an Institution as Bishop's College, is an ample reward to the Society for all the expense and care bestowed upon its great Missionary establishment for India. The Bishop informs the Society that he had found the College in a most satisfactory state. An opportunity of beginning a

An organization, then, is provided every where, in kind though not in degree such as has been in every age, the instrument of God in extending the kingdom of His dear Son. This Society is the accredited organ of the whole Episcopacy of our branch of the Church Catholic; it has all along addressed itself peculiarly to those duties, which lie upon us as a nation, those relating to our own colonies and dependencies; it has ever gladly submitted itself to our Bishops abroad, and placed its missionaries at their disposal; it has in connection with it, in East, and West and North, seminaries for the education of native missionaries. I would speak freely, though kindly as to other institutions; but I would say, that however little this Society may in many places be known, because it has preferred to do rather than to speak of its doings ", it is at present the institution in this country, eminently entitled to the support of those, who

native class of students, [a plan which Bp. Middleton had much at heart; see Life, i. 417, 479, 80.] had presented itself.” Report, 1837, p. 45. Yet had this Institution to undergo its time of trial and censure, in which it was spoken of by high names as unduly expensive and extravagant, and “ Brit. Crit. ib. 207.

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as an evil."

People are much amazed that they never heard of a Society which had done so much." Bp. Middleton, (on Rev. J. Pratt's" Propaganda," or Hist. of the Gosp. Prop. Soc.) ap. Le Bas, ii. 121. See also Abp. of Armagh Speeches, &c. p. 9. "The distinguishing mark of the Institution, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, is its close connection with

would wish in a wise, orderly, self-denying, lasting way, to propagate the Gospel of their God and Saviour. One would, of course, rejoice, that Christ was made known to those who otherwise would not have heard of Him, even though "the truth as it is in Him," should be, at first, imperfectly set forth and so one may be glad, if in China, or some of the thousand isles of the Southern Ocean, Romanists, or any of the maimed communities of Christians in our own land, may have borne His Name. Little promise of durability as the efforts of those bodies, which have severed themselves from the Church, already appear to hold out, one should be glad that they had, even for a time, shone like a light in a dark place, and hope that the day-star might at length arise. Had they confined their efforts to such places, imperfect as we must deem their forms, we might have "wished them God speed." But we may not, in a matter of practical duty, look upon one side only; and since these Societies have taken as their province, not only

her rules of "What gives

the Church of England, and its adherence to Ecclesiastical Discipline." Report, March, 1838. this Society a peculiar title to your favour and protection in my mind is this--that it is the close ally of the Established Church, and has been conducted in accordance with the Catholic principles and sober practice of the Church." Abp. of Armagh, 1. c. See also a valuable "Letter to His Grace the Abp. of Canterbury, occasioned by the late Meeting in support of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." (Stewart and Rivington.)

places where Christ is not preached, but where our Church has been planted, we must (painful as it may be) realize to ourselves that they are not only Missionaries in the one place, but in the other schismatics, i. e. dividers of the Church, which He willed to be one. And thus, of some Societies which though not connected with our Church, have received large support from the irregular and self-chosen liberality of its members, it is to be feared that they will rather retard the progress of the Gospel, by distracting and diminishing the Church, than enlarge it by the converts to their own imperfect forms; and our first and Apostolic Indian Bishop had to complain that they were more anxious to gain proselytes than converts*; that they fixed themselves among the Europeans rather than the natives, gaining rather to themselves and their sect than to Christ.

This want of unity is a most serious impediment to the extension of the Gospel. The first great hindrance in India, was the belief that we had no religion; the second, that we have not one but many; "they should think better of Christianity," they uniformly say, "if there were not quite so many

Bp. Middleton. The Writer is glad to subjoin a most valuable passage from his excellent Charges, (now probably scarce,) in which after stating the evils, he gives his view as to the mode in which these Societies might beneficially employ themselves. See Note G.

"I

different kinds of it." And they say rightly; our Lord left one Church, and made the unity of His Church the groundwork of its success. I pray," saith our Lord, as with Himself He presented His future Church throughout all ages unto His Father, "not for these alone [the first Apostles], but for them also, which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one [one thing, one body] in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Holiness, Unity, Catholicity, are the attributes of His Church; and therefore is the belief in the Holy Catholic Church, placed next to that of the Holy Ghost, since by Him, the Giver of life, present in the whole Body, and proceeding from the Father and the Son, He unites, and sanctifies, and knits in one its several members throughout the world. But in what sense are they one, who teach not the same doctrines, communicate not at the same Altar, receive not together that One Bread, which unites all into one body? Or what a lamentable

Le Bas, p. 132. "While writing, I have heard from a Brahmin at Benares, who is quite disgusted with idolatry, and has, with several others, made some progress in the knowledge of Christianity. But he tells me that they have had among them not only Protestants (meaning the Church of England) but Roman Catholics, and recently Baptists, and that their ways are quite different; by which,' he says, in his imperfect English, the poor Hindoos is in a great confusion.'" Bp. Middleton's Letter, 1817, ap. Le Bas, i. 410.