Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

extensive good which it has wrought, and which it is so calculated to effect. We are strongly of opinion, that many and advantageous as are the charitable and religious institutions in this country, there is not a society which demands greater pecuniary aid from the public than the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge-not one which more forcibly appeals to the benevolence of a commonweal, calling itself Christian.-The following is an extract from the report :

"The first object to which the attention of the members is directed, is the great increase in the circulation of the Society's publications. The total number of works of every class circulated since the last report, has amounted to Two MILLIONS FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND ONE Hundred And SEVENTY-TWO, being an increase during the year of 197,124,

"It is very gratifying to observe, that this amount includes a large proportion of the holy Scriptures, and of the Liturgy of the Church of England; the numbers circulated being 186,974 Bibles and Testaments, and 192,082 Prayer Books.

"In addition to this, the Committee of General Literature and Education have issued publications, including the Saturday Magazine, to the amount of 4,070,100.

"The income of the Society has also had a proportional increase. The general receipts during the year have amounted to 80,3921. 8s., being an increase upon the receipts of the preceding year of more than seven thousand pounds.

66

Large, however, as the receipts have been, they have not been equal to the expenditure; the payments having amounted to 91,522l. 18. 11d. The deficiency has necessarily been met by the sale of a portion of the funded property. It is hoped, however, that the zeal and liberality of the Society's friends will soon replace the amount thus drawn from the funds, and that its permanent income will not suffer from the extraordinary claims which have been made upon its bounty."

THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN

FOREIGN PARTS.

THE report of this Society will speak for itself. We give the following extract :

"The erection of episcopal sees at Montreal, Australia, and Bombay, has added three new branches to the Church of Christ, and opened so many new channels through which the assistance of the Society may be conveyed to the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain.

"The collection under the authority of a King's Letter, issued in the year 1835, for the purpose of supplying the spiritual wants of the emancipated Negroes, has realised the sum of 34,000l. ; while the fund which was raised by subscription for the same purpose, including the grants of this Society, of the SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, and of the SOCIETY FOR ADVANCING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES, amounts to 25,500l. From these two sources,

together with the sums received from his Majesty's Government out of the parliamentary grant for the education of the Negroes, the Society hopes to give effectual assistance in the erection of churches, chapels, and school-houses throughout the West-Indies, and to contribute, for a time at least, towards the maintenance of the clergymen, catechists, and schoolmasters, whose services are so urgently required in those colonies.

"Another gratifying occurrence is the addition which the Society has been enabled to make to its band of Missionaries in the Presidency of Madras. The want of such reinforcement has been felt and acknowledged from the time when the superintendence of the Southern Missions was transferred to this institution, by the SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. But the efforts made to supply the deficiency proved unsuccessful; and the number of Missionaries actually employed in the year 1834, namely, seven, amounted only to one more than at the death of Bishop Heber, in 1826. Since the publication of the last report, five Missionaries have been despatched to Madras from this country, a sixth has been ordained in India by the Bishop of Calcutta, and two more candidates for ordination are expected to sail before the end of the present year.

"With this addition the number of Missionaries in the South will be seventeen; and the whole number in India, exclusive of the Principal and Professors of Bishop's College, will amount to twenty-one.

"The increased expenditure required by these appointments will be met, in part, by a most timely benefaction from the trustees of the late R. Jackson, Esq., of Forkhill, in the county of Armagh. On the petition of the trustees to the Court of Chancery, Dublin, power was obtained to transfer the sum of 1,000l. every year from the trust fund, formed by Mr. Jackson, to the SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION of the GOSPEL, for the maintenance of scholars at Bishop's College, and Missionaries in India, the Scholars and Missionaries to be called Jackson Forkhill Scholars and Missionaries respectively, after their benevolent founder. For this very acceptable arrangement the Society is indebted to the kindness of his Grace the Lord Primate of Ireland, and the Lord Bishop of Down and Connor.

"These are the most remarkable domestic occurrences of the year 1835-36; and the next point to be adverted to is the state of the Society's finances, and the measures by which it proposes to uphold and improve them.

"In the year 1834, the receipts arising from subscriptions, &c., amounted in round numbers to 12,000l., and the interest from property vested in the funds was 5,000l. The expenditure, exclusive of the sum of 4,000l. received from Parliament, exceeded 25,000l., and the deficiency was met by a sale of stock. In 1835, the income from subscriptions has not realized so large a sum as that which was collected under the peculiar circumstances of the preceding year; it amounted to little more than 10,000l.; while at the same time, the income from the funds, diminished by previous sales, was reduced to 4,7767.; and the whole expenditure, exclusive of the West-Indies, amounted to more than 32,000l. The deficiency was covered by sales of stock, producing on the whole upwards of 13,000l. So large a diminution of the Society's

funded property demanded a careful examination of the various heads of expenditure; but the result did not authorize the hope of any material reduction, except by measures which could not fail to cripple the most important of the Society's Missions.

"In North America the expenditure, during the year 1835, was 18,7997., being an excess of 8,000l. above the sum which the Society, in the recent arrangement with his Majesty's Government, undertook to lay out in that quarter. This charge will be diminished during the current year, by the transfer of the greater part of the salaries in Nova Scotia to the parliamentary fund; and by the discontinuance of the allowances formerly made to schoolmasters in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At the same time the expenditure will be increased by the salaries of new Missionaries employed in the dioceses of Nova Scotia and Quebec; and by the very considerable enlargement of the East-India establishment. Under these circumstances there is an obvious necessity for increased exertion on the part of the friends and supporters of the institution, and several measures have been adopted, with a view to make the spiritual wants of the colonies more extensively known throughout the mother country."

Reviews.

Sermons of the Very Rev. William Vincent, D.D., late Dean of Westminster; Vol. II. ;-with his Portrait and a Prelimi nary Discourse. By Lieutenant-General WM. THORNTON, formerly a Representative in Parliament for the Borough of New Woodstock. London: Cadell. 1836.

THE contents of this volume are twofold,-the Sermons and the Preliminary Discourse; but they by no means deserve the same character. The Sermons themselves are sound and impressive. How could they be otherwise from Dean Vincent? All the Sermons are worthy of attentive perusal. Had we room to give an extract, we should find some difficulty in selecting one passage as better than others. They are all good, bold, candid, and christian churchmanship, worthy of the best and brightest times of the history of our Church.

But now we must have a few words with "Lieutenant-General William Thornton," who has expressed some strong opinions in his Preliminary Discourse.

"I feel so much zeal," says he, "for the United Church of England and Ireland, that I cannot let this opportunity pass without endeavouring to press earnestly on the Clergy, the necessity of a strict performance of their several duties. I frequently, in the House of Commons, brought to the consideration of the members, the duty of the Clergy to have morning and evening service constantly performed in every church

and chapel on Sundays; and I have reason to flatter myself, that the instances I cited of the neglect of many of the Clergy in this respect, were of considerable benefit, and that more regularity in the performance of those duties has been produced in consequence of my remonstrances,"

First of all, a Lieutenant-General accuses the Clergy of neglect of duty. He assumes this because service is not performed twice on Sundays in every church and chapel in the kingdom. And what steps does he take? He brings the subject forward in his place in the House of Commons; he afterwards attends the annual meetings of the Church Building Society, and brings it then and there before the serious consideration of the archbishops and bishops, at an unseasonable moment; and on the 27th of October, 1830, he presents a petition to the King, at the levee, in which he proposes, "that the Clergy should be liable to some pecuniary penalty for every omission."

Is our Lieutenant-General a competent judge of the true causes of such omission? What would he say should a bishop rise in his place in the House, and complain of the neglect of duty of the officers of the Blues, because they were not visible every time he passed the Horse Guards? Should our bishop urge the subject upon Lord Hill at unseasonable times, and present a petition to the King in council against this scandalous neglect, and propose a pecuniary penalty to be exacted on every officer of the Blues who in his judgment should so offend,-what would our Lieutenant-General say? The cases may not be quite parallel; but they are sufficient to show the hasty and inconsiderate way in which a Lieutenant-General writes on subjects which are not professional. Supposing he knew some instances of neglect of duty, ought he not first to have written to the supposed offenders, and have received their answers candidly?—then have appealed to the bishop of the diocese, and having collected a mass of facts, might he not then have stated the real grievances in his petition, and not hastily have charged the defenceless Clergy as a body?

man.

Our military reprover flatters himself that, since his speeches in the House of Commons, and his lectures to the bishops, things have much mended, and that the Clergy have been frightened into the better discharge of duty. He seems a sincere old He tells us that he has bid the world farewell; and we will not, therefore, intrude upon his private repose. But we must tell the public, into whose hands these excellent Sermons may fall, THAT THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IS NOT THE TRIBUNAL BEFORE WHICH THE CLERGY WILL CONSENT TO BE TRIED. Their members can never frighten them by threatening speeches. They are responsible to a HIGHER power, and they care not a rush for the menacing aspect of any politician. It is a fact, that a second Sunday service is not performed in some country villages; but

it does not necessarily follow that the parochial clergyman is neglectful. We are perfectly prepared to discuss the subject, but not while reviewing Dr. Vincent. We only caution the readers of this work against hastily adopting the charges brought forward in the preface.

66

46

66

But we have another remark to make upon the opinions of our military editor. "As a steady churchman, I very much "lament that the Clergy called Evangelical now too commonly "occupy the pulpits of our Established Church, for I believe they seldom preach the gospel of the New Testament." He adds, "They make a Bible for themselves; they do more injury to our religion than its professed enemies; they degrade our most gracious and merciful God into a demon." Now, however we may differ from some of our so styled Evangelical brethren (and we shall soon find it necessary to point out some of their errors in doctrine and practice), yet we cannot allow any class of the Clergy to be thus roundly and sweepingly accused. Our military friend may have commanded his own troops well, and he may have edited Dr. Vincent's Sermons well, and may have drawn his portrait well, and may have quartered the coat of arms well, and even represented the borough of New Woodstock well; but in one thing he has not done well-namely, in charging the Clergy as a body with neglect of duty; and in charging a part of them with making a new Gospel, a new Bible, and a new God for themselves,

The Irresistible Influence of Early Impressions on the Mind of Man; an Address to Parents. By C. V. WHitwell. London: 1836. Whittaker & Co.

THIS is an interesting pamphlet upon a most interesting and important subject; a subject, indeed, demanding far more consideration than we can now bestow upon it. This omission we hope to remedy at a more convenient season, and proceed now merely to indicate very briefly the benevolent intentions of the writer. In this day of numberless speculations, and when education is engaging the attention of so many religious and acute individuals, it is certainly surprising that the force of early impressions, that learning which the child imbibes, as it were, from the very atmosphere of his house, should have been so slightly regarded. We can make the next age what we will, said Lord Bacon; an aphorism which, like every thing that fell from this illustrious man, is pregnant with wisdom and reflection; it does, indeed, depend upon our sowing, whether future generations shall produce a golden harvest, or startle the world with armed men. There are seeds more destructive than dragon's teeth. But if we would exercise this saving influence

« VorigeDoorgaan »