Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Leeds, will not be unmindful of their duty. It gives me great delight to hear the voice of my American friend, if he will allow me to call him my friend; I rejoiced to hear a transatlantic voice, coming as it were across the mighty deep, and sounding an awakening note, to arouse our energies, and stimulate our zeal, and stir up our exertions. It also gives me great pleasure, and I cannot restrain the expression of that pleasure, that news of the most important nature has reached us from India since our last anniversary meeting. It is no less than that the pilgrim-tax has been abolished; that that source of such grievous discontent in this country, and which was in itself so deep a reproach, has been removed. And to whom are we indebted for its removal? I fearlessly say, to the religious communities of England; and to none ought we to feel more sincerely grateful than to the London Missionary Society. It was from this Society that the question came to be proposed to men in high places, "What is to be done respecting this Indian abomination?" And, I will not say, acting from unworthy motives, but, acting from that stimulus, the Government sent out a despatch on the 8th of August, which contained these words, or words to this effect," Let the pilgrim-tax be from this day abolished." Nor is this the only achievement accomplished in India by the agency of this and similar Societies. No Englishman, either in the service of the Queen or the Company, is now required to be present at acts of idolatrous worship; none shall be now dismissed because they would not bow down before the idols of the heathen. Are not these services that are worthy of your great Society? and does not the Society deserve for them your grateful contributions? I hope the consideration, that it has been the great means, under God, of doing away with such abominations, will furnish a stimulus, utterly out of your power, had you the inclination, to resist.

The resolution was then put and agreed to.

The CHAIRMAN rose, and introduced to the meeting the Rev. Dr. Beman, as a delegate from the American Board of Foreign Missions.

Dr. BEMAN, after a few introductory observations, said,─As a member of the Board of Commissioners, allow me to state a few facts which will bear very strongly upon the increased exertions which are called for in this resolution. Our board has been in existence about 26 years. I have been a member about 13 years. But like all other great enterprises in our world, that board had an humble origin. It commenced with two young men, members of one of our colleges. They were accustomed to go out on the banks of a beautiful river, and, kneel

ing down beside a stack of hay, to pray for the heathen, when as yet not a single pulse in our land was beating in favour of Missions. We have now about 300 labourers in the foreign Mission field, and the Board of Commissioners has been in the receipt of between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars annually, for several years past. It is true we have had our trials and reverses as a Missionary board; and during the late pecuniary embarrassments our heathen schools were disbanded; 5,000 children in the East were sent home, weeping as they retired from the schools. The Missionaries informed us of the deep regret which was felt at that suspension of their labours; and it produced a new thrill throughout our land in favour of Missions. At the last meeting of the board, an audience like this in numbers and high pulsation of Christian feeling told the board that the money should be raised. And 300,000 dollars are this year pledged to be subscribed for that object. The Board was desired to inform the Missionaries that they need not abandon the work but call together their disbanded schools, for America would do the work; and now I have heard that our treasury is full, and we want men rather than money. And this, I have no doubt, will always be the case; for if we lay our selves out for great things God will en able us to do them. My Rev. colleague (Dr. Patten) has expressed my feelings on the great subject of British emancipation, and I would not have it understood, for a moment, that we say these things because we are a great way from home. I have uniformly said them in the midst of my own people, and said them sometimes when the storm gathered around the head of every man who dared to utter them. In connexion with the howling and threatening of the storm, I have said, in the language of a noble public man, "When the time comes that I cannot express my self freely on any great subject of morals and politics, I wish to live no longer." I have, as an American, dared to say, that if I cannot be an abolitionist at home, I will go to Great Britain, where I can be one. Now, I know it is said all over the world, that the negroes cannot be free and exist. Why, they are not only free, but your Re port tells us that in the West Indies they are helping to snap the chain that holds the world in thraldom. I venerate your 1st of August, and it is saying a great deal, when I tell you that I venerate it as I do the 4th of July. I beg to move

"That this meeting considers it the solemn duty of the Society not only to augment their efforts, so as to sustain the present scale of its operations, but to employ with prompt and untiring zeal, all suitable means to raise the permanent income of the Society to One Hundred Thousand Pounds, so that the Directors may be justified in sending forth labourers to various large and important fields is

India, Cuina, South Africa, and the South Seas, from whence most affecting, urgent, and reiterated calls for Missionaries have been made, but to which calls the Directors dare not respond, even by sending forth their present number of students, without adequately augmented pecuniary resources."

Here is a call for more funds, just as was the case with us in September last at our Board of Commissioners; and now, only in the month of May, the Board is ready to send word to its constituents, Give us Missionaries, for we have money enough. Can we for a moment suppose that English Christians will be behind their American brethren? I have never, in my whole life, felt a finer Missionary pulse than that which beats in the arteries of English Christians. God is asking for increased exertion-and English Christians will give it! What is 100,000. It is a small sum to be raised by this Society, yet it is a sum that will tell on the destinies of earth. I know that every one who has knelt at a Saviour's feet will be disposed to say, "Here, Lord, are my treasures, take what is necessary for thy use, and the conversion of the heathen." This is the feeling we should cherish. There must be some self-denial in this work. Let me impress upon you the solemn consideration that there are twenty millions of heathens › dying every year, oh I what a death; twenty millions-nearly as many as the inhabitants of this country go to eternity every year, and if the Bible be true, to what an eternity do they depart! In the view of these facts, it would be well if each individual would solemnly stand at the bar of his own conscience, and ask, as was asked in the public assembly yesterday, "What are we, and what are we doing?"

The Rev. Dr. LEIFCHILD rose and announced a list of subscriptions. If they had a few more like these, it would not be "poor London," any longer, compared with Manchester or any other part of the kingdom. He trusted that there were friends from different parts of the country who would follow the example. He had no wish that contributions should be from his denomination only. The Society was equally willing to receive money from Wesleyans and members of the Church of England.

The Rev. Dr. RAFFLES, in rising to secood the resolution, said—It is now twentyfour years since, not on this platform, but in the assembly of this great Society, I, along with many others, then but lads, commencing our career, were pledged by our fathers, now in glory, to this great cause. And I thank the God of my fathers that I am now here in life, and health, and strength, and with unabated attachment still devoted to this cause. We are accustomed to regard the application of a sermon as the last and most important part of it; but Dr. Leifchild has provoked me to reverse the order, and make the application

at the commencement. I have now the pleasure of presenting to the treasurer the first produce of a real estate worth from 6,000l. to 7,000l. a year, purchased by a friend of this Society, residing in Suffolk, [communicated to the Society by the Rev. W. Garthwaite, of Wattesfield, in that county,] and which he has given in trust to the London Missionary Society: while he lives he has retained the power of appropriating it; but at his decease it will fall into the hands of this Society. In addition to this, the same individual has conveyed to trustees, for the benefit of this Society and the perpetual supply of its funds, the sum of 10,000., Three per Cent. Consols, principal and interest, to be the property of the Society after his decease. I have also to present to this Society twenty-five sovereigns, contributed to it by a youth on his death-bed, who had saved that sum out of his pocketmoney. This fact, in connexion with others, was adverted to by his pastor, in his funeral sermon; and I am happy to say, that the result has been, that there are at least sixty anxious inquirers about the way of salvation in that place, many of whom, I have reason to believe, are truly converted unto God. Mr. Bennet told us that at Otaheite, when a chief was anxious to express his sentiments with regard to any matter under discussion, he was accustomed to say, with all the gravity of a judge, "Let it stand." We are to raise 100,000l. during the next year, and I want to ask this meeting, "Shall it stand?" Cannot London-poor London - the metropolis of England-the metropolis of the world-raise its proportion? But shall it stand? It must stand! We have passed the Rubicon. We cannot return. We are accustomed to say, that in the personal experience of a Christian man there is no standing still-if he does not advance, he retrogrades. So it is with this Society. You must close your schools, recall your missionaries, or you must be ready to go forth to the ends of the world. No; it must stand. We must awake to loftier enterprises and to nobler aims. "Expect great things-attempt great things.' see not yet all things put under Christevery knee does not bow to Jesus-every knee in China, in Africa, in America, in Britain, perhaps every knee in this assembly, does not bow to Jesus. Now, the god of this world sways his sceptre over its prostrate realms and its mighty masses of population. Stones and stocks-senseless blocks of marble and of wood-secure to themselves the adoration, the homage, and the praise that belong exclusively to the great Jehovah; and mighty nations are stillsunk in all the horrors of Paganism—wał. lowing in their pollution, and weltering in their blood. That is the condition of the world; and shall we stay our hands, and

We

hold back from the glorious enterprise, when it is committed to us instrumentally, and in the hand of God, to raise that degraded world from its deep degradation, and shed upon its darkness the light of love, and burst its fetters that it may go free? We must rise to nobler enterprises and to sublimer aims. Instead of brass we must bring gold, tens must take the place of units, hundreds the place of tens, and thousands the place of hundreds. Our merchants

must carry on their traffic for the cause of God, and must give their ships to carry the heralds of the cross to the scenes of their distant labour; and the church must consecrate the flower of her youth, her best and noblest sons, to the glorious enterprise. And then, when the Christian Church thus offers her contributions, she will awake to the fervour of more persevering effectual prayer. This must lie at the foundation of all prosperity in connexion with our efforts to evangelise the world. Let me now return to the question. Shall it stand?

(Cries of "Yes.") The chairman will soon require this large assembly to express their approbation of this resolution; but, in lifting up their hands, let every one feel that he or she, in the presence of the heartsearching God, gives a solemn pledge that, to the utmost ability which such individual possesses, such individual will consecrate his and her influence, time, property, and every thing by which this great object may be in any measure or degree promoted. In furtherance of this design, it is proposed, that 100,000. should be raised during the ensuing year for this noble Institution. Reference has been made to Manchester, where we have lately set on foot a new academy.

One individual gave towards that object 1,0007., another gave us 1,000. in advantages afforded in the purchase of land, and has added 1,0007. as an individual gift besides. Another individual on whom I called said, "It is an important object." I told him we wanted 25,000l., to which he replied, "You will get the money I will give you a lift ;" and in a day or two afterwards he called upon our treasurer and gave him 4007., and said, "You shall have more if you want it." If all this can be done in a provincial town, what ought not to be done in the metropolis? We look to you to set an example. We trust you will do all you can, and we will try to do the same. We are all embarked in the same glorious cause. I love to respond to sentiments of affection expressed towards America. I rejoice to see delegates from America in the midst of us, and I am quite willing in this great and glorious cause to fight side by side with America, and so become friends and companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.

WILLIAM ALERS HANKEY, Esq., then

rose, and said-You are aware, from the office I sustained in this Society, that the question of funds is one which excites my strongest feelings. I hope it shall standI hope the members of this Society will not cease their liberality, even when the annual income shall amount to 100,000l. If you desire that the funds of your Society should amount to such a sum as that on which the directors could confidently depend for the support of present, and the enlargement of future, operations, the money must be raised on a different principle from that on which it has been too much produced. It can only be satisfactorily done by a conscientious and general en. largement of annual subscriptions. I only invite our friends in town and country to look over the list of subscriptions as given in your annual report, and they will not fail, I think, to find one thing that will strike them with astonishment-the smallness of the annual subscriptions-on which source of income alone the directors can confidently depend. Whether you regard them as contributed in London or any other place, you must be sensible of their small amount. Now, these must be increased. What is the amount that every individual is prepared to contribute annually? We want pledges; for it is by the stated and regular contributions of the friends of the Society, that we can be enabled to maintain that high position which we should occupy in the prosecution of our great and import. ant labours.

The Rev. JOHN ANGELL JAMES then rose, and addressed the meeting to the fol lowing effect-Although I am not quite free from bodily indisposition, yet I cannot help rising and avowing myself the father of the thought which has been thrown out; and I hope that the gentlemen who give wings to words will commit it to paper, that it may fly through the length and breadth of the land. One hundred thousand pounds a year must be raised for this Society. This meeting shall hear what took place last Tuesday, in the room of the Directors, when town and country united their sapience to devise what would be best for the advancement of the cause. Financial matters were of course very early introduced. It was announced that the expenditure had very much exceeded the in come. Well then, what was to be done? We sat in silence, and looked at each other "unutterable things." At length one director called for one of last year's reports, and said that there must be a topographical examination of those parts of the country that had fallen most behind. A London director asked, "Pray, has London done its duty?" Then, a friend from the country said, he thought that Middlesex should be the first county examined, and that London

was the first place in that county over which the eyes of the directors should range, for that it had so happened, that at a country meeting, where your excellent secretary took upon him very properly to lecture the country for coming short, he did happen to say, Well, Mr. Ellis, there is a proposal in some quarters to send up delegates from the country to stir up the churches in London, for it is an undoubted fact that many of the churches there appear to be very mach behind. Some of the country churches, who do not possess the affluence or numbers of those in London, do a great deal more for the Missionary Society." Well, we had a very good-humoured discussion between town and country as to who were doing the most; and, of course, the converse -who were doing the least. And how did we end? London had done too little, the country had not done enough, and both, therefore, must do a great deal more. Then cane, of course, the question, How are they to do this? One pleaded for increase of agency-another for an increase of ministerial effort-a third said, each was good in its way, but both must be combined. At length, I certainly did venture to propose an imitation of the exertions of our Wesleyan brethren, which is, I am pretty sure, doing us all a great deal of good. I said, better not tell the country that you want more-it is true enough that you dobut we are much more moved by what is specific, than by what is vague-it is a poor thing to say 46 we want more "--but rather, said I, tell the people we want 100,000!. Well, my proposal was gravely debated; any objected, of course many timid minds were startled. Now, I have no doubt, that this 100,0001. can be raised. How? Go on to-day, if you please. I am quite of opinion, with your former treasurer, that it is not at such meetings as this that the sum can be raised. No; but the example may be set here. Let the guinea a year be doubled, Guinea a year subscriptions, let me tell you, are going out of fashion. those who give a guinea a year, ask themselves if they think that is all they are bound to give for the conversion of the world. Oh! my friends, let us not sit down under the shadow of this unit, and congratulate ourselves on what we are doing. As Dr. Raffles has said, we must go on from units to tens, and from tens to hundreds, and from hundreds to thousands; and we must not stop there. We must let it stand! Labouring as my congregation are, under efforts that press heavily upon them at home, yet something shall be said to them on the subject; and while they are distributing with their right hand, their left hand shall not remain at rest. Shall it stand? as Dr. Raffles has asked. Yes; and the reso

Let

lution will be our glory-the failure will be our disgrace. But the great part of the disgrace will rest-where? With the rich. Are the affluent doing what they can-what they ought? Let me recall to your memories the beautiful, the striking sentiment in that incomparable sermon we heard on the past day :-" Mites can be expected only from those who have nothing more to give; and the cup of cold water will not do to be offered by the rich man in a golden cup, while he keeps the utensil to himself." I am sure the sum will be raised. Let it go forth on the tongue of every minister present. Brethren, I was about to say that it rests with us whether the sum be raised or not. I make myself answerable to the extent of my own influence. Do you the same. I am no prophet; but upon the ministers present, I hesitate not to say, it depends, under God, whether the sum which is proposed as the future income of the Society shall be raised or not. Brethren, I turn from the people, and from the chair, for one moment, and I ask you, Shall it stand?

The resolution was put and carried. Several donations were then handed up to the platform.

A. WHITE, Esq., M.P. (for Sunderland) having made a few observations expressive of his personal feelings of delight and approbation in reference to the character and object of the meeting, moved the following resolution:

"That Thomas Wilson, Esq., the treasurer, and the Rev. William Ellis, and the Rev. John Arundel, the secretaries, be appointed to their respective offices for the ensuing year. That the Directors who are eligible be reappointed, and that the following gentlemen (as per list) be chosen to fill up the places of those who retire; and that this meeting urges it upon all the supporters of the Society to implore the gracious and promised influences of the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon all its agents both at home and abroad."

The Rev. Mr. KNILL, in seconding the resolution, expressed his firm conviction that a Missionary spirit was extensively diffusing itself throughout the country. He had no doubt whatever that the hundred thousand pounds would be raised.

The CHAIRMAN, in submitting the motion for adoption, said, I have been requested to state that the amount contributed, independently of the ordinary collection, is 11607.

The resolution having been put and agreed to,

THOMAS WILSON, Esq., moved, and WM. ALERS HANKEY, Esq., seconded a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which was carried amid the plaudits of the vast assembly.

The CHAIRMAN briefly returned thanks, a hymn was sung, and, after prayer, the meeting separated.

SILVER-STREET CHAPEL. Rev. Dr. RAFFLES presided. Prayers and addresses by Revs. G. Wilkins, of Rendham; G. B. Phillips, of Harrold; S. Thodey, of Cambridge; A. Good, of Woodbridge; J. Moreland, of Totteridge.

CLAREMONT CHAPEL.

Rev. J. A. JAMES presided. Prayers and addresses by Revs. W. Jar. rett, T. Milner, J. Gawthorne, and S. Luke. HANOVER CHAPEL, PECKHAM. Rev. RALPH WARDLAW, D.D., presided. Prayers and addresses by Rev. Messrs. W. Bean, T. Binney, J. Burnet, J. Brown, W. Chapman, W. J. Hope, H. B. Jeula, J. Pulling, E. Steane, T. Timpson, Geo. Verrall, and C. Williams.

ST. THOMAS'S-SQUARE, HACKNEY. Rev. ROBERT HALLEY, D.D., presided. Prayers and addresses by Revs. Dr. Smith, H. Townley, Dr. Burder, G. Christie, and E. Jinkings.

CRAVEN CHAPEL.

Rev. JOHN LEIFCHILD, D.D., presided. Prayers and addresses by Revs. J. Alexander, of Norwich; H. J. Bevis, of Ramsgate; J. Vincent, of Deal; Dr. Steinköpff.

JAMAICA-ROW, BERMONDSEY. Rev. J. EDWARDS, from Berbice, presided. Prayers and addresses by Rev. Messrs. Edwards (Brighton,) Williams, Varty, Garthwaite, Ferguson, and Gilbert.

YORK-ST. CHAPEL, WALWORTH.

Rev. Dr. REED, presided.
Prayers and addresses by Rev. J. Hunt,
Rev. Geo. Clayton, and a Missionary ap-
pointed to the Navigators Islands.

STOCKWELL CHAPEL.
Rev. G. COLLISON presided.
Prayers and addresses by Rev. Messrs.

Dubourg, G. Browne, Mirams, Richards, Dr. Shoveller, Newth, T. Jackson, and W. Jackson.

34 18 4

£2112 16 1

Also, from a Friend to Missions, by the Rev. W. Garthwaite, of Wattesfield

AUXILIARY.

215 @

Alexander, of Edinburgh, Rev. S. Luke, of Chester, two of the Society's Missionaries, Rev. W. Campbell, and Rev. Micaiah Hill, from India, and other ministers, are expected to take part in the services.