to the credibility of the Gospel History the fourth, to the argument from Miracles; and the fifth, to that from Prophecy. In the sixth there is a passage which reflects great credit on the preacher; and may be read with as much advantage by our countrymen at home, as by those in India,

"I have endeavoured to set before you with all plainness and fidelity, the most striking and direct evidences of the divine origin of our holy religion. It is my duty now to remind you, that if it be divine, it is to all who hear it of supreme authority and universal obligation. We have seen that this Gospel at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also himself bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.* Unto you is the word of this salvation sent. Let it not seem strange to you that we, the ambassadors of Christ, should be anxions for the success of our embassy; and that, not content with delivering our message and establishing its authenticity, we should

charge and exhort every man, that we may present every man perfect before God.'

"It is possible that the evidences of Christianity may be acknowledged, where Christianity itself is not received. It is possible that its divine excellence may be confessed by many who still resist its claims to their acceptance. It is very possible that the splendour and beauty of its revelations may play upon the fancy, but never reach the heart; that many may mistake the assent of the understanding for the full assurance of faith, and the transient glow of the affections for the cheerful and unreserved obedience of the heart. The Gospel of Christ is indeed the most perfect display of the divine attributes, the most stupendous exhibition of the power and mercy of God: but we are not unconcerned spectators of the scene our own individual interests are deeply involved; we must be either the objects of his love, or the monuments of his wrath. We are called upon to contemplate and admire the wonderful plan of human redemption, but it is that we may believe and obey. The wisdom of

* Heb. ii. 4.

God is proclaimed to us; but it is that we may be made wise unto salvation. We are told of the humiliation and the sufferings of Christ, not to excite our wonder and sympathy, but that whosoever believeth on him might have eternal life." P. 79.

To these sentiments we cordially subscribe. If the Gospel is thus faithfully preached to the British residents in India, the work of conversion among the Hindoos will be more easily and effectually performed. The practical influence of Christianity, we may hope, will be more apparent; and visible improvement in the habits and sentiments of Europeans, will operate upon the native mind as the strongest recommendation to our religion.

a

The Universal Diffusion of the Christian Faith considered, in a Sermon, preached in the Parish Church of St. Martin, Leicester, on Friday, November, 24, 1823; being the Third Anniversary of the District Committees of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, established in the County of Leicester. Published at the Request of the Members present. By the Rev. Gilbert Beresford, M.A. Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn. 8vo. Pp. 28. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1824.

WE know not which to admire most in this Sermon-the elegance of its style, or the soundness and piety of its matter. The introductory remarks on the character of the Royal Psalmist's inspired compositions; the transition from the works of nature to the works of grace, graciously intended by their great Author to be co-extensive with the former; the powerful aid, under God, afforded by the religious Societies, connected

with the Church of England, to hasten and perfect this extension to the utmost boundaries of the earth, and the impressive appeal to every true Christian to support to the utmost of his power these Societies in their labours of love, are successively made in so masterly and feeling a manner, that the effect on the audience must have been, what we have reason to know it was, great and most beneficial. Sermons such as these cannot but be productive of good; they raise the character of our Church while they display at the same time the value of those Societies that act under her rulers, and in strict accordance with her principles. We are satisfied that these Societies only require to be known, and popularly and fully placed before the public, to be supported with all that zeal and liberality which are characteristic of this couniry. We do, therefore, most earnestly call the attention of our readers to the Sermon before us, not only on its own account, as a composition, but as presenting a just and compendious view of the objects and operations of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and for the Education of the Poor in the principles of the Established Church. These Societies, well supported, leave nothing to desire: by these our Church is enabled to train up the young in the nurture and admonition of the Lord: to supply the Scriptures, the Liturgy, and books of religious and useful knowledge to the old; and to extend in proportion to the means and opportunities afforded the blessings of the Gospel to every nation under heaven.

We extract the portion of the Sermon which chiefly relates to these.

"It can hardly be necessary for me to dwell at greater length on the origin and general designs of the two Religious Institutions, which have been for more than

a century fostered in the bosom of our National Church, and, for the important and extensive aid rendered to her sacred brightest ornaments, and her strongest cause, are justly esteemed among her

bulwarks. The characteristic features of each have been ably drawn by those*, who have gone before me on occasions similar to the present; and if I should pursue the same track, I could not, in justice to the cause I advocate, deviate much from the language of accurate representation of the nature of these Institutions, or from the argumentative and affectionate appeals made in their behalf. These addresses have assumed a printed form, andare in the hands of many of my hearers; and to them may be ascribed, as well as to the countenance of distinguished rank and virtue t, a more numerous and respectable assembly on the present day than has been witnessed on former anniversaries: and hence we venture to augur increased prosperity to Institutions, inseparably connected with the welfare of the country, and the peace of the Church.

"It happens that I have frequent opportunities of observing in detail, the proceedings of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,' and can bear ample testimony to the efficiency of its opera tions. Its general meetings for foreign and domestic purposes, as well as those of its several committees, are held within the parish intrusted to my charge, and in the that, considering it not only as a neighbour immediate vicinity of my own Church. So of a most interesting character, I am naturally become anxious for its progress and,

"I particularly allude to a Sermon, preached at the Anniversary in 1822, by the Rev. F. Merewether, Rector of Cole Orton and Vicar of Whitwick, Leicestershire. A clergyman, not more distinguished by the warmth of his unwearied zeal for the prosperity of every institution religious welfare of every member of his connected with the Church, and for the important cure, than for the sound discretion, unaffected benevolence and solid attainments, which combine to characterize the true English parish priest."

"The true member of the Church will hail with delight every token of increased interest, manifested for our Ecclesiastical Establishment by the rank and property of the country. My belief is, that such aid as they can now render to the Church never was more wanted-never could be more serviceable."

general welfare; but have learnt to esteem it, in some sort, as a parishioner actively engaged in aiding my ministerial duties, facilitating the intercourse between the pastor and his flock, communicating its valuable treasures of Christian knowledge on the easiest terms, to thousands around me. 1st, In the Central School of the kingdom, in which, from local circumstances, a great majority of the children are my parishioners. 2dly, In a branch of the City of London National School, accommodated in my parish Church. 3dly, In my own Parochial School, where 230 children are not only instructed in the books supplied by the Society; but on quitting the School, are furnished with Bibles and Prayer Books, at the usual redu ced prices, to carry with them into whatever situation of life it may please God to call them. To this account I may add gratuitous grants of the Holy Scriptures, and other publications, made by the Soci ety, to the workhouses, alms-houses, and the indigent classes in general within the parish, so far as its means will allow.

"These extensive aids, rendered by the Society to the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, have established a claim upon my gratitude to make known its worth, and to declare to others what I firmly believe myself, that it is a most valuable ally of the Church, a faithful dispenser of evangelical knowledge, and an instrument in the hand of Providence, for checking superstition, infidelity, and schism; and for promoting the stupendous plans, which the God of our salvation hath devised for the conversion of mankind. This may sound like the language of adulation in the ears of those who are strangers to the principles by which the Society is governed, and to the connection it maintains with the National Society for the Education of the Poor,' as well as with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.'

"I request your attention to a brief account of its influence in these two relations; and would preface what I have to say with one or two observations on the present state of our own country. Whether we contemplate the immense increase of our population, far beyond the existing means of instruction under its regularly appointed ministry, owing to the want of church-accommodation; (a want, however, which we trust in God will be soon in some degree supplied) or, whether we look at the great consequent increase of Separatists from the Establishment; or, at the incalculable power of the new mechanism at work for the instruction of the lower or

ders; or, at the diffusion of information of every kind through the medium of a bold and free-too often, I fear, a venal and mischievous press; or, lastly, whether we regard the unceasing and unprincipled efforts of the disaffected and the lawless, of profane persons and unbelievers, to contaminate the public mind, and poison the sources of moral happiness; to whichsoever of these points we advert (and no one duly impressed with the feelings of a religious and responsible being can be insensible to their momentous influence on social order, and the present and future happiness of the community,) we shall be consoled by the reflection, that there is a Society fortunately influential, by the indefatigable activity of its direct exertions, and those of its subsidiary committees, in almost all parts of the kingdom, and the foreign possessions of the Crown; by the enlargement of its designs on every new increase of its resources*; a Society under the guidance of sound discretion, disinterested benevo lence, and unostentatious piety; consisting of clergy and laity, who devote much of their time, their talents, and their labours to counteract, what is most to be dreaded, the effects of irreligion in geenral, and of hostility to our Establishment in particular; and who spare no pains to give a right direction to a system of education, which without such direction, might prove a greater curse than ignorance; and instead of helping to fix sound principles of reli gion in the minds of our population, tend to the subversion of all religious principles whatsoever. For instance, not fewer than $50,000 children are daily educated in schools, united with the Society for the Education of the Poor in the principles of the Established Church, and on a plan, which for the rapidity with which it conveys information, and for the efficacy with which it impresses on the memory, has no parallel. Now what would be the consequence, if false principles of religion, and a spurious morality, the visionary fancies of the enthusiast, or the cheerless dogmas of the fanatic, were so propagated and enforced? What but disorder, disunion and error?

"But, behold, on the contrary, the

"I allude particularly to the establishment of Parochial Lending Libraries, by means of which, as well religious books as those of innocent recreation and instruc tion, are communicated to the lower orders with extraordinary facility and the best prospect of success..

operation is British India. A scion from the Church of England has been planted in Hindostan by the hand of that distinguished labourer in the vineyard of God, whose comprehensive and enlightened mind devised a scheme for imparting the light of Christianity, that has been the admiration of all classes of Christians, and when in full operation, we trust, will not disappoint the expectations that have been formed.

"With an energy, and a devotedness to the cause of Christ, worthy of the Apostolic age, this mitred Missionary traversed his enormous diocese, obtained an intimate knowledge of its internal condition, and more than redeemed the pledge given to the Society which so anxiously watched for the result of his labours. He has been cut off in his holy career; it has pleased God to take him to himself. But dead he still speaks to the millions of India in the wisdom of his scheme for their conversion, and in that noble monument of his taste and genius the Missionary College, near Calcutta. Another monument § is about to be raised to his memory in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

"But we anticipate for him more durable memorials than these, in the indelible gratitude of the converted idolater, in the annals of an evangelized continent, and in the eternal records of heaven.' Quicquid amavimus, et mirati sumus, manet, mansurunique est in animis hominum, in æternitate temporum, famâ reram *.'

"To supply the vacancy made by his lamented death, another prelate, highly qualified, we believe, to prosecute the mighty work, has left our shores. He, like his predecessor, received his valedictory address within the walls, which himself called sacred t,' of the Society for

* This monument, to the memory of Bishop Middleton, is to be erected at the joint expence of the Members of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, by the first of living artists; and is intended, by the simplicity of the design, to hand down to posterity the gratitude of the present age for achievments rarely equalled in the annals of the Church, and to operate as an incentive to exertions of the like unbounded beneficence, and piety, and wisdom.

§ Tacitus in vitâ Agricolæ,

+See Bishop Heber's answer to the address of the Lord Bishop of Bristol, on the day previous to his departure for India,

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Promoting Christian Knowledge—‹ Sacred, considering the purposes to which they are devoted, and the prayers by which they are hallowed.' For all the business there transacted, begins and ends with prayer. Its members of the same communion, acknowledging one faith, one baptism, and one Lord, can conscientiously bow together before Him that heareth prayer,' and with heart and voice in unison implore the hastening of his kingdom.' Beginning from God, they humbly hope to be workers together with God;' and with the sanction of divine co-operation, to bring to a glorious issue the great enterprise they have taken in hand, involving the edification, security, and increase of the Church of Christ in our own country, together with its establishment and enlargement in our foreign settlements, and in the widely extended regions subject to British influence, in almost every quarter of the habitable globe.

"Thus these two Societies, coeval in their origin, and consentient in their missionary characters, like two noble rivers, unite themselves in a common channel, without the noise and foam of the torrent: no shattered fragments mark their course. They flow on, in a majestic stream, the medium of conveyance for the choicest gifts of heaven, enlightening and enriching the regions through which they pass. May they still flow on, daily receiving fresh supplies of strength, nor terminate but in the fulfilment of that encouraging prediction, The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters' cover the sea!'" P. 13.

We most heartily join with Mr. Beresford in his concluding address.

"As patriots and philanthropists you will unite in their enlarged and benevolent views. As Christians, you will seek to acquit yourselves of some part of that responsibility, which attaches to your station, and thus, in the way most efficacious, next to personal example in holiness and virtue, you will assist in promoting religious knowledge and religious practice, and prepare yourselves for the solemu account in the great harvest of righteousness, when the final distinction shall be made between the chaff and the sound grain, by that impartial Judge, who will

in the interesting Report of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge fo 1823.