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HOW ARE THESE CLAIMS TO BE MET?

Presently we shall have to hear from the Report that we have had a larger income than at any previous period; but, I believe, although the income is larger, the balance is less than it was this time last year, and I am sure you will be thankful for this. You will be thankful that the money that you give is expended by the Society; and, having had an opportunity of reading the Report, I am quite sure you will come to the conclusion that the money has been spent wisely and well. But are we to stop here? We know that for vigorous life there must be growth. Everywhere, if there is not this growth we shall not succeed. Are you prepared to come forward with more liberal means and with men? It is men that are wanted; the money would be forthcoming if we had men. Are there no young men in this assembly who are willing to consecrate themselves to this great work? I trust there are, and that the Missionary Society will not be able to say, as they do this day in the Report, that they are short of men. We want at this moment a large accession of missionaries. I believe the wealth of the country is very great, so great that it can scarcely be estimated, and I have no doubt that if the Board of Directors could show a good case, very large sums of money would come to their help. We appear to be on the eve of a very great change. We have passed through a period of military glory; we have passed through a period of the extinction of slavery; and now it seems as if we had accomplished some great changes in this country, and the religious aspects of the country were coming very strongly to the front. I hope it is so. We have no occasion to be afraid of the contact between light and darkness; we have no occasion to fear battle between truth and error. It is well that all that can be said against Christianity should be said; it is well that men should endeavour to decry as much as possible all the agencies that are put forth for this end. We have no occasion to be alarmed. We believe that the Word of the Lord will have free course, and we are conscious that these difficulties will have to be met; we are conscious that these changes will have to take place. But, amidst all these changes, and amidst the excitement of men's passions, we believe that the time is rapidly approaching when the knowledge of the Lord will be extended to every land, and men will feel that the only course which can really tend to the advantage of a nation will be the full and free acceptance of the great principles which are to be found underlying and pervading the religion of Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Dr. MULLENS, the Foreign Secretary, read abstracts from the

ANNUAL REPORT.

A year of great calamities in the material world has not been wanting in spiritual blessings to the Church of Christ, which sought them. While some have preached with earnestness another Gospel, and the outbreak of priestly pride and intolerance has been unusually violent, among the friends of this Society and the brethren of the Churches around them, never was the doctrine of the Atonement more ably upheld or more warmly accepted; never were the lofty but simple position of the Christian pastor, and the right of free speech and free service in every member of Christ's Church more firmly held amongst us, or more truly used for the edification of all. AGENCIES OF THE SOCIETY.

It is, in some respects, a misfortune that the directors of a missionary society are required to present to their friends an annual report, not merely of the funds entrusted to their charge, but also of the progress which the labours of the missionary brethren are making, and of the results which those labours have attained. Solid results and real progress would be far better gauged and understood, were they computed for longer periods. Vast cathedrals, massive pyramids, the palaces of kings, though but material things, require time and care in their erection. With how much greater reason are time and toil required in the moral and religious progress of the nations of the world! The Directors report with regret that they have been unable to maintain the staff of English missionaries at the point that was reached last year. They have sent forth five new missionaries, in addition to the brethren who have returned to their stations after a visit home. Of these, three have proceeded to India, one to China, and one to the mission in New Guinea. In addition, four ladies have been sent out as missionaries-two to North India, one to Shanghai, and one to Madagascar. But the losses of the year have been unusually heavy, and no less than ten missionary brethren have been withdrawn from the Society's service. Of these, four have been taken away by death, and four others by retirement, all of whom have rendered to the Society long and valuable service. The Society has also lost not a few of its home friends and supporters; able and beloved ministers, who have often pleaded its cause, or trained missionaries for its service; and officers of our churches, who have aided it by their counsel, and sustained it by their gifts. Amongst the latter, the Society has suffered a special loss in the death of Mr. J. A. Baynes, who was one of its active and earnest Directors. His early training, his intimate connection with Bristol, had long bound him in

warm affection to the missionary cause. For several years he was chairman of the Eastern Committee, and his careful study of details, his wise counsel, and his long experience, rendered his service to the Board of peculiar value. The number of students is, at the present time, thirty-six. Large as this number may seem, and not inferior to the number which has prevailed for several years, nevertheless, it is not equal to the demands made by the ever-extending fields of the Society's usefulness. The Society both needs a larger number of missionaries on its permanent staff, especially in India and China, and a larger number of students to supply vacancies, as well as to occupy new ground.

FINANCES OF THE YEAR.

During the year the interest of the Society's friends in its varied work has been manifested in a variety of ways; and, as the year closes, its treasury has been able not only to provide abundantly for the service of the year, but a balance remains in hand. The legacies of the year have exceeded the usual average, and have amounted to £8,814. In 1875, the ordinary income from subscriptions, donations, and collections, the best indicator of the Society's strength, amounted to £62,563, and was described as the largest annual contribution of the kind received by the Society up to that date. The income of the present year from the same sources has amounted to £61,761. During the year, a larger number than ever of services and meetings have been held, at which the claims of the Society have been pleaded, and its work has been described. The Directors again report with special gratification the continued and increasing earnestness exhibited by the young friends of the Society, especially in gathering the New Year's offering for the support of the two missionary ships. The amount of the offering for the present year has reached the noble sum of £5,515, and no less than 14,500 collectors have received a copy of the book entitled "Scenes and Services in Southern Africa." In regard to the special fund for the proposed mission in Central Africa, the Directors have to report that they have received for it £5,459, including the gift of Mr. Arthington. As the money is not yet needed, they have carefully invested it in the public funds till such time as the commencement of the mission shall call for its expenditure. The Directors trust that it will soon be largely increased. The contributions for general purposes amount to £99,024 5s. 11d.; the contributions and dividends for special objects, £15,829 13s., making a total of £114,853 18s. 11d., or, with the balance of last year added, £118,183 13s. 6d. On the other side, the expenditure has been, on the general account, £105,907 10s. 10d. ; for special purposes, £9,545 1s. 2d., leaving a balance in favour of the Society of £2,731 1s. 6d.

THE MISSION IN INDIA.

During the past year the Indian Empire and its multitude of people have been brought in the most prominent manner before all eyes. The visit of the Prince of Wales has proved an occasion for displaying not merely the solidity of its resources, the spirit of its governors, and the reality of its progress, but has exhibited the intelligence of its people, the splendour of its princes, the courtesy and hospitality, and the loyal obedience of its countless multitudes, the fruit of which will endure for many a year to come. Who shall describe in fitting words the incidents of a visit fraught with such important consequences? The pencil of the artist, the pen of the writer, the researches of the historian, have all essayed worthily to illustrate and describe them. Contributions have been offered to the tale, but the full, rounded completeness of the whole is wanting still. From the first welcome at Bombay till the final farewell, every step of progress only brought into stronger light the greatness of the inheritance over which England has been called to rule, and the loyal spirit of its people. Once rebellion and mutiny did their worst, but now Brahmin and Pariah and Mahar, Buddhist and Brahmist and demonworshipper, Mahommedan, Parsi, and Christian, have gathered loyally around the son of their Queen; they have welcomed him with graceful reverence and courtly speeches; they have shown him their most precious possessions; as memorials of his visit they have given him of their best; and not only England, but Europe and the world stand silent and amazed before the solidity, the magnitude, the splendour of that Indian Empire which God has given into English hands. They have done more than this. They have in the noblest way manifested their acceptance of English rule, with its all-important consequences. Their varied life, with its strange history, its marvellous forms, its stirring associations, is henceforth to be linked by a thousand ties to a nation and a civilisation vastly different from their own; not in all respects superior to it; and they know that restraints are involved, and that changes will follow, which it will not always be easy to bear. The feudal days, when the chief was everything; when hill forts made each petty ruler independent of every other; the days when men were divided into classes by impassable barriers, and the low-born and the weak toiled for the strong, are passed away for ever. English counsels, an English army, and English courts secure and maintain order, safety, justice for all classes and all interests. The reign of law, firm, even-handed, sustains the rights of man as man, and lifts the peasant from the dust to a level with the prince. The reign of industry with its solid comforts, its

wondrous gains, is come, and is bearing abundant fruit. The old gives place to the new. The college and the school take the place of the little Brahmin seminary and the village class. English pushes aside Sanskrit and Arabic as the languages of the learned, and Shakespeare and Milton, Macaulay and Hamilton are the authorities of the student instead of Kalidasa, Veda Vyasa, and Kopila. Medical schools, English hospitals, and a multitude of dispensaries provide help for the suffering, which no previous age has known. A deeper, stronger life for intellect and heart and hand is already stirring among the people of India; a broader social union is springing from the ruins of the ancient narrowness of caste-life; and, dimly conscious of the coming change, they silently accept it. If Englishmen in general have watched with cager eye the progress of this royal visit, tenfold more intelligent, more serious is the interest with which its incidents and its lessons should be viewed by the Christian Church. While the bitter suffering of the Indian mutiny produced a deep conviction of duty neglected and of wrongs inflicted in years gone by, and called forth the resolve that in the future the great trust (if renewed) should be more faithfully discharged, the incidents of the past year should deeply impress the Church both with the vast progress which the work of reformation has made, and the favourable conditions under which all Christian work is now carried on. With all the pomp and the glory, with all the solid weight and work, "a greater than Solomon is here." It is on Christian progress that the true prosperity of the Empire must rest; the great change must be a religious renovation; the Christian church, filled with willing worshippers, must replace the Hindu temple; and only as religious men increase their efforts to bring the people of India to Christ will that prosperity be secured. That work must be done lovingly, and with gentleness. Placed under an authority against which it is vain to struggle, every appearance of compulsion must be avoided. Only through a complete enlightenment of the intellect and heart, by convincing the judgment, by drawing the affections, by the prayer of faith, and by labours of love should that great change be sought. The process may be slow, but the growth will be sure, and the victory prove more glorious in the end. But "What are they among so many?" What are all our agencies among three hundred millions of people, with their great princes, their profusion of wealth, their richlyendowed temples, their ancient institutions, their lordly Brahmins and Moulvies, their countless worshippers? The labours of Christian men have but scratched the surface of this vast field, the reward they have reaped is but a specimen and a first-fruit of the harvest they desire. In itself, Hinduism, with all its books, and priests, and wealth and history, is

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