Still, as our Bishop has wisely written "we do not suppose that all the divine purposes in our being put in possession of the new territory are as yet fulfilled" (or, we feel we may add with equal truth, as yet to be fulfilled.) "The beginnings of things are all that we see at present, the preparation for that full tide of the divine goodness, which at length will flow with a more copious and beneficial stream than its five fabled rivers."

These admirable reflections, if not our loyal and affectionate allegiance, would prompt us to examine the volume from which we quote, with minuteness, as our guide on how and what we should render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards us.

In that volume we are reminded how "we can understand the loving-kindness of the Lord to the subdued people. For security of person and property, the protection of equal laws, deliverance from an impetuous and ungovernable army, and a freedom from intestine commotion are great blessings in themselves. Further, an opening is made for the arts of healing, for agriculture, for commerce, and all the branches. of civilization. An opportunity is also presented for the education of the young, and for the elevation of the moral and social condition of the people. Above all a way is prepared for their consideration of the nature of moral evidence, and their due reception of the history, evidences, and truths of Christianity."

His Lordship continues in similarly enlightened and moderate, though eloquent language: "Let us contrast only what the Punjab has been, under the oppressive Mahommedan and Seikh powers, for centuries, with what it may become under the just and righteous government of Britain, when the Indus shall be crowded with vessels like the Ganges, and the fine manly race of the country be raised to the beneficial and productive activity and energy of the Western world; and we shall feel that it is impossible to enough on the loving-kindness of the Lord' in delivering the Punjab from itself."

In these sentences, however, we discern not one syllable to impress us with the idea that it is the Bishop's opinion that immediate Missionary operations in the Punjab are expedient, or even desirable. His Lordship appears to us rather, and we judge more wisely, to contemplate preparatory ameliorations in the tone of society, under a Government of enlightened Christian Officials, and by the advancing march

VOL. III.

J

of education, of commerce, of agriculture, of science—and -though last named yet principally-by contemplation of the stately and efficient fabric of our Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

For we observe that in the first of the discourses to which we are referring, the Bishop laments how "inadequate is the supply of Rev. Chaplains in India"-that "the knowledge of the one living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent' fades from the minds of our young Civil and Military Servants; and the holy, just and good law of God is not enforced or observed, as they have no 'teaching priest""

Very pertinently then, and with admirable judgment, does the Bishop, observing on "the close connexion between the 'teaching priest,' and the knowledge and worship of the true God," summon us to shew our gratitude for recent benefits by "stepping in to help the administration to our fellow Christians in less happy circumstances than ourselves, of the means of the public worship of God."

For, as the great Bishop Butler has remarked with equal force and judgment, "Our Lord adds in the text This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world,' that this should be for a witness unto them; for an evidence of their duty, and an admonition to perform it;" adding that "the bare establishment of Christianity in any place, even the external form and profession of it, is a very important and valuable effect;"-that "Atheistical immorality and profaneness, which surely is not better in itself nor less contrary to the design of revelation, than superstition," must be expected if our colonies abroad are left without a public religion and the means of instruction;" that "it is wonderful that those people who seem to think there is but one evil in life, and that evil, superstition, should not see that atheism and profaneness must be the introduction to it"

"com

On all these grounds-and we might multiply them many fold-o -our immediate and primary duty seems to us to be the consolidation of the Christian Church aud the provision of due appliances for Holy Ordinances to our Christian Brethren in the Punjab. How these may be best provided and sustained it is not for us to suggest. The Bishop mends to the benevolent support of British India," for the furtherance of these very objects, The Calcutta Additional Clergy Society. We desire to sustain the recommendation as cordially as dutifully. We most unhesitatingly express our entire conviction that until our holy religion can main

tain a bolder front in the Punjab, and the present Household of Faith be more visibly cemented, but little will be done by the most devoted Missionary, and still less by the distribution of tracts and portions of the Scriptures through the instrumentality of a Native Catechist." For we believe first, that "nothing of a secondary nature, not miracles, not learning, not individual authority so mould the heart of the Pagan worshipper to a reception of the Gospel, on its first promulgation, as the purity of Christian lives, the constancy of Christian faith." And secondly we are well persuaded that, "without denying the possibility of any one however plunged in ignorance, yet if stirred by the Spirit of God to search the living Word, being able by the same Spirit to gather out the saving truths of salvation, still neither is this the way in which provision was made for dispensing the Gospel to the world, nor has it any scriptural or reasonable authority in favour of its success.' See Dr. Grant on Missions. Lects. II. and III.

VIII.

THE PAUPER.

Silent amid the city's glare

A lonely man bewildered stood,
And gazed-alas! he knew not where,
For poverty had chilled his blood.
He gazed-and on his throbbing brain
The crushing hope oppressive lay,
That poverty and hate and pain
Might close his bitter course for aye.
The wintry wind has swept the street,
And trade no longer lures the eye:
The hour of rest-that hour so sweet
To weary mortals—draweth nigh;
But where shall that sad lonely man
Rest, for that night, his woe-worn head?
Has Christian charity no plan

Relief on all mankind to shed?

O'er the dark river

He stoops with a shiver,
And gazes within-

Then shrinks from the sin;
Yet murmuring to Heaven
"May I be forgiven !"

Jehovah! then cried he, in depth of despair,

Oh! spurn not, as man doth, the voice of my prayer;
I have lived-but have never found blessing in life;

I have loved-but my love ended only in strife;

I have delved in the earth-I have ploughed o'er the sea,

But ocean, like earth, gave but labour to me;

And now I am feeble, and weary, and old,

And my breath cometh short, and my limbs shrink from cold, And I look, with a sigh, from the earth up above

Where sitteth in power the Spirit of Love;

And despairing I rush from the life that He gave

Loving death for the life I discern 'yond the grave!
He sees, he sees

Extracts and Entelligence.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

We tender thanks for the Report of the Calcutta Diocesan Committee of this Society, embracing an account of Missionary operations to June 30th 1849.

The Report is of various, but we are sorry to add of singularly painful interest. Churches and Chapels weather-beaten and falling to ruin;Schools abolished; Missionaries seriously sick-or in health so impaired as to necessitate an immediate return to Europe ;—most serious obstacles interposed against the progress and development of our holy religion, from lack of labourers, from extent of district, from poor and imperfect means of transport, from accommodation utterly inadequate and inefficient,— these are the sad disclosures of nearly every page. In this immensely wealthy and extensive Diocese, where incomes of a richness elsewhere underivable by personal application stream in monthly to such numerous professing Christians, for the Propagation of the Gospel in eight different Missions, composed of one hundred and five villages, in twenty-five of which are Churches or Chapels, and in seven of which are Schools, supervised by no less than fifty-four Christian Readers and Schoolmasters, it appears utterly incredible that the whole amount which could be raised— notwithstanding special appeals and extraordinary efforts-from the 30th of June 1848 to the 30th of June 1849, was under nine thousand four hundred rupees-less than some individuals within this region of selfish satiety either husband or squander every month!

From the extent of our Colonial empire, and the comparative indigence of other spheres of its evangelical labours, the Parent Society, about two years ago, was compelled to retrench its grants to the Indian Mission by the sum of five thousand Rupees a year. Of this due notice was given, and increase of local income earnestly solicited, in an appeal set forth with the sanction of the Bishop in December 1847. It is sad to think of the response made to all this; that the public benefactions in the year ending June 1849 were less by eighty-five Rupees than those for the year ending June 1848!

Happily, the Calcutta committee did not rely on a liberality unvouchsafed, but began the year of retrenchment with a rigid oversight of its disbursements. And true it is that a diminution of expenditure was effected, to the extent of nearly nine thousand Rupees. But at what a sacrifice, the committee's report may declare :

"The reduction of expenditure has consequently been effected at a painful cost, by the absolute refusal to build or repair Chapels, School-houses, the abolishing of teacherships and the like. It is therefore the more a matter for great thankfulness, and very full of promise, that the spiritual prosperity of the Missions does not, as far as man can judge, appear to have slackened, though the love which is required for its outward support appears to have grown so cold."