o :''-f^^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) — A 4r 4% 1.0 I.I ■so "*■ Kb ^ L& 12.0 Iffi I IL25 IHU 6" v. ^ Hiotographic Sdences Corporation 23 WtST MAIN STREiT WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO (716) 873-4503 \ \\ ,^n le cas: le symbols — ^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, 11 est film« A partir de Tangle supAriei.r gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 . 2 3 4 s 6 ft m I I I »i I I ■ '■ k \ ii g | ' li JlWl tlj flBII!^^^ ,f^7^ ▼TT^T' 1 /."^ 1^ •^ !?-'■ '• F^'" ^( It fe • li (' 14'^. *-*, r; ".^ :■; MISSIONS, Ac. CGMl»ILED BY COLONEL LGWRT HMiffAX, NOVA SCOTIA, JAMiSS BOW£S h SONS, HOLLIS STRpT, FOR SALE AT MISS KATZMAN'S, W. GOSSIP'S, & Z. S. HALL'S. 1868. ji" ^t: ,^ i.«':,»-j»Saai^fc& [r CHURCH MISSIONS, &c. &c. li COMPILED BY COLONEL LOWRY ''M Wi t HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, JAMES BOWES & SONS, HOLLIS STREET, FOR SALE AT MISS KATZMAN'S, W. GOSSIP'S, & Z. S. HALL'S. 1868. '^**- INTRODUCTION. iJ ^ Much of the substance of the following Lecture has been addressed, in course of the last few years, to audiences in different parts of the Dominion of Canada. In putting it in a more lasting form before the Members of the Church, I would desire to repeat, and to record the remarks with which I h^ve, on the occasions referred to, prefaced it. The Lecture is, to a large extent, a compilation from the writings and accounts of others. It has been drawn from many sources — from what I have read, from what I have heard, and from what I have seen. Deeply interested in missionary work I have for years noted down whatever has seemed to me note worthy and reliable, or to tend to the elucidation of the subject, without intending to make any public use of it, and, at times, without quoting my authority. I jotted down, from time to time, from the writings, or from the spoken addresses of the wise and good whatever approved itself to my mind and heart. The allegory, and to a considerable extent the language in which it is clothed, and the subject introduced have been taken from the works of the late Rev. Henry Newland. In early life it was my great privilege to have been for a short time in the Parish of which the present Bishop of Oxford was the Hector, and in the many years which have since intervened, wherever I have been within the reach of his Lordship's teaching, I have loved to profit by. Often, too, when far removed from that voice and mind of singular power and wisdom have I read, and pondered on their weighty utterances. Years may have elapsed since heard or seen, but the thoughts called up, and, not infrequently, even the form in which they left their impress, remain. Often they ma^ appear — sometimes almost insensibly to 3^1 ^3n myself — in tho pages of this Lecture. To the reader and to myself this acknowledgment is due: to the good Bishop I owe more than I can ever express. Throughout the following account of the Church's Missionary history and progress I have used unsparingly, the thoughts and words of others — where they have come homo to me with the force of truth — rather than my own. Hence indeed is derived any value which it may possess. I have for the most part only ventured to confirm, or illustrate the statements made, by a reference to what I have observed as I have moved through the world. To the Clergy there will be little new in this brief treatise on Church Missions. It is chiefly designed to enlist the interest and affection of the Laity in a work in which, assuredly, all are equally concerned. As the effort of a layman, who has passed the last seven or eight years in this fair land of British America, and who amid the active occupations of a Profession claiming his chief aHention, has ever found a deep enjoyment in Church work, these pages may serve to call forth a like interest in others. If they arouse a deter- mination on the part of any to be more whole-hearted and in earnest in the support of our Diocesan Church Societies, and to build up the Church — in the integrity and completeness of her organization — in remote settlements, as in our midst, my lay sermon will not have been preached in vain. Halifax, N. S., October, 1868. ;o myself re than I issionary ^hts and the force ny value tured to what I e Clergy Missions, he Laity As the years in e active has ever serve to 1 deter- l and in and to of her my lay There was a very sinfjular and beautiful print once in the Illmf rated News. It was the representation of the legend of St. Christopher : a powerful giant, supporting his steps by an uj^rooted fir tree, is bending under the weight of the Infant Christ, Whom he carries on his shoulders. He is proceeding steadily along a beaten path, followed by kings, priests, nobles, artizaus, and farm- ers. Old and young, down to the very children, are following in the steps of him who carries the Holy Infant, Whose hand is stretched out in the attitude of blessing. This is the symbolizing of a real Church Mission. The giant upon whose shoulders is seated the Infant Saviour is the nation to whom, for the time, Christ has committed the office of evangelizing the world. It is a heavy duty, and the bearer bends under the weight of it ; but in the act of performing it, he has acquired the strength to perform it. His proportions are already gigantic ; he out-tops by the head and shoulders all the figures that are around him ; his limbs seem capable of sustaining far more than the weight they curi-y ; and the fir tree, uprooted from where it grew beside his path — that is to say, the natural advantages which present them- selves in the very path of his duty — supports his steps ; for, be it observed, he b not taking a devious or arbitrary course, but follow- ing the beaten path — the path marked out to him by the Eternal Wisdom, and direct Revelation of God. The remainder of the picture explains itself; it is the natural fruit of his labors. He carries the true Christ, and high and low, rich and poor, young and old, kings and subjects, priests and shep- herds, alike blessed by the outstretched Hand, crowd after the giant that bears it. Willingly and cheerfully they swell his retinue, and contribute to his earthly pomp and glory. Now this has been for ages past the way in which our blessed Saviour carries on the missionary work of his Church. " God," says an old proverb, "is a good workman, but He likes to have men to help Him." In the Infant Church, as in the infant settle- ment of the Israelites in the promised land, which is a type of it. He governed by His own immediate power ; but from the tim^ 6 when that prophecy was fulfilled, which assigns kings as the nursing fathers, and queens as the nursing mothers of His Church — from that time forward the infant Christ, the young Church, was carried on the shoulders of some one nation to which it was committed. — That nation was pre-eminent as long as it discharged its office. Whenever it failed in that duty, the mission was entrusted to some other nation, which in its turn became pre-eminent, till that nation became unfaithful to its trust, and in its turn was relieved, not only of the burthen of the Christ, which it was unworthy to bear, but of the earthly pomp, and power, and strength, and glory, which are the rewards, as well as the consequences, of bearing Him. " No cross, no crown," is as true of nations, as it is of individuals. Kome first received the holy burthen under Constautine ; th(>n Germany under Charlemagne ; then Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella ; then England under Victoria. Each of the former once was faithful, and did the Lord's work in the Lord's way, but each in their turn failed, and their earthly as well as their heavenly power passed from them. God grant that the Lord may find His resting place where He has vouchsafed to choose it now ! God grant that England, the giant that now carries Him, of whom it may be said now, as was said with equal truth by her predecessor Spain, that on her empire the sun never sets — whose ships and colonies and commerce and wealth, are the purse and scrip which God commits to her charge for a definite purpose — whose grandeur and power are not only the consequetices of having borne the Christ, but the means of bearing Him onward yet — God grant that she may profit by the history of faded or fading nations, and may set forth her own glory by setting forth that of her Lord's. In endeavouring to show the cause of the comparative failure of our Indian missions, I would not undervalue the present or past sacrifices which individuals or societies are making, or have made, in the cause of God's truth. We do not undervalue the labuors of Schwartz or the self-sacrifice of Martin, when we show why those labours, and that self-sacrifice have produced no adequate fruit. Successive missions, if they be carried out in honesty and truth, like successive Arctic expeditions, open the way to subsequent explorers, and that nearly as much by their failures, as by their successes. Still, we must treat those failures honestly ; we must give honour to those who did their work faithfully, but we must endeavor to point out how it came to pass that, though they all built upon that foundation without which no man can build, that is Jesus Christ — yet, that when their work came to be tried, as we read every man's work will be tried, such a large proportion turned out I tlic nursing irch — from ras carried nmitted. — its office. d to some :hat nation I, not only bear, but ich are the * No cross, Rome first lany under Ua ; then )rd'8 work ir earthly ivhere He jland, the V, as was or empire lerce and )r charge ; only the f bearing listory of ly setting 'ailure of or past ve made, juors of ly those te fruit, truth, sequent jy their 'e must '^e must 11 built s Jesus e read ed out « % i to be of perishable materials, and such a very small residuum of precious elements remained. This is not the way people generally speak of missions in India, or anywhere else. It is wholesome, sometimes, to look at our vir- tues, provided wc do not make them a set-off against our faults ; but it is still more wholesome to contemplate our faults themselves : tiiey are not likely to blind us to our virtues. Had it not been for our own faults, for those of the nation which now bears Christ on its shoulders, might not India now be Christian, or nearly so ? How long was it from the preaching of St. Augustine before England became Christian ? How long was it after the mission of St. Anskar before Sweden became Christian ? Vet St. Augustine and St. Anskar were poor missionaries, sent by u church almost as poor as themselves. They were not backed by the influence and enterprise of a warlike, wealthy, and commercial nation. Schwartz laboured for fifty years. Why was he not the St. Anskar of India? Suppose we were living in the year two thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and we were reading the ancient history of England, as wc might now be reading the history of Rome under Constantino, or of France and Germany under Charlemagne, how we should wonder at that little insignificant spot in the map of the world, which the geographer would then point to as the source and origin of that mighty power, and call it Eng- land ! how we should wonder when he pointed afterwards across the broad expanse of British India, and said that all this had been the dominion of a company of merchants from that little spot. A few thousand of their countrymen, placed by the sovereign of that country under their direction, were quite sufficient to govern, and to legislate, and to ?dministcr justice, and to subdue rebellion, and to carry on external wars and internal administration ; for the people whom they governed obeyed them willingly. " These are the people," will the Lecturer of those days be saying, " whom the I'rophet Isaiah designates, when, in answer to the question, * Who raised up the righteous man from the East, and called him to his foot V declares, * I have raised up one from the North, and he shall come.' " It was not the force of arms, but the truth and equity of the English character, that made all men flock to this empire for justice and protection. This will be a wonderful relation when it appears in history ; but a greater wonder remains behind — that this nation Avhose rule was so eagerly sought — who had risen into supreme power by the simple force of its character for energy and justice — had governed that great land, its willing slave, ior a hundred or more years, and had produced no effect worth speaking of on the ' i III i I i- 9 heathenism of the country. In evcrj element of strength, in ev<>ry fruit of religion, the natives readily acknowledged themselves the inferiors of their masters, but to the religion which produced this difference they were not converted. The religion lay open before them with its fruits ; they admitted the fruits, but they did not admit the cause which produced them ; they chose Christians for their masters, but they remained heathen. This anomaly is more astounding than the other, and a most useful lessou it is to enquire into the causes of it. India has been, for the last one hundred years, English ; why is not India Christian ? Perhaps the first reason that suggests itself will be the difficulty of caste, and it is a real difficulty — we need not deny it ; but if there had been no difficulties to encounter, the world would have been Christian centuries ago. Had St. Anskar and St. Augustine no difficulties to encounter in the wild roving habits, the constant wars, the perpetual marauding expeditions, which were then considered honorable by the nations they convert- ed? The difficulty of caste is thii. The whole of native Hindoo society is arranged in castes or ranks. Theso have nothing to do with rich or poor — there are rich and poor in almost all of them — they are classes in sanctity. They imagine that any man would lose his caste if he associated in any way with a man in a class below him. We may easily understand this from the Bible, where we are told meat was set on for Joseph by himself, and for the Egyptians by themselves ; for the Egyptians may not eat with the Israelites, though Joseph was at that time Governor of all Egypt. This may not possibly be a great obstacle in the way of government — it was not in the case of Joseph — but it is a very great obstacle indeed in the way of the missionary, because, according to the spirit of his religion, the Christian is the brother of the lowest. What- ever, therefore, the missionary may be, high or lo\\ , rich or poor, in a religious point of view, according to the estimation of the natives, he ranks with the very lowest : the man one caste above the lowest cannot eat, not only with him, but with the very Gover- nor of India, the very Queen of England, without being polluted. This is a real difficulty then, but that it is a difficulty in prospect rather than in actual operation is quite evident when we consider that our Indian subjects are composed of two races — Hindoos and Mahometans — that the difficulties of caste belong exclusively to the former, and that our missions have made little mere way with one of these classes of men than they have with the other. If caste had been the real difficulty, we should have converted the Mahom- etans by this time. The difficulties which have beset us are of a more serious character, because they are traceable to ourselves ; and i ■ 11 9 gth, fn ev^iy lemselves the vrodvced this hoy admitted duced them ; fled heathen. I most useful Hsh ; why is ggcsta itself Y — we need counter, the St. Anskar wild roving- expeditions, ey convert- ive Hindoo hing to do of them — nan would in a class ble, where id for the : with the til Egypt. pvcrnmenr. t obstach; the spirit What- or poor, n of the c Jibovo T Gover- lluted. prospect consider 008 and r to the ith one f caste fahom- i*e of a Js; and ■i 1 though God will not render us responsible for those He puts in our way, if wc do our best to overcome them, He will render us responsible for thoic which wc put in our own way, whether they arise from our sins, our negligences, or our jealousies. It is idle to talk of our missionary successes in India as some do. A few thousands have been here and there converted, there is no doubt ; quite enough to show that we might have done better ; but if we have converted thousands where we might reasonably have been expected to convert millions, the mission cannot bo considered anything but a comparative failure. Might wc not reasonably have been expected to have converted millions in India? Compare what has been done by modern missions with that which has been done by ancient missions — that of the German missionaries be/ore the days of Charlemagne. After those days they wore supported by the arms of an Empire relatively as powerful as that of England now ; but before those days the missions were the unaided efforts of a band of devoted Churchmen. How long did it take not only to establish Christianity in all those lands, but absolutely to root out heathenism, so that no traces of it remained ? Was it as long as since our first establishment in India ? And remember — these missionaries came from lands not much advanced in civilization beyond the heathen tribes they converted, while ours had the wealth of commerce, the arts and sciences of civilization, the experience of ages, and the prestige of conquest, to back it ? The comparison is humiliating ; yet it must be made if we would profit by our past failures, ana turn to real account those energies, M'hich, hitherto, we have suffered to waste away, like water poured on the sands of a desert. If of two missions, one has succeeded, and the other almost failed, the first thing to be done is to see in what constitutional element the one difiered from the other. Now there are many examples we might take of successful missions. All Europe was heathen, and now all Europe is Christian — therefore all Europe was once converted by missionary exertions. We will however choose that mission with which most of us are more or less acquainted — I mean the mission of St. Augustine to England — by which we who, among the numerous invasions of the heathen Saxons, had well nigh lost all trace of our early Church — were once more brought into the fold of Christ. W^e need not consider this a Roman Catholic mission in the modern acceptation of the term. In words no doubt it is so, Catlu lie Christians who lived in Rome must be Ror.ian Catholics, just as Catholic Christians who live in France are French Catholics. 1! f i ■. ! hi I 11 I [ 10 those doctrines, which win' f J' "°' *'"« in facf Aim ? ''f,* crept into the ChurJh of R^ ^^" ^omisn^e onl K '" doctrines of the Chuth ^T^ ''"^^ '^^t time In Tlf !, ^^ °°^ -.and .^: Me^Lt:; ^7"^., -4"whr ot? *« And Gregory was the verv t,. ! ^Pos'les wore bcforn tk another to bo styled uSsSfii T*"" *'^' "'"^'"d 'he c aj^ "f Wlo when offered to himse]? ^"'^''P' »■"» ^l"- refused the ,fc ■Lne nistorv of fVi« • • Bishop of Arle7;„ I """' ^"^ eonsoorated to ti «^°P ^"^ lifi°^4^^'i" ^-So^trL:^ "^'S ~:fed\^?:i;: lact shows this • fV.o* -.i , "^ me mission, is nnf t^,^ , •'^ *^ ^L-t in t w^t'e'rat-t ''-'^^""'« of Ko™; ttlt F-eign Parts wLfcooiet of th''"««'™ °f 'ke Go'^lt was no sonVfir ^ »ucieiy ot those men vehr. ,., 'Jospei m Another d^ffl^"' '?"<■■"« 'tem: they were seMh .l^rV""^" unfettered *AoTof'kt' "' ^^'^ head the" t I '^--f ''• Ho was colVtent "^ T™' "'""■' "^-lainiJ and con! "•'"'P *ouId sueeoed in 1 k,° f-'''"" <''<'^" m every o?tv"°?""«- "^h&rjSer ° n «-" "■- -"s^'o^rof 1' •^''"^-" through at fi rT I . ^^n^^orts about them W. f l- "'' "^^'^^ons 'he. suhstanoe, that is .„ s^ayX^S ^t^ -^^ iglish Catholics, 't- Almost all ave one by one those days the what ours are ' before them, the claim of ^used the like len Bishop of that so fine a if possible to out a band of ben to place a Bishop was 3 office by the crated by the 3wn ; but the 'Ome, took an rve the first '• The only e Gospel in to go; there the Church, a Bishop consecrating, in which he the money at home ? no doubt, to lay their of celibacy though we established •sing their children as i" missions they went the Gos- such mis- lew their must not where n to their ■ I 11 substance ; that the poor were supported by them, that Churches were endowed, and missions furnished. A good many years after this, when the worship of saints had crept into the Church, a writer complains that " ten thousands were oflfered at the altar of St. Thomas, before a thousand was offered at the altar of God." This will give us some idea what offertories used to be ; we do not talk about them by thousands now. The mission of Augustine to England took plac-> early in the year 597. Ethelbert was then not only King of Kent, but exercised a kind of imperial authority as far as the Humber. He was married to Bertha, a French Princess and a Christian. The mind of the King was probably, on that account, prepared to receive the mission courteously, and to listen with respect to what they had to say. In answer to the interpreters sent by Augustine he granted an interview, directing that it should be in the open air, as, it appears, he had some suspicion of magic arts, and wished to see everything himself, and form his own judgment. He was a man of strong sense, and sound judgment, us his words will show. Augustine arranged his monks in procession, and placed himself at the head ; his tall commanding figure conspicuous amongst the rest. He was "higher than any of his people from his shoulders and upwards." As the missionaries slowly advanced they chanted under the guid- ance of Honorius — Gregory's own pupil — one of those deeply solemn litanies known to after ages as " Gregorian," and which, heard for the first time by barbarian ears, must have deeply im- pressed them. The King gave them a respectful welcome ; invited the missionaries to be seated, while Augustine himself, under the shadow of the ancient oak, which canopied the royal retinue, pro- claimed by his interpreters in few and simple words the Gospel message. The answer of the King was a very memorable one, and deserves to be quoted for its rare sense. " Very fair," said he, " are the words you have uttered, and the promises you make. But to us these things ai*e new, and their full meaning I do not un- derstand. I am not prepared to give my assent to them, and re- nounce the customs which I have so long observed with the whole Anglo-Saxon race. But you have come from far. You are strangers ; and I clearly perceive that your sole wish and only object is to com- municate to us what you believe to be good and true. You shall not be molested. You shall be hospitably entertained ; we will make provision for your maintenance, and we do not prohibit you from uniting to your society any persons whom you may persuade to embrace your faith." The Missionaries conducted themselves with consistent simplic- ity, and devoted themselves to the instruction of the people in the ^T'* MVffHI • I M' W 12 Gospel. Their labours were soon rewarded. Ethelbert declared himself a Christian, and was baptized. Crowds speedily followed the example, and Gregory states in a letter to the Patriarch Eulogius that ten thousand were baptized in one day. The mission- aries were soon established within the walls of Canterbury. The King gave up his palace to Augustine for a residence, and on the adjacent grounds the foundations of the first Cathedral were laid. The house that Augustine first occupied after crossing to England has lately been restored, and put to its original use. It is a College for the education of missionary priests. I visited it eight years ago when the late Bishop Mackenzie was about to proceed on his mis- sion to Central Africa. There were assembled in Canterbury Cathedral at the farewell service on that deeply interesting occasion, over three hundred Clergymen, and three thousand laymen. It would be hard, I think, to efface from the minds of any then present the memory of that solemn service, or of the earnest counsel that day delivered by England's most eloquent Prelate. " Who," said the Bishop of Oxford, " standing in this glorious Building, as his eyes drink in its shadows and its lights, but must cast back the glance of his memory along all the marvellous steps by which, even unto this day, our course has been guided by our God." " Go back," he said, "in thought to the time Avhen the first Evangelize.* of Britain crossed, with the message of Christ's power, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the neighbouring straits which parted us from advancing Christendom. Compare the wild forests and marshes of that day, compare their v/ilder inhabitants with the sights and purposes of this day, and surely — looking around us at home, and across the Westward waves to our daughter Church in America we may say with more than the Patriarch's gratitude, * with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.' " As the Church increased, Augustine became Archbishop, and his c'lief difficulties seem to have arisen after his elevation to this high position. It is related that he was at a loss as to what liturgy to use in the newly erected churches. There were, it is well known, four principal liturgies in the early Church. The liturgy of St. James, which was followed generally in the Eastern Churches — the liturgy of St. Mark, which was followed in Egypt and Ab7ssinia,~the Roman, claiming the authority of St. Peter, — and the G-xllican, derived probably through Irenaeus from Ephesus and St. John. In the small church of St. Martin, reserved to the Queen, the Gallican liturgy had been hitherto observed. tin it ad to an an m ■m' 13 f t a ('hiirch. Thero wore Men's Societies. There was tlio ditVerence hetweeii Aligns- tine's mission, and o»ir Indian missions! With Iho Hindoo the case was still more dinicnlt. He worsliipped, indtfod, a multitude of idols, but still ho would answer that there was l»ut one (Jod, and that his idols were l)ut reminders of thi\t (Jod's [(crfectiona. The very essonco <>f Hindooisni is sclf-tUMiial, as indeed in theory it is of Christianity. In tlic Hindoo it is mixed up with all sorts of impieties and absurdities, as might bo expected in men who have not the spirit of Clu-ist to guide them ; but tiiero it is, and they act up to it. They will sacriiice anything — their riches, their children, tlicir very lives — 'to their sense of duty to Ood : monstrous as that idea sometimes is in practice. iJut this is tlio essence of tho Christian religion also — at least we profess that it is. Tho missionary preaches it as he is bound ; but the Hindoo ropies : " Look at us, and look at yourselves ; whoso religion is true, judg- ing by the earnestness of its followers ? Look at us in our holy pilgrimages over tho hot jilains of Hindostan ; look at us giving up our children to the holy Ganges ; look at us leaving all, count- ing our lives as nothing in the service of our God, and look at yourselves. You count your lives as nothing : you leave your homes and your friends as well as we, but it is in tho pursuit of pleasure, whenever it is not in the pursuit of gain." We say that our justice and our righteousness, and our great suite- riority to the Lidian in everything which relates to truth, arc the fruits of our religion, and so they are ; but they are not the fruits .of Indian religion, and we cannot trace them to it. Self-denial, and. worship, and purity of life, ought to be tho fruits of it too, and these the Indian would appreciate, but ho cannot imderstand ;a religion without discipline. In such matters the visible Church iis invisible to him. Now this description is not the whole truth, and I know that the Christian would have a great deal more to say for himself, but I .think it is the truth as it would strike the mind of a Hindoo. And upon all this comes the miscellaneous teaching of our uncon- nected societies, and which is he to believe ? Unitarian, Presby- terian, Baptist, Weslcyan, Independent, Church of England — all these are Christian and Protestant — which is to be his instructor ? " That they all may be one," said our Lord and ^faster, " as Thou Father art in Mo and I in Thee : that they may be one in us : that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." We, the pro- fessed disciples of Christ are not one in Christ, and therefore it is •that we preach Him in vain. 1 lioino IiJM »;lifi;ioii of vtTiirnoiit. I. Tl.cro M Angus- indoo the multitude OMO (}()d, 3rl'ec;tions. in theory all sorts moil who it is, and jIics, thcii' iionstrous Jssciico of is. Tho ropies : •ue, jud^- our holy us giving ill, count- d look at javc your pursuit of ^I'cat supc' 1, arc the tho fruits clf-dcnial, of it too, ndcrstand le Church mow that nself, but 1 Hindoo. Lir uncon- 1, Prcsby- ;land--all structor ? ' as Thou us: that the pro- eforc it is i ^ I 31 " See how these Christians love one OiKjthor," was tho iioathcn's remark in tlu^ caily days of the Church. Alas ! what bitter irony would such oxpnission carry with it now. If St. Augustine and St. Anskar had had to labor ngaitist such difliculty a« this, we might have been worshipping Thor and Odin to this day ! Necessary as a visible Church ujion Earth is, for those who have been bronjdit up all their lives in the laws and obligations of that (>hurch, n icb more is it necessary for those who have still to learn them, and \v bo have no means whatever of arriving at the knowledge of a spiritual ruler except by studying from sight and practice his spiritual rules affecting the lives, and daily conduct, and practice; of his followers. If then the ililVicuItics which have hindered the spreading of Christianity in India, or elsewhere, lie at our door, then are they those Nvliieb every one of us may help to accummulatt!, ov may help to diminish. Those dilVicidties maiidy have heen the apathy of the ('burch, our sinful schisms from the Church, and our no less sinful divisions in the Church, — tho backwardness of the country to stand, as Colonel Edwardcs says, '■'' Avowrdhj as a Christian (Jovcrnment," and our own prayer- less lives. Surely by these things have we shut up the kingdom of Ood Irum the lieathen. Those who have stood wrangling at tho gate entered not in themselves, but, what was worse than that, them that would enter in they hindered. Tho blessed Sua of Christ's Church would have shone upon the lands which lie gave us for a |)ossession, but our own half-hcartedness raised the mist lictwccn it and the land it was shining on. And yet, in sj)ito of all these things some })ortion of success has been given to us. If missions have not prospered as they should, they have not been altogether fruitless. Now in Central Africa, at the Capo, at Sierra Lcoiic, and amongst the Sandwich Islands, is the good work mak- ing a progress, and in a way it did not before. A mission, too, in its primitive integrity, is in contemplation for Madagascar. Some of the minor obstacles, at which I have previously glanced, would aj)pear to be already giving way in India, but bc- I'oro our superior education, energy, and civilization, notour direct missionary effort, or peculiarly Christian character. From all ac- counts caste has little chance of maintaining itself against railway influences. Tho papers tell us of all castes being huddled toge- ther in one carriage, and in long Journeys having to eat their food side by side. They also tell us of the native landed proj)rietors of Oude having themselves taken in hand the suppression of infanti- cide. From the constant travelling generated by railways, sacred places cannot long remain sacred. Already, immense lengths of lail are open, and — even if other agencies be not at work — a great revolution of mind and feeling impends from this cause alone. r Itiy 22 Can we long remain insousible of how doop iutorest to our- selves is the religious welfare of over one hundred and seventy millions of fellow-subjects united under the same crown ? If our people at large are insensible of this, it must be from not having kept in mind what India may be to us, in numbers, if in nothing else — for evil, if not for good ! " Between us and the people of India," says Sir Herbert Edwardes, " the great want is the want of a link. Wo arc divided by our religions. We stand aloof — the heathen on the one side, and the Christian on the other — and find nothing in our worldly policy to bridge the space. Wc shall," adds that able soldier and good man, " only find that link in Chris- tianity." A new era has been born to us in 1857, and it is useless to try and return to the old order of things. Surely the result of that mutiny, in which, had not the people sided with us, they might, from their numbers, have " smothered us with their very turbans," is enough to assure us that wo are still permitted to bear the sacred burthen — that our country may yet bo the means of evan- gelizing the great continent of India. Brought as we were within one step of ruin, we have had re-consigned to our charge well nigh 200,000,000 of people. But our more immediate dutv lies before us in the continent on which our lot is cnst. We find it in making earlier and better provision for furthering, through our Diocesan Church Societies, the work of missions in the remoter parts of these Provinces, in establishing on a more permanent basis and augmenting the pit- tance of our missionary clergy, and in increasing their numbers. This is plainly the first and most urgent call upon us, and it is one which — if met eflfectually — must be met by a regularly-sustained, and well kept up effort. To give this year, and to withhold the next, will do but little good. Our duty in this matter is surely, however, not confined to ourselves ; it is to speed the good work across that portion of the continent committed to our charge. Great on all sides would be the blessings which would flow from sacrifices for such a purpose ; for is it not an universal law that in blessing others, we are ourselves blest ? As the planting of a vigorous colony strengthens by a reflex action the nation from which it springs, so, in widened communion, in the fuller assertion of her principles, and in blessings on her individual members, does missionary work the Church Irom which it springs. And the great country on which we border is not behindhand ; for, see with what abounding zeal and energy does our sister Church in the States now press onward the good work. I know few things more interesting than the tidings which reach us of the spirit which animates, and of the progress which attends her. I know nothing grander or more ennobling than those blessed shoots ofl fr( W£ reJ M it either." fall into a to eschew ay that the low we are lie Church n to her ling for a >w openlv 2d Church r Book of a Scotch s read on ession in ■ing pray- change." 3r]iaps at f the late e at this e, taken lie effect Baptist, litted to rmed in fne year Kliode '■ery six 1 States >rought ork, in ember, e from me, in ways, rows," her Mary years ago it was said by a devoted adherent of the Roman Catholic Church " that if ever Christians should re-unite it would seem that the movement must take its rise in the Anglican Communion," and Bishop Williams, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the States, observes that " it has occurred to more than one thoughtful mind in our day that, if ever this re-union — the fulfilment of Our Saviour's latest prayer — shall come, it must be on the basis of Polity, Ritual and Doctrine, on which Christianity stood before diversities grew up." May it not bo then that our reformed Church, holding, as it does, the primitive ways — Evangelical truth with Apostolic order, and inheriting by an indisputable succession from those on whom the Great Master breathed His power, the transmitted authority of Eis undying Apostleship — is being made the " preparing type for the Church of the latter days." If it be a dream to hope so, at least let us remember it will not make us dreamers to live, and pray as if it wore indeed to bo so. " Oh," said the Dean of Cork, now Bishop o'.' Peterborough, in a sermon preached last month in St. Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin, " Oh, if Christendom were one, but for a single hour, what force could stand before it ?" We have, as a Church, in our missionary labors, a large inheri- tance of past neglect to be reversed, and, God be thanked, we are not without many signs of healthier life. The need of men fitted for the work by education, and training, and willing to go forth, would seem at this time the greatest want. Would that there were more, far more, of the sons of these Provinces preparing for the Church's work, and ready to venture their all on the great deep of God's providence. And difficult as may be, and as is the venture of all miss' nary work, it must be borne in mind that it is less so now than ever before. Time was, when he who would go forth, must do so in the weakness of a single, solitary course. Now it is not so ; for — look where we may — the seats of Apostolic rule and strength are fixed, or being fixed for us. England's sons and the sons of this groat Dominion freely go forth to fill up her armies and navies, or to administer her most distant settlements : and shall the Church lack sons to do her part, and win, against the coming day, her crowns of victory ? Circumstanced as we are now, it would not seem possible to discharge our duty in this work except through the agency of Church Societies, and it is of great use that, over and above the regular working of such societies, there should be efforts of a more special kind — such as the ser- mons at the late meeting of the Diocesan Synod in this city, and meetings throughout the country — to arouse to greater energy and stronger purpose the missionary work of the Church. Does there not seem a danger lest our broad Catholic Episcopacy should dwindle into the narrowness of congregational action, each congre- t ! l\ Si; I t 'r i 28 gation standing aloof, and alone, as though no otlicr Parish existed, instead of presenting the sublime spectacle of a solid phalanx ? Our hearts are not bound together as they should be. When we calmly survey the field of missionary labor before us on this Continent, its vastness and extent, and the issues involved, we shall see that it is a work calling for united effort in the sweet- est and strongest spirit of unity. Lut us of the Anglican com- munioji everywhere draw closer our bands of brotherhood. Isola- tion is indeed the bane of any Parish, or Diocese. " Great will bo the blessing," observed the Metropolitan of South Africa, on a late occasion in England, " on the distant Churches of the Em- pire connecting themselves with each other, and with the Mother Cluirch, as they will do, by spiritual ties enacted in Synods. The Diocesan allying itself with the Provincial, the Provincial with the National or (as hereafter, our Synods may include more na- tions than one) the General, the General with the Oecumenical. Only,' adds Bishop Gray, "let this principle of connection and subordination be generally recognised, and we shall have adopted a system which has stood tne test of ages, which was the recog- nised system of the Church from primitive times to the great division of East and West, and which would — had it been adhered to — have preserved Christendom to this day in unity." And every such meeting of the members of the Church serves to keep us from falling into the groove of mere routine, to assert her own missionary spirit, and by a rellex influence to warm and invigorate our own hearts. It is the neglect to claim with the full wholeness of a perfect faith the sure promises of our God which weakens missionary work, and thins the ranks of our missionary army. Oh, for some Francis Xavier to arise in our Church, and to show us what may be done by one giant soul acting under the inspiration of a great faith and a great love ! Here was a man — Roman Catholic though he was — penetrated with the conviction of what he had to do, and doing it with a might which will live to all ages, the astonishment of the world. If any will read a book, pub- lished not long since by a clergyman in Ireland, called " Praying and AVorking," they will there see what is being, and what has been, done by missionary labour in Germany, and amongst the heathen, in this century, by men in earnest in a good cause. Wherever, in any age, or Church, or country, this spirit is wanting, all true service is wanting too. To this level the unsympathising world at large is ever working to bring down the tone of God's servants ; the missionary spirit seems to the worldly-wise so unpractical, so fanatical, so exagge- rated ! Against such, then, within herself, must the Church bo over struggling, and ever renewing by missionary effort her esti- mat| maj iut( hac Sac Bpri witi proj our| to Ch^ in ii-ish existed, 'd jjlmlanx ? or before us los involved, II the sweet- Jglican com- ood. Isola- reat will bo f"ca, on a the Eiii- tlie Mother i'» Synods, vincial mth nioro iia- Icumenical. ectiou and ^•e adopted tlic recog- tlie ^rreat en adhered )f roll serves > to assert warm and th the full jrod which Qissionary 5h, and to "der the a man — miction of ive to all 5ok, pub- fraying ^bat has ig'st the 1 cause, t^anting, v^orking 7 spirit 3xagge- rch bo er esti- 29 mate of the blessedness of ministering to the lost. Look where yoii may along the past, and never will you find her breaking forth into missionary ministries of love, and not find her also receiving back into herself, in larger volume, the blessings of l»cr Lord. Such effort does indeed bless and revive the body out of which it springs. Against questioning unbelief, aid speculation on God's Word — with which our time is so sadly conversant — missionary work may prove both a protest and a safeguard. It may serve, too, to abato our party spirit, to loose the hard knot which discord has tied, and to show liow strong is the Spirit's life in our branch of Christ's Church. Oh, as wc think of the magnitude of the work of Church Mis- sions — of the blessings which they are the means of bearing forth, let us take a more real hearty share in it, and renew our interest in it, and our labours for it. As my previous remarks have been almost confined to the work of missions to the heathen, and in our own colonies, a few words with respect to the movement now going on in the Church of Italy may, I think, proVe of interest to all. And since many have not opportunities of hearing or reading much about it, I venture to give some extracts from authentic sources, which have lately come under my notice. Some zealous Protestant communities have endeavored to take advantage of the present circumstances of Italy for the propaga- tion of tlieir own opinions. The Vaudois have established con- gregations in Turin, Florence, v the people of Italy that genuine reformation is a restoration of Italian Church polity ; and then there is some hope that it may be accepted — but not otherwise. No one can read what has been going on of late in Italy without being convinced, I think, that much has not been done towards breaking the ties which bind that nation to the history of the past, and to the Communion of the Church of Rome. But many books lately published tend to show that much has been done in making the principles of our Church known to Italians, and above all to such of the Italian clergy as are willing to receive information. It may be interesting to some to know that a society, called the ♦• Anglo-Continental Society," has been labouring for a few years past to promote the translation and circulation of such works as are suited to give a more correct idea of the doctrine and practice of the Church of England. The purpose of its operation is declared to be, " to raise up a spirit of reform within the bosom of the Italian Church, which may eventuate in a national reform of the whole Church of Italy, carried out by the authorities in State and Church : not to establish a new Church nor to draw individuals out of the Italian Church into separate communities, but to help forward the internal reformation of the Italian Church by the instructed mind of the Church." As the Reformation in England was a great necessity, we can never renounce the principles which led to it, nor can we draw nigh to other Christians by any softening down of differences which would involve a departure from first principles We may, however, by such a society as this, in view of the restlessness and unsettlement so apparent at this time in Italy — might we not include Spain ? — ^present its people with a true picture of our own position. We may show them that we were once, what they are now, and that we have come out of the struggle a Christian Church, a catholic Church, but a reformed Church, founded on the Holy Scriptures, that they may be encouraged to foUow our example. givt^ pies' Pral tiou coi'i to yieil copi mulf W witl est(| I^ •^ Icdj mal gov she 31 need by ex- permanent ion of every non "Words- ^y n -ional •arcely any- :is no need )tivo right, teacher of ' ^vi:i be to stonition of ^ it may be 5 in Italy J^cen done history of nic. But 'pen done lians, and to receive •ailed the 2W years ks as are ^actice of declared of the I of the ate and iials out to help by the ve can > draw which may, IS and e not p OTvn y are urch. Holy The " Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," has also given powerful aid towards the object of making known the princi- ples of our Church, by publishing an Italian translation of the Prayer Book, and by liberally supplying copies of this for distribu- tion, or for sale at a low price. " During last winter," observes a corrcsj)ondent of Dr. Wordsworth, " I could not but feel thankful to see that the seed thus sown was, in several instances, manifestly yielding good fruit, in increase of sympathy with the reformed Epis- copal Church, in the removal of misapprehensions, and in the for- mation of a desire for analagous reforms in the Church of Italy." The same writer tells of the effect on a parish priest near Naples, with whom ho was acquainted. " Last year he was greatly inter- ested in our Prayer Book, and in ' Jewell's Apology.' This year I was thankful to f»nd in his case, as in others, that increased know- ledge of the real character of the Reformed Episcopal Church, manifestly led to increased sympathy with us, and desire for anala- gous reforms in the Church of Italy. He gladly joined with us in short morning and evening prayers, in which the Italian version of our Prayer Book happily enabled us to unite, reading alternately the Psalms "cx the day, with a lesson and a portion of the prayers. He said afterwards. If we could but have our Church services in our own tongue, and could have this intelligible reading of the Psalms by priests and people, and the Scriptures read out in our own tongue, in the reverent way that seems habitual to English Church people, the face of things would be wholly changed in our churches. Now unhappily our people too often come in chatting and laughing, not heeding the service ; and when we complain they say, • It is in Latin, and we cannot understand it.' " (As I write the telegram indicates that the spirit of reform would seem to be already at work in this matter.) Again, Count Taska, an Italian nobleman, spoke as follows to Dr. Wordsworth : " I lent a copy of the Prayer Book to a priest, who used to rail at England as a land of schismatics, heretics, and infidels ; and he confessed to me that the Litany in that book was the most beautiful form of prayer he had ever seen. After the battles of Magenta and Solferino, I was entrusted with the superintendence of the Military Hospitals. I translated many of the collects and prayers of the English Prayer Book into various languages, and put them into the hands of the soldiers on their sick beds. Almost all accepted and used them, and expressed the great comfort they found in them. Some of the Boman Catholic clergy and Bishops who visited the hospitals were delighted with them, and I was wai'mly thanked for what I had done. At last, however, it was discovered that they were translated from the English Prayer ^J hf'j 11 ■t I 'i| ir 1 1' 32 Book, and then one of the bisliops in my neighbourhood denounced them as heretical." Father Felix, a Sicilian priest, writes : «' It is indeed a great pity that the real i)rin(iplcs and true doctrines of the Church of England are so little known to the communions which differ from her. A fair statement of her doctrines would confer an immenflc bencKt on her sister churches on the Continent."' We read again that an English clergyman M'ho visited, in last Lent, the I3enedictin(!S of Monte Casino, found several of th(! fathers interested about our Prayer IJook. 'I'hey came more than once to talk to him about it ; and at their request he left his copy with them. Before leaving he asked one of them if he thought his and our branches of the Church would ever be re-united ? " Yes, 1 do," replied the Benedictine, '* though n^^ither you nor I will live to see that day ; but meantime remember that what you of the Church of England can best do to promote re-union of the Church, is, not to join us, but to help us in our attempts to purify ourselves." More or less of the spirit of this last remark, seems to run through all the works of a number of Italian gentlemen which I have seen reviewed, and extracted from. They protest strongly against leaving their church, but they are scarcely less strong for more or less reformation in it. It seems worth Avhilc to cite here a recent case in which, although the scene was in the heart of In- dia, the actor and narrator was by birth a Neapolitan subject, and therefore one whose evidence may be specially valuable as to the best way of approaching the case and state of Italy. Father Felix, a Sicilian capuchin, having gone to India as a missionary, with the usual prejudices of his country and his class against Protestantism of every kind, found himself disturbed by the papal decree in favor of the Immaculate Conception, for, although he held this doctrine as a matter of opinion, he was startled at its being erected into an article of necessary faith. After much uneasiness he asked the E iglish chaplain at the station where he was, to lend him some books on the controversy between the churches, and received from him Jeremy Taylor's " Dissuasive from Popery," and Pro- fessor Harold Brown's " Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles." ** When I went home," he writes, " I felt a kind of uneasiness in opening the books ; however, I prayed to God for light, and took in hand Jeremy Taylor. The very title-page indisposed me ; I felt it was too bad to call my religion * Popeiy,' and read it with suspicion. I went on reading, but I found that there was generally in it a kind of misrepresentation — I should say ex- aggeration — of some points of the Roman doctrines; and I felt that it was not fair to charge the adversary with consequences drawn from an exaggeration of his principles. So I stopped I rca ow tea an' da; >o Q susi but! thid mit by See styll to lesd m ii r3 fl (I'liotiiiccd ites ; •« It is tn'ncs of tho "ions M-fu'ch Jil coiifor an t." .'fl in last rtlicfjitliei-i, »n on CO to copy M'ith Ii'; Ill's and X^s, I do," live to SCO niiirch of ' i«. not to 8." ns to run 1 whicli I t stroni^ly tron<>- for cite here flit of In- ^ject, and IS to the cr Felix, ^vith the -stantism in favor doctrine into an kod the m some feceived k1 Pro- rticles." easiness ht, and isposed d read ' there iay ex- I felt uences topped i ■fe reading, and would have thrown away the book had it been my own. I thought that nothing could be derived from reading Pro- testant books ; for I said, ' truth has no need of misrepresentation,* and I regretted having asked for the books at all. But, after two days, happening to open Professor Brown's work, and to read a portion, I find him so fair in representing the doctrines of the Roman Church, so faithful and guarded in his expressions, remain- ing a step behind rather than in advance of the truth, that it conciliated my mind and my heart. What was more, I found each point strengthened by the authority of the Fathers." This, which wa» contrary to all his expectations, raised the suspicion that the patristic quotations might have been falsified ; but at Agra Father Felix found the means of satisfying himself on this head, and after a time — having on full conviction made up his mind to leave the Roman Church — he was received into communion by the Bishop of Calcutta, and is now a Missionary of our own Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The eflfect of the two styles of controversy on his mind (not that Bishop Taylor is at all to be classed with the extreme opponents of Rome) may read a lesson to all who take part in the discussions of religious questions. As members of an ancient and Catholic, yet purified and reform- ed branch of the Church, which, through God's grace, has for ages happily combined the fullest and freest setting forth of the Bible as the rule of faith and life, ought we not to try and show to others (situated in many respects as our forefathers were) the way we ha;'e found it good to follow, as an example which may encourage them, if, in God's providence, they may be led to some similar internal reformation in accordance with their own national tempera- ment and circumstances ? As the latest authentic intelligence on this important subject is contained in the official preliminary report of the Rev. Mr. Langdon, to the Italian Committee of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States^-of which Committee the Bishop of Maryland is Chairman — the following account is given from the concluding portion of that report. It is so candidly and impartially recorded, and opens out the whole case of the present movement in the Italian Church so fully, that it enables each one to form a pretty accurate idea of the merits of that move- ment up io the middle of the present year. Mr. Langdon dates from Florence, 4th July, 1868 : — ITpasa now to apeak of those ecclesiartics, whom I have assigned to the first-class, who retaining their poaitions, retain thus the power, when the time is (ripe, to take active practical measures for. the accomplishment, of a reformation in the Church. 3 ,/ <m he took nie. These are indeed special cases, but they are not entirely exceptional ; and there is reaMon to believe that if two or three of tho most intolerant of the F^ombard and Venetian Bishops could bo succeeded by Liberal mt'ti, tho statistics of Keform in their ncighuorhood would bo almost as surprising. Tho very fact that these men are Reformers, in howc^ver moderate degree, implies of courso that they all unhesitatinuly reject the infallibility of the Pope and of tho Roman Catholic ChureTi. Upon this point tliey can bo considered as all substantiallv agreed. So ttlso upon the nccesHity of very greatly restraining tht; power and authority of tne Pope. As a general thing they adhere in theory to somo kind of pre-eminence; for the Bishop of Rome. While none, I think, acknowledge any superiority of order over that of the Episcopati, a general conviction still remained that the Papacy must necessarily bo retained as a centre of unity, a presiding officer, a supremo executive of tho Church. The most conservative views I heard expressed, and the most advanced alike were to my mind but resting places for their convictions. Under no circumstances can I imagino the Popo consenting to accept such a position as the mo.st Papal of these men would assign to him ; and as one of the most advanced himself remarked, '* Why waste labor in discussing barren theories, which will bo in duo time most satisfactorily controverted by the progress of events." But an interesting illustration of tho extent to which at tho least they would curb the Pap.il power, may bo given in tho words of an eminent ecclesiastic, a Monsignore and cathedral Canon, and perhaps the most consorvativo subscriber to tho Esaminatore I ever met. He was trying to prove the necessity of. all other Churches gathering round tho Papacy, admitted tho impossibility of it undor the present circumstances, and the noccssity of both an abolition of the temporal and a modification of the spiritual power, but added that it was absolutely essential to have a visible, living centre of unity. '* There could be," he urged, "no harmony in the faith without it. It was not necessary that all Churches should be in unison., but they must be in accord, in harmony ; and therefore it was necessary to have a Maestro di Cavpella. This was tne Pope — nothing more. The sacred music should bo set oeforo him ; ho must not alter a note of it, — he must not add or take anything from it, he had no authority to do that; but in strict accordance with tno music ho must," — and here tno Canonico completed his sentence by the most expressive pantimime, waving his hand up and down, to and fro, as if holding an invisible baton, mairklng time crescendo, diminuendo, &c. Another worthy Abate, speaking of the same subject, said : " It was difhcult to foresee how the question of a Papal supremacy could be settled ; it was only certain that it ought to be settled in some way, and that way should be humbly sought for by us all together, in the spirit of humility and godly love." Most striking was the language in which some of these priests spoke of the practical result of the Roman Catholic system. For instance, one who fills a university professorship declared to me his conviction that religion had spread over Italy just in proportion to the closeness of the relation which difllerent parts of the land had maintained with Rome. He was " more hopeful for 36 Lombardy and Venice ; but in the late Papal States the priests had neither considered themselves, nor been regarded by others, as a sacred ministry of divine truth and redeeming love, but as instruments of a hated civil misgovernment. They are therefore despised," — (it was a priest in full standing who told me this 1) — " and have consequently ^o adj-respect. The Papacy," continued he, " has praciicuUy crushed out common decent respect for ChrUtianitp.*' Another very eminent dignitary of the Church in Lombardy spoke ^ of the Pope as being " morally in schism — the schism not indeed actualized, but existing morally." This same ecclesiastic also said plainly that " the worship of the Church was very unreal, for the worshippers nad no intelligent part in it." And on another occasion, when I was speaking of the manner in which some one had defended the Romish Church against the charge of practical idolatry, he replied, '' Our divines have two entirely different religious systems: one to put forward in controversy, and '#hicii exists only in theory f and another very different for use. What do the people know, for instance, about the distinctions of dtUia and hyper dulia and latia ? Our image and saint worship U practically idolatrous." And dtill again, another learned cathedral dignitary, when I playfully used the words "us heretics," replied soberly by putting his hand on niine, almost as if gently rebuking my levity, "It is the Pope, caro, atid the Jesuits who are the heretics ; the Jesuits who have the Pope now in their hand, using him like a puppet. They have put away the worship of Christ out of the Church; and they divide the actual worship between the Madonna and the Pope, in order that by bringing the intellect and the heart under subjection to an unmanly And sensuous religion, they may 'more easily subject the Church, and if I possible, through the Church, the worl'd to their own rule." The programmes of Reform arevery various. The c^uotatlons judt made 'ery bble set or papers contributed to the Esamindtore about two years since, and afterwards reprinted in pamphlet form ; and the programme of the Lettre Piacentine, without making any such distinction between discipline And dogma, avows the necessity of revising the whole system of the Church, and testing it, — ^preserving or rejecting everything according as it is found on an honest inquiry to be sustained or condemned by Holy Scripture, as interpreted and illustrated by ihe primitive CounciU and early Fathers of the Church. ^Tple 87 Naturally, therefore, this school of ecclesiastics unite in exaltins the Holy Scriptures, and insisting . upon their free circulation in the vulgar tongue among the laity. TibonPs work upon this subject has been more than once referred to ; and I have yet to find a single exception among these priests to their adherence to the great principle, tnat tlie loundations of reform must be laid and the value and permanence of its results secured in the widespread and thorough study of tne Word of God, by the people as well as by the priesthood. This was the subject of a very earnest conversation in one instance, where were present an eminent cathedral dignitary, two prominent Frevosti, and two Curati. A brief extract from my notes of this conversation will fairly illustrate the feeling on this subject. One of these Frevosti spoke of the prevailing ignorance of the Bible as being one of the chief difficulties. He asked me wnen, by whom, and from what sources our English Bible was translated, congratulated us upon having one common version, whose language was familiar alike to all, whereas the continental nations had different versions, and no one had that hold upon the reverent affection of the peoplf> that it ought. He thought this one cause of the want of reverence for the Bible prevailing in Europe ; and he laid great emphasis upon the need !'>. Again and again I have had occasion to detail, as weU as my knowJ/iLve t' Italian would admit, the exact facts about our ecclesiastical anatomy ; '. le whole process of electing, confirming, and consecrating a Bishop ; the consti- tutional and practical working of our Diocesan and General Conventions ; and the functions of the laity, and modes of securing their active interest and participation in the work of the Church. In this latter point the presence of the layman already spoken of as joining me on this tour, and his own testi- mony, created the deepest interest, — such as none can understand who do not know how almost universally the intelligent laity of Italy are alienated from, if not arrayed against the Church and religion. As an illustration of this in- terest I may mention, that in one cathedral city of North Italy, a number of ecclesiastics, with a cathedral dignitary at their head, have united themselves for the express purpose of a correspondence with our Church, in order to acquire accurate information concerning it. Again, a learned and well known ecclesiastic of the Reformed School proposed a correspondence be- i\ tween of cou Anoth priests princi he wa each mal c «' und Borne terms time R retail supe; God pow< A oil a and the' clea elen witl Cat don and To itf C ei o I ( tLer the [•ead lost fsire Ireal Stic, land lose fury the ^per |in a i-> 39 tween himself arid me in'the columns of the Esaminatore, a proposition wbieb, of course, I was obliged to decline as beyond the scope of my mission. Another, and one of toe most able as well as eminent in position of these priests, expressed the feeling that the possibility of substantial commuoity of principle between our Church and themselves was full of hope to them; and he was anxious that great pains should be taken on both sides to understand each other more thoroughly. •' Perhaps," he said, " God may permit a for- mal conciliation between us !" " But," he at once added, as if apologetically, " understand me — I do not speak of a conciliation between your Church and Borne as it now is. That is absurd to talk of— indeed, impossible, except on terms which would be disgraceful to you. But perhaps God may grant some time a conciliation between you and us on a, pure and primitive basis." * * * * « « • «#'■ Rome has alienated the laity from all interest in religious matters whatsoever, retaining herself the power to exact what she herself wants from ignorance and superstition ; and over ecclesiastical incomes she possesses absolute control. Truly God only can raise up for the impending struggle either the pecuniary os moral power of maintaining it. At a time when the summons has just gone forth for a quasi CEcumenical Coun- cil at Rome, — a Council which will be an era in the religious history of the age, and which will put an end to the last lingering hope of Reform from the Pope or the Curia Romana and the Jesuits, — a Council which will, in my opinion, draw a clearly defined line between the Ultramontane oc Jesuit and the truly Catholic elements of Latin Christendom, — I cannot believe the Church will fail to watch with the intensest interest the developments of Reform principles and genuine Catholic yearnings in the Church of Italy. For this reason I trust I shall be par- doned the length at which I have trespassed in my reports upon the Committee and tiic Church. I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, , MM. CHAUNCY LANGDON. To Jambs S. Mackie, Esq., Sec. ad int. and Treas. Italian Committee, New York. I conclude with a very few remarks on the subject v of the Eastern, or Greek Church, which numbers some eighty millions in its Communion. From all we can gather — from writings in this Continent, at home, an4 in Russia— there does seem to be an earnest desire, on the part of that Church, to escape from isolation, and to seek, as well as to accord, sympathy with other communities of Christendom. " If there be one matter upon earth," said the Bishop of Oxford, at a meeting at Canterbury, " which it would be a blessed thing to help forward, it would surely be the interchange of the visible acts of communion between our branch of the Church at Home, and in America, with the orthodox branches of the Eastern Church." •'• sum i tr-- '■:-• -l ■ (i' '.-' ^ :■!!■■ The position of our Bishop of British Columbia, whose Diocese is actually conterminous with a Diocese of the Russian Church, and the position of ecclesiastical affairs in California, have suggested the necessity of this step. As I do but glance at this subject, I recommend any who may feel interested in it, to read for themselves some remarks about it contained in the February nuniber of " Good Words," for 1865. How wonderful the thought of re-uniting, the two great. brauches t£i,i^ j! j; '^^l.il'^ iiHi -^ i'-V.'. tl-^^t 'WMpipiippppiilM^iii IWII J iilJilipiRinp^l. 40 of Christ's Vine, which, shooting forth centuries ago from the same parent stock in Asia Minor, and trending, the one towards the £ast, and the other towards the West, have, at length, so extended their growth, as to encompass the Globe, and are now beginning to intertwine their foliage in Asia and America ! From the coasts of India and China our Missionaries are moving onward. Soon the out- posts of the two Churches will meet face to face. Upon the success of the movement now going on, depends whether they shall meet as rivals, or as brethren beloved, and though differing in rites, and lan- guage, and manners — ^yet of the " one Lord, one faith^ one baptism" I have lately seen letters from different Dignitaries of the Greek Church, expressive of an irrepressible longing for unity with ours. Dr. Hill — the American Missionary of the Church, at Athens, whom I had the pleasure of meeting there sever^ years ago— writes : " how very much, of late, the Greeks have been attracted by our service !*' He says, "Our little Church, and the order and solemnity of its Divine worship, are themes of the admiration of the clergy and laity of the Greek Church. I d'ec^re my intimate persuasion that the silent influence of the American mission in Greece, during the last thirty years, and the effect produced by the public services of our Church— leading first to enquiry and then to satisfactory information respecting our Protestant doctrines and worship— have gradually brought about a striking change in public opinion." " My conclusions," he adds, " drawn from my interviews with the Greek clergy, and from examination of what is really taught and held in the Church' of free Greece, are that the Holy Scriptures, and the Evangelical doctrines drawn from that pure source, as set forth summarifyin- the Nicene Creed, are the only standards to which she clmgs with pertinacity^." Does not our Church, then, present a centre of communion to all other bodies of Chriistians in the world ? It has been wett remarked as strange, but as showing -th^ longing which exists for christian unity, thtit, at a period 'when the States were convulsed" with civil war, the Fathers of the American Church should have met quietly in Synod and discussed the best mode of extending thb right hftnd of fellowship to "their brethren of the Eastern Church ! - : ' ' ' ■ f ' - i^; V [jf ,-:■■;;■•:- May the prayer of Archbishop Laud be ours : — ; - "Bless, O Gracious leather, Thine Holy Catholic Church, ftll* it with Truth and Grace ; where it is corrupt, purge it ; where it is in error, ■ direct it; where it is supeniAitious, reetify it; where it is amiss, refiArm it ; where it is right, strengthen and confirai it ; where it is divided- and^ rent asunder, heal the breaches of it, O Thon Holy €hie of Israel." I i! . /:Xi'UiJ^j.^^tt-i'S.j %:ill<:^^