%. e> % ^^^^>-.o. .o..\^> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. ^'^j O ^ y. fc ^ I I.I 11.25 •^ 132 lU 122 12.0 1.4 li.6 V] <^ /] Oj v: > ^> .^ ?v ^^' / M W W Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WfST MAIN STREST WCBSTER.N.Y. M5S0 (716)«72-4503 (v .\^' ^ N> 4 9) V -«*> o^ T> % ^ ^. '<> '9) I CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques I Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter ariy of the images in the reproduction or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. □ Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ D Couverture endommag^e Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurie et/ou pelliculie I I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque I I Coloured maps/ D Cartes giographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with oXh& material/ Relii avec d'autres documents [~7] Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion D D along interior margin/ La reliure serrde peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intdrieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauratlon appareissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6X6 filmies. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires: L'Institut a microfilmi le rneilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6x6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mithode normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur D D D D Pages damaged/ Pages endommagies Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restauries et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tacheties ou piqudes Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Showthrough/ Transparence I I Quality of print varies/ Qualitd indgaie de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel suppldmentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Tl to Tl P< o1 fil Oi b( th si( ot fil si( or T^ sh Tl wl IVI dil an be "S rsi D Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 filmies 6 nouveau de fapon 6 obtenir la meilleure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmA au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous 10X 14X 18X 22Xy 26X 30X ] i 1 V 12X 16X aOX 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed hare hs« been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol -^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire filmA fut reproduit grAce A la ginArosit* de: Library Division Provincial Archives of British Columbia » Les images suivantes ont AtA reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at de la nettetA de l'exemplaire filmA, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimie sont film^s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la darniire page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplairas originaux sont filmAs en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole -^^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s 6 des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film^ A partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 OUR COLONIES AND OUR CHURCH. ^ §crmott PRKACHED BY THE REV. m HON. A. J. I ANSON, II.A. HECTOR OF WOOLWICH, AND HON. CANON OF ROCHESTER, ox THE OCCASION- OF HIS RESIGNING THE CHARGE OF THE PARISH, TO UNDERTAKE WORK IX THE NORTH WEST OF CANADA. SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, JUNE 3rd, 1883. ONE PENNY. WOOLWICH : W. J. SQUIRES. PRINTER, WELLINGTON' STREET. 1883. T' % " It shall be If He call thee, thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."— i. Samuel, III., 9. 'T*HIS counsel of the aged priest Eli to the child Samuel, so familiar to us from our earliest years, contains a lesson not only for childhood but for every step in the Christian's course. It is, indeed, the very foundation principle on which the Christian life should be built up. Belief that God does speak with His own voice to each separate soul, readiness to hear that call, and willingness to obey it whatever it bids us do — these are all involved in the words ; and these should be the guiding principles of our life, if it is to be framed after the pattern of His life, Who from His childhood was constrained to be about His Father's business, Whose meat and drink it was to do the will of Him that sent Him. And yet how apt we are, are we not ? rather to turn a deaf ear to that voice or to find a hundred excuses, like the invited guest of the great supper of whom we read in the Gospel this morning, for not doing exactly what it bids us. It calls us in some midnight hour, when*all the clangor and turmoil of the world are silent, and when there is nothing to distract our thoughts, to come out boldly and choose the better path, to declare ourselves nobly on Christ's side, and confess Him manf-.Uy before the world, and so to ^vin that prize of eternal glory which He has promised to His faithful ones. Oh ! and the heart bums as it hears that voice calling to what it knows, in spite of all, is the truest, noblest, happiest life — most worthy of our manhood. Man's heart has not altogether lost its sympathy with its Creator's voice, and there are few who in some moments, at leabt, do not yearn for better and higher things than they can find hero — more peace, more joy. But then, alas, other thoughts soon creep in side by side with that voice, and the mind thinks of what such a life would involve, how much struggle, and self-denial, and misunderstanding, and perhaps ridicule of friends, and we bid it hush its tender pleadings with some delay or excuse. " Not just yet " : "It cannot matter if I go on a little longer as I am " ; "I know I should not like to die in my present state, I know it would be terrible if my life had been wasted when I stand before my Master's judgment, but " (Oh 1 those awful buts) " I am not strong enough yet. it would be iisohws for me to try. Tho Voico has not spoken distinctly enough. It will be time to turn to (tod in eurucxt iinothor week, another year, when I am a little older." Ah ! how many souls are losst that might be gloriously naved, that might have a rich harvest of good works stored up in heaven, simply because they would not say. " Speak, Lord, {'or Thy servant heareth." and rise up in the morning and tell what the Lord had revealed to them. Is there one her*^ present to-night, my brethren, who can honestly say he has never yet heard that voice of God speaking to him. I scarcely believe there can be. How many have returned the answer which has given joy to the angels in heaven .' Or, again. God speaks to us, asking of us some sjiecial sacrifice for His sake, or He comes to the home and calls to us to •■ resign what most w • prize " — the husband, the wife, or the little child, perhaps the only one, to which the parents' heart-strings seem so bound that it would be impossible to separate the one from the other without mortal injury to the one left. When God speaks in these and other such ways, how seldom is the heart found listening for that voice, ready to hear in whatsoever way it comes, and meekly accept its bidding. " It is the Lord " : " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." How would earth's pains and sorrows and trials he softened, yea transformed into blessings, if there was indeed more of this humble, thankful, recognition of God's loving voice in all the changes and chances of this mortal life. We see it sometimes, thanls be to God, and recognize then how wonderfully, amid the bitterest trials, the Lord upholds those who put their trust in Him. and hearken to His voice. Old Eli, with all his faults — and they were not small — knew this great secret of peace in life, and therefore he who counselled Samuel "If He call thee, thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." was able, when the awful judgment of God upon his house was revealed to him, to say. '• It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good." My brothers and sisters, beloved in the Lortl. I have an announcement to make to you to-night which I know will be received with much surprise liy tho.se who have not yet heard anything of it. It would only be art't'ctation in me to pretend to suppose that it will not be received with something more than surprise by not a few. The words which I have taken for our text will shortly, I trust, help to convince you that I could not have arrived at any other decision t' an that at which I have. A few weeks ago it was my duty to urge upon you the duty of our Church with respect to other jiarts of the world. In jireparing to do so. I was very deeply struck with what I read concerning the truly terrible state of tilings taut exists in North-west Canada, where "emigrants, attracted by a lielt of virgin .-oil extending for a thous'ind miles Irum east to west, are pouring in in niunhcrs without iiiuallel in the history i f the world." Tl.e increase of iioiiiilaLion st tins alino.-t fabulous. In one year alone, iSM, the ropulation of Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, rose from 12 to 20.000. It is now therefore probably nearly ;{0,(iOO. In 1»71 iti* population was only 3uo. Last year there were no less than 112.000 emigrants settled in Canada. For tlie four months of this year ended April, the British emigration to Canada increased loper cent, over what it was last year. In April alone it was 7,000. We may well imagine how impossible it must be for the emigrants themselves, arriving in such vast numbers, to provide for themselves the means of grace. Jiut it is probably impossible for us to realise the actual spiritual destitution that is existing there. It is true that the whole of the country is nominally under the supervision of three Uishops, but they have scarcely any more clergy with them in rural districts than were needed for their missionary efforts among the heathen. The Bishop of Rupertsland says, in a letter written in (September last year : — " Fifty-two municipalities have been formed for local government in the part of JIanitoba now being settled. In thirty-eight of these embracing over 70() townships, there is no resident clergyman of our Church — each township has thirty-six sijuare mile.s. Yet there are few of these townships without settlers, and they are, as a whole, being rapidly taken up and sparsely settled on. In several other municipalities, with from twelve to forty townships, there is only one clergyman. But the gravity of the i)osition of the Church will be better understood from a further consideration. The Canada Pacific Railway is being carried still further west at the unprecedented rate of three miles a day. A stream of emigrants goes with it and before it. Many colonization Societies are settling townships further back. There is a Church Missionary Society Indian Mission at Touchwood Hills, about lOO miles north east of Regina. There is not another clergyman of our Church in the whole of the great province of Assiniboia— not one for the new settlers ! There ought to be a bishop and a staff of clergy. Nor is this all. The great deficiency of the supply of the means of grace by our Church thus described is simply the result of the emigration and progress of settlement of the last two or three years. In even another year the story will be much worse. Churchmen are scattered everywhere over this country in varying proi)ortion with other bodies — but by the census last year the Church of England was numerically slightly the largest body. It is needless to add that unless a large additional yearly sum can be obtained for some years from England, the Church must greatly suffer. English Churchmen and Canadian Churchmen emigrating to this country must be left without the ministra- tions of their own Church, and will in a great degree pass away from it. It is an old story. It is not unknown in Canada in the past— but here, owing to the great attractions for emigrants and the unprecedented rapidity of the opening up of the country, it ia being repeated on an enormously larger scale. If things remain as they are, owing to the deep interest taken by other denominations in the progress of their bodies and the number of Missionaries being sent by them to this country, the Church of England is likely to srffer as it has never sufferwl before." It may well put the Church of England to shame to l)o told that, "while the Church of Canada has not yet been able to give us one Missionary, the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches in Canada are alone between them mainly support- ing little short of fifty Missionaries in this diocese. When our members in many district;s are left to the ministrations of other bodies, many of them must become estranged and the Church here be crippled for its future work." The Bishop of Algoma writes : " As I journey from place to place I am painfully impressed with the spiritual destitution that prevails. As year by year I make my annual visitation tours, and not infrequently, on visiting new settlements for the first time, hold Service and administer the Holy Sacraments of the Church to those who have for years been deprived of the privilege, I find that there are others further back and beyond them who are hungering for the services of the Church into which they have been baptized, and to which they are so much attached. Let me give an instance : — At the close of a service in a village far back in the Muskoka District last winter, I was accosted by a man who told me that he had walked fifteen miles to attend the service, and also, as a deputation from the settlement of which he was a member, to ask if a Missionary could be sent to visit them from time to time. You may imagine my feelings, as I was obliged to tell him that ior lack of funds it was quite impossible. This same man walked thirteen miles on the following Wednesday, to meet me at another place, in quite a different direction, again to ask whether something could not be done to supply their spiritual wants. Let me mention another fact : on reaching a settlement last winter, which I had never visited before, I found no less than sixty persons assembled, many of whom had travelled eight and nine miles on foot— men, women, and children — to meet me. I baptized five infants, confirmed six adults preached, and administered the Holy Eucharist to no less than thiri/y persons, several of whom told me afterwards that it was the first oppor- tunity that they had had since they came into the bush, five, six, and in tbo case of one family, comprising five communicants, eight years ago. This case is exceptional only in so far as numbers are concerned, being, in other respects, of too frequent occurrence. I am safe in saying that there are hundreds, ay, thousands, of our members scattered throughout this vast diocese, to whom the sound of the church-going bell is a thing of the past ; thousands who are living and dying without any opportunity of participating in the means of grace. Is it to be wondersd, if with thes# factH staring me in the face continually, I am importunate in asking for the meanH to hcuiI additional labourers into the Held v.hiiih in already white for harveHt?" Mr. Crompton, :; MLsHionary in Alfforan, writes thus, of a district to which he had penetratetl : " I found a country with clearings on every hand— clearings telling me of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of human beings called Chrintians, living, breathing, and dying there without having one opportunity of using the means of Grace I I was told I was the only man, as a minister, who had as yet penetrated that i)art. People liy the hundred I I sat down on a stone and wept, wept bitterly. I wept because I felt how utterly unable I was to meet and cojjc with the work now here spread before me. I wept to think of the carelessness, nay, of the utter indifference to the welf '.re of their brethren in Christ, by those who call themselves the brethren 0/ Christ." My brethren, surely here is a call— a call such as probably has scarcely ever been heard before by any Church— to our Church, and to everyone of us its members, to go and help those sheep of her fold that are straying in the distant fields. For rememljer, it comes to us from our own ueople, our own brethren in Christ, from those who have therefore undoubtedly the greatest claim on a Christian Church ; for. if we are bound to •• do good unto all men," we are •' especially to do it unto them who are of the household of faith." We know that we have passed from death unto life, " because we love the brethren." And if there are but a few of our brethren in Christ in yonder wilds, driven there by stress of circumstances and by the over-crowding of the straitened liome here whose souls have learnt in some of the sanctuaries with which our native land is so thickly studded — thanks chiefly to the piety of our ancestors— to love the assembly of God's people and to find peace and joy in the holy ordinances of our Church, if there are but a few such, I say. who shall look in vain for help in the maintenance of their faith from those who, being so richly endowed with all things here, might help them, yea, supply all their needs, but seem not to care to do so, and they suffer loss because alienated from the Church, or are taken captive of Satan for lack of that sustenance which our Master in- tended His people to have, surely there must be a terrible reckoning in store in the last great day, yea, even now, for the Church, which through her negligence or lack of zeal left those souls to perish alone uncared for. Precious as all souls are in the sight of Christ, greatly as He yearns that all who as yet know Him not, may be taught of His love, anxiously as He desires those who have the opportunity of knowing Him may be brought to love Him, we cannot doubt for one moment that He loves with a special love those who bear His name, and whom He has numbered among His elect, and who have once by His Spirit been brought to love Him. Do not those Ijenutiful paralilosi of tliP Lost Pioce of Moiipy, thp Ln^t Sliooj), nnd the I'rmliKiil Son all t«'Il us this fsijpcially .' It i» - whonoever whall jfive to (Iriiik tiiito one of the little ones a cup of oolil wiitcr only in the naint' of a disciplt'." who •'cliall not lose his reward." It is, wlioso slmll offend one of the little .mos that believe in Chrint, of whom it is said, ■' it were better for him that a millstone were haiiffcd a>)out his neck, and tliat he were east into the depth of the sea," So is Christ jealous with most tender love for His own. So ou^ht His Church to be for the children that (!<)(' has jfiven her. There may !)<■ some here, liowever. wlio may be incdined to think that however much it may be the duty of the Church to follow after and do her utmost to minister to such souls, it is an exafffferation to su))pose tliat the majority of them feel mucli their loss. They do not value the means of jfrace while here, why should they so lament the loss there.' There is nothing commoner than •/lot to kno>v the value of what we poa.se.ss till we have lost it. I never knew the luxury of jiure water till I travelled thnuigh the desert. So. believe, many more souls there feel the want of a Church, than a))preciated it, or perhaps ever used it. when at home. It is a very different thu.g to pass by the Church's open door, Sunday after Sunday and never enter, and to shun all conversation with the Clergyman whom we are accusto!ued to see walking- in our streets, and perhaps to resent it if he ventures to speak to us personally seriously, to being without any Church into which it is possible even if we would to enter, never to hear the Church's bell, and to know that even in the time of sickness or of death, there will be none to speak at our bedside in the name of the Lord, and to direct us wheni perhaps, in the darkness of our own soul, caused by our long neglect and continuance in sin, we need another to lead us to the light, if we would not perish in desi)air. The children growing up unbaptized — the dead buried without any religious rites— no means of solemnizing the holy rite of matrimony, — these things often make the most careless feel that the absence of what they so despised is indeed a grievous loss. I have already read to you proofs that there are many there who are hungering and thirsting for these means of grace. Let me give you another from the letter of Mr. C'rom])ton. Speaking of an early Communion at Christmas, at a place he had not before visited, he says: "It was indeed a joyful time for the eighteen who knelt at the Altar of the Lord. One old lady who was present with six of her up-grown children, could not help shedding tears, because, as she said, ' it does seem home now we have Church in full.' Again, one man, when speaking about his Church, said, 'Mr. Crompton, if I were but once more beside my old Church at home, I do think I should beg pardon of the very stones fc not going oftener than 1 did when I had the chance ; so you may guesa, sir, what J fonl now \vn Arc to liavr service, cvi-n if it is o '.y onuc a month,' Oner more in luiothor pliicc \ aHkf')0ur. In half an liour I had over tdO worth of labour promised uie. One poor man, only an English labourer, offered to do the whole of the work of buildin},' a stone foundation to the Church, if the materials were placed on the pround ; the value of this ;t. at least £15. The materials were soon promised; ami the promises fulfil'od, I have been there and found the men working- as lnisy as bees in the evening', when their farm work was done, some of the men ''. Ikinjr five miles *.) j,'iv<; their labunv." What would lie th(uig-ht of sul . /.eal for tho f" urch in England .' My brethren, 1 have felt that the eai! > f whieh I have sp )ken was one that I at least could not resist. It s(>emod to mo to be an emergency of the Church which those clergy, who like myself had no sptoial home ties such as is implied in wifi^ and children, and who might be able to su]>port themselves by their private means, might I'o something to belp to alleviate by volunteering for the work. I have therefore placed my resignation of this parish in the hands of the Bishop from the end of next month. Hut as I have said, I regard it strictly as an emergency of the Church. 1 do not in the least consider it as of necessity a life-long work. In a few years, say ten, the pressure will probably have passed away, the land will have been brought into cultivation, and the inhabitants will be sible to provide the ministrations of religion for themselves in the usual way. I know there will be those who will be ready to ask and urge with some degree of plausibility, is not the position I hold here one of greater respon- sibility than, any I am likely to find there .' have I not here the charge of a greater number of souls than I can have there .' and in the great dearth of clergy which we are all so continually lamenting, even for the supply of our home needs how can I reconcile it with my duty to forsake the work at home for work in another country .' To these objections I would make these two simple, but to nie, it seems all sufficient answers. I quite recognize the work here is more responsible than anything I can have there, but then frod's calls do not necessarily always come to posts of greater re- sponsibility. There may be more specially urgent and therefore important work needed for a tii...' in places of less responsibility. The great difference, however, seems to me to be t)us. that while there are many willing and fully able to curry ou the work i lay down here. I shall be there doing work, however imjK'rfectly and huuibly, which otherwise would not lie t 10 (lone at all. And. secondly, while I am fully sensible of the dearth of clergy at home, I regard our Church as just as responsible for those of her children who go from these shores to a land which after all is only an ex- tension of our kingdom, even though a wide ocean divide us, as for those at home. Supposing that ours was a great country like the vast Empire of Russia, with thousands of miles of land as yet uninhabited, but gradu- ally being taken up with the overflow from other parts, would not the Church consider it her very first duty tf) spread her ministrations as rapidly as the waste places were being peopled .' Yes. if there was a spot in this land with but a few people, even a dozen, fifty, or sixty miles from any Church or spiritual provision, should we not at once recognize that that spot had a greater claim on the Church for immediate help than any other in the country ? And this is the case with our colonies. But we do not realize it becan.«e, forsooth, a few miles of ocean rolls between us* Because we inhabit a small island ve have had to colonise, and in those colonies is England's greatness and glory. England's Church should not be behind hand in extending her privileges to her children's future home, so that as they ri.oe up they may acknowledge her as their beloved mother the same there as here. No one who knows me will think for a moment that I desire to nnder-rate the importance or the necessity of home mission work. The Church must strengthen her stakes at home. But this I will fearlessly say. she must enlarge her borders also. And though it is her duty in love to do her utmost to compel men to come in and accept the good things which she offers, yet when they are offered, as they are through- out this Christian land within the sight and hearing of "very soul, the responsibility of not accepting them, rests with those who refuse to listen, rather than with her. A\'hile on her must rest the awful responsibilty if those gift* and blessings given to her by her Master are not placed within the reach of every soul that will accept them. My dear brethren, though I have not now to say farewell, it is impossible for rne to make the announcement to you I have done to-night without concluding with a few words of more personal allusion. It is not necessary for me. I am convinced, to assure you that the severance of the tie which has bound me to this parish for nearly eight years will not be easy for me. The feeling created uy the spiritual relationship of priest and people, when there has been any real work in drawing a soul to Christ is mutual though one often does not know how deep it is till it has to be severed. I shall leave many here and elsewhere, from whom it will be hard indeed to {tart, but I trust they are all such as will feel that the call of our Master is far above every consideration. In looking back, as one cannot help doing at such a moment over these few years, I am indefd deeply sensible of hou imi>erfectly the work entrusted to my charge by 'lur l»elove«l Bishop, the |)re»