mands for exertion in our several private spheres were sufficient for the most active zeal, and that therefore Missionary Societies had an unfriendly aspect on our domestic charities. But, Sir, I appeal to every gentleman before me, whether our home charities have not been multiplied and extended in proportion as our foreign institutions have prospered. The reason is, that our great religious Societies bring down upon us the blessing of God, awaken attention, stimulate to inquiry, interest the indifference, and rouse the torpor, and unlock the selfishness of the human heart, and thus feed the source whence all true charity flows. Sir, we never lose when we act nobly in the cause of our God and Saviour. As there is a re-action in the natural world, so there is in the moral. He that blesses others, is blessed also himself. He who first begins with his personal and family duties, then proceeds to his duties towards his neighbours and fellow-parishioners, then honours and obeys the Bishops and Pastors of the Church, next loves his king and country, and last of all joins in attempts to save the world,this is the Christian whose own mind will prosper, whose children will imbibe a similar spirit of piety, and on all of whose concerns the blessing of Almighty God may be expected to rest. Such a man, instead of loving debate and contention, will delight in communicating bless

ings; and if he must err, will err on the side of doing too much, rather than too little, good to others. On such a man memory delights to dwell. His influence and example form a bright spot amidst the sorrows and cares and perplexities. of an infirm and troubled world. And even if calamities should visit his abode, and the storm gather around him, the acts of charity and beneficence in which he delights, will form his solace and refreshment, and be the hallowed occupation of his happiest hours. Of such a man may I not say in the well known and beautiful language of Goldsmith,

"As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

But, Sir, I check myself in these hurried and too much extended observations. Allow me only to add, that the delight I have experienced in this my first visit to this antient and venerable place, has been much enhanced by the spirit of benevolence and charity which I perceive animates it. I shall ever retain a fond recollection of your kindness. I shall associate with the fame and antiquity of your city, the vigour and warmth of your charitable efforts. I shall unite in my mind your noble walls, your rock-built streets, your stately towers, your multiplied

relics of former grandeur, your long tried loyalty and affection to your Prince, your chivalrous history, with the tokens of your piety and affection towards the heathen, and the marks of favour and good will towards myself. Nor will I cease to pray, that upon the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop, upon the Reverend the Clergy, upon every family and every individual of this city, the blessings of Almighty God may abide; and that the life and influence of pure religion, in all its grace and all its efficacy, may so abound amongst you, that, in the sublime and figurative language of the Prophet, your walls may be SALVATION, and your gates PRAISE.

527

ADDRESS at the formation of an Association for LIVERPOOL and WEST LANCASHIRE in aid of the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY FOR AFRICA AND THE EAST, 1820.

HAVING, Sir, been requested by the

Committee of this Institution to second the motion which has just been offered to the attention of this Meeting, I may, perhaps, be expected to offer a few remarks connected with the general purposes of the Institution.

The details which my friend, Mr. Bickersteth, offered early on this day, chiefly related to one scene of our operations-the shores of Western Africa. But I may venture to say, that in all the various stations where we are labouring amongst the heathen, though there is, of course, a considerable diversity in the measure of success, yet the prospect is, on the whole, most inviting; and that, above all, the general aspect of our cause, and the state of public

sentiment with respect to it, is cheering and animating.

I speak in the knowledge of many gentlemen before me, that in the last ten years the progress of public opinion in favour of missions, and of the importance of affording to heathen nations that divine revelation which has raised and dignified our own country, has been so rapid, the steps it has taken have been so ample, that no person could have predicted, with the least show of probability, that public sentiment would have so soon overcome the errors or mistakes which were prevalent on the subject. We can all recollect the time when it was made a question, whether we could, with safety to our Indian Empire, extend the Gospel to the Hindoos; when we were told that the Hindoo was so wedded to his superstition, that his religious doctrine was so sublime and his morality so pure, that it was, at all events, scarcely worth the experiment. It is now admitted that, on the one hand, there was no danger in communicating to them the doctrines of salvation; and, on the other hand, that the true character of the superstition by which the Hindoo is degraded, is a character so base in all its parts, founded on notions so removed from all the principles of true religion, and so allied with the most cruel and licentious usages, that there was no people which required more the elevat