114 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. ed friend, the President, for the remarks which he made in his address on this subject, the subject, I mean, of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God upon the church and the world? And may I also express thanks (and I am sure I speak for others as well as for myself) to our other brethren who have dwelt so powerfully on this one great topic? Doubtless, a richer measure of the Spirit's influence is the great want of the church and of the world. I have no doubt that if, in answer to prayer, we get such a communication from on high, we shall see things, which are already in course of preparation, rise up into maturity, and shall have to rejoice, in a far larger degree, over the conversion of multitudes to Christ. He who, by His agency at this season of the year, re.animates all nature around us, who causes the dreariness and desolation of winter to pass away in the glow and glory of spring, He also can send forth a higher and better agency, the reviving agency of His own Spirit, which, when it passes over deserts the most desolate and dreary, shall cause them to flourish and rejoice as a fruitful field. Let us unite and persevere in our supplications to the throne of the heavenly grace, that the Lord would grant the great promised Pentecost to universal man-would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. And then, how shall we rejoice, who have been fellow-workers with Him, when we thus perceive that we have not received and used the grace of God in vain! And, now, I should come to a point from which I rather shrink. (Hear.) I think I have a right, perhaps, to read what I find written down upon the Resolution, or else I should not presume to put two such things in juxtaposition with each other on such an occasion as this; but I read here on my Resolution-" The Rev. Dr. Hannah and the collection." I cannot forget other days, and the remembrance of these makes me shrink. I cannot forget that honoured name which was usually and most appropriately associated with the collection on all these occasions. (Hear.) He is departed, I was going to say, alas! but no, let us rather praise God that he was continued to us so long, that he was permitted so to abound in Christian labour, and that, when it pleased the Lord to call him hence, He called him hence in such peaceful triumph. We mourn not for him; he is departed to his Saviour and his God. We mourn for ourselves; but we remember that though the standardbearer may fall, the standard remains; June & July, though man may pass away in the course of mortality, even the most honoured of men, yet the Lord our God is still with us; "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." If our venerated friend, Dr. Newton, could pass from the realms of bliss, and once more advocate this great Missionary cause, do you think that he would use feebler arguments, or less earnest and zealous appeals? May I be permitted, instead of my unworthy name, still to place, in some sort of connexion, the name of the Rev. Dr. Newton with the collection? (Hear.) Let me ask our dear friends to recall him to their grateful memories this day, and to remember that the cause which he advocated remains the same, that the cause of Christ does not depend on the continuation even of so devoted a servant as he, but that we are all called upon to advocate the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to our opportunities and means. (Hear.) Sir, I want us to have a good collection to-day. I like to speak out just what I think, as far as language serves me. (Cheers.) I would like us to have as good a collection upon this occasion, as if we were still permitted to listen to the appeals of the venerable Dr. Newton. Why should we not? The Lord our God is with us. Venerable men are yet amongst us, (turning to Dr. Bunting,) (cheers,) and long may they be permitted to continue our examples, prompting us to all that is large in charity, and successful in effort. (Cheers.) We will remember that we are engaged in a cause which does not depend on man, as we have heard with so much delight this day; but it is the cause of our ever-living Redeemer, who will carry it on until it shall fill the whole earth. And there is one thing which we should always keep in mind-one thing to which I may now advert in conclusion, that we are engaged in a work which must prevail. (Hear.) Other enterprises may pass away, for they are enterprises of men; but this enterprise of Divine truth and charity cannot pass away. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet; and the time is approaching nearer and yet nearer,-it has been approaching since we assembled together this day,-when voices shall be heard from heaven, to which voices from earth shall answer, joyfully exclaiming, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever," Let our dear friends renew their efforts, renew their prayers, renew their liberalities, and rejoice this day in the prospect of an enlightened and happy world, entirely subjugated to Christ. I beg, Sir, to second the Resolution. (Cheers.) The REV. ELIJAH HOOLE then read a letter from Colonel Hill, late Governor of Cape-Coast Castle, and now Governor of Sierra-Leone, stating it would have afforded him great happiness to have been present at the Meeting; but, being in Dublin, he was unable to attend. He (Mr. Hoole) also stated that they had had with them, all day, one of Colonel Hill's friends, a gentleman from Cape-Coast, a native merchant, who was employed as the Government Agent in effecting the recent arrangements with the King of Ashantee. He also stated that they had received many gratifying proofs that their old friends had not forgotten them upon that occasion. (Cheers.) The Resolution then passed unanimously. The REV. WILLIAM REILLY (from Ireland) said: Mr. Chairman and friends, my Resolution reads thus: "The Meeting learns with much satisfaction that arrangements are in progress for the consolidation and extension of the work of God in the Lower Provinces of British North America, by which the Missions hitherto carried on by the Society in those Provinces will be constituted a distinct and affiliated Connexion; and hereby expresses its sense of the importance of such a measure, and its hope that it may be prosperously accomplished. And having further learned that the Rev. Dr. Beecham is about, at the request of the Committee, to visit those Provinces, in furtherance of this object, the Meeting expresses its most cordial wishes for his preservation in health and safety during his voyages and journeys, and for his success in the undertaking." Unaccustomed as I am to address assenblies of this kind, so large and so imposing in aspect, and having already heard so much of the enlarged views given us upon the general subject, and upon the many duties connected with it, I feel that my emotions are too much for my resolution and power of thought. However, the subject presents to us a matter of great interest on many accounts -great interest, on account of the provinces to which our attention is here directed; great interest on account of the great work that has been carried on in those provinces by means of your Missionaries and Ministers; and, to me, great interest, because so many of my own beloved countrymen have found their way to Upper Canada, and to the far West. And it is not at all deprived of any of its interest by the fact that Dr. Beecham has consented to enter upon that negotiation, and we hope that the prayer of this Resolution will be answered with regard to him in his voyages, his journeys, and his success in the undertaking. However, the general work of the Society itself has wonderful attractions in it. Great attractions are around the Missionary cause, because the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the grand subject of promulgation throughout the nations of the earth; great interest, because the spirit that we have heard so much of to-day, and so well, from our excellent President, who gave such a devotional tone to our Meeting, that that Divine and sacred Spirit accompanies the word wherever that word goes, and that "the word of the Lord will not return unto Him void, but will accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto He has sent it." Besides the various circumstances that arise in the fields that have been won, the triumphs that have been achieved, and the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of souls that have been converted to the faith throughout the various parts of the world, all this gives great attraction to the subject of Missions, and to those especially in which we are engaged. But I may allude to one fact, having the privilege of standing here to-day, that I am not a returned Missionary; I am a native Missionary; I am a Missionary from Ireland. (Cheers.) Forty years ago I commenced my Missionary career, a humble companion of that devout man, Gideon Ouseley. He called me his stripling at that time, and by others, too, I was called his son. I was on the Irish Mission for many years, and therefore I can refer to that as a subject of deep and thrilling interest, with regard to myself. And I am indebted, I suppose, to that for the position which I hold here to-day, enjoying the privilege that I have enjoyed whilst on this platform. But, Sir, our responsibilities are very great sometimes, in proportion to our advantages; and if I have an advantage in this respect, I still have a responsibility to discharge that is by no means an easy task. I have to speak of the country of my birth. I can see her hills and valleys rising to my view, ay, and same time it is impossible for me to speak upon that subject without referring to the sympathy which she has received from the Missionary Committee, and from the Conference of the people called Methodists in this country. The sympathy which they have shown from the first has been a subject of deep interest to me, to all our Irish Ministers, and to all our Irish people. I am very glad to see on the platform my excellent friend Alderman M'Arthur, from the city of Derry, and if I were to say any thing reflecting upon my country, I should not like to look round to Mr. Arthur and Mr. M'Arthur. I cannot utter a word to depreciate the country which gave me birth, and in which I have laboured the greater part of my life. But to speak of our Irish Missions. Some few Circuits have required the exercise of continual pastoral attention, from which there is no travelling in or out; but the greater part of our Irish Circuit Preachers so called, are nothing less or more than Missionaries to the Irish people. It was in the year 1748 that Mr. Wesley first visited our shores, and first unfurled the standard of the cross. He went from one place to another, and did a great work in Ireland. But it was in the year 1799 that what we may properly call the Irish Mission was first established; just after the rebellion, when the whole nation was exhausted, and, under the blight of the results of that rebellion, ready to hear the Gospel from the lips of any one who would preach it. It was stated by the Irish Conference as a thing greatly to be desired; the venerated Dr. Coke was greatly in its favour, and the correspondence which took place evidenced the great anxiety existing for the establishment of a Mission at that particular period. The venerable Gideon Ouseley and Charles Graham, two men "whose praise is in all the churches," went forth. They were very different in their constitution of mind. Mr. Ouseley was a man of powerful and enlightened intellect, and of considerable learning. Mr. Graham had no pretension to learning at all; and yet he was such a Preacher in Irish as I hardly ever heard; and often did I stand by his side in places, where the blood of the rebels or of loyalists had stained the walls. The Mission has existed ever since; and though, in latter years, it may not be supposed to have been so efficient in not less than eight hundred could be counted as converts from the Roman Catholic communion, and some of our most efficient Irish Missionaries were recovered from Popery by the means of Charles Graham and Gideon Ouseley. I was reminded by Dr. Spencer of an observation made with regard to one of them, that whenever he came to a place where he had to stop for the night, he was called the "praying Preacher, "This is the Preacher who retires to his room, and whose voice we heard,' though he did not intend that it should be heard. And if it were not for John Feely's delicacy of health, I should like to have had him here to-day. He has been a faithful Missionary; he is an able Irish scholar, and is capable of conducting such a work with efficiency. There are many others I might name. I remember another circumstance of which Dr. Spencer reminded me. At one place, which a Preacher used to visit from time to time, and which none of those who were in the Popish communion dared to approach when he preached, there was a crevice in the partition, which divided the room from a large loft, and that was rendered more open by the master of the house, and numbers of them would go there to hear the Gospel from the lips of the Irish Missionary. God blessed the work, so that from this beginning it became a place worthy of the labours of the Church Missionary Society. years ago, it is well known, our country was in the deepest distress from famine and pestilence. I happened to be at Cork, the very focus of disease and starvation, at a time when 20,000 persons from the provinces flocked into that city for the purpose of seeking relief, thus increasing their disasters. The state of things was not so bad in the north of Ireland; there we had something to fall back upon. But in the south all was starvation, disease, and death. When those calamities came upon us, the sympathies of England reached us; they soothed our sorrows, and poured balm into the bosoms of many sufferers. This produced a favourable effect, rendering them more accessible to the truth than they had been before. The Church Missionary Society established their Mission at that juncture, with beneficial results, and the truth of God is taught in the schools to thousands of the young and rising generation. The Presby Some our terian Church followed in the track, receiving support from their sister churches in Scotland; and even translantic friends contributed largely to the objects of the Presbyterian Mission. Industrial schools and schools for the young were set up; and those schools have produced incipient results, so as to prepare many of those who are in them for the reception of the Gospel of Christ. Long, however, before that period,—and it will not be presumed that I speak in the least degree to depreciate the Churches to which I have referred,—but long before them did the Missionaries go forth from the Methodist Society. In Connemara, where the chief seat of operations is, I travelled myself many years ago, and preached the Gospel of the blessed God. These schools have produced the very best results, not only in the conversion of Roman Catholics to the faith of Christ, but also in the preservation of Protestants from deteriorating into Popery. And the direct influences of the Missionaries in that country must be acknowledged to be very beneficial with regard to the preservation of the Protestant population throughout the Protestant province. However, Sir, we are not about to speak of the Church of Rome, of which we have heard a good deal to-day. You know her better now than you did thirty years ago. You did not know that the serpent was winding its coils round Protestants, and by and by, when it had been fostered and kept in the heat, and gathered strength, it would sting those who nurtured it. (Hear.) Now it presents to us a scene of most revolting ingratitude. We do not refer then invidiously to that. We speak of measures, not men. Nor need we go back to the time when we, in Ireland, became subject to English rule; when Henry II., of England, and Adrian IV., of Rome, agreed to bring Ireland under the iron yoke of Popery. I would just quote one passage from O'Driscoll, in his view of Ireland. He says, "That ominous apostasy has been followed by a series of calamities hardly to be equalled in the world. From the days of St. Patrick to the Council of Cashel (in 1172) was a bright and glorious career for Ireland. From the sitting of this Council to our time, the lot of Ireland has been unmingled evil, and and all her history a tale of woe." But we need not go back so far to show the state of our country. We must, however, distinguish between the Clergy and the laity. Look at the present. The people are under a galling yoke that neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. The Priests are the sworn friends of Rome and the sworn enemies to liberty. (A voice," Time.") They swear to preserve the rights or royalties of Peter, that is, the interests of the Church of Rome. They do all they can to crush freedom of thought. I remember, some time ago, travelling with a gentleman high in office; he was an eminent Minister; and he said that John Wesley had done more for the world than any man that ever lived, for he taught men how to think. Well, Sir, the Irish want to be taught how to think for themselves, and to be made subject to the faith of Jesus Christ by voluntarily submitting to it. When we look at them in their social character, they are hospitable, kind, generous; until influenced either by political or religious considerations. There is perhaps no kinder and more hospitable race than the native Irish. I remember cases that have taken place under my own observation as evidence of this disposition. I remember an Irish Missionary was overtaken at night; and in the depth of darkness found his way to an Irish cabin. There was no place near where he could get shelter, and the man and woman left the only bed in the house, sat up all night, and let the Missionary sleep under their protection. There is hardly any thing that can excel the hospitality and generosity of the Irish. Now, something must be done to relieve them from a system that grinds them down, and under which they groan and labour. Perhaps there is nothing more remarkable in England than the love of liberty, and no nation in the world that understands it so well, though I am afraid some carry it a little too far. We carry it further still, in one respect, in Ireland. We know, as a poor woman said, when her son was dying of wounds received in fighting against his country, and cried out," Liberty, boys, liberty!" said she, "Yea, liberty asthore to go into another world." We have sometimes liberty to go into the other world, under the ruling of the Popish religion and hierarchy. Well, you understand the word "liberty," I believe, very well in this country; and though I think you may sometimes carry it too far into license, your notions of liberty are legitimate, and ought to be applied to every country under heaven. I hear it sometimes said that our work, as a body, has been done. I cannot think that. I think 118 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. our work is still to be accomplished in a higher and greater degree than ever we did it before. But whatever we have learned, heard, or known, of those to whom I have referred, we are still obliged to add, that we get things from them which we do not want, and that they withhold things from us, which are matters of deep sorrow and affliction. What do they give us? They give us human authority, instead of the word of life. What do they take from us? They would take from us liberty to breathe the free air of heaven, and they would take from us all that is dear to us in the work which we have to do; and there is no aspect in which you can regard that system, that does not exhibit to you at once a great evil. After all, before I sit down, I would point out one fact; we must maintain, not merely Protestantism, but pure Christianity. The Thermopyle of Christianity is Ireland; and we must do all we can to keep the ground we have gained, and to extend it to the glory of Him to whom all glory belongs. (Hear.) The REV. BENJAMIN FIELD seconded the Resolution. The REV. DR. BUNTING, who was very warmly received, said,- When an application was made to me an hour or two ago to say something upon the Resolution now before the Meeting, my refusal was as peremptory as I could make it. I tell you why; not because my attachment to the cause is in the slightest degree weakened; not because my conviction of its importance has been in any degree weakened; the contrary, the decided contrary, is the fact; but because I was apprehensive that there might have been some one in yonder corner, and perhaps some one, or even more than one, in some other corner, who, like the friend who spoke without being called upon a little while ago, and called out "Time," (hear, hear, and a laugh,) using the liberty, I suppose, of an Englishman. Whether he did it courteously when he was referring to an Irishman, I do not pretend to say. I should have been very inexcusable if I had said so while Mr. Reilly was speaking; for I happen to have known, for forty years, the claims of Mr. Reilly to the great respect and love of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ. I greatly rejoice to see that man upon this platform to-day. (Cheers.) And I am quite sure that the fact of his having been with us, and having said what he has said, however, June & July, unfortunately, as I think-and I claim liberty with you to think-however, unfortunately interrupted. The claims of that man to our respect having been thus acknowledged, by his being once more induced to come to this Meeting, will give satisfaction to thousands of good Irish Methodists. He is known and loved there, especially as the youthful companion of the immortal Gideon Ouseley. But the reason which overcame my earnest desire to be excused saying any thing was, an allegation on the part of the Secretary, that there was a clause in the fourth Resolution to which he thought nobody else could speak so efficiently, at all events, as I could, because he thought none else could speak to it with so much knowledge of the fact. He was mistaken in that. My friend Dr. Hannah_complained a little of our excellent President for even Presidents must submit to this liberty-in having anticipated him. He did very happily anticipate him; but Dr. Hannah as happily disregarded the anticipation. Well, I may complain that Dr. Hannah has taken this last clause of the Resolution quite out of my hands. He said every thing on the subject that I could say, in a much better way; but not with more emotion, and more affectionate feeling, than I shall say the two or three sentences that I must try to say about it. I refer to that clause which relates to Dr. Beecham's visit, at the request of the Committee of the Society, to British America, for the purpose of carrying into effect certain beneficial arrangements there. With respect to those arrangements themselves, I entirely concur in the description of this Resolution, that they are very important; very important, I believe, in their pe. cuniary results, and very important, I believe, in their spiritual results. (Hear.) But having quite concurred in the propriety of that epithet with reference to these arrangements for affiliated Conferences in British North America, I must be allowed -if the Treasurer were here I do not think he would blame me for it, as I think the other co-Treasurer who is here will not blame me to say, that there must be no misunderstanding, if you please, upon this subject. The chief relief which this Society can derive from the proposed affiliated Conference in the Lower Provinces, and the chief relief which we hope and believe it will derive from the actually formed affiliated Con |