Missionary and Religious Entelligence.

EUROPE.

The late arrivals have put us in possession of accounts connected with the recent meetings of the British Israel in the metropolis of our fatherland. They appear as usual to have been fraught with the deepest interest, and, what is more cheering, they have obtained an increased share of public confidence and liberality, and a greater measure of the blessing of the Lord Jesus. We commence our notices with what may be justly deemed the first in importance.

1. THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

The anniversary was held at Exeter Hall, on the 4th of May. Lord Bexley in the chair.

From an abstract of the Report read by the Rev. G. Browne, assisted by the Rev. A. Brandram, it appeared that the issues of the year had amounted to 558,842 copies, and that a considerable increase appeared in the issues of the Sacred Scriptures abroad. The total number of copies issued by the Society, since its commencement, was 9,751,792.

The amount received by the Society, from all sources, during the year ending the 31st March last, had been £86,819. 88. 7d. Of this sum, £45,856. 108. 4d. had been obtained from the sale of the Scriptures; being an increase of £3,598. 16s. 3d. beyond the amount of sales in the preceding year. The amount of free contributions, legacies, donations, &c. applicable to the general purposes of the Society, was £38,902. 78. 9d.: and further contributions to the extent of £967. 78. 6d. had been added to the Negro Fund; making a total, for that special object, of £15,975. 68. 1d.

The total expenditure of the Society, during the year, had amounted to £107,483. 198. 7d.; being £23,445. 19s. 5d. more than that of the preceding year; and its engagements exceeded £34,000.

Though the religion of Christ is said to be especially for the poor, yet it is cheering to see those in the higher grades of life coming forward, with that poverty of spirit which is the chief element in Christian character, and not less its chief ornament; and expressing themselves, as Lord Glenelg is reported to have done at this anniversary: especially when we consider the important influence he may exert over our colonial possessions and missionary efforts.

:

"Various circumstances have prevented me from being present at these Anniversary Meetings of the Society for some time; but though not a spectator, I have not been an inattentive or an uninterested observer of its proceedings. I know that, in this interval, there have been contests and struggles and dissensions. I know, also, that, in the conflict, that spirit which this cause ought to inspire has been displayed-the spirit of meekness, and wisdom, and Christian charity and on returning now to this Institution, what do I find, after all these contests and alarms? Do I find your ranks thinned, your courage failing, and your prospects darkening around you? True it is, my Lord, that I look round this platform in vain, for some of those sacred and venerable friends who once presided over and conducted your assemblies, and listen in vain for some of those-may I not say it?-seraphic voices, which charmed you in former times, and led your course toward that haven to which this Institution points your desires: but instead of ranks thinned in the day of struggle, what do I see? I see before me a phalanx serrée and dense: I see before me those whose presence and whose smile might animate us in every struggle: I see that there are not wanting to this cause the lights of the land and the guardians of the laws: I see that your assembly has met in the Name which is above every name, and to which we know that, one day, every knee shall bow: I see that you are still assembled in allegiance to Him, who is still the great and only Potentate-the King of kings and Lord of lords!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not merely in the splendour of success, or amidst the tumults of symphathetic excitement, that we are to look for the real recommendation of this Institution: it is in those moments, in those hours, when the heart is alone-in those hours which every one knows, but few can describe; when

it may be even in the midst of public meetings-in the midst of society-we find repeated demands for the solitude of the heart. For it is not only in the desert wilderness that we are to look for solitude. Every man knows that there are feelings with which a stranger intermeddleth not. Deep grief is solitary the anguish of excessive pain is solitary: remorse is solitary: the hour of death is solitary: even in the midst of weeping friends, and surrounded by those who would sacrifice their own lives to restrain or prevent our departure, the spirit has no communion with any human being-the spirit is then alone. And what shall we say, then, of that Gospel, which, in such a moment, and at such a crisis-in such an exigency of despair can bring comfort to the repenting sinner; and, in the midst of the dark valley of the shadow of death, can pronounce the thrilling and cheering words,' I am the Resurrection and the Life? Now, if our Society has conveyed this Gospel to the lonely and the miserable, and if such be the claims of this Institution to our admiration and gratitude, I am sure I only echo the sentiments of all who hear me, when I express my warmest wishes that it may continue to prosper as it has hitherto done and while it is conducted in the manner in which it has been, and, above all, with the charity which has distinguished it, we may trust that, under Providence, it will be greatly extended."

We scarcely know how to find a place for the following extract from the speech of the venerable Dr. Pye Smith. We venture, however, to trespass for once, containing, as it does, the sentiments of an individual who begins to feel that he is but one of the remnant of those who laid the first stone of the mighty fabric.

"I cannot but be most powerfully impressed with the contrast, in many respects, presented to my eye and my mind this morning; for my memory is carried back by strong impressions, to about this day thirty-two years ago; when some personsas to number, not to be compared to this meeting-in a room, seated along the parallel sides of a table, and finding no difficulty to be sufficiently accommodated, met to lay the foundation of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The venerable Granville Sharpe took the chair. There we heard the sweet voice issuing from that pure heart of Mr. Wilberforce and there were others, whose names, characters, and efforts, are embalmed in the recollections of sincere affection; but particularly have I a strong remembrance of the amiable and fervid Mr. Owen. He had come to that meeting somewhat reluctantly, with despondent feelings; hesitating, not as to the goodness of the object-of that I am persuaded he never entertained the smallest doubt-but as to the practicability of it. The field being the whole world, it appeared to be one that could not be occupied by human agency. He came to that meeting under the solicitation of private friendship. But I see a gentleman not far from me who will well recollect that force of feeling with which he at length rose, and said, After what has been said and read to us, it is impossible for me to be silent;' and then he poured forth a strain of heartfelt eloquence which did, indeed, tell forcibly on every heart there. He was excited to this by certain communications which had been received by my valued friend Dr. Steinkopff, some of them from the Ban de la Roche, others from persons in every humble life, but which were, on that very account, the more touching. I also call to my recollection some following meetings, on one of which I was honoured with a commission similar to the present: and then we met in a large room, and were seated along the sides of a table, and had no great difficulty in making ourselves heard as to the object of our respective resolutions. I also remember, when, in 1805, Mr. Owen brought a message from the almost dying Bishop Porteus, that, though his Lordship was not able to be present in body, and though the pulse of life beat feebly in his physical frame, yet his heart beat, in the most powerful manner, in affection to the Society, and zeal for its object. And at one of the subsequent meetings, near that time, if not at that time, we beheld the Bishop of Durham, the Bishops of Norwich and of Salisbury, giving not only their presence, but also effectual aid by their counsels and their prayers-prayers offered on the spot, in a manner which touched the heart, and raised it, I trust, to God.

"And now, what a contrast as to numbers! What a contrast as to the field of actual operation! Whose mind must not be impressed with the conviction, This hath God wrought?' It is not by the power of men, but by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts, that those results have been produced, of which we have this morning heard, and which, through your instrumentality under the prime Mover, will extend still further. The word of God has gone forth into all lands, and the voice of truth to all people; for there is not a considerable nation, or an important and influential part of mankind, that has not had set before it the truth of God, in a manner calculated to awaken and attract.

"But, while thinking of circumstances of contrast, will you allow me, my Christian friends, to tell you, that there was an event-the first of the kind that I have been able to discover in the history of the Christian Church-possessing some analogy to the object which has brought you together. About 1500 years ago the Emperor Constantine addressed a letter, which is preserved by Eusebius in his Life of that Emperor (it was addressed to himself), requiring him to seleet some well-qualified scribes, and employ them in preparing, elegantly written and handsomely put together, fifty copies of the Sacred Writings, of which the Emperor speaks with great reverence; (and the word which he uses leads us to suppose that they were to be made portable copies; for he speaks of the grouping together of the parchments into three or four, making what we should call quarto or octavo volumes; so that this mode was then come into use.) These fifty copies were to be completed and brought to the Emperor: and it appears, from a single sentence in the letter, that they were intended to be placed in churches. Now, though we cannot but admire the munificence and apparently pious spirit which dictated that command, how ought it to excite our thankfulness, that we live in a different day, and see different things? Every one of us would have joined in thanks to the Emperor for his care for the instruction of a part of his subjects; but what thanks do we not owe, under God, to those who conduct your affairs, that now, if I am not greatly in error, about as many copies go forth from your central depôt in every twenty minutes of time throughout the year: as many copies issue from your centre, to go into the world, every twenty minutes, as the head of the Roman Empire, with all this expense and munificence, was able to provide for a part of his subjects."

2. THE RELIGIOUS CLAIMS OF INDIA ON THE BRITISH CHURCHES. The following manly, eloquent, and enlightened speech was delivered at the Annual Meeting of the London Missionary Society in May last, by the Rev. J. Campbell, of Bangalore, one of its most devoted labourers in Southern India. It affords us sincere pleasure to give it a place in our miscellany, embodying, as it does, in most respects our own sentiments, expressed in chaste and forcible language, on the great points which should occupy the mind of the British Churches in connection with this, (to them,) an almost terra incognita.

"I am greatly oppressed with the weight and responsibility which devolve upon me in standing forth, on this occasion, as a Christian and as a Missionary, to advocate the claims of idolatrous India. Long and lamentably was that land misrepresented to Britain and to the church. Did the great majority of her visitors find it their interest to represent her as the spies did Canaan of old? No. As a land good and fruitful, flowing with milk and honey? No. As a land whose people are strong and warlike, whose cities are walled and impregnable, and whose giants are terrible as the Anakims of old? No: it was a very good report that they brought, to deceive us, and to weaken our hearts and our hands. 'That land,' said they, is, it is true, like the burning plains, hot and inhospitable; it is the land of the cholera, the pestilence, and the plague; the land where disease and death spread their ravages on every side; it is, especially to Europeans, an Aceldama and a grave. But, withal, it is a good land: there is no need for missionaries there. The Hindus, as a race, are sober, gentle, and industrious; they are meek, patient, humble, and the most religious people on the face of the earth; their mythology is suited to the country, and the country to the mythology; happy in their present state, it would be wicked and malevolent to disturb their repose.' But, thanks to the Calebs and the Joshuas who saw through the veil of imposture, who have dispelled the delusion, and who have described her to us in the language of truth. No; much as India is endeared to me by a thousand recollections, I must speak the truth, I must describe her as she is. I love her as an earthly Canaan, upon whom the God of nature has lavished his bounties and his riches in a wonderful degree; I love her as the sphere of the arts and sciences, the lustre of whose acquirements was once reflected back upon the western world; I love her as the theatre of my country's arms, where oppression and tyranny quailed under the banner of justice and truth; I love her as the birth-place of my children, as the scene of my early labour, and as the soil where many dead souls have been born again, and raised to newness of life: but I love her more as the stage upon which the glories of Emmanuel are yet to be displayed, and where the Divine attributes are to be rendered illustrious in the regeneration of her children, and I am loud to speak of her moral degradation. Alas! she is still in the valley of the shadow of death; she is still like the mystical Babylon, the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird; she is the Tophet of Ben-Hinuom, where the children pass through the fire unto Moloch, and the diabolical shouts are to be heard, and the fumes of abominable sacrifices infect the

air: she is still the chamber of imagery, where the form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and every sort of idol, are portrayed upon the walls; where the ancients and the young unite to hold their censers, and send up clouds of incense to Baal; where all the women sit weeping for Tammuz; and where, not five-and-twenty, not seventy, not a million, but where all the men have their backs turned to the temple of the Lord, and are worshipping the sun and the host of heaven: she is still the land where the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint; where, from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; where the princes, and the people, and the priest, and the devotees, are all bound, devotedly bound, to their idols. She is not, as the islands of the West, ruled with a rod of iron, groaning under the weight of 700,000 slaves, and ready to sink into ruin and anarchy; but she is the mighty centre of the East, swarming with the one hundred millions of enslaved freemen; heaving with the groans and miseries which Satan and his agents have inflicted for many an age; and prepared, like the cities of the plain, to be visited with snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest,' as the portion of her cup.

"Who would not mourn and weep over the guilt, the superstitions, and the idolatry of India? But the evils which have thus sprung from her idolatry have only been augmented by the oppressions of her conquerors. Torn with internal dissensions under her own native princes, she fell a prey to her rapacious invaders. The Mahometan dynasty was perpetuated for ages, amid despotism, exaction, blood, and anarchy; and held over her the sword, to establish, throughout her empire, the worst and basest of impostures. The Portuguese entered her fair domain to pillage and oppress; to drain her resources; to make their settlements so many depôts for intrigue, for spoliation, and for empire; and offered her in exchange the grossest superstition. Now, in return for the wealth and the riches which she has yielded; in return for the power, and patronage, and rule which she has put into our hands; in return for the marts which she has opened for our commerce; what has Great Britain done for her? We have given her a large and powerful army to preserve her from invasion from without and from rebellions within: I allow it. We have given her governors that wish her prosperity; collectors and magistrates, many of whom would be an honour to any nation; and judges who administer the laws in justice and righteousness: I allow it. We have given her peace for war, quietness for turbulence, security for property instead of villainous rapacity, and temporal prosperity instead of perpetual misery; allow it but we have not given her religion; we have not offered her the gospel of salvation by Jesus Christ; we have not tendered to her, as we ought to have done, that blessing and that privilege which would have consolidated our empire, and bound her to our interests by ties more engaging and more indissoluble, than the splendour of our name or the power of our arms. No; our religion was the last boon we thought of granting to her. I wish I could flatter, in this respect, the government of India; but I cannot, and I dare not. The golden image of Nebuchadnezzar has been set up there as well as in the plain of Dura. If the proclamation has not given warning, the laws and regulations of the empire have, that at what time they heard the harp, and the cornet, and the sackbut, and the psaltry, be ye ready, ye collectors and magistrates, to fall down and worship the image, and to pay your acknowledgments to this divinity. But if not, know ye what power and influence can do? What! fiery furnaces in India? No. Dens of lions in India? No; but there have been crucibles there to compel men to bow the knee to Baal. The sword of state has been suspended over the heads of refractory citizens; the offices, the character, and the prospects of the best and most honourable men have been in jeopardy; and the frown and malediction of the great have followed the Daniels, and the children who would not bow down to the image.

"Thanks be to the living God for his interposition, and thanks be to the loud and reiterated appeals of the British religious public for the rights of justice, and truth, and religion, and honour. I am not insensible to the shield and the protection which the civil and military power in India have thrown over our persons, property, and exertions, in that heathen land. I think with pleasure of the remarkable change which, within a few years, has been produced upon our European community, and upon so many bearing rule, and authority, and power. I give all due praise and credit to the powers that be, for those measures of amelioration which they have adopted in reference to the natives, which have frowned into oblivion systems of oppression and horrid cruelty; and for those measures which are in contemplation, and which must co-operate with, and have an important bearing upon the design which we have in view. But so long as a professedly Christian government gives public patronage and support to idolatry; so long as the brahmans are able to reply to us, Does not the government support this temple, and these priests and dancing women, and the whole system of worship? Are they not paid their monthly allowance out of the public revenue? Do not European gentle

men encourage these ceremonies, and make presents to the idol, and often fall down and worship? Who are you that come here to question the truth of our religion?" So long as European magistrates are obliged to be present at the festivals, and spread the golden cloth over the image as the representative of the state, and European officers are obliged to salute the abominable thing, and European functionaries are obliged to collect the wages of iniquity, the curse of the Almighty rests upon India; an invincible barrier is raised against the progress of the gospel and the extension of the truth; a burden of uncancelled guilt lies upon the government and people of Great Britain; and in the skirts of our garments are found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents.

"I speak not rashly or unadvisedly. After a long night of weeping on account of these things, we thought the morning of joy was come. Imagine what was our delight, when in the new charter it was announced, that a profession of Christianity was no longer, as it had done, to exclude a native from the service of the state; and that authority was granted to the Governor General in council to make, from time to time, such grants as appeared to be necessary for the erection of chapels, and in the establishment of schools for all denominations of Christians. Imagine what was our joy and delight when, in a later despatch of Lord Glenelg, the excellent President of the Board of Control at the time, under the sanction and with the authority of the Court of Directors, it was directed that throughout India the pilgrim-tax was to be abolished; that the infamous connexion of the Government with idolatry was to cease; that Hinduism was henceforth to be left to its own endowments and resources; that a neutrality, which ought never to have been departed from, was to be maintained; and that public functionaries were no longer to be rendered the ministers of Baal. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so was this good news to us from this far country. We took down our harps from the willows, and sung one of the songs of Zion. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing; and then said we among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.'

But how have these hopes, these expectations, been realized? Nearly four years have elapsed since the charter was renewed, and what has been done to carry the wishes of its noble-minded, and generous, and patriotic author into effect? That clause, that redeeming clause, has been greatly misunderstood in India; and in the face of the sentiments so clearly expressed by the right honorable President of the Board on its nature and design; in face of the plaudits rendered to it by the liberal and the independent Members of Parliament at the time; in face of all the applause of the religious public, it has been applied in India to the interests and the wishes of the Roman Catholics alone. In some of the high places of that land it has been maintained, that this clause is to be applied to that denomination alone. I speak not this to condemn the Goverment at home; but I mention it to show that any superstition, however gross, in India, will receive public support in preference to Christianity. More than this; nearly two years have elapsed since the regulations touching the emancipation of the state from the thraldom of idolatry here have passed away; and what has been done to fulfil the wishes of the Government at home? Information has been called for upon the point; these rules and regulations have been sent to the collectors and the magistrates for their opinion; and this measure, so full of grace to India, after all is suspended upon the report which they may choose to make. To whose hands, then, has this grand and important subject been committed? To the hands of men who have a per-centage upon all the taxes that are collected; to men, some of whom have been so infatuated as to build temples of their own accord to Moloch, and endowed them with their own property, and fall down as idolaters to the image; to men some of whom have declared that the conversion of Hindu females, and the separating of them from their husbands, is the crime of the greatest enormity, and ought to be punished accordingly; to men, some of whom have sent forth the bráhmans, and the minions and the underlings of government, to create a cabal against this measure, to frighten the people with the gross misrepresentation that the government were about to establish Christianity by force, and to make an uproar through the province, that they might have a pretext for objecting to the measure altogether, and for giving it as their opinion, that the very proposal would raise an insurrection throughout the country.

"Standing as I do to-day, in the centre of this great metropolis, in the midst of this large and respectable assemblage, and in the vicinity of our Indian Parliament, I ask, in the name of religion and reason, are these plans so generously conceived at home, to be thus neutralized abroad? Is this curse, so heavy and so intolerable, still to remain upon Hindustan? Is this support of idolatry still to remain one of the crying sins of our land? Is it to bring down upon us the displeasure of the Almighty? I speak not these things, Sir, as a political demagogue, who wishes to embarrass the designs of government. No; I speak them not as a disappointed and