therefore best adapted to make them effectual. And if any additional argument were wanting, we might refer to the records of the Society, and bring the weight of experience to confirm the deductions of probability. Outward appearances are not always a criterion of success; nor does the amount of Books and Tracts dispersed by any Society furnish a sure test of the real spread of true Christian Knowledge: yet it must be allowed, that an increasing demand for them supplies a presumption in favour of such a blessed result.

What then has this Society accomplished within the last few years? It has greatly extended and consolidated its operations, and the magnitude of its transactions has been only equalled by the liberality of its expenditure. We learn from the last report, that upon an average of three years the circulation of Books and Tracts has amounted to the vast number of 2,329,611, while the Publications under the Superintendance of the Committee of General Literature and Education have reached the amazing number of four millions.

A mere glance at the Table of Contents, prefixed to the Annual Report, will strike with astonishment all who are not already acquainted with the nature and extent of its transactions. We there find, that its benevolent labours extend not only to our own

Islands, and the Continent of Europe, but over all the dependencies of the British Empire, to the East and West Indies, to Africa, and America, and to the great southern Continent of Australia; and should the singular communities which are now springing up in those penal settlements attain to the perfect knowledge of the truth," as it is in Jesus," it will be mainly owing to the assistance of our Society, and the unwearied exertions which it has made to impress upon our rulers the absolute duty of providing for the Religious Instruction of those wretched outcasts, whom the laws of the country have expelled from her bosom. And while thus engaged with the vast concerns of distant regions, it does not, however, forget the claims of the humblest at home: it assists the impoverished Irish Clergy with the means, which their own kindred Society has lost, of " discountenancing vice and promoting the knowledge and practice of the Christian Religion :" it assists the native Irish of the North and West with a Gaelic Version of the Psalms; the poor Episcopalians of Glasgow with aid towards erecting a Place of Worship; the remote inhabitants of the Scilly Islands with the greater part of their Religious Instruction; and it now proposes to supply its Publications at a reduced rate to all the parochial Workhouses of the land.

These, my Christian friends, are very striking

proofs of the comprehensive wisdom and charity of our venerable Society. But for an evidence of its increased utility, I would rather refer to the general interest which it has created of late years, than to the extention of its labours, or the augmentation of its circulation. I know not indeed whether the present remarkable and most cheering revival of Church feeling may not be attributable in a great degree to the gradual influence acquired by it over the minds of reflecting men. It is certain, that a growing sense of its vast importance, a ready acknowledgement of its great services, and a better acquaintance with its general proceedings, have led to a cordial co-operation on the part of the Laity, to a considerable addition to the list of its Subscribers, and to the establishment of numerous District and Diocesan Committees. All these separate branches are in strict connection with the Parent Society, and therefore in strict accordance with the Apostolic Principles. And they have this farther recommendation, that they carry out the original design, and render its execution more easy, more extensive, and more complete. The very essence of an Established Church and stated Ministry is this, that they convey the Word of God into every corner of the land. And in conjunction with that Apostolic Church, which in this favoured country opens the doors of God's own house to rich and poor alike; in conjunction with that

Apostolical Clergy, which there preaches the Gospel freely; these District Committees, diffused over the realm, bring home the Bible to the poor man's hearth, and send his children to School with the Testament, and to Church with the Prayer Book; and thus, not only do they furnish comfort and knowledge and peace to the man, but, in union with the National Society for the Education of the Poor, they mainly contribute to bring up the youthful population of the kingdom in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." This is indeed to

edify" the Church of God, this is to bring together to one point all the various aids which Almighty Goodness has provided for our use in the solemn duty of promoting Christian Knowledge. Here we have the whole Body of Christ compacted and invigorated in every member of the same, "by that which every joint supplieth." We have all in their several stations co-operating for the furtherance of the good work, the Clergy and the Laity, without jealousy or collision, concurring to sow the Seeds of the Word, and uniting in the Common Prayer, that a blessing may attend their joint labours from Him who alone can "give the increase."

It will not, then, I trust, appear presumptuous, if I now most earnestly request the contribution of all who hear me towards the continuance of so great and pious a work. This is the first time

that you have been invited to meet within these walls, and to suffer the Word of exhortation on behalf of our Society. The District Committee has thought fit, under the express sanction of their Diocesan, to summon all who have the cause of true religion at heart, in order, as they say, "to make the various and extensive operations of the Parent Society better known and appreciated than they have hitherto been." They have not adopted this plan in compliance with the fashion of the day; nor do they seek to flatter that morbid feeling so prevalent at the present time, which craves for loud and perpetual appeals, which awakens only to impulse, and lives only upon excitement: they know, that the true grace of Christian benevolence speaks to the heart; that its still small voice is best heard within; that it acts upon fixed principles, not upon casual impressions; and that its powers are wasted, when called forth to second the motions of an over-wrought imagination. But still they deem, that a plain statement of facts from this place can give no false bias to the judgment, and that "the words of truth and soberness" may at once enlighten the understanding and warm the heart. They deem it due to God Himself " to let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." They have convened you therefore this day from no love of ostentation, for no purpose of display,