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in raising the negro race from slavery to freedom. Sir, we have another principle. We act upon the voluntary principle. If any gentleman in this assembly should object to the voluntary principle, why then we act also upon the involuntary principle ;-so that we cannot but be right. At home, we act upon the voluntary principle amongst ourselves. Our Society is based upon this principle. It receives the kind, the free, the generous, the pious, the wellprincipled offerings of all classes of the community, including children, ladies, gentlemen, commoners, and nobility; for we rejoice to find upon this very platform, and connected with our institution, persons of all classes. We are a voluntary Society here; but we go abroad where no one sends for us. We take our stations amongst a people who do not pay us; and we perform the functions of our ministry, where we are not elected; so that we have founded our Society upon both principles, and I cannot, for my own part, see but that they act admirably in harmony. The great and leading principle of our Society is, to give the Gospel to the world, to extend the Scriptures of truth, to establish Christian ordinances, to pour the light of salvation, the mercy and the grace of our Redeemer, upon the deserts of every continent and every island. That is the principle of our Society, and that is the principle to which I intend to adhere; and will thankfully receive assistance from any class of the community, be they who they may. We have not only principle in our Society, and principle that has supported the Society to the present time, but I do believe, when I look at the Rules of the Wesleyan Missionary Institution, that, amongst the wisest of Methodists who ever graced our communion, was the individual who framed those admirable Rules. They have stood the test of years. I have heard them disputed. I have had the opportunity of again and again defending them. I am ready to defend them here, if they need any defence. Every lady and every gentleman in this assembly has come pledged and sworn to the support of the Wesleyan Missionary Institution, and to the support of it as it is, except it can be demonstrated, by good reason and by scriptural principles, that it can be improved. It has been urged that your Committee has not been properly appointed; and, if it has been properly appointed, that it has not conducted the business of this Society with the best skill and the best judgment. I believe that a fairer Committee never existed. I am not in that Committee now. I once had the honour of being a member of it. I then deemed it a proper Committee; I attended to its

business; I watched its operations; I am sure I was honest; and I think if I had seen any trickery, any chicanery, I should just have had acuteness enough to have detected it. I believe your honoured Secretaries are all honourable men. I believe that our venerated Treasurers hold the strings of your purse with honest grasp; and I believe that when our mixed Committee of Ministers and lay gentlemen meet together, it is to exercise an enlightened, a dispassionate, and an honest judgment. I believe they do so. If you wish to have the best proof of that, look at this assembly. If you wish to have even a better proof, the best of all proofs, look at the fruits of their exertions. I feel some considerable anxiety respecting the operations of the Connexion in this department of its employment; and could I, with propriety, go into the question, I should like to go into it, as to the probability of our succeeding in our great, dignified, and glorious enterprise. Sir, basing my remarks upon things as they at this present moment exist, I must infer that the utmost calculation, and confidence, and expectation of the best friends of the Society must and will succeed. Sir, you had many difficulties in the way. A few years ago, slavery confronted you: it exists no longer. thank God that the sceptre of William the Fourth is not extended over one single slave.

I thank God, that the statutes of this great realm are not disgraced by the continuance and support of slavery in any shape or in any form whatever. I rejoice that the British public had patriotism, genuine Christian principle, and godly benevolence enough to give the price required -twenty millions of money-for the abolition of slavery. I rejoice above all things, that eight hundred thousand of my fellowcreatures are raised, as the Report expresses it, from the condition of chattels, and goods, and things, to the dignity of men. In the statute-book we have now an abolition code;-liberty of conscience is given to your West Indian colonies, and to all others; and Great Britain, whose empire the sun never sets upon, is now this day universally free. I rejoice also on ac count of the support that is manifested towards your cause, in your churches abroad. But your stations are by no means sufficient; they must be greatly increased. Every station, however, is a focus of religious light and truth, respecting God and salvation, which is shining forth in every direction. Every station is a garden, where seeds are growing that will be scattered in the wilderness, and that will crown it with fragrance and beauty. Every station is a school of the Prophets. Every station is an institution; and little Sam

uels, and young Daniels, and Timothys, have been trained, and are being trained, to communicate religious truth and knowledge in their own languages, and amongst their own tribes. I ask, whether, under any pressure of difficulties, such as may be imagined,- I will not say any such really exist at the present time,-whether the Methodist society, and especially its Missionary department, is SOlid enough to bear up against the full pressure of that weight? Man is some

times a mighty creature. When did Wellington and Napoleon appear greatest?— In the battle-field, in the presence of the enemy, and in the midst of the roar of cannon. Then came forth genius, calculation, the flash of the enlightened and bold eye,the dauntless courage never to yield. And when did my friend Mr. Newton appear what he is ? I am not to be hindered, Sir, by a squeamish delicacy. There are times when it is fitting and proper for a man to speak out. Sir, no one man in our Connexion, it is probable, has done so much in the way of incessant travelling, and other exertions, to increase the funds by which the Wesleyan Missions are supported; and therefore in that respect no one man deserves so much of the Parent Society,-deserves so much of every Auxiliary,-deserves so much from a perishing world, or from the Christian churches which we have planted in distant countries,-as my most excellent friend; and if grace, if kindness, if frankness, if honesty, could have sheltered any man from the pelting of a mob, Mr. Newton must have been sheltered. How has he borne the brunt ? How has he met the battle? Has he turned from it? He has not; and he is here to-day, alive and well. He is here with his accustomed cheerfulness; and I heartily rejoice in meeting him. We have fought a few battles, if not together and side by side, yet near each other; and, now, Sir, taking my data from what has been published here to-day, I say the cause we advocate and love is not likely just yet, at least, to be in the Gazette. It is not a bankrupt cause. It is fed by the principle, the piety, the faith, the love, and the devotedness of our own people; as well as by the kind co-operation of our Church brethren, and of our Dissenting friends; and I thank God, that in our trials they have not deserted us. We have a spring of supply there. The storm may roll,-the winds may descend,the vessel may be rocked, but we have a principle lying deep in the bosom of our people, that will come forward and support us, as it has hitherto done; and I rejoice to tell this great Meeting, as coming from the north, that hitherto, neither in Liverpool, in Manchester, nor any where else,

has your cause suffered one iota. Mr. Chairman, to my apprehension, this may be considered as a crisis in our affairs. We are put upon our trial: we fear it not. The school-master is abroad; let him appear: we care not for him: he may examine us if he will; he may measure our characters as much as he pleases; he may discuss our principles, and go into our details; he may follow us into the African kraal, into the negro hut. We are not ashamed of what we have done, nor afraid of his scrutiny. We are coming out of the trial, I really believe, with credit, with honour, with a blessing; and that is the best of all rewards. It has done us good. It has led us, perhaps, a little back from our beloved Methodism, to what is even better than Methodism, the Bible. It has led us back to prayer,—to Jesus Christ; it has led us back to God. There we repose, there we intend to repose. If this is his cause, this cause will live; if it is not his cause, let the winter blight it. It will never be so blighted; for the cheerfulness, the verdure, the blossom,-I hardly dare say the fruits, of spring and summer, are still upon it; at least the budding leaves; and the fruit of this tree is for the healing of the nations. I really rejoice to meet you here. I am glad, and most delighted, to behold your kindly countenances again; and I shall now retire back to the north, cheered by you, with a determination, at least for one, that I shall nail my flag to the mast; that I shall abide by the vessel, come what may; and that with her I shall either sink or swim, both in time and in eternity.

The REV. DR. CODMAN, Representative of the Presbyterian Board of Missions of the United States of America, (specially deputed by the Board, in conjunction with the Rev. Dr. Spring, to attend the Anniversaries of the Missionary Societies in Europe,) next presented himself to the Meeting; and, after his credentials had been read by one of the Secretaries, said,— I am most happy, Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen, in presenting the affectionate salutation of the friends of Christ, and of Missionary enterprise, in the United States of America, to this interesting and important part of our common Zion, the Wesleyan Missionary Society. America feels the deepest interest in this Society; for it has done much, very much, to promote evangelical religion in the New World. We rejoice in your successful operations, both at home and abroad; but, as Americans, we feel a peculiar interest in your efforts for that unhappy race of fellow-creatures who have long laboured under the galling yoke of oppression. Sir, the coloured population, both in America and in the West Indian islands, are under ever

lasting obligations to the pious, the devoted, and the laborions efforts of your Missionaries, in ameliorating their suffering condition, and introducing them to the liberty wherewith Christ hath now made them free. I congratulate this Meeting on the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions. We rejoice with you at this event, and most sincerely and earnestly hope, that the time is not far distant, when you may rejoice with us at the same happy result in America. But, in accomplishing an event so greatly to be desired by all the friends of suffering humanity, in both hemispheres, we feel we have great need of that wisdom which cometh from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." We feel that we need, and we do in this public manner ask, an interest in the prayers of all God's people, that this event, so greatly to be desired, may soon be accomplished. [Dr. Codman then referred to the astonishing success of Temperance Societies during the last ten years in the United States of America; and stated that this cause has always received the most cordial and persevering support of the Wesleyan denomination.] Indeed, (said he,) your Connexion may be said to be one great Temperance Society; and its venerable founder, the great and good John Wesley, may be called the Apostle of temperance; for he was one of the very first who sounded the alarm against that fatal poison which destroys both the body and the soul. While I notice the effects of your Society on the western continent, I have been delighted to hear from your Report what you are doing in the continent of Europe. It has been my fortune to pass the last month in the city of Paris, and to form an acquaintance with that excellent Minister of yours, the Rev. R. Newstead. I rejoice thus publicly to bear testimony to the great good which that excellent man is doing in that gay and fashionable city, -a city which is so much under the influence of the god of this world. I was with that good man on the Sabbath preceding the last, and I can bear ample testimony to the benefits he is effecting in that city. I rejoice also in all your labours in sending the Gospel to pagan lands. I am reminded by the Resolution which I hold in my hand, that your Society cordially recognises the various other Protestant Missionary Societies of Europe and America as coadjntors in one common cause, and rejoices over the good effected by their instrumentality. The Board of Missions, which I have the honour to represent on this delightful and interesting occasion, rejoices in your success. Our Missionaries

and your Missionaries have laboured in Ceylon with the utmost cordiality in the same field-inay this union ever continue! We have a great field,-a field abundantly large for both institutions, -a field no less than the whole worll. The fields indeed are even already white unto the harvest; but the labourers are few the labourers employed by you and by us, and by all other Missionary Societies, are as yet but comparatively few. Let us pray unto the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth more labourers into the harvest. It has afforded me great satisfaction to have the opportunity of presenting the cordial congratulations of the American Board of Missions to this Society at this interesting Anniversary. In America we shall always rejoice to hear of your welfare, and of your success; and I need not say with what delight we shall receive a deputation from your Society at a similar Anniversary in the United States. This interchange of delegates between the Old and the New World is most delightful; it tends to cement the bonds of Christian union, and to prepare us for that happy state, where the myriads of the redeemed from every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, will meet together in the New Jerusalem, and ascribe "glory and honour, dominion and power, thanksgiving, and praise, and blessing, to Him, who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever."

He moved the third Resolution, viz.,—

"That this Meeting, recognising the various Protestant Missionary Societies of Europe and America as coadjutors in one common cause, rejoices over the good effected by their instrumentality; and especially expresses its gratitude to Almighty God, that the Wesleyan Missionary Society has been permitted to take an important part in the hallowed work of the world's evangelization.”

The REV. DR. THOLUCK, Professor of Divinity in the University of Halle, and Member of the Royal Consistory of the Protestant Churches in Prussia, seconded the Resolution; and said, My Christian friends, Having been called upon to address a few words to this Christian assembly, let me confess that I have rejoiced at this opportunity, especially as it affords me the satisfaction of expressing the heartfelt gratitude which I owe to a late member of the Wesleyan Connexion, ever dear to my heart, and to the hearts of all my friends in Germany, I mean the late Mr. Butterworth, whose memory, I trust, is alive in the heart of every one in this large Meeting, as it will ever be alive in my own. Ten years ago, I enjoyed the privilege of attending on a similar occasion the religious Meetings in this large town, and I can

hardly find words adequate to express with what brotherly love and fatherly kindness I was received then into the house of that great and excellent Christian, who now plenteously reapeth what he plenteously hath sown. Nor is this private recollection of gratitude foreign to the object for which I address this assembly. I remember that that great and excellent man was called, in a funeral sermon, by the epithet of a catholic Christian. If there was at any time any Christian who ever deserved that name, undoubtedly it was the late Mr. Butterworth; and the same catholic Christian charity which filled that man hath moved this Committee to call upon us foreigners to testify publicly of what is doing in our respective countries for the kingdom of God, and of the interest we take in the proceedings of this Society. It is that charity which has ever distinguished the Wesleyan Methodists, which induces them to embrace the whole pagan world, and to take also a part in caring for the Protestant and Roman Catholic continent. Within my knowledge there is no other Missionary Society which, at the same time, takes a part as well on behalf of the pagan world as of all nominal Christians of different classes on the Continent. Having been called upon to make a brief statement of the kingdom of the Saviour, and of its progress, in Germany, let me add a few words which may show that a dawn in this country, which I was favoured to give notice of to the Christian world, when I addressed this Society ten years ago, has become a brighter day. It was the day of little beginnings, when I addressed the Christians in this country ten years since, upon what was going forward in my own country. Up to the year 1817 it laboured under a gloomy kind of infidelity, spread over almost every part of the country. There were only then some few witnesses left to testify of the sound doctrines of our Reformers. A new light, however, has sprung up; we were educated to true religion in the best of all schoolsin the school of tribulation. The bloody wars with which Napoleon filled our country kindled a fire which now burns throughout almost every part of Germany. been often asked, by Christian friends in this country, what good could have sprung out of so much mischief,-out of so much blood, and so many tribulations? My answer is, You see the present Missionary and Bible Societies, and the interest that is taken all Over Germany in the Christian cause; and that is the fruit from the seed which was sown with so many tears. Now as to the capital of Protestant Germany, Berlin, which, for a long time, was the strong-hold of infidelity, under the sceptre of a King who made Vol

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taire his Gospel, and Rousseau his catechism; that very city is at the present moment prospering as a vineyard of the Lord, under the sceptre of a King who openly confesses, that he also was educated to Christianity in the school of tribulation; who openly confesses, that the ice-fields of Moscow kindled a Christian fire in his heart. It is under the protection of this King that the Missionary cause continues to flourish. No Society is formed there, but it enjoys his royal patronage; nay, no letter is sent throughout any part of the kingdom on Missionary affairs without the privilege of going postage free. Many Auxiliaries are springing up in the small cities and towns throughout that kingdom. Within the last ten years, the Berlin Society has formed forty-five new Auxiliaries in different parts of the kingdom. Besides that at Berlin, there is a large Society at Elberfeld, which has a very considerable number of Auxiliaries in every part of the countries near the Rhine. All those Societies, I am happy to say, congratulate Great Britain on what is here doing for the great cause, and wish heartily to co-operate with Christians in this country. Let me add one example of favour, which, at the present time, continues to be shown by the Royal Family of the country to which I belong, to that cause which you have at heart,-a very recent occurrence. There is a German gentleman now on this platform, who was brought to this country accompanying a sister to the shores of Holland, who was about to be married to a German Missionary in Malacca, in the East Indies. lady and gentleman were invited, just be fore their departure, to visit the Princess William of Prussia. After a long and pleasing conversation about Missionary undertakings, and expressions of heartfelt pleasure at seeing a Christian lady go to a foreign country for so holy a purpose, the Princess embraced her; gave her a Bible for her husband, in which she had written with her own hand two pages of the most precious promises of the New Testament; took from her finger a ring, on which were the words written, "Lovest thou me ?” put the ring on the lady's finger, and so they parted. I am happy to say, that, at the present moment, more than a third of the Clergy of Berlin are boldly proclaiming the pure Gospel of Christ. I can say, with satisfaction, that not one of the Professors of the University of that capital belongs to that Neological or Socinian school, which has spread so much mischief throughout the country. I am happy to say, that many of those Professors have come forward in the cause of the Gospel, and that numerous are the young Clergymen who have gone out from Berlin, in order to spread the

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Gospel, and to support the Missionary cause in every part of Prussia. A person who had wandered twenty years ago through the provinces bordering on the Rhine, would certainly now be surprised to see the vast changes which have taken place in those countries. One valley through which the Rhine runs is a country which might justly be called a German Canaan. Twelve Preachers preach in that valley, all of them proclaiming, as with one voice sincerely, the Gospel of Christ. They belong to different denominations, are different in their creeds, but are only one in their faith in the great and essential truths of the Gospel. All over that part of the country, the new proclaimers of the Gospel have spread in such a manner, as to fill the whole of the surrounding villages and towns, so that I might justly say, there can scarcely be found any considerable place in that district that does not possess at least one who proclaims boldly the healing Gospel. Let me only add, my Christian friends, some few observations relative to the share which the Wesleyan Connexion takes in this revival in my country. Here I will take the liberty of noticing the words in which the name of Wesley was first brought to my own ears. time I was a young student in the University at Berlin, when our worthy Professor of Ecclesiastical History spoke of those two great men Wesley and Whitefield, as persons whose names were worthy to be classed amongst the names of the Reformers of the Protestant Church. Such an opinion, stated by one who was most competent to judge of the facts, could not but necessarily produce the greatest effect on the minds of the youths that were then devoting themselves to a theological career. Several young pupils then began to read the works of Wesley and Fletcher. There was one, a Nobleman, a young man of high talents, who ranks now among the teachers of Divinity, and who was, in the year 1822, so much struck with some of the sermons of John Wesley, that he translated some of them, and published them; and they were received at that time with the greatest interest, and made the deepest impression on the hearts of those who read them. Since that time, sermons of Mr. Wesley have continued to be published. The Life of Fletcher, in two editions, and that of Whitefield, have been published; and a translation of the Life of Wesley by Mr. Moore is at present in contemplation. These few statements may suffice to show the interest with which we look upon this highly respected Connexion of the Wesleyan Methodists; and to testify the high interest we take in praying God, that he may continue to bless this denomination in all operations, and, above all, that he will continue to preserve

that catholic spirit of Christian charity which, up to the present moment, has distinguished the Society so eminently, and for which it is so highly esteemed by my countrymen.

The Resolution was then put, and carried unanimously.

The REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, a Missionary from the South Seas, in connexion with the London Missionary Society, proposed the Fourth Resolution, viz.,

"That this Meeting cannot advert to the West Indies, Africa, India, China, and other parts of the heathen world, without expressing its deep and serious conviction, that a providential preparation is making for a far more glorious and extensive diffusion of Christianity than has ever been witnessed, and that the Christian Church is consequently called upon to make renewed and greatly increased exertions in providing the divinely appointed means on a scale more commensurate with the work to be accomplished."

It had been his privilege, he said, to labour in a very interesting part of the world for many years, in the capacity of a Missionary, in connexion with a Society that was carried on by Christians of another denomination. At the same time, in the course of the various voyages he had taken in the South Sea islands, he had had frequent opportunities of intercourse with the excellent persons who were labouring in connexion with this Society; and he had the utmost pleasure in testifying to that Meeting, as he should have on all occasions, his conviction of the excellency and of the devotedness of those valuable Missionaries. He esteemed them as some of the very best men he had ever been connected with. He had had the pleasure of hearing them preach to hundreds of natives in the various islands where they were stationed; he had listened with profound attention to the doctrines they preached, and he found that they preached the same Christ that he did. He would select one or two interesting circumstances that occurred during his visit to those islands, in which the Wesleyan Missionaries were stationed. In Tongataboo there were two devoted and excellent men, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Cross. In that island he had the pleasure of seeing no less than fifty-six families dedicated to God in the ordinance

of baptism. Another highly interesting circumstance there came under his notice, which was the devotedness of the Wesleyan Missionaries in supplying the natives with Gospel truth in their own native language. He had brought his journal with him, which he had written upon the spot, that he might give the information more strikingly of some of the events of which he had

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