m'i^.r. .*-• ^ wmm L I E) RA RY OF THE UN IVERSITY Of ILLI NOIS 8 His personal kindness to me is great. He treats me wit] every distinction, and in the most punctilious court in th world I do as I like, and have ready access to the King whe: his own chief ministers of State cannot approach him. Wh this is I can't say. May God give me grace and strength t use all my opportunities for His honour. The church which has just heen consecrated is the offerini of the King to the English Church. It is called in Burmes " The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ." It is a real! beautiful edifice. It is built of wood, with iron roofing gutters, &c. It will hold 350 people. The carved work i grand and plentiful. When fully completed it will have cos a lac of rupees — £10,000. Lastly, our prospects of success. We have chosen the plai least adapted to produce immediate and appreciable results but the one, in my humble opinion, most likely by God' help to give us a thoroughly good nucleus for a Burmes Christian Church. We shall have educated, grounded Chris tians, able to give a reason for the hope that is in them Bo^s who can face their schoolfellows of the same public school and such, we thank God, are our present converts, not ye numerous, but annually increasing. It is true that the main design of all Christian missionar; work is to turn sinners " from darkness to light," and to ad( to the Church. But it is also true that the Gospel of thi kingdom must be preached to all nations for a witness unt them. Such is our work. We do not neglect the distributioi of the Bible and other books ; we argue in monasteries an( houses, we preach in church and village. But our main worl is educational ; and thirteen years' experience emboldens m< to say that we are right. The Baptists and Eoman Catholici in their own reports complain that we are right, and our daih experience now tells us so. Our Christian teachers to-da; are our old pupils of a few years ago, some of which we hac least hope of. I do believe that by God's help a Christiai education to the youth of Burma is ih.e fulcrum that shall lif the load of superstitition and error from this country. I beg that you will kindly pardon this long and ill-writter letter, believing that most truly I had not time to re-arrang( or re- write it. Crude as it is, and written currente calamo, ] trust that it may be of some use. I am, my dear Sir, Most faithfully yours, J. E. MAKKS. Charles Baikes, Esq., c.s.i. Beuuett, Printer, Jourual Office, Salisbury. SPIRITUAL WANTS OF THE Jfumgn Harts of i\t ^rittslj tfmpin AND SOME NEIGHBOURING REGIONS, IN 1873, STATED IN LETTERS TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTEEBURY FKOM THE COLONIAL AND MISSIONARY BfSHOPS. LONDON : PRINTED FOR THE Inririti te tl)2 Irnimgatinu nf tljB #»0pl in /nrngn f iirt0; 20, DUKE STREET, WESTMINSTER. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the circular by which he invited, in August 1873, the Bishops to join in the Day of Intercession and Thanksgiving in behalf of Missions, took occasion to ask each of the Colonial Bishops for "a short account of the principal wants' in his own diocese which might be helped by the prayers, or alms, or personal service of members of the Church at home." The answers to that inquiry are now published as only a contribution towards a complete account of the spiritual wants of that large portion of the world in which the Church of England has been called to the foremost position as a Preacher and Teacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Imperfect as the following statement is, it may nevertheless, through God's bless- ing, stir up the will of some amongst us to pray more fervently, to give more liberally, and to labour more patiently than hitherto in behalf of the heathen and the emigrant for whom God has made us in some measure responsible. January 1874. SPIKITUAL WANTS OF THE FOKEIGN PARTS OF THE BEITISH EMPIRE, AND SOME NEIGHBOURING REGIONS. * 1. From the, Bishop of CALCUTTA. " I wish to mention two points which will indicate the great need for intercession in our behalf among the manifold claims of other regions. " 1. You are aware of onr want and desire of an increased Efisco'jpate. The opinion of Dr. Deane, &c., obtained by the S.P.C.K. and S.P.G. may open our way to meet this great need. We Indian Bishops hope to meet at the end of November 1873 (next month), to consider whether and how we can best avail ourselves of the possibility offered to us through that opinion of increasing the number of Indian Bishops. My legal advisers and the highest authorities here recommend great caution in our proceedings. A general and well-considered plan should be formed, and the principles on which the Church in India may be developed with a view to the future should be carefully established. Our relations to other Christian bodies and to the Government are very peculiar in India, and present more diffi- culties in our way. "Again, the peculiar character and tone of our native Christian ministry must be thoughtfully weighed. The learn- ing and ability of some among them, the dependent spirit of others, enforce much consultation and forethought. Hence, while I am most anxious for an enlargement of our Episcopate, and for a preparation for a Native Episcopate, or rather for Native Bishops added to ourselves, it is absolutely necessary to deter- mine questions, as to the election of Bishops hereafter, and to their office and jurisdiction, before we commit ourselves to any distinct and decided action. " We need the intercessions of the Church to guide and assist us in this matter. " 2. There appears to be a desire at home, both in the Church generally and in the Missionary Societies, that native agency 4 SPIRITUAL WANTS.-INDIJ, should be enlarged immediately, and that the native agency thus developed should be supported out of the native funds. " We also are here desirous of this result. But in order to secure it, a large development of European agency is a pre- requisite. "Wherever there has been a large European agency well organized and concentrated, there has almost always been a large native agency produced, and considerable indigenous support. " Various Christian bodies could prove this to be the case, and if time allowed I could mention several instances. Un- fortunately in the Church Societies for the work in India, there seems to be a desire to curtail instead of increasing English agency. Whether the difficulty of obtaining men or funds has originated or is upholding this idea, I cannot say. " We need at once many men, who could form little bodies of workers. A single isolated man, however earnest and able, cannot do much. The double and threefold cord are indeed necessary. Moreover in India we need at least some able and learned men who will devote talent and attainments to the learned and able Mussulman, Hindoo, Brahmin, and Buddhist controversialists. A real knowledge of metaphysics and psy- chology, and of the modern phases of scepticism, is much needed among our Missionaries. A real acquaintance with the growth of Christian thought and doctrine, with the methods used by ancient theologians and missionaries, would be of real service. A literature suited to our exigencies would be the natural result of the presence of such men amongst us, and would be of inestimable advantage. "What a field, for instance, would India with its languages, learning, and subtlety, with its complex cosmogonical and scientific systems of doctrine, offer to such a man as Dr. Steere ! "My dear Lord, we want such men who would sacrifice scholarly ease, and literary honour, and scientific reputation in the cause of Christ, by undertaking Mission work amongst us. " We number with Ceylon nearly 250 millions. We have a considerable civilization, we have ability, energy, mystic devotion, a considerable morality, a turn for a spiritual life, strangely mingled with superstition and darkness and pre- sumption, in this seething population of India. "I know no field so calculated to draw hither men like Heber or Henry Marty n, not to mention later names, if only the circumstances and condition of our Missionary work were better understood. "I am sometimes asked, why do you not go to England, and set forth the claims of India, which are so much forgotten and uiuc' BORNEO.— CHINA. 5 neglected by the English Church. Why not go and collect noble-minded men and noble-minded women (who are so needed and for whom there is such a sjoecial field in India) ? '' My difficulty is in my work. It is so continued and so unceasing that I cannot find time or opportunity for absence. But these Days of Intercession may supersede any such necessity of a personal appeal. " Other Christian bodies find men, women, and money. The English Church is sadly behindhand with respect to India. I say it with much shame and sorrow. Where her work is in any way what it should be — hearty, loving, ahundant — it suc- ceeds. Where it is poor, scanty, and grudging, how can we expect God's blessing upon it ? We need your intercessions here." 2. From the Bishop of LABUAN. " The kind offer with which your letter closes makes me tell your Grace one want in my more immediate neighbourhood which is especially urgent, that of a man of the right stamp to head the Land Dyak Mission. He is required for the work for which I offered myself twenty-three years ago, viz., that of 'travelling missionary amongst the Hill Dyak tribes, return- ing from time to time to head-quarters ; ' (at that time an unexpected opening amongst the Sea Dyaks diverted me from that work). One entire village of this people has been brought to the Faith. This would yield good Catechists to accompany him on his gradually extended journeys, and be left where the people received the Gospel. There is also a basis for a school. A grant from S.P.G. supplies the stipend." 3. From Bishop Russell in NORTH CHINA. " Allow me to mention the following, as wants, which appear to me to demand our principal attention at present : — " 1. A few men, amongst our Missionary staff, of more than average ability, to grapple with the educated classes, and to prepare treatises on Christianity calculated to attract and im- press them. " 2. A Theological College in this province for the training of a Native Ministry, and a competent man to undertake its presidency. Buildings suitable for this purpose would require an expenditure of at least 2,000/. " 3. The cessation of the opium trade, which is the greatest evil under the sun, the greatest blot on our Christianity in the 6 SPIRITUAL WANTS.— AFRICA. eyes of the Chinese, and the greatest obstacle to the progress of the Gospel in this land. " 4. A more distinct recognition, on the part of our own and the Chinese authorities, of our right to propagate Christianity in China; and, as a necessary consequence, to reside in the interior of the country. '' 5. The effusion of God's Holy Spirit on those Chinese, now a very considerable number, who have already heard and known the truth, that they may receive it in the love of it, and become the instruments, under God, of diffusing it still more widely amongst their fellow-countrymen." 4. From the Bishop of SIEEEA LEONE. " We want God of His grace and mercy to raise up for us men from among those who have embraced Christianity, who are ready to suffer for the Gospel's sake and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Men who will have respect unto the coming recompense of the reward rather than to any present privilege or seeming dignity which the ministry of the LoED Jesus confers. " We want, too, with increasing knowledge and faith and love among our Christian brethren and sisters, much more of a holy fear and a jealous cleansing of themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit: from all participation in practices which have their roots in their own cast-off heathenism. " Then, of course, there are our every-day wants : — " A quickened ministry — an increased manifestation of power in the Word — the very love of Christ for souls — holy living and Christian example. " Our schools, elementary and higher — our women : wives, mothers, daughters — for whom not near so much has been attempted as for our men — growth in knowledge of relative duties : of Christian family life : of parental authority and filial obedience — our rulers. " The difficulties attending a transition from a Missionary to a Pastorate station in this settlement of Sierra Leone. " The speedy termination and overruling of the war with the Ashantees on the Gold Coast, for the spread of Christ's kingdom and the opening up of fresh ground for the messengers of the Prince of Peace. "And I would like to make particular mention of the following — that, in the good providence of God, a way may be made for me to visit those portions of my flock who are in Abeokuta and Ibadam, from whom I have hitherto been shut AFRICA. out, and who are continually testifying by letters how great their desire is to see me in the flesh. And that meanwhile the Great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls may have them more especially in His holy keeping, to preserve them from all evil, and to lead them by His Spirit into all truth." 5. From Bishop Webb in the OKANGE FEEE STATE. " In order not to lose another mail, I will even imperfectly and hastily at once comply with your Grace's request for some information upon the special needs and requirements of our Church here. " My own spiritual charge and oversight extends over (1) the independent Eepublic of the Orange Free State, for the eastern portion of which I am still most anxious to find a clergyman. (2) The Crown colony of British Basutoland. (3) The Crown colony of Griqualand west, in which the Diamond Fields are situated. (4) The independent territory of the Bechuana chief Maroko, with its chief town Thaba' !N"chu, containing 12,000 inhabitants. (5) The " South African," or Transvaal Eepublic ; and generally the country north of the Orange Eiver and west of the Drackens- berg mountains, which separate us from Natal and Zululand. " It is obvious that much more might be done in this vast and varied field of labour, had we only additions to our present devoted staff of men of earnestness, wisdom, and ability. More- over, the scanty means at our disposal barely suffice to keep up our present missionary operations. " Among the population at the Diamond Fields, in the midst of which I have just been, I have been very forcibly struck with the tremendous fact that from all parts of the interior, and representing alL tribes of South Africa, we have not less than 25^,000 natives. The numbers have been ascertained from the Eegistration Offices. We have four clergy ministering to the Europeans at the Fields, and a native work going on under their superintendence, but no clergyman, as is much needed, specially set apart to devote his thought, time, and energy to the searching for, evangelizing, and building up of those who are prepared for such endeavours. The European work is growing, and we greatly need one more clergyman at least for that important element, which has a first call upon our attention ; but I verily believe that nowhere else in the world has such an opportunity been presented to the Church of England of extending the influence of the Gospel and Church of Christ to many people and languages hitherto left to themselves, as by this immigration of raw heathens, who have been attracted by the hope of obtaining guns, blankets, and cattle as the reward of 8 SPIRITUAL WAi\TS.- AFRICA. their labours. Activity on their behalf ought not to be dealt with, as it must be at present, merely as a by-work. ** Basutoland is now more than ever presenting a field where the Church should take her place in witness of the King- dom of Heaven. Among its population of 100,000, French llomanist, and Protestant missionaries have done a great deal, but I suppose 60,000 are still heathen ; and we have no clergy- man specially devoted to the work of ministering even to the Christian families of the magistrates and others who are members of our own Church, and through whom we might gradually influence the natives for good. *• In the Transvaal we have only two priests and one deacon at present. Bishop Wilkinson, I am thankful to say, will be able to assist in the Church work there, as he has determined to reside, during a few months in each year, at Pretoria — this will prove a great blessing : a large population is being attracted to the Gold Fields and agricultural districts. " It is my firm conviction (and this persuasion has not been hastily arrived at), that in such countries as this, where the population is partly of a mixed Euro]3ean, and partly a native element, we can never place the Church upon any solid or secure foundation ; we can never obtain the affection and intelligent loyalty of the people, nor, what is most important, recruit the ranks of the clergy from the midst of ourselves, unless we provide a high-class education for the sons and daughters of the people. In my judgment our really great want is provision for two superior and central schools of a high tone for boys and also for girls, and assistance for local schools throughout the country. We are not likely to obtain much sympathy for these objects, as they do not seem directly spiritual and missionary. But I am persuaded that one great reason of such weakness as still remains among the Mission Churches which we have planted in our colonies is owing to the neglect on the part of the Church to provide superior education for our colonists and European settlers in girls' schools as well as boys'. I am endea- vouring now to establish a high-class school for boys and one for girls in Bloemfontein, but as provision for boarders is what is most required, the cost is very great indeed. To provide the simplest and plainest buildiugs for the accommoda- tion of fifteen boys and fifteen girls would require 5,000/., as building here is extravagantly dear : and we cannot see how we are to raise this. The maintenance of their own clergy, of the fabric and services of their churches, is about all that our con- gregations can do at present. As I have said before, our friends who are interested in mission work seem scarcely to realize sufili- ciently how essentially and truly miswionaryis the effort to train AFRICA. 9 the growing generation in true principles under the fostering care of the Church, and how, without such an endeavour, much of our labour will really be in vain. " I wish, my Lord Archbishop, I could write more on this subject, but I must by all means end my fcAv remarks in obedience to your request with as little delay as possible. " I will only add that for this See there is no endowment. The income depends upon an annual grant from the Ven. S.P.G., and as I have already stated, our congregations are now, and are likely to be for many years to come, only able to provide for the ministrations of the clergy and the fabrics of the church, and this not without some little assistance in most cases." 6. From Bishop Wilkinson in ZULULAISTD. '* I have made a hurried visit into the Transvaal and was much concerned to find it rapidly forming itself into townships, vil- lages, and settlements of English-speaking people, who are more neglected in matters spiritual than the many heathen tribes amongst whom they dwell, who are in some measure being saught out by the Berlin Missionary Society. Everywhere I was asked what could be done towards introducing the Church among them. The country is so young at present that its inha- bitants are committed as yet to no religious body, and every- where now the Church would be welcomed, though I cannot say what would be the issue should we neglect to step in w^iile we have the opportunity. The newly discovered Gold Fields in the north of Leydenburg, Marabastadt, and the Talti, are drawing large numbers of diggers, who, together with the town- ships and settlements alluded to, are almost entirely neglected. We have one priest, one smaU church, and two deacons at work in all this vast land, where I reckon we ought at once to be build- ing ten churches, as many schools, and perhaps be employing six earnest men to work them." 7. From the Bishop of MAUPJTIUS. " Our resident Indian population is about 217,000 ; with a few thousand Chinese traders. By far the great majority of our planters are French, and professedly Eoman Catholic, but their families alone seem to observe the ordinances of their religion. The difficulty will be (even with a more efficient staff of native Christian agents than we possess) to arrange for the moral and religious instruction of the many thousands of young children born on these estates, who can render good service in the plantations from even early years. And it is 10 SPIRITUAL WANTS. -AUSTRALIA. only in the afternoons, when the day's labour is over, that access can be had to the adult Indians. We have certainly far less facility for work among the sugar estates of this colony, than among the coffee estates of Ceylon, which are chiefly in the hands of men of our own country and religion. And yet the very remarkable variety of races met with all over this island, and the frequent return of the immigrant population to their scattered villages in India, North, South, and West, invest our work here with special importance. " Our chief want, I think, is a well- trained body of native agents, Indian, Creole, and Chinese, to work among the motley population of this diocese. We are trying to organize new efforts in this connection : but we have many peculiar difficulties to contend with. " Another great want, which presses much on my mind, is the neglected condition of scores of small islands, very sparsely inhabited, dependencies (widely scattered) of this colony : except in the important group of the Seychelles, the Church of England is doing nothing in this connection." 8. From the Bishop of SYDNEY. " Our chief want is men. Our Theological College will have ten students next term, but we require many more. " 1. For my -own diocese of Sydney we have now reached a stage in which the city and suburban parishes and some of the country districts desire curates, and the people are prepared to pay for them. " 2. For North Australia, where a large population is spread- ing over an immense area, and I have petitions for young active clergymen. " 3. For Fiji, the Philippine Islands, and Tongataboo, where we have members of the Church of England anxiously desiring a clergyman, and writing to me for one. " We want Bishops : — " 1. For Brisbane. Dr. Tufnell is going home in the begin- ning of the year to resign, and a wise active man of Evan- gelical sentiments would find one of the finest fields in this hemisphere ready to welcome his presence. " 2. For Eockhampton, including North Queensland, a part of the colony which is in my diocese as Metropolitan. The members of the Church of England are most anxious for the superintendence of a Bishop. " These are the subjects of our own continued prayers, and I beg permission to thank your Grace most cordially for the appointment of the 3rd December as a day of prayer and also for the form you have kindly sent." AUSTRALIA, 11 9. From the Bishop of ADELAIDE. " Missionary effort has from the first characterized the Diocese of Adelaide. Two distinct Missions are the objects of regular parochial offertories annually. One is for the support of Mis- sionary schools to the aborigines. The second is the Melanesian Mission. The latter, as bordering on the shores of Australia, has a prior claim on us to any other. To this Mission we have contributed annually for the last four years an average sum of 230^. forwarded to Mr. Codrington, at Norfolk Island. " For the aborigines we maintain two institutions, one at Poonindie on the Western Coast, the other at Lacepide Bay, on the South-east Coast. I send by this mail a brief account of Poonindie which I drew up after the Bishop of Perth had revisited with me the institution, on our return from the Sydney Conference and General Synod. You will, I think, be interested in the details of native culture. The conduct of the inmates is really admirable. " The best and truest way of helping Colonial Churches is to enable them, by theological lectureships, scholarships, to train Colonial Theologi. If the S.P.C.K. would help forward this scheme, the S.P.G. would have much less to do in supplying old Colonial Dioceses with clergy, and might give itself . more to Missions for the heathen." 10. From tlie'^i^^ov of GOULBUEN. " 1. It is manifest that our first want is a great increase in the number of the clergy. In the past ten years they have grown from eleven to thirty-five. But the area of the diocese is 84,000 square miles. If we take . an average of the whole of the Missionary districts of the diocese, the above gives to each clergyman a district of 2,400 square miles. But a few of the clergy have districts each of 10,000 square miles — i.e. a territory equal in extent to Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Lancashire, and Yorkshire combined — and much larger than the whole of Wales ; and these districts they traverse regularly and systematically in order to carry the ministration of the Gospel to their scattered fiocks. " Though the area of the diocese is very nearly coterminous with that of England, Wales, and Scotland, the total population in the census of 1871 was only 94,909. Yet each clergyman on the average has 2,700 persons within the limits of his district. But many of these belong to other communions. It is thus very evident that each clergyman has a most laborious 12 SPIRITUAL WANTS.—AUSTRALU. task in traversing so vast an area ; and having his people so sparsely scattered. Even if we possessed twenty more clergymen now, and could maintain them, each would be much overtasked in his work. " 2. Our second want is a multiplication of "pecuniarij resources for the support of the j^resent Missionary Star^ and of the required \ncrease. In the year 1872 the total received by our Diocesan Church Society for the stipends of the clergy was 3,980/., together with a general fund of 1,290/. From the latter grants are made in aid of the above stipend fund, and of the building of churches, schools, and parsonages. It is thus manifest that the diocese needs a large amount of external assistance to enable us to keep the clergy in their Missions. Their support is obtained with great difficulty, and is a source of constant anxiety to the Bishop ; for without his increasing vigilance and personal efforts half of them would be lost to us for lack of adequate local sustentation. From the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel we receive 200/. a year for all our Missionary work ! ! If for five years they would give us 2,000/. a year, as they do to the dioceses in America (Montreal, Quebec, Fredericton, Nova Scotia),we should then become in some measure self-supporting. We therefore need to pray that the Society may reconsider the distribution of its funds, and grant a more adequate share of the same to the struggling dioceses in Australia. " 3. Our third want is a large addition to the number of our Churches, Parsonages, and Schools. Our churches have grown from twenty-six to seventy, and our parsonages from six to twenty-four. But we need a vast increase; for our present buildings are very few and far between : and we have no fund except our Church Society from which in this country to obtain grants in aid of the building funds. If we could obtain 500/. a year for five years in aid of this effort, it would be a great comfort. All my personal resources have been freely dispensed for these objects, and in aid of tlie clergy, for the past ten years. But it is scarcely right or fair that these should rest as personal burdens upon the Bishop. "4. We further want a church of adequate dimensions for the city of Goulburn, which shall also he employed when occasions require as a Cathedral for the Diocese. When I read of the large sums expended upon the reparation or mere adornment of Cathedrals at home, I think that our aim is moderate when I state that we desire to construct an edifice for about 15,000/; of which with all our efCorts only one-fourth is in prospect. We need such a building to give life and energy to our work in the centre of operations, and to give encouragement to the rest of the diocese. TASMANIA. 13 " To sum up the above in few words, we need about 2,500/. a year from home for a few years for the clergy and the churches, and about 5,000/. as a donation to the building fund of the church in Goulburn. We need more, zealous, faithful, and godly, missionaries ; and, above all, we need the Spirit of grace and supplication to enable us to work from right motives, and to seek to win souls to the Saviour from love to Him who died for them." 11. From the Bishop of BATHURST. " The wants of my diocese may be concisely summed up ' Men and Means.' " With regard to the former, I believe great good would result if incumbents at home w^ere allowed two or three years' leave, on condition that they worked in a Colonial Diocese, which would then have the benefit of mature wisdom and experience — and the Home Church would gain by the energetic habits which work out here fosters. Some of my clergy have to travel 8,000 miles per annum. Several of them have three services on Sunday, and a ride of 30 miles. There is a reluctance on the part of some clergymen to leave England, lest they should be found unsuitable to the work, and be compelled to return, and then branded as deserters, whereas if they knew three years was the limit of their absence, they would not object to come." 12. From the Bishop of TASMANIA. "I have to state that one solitary example of Tasmanian aborigines survives. That numbers inhabit the almost inaccessible islands of the Furneaux grou]^ in Bass's Straits, the offspring of runaway sailors or convicts and aboriginal women. We are building a vessel for the difficult navigation of these islands, where a central school has been lately opened by the Government of the Colony. A grant tow^ards this object would aid our efforts to pay annual visits. That help is greatly wanted for the sustentation of a Missionary Clergy- man or ordained Catechist, to pay itinerant visits to these islanders, and numerous settlements of our fellow-countrymen in Tasmania, consigned to practical heathenism." 14 SPIRITUAL WANTS.— NORTH AND 13. From the Bishop of EUPEKTSLAND. " Your Grace is well aware of the peculiar position of this diocese at the present time. Till lately it was simply a vast hunting-ground of fur-bearing animals. It was isolated from the world. It is still in a measure shut out from the want of through railway communication. A few months or a year will supply this. Then its rich prairies, than which there is no richer soil in the world, v/ill be easily accessible to emigrants. '* What then do we most want ? What will help us most, by most aiding the building up of the Church here, and so enabling us to work for ourselves ? "For in this huge region we have wants to any extent in Missions to be started — in Churches, Parsonages, &c., to be erected — everything almost has to be done to supply what is wanting in the changing position of the country. " I need not refer to the great effort for additional Bishoprics. That effort, especially as regards the proposed Bishopric of the Saskatchewan, is before the Church. Let me say, then, that what would do most for us at this critical and momentous juncture, is, first, to strengthen St. John's College by increasing its small endowment for our educational staff and scholarships, or erecting necessary buildings ; and secondly, to aid our very small endowment for our clergy. Perhaps if anyone could give a sum for scholarships for sons of the clergy at St. John's College, or for our Clergy Widows and Orphans' Fund — such help would go furthest in affording help to the body of our clergy. " I believe that from our peculiar position, in being just in the infancy of what must be a very great country, such a sum as a few thousand pounds, judiciously given, would probably be productive of results great beyond comparison with what the same sum could accomplish almost anywhere else." 14. From the Bishop of the FALKLAND ISLANDS. " As a subject of special intercession I venture in the first place to suggest the preparation of the hearts of the people of this continent for the reception of God's Word. The need of it is great, and a movement on the part of certain members of the Eoman Catholic Church, in favour of the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, points out a great want, and the prostration, in consequence, of the moral and spiritual, the civil and religious, life of the people in S. America. That God's Word may have free course and be glorified here, should SOUTH AMERICA. 15 be the devout prayer of a Church whose final appeal is to that Word. " In the next place, I desire to impress upon the minds of Christians at home that there are in S. America very many of their countrymen scattered up and down, who have hitherto been unprovided with the public ordinances of worship. If they are married, and have families, their children must either remain unbaptized, or be baptized by a Eoman Catholic priest, and be absorbed in the Eoman Catholic Church. This is too frequently the alternative. But a worse consequence of the absence of the public means of grace is the utter indif- ference to religion which it not infrequently breeds. Our countrymen learn the ways of the country, and forget the lessons of their Church at home. The utter ruin which overtakes a large proportion of the English settlers in this continent is appalling. Englishman and drunkard are in the native idea synonymous terms. Bright examples of course there are to set off against much that is sad and disastrous. The intelligence and skill, the energy and enterprise, the courage and integrity, the industry and capital of Englishmen wield still a powerful influence. But it is nevertheless true that a great multitude of our countrymen, of good family and education, and having in the first instance some capital at their disposal, have through want of proper advisers, from inex- perience, and from the withdrawal of those props and influences which life at home supplies, become desponding and careless, and forgetful of their self-respect. " Had they found on the spot when they arrived a clergyman of experience, and opportunities of Christian fellowship and worship, many of them would probably have been spared the shame and suffering to which ihey have been brought. To me it seems very important, on the occasion of the Day of Inter- cession, to bring this work before the Church at home. Very many of those who have come out here had more or less capital. Often they belong to families which are comfortably off. Yet in very few cases, I fear, is there any thought bestowed on the possibility of providing the means of grace for their depending relatives or friends. Five per cent, of the capital entrusted to young men to invest, say, in farming in S. America, would go a long way towards securing the ministra- tions of a clergyman, and towards lessening the temptations to evil, and strengthening the good purpose with which we may presume the new settlers to be possessed. " Many sons of clergymen are to be found in this continent. Their fathers would confer a wide-spread benefit if they solicited from their congregations aid to extend the ministry of our 10 SPIRITUAL WANTS.— WEST INDIES. Church throughout S. America. On inquiry I find but a small proportion of those even who have sons, or relatives here, exert their influence for so laudable a purpose. " Of a purely Missionary character is our work amongst the Indian tribes. The very advance of civilization in this continent is full of peril for them. They are weak, and despised, yet are they amongst those for whom Christ died, and they deserve not the contempt but the compassion of His people. Funds I now want for a Children's Home in Terra del Fuego, if I may mention a definite object of interest." 15. From the BiSHOP of BAEBADOS. " As to * the wants in this diocese that might be helped by the prayers or alms or personal service of members of the Church at home,' I need not say that that diocese must indeed be dead, or exceptionally blessed, which has no such needs. And the Diocese of Barbados in the islands outside of Barbados has much to cause anxiety in regard of the reconstruction of the Church after total or partial disendowment. Still that burden must of necessity, and ought to be, borne by the laity of those islands, or the ministrations of the Anglican Church must be curtailed there. " One pressing topic of prayer for all who are interested in the welfare of other races besides our own is, — as even my limited experience of the West Indies shows me, — that the Gospel may be practised as well as professed by the Negro race : I mean that the ' beggarly elements ' of morality, purity, chastity, honesty, and truthfulness, may be recognized by them, as well as what are commonly called religious duties." CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. i Y