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 TWO SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, CHELTENHAM, 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER WATSON, A.M. 
 
 CURATE OF THE CHURCH, 
 OX THE 
 
 FIRST AND SECOND SUNDAYS AFTER THE EPIPHANY, 1843. 
 
 The Second Sermon refers to the disclaimer hy the Rev. A. M. Campbell, A.M., 
 Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of tlie Gospel in Foreign Parts, 
 of the charge of partisanship brought agairist that Society in consequence of 
 his reply to a question put by the Rev. Francis Close, A.M., at a Meeting 
 of the Society held in Cheltenham, Nov. 10, 1842. To which is added, an 
 APPENDIX, showing the relation of the St. John's Church Fund to ike 
 Parochial Branches of the Societies aided by it. 
 
 LONDON; 
 
 ¥ JAMES BURNS, 17, PORTMAN STREET, 
 
 i PORTMAN SQUARE. 
 
 \V. B. HILL, 86, HIGH STREET, CHELTENHAM. 
 
 L 1843.
 
 TO 
 
 THE CONGREGATION 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, CHELTENHAM. 
 
 !My dear Flock, 
 
 Although the first of these discourses 
 "will form a part of that volume of my Sermons which 
 is now in the press, and for copies of which so many of 
 you are subscribers, yet a variety of circumstances 
 has induced me thus promptly to publish them, 
 in a cheap form, for general distribution. It is 
 well that the calumny of false reports as to what 
 I have stated in them should be rendered harmless 
 with those about whose good opinion I am solicitous. 
 I am not so ignorant of the prophetic declaration of 
 Him who, though ^' Master of the House," was called 
 Beelzebub, as to wonder that a large portion of the 
 clergy, having been set down as the *' synagogue of 
 Satan," the basest arts should be ascribed to them ; 
 neither can I be for a moment surprised to find that 
 your Christian alacrity in building and supporting 
 Schools in connexion with the Church, and your 
 increasing sympathy with the leading Church Societies, 
 
 a2
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 have provoked feelings which tliey ought not to have 
 ehcitecl ; but I confess the manner in which my desire, 
 in estabUshing the Fund, (to direct attention to which 
 these Sermons were preached,) has been perverted, 
 is beyond my comprehension. As it becomes more 
 known and understood, I am sure it will increase in 
 efficiency ; and even this year will show the desirable- 
 ness of each clergyman, among his own flock, exerting 
 himself for the increase of the general fund ; especially 
 when, as in our case, the monies are paid through the 
 Parochial Branches, where such exist. 
 
 Permit me, then, to dedicate these pages to you, 
 from whose sincerity and affection, and willing coope- 
 ration in the Church's plans, I derive every encou- 
 ragement to persevere in that path of duty, in which, 
 by most solemn vows, I am constrained to walk ; but 
 for treading in which I, in common with others, who 
 owe those learned and pious men no filial allegiance, 
 am stigmatised as the disciple of a supposed new- 
 school of theologians at Oxford ; w^hereas the name 
 we own is Christian, and our surname Catholic, calling 
 no man master on earth, but acknowledging as our 
 Head only Christ the Lord in heaven. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My dear Flock, 
 
 Under the Bishop, 
 Your faith fuUy attached Pastor, 
 
 Alexander Watson. 
 
 Feast of the Conversion 
 of St. Paul, 1843. 

 
 SERMON L 
 
 Romans xii. 4, 5. 
 
 For as loe have many members hi one body, and all members have not 
 the same office ; so we, being many, are one Body in Christ, and 
 every one members one of another. 
 
 The joyful season of Epiphany, on which we entered 
 on Friday last, brings before us the Saviour in a 
 character different from that in which He is presented 
 to our view in the other Festivals of the Church. He 
 is now proposed to us as our Sovereign King, and as 
 such demands our implicit homage. Neither is there 
 anything but His Sovereignty herein unveiled ; which is 
 not the case on other festivals. On the great high day 
 of our religion, that feast of the Nativity whose joy- 
 ous sounds yet linger on the christian ear, we stood in 
 adoring wonder at the astounding mercy which prompted 
 the Eternal Word to become incarnate for our sakes ; 
 to humble Himself for us the sons of men. At Easter 
 the thought that " He is risen, — He is not here," is 
 associated with the recollection that the Lord of Life 
 has been the tenant of the tomb. When we by faith 
 gaze up into the heavens and see the Son of Man as- 
 cending up where He was before, we recollect that, 
 " for us men and our salvation," He had first to come 
 down from heaven. But in His Epiphany or Mani- 
 festation to the Gentiles we are absorbed with the 
 one idea of His Sovereignty, and to Him as a King 
 we come after the pattern of adoring shepherds and
 
 worshipping Magi to offer Him our homage ! The 
 inquiry of the wise men, was " Where is He that is 
 born King of the Jews ? " and lo He is manifested to 
 them as their king, and, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles, 
 woukl they offer Him gold and frankincense and 
 myi'rh : gold as to a King, frankincense as to a God, 
 and myrrh as to One who is to die for the sins of all. 
 Nor were these separate gifts offered separately, by 
 separate individuals ; but each offered all three, thus 
 proclaiming in the heavenly babe before them the 
 King — the God — the Man. And, brethren, let us not 
 think that the Gentiles are no longer concerned with 
 approaching the manifested Ghrist with gold and 
 frankincense and myrrh. He is still our King and 
 still demands our homage, — He is still our God, and 
 still therefore requires our w^orship. His Sacrifice, 
 though completed and " offered once for all," has still 
 to be applied, and, as the condition of being saved by 
 the cross is our bearing it, we must bring myrrh in 
 that we mortify the flesh. 
 
 One crpng evil among people who yet are not 
 without thought in the matter of religi m, is, that the 
 different circumstances recorded in the Gospel are 
 treated as if they were only intended to excite our ad- 
 miration, or to elicit a temporary approval from our 
 consciences : they are viewed too much as provocatives 
 to the exercise of mere sentiment, and too little as 
 stirring examples, inviting our zealous imitation. Thus 
 Epiphany comes and goes, and the conduct of the 
 worshipping Magi has, it may be, many admirers, but 
 how few followers ! And yet, brethren, we should re- 
 member that we are still called upon to emulate those 
 who brought to the new-born Saviour three-fold gifts. 
 He is no longer visibly manifest in the flesh ; rve, in 
 the language of Friday's Collect, " know Him now by 
 Faith ; " but if so be that Ave really know Him, albeit 
 but by Faith, we shall testify of our knowledge in 
 our gifts. We shall bring Him myrrh, as I have said, 
 in the mortification of the lusts of the flesh by an 
 abstinence even from things lawful, and by otherwise
 
 following St. Paul, who declared of himself that he 
 was " crucified with Christ." We shall bring Him 
 frankincense, in the frequency and urgency of our 
 prayers ascending as sweet savour before the throne of 
 God, having adopted as our own the language of the 
 Psalmist, " Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight as 
 the incense." And lastly, we shall bring of our gold, both 
 literally and figuratively. Figuratively, we shall offer 
 Him gold by shining in His sight with the light of wisdom, 
 for, as Solomon saith, " A treasure to be desired is in the 
 mouth of the wise." If, then, our speech be alway with 
 grace seasoned with salt, we shall offer figuratively of 
 our gold ; but this is a gift which we must also make 
 literally. We must offer to our King, Messiah, of our 
 gold in kind acts to His poor, and in large sacrifices 
 for the advancement of His kingdom among men. He 
 has promised to acknowledge as done unto Himself all 
 those good offices which we from love to Him do to the 
 brethren, and therefore it is that this seems an appro- 
 priate season to remind you of some of the many ways 
 in which you may find favour in His sight, by offering 
 to Him those gifts by which you acknowledge Him as 
 your King — your offerings of gold — your dedication, 
 that is, of your services and your Avealth to Him. 
 
 And first, let us from the text learn how it is that 
 kind offices done to the brethren are gifts which the 
 Saviour will acknowledge as offered unto Him, Messiah 
 our Prince. The Apostle, using the analogy of the 
 human frame possessing a distinctive unity, though 
 made up of many members, each different in form and 
 use from the other, alleges, " So we, being many, ai'e 
 one Body in Christ, and every one members one of 
 another." And his meaning in this assertion is to be 
 gathered from another of his Epistles, in which he 
 speaks of Christ as Him whom the Father has given 
 to be " Head over all things to the Church, which is 
 His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." 
 Hence, therefore, we learn that kind offices, whether of 
 service or of wealtli done in, and to, and through the 
 Church, are, inasmuch as they are done in, and to, and
 
 8 
 
 through the Body of Christ, acknowledged by Him who 
 is Head over all things to the Church ; and thus we 
 arrive at the conclusion that, would we keep a true 
 Epiphany and offer to our King, who is seated high upon 
 a throne, above all principalities and powers, and 
 M'honi, therefore, we now know only by faith ; that 
 would we offer to our Invisible King, our real and 
 substantial gii'ts, bringing to Him the homage of our 
 gold, we must employ our time or our wealth, or both, 
 in the service of the Church, in her varied solicitude 
 for the temporal and spiritual wants of her children. 
 
 The Church, which is Christ's Body mystical, is the 
 proper channel of our gifts : one member of the body 
 must not act without regard to the others, and so one 
 Christian must not act irrespectively of another ; though 
 many, we are but one Body ; one Body no less than 
 one Spirit with Christ; and we are all members one of 
 another. As a body, then, let us act: let it not be that 
 we disregard our high gift of union with the Incarnate 
 Christ, but in that we are in Him by belonging to 
 His Body, the Church; let it be ever uppermost in our 
 minds that we may not, except at our peril, dispense 
 with the Church as a Divinely-appointed almoner of 
 our gifts. 
 
 When our Incarnate God had uttered the piercing 
 cry of willing suffering, " It is finished," and when the 
 Father had put the seal to the Son's words by His 
 rising again on the third day. He might, had it so 
 pleased Him, have not only wrought a completed work 
 of redemption, but of sanctification also ; and so have 
 rendered all human agency in the extension of his king- 
 dom unnecessary. But He who is infinite "Wisdom no 
 less than infinite Mercy, did not so will it. He has so 
 settled the foundations on which His kingdom is to be 
 reared, that nothing can be added to their complete- 
 ness or their perfectness ; but the Temple of His Grace 
 is still to rise upon the " foundation stone laid in Zion, 
 elect and precious." The Lord Jesus Christ has 
 " suffered death upon the cross for our redemption, and 
 has made there by His one oblation of Himself, once
 
 offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, oblation 
 and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 But, in order that men may participate in the 
 salvation thus placed within their reach, the Author 
 of that salvation has, in the language of the Epistle for 
 the Epiphany, so ordered it, that His manifold wisdom is 
 made known by the Church, and He has made the full 
 application of His Atonement to be ordinarily contin- 
 gent upon the proclamation of His Gospel and the 
 administration of His Holy Sacraments. And from 
 the very nature of the case. He has committed the 
 handing on of this message, and the celebration of 
 these ordinances, to a particular order of men, to whom 
 He has vouchsafed the promise of a never-failing suc- 
 cession, in virtue of His ever-abiding Presence. I say 
 by the nature of the case, for, if men are to be saved 
 to the end of the world, the Gospel must be preached 
 and the Sacraments administered to the end, hy men in 
 jierpetual successiGn from those He first sent. This 
 order of men are the Bishops and Priests of His Church 
 assisted by Deacons ; and if, therefore, we would be 
 found " fellow-workers with God," in the blessed work 
 of benefiting our fellow-creatures, we must throw our- 
 selves into the Church's svstem, act as her dutiful 
 children, resign ourselves to her ordering, seeking the 
 accomplishment of Divine ends by the reverent use of 
 Divine means. 
 
 That this was the course pursued by the early fol- 
 lowers of the Cross, we learn, not only from the 
 exhortations to that effect, similar to our text, wliich 
 abound in the Apostolical Epistles, but from the actual 
 recorded practice of the infant Church alike in the 
 Acts, the Epistles, and early Christian writers. St. 
 Luke tells us. Acts iv. 37, '• As many as were possessors 
 of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices 
 of the things that were sold, and laid them donni at the 
 Apostles' feet ; and so onerous was the distribution of 
 the fund thus placed at the disposal of the Church, that 
 " seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost 
 and wisdom, were sought out and appointed over this 
 
 A 3
 
 10 
 
 business." In the Epistles we read of the sympathy 
 between Church and Church, and how St. Paul was 
 " communicated with," '• as concernino: jrivino: and re- 
 
 ' ceo 
 
 ceiving," by the church which was at PhiHppi. St. 
 Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, the disciple of John the 
 Beloved, addi-esses Polycarp, also a disciple of St. John, 
 and " Bishop of the Church which is at Smyrna," and 
 exhorts that, even in the matter of the relief of the 
 Avidows, nothing be done without his episcopal sanction. 
 '• Let not the widows be neglected. Be thou after God 
 their Guardian. Let nothing be done without thy 
 knowledge and consent." Justin Martyr describes it 
 to be the practice of the Church in his time, to take 
 care of all who are in any need, by offerings made at 
 the time of the Holy Communion, and Tertullian 
 speaks of the common Treasury of the Church, which 
 was dispensed by those of its rulers, whose " confession" 
 entitled them to be almoners of its bounty. 
 
 It were well for us that our Church had never sur- 
 rendered her distinctive character in this respect, but 
 had retained witliin her own immediate control all 
 operations pertaining to her office as an integral portion 
 of the Body Mystical of the Redeemer. Were the 
 alms of the faithful collected on the first day of each 
 week, and carried to a common fund to be apportioned 
 by the Governing Body of the Church, and had this 
 been our continuous pjYictice, dissent and infidelity 
 would not harass us at home, nor would the cries of 
 our neglected children in the colonies be wafted from 
 beyond the seas reproaching us with being unmindful 
 and unnatural in our conduct towards them in things 
 spiritual. England would be known rather for her 
 planting of the Cross, than by the achievements of her 
 victorious sword, or the homage paid to her Sceptre. 
 Yes, had we but the same unity of action as a Church 
 which we exercise and exhibit as a nation, the adver- 
 saries of our faith could not have it in their power 
 to reproach us with the little we have done for religion at 
 home, nor with the insignificance of our conquests as 
 an " army of the Lord of Hosts," as compared with
 
 11 
 
 the trophies which grace the courts of our earthly 
 Sovereign. 
 
 Perhaps of all the evils which are the consequence 
 of the silence of Convocation, (and let it not be sup- 
 posed that I think there are no evils which would 
 attend the immediate resuscitation of its power, but) of 
 all the evils which are entailed upon us by the absence 
 of an acting Convocation, this is not the least, that the 
 Church is without the means of doing her full duty by 
 those who, in the matter of making their offering of 
 gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, to the Saviour, seek 
 to remember, that as they approach God, through 
 Christ, so Christ is to them " The Way, the Truth, 
 the Life," by permitting them, though enlightened in 
 the other means of grace, to be united to Him more 
 especially in the Sacraments of the Church. The clear 
 duty of Christians to offer of their gold to Christ in 
 and by and through His Church I have already 
 shown; and we will hope the day is not far distant, 
 when the Church, acting in her corporate capacity, 
 will be in a condition to fulfil her part as the almoner, 
 as readily and as fidly as it is binding, in their indivi- 
 dual capacity, upon her members to offer their gifts 
 for her dispensing. To this she will be impelled, as 
 we hope, not more by the evils of the present system 
 of petty societies starting into existence to gratify every 
 whim and fancy, than by the guidance of her Great 
 Head, vouchsafed in answer to the prayers of those who 
 sigh for the operations of an united Church. 
 
 She has the example of her daughter Church of 
 America to incite her, nor let her be ashamed to follow 
 her whom it is true she ought to have led. In the year 
 1835, a committee was appointed by the " Board of 
 Directors of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary 
 Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
 United States of America," to consider and report 
 " Whether any and what measures should be adopted 
 for the more efficient organization of this Society, and 
 the future conduct of its returns ;" and a part of their 
 unanimous report was, to propose that, in the place of
 
 12 
 
 the mode of operation which had hitherto prevailed, 
 " the Church herself, in dependence upon her Divine 
 Head, and for the promotion of His glory, undertake 
 and carry on, in her character as the Church, and as 
 the ' Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society in the 
 United States of America,' the work of Christian 
 ^Missions. The time, I repeat, is, one may hope, not 
 very far distant, when the Church, as the Church, 
 will show herself the real Missionary Society, whether 
 for home or foreign purposes ; and when it will be seen 
 and felt that this is the original constitution of Christ, 
 and that the Apostles, and the Bishops, their successors, 
 are His perpetual trustees. But, in the meanwhile, 
 until the Church, by her accredited organs, takes this 
 work entirely into her own hands, are her members to 
 stand still and omit to make their gifts for the advance- 
 ment of the Redeemer's kingdom, or are they, on the 
 other hand, at liberty to take up with every and any 
 plan which wears the mask of benevolence ? The 
 dutiful Churchman ri'Ul he neither apathetic nor indis- 
 criminate. He will take pains to find out the greatest 
 measure of the Church's system which is proposed to 
 him, and upon that he will act. Where the weekly 
 offertory is within his reach, he will, in obedience to 
 this morning's second lesson, to do alms in secret, 
 prefer it to the parade of subscription lists, which pain 
 more by the impertinence they draw down upon those 
 who are bold enough to master self, and refuse to 
 " offer to the Lord their God that which doth cost 
 them nothing," than they gratify by the praise of those 
 who calculate gifts for religious purposes by man's rule 
 rather than God's. And whether he makes his gifts 
 through the offertory, or through his clergyman, or by 
 the means of a fund in immediate connexion with the 
 flock to which he belongs, or by direct transmission to 
 the parties by whom he wishes them employed ; in any 
 case, he will be careful that the means he sanctions by 
 this cooperation, shall contain no element hostile to the 
 constitution of the Church. 
 
 Now it is not easy for the private Christian at once
 
 13 
 
 to sift the pretensions of societies which profess to be 
 such as Churchmen may belong to, especially when, as 
 has been for some time the case among us, societies as 
 heterodox as the Bible Society, and the Religious Tract 
 Society, and as dishonest and mischievous in their opera- 
 tion as the so-called Church Pastoral Aid Society,* 
 number among their subscribers influential members of 
 the Church. There are many persons who woidd wil- 
 lingly give to two or three societies, but who cannot give 
 to all that solicit their cooperation ; and from the absence 
 of distinctive principles having been laid down for their 
 guidance, are perplexed in making a selection ; and it 
 not unfrequently happens, that the irregular society 
 gets the money which its donor would not wittingly 
 have given in other than the orthodox channel. It is 
 a chief characteristic of true Avorth, to be unobtrusive, 
 and to rely rather upon having its merits discovered, 
 than choosing to make them a stalking-horse to favour ; 
 and thus many a good society is crippled for lack of 
 funds, while less valuable but more noisy competitors 
 have overflowing coffers. Under these circumstances, it 
 has always appeared to me to be the clear duty of a 
 Clergyman to make his people aware of the existence 
 of means, by which they can develope their sympathy 
 and fellow-feeling for those who are one Body with 
 them in Christ, and also for those who have a com- 
 mon stock with themselves in Adam. And in propor- 
 tion as he is advising his whole flock publicly, or 
 particular members of it individually and privately, 
 will his advice have a general or restrained character. 
 The all-wise Creator has so fashioned us, that differ- 
 ent persons are differently affected by the wants of 
 those around them ; and it is the object of the Church 
 to afford scope for the exercise of all those gifts which 
 " differ according to the grace given" unto their several 
 possessors. Upon minute offices of benevolence, or as 
 to the choice of particular modes of relief for specific ma- 
 ladies of soul or body, it is not the province of the clergy- 
 man to advise, except under particular circumstances, 
 * See Dr. Molesworth's Letter to the Bishop of Chester.
 
 14 
 
 and these generally arising out of the request of those 
 whom he counsels. But upon the grand objects appa- 
 rent in the establishment of the Church by her Divine 
 Founder, he is bound to exhort those intrusted to his 
 charge, and to provoke them to liberal cooperation in 
 the Church's labours. And those exertions will gene- 
 rally be found to be most successful which are put forth 
 within prescribed limits ; and as all the several branches 
 of the Church have one centre in their invisible 
 Head, the risen and ascended Christ, and as a collec- 
 tion of dioceses have a centre in their metropolitan, and 
 the parishes forming a diocese their centre in the 
 bishop, so each flock has its centre in its pastor, and 
 whatever is done jointly by a flock and its pastor, has 
 that element of success which belongs to unity of 
 action. 
 
 These were the convictions which led me to address 
 to each member of this congregation, in the beginning of 
 the past year, a printed statement,* soliciting contribu- 
 tions for St. John's Church Schools, and for such of the 
 five Societies therein mentioned, as might commend 
 themselves to the good wishes and charitable deeds of 
 each several person. My wish was to thus aiFord oppor- 
 tunities for smaU gifts, and to meet the case of those who 
 only give where they are solicited. Being absent from 
 home at the time they were issued, misconceptions arose 
 as to the real object of this statement, which, I venture 
 to hope, will not arise again, and which it was not pos- 
 sible to meet with sufficient promptness from a distance. 
 These papers will be issued again on Sunday next, and 
 I do trust that you will all be kind enough to spare half 
 an hour for their perusal ; and if, in any particular, 
 they are not sufficiently explicit, I cheerfully hold my- 
 self in readiness to offer any explanations which may 
 be sought. My simple object was and is to promote, 
 in what appears to myself, and to those whom I have 
 consulted, including our diocesan — to promote, in the 
 most desirable way, the increase of the funds of our 
 own schools, and of five societies, which are composed 
 * See Appendix.
 
 15 
 
 entirely of churchmen, and are under the superin- 
 tendence, ex officio^ of the Archbishops, and all the 
 Bishops of the two provinces of the Church of England, 
 and which, in their several spheres, seem the best cal- 
 culated to carry out, in subordination to her principles, 
 the great objects for which the Church was incorporated 
 and chartered by our Lord. 
 
 The form in which our Lord commissioned his Apo- 
 stles, stamps a missionary character upon the Church's 
 charter : •' And Jesus came and spake unto them, 
 saying. All power is given unto Me in heaven and on 
 earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, 
 and lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world." Or, as we read it in St. Mark, " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel unto every crea- 
 ture ;" and in St. Luke we read that the Saviour 
 ordained, " That repentance and remission of sins 
 should be preached in His name among all nations, 
 beginning at Jerusalem.^^ 
 
 Now, in order to the fulfilment of this duty, the 
 Church requires funds to supply clergy at home and 
 abroad, and to raise these funds we have two Societies, 
 the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Parts," and the " Society for Promoting the 
 Employment of Additional Curates in Populous Places." 
 Of these Societies I purpose to speak more fully next 
 Sunday, on which day the papers will be again issued. 
 I mention the Additional Curates' Fund Society, be- 
 cause I believe its intrinsic excellence and its urgent 
 wants are comparatively little known ; and with regard 
 to the Society for Propagating the Gospel, I wish to 
 put you in possession of a disclaimer I have received 
 from the Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Campbell, of the 
 impression to which a statement of his at the last paro- 
 chial meeting in this place naturally gave rise — a dis- 
 claimer which will be satisfactory to those who consider 
 the Society's character compromised by the party spirit
 
 16 
 
 recently attributed to her, of rejecting from her service 
 a large and zealous body of the clergy of the Church. 
 
 Passing, then, on from the increase of the clergy at 
 home, and in our colonies, and our heathen dependen- 
 cies, we come to that indispensable handmaid of the 
 Church, the School. The diligent care of the early 
 Church to catechise her youth, is well known ; and 
 daily experience offers every inducement to acquiesce 
 in the counsel which, if human, would be wise, and 
 which, since it is Divine, must be implicitly obeyed, to 
 " train up, (or catechise, see margin,) a child in the 
 way he should go ;" and to " bring up our youth in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord ;" and to fol- 
 low the example of Eunice and Lois, who took care 
 that, from a child, Timothy should know the Holy 
 Scriptures ; or of pious Hannali, who, from the first, 
 lent Samuel to the Lord ; or still more of our Lord 
 himself, who, as you have heard in the second lesson, 
 lingered behind in the catechetical school of the Jewish 
 doctors. And most valuable is the assistance rendered 
 by the National Society to the Church at large in 
 this particular, by grants of money, by systematising the 
 best education, and training efficient masters ; while of 
 the value of our own particular schools, I trust I may 
 safely hope that your opinion is not less favourable than 
 is indicated by the eulogy of the many strangers by 
 whom they have been visited. Your readiness abun- 
 dantly to support these schools in the past year will, 
 I doubt not, be only exceeded by what you will do 
 this ; and, therefore, I would only further say in con- 
 nexion with this subject, that, but for the National 
 Society, an education without religion would have 
 been established as national, and the clergy bearded in 
 their own schools by inspectors amenable to no eccle- 
 siastical authority. 
 
 As through the instrumentality of Clergy and Schools, 
 the living Church is gathered, they naturally look for a 
 material temple where they may enshrine Jehovah's 
 Name ; and in which, as His earthly Palace, they may 
 do their homage to the King of Kings, and where,
 
 17 
 
 because His Name is set, " He will be attent unto 
 their prayer, and come and bless them ;" and here the 
 Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building, and 
 Repairing of Churches and Chapels, and the Gloucester 
 and Bristol Diocesan Church Building Association, come 
 hi and hold out inducement and cooperation to Clergy 
 and People to erect temples of the Lord, habitations for 
 the mighty God of Christians, wliich shall be Houses of 
 Prayer for all people. 
 
 Again we find, that as infallibly inspired teachers 
 were withdrawn from the Church, it was considered 
 unwise to trust to oral teaching for the guidance of 
 those to whom was committed the conversion of sinners, 
 and the edification of the faithful, as had been the case 
 until after the year a.d. 100 ; about which time John, 
 the last of the inspired line, died; and soon after which 
 the Gospels, and Epistles, and Apocalypse, were gathered 
 into Canon. And as now the living Teacher, unlike 
 the Teachers of the Apostolical age, is not in a con- 
 dition to prove the truth of his teaching, from his being 
 able to say " which our eyes have seen, and our ears 
 have heard," but must appeal for his proof to Scripture, 
 therefore it becomes desirable to multiply copies of the 
 Bible to be circulated by the Clergy among the people; 
 and to assist the Church herein we have The Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which supplies 
 Churches, Schools, Parish Libraries and the Poor, both 
 at home and abroad, with Bibles, Prayer-books, Testa- 
 ments, and Psalters, and Books and Tracts of instruction 
 and amusement, at prices considerably below prime 
 cost, making gratuitous grants where necessary. 
 
 And now, brethren, what remains to be added to 
 a discourse unwittingly extended beyond its accus- 
 tomed length ; but that, having heard, in addition to 
 what has been said, what will be urged in behalf of 
 two of the Societies on Sunday next, you will re- 
 ceive the Printed Papers to which I have alluded, in a 
 fair and candid spirit, giving to one or two, or three, 
 or all, or none, of the objects proposed to you, and in 
 the proportion severally which a consideration of their
 
 18 
 
 claims and your duty at this joyous season of Epi- 
 phany, may, under the Holy Spirit's guidance, suggest to 
 your several consciences. And, let me further hope 
 that you will be found a willing-hearted people, re- 
 fusing to let the houses of your God lie waste while ye 
 dwell in ceiled homes, refusing to let the cry of spiritual 
 destitution rise up into the ear of offended Heaven in- 
 viting wrath upon our beloved motherland, but resolving 
 to pour out before Him, whether you have little or 
 much, the treasures which His goodness lends, and im- 
 ploring Him to accept them here, that you may find 
 them hereafter in heaven ! AYe are again bidden guests 
 to the marriage supper of the Lamb ; let us attune our 
 hearts for the Holy Feast, by fervently wishing that 
 God would put it into all our minds to give ourselves 
 up to Himself. " Oh that God would put into the 
 hearts of the Churchmen of this land so far to imitate 
 their brethren in the Church of Macedonia, as to be 
 willing according to their power ! The superfluity of 
 millions that now rust, or are abused to frivolous or sin- 
 ful uses, would supply with spiritual food a famishing 
 world. The strength of body, the gifts of mind, the 
 weight of influence, the able hands, the generous hearts, 
 that now content themselves w4th secular ends, and 
 labour but for temporal interests, converted to the 
 Lord, and consecrated by the live coal from His altar, 
 would supply an army that should beleaguer every land. 
 The noble rapture, like a flame of living fire, should 
 spread from heart to heart. Again, the arm of the 
 Lord should wake as in the ancient time. Ar/ain the 
 ffate.'i of hell should totter to their fall.'' The Church of 
 the living God roused from her sleep, should shake the 
 dust from her fair and beautiful garments, and gird on 
 her panoply for battle. Strong in the Lord and in the 
 power of His might, she should go on from strength 
 to strength, until, triumphant over every foe, God for 
 Christ's sake, bestows on her the victory.
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 St. Matthew vi. 10. 
 *' Thy kingdom come." 
 
 It would not be easy for the youngest among us to 
 enumerate the many times which our lips have uttered 
 this petition of the Divine Prayer which the Redeemer 
 taught His disciples, as their form of addi'ess to His 
 and their Father. I say it would not be easy to enu- 
 merate the many times which our lips have uttered 
 this prayer ; and I fear I must add, that there would be 
 a like difficulty in satisfying ourselves how often we 
 have realized its deep meaning in our hearts. In the 
 former case we should be bewildered by the number of 
 our performances ; in the latter, by the number of our 
 omissions. That there is a Avondrous force in the ex- 
 pression, vre might be sure, from the fact that it forms 
 a part of the Lord's prayer, and is thus the dictate of 
 Infinite Wisdom. Let it, then, be our concern this 
 morning to ascertain how much is involved in this sup- 
 plication, and whereunto we are committed by the 
 offering up of such a Prayer, as the expression of our 
 desires. 
 
 When, then, we beseech of God that His kingdom 
 may come, we, as subjects of the enthroned Messiah
 
 20 
 
 are asking that Satan's kingdom may be abolished, and 
 the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ advanced : that 
 God being set upon a throne, the devil may perish, sin 
 may be destroyed, death may die, and captivity may be 
 led captive, that we, being freed, may reign to eternal 
 life. And thus it would appear that this kingdom is 
 threefold, viz. of Power, of Grace, of Glory.* 
 
 1. Of Power. — For heaven is His throne and earth 
 His footstool ; and to His law, as resulting from His 
 Will and Providence, are all beings and aU things, 
 whether in heaven or in earth, or under the earth, sub- 
 ject ; the Lord reigneth, be the people never so im- 
 patient—the Lord sitteth between the cherubims, be 
 the earth never so unquiet. And thus, in praying that 
 God's kingdom of power may come, we ask that all 
 angels, men, and creatures, may submit to his command ; 
 and that His enemies, whether men or devils, may be 
 brought to confusion and crushed with His rod of 
 iron : that Satan's power be destroyed, sin weakened, 
 and offences rooted out. 
 
 2. There is also a kingdom of Grace, which our 
 Saviour tells us is within us. The Spirit of God it is 
 who is Regent here. Christ's ministers are ambassa- 
 dors — the Gospel the laws — the Sacraments the seals — 
 the discipHne of the Church the rod ; all tending to 
 the extirpation of sin and the establishment of right- 
 eousness, " the sceptre of the Lord" being, in the 
 language of the Psalmist, a " right sceptre ;" and in 
 order to this kingdom we pray, first, that the Spirit of 
 God may reign in our hearts, and there exercise abso- 
 lute dominion, casting down every high thought, ruling 
 in the understanding by faith, in the will by charity, in 
 the passions by mortification, in the whole body by obe- 
 dience ; secondly, that there may be in us a ready sub- 
 mission to His ambassadors. His laws, His discipline, 
 and a right use of His Holy Sacraments ; and thirdly, 
 that the peace, truth, and glory of the Gospel may be pub- 
 lished and preached throughout the whole world, making 
 
 * See Bishop Nicholson, in loc.
 
 21 
 
 each day more rapid and advancing strides, extending 
 itself where, as yet, it is not, and commanding obe- 
 dience where its sway is manifested. 
 
 There yet remains a third aspect under which the 
 Divine kingdom may be viewed — a kingdom, that is, 
 of glory ; in which, at the second Advent of Messiah, 
 the subjects of grace shall receive the glory prepared for 
 them ; and to the accomplishment of this kingdom, it 
 is necessary that His kingdom of grace, abounding as 
 it does in sin and infirmity, should be translated into 
 a more glorious image ; that the number of the elect 
 being accomplished, the final dissolution of all things 
 may come, that we may obtain fall salvation and redemp- 
 tion, and enjoy the glory prepared for us ; and that the 
 Omnipotent would manifest to the world His great 
 glory, by the final doom and destruction of all His 
 enemies. 
 
 Such then, brethren, are the various objects contem- 
 plated in that deeply pregnant sentence, " Thy kingdom 
 come !" and may He who is chief Minister in that de- 
 partment of the Divine dynasty, with which we are 
 most closely concerned, be with us, as I endeavour to 
 point out the earnestness of action and the devotedness 
 of purpose to which we are committed by the fact that 
 we pray to our Father in Heaven that His kingdom 
 may come. 
 
 It is only indirectly that we are concerned in the first 
 and third of those particulars in which it appears that 
 the kingdom of God consists ; but in the second men- 
 tioned we are most deeply involved. The Omnipotent 
 exercises His power over us, and manifests His glory 
 before us ; but His grace He displays in and tl trough 
 us ! We are concerned as subjects in His kingdom of 
 power, and as aspiring expectants in His kingdom of 
 glory ; but in His kingdom of grace, we are employed 
 as agents, even while we are acted upon as recipients. 
 In our acknowledged inability to think a good thought, 
 say a good word, or work a good deed in our own 
 strength, we witness to God's power; in our humble 
 striving after another and more perfect state, in our
 
 22 
 
 cravings for a satisfaction which earth cannot yield, and 
 a happiness which the creature cannot afford, we bear 
 testimony that there is a glory which shall be hereafter 
 revealed ; but we then, and then only, pay our homage 
 as subjects of the kingdom of grace, when we evince a 
 readiness to subjugate our individual will to the order- 
 ing of the Church, resigning ourselves to her directions, 
 and resolving that, in so far as God shall give us strength, 
 we will suffer no plan of hers to fail which could suc- 
 ceed through our cooperation. 
 
 It thus appears, that we are committed to active 
 exertion by the fact, that we ask of God that His 
 Kingdom should come, inasmuch as His Kingdom can- 
 not effectually come unless mankind readily own its 
 sway, and to the acknowledgment of His authority 
 they are not prompted by the impulse of their proper 
 nature; and even in the case of the regenerate there 
 are many circumstances which call for the active 
 sympathy of their fellows. In order that Christ's 
 Kingdom may come, and as a dispensation of grace 
 reign amongst us, our own holiness and the subjugation 
 of the wayward wills of others is necessary. When, 
 therefore, we pray " Thy kingdom come," we pray 
 that ourselves may be holy, and we pray also that we 
 may be instrumental in winning others to acknowledge 
 the power of the Saviour's sceptre. Your individual 
 holiness is the object to which our every day teaching 
 is directed, and our chief concern is, that in all things 
 you may be found to be witnesses for the truth, and 
 bearing testimony of your desire that ye may be saved ; 
 and, therefore, at this season of Epiphany, when we 
 offer our thankful adoration for the manifestation to 
 the Gentiles of Him who was " born King of the Jews," 
 I need none apology for seeking to interest you in the 
 behalf of those who need your cooperation in order to 
 their being permitted to see the daAvning of that day 
 in whose meridian splendour it is your happy privilege 
 to be allowed to bask. 
 
 I sought on Sunday last to show you that whimsical 
 beneficence is not necessarily true Christian Charity ;
 
 23 
 
 and that he only discharges his full duty as a member 
 of that Body in which we are all one in Christ, who 
 makes self-denying gifts in and through the Church — and 
 the principle which I then sought to enforce is embodied 
 in this day's Epistle, " He that giveth, let him do it with 
 simplicity ;" and in conformity with the intimation I 
 then gave, I come now to enforce upon you the duty 
 of multiplying Clergy at home and abroad, in order 
 that we may hasten, as far as may be, the accomplish- 
 ment of the Prayer of our text, " Thy kingdom come!" 
 
 "We cannot olfer this prayer without feeling the force 
 of our blessed Lord's declaration as recorded in Wed- 
 nesday Morning's* second lesson ; The harvest truly is 
 plenteous, together with its drawback, but the labourers 
 are few — and its counsel, "Pray ye therefore the Lord 
 of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into 
 His harvest." 
 
 The harvest truly is plenteous ; whether we look at 
 home or abroad, the fact is so. At home there are 
 thousands who have none of the Church's care, and 
 abroad it is the same, even in a tenfold degree. 
 
 It is impossible to shut our eyes to the fact, that the 
 language of the prophet is applicable to ourselves, and 
 thai we have tenfold reason to take up the language of 
 our predecessors in God's heritage and ask " What 
 nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto 
 them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call 
 upon Him for ? " And is this gracious nearness of the 
 Most High a subject of idle boasting? Should we not the 
 rather be thereby aroused to a sense of our momentous 
 responsibilities? — ought we not to learn thence to re- 
 member, that to whom much is given of them much 
 will be required — and that if we have abundant access 
 unto God in prayer, we should use our privileges as the 
 Lord's remembrancers, and never hold our peace day 
 nor night, but cry and cease not, and give Him no rest 
 till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in 
 the earth, till the righteousness thereof go forth as 
 brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that 
 * January 11.
 
 24 
 
 burnetii, and the Gentiles see lier righteousness and 
 all things her glory, until, in the language of the 
 Psalmist, " All nations whom the Lord has made shall 
 come and worship Him and shall glorify His Name ?" 
 Christ died to ransom all mankind — He has paid 
 the penalty which Adam incurred. The offer of His 
 purchased salvation is without money and without price. 
 The marts of this spiritual merchandize are within 
 our individual reach. What, then, shall be said for us, 
 if we are niggard in extending to others the benefits 
 we so richly enjoy, Avhether those who are destitute of 
 it are at home or abroad ? AYe have been taught the 
 doctrine of Christ crucified ; we have learnt to see in 
 the precious Blood which purpled the heights of Cal- 
 vary, the cleansing from all sin of a world sunk in 
 apostasy ; and we know that Christ is no Saviour for 
 us, unless we crucify the flesh with the affections and 
 lusts thereof ; and can we see how Christ loved us, and 
 not love the brethren for whom He died ? Shall other 
 hands have planted the stakes of our Zion, and cur- 
 tained them with the ordinances through which a Gra- 
 cious Comforter animates and influences the heirs of 
 glory ; and shall a Saviour's Providence and a mother's 
 care have admitted us in infancy into that rich inherit- 
 ance, and we stand idly by and do nothing to lengthen 
 the cords which mark the boundaries of our home ? 
 Shall we bear in our foreheads the mark of the Saviour's 
 dying, and remember that the cross was signed upon 
 our brows as the symbol of warfare, — that it was given 
 us as a soldier's badge, and that we are thereby pledged 
 to the conquest of sin, the world, and the devil, — and yet 
 do nothing to reclaim a portion of the evil one's terri- 
 tory, whereon to enlarge the place of our tent ? Let 
 it not be so said of us. Nay, brethren, let us but re- 
 member that we should not be Christian but for Mis- 
 sionary zeal in others, and then, surely, we cannot 
 omit to show it ourselves towards those who as yet lie 
 in the wastes of sin. A desire to extend the knowledge 
 of Christ and His Gospel to those who have it not, is 
 the very being of the Church. The Apostles' hearts
 
 25 
 
 burned with this desire, and the light by which they 
 were enkindled, was an emanation of that Divine Love 
 which prompted the eternal Son of God to leave the 
 Bosom of His Father and the glories of His throne, 
 to labour among man for his conversion. But the holy 
 fervour was not confined to the Apostles : as Christ 
 infused it into His first heralds, by sending them as His 
 Father had sent Him ; so they in turn inspired their 
 successors with a like burning zeal, by sending these as 
 He had sent them. And thus it was that the Apostles 
 and first Bishops of the Church went far and wide, 
 planting the standard of the Cross, and encircling it 
 Avith the cords of the Christian Church ; and in the 
 earnestness of its first heralds, may be found some clue 
 to the wonderful success which attended the delivery of 
 their message. These early servants of the Crucified 
 went far and wide, preaching Christ's Gospel to the 
 end of the world ; and how successfully, let Eusebius, 
 the trustworthy historian of the first three centuries, 
 inform us. Thus then, says he, " under celestial influ- 
 ence and co-operation, the doctrine of the Saviour, like 
 rays of the sun, quickly irradiated the whole world." 
 They sent forth the Church in its plenitude — not a priest 
 here and a deacon there, but the whole Church in its 
 Divine fulness. The flock was not left without an 
 overseer. There were early appointed Bishops to ordain 
 elders in every city, and to set in order the things that 
 were wanting. The Apostles journeyed confirming the 
 Churches, and themselves carried the heavenly message 
 far and wide. Again, to quote the language of Eusebius : 
 " The holy apostles and disciples of our Saviour, being 
 scattered over the whole world, Thomas, according to 
 tradition, received Parthia as his allotted region ; 
 Andrew received Scythia, and John, Asia ; where, 
 after continuing for some time, he died at Ephesus. 
 Peter appears to have preached through Pontus, 
 Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, to the Jews 
 that were scattered abroad ; who also, finally coming to 
 Rome, was crucified with liis head downwards, having 
 requested, of himself, to suifer in this way. Why 
 
 B
 
 2Q 
 
 should we speak of Paul spreading the gospel of Christ 
 from Jerusalem to 111 jricum, and, finally, suffering mar- 
 tyrdom at Rome, under Nero ?" 
 
 And for the labours of this last-mentioned apostle, ive 
 have still more reason to be grateful ; for there is much 
 reason to think that our OAvn shores bore the impress of 
 his foot — our own rocks echoed back liis message. " That 
 he did go to Britain," says the late excellent Bishop of 
 Salisbury, Dr. Burgess, " we may collect from the 
 testimony of Clemens Romanus, Theodoret, and Jerome, 
 who relate, that, after his imprisonment, he preached the 
 gospel in the western parts ; that he brought salvation 
 to the islands that lie in the ocean, and that, in preach- 
 ing the gospel, he went to the utmost bounds of the 
 west. "What was meant by the west, and the islands 
 that lie in the ocean, we may judge from Plutarch, 
 Eusebius, and Nicephorus, who call the British ocean 
 the Western ; and again, from Nicephorus, who says 
 that one of the Apostles went to the extreme countries 
 of the ocean, and to the British isles ; but especially 
 from the words of Catullus, who calls Britain the 
 utmost island of the west ; and from Theodoret, who 
 describes the Britons as inhabiting the utmost parts of 
 the west. When Clement, therefore, says that St. Paul 
 went to the utmost bounds of the west, we do not con- 
 jecture, but ai'e sure that he meant Britain, not only 
 because Britain was so designated, but because St. Paul 
 could not have gone to the utmost bounds of the west 
 without ffoino; to Britain." But even if this reasoninoj 
 should seem inconclusive to any, this much is certain, 
 that Christianity was planted here, if not by an apostle, 
 yet by apostolic men ; and that it was to missionary 
 zeal that our forefathers were indebted for their know- 
 ledge of the gospel. And then, when the mists of 
 pagan darkness had overclouded the light which beams 
 from the Mercy-seat, once more we were indebted to 
 missionary zeal, when Gregory sent Augustin to our 
 shores. Ours was not the land Avhere Jesus lived and 
 died. It was in the east that the spiritual Sun arose, 
 and we form a portion of the west, and yet our gloom
 
 27 
 
 has been penetrated by His radiance. Are we not, then, 
 bound by every tie of gratitude, as well as impelled by 
 every motive of duty, to put forth substantial exertions, 
 showing our earnest wish and our sincerity in praying 
 that Christ's kingdom may come ? 
 
 We are incited by thankfulness, no less than called 
 by love, to promote, by every means lawfully in our 
 power, the extension of the Redeemer's rule among men. 
 It has been well said, that " The Gospel is God's gift in 
 trust for the salvation and conversion of lost man" — 
 and that " The Church is His Trustee."* In early 
 days she was most true and faithful to her high trust ; 
 but, as time has rolled on, the stream, which should 
 have gathered strength in its onward current, has been 
 intercepted here, and pent up there ; and now once 
 more it seems to be gathering its strength, and pre- 
 paring, as we hope, to turn with efficiency the vast 
 wheel to which is affixed the eternal happiness of mil- 
 lions. Follow the Apostles from the day of Pentecost, 
 and read in their unwearied labours to spread the 
 Gospel through the world, how they interpreted the 
 language of their high commission from their Lord 
 and Master. Read in the converts which they made, 
 in the churches which they planted, in the exulting 
 exclamation of St. Paul, " Now, thanks be to God 
 which causeth us to triumph, and maketh manifest the 
 savour of His knowledge by us in every place ; " how 
 readily, under every trial and against every obstacle, 
 the promise of the Saviour was fulfilled. And re- 
 member the trust ceased not with the apostolic age, 
 neither, God be praised, did its exercise. It has not 
 yet ceased — it will never cease until, from the rising of 
 the sun even unto the going down of the same, God's 
 name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place 
 incense is offered unto Him and a pure offering. It 
 shall not cease — for Christ, who is God, hath said it — 
 even unto the end of the world." Run down, from its 
 first days, the track of sacred story — " Where are the 
 
 • Bishop Doane. 
 b2
 
 28 
 
 green spots found which cheer the eye and fill the heart 
 with gladness ? " Are they not those in which the 
 word of God had free course and was glorified, in 
 which the olfice of an Ajoostle was discharged most 
 fully, in its first, and literal acceptation, as a Missionary 
 Bishop, in which the everlasting Gospel was preached 
 with the greatest faithfulness, and men were taught to 
 observe all things whatsoever Christ had commanded? 
 " Turn to a bright and burning page in all the scroll 
 which bears incribed the history of the Church, and 
 you shall read in it the record of the IMissionary's toils — 
 the Missionary's sufferings — the INlissionary's triumphs 
 — the glory which illumines it, the manifestation of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus — kindling the hearts of men 
 with love, and making their lives radiant with purity 
 and piety. Or again, spread out the map before you. 
 Scan with inquiring eye the pictured surface of its 
 mimic world. Which are the spots which fix attention 
 most, and fire the thought with fullest rapture? Not 
 the scenes where Alexander or the great first Caesar 
 strove to win the throne of universal empire — not the 
 traces of imperial grandeur, nor the trophies of trium- 
 phant art — but Bethlehem, where lay the manger- 
 cradled babe — Calvary, which tells of the fearful cost — 
 and Olivet, which proclaims the successful issue, of the 
 mission of the Son of God, and the cities where St. Paul 
 preached." Or, to come to later times, who in this part of 
 England can, in the recollection of Fuller's quaint sen- 
 tence, narrating the event, forget the stream which wafted 
 Wiclif's ashes to the sea ? Popish tyranny caused the 
 remains of this great man to be exhumed after they 
 had been buried upwards of forty yeai*s. What was 
 still there was burnt to ashes and cast into the Swift, a 
 neighbouring brook running hard by. Upon which 
 Fuller remarks, " Thus this brook has conveyed his 
 ashes into Avon — Avon into Severn — Severn into the 
 narrow seas — then into the main ocean, and thus the 
 ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doctrine, which 
 now is dispersed all the world over." 
 
 Need I say more to commend to your hearts and to
 
 29 
 
 your consciences the sacred duty of missionary exertion 
 — the sacred privilege of carrying the Gospel to distant 
 lands ? And oh! where is our Christian sympathy, 
 where our national patriotism, if, throughout the vast 
 masses of our home population, and the wide range of 
 our colonial dependencies, we are suffering those who 
 should be the effective pioneers of civilisation and of 
 the Church, to languish in sorrow for the want of spiri- 
 tual light and spiritual consolation? 
 
 Is there in all this congregation a single heart which 
 does not glow with zeal, that everywhere, at home and 
 abroad, the Gospel may be possessed in the purity in 
 which we now enjoy it? I will not believe so meanly 
 of any one here. I forbear to point to all the scenes 
 which invite your sympathy, on the ground of your 
 moral obligation, or I might point you at home to the 
 district in which I passed my diaconate, and the first 
 year of my priesthood ; a district containing forty thou- 
 sand souls, and, until lately, but one church. In that 
 district, until the Additional Curates' Fund supplied 
 the stipend by which I was paid, there was but one 
 clergyman to tend these thousands ; and a cursory 
 attention to the Report of the invaluable Society just 
 named, will show that instances hardly less urgent 
 abound. Abroad I might carry you to the Canadas, 
 where a worldly blessing has attended spiritual culture, 
 and loyalty been proved to be the true first-born of 
 piety. I might bid you look at our West Indian 
 possessions, and see the need there is for the sober 
 devotion of the Church to dispel heathen gloom, and 
 chasten sectarian fanatacism. I might point to India, 
 with her millions of heathen, owning allegiance to the 
 British crown. From the face of Australian desti- 
 tution I dare not draw the veil — the sight is sad, and 
 saddening. In New Zealand despair is indeed for- 
 bidden in the recollection of the self-devotion of its 
 noble Bishop ; and yet how vast is the plague-spot 
 which it will be his to disinherit! North, south, east, 
 and west, the cry is, " Come over, and help us ;" and 
 shall it be that Christian England, with her vast re-
 
 30 
 
 sources, and her abundant light, shall turn to such a 
 cry an ear of inattention ? Forbid it, English honour ! 
 — forbid it. Christian sympathy ! Our brethren in the 
 faith have cast their lines in places pleasant to the eye 
 of sense, but presenting no shelter from the dry and 
 scorching blasts of sin, and their cry is. Stretch forth 
 the curtains of thine habitation ; they ask us to 
 strengthen the stakes whereunto our tent is made fast. 
 We are daily holding intercourse with the heathen, 
 and their invitation is, " Enlarge the place of thy tent, 
 and spare not ; lengthen thy cords." And shall ttc — 
 can we resist the appeal ? 
 
 And now ask you for channels through which you 
 may make your gifts, in fulfilment of your missionary 
 duty, alike at home and abroad ? Churchmen will find 
 two valual)le handmaids of the Church ready and de- 
 sirous to do her bidding in this particular — Societies 
 which are as much the officiid organs of the Church, as, 
 ill the absence of credentials from Convocation, any 
 can be. For home purposes, we have the Society for 
 Promoting the Employment of Additional Curates in 
 Populous Places, — while, in our colonies and heathen 
 dependencies, the Church is aided by the Venerable 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts. These Societies are both composed entirely of 
 churchmen, propose to themselves Church objects to 
 be carried out on the principles of the Church, and are 
 under the ex-officio government of the two Archbishops 
 and all the Bishops in both provinces. 
 
 Of the Additional Curates' Society, I may say that it 
 is, in the strictest sense, a machinery for disbursing, 
 through the Bishops and Incumbents of the several 
 dioceses, the funds placed at its disposal. This Society 
 does not, in the person of a Committee of Presbyters, 
 usurp the functions of the Episcopate — inquiring into 
 the peculiar shade of the opinions held by those whom 
 it enables Rectors and other Incumbents to employ. 
 These are matters it leaves to the Rector and the 
 Bishop. This Society seeks no tests from those who 
 give, save that they are churchmen, seeking a blessing
 
 31 
 
 through the Church's means ; and it confers no pay, ' 
 save on those who possess the Church's seal, that they 
 are her servants ; for it furnishes stipends only for 
 those whom Incumbents nominate and Diocesans license 
 — neither does it evade the spirit of this rule, by exer- 
 cising a quasi-episcopal scrutiny previously to the 
 nomination being made to the lawiid authority. In 
 this Society the whole appointment rests, where the 
 laws of the Church and of the land place it, namely, 
 in the Incumbent and the Bishop, and the Society 
 merely furnishes the former with a stipend for his 
 assistant, which becomes payable through the Incum- 
 bent, when the license of the Bishop is duly granted to 
 the Curate. 
 
 " Three hundred and sixty-three Incumbents have 
 already applied for aid through their respective Dioce- 
 sans ; and of these, one hundred and. seven are now 
 enabled, by the help of the Society's annual grants, to 
 establish additional Services, and to obtain additional 
 Curates in their several parishes and districts, com- 
 prising an aggregate population of more than a million 
 and three quarters. In addition to which a sum, re- 
 maining in the Society's hands, in consequence of 
 grants not becoming payable, has been apportioned to 
 twenty-jive Parishes, in the shape of annual assistance 
 to each for periods varying from one year to four years, 
 when that sum will be exhausted. 
 
 " The Society's actual income is appropriated ; and 
 for the means of extending relief to many and most 
 urgent claims that press upon it, more in number, and, 
 in many cases, equal in importance with the most 
 pressing of those which have been relieved, the Com- 
 mittee look with confidence to a growing conviction in 
 the public mind of the paramount importance of the 
 object for which the Society is formed, — to the con- 
 tinued exertions of the Clergy to make that object 
 more generally known in their respective neighbour- 
 hoods, — and to the increasing manifestation on the 
 part of the Laity of a readiness to imitate the piety 
 and wisdom of their forefathers, to which the country
 
 32 
 
 owes the foundation and endowment of so many of its 
 churches. 
 
 " The Society has also, with reference to the Seventh 
 Rule agreed to at its formation, begun to make Grants 
 in aid of Endowment, and has already contributed as- 
 sistance to Sixteen Parishes." 
 
 Of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel in Foreign Parts, it would be unnecessary to 
 add a single word beyond a simple commendation of 
 its Christ-like designs to jour prayers and your alms, 
 were it not that, at a meeting of the Parochial Branch 
 of this Society, held in this town, towards the close of 
 the last year, statements were made by the Rev. Secre- 
 tary who formed the deputation, which have been 
 generally received as avowing, on the part of the 
 Society, a studious desire to exclude from its service a 
 large and devoted body of the Clergy of the Church. 
 Of the intention to call this meeting I had no intima- 
 tion whatever, although, as a member of the Committee, 
 I presume I had a right to be a party to any correspond- 
 ence with the Parent Society which the local Secretary 
 was empowered to conduct on the subject ; nor, indeed, 
 when the meeting was arranged and called, had I any 
 official notification of the fact ; nor was I cognizant of 
 its public announcement, until my plans had been fully 
 formed for leaving home for a few weeks. Conse- 
 quently I was not present at the meeting, and could 
 only learn from others what had taken place. When, 
 on my return, I found the general impression, alike 
 among those who rejoiced in and those who mourned at, 
 the fact, to be, that the Society, comprising her former 
 character for impartiality, had recognised the existence 
 of parties within the Church, and condescended to legis- 
 late with reference to their conflicting interests, I 
 felt it my duty, before renewing my exertions in be- 
 half of the Society among my own flock, to ascertain 
 whether the inference generally drawn from the Rev. 
 Mr. Campbell's speech was the correct one, and desired 
 an answer to the following question, namely, — " Wlie- 
 ther it w^as true that the Society took * double and
 
 33 
 
 anxious pains' to exclude all persons holding, what are 
 vulgarly called, Oxford opinions from their service ?" 
 To this question I received from the Rev. Secretary 
 himself the most decided negative.* 
 
 And I am now most thoroughly convinced that the 
 Society occupies her old position, that she has in no 
 7vise come down from her high vantage ground of re- 
 fusing to recognise jm^^ties within the Church ; hut that 
 she was just what she ever was, the zealous and faith- 
 ful handmaid of the whole Church, acknowledging no 
 standar'ds of scriptural interpretation hut the ac- 
 credited formularies of the Church, and refusing to 
 interpose an inquisitorial Co7nmiftee between the 
 Sishops and those who are, under the Bishops, their 
 authorized agents. Let it then he yours, brethren, to 
 put forth renewed efforts in hehalf of this Society, 
 seeing that she still continues to act upon those hroad, 
 comprehensive, yet distinctive principles of the Church, 
 
 * In the Sermon itself, I read the exact passage from the letter 
 which bore upon this point. I do not print either the entire letter 
 or that passage, although I am empowered to show it to whomso- 
 ever I please, because it was never intended for the press. But I 
 may take this opportunity of stating, that neither of the papers 
 whose reporters, without communicating with me, attended to 
 take notes of my Sermon, have given the extract quite correctly. 
 One paper endeavours to represent Mr. C. as having said that the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel took pains to choose 
 " Tractarians," whereas his statement does neither more nor less 
 than purge the Society of the charge of party bias, either towards 
 the one or the other of the sections into which the arch enemy of 
 souls and of all truth is seeking to lure those to divide themselves, 
 for whom the Saviour's earnest prayer, was that they should be 
 one, as He and the Father are One. And as some persons have 
 wondered why I read only a part and not the whole of Mr. 
 Campbell's letter, 1 can only say that it was because I did not 
 choose to express in the pulpit that indignation which I felt, at 
 one Clergyman asking, nor the surprise it caused me that another 
 should answer, such a question as was therein related to have been 
 put. While to those who think that none of the letter should 
 have been read in the pulpit, but only its substance stated, I would 
 suggest, that the peculiarity of my position here, and the extra- 
 ordinary use that had been made of Mr. Campbell's original state- 
 ment, appeared at the time to justify an exception to ordinary 
 rules. 
 
 B 3
 
 in her adherence to which, is our sole guarantee that 
 we do right to join her. 
 
 And now, brethren, I commend this Fund* to your 
 prayers and to your alms. The circular relating to it 
 has been addressed to you individually, and contains a 
 brief statement of the claims of Five Church Societies, 
 together with an intimation of my readiness to receive 
 any alms you might wish to bestow for the furtherance 
 of the objects therein set forth. This circular was 
 under consideration for some months before it was first 
 issued, and every care has been taken to render it 
 correct in matter and inoffensive in manner. It is put 
 out at the present time, not so much with a view of 
 the money being immediately collected, as that in 
 making their plans for the present year, none of those 
 committed to my charge might be unaware of some of 
 the more ur2:ent claims which the Church of England 
 now makes upon her members. A reference to the 
 circular will show that large gifts were not so much 
 the object, as that, as a congregation, we should one 
 and all, rich and poor alike, be doing something 
 unitedly for the cause of the Gospel. 
 
 Let nothing be done of constraint ; God loveth a 
 cheerful giver, but let us not offer to the Lord our 
 God that which doth cost us nothing ; nay, can we 
 day by day ask the Lord God " Thy kingdom come,'* 
 and yet put forth no effort —practise no self-denial, to 
 hasten, as far as we may be permitted to do it, the ac- 
 complishment of our wish? Let us, in our every thought 
 and every action, prove that we do not wish to mock 
 God when we say, " Thy kingdom come." 
 
 * I cannot forbear, in this place, tendering my thanks to my friend 
 the Reverend R. Parkinson, b.d., Canon of Manchester, for the ex- 
 cellent Sermon on this subject he preached in St. John's last year, 
 and which at my request he printed, under the title of " The Church 
 of England, and Five of her Societies ;" London: Rivingtons and 
 Burns. Manchester : Sowler ; price 6rf.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 " Whimsical Beneficence" — See Sermon II. page 22. 
 
 Exception has been taken, I am informed, to this expres- 
 sion ; and tliere have been those wlio have hence inferred a 
 desire, on my part, to stipulate that all gifts of a charitable 
 kind should pass through my hands. That this could not be 
 my meaning, is very clear from page 13 of the former Sermon ; 
 and that 1 did not even wish to represent as essential the 
 circumscribing the channels in which even gifts for purposes 
 directly connected with the increased spiritual efficiency of the 
 Church might be made, a reference to page 12 of the same 
 Sermon will ^how. What I did mean, when I said that whim- 
 sical beneficence is not necessarily true christian charity, will 
 be understood by those who know what it is to be imposed 
 upon by a specious plea of temporal or spiritual necessity, 
 which they had not the time or patience, at the moment, tho- 
 roughly to investigate, and to which they contribute to get rid 
 of importunity. 
 
 The following passages, from a valuable Visitation Sermon 
 on "Almsgiving, or the duties of the Rich," by the Rev. 
 FoUiott Baugh, are too appropriate to be omitted in this 
 place. 
 
 " But, however this may be, there is one point of which we 
 aie all beginning to feel the deep importance. We are re- 
 cognising now, let us hope not yet too late, the wisdom as 
 well as the piety of our Cluirch, in bidding us offer up our 
 alms to God, and humbly dedicate them on his altar. This 
 is the best method of restoring to our people's minds a sense 
 of the sacredness of the duty, and of the blessing which we 
 may expect from it. Let us teach them to look upon the 
 OFFERTORY, uot as a formal ceremony, a mere mockery of alms- 
 giving, but as the appointed channel through which we may 
 all, according to our means, administer effectual aid to the
 
 36 
 
 necessities of Christ's poor, and to the usefulness of liis 
 Church, and as one chief means by which we may ourselves 
 'lay hold on eternal life.' 
 
 " Even 'in the outward face of things there is much that 
 should encourage us. Never, (it is not as a proud boast 
 I say it,) never did the Clergy possess a stronger hold on the 
 sympathy and respect of the upper and middle classes of this 
 country. I know, indeed, that our political importance adds 
 much to the respect in which we are held ; that even those 
 who are not themselves religious begin to appreciate the value 
 of a Church in unquiet times, and to own that it is the best 
 safeguard of property. But beyond such selfish views there 
 is hidden a deep well-spring of Clu-istian sentiment and prin- 
 ciple, which would respond more than our timorous faith will 
 venture to believe, to an earnest, systematic, consistent preach- 
 ing of the great gospel duty of self-denying charity ; but 
 though bidden by a mightier than we, our hesitating hand 
 dares not strike the rock, and therefore the water flows not. 
 Let us have courage to make the effort; let us invite them by 
 our Redeemer's gracious words, to such a measure of self- 
 sacrifice as shall win His praise, and lay up for them a treasure 
 in heaven. Let us remind them that the essence of charity- 
 is self-denial ; that our almsgiving, unprofitable as all our 
 service, yet as a duty, is an earnest and a solemn service ; 
 that our alms must not be lightly scattered as chance or good- 
 nature prompts us, or be given as a matter of form or fashion, 
 subscribed in some uniform sum to certain stated societies, 
 because the world expects it of us, that if we view ovu* sub- 
 stance in the light in which Gon views it, held in trust as by 
 His stewards, we shall deliberately set apart out of our income, 
 a fixed sum, a tenth, as it may be, or a fifth, as the portion of 
 the poor and of the Church, and thank God if His grace 
 enables us to do more than this, and give up some accustomed 
 luxury or pleasure, to be repaid us, good measure, and run- 
 ning over, bv Him tc whom we lend it."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING IS THE CIRCULAR REFERRED TO IN THE 
 DEDICATORY ADDRESS AND IN THE SERMON. 
 
 FUND IN AID OF FIVE CHURCH SOCIETIES, 
 ^tttr of tfje ^untfaj) antr IBailj) ^cjools 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, CHELTENHAM. 
 
 treasurer. 
 
 EDWARD FRAMPTON, Esq., County of Gloucester Bank, 
 
 Serretarieg. 
 
 Rev. ALEXANDER WATSON, M.A., 2 Priory-street, 
 Rev. FIELDING PALMER, M.A., r, Grosvenor-street. 
 
 Crollcctor. 
 
 Mr. W. B. HILL, 86, High-street. 
 
 The Reverend Alexander Watson, wishing to enable every 
 member of the congregation of St. John's Church to contribute 
 according to their means to the support of the new Schools 
 and of various Church purposes at liome and abroad, begs to 
 submit to you the accompanying plan for the formation of a 
 Fund in aid of the Schools and of five Church Societies therein 
 enumerated, in the hope that j'ou may be inclined to further 
 the objects contemplated in its organization, by becoming a 
 Subscriber or Donor to its resources. 
 
 It is obvious that in this age of Societies some selection 
 must be made from among the vast number which solicit our 
 co-operation. When a Clergyman ventures to suggest such a 
 selection to his flock, it is desirable that he should, as far as 
 possible, act on general principles in which all Churchmen are 
 agreed. Thus, it is admitted by all English Churchmen, that 
 it is lawful to join societies which, seeking to carry forward 
 the work of Christ's Gospel, are composed entirely of Church-
 
 38 
 
 men, and are under the superintendence, ex-ojficio, of the 
 Archbishops and all the Bishops of the two provinces of the 
 Church of Enghmd. Here is a broad, comprehensive, and 
 yet well-defined principle, concerning which there is no dif- 
 ference of opinion in the Church. 
 
 When, therefore, a Clergymen recommends only those So- 
 cieties to which this condition applies, (as is done in the present 
 case,) he is above the suspicion of party (except, indeed, the 
 partizanship of being a Churchman,) and may reasonably 
 expect the cooperation of his flock in assisting the funds of 
 these Societies, however much or however little their opinions 
 and his may agree concerning other associations, which some 
 Churchmen may individually approve and support. And it is 
 humbly suggested, that those who can only find it convenient 
 to spare a small sum annually, will at least be acting safely, 
 perhaps wisely, in supporting those operations which have the 
 united sanction, and the collective prayers, of the whole of 
 that particular Branch of the Church of which they are 
 members. 
 
 The claims of each of these five Societies are very urgent 
 at the present moment, and it is much to be regretted that 
 those three which in the accompanying list are placed first 
 (viz. the Additional Curates, the National Education, 
 and Church Building Societies,) do not receive that support 
 to which they are so much entitled, and for which the pressing 
 exigencies of the Church so loudly call. A heathen popula- 
 tion is growing upon us by thousands, in the veiy midst of 
 Christian England, and our manufacturing districts already 
 invite missionary exertions. If Christian bounty will but 
 multiply Clergy, Schools, and Churches,* in those neighbour- 
 hoods, the monsters of infidel creation will soon cease from the 
 land, and Christian obedience and cheerful patriotism again 
 make the English name a praise in the earth, inspiring awe 
 abroad, and peace and joy at home. 
 
 Should a mode of contribution more free from the observa- 
 tion of men, and more accordant with a strict interpretation 
 of St. Matt. vi. 1, 5, be preferred, your wish can be attained 
 by your making your gifts on any occasion when the Offer- 
 tory is collected at St. John'?, merely^ enclosing the gift in a 
 paper, specifying the object to which you wish it to be devoted. 
 And here it may be remarked that it is quite competent for 
 any Subscriber or Donor to limit his or her contribution to 
 certain definite objects, (instead of making it towards the 
 general designs,) contemplated by the several Societies. For 
 
 * This order has been observed as seemine to be most in harmony with the 
 manner in which the Gospel was first established in the world.
 
 39 
 
 example: the Societies numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, will enable indi- 
 viduals to benefit the particular neighbourhood in which they 
 were born, or from which they have derived their wealth or 
 other comfort, whether temporal or spiritual : while through 
 No. 5 they may aid the Colonial Bishoprics Fund, or any par- 
 ticular colony or dependeucy with which they are by any tie 
 connected. 
 
 In commending this Fund to your approbation and support, 
 a reference may be made to the following passages of God's 
 Holy Word:— 1 Cor. xvi. 2; St. Matt. v. 16; 2 Cor.ix. 6, 7; 
 Gal. vi. 10; 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18, 19; St. John x. 16; Isaiah 
 xxxii. 20, and as ^^ Freely ye have received, freely yive," know- 
 ing that " He that watereth shall be watered also 
 
 HIMSELF."
 
 OBJECTS OF THE FUND. 
 
 The support of the ^UUtrag and Sailg ^ci^OOlS for Educa- 
 ting the Children of the Poor who attend ^t. Jol^n'S CTI^urr^ : 
 
 And of the following five Societies, which, combined, 
 present in one view all the leading objects of Church x\ssocia- 
 tions; they are composed entirely of Churchmen, and are 
 under the superintendence, ex-officio, of the Archbishops, and 
 all the Bishops of the two Provinces of the Church of England; 
 they are supported by the Clergy, and approved by all, who, 
 recognising the Church as the Divinely appointed channel 
 through which heavenly blessings are conveyed to mankind, 
 think that the great purposes for which she was instituted 
 may be furthered by the agency of subordinate associations. 
 
 It is hoped that, through the instrumentality of this Fund, 
 a systematic and well defined direction may be given to 
 various irregular and unconnected operations of religious 
 charity, and still more that many ma}' now be induced to 
 contribute for the first time to the relief of the pressing wants 
 of the Church, on seeing the simplicity, harmony, and regu- 
 larity of the methods by which their gifts will be ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 If it is asked, why other Societies are not included within 
 the operation of this Fund, it may be a sufiicient answer to 
 the question to refer the inquirer to the preceding remarks ; 
 and, that the views therein maintained are not singular, may 
 he seen bv reference to the Charge delivered by the BISHOP 
 of LONDON to his Clergy at the Visitation in'October, 1838, 
 in which the following passage occurs, " I mention these 
 Societies more particularly as being framed in strict 
 accordance with the principles of our Ecclesiastical 
 Polity, and as being under the direct and effective 
 Superintendence of the Bishops of the Church." This 
 Bishop and others have since that period joined another 
 Missionary Society, but as the alterations in the rules of that 
 Society do not go the length of including all the Archbishops 
 and Bishops of the two Provinces as ex officio guardians of 
 its interests, it does not come within the terms of a Society 
 concerning the constitution, of which " there is no difference 
 of opinion in the Church," and is therefore omitted from the 
 following list :
 
 41 
 
 1. The Society for Promoting the Employment of Ad- 
 ditional Curates in Populous Places, instituted, a.d. 1836; 
 Patron, the Queen ; 
 
 which provides Rectors and other Incumbents with funds 
 for multiplying the number of those duly com- 
 missioned Clergy to whom our Lord has entrusted 
 the seeking of His *' sheep that are dispersed abroad, 
 and for His children, which are in the midst of this 
 naughty world, that they may be saved through 
 Christ for ever." 
 
 2. The National Society for the Education of the Poor 
 in the Principles of the Established Church throughout Eng- 
 land and Wales, established, a.d. 1811, incorporated, a.d. 
 1817; 
 
 which provides the Clergy with Schools and competent 
 Teachers, and so enables them to " feed the lambs" 
 of the fold, and to " train up " their People from 
 infancy " in the nurture and admonition of the 
 Lord." 
 
 3. The Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building, 
 and Repairing of Churches and Chapels, established, a.d. 
 1818, incorporated, a.d. 1828; Patron, the Queen: 
 
 which holds out inducement and cooperation to Clergy 
 and People to erect " temples of the Lord, habita- 
 tions for the mighty God" of Christians, which shall 
 be " Houses of Prayer for all People." 
 
 4. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in- 
 corporated, A.D. 1698; 
 
 which supplies Churches, Schools, Parish Libraries, and 
 the Poor, both at home and abroad, with Bibles, 
 Prayer Books, Testaments, Psalters, and Books and 
 Tracts of Instruction and Amusement, at prices 
 considerably below prime cost, making gratuitous 
 grants where necessary. 
 
 5. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
 Foreign Parts, incorporated by Royal Charter, a.d. 1701: 
 
 which provides the Bishops with funds to plant branches 
 of the Church of Christ in our Colonial and other 
 Dependencies, and among the distant heathen, having 
 taken for its guidance the rule laid down by our 
 Lord, in Luke xxiv. 47, " that repentance and 
 remission of sins should be preached in His name 
 among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem :" the 
 home of their labours, and the first Metropolitan 
 See.
 
 42 
 
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 43 
 
 All Subscriptions will be considered due on the First of 
 January in each year. And it is particularly hoped that those 
 who can afford to give more than One Guinea to the several 
 objects, will do so : it is as particularly wished that those who 
 can only give less, will not be deterred from giving at all, 
 because they are unable to reach this sum. Let the rich pro- 
 voke the less wealthy to give smaller sums, by themselves 
 giving largely : and the less wealthy incite the rich to do 
 nobly, by themselves doing what they can : there is no higher 
 praise in the Gospel than " She hath done what she 
 
 COULD ! " 
 
 Edward Frampton, Esq., County of Gloucester Bank, has 
 kindly consented to act as Treasurer to the Fund, by whom 
 Subscribers' Names, as well as Subscriptions and Donations, 
 will be received ; as also by the Reverend Alexander Wat- 
 son, M.A., 2, Priory-street; the Reverend Fielding Palmer, 
 M.x4l., 7, Exeter-place, Grosvenor-street ; or by Mr. W. B. Hill, 
 Agent for St. John's Church, 86, High-street. 
 
 *** Information connected with the operations of the various 
 Societies will be periodically communicated to the Subscribers.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 A REFERENCE to the preceding pages will show that, so 
 far from there being any desire to interfere with the Parochial 
 Branches by the formation of this Fund, what is obtained by 
 its means is paid through the Parochial Treasurers. In fact, 
 by forming this fund, I have only acted upon the assertion I 
 find in the Report of the Cheltenham District Committee, read 
 by the Reverend Secretary, at the meeting 19th Nov. 1840, 
 namely, *' Without the continued, nay, without the increasing 
 support of local congregations, the operations of the Parent 
 Society cannot be carried on upon that extended scale which 
 the urgency of the case demands." Not having parochial 
 charge, I could not form a District Fund, but I could and 
 have formed a Congregational Fund, — and with what success, 
 the Report of the current year will prove. 
 
 R.CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREbT HILL.
 
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