A vote of thanks to the two Chairmen, the Hon. A. F. Kinnaird and W. D. Wills, Esq., moved by E. SWAINE, Esq., and seconded by Rev. T. BINNEY, having been carried, the benediction was pronounced, and the proceedings terminated.

ADJOURNED MEETING.

The Adjourned Meeting was held in Finsbury Chapel, at six o'clock in the evening; D. W. WIRE, Esq., Alderman and Sheriff, took the chair.

The services were commenced by singing the 40th Hymn, Missionary Collection; and after prayer,

The CHAIRMAN rose and said: He was happy to have an opportunity of discharging a debt which, as a private Christian, he owed to the London Missionary Society. The Directors had looked through the churches and selected young men for this important sphere of labour, best adapted to sustain and carry out the object in view. The Missionaries now occupied in the field of labour deserved the sympathy of the churches of England. In the West Indies Missionary labour had prepared the negroes for the enjoyment of freedom. In Polynesia it had converted the barbarian islander into an enlightened, civilised man. In the East Indies it had effected most important and beneficial results. In China the Missionaries had acquired the language and prepared the way for the universal diffusion of the Scriptures throughout that great empire. In every portion of the Missionary field, light had been substituted for darkness; instead of moral degradation and impurity, there was morality and purity; where there had been barbarism there was civilisation; where there had been no respect for human life, it was now regarded; where there had been no liberty it was now enjoyed; Christianity had carried in its train all the blessings and advantages which were possessed at home.

and

The Rev. E. PROUT read a brief extract from the Report.

The Rev. L. H. BYRNES rose to move :"That this meeting, cherishing a deep and affectionate interest in the comprehensive operations of the London Missionary Society, rejoices in the assurance, that throughout the past year its faithful and laborious agents have zealously prosecuted their various efforts in the education of the young, the translation of the Holy Scriptures, and above all, in making known to the perishing heathen the way of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."

The three departments, he said, of Missionary operation referred to in the latter part of the resolution, fully justified the term used regarding them in the commencement of it-" comprehensive." He knew of no object so comprehensive as the Missionary

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cause. The spirit of missions was confined to no sect, to no particular part of the world. Christianity sought to save men lost in ignorance and steeped in crime. The very idea of Christian Missions was expansion, comprehension, and extension. Let the Gospel be carried to every part of Britain, but let it not stop there; it must be conveyed to the darkest regions of the earth. Mohammedanism, Brahminism, Secularism, alias Atheism, had no missions. Why? Those systems had no centre, no heart, no mainspring. The resolution referred to three departments of Missionary labour--education, the translation of the Scriptures, and the preaching of the Gospel. This Society had always encouraged education. Those who wished to keep the people in despotism, set aside education; those who wished to raise them, laboured to instruct them. translation of the Scriptures was the forging of the implements for the spiritual warfare in which they were engaged. The great object, however, which the Society had in view, was to preach the Gospel to the heathen; and there were thousands now in glory who had been saved through the instrumentality of their Missionaries. must, however, be remembered that souls. were not converted by mechanism; the descent of the Holy Spirit was required to effect it; and if they would possess that blessing in the churches, both at home and abroad, there must be united fervent prayer for its bestowment.

The

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The Rev. THEOPHILUS LESSEY, in seconding the Resolution, said that the principal subject to which it referred was success. Regard men in whatever respect they might, they were all bending their energies on improvement. Two classes of men were engaged the selfish and the liberal. The selfish were seeking to improve themselves and their own condition; those who were liberal were seeking to improve the condition of others. The latter were divisible into two classes-those who sought the temporal, and those who endeavoured to promote the religious welfare of their fellow creatures. Religious men sympathized with those who sought to mitigate earthly suffering; but there were thousands who would devote themselves to that work, while there were comparatively few who would aid purely religious objects. Let those who had no love for eternal things spend their time in giving temporal benefits; but let Christians, who fastened their thoughts on another world, spend their time in bringing men to a knowledge of the truth.

The Chairman being under the necessity of retiring, he was succeeded by Geo. Wilson, Esq.

The Rev. B. RICE (Missionary from Ban galore) rose to support the Resolution. It was now eighteen years since he had been privileged to attend the annual meeting of this Society. In the interim, he had travelled in various parts of India. He had taught in the houses of the natives, preached in their streets, and disputed in their temples and if he were asked, what was his present estimate of the Missionary work, he would reply deliberately and emphatically, that it was the greatest, the grandest, and the most glorious work in which it was possible for a human being to be engaged. India was the most extensive Missionary field hitherto occupied by the Christian church. It was divided into forty provinces, which might be called kingdoms, with a population speaking eighteen languages, and amounting altogether to 150 millions. After describing the lamentable condition of India viewed morally, he went on to urge the necessity of adopting increased measures for diffusing the Gospel there. At present, there was only one Missionary to labour among every 500,000 of the idolaters. But what had Christian Missions done for India. They had moved the Government to pursue a more enlightened policy than heretofore; they had changed the face of European society; translated the Bible, or portions of it, into eighteen or nineteen languages; raised up and were rapidly increasing a Christian literature; educated youth, both male and female, by which Hindooism was being undermined; established 300 native Christian churches, in connexion with which there were 18,000 members, and a body of professing Christians amounting to upwards of 100,000; produced conviction in the minds of many who, Nicodemus like, were afraid to profess their faith in Christ from the persecution to which it subjected them; loosened the power of the Brahminical priesthood extensively; done much to undermine the whole system of idolatry wherever they had long laboured. Had not Missionaries, then, done something for India? A more self-sacrificing body of men than those employed by the various religious

bodies in India, they would go far to seck. Let them, then, be effectively sustained. The Resolution was then put and agreed to.

The Rev. H. J. GAMBLE rose to move

"That this Meeting, regarding with peculiar solicitude the position and prospects of Christianity in Polynesia-that first field of the Society's labours, and of its brightest triumphs-is gratified to learn that the Directors have been enabled, by the liberality of their friends at Sydney, to send forth two additional Missionaries to labour for the salvation of the savage islanders, at whose hands the martyr Williams died. The Meeting also acknowledges with humble thankfulness, the special providence of God in the preser. vation of the Missionary ship in a moment of great danger, and the merciful deliverance both of the captain and the crew."

They would all agree that the Missionary cause was no longer characterized by novelty. Missions had gone through every ordeal to which it was possible to expose them, and the verdict, certainly not of every man, but of every thoughtful man, whether a Christian or not, was, that the Missionary enterprise Iwas one of the most important and most valuable in which the human mind ever engaged, or to which man's energies were ever directed. There was a spirit of inquiry universally abroad. It was seen in Italy, Turkey, and India, where systems hitherto prevalent were on the wane. When they considered the difficulties connected with the Missionary enterprise, they had abundant reason for gratitude to God for the men whom he had raised up to embark in it. All they wanted was more confidence in their principles and in God. In order to raise and elevate mankind, it was said, educate, by political economy, introduce ceremonial observances, and send out bishops with a splendid retinue. But nothing would satisfy the wants of man, and accomplish the objects in view, except the Gospel of Christ.

The Rev. WM. GILL (Missionary from Raratonga) seconded the resolution, which was then put and carried.

A vote of thanks to the two Chairmen having been moved and carried, the meeting closed by singing the Doxology and pronouncing the benediction.

"THE memory of the just is blessed.' It is a portion of the treasure by which the church is enriched and made fruitful. Holy Scripture is pervaded throughout with biography. Every type of human experience finds there its exemplar the Lord himself, the perfect model of our humanity, having, as in all things is due to Him, the pre-eminence." Thus wrote Thomas Stratten two years ago, when preparing a brief memoir of his friend, the late Rev. B. Kidd, of Scarborough; the words may form an appropriate prefix to the following sketch of his own life and character. So, while we trace the history and labours of those who have spoken to us the word of God, whose faith we follow, a hand which we see not, and think not of, is just ready to do the same service for ourselves;-the writer of memoirs is himself speedily memorialized. One after another-generation after generation-we pass away, not to extinction, but to the rest which remaineth for the people of God.

Mr. Stratten was born in 1793, at Bradford, Wilts. It was his privilege to enjoy the prayers, instructions, and consistent example of pious parents. It was their constant endeavour to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to encourage in their young minds a desire

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for usefulness to those around them. Amongst the earliest recollections of his boyhood was his helping them to teach a number of poor children to read, as they gathered together every Sabbath in his father's house. On leaving the parental roof he was apprenticed to a woollendraper at Bath, and there, amidst worldly companions, the impressions made by the instructions and example of his home seemed to be passing away as the early cloud and morning dew; he began to forsake the house of God, to disregard His day, and to yield himself to the sinful pleasures of the world. During a recent visit to Bath, he pointed out to the writer of these lines the hells where, with ungodly companions, he had spent the Sabbath in worldly pastime and dissipation. He ever spoke of this period as the time when he was on the brink of a precipice; his feet had well nigh slipped, but the good Shepherd beheld his wandering steps, and sought out and brought safely back into the fold the sheep which had gone astray. About this time he had gone home on a short visit. A new chapel was being opened in the village where his parents then resided, and it was there, whilst listening to a sermon from the lips of the late Rev. Richard Elliott, of Devizes, that the truth was brought home

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