culties which lie in the way of an Episcopal missionary are not those of priva tion and hardships. "No! Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor. "Our difficulties are, and I foresee will continue to be, in the blandishments of the station, and we have no right to complain that it is so: human aid, if given to our work, must be given in that shape, and I trust we shall be protected from the evil consequences which might follow, so long as we look on these things not as privileged indulgencies, but as one appointed mode of trial. I do not refuse to partake; and I trust I should not hesitate one moment, should the necessity arise, to forego them. In the mean time, the great anxiety is, that we may become useful to those with whom we are for a season joined in such closeness of intercourse. It is indeed a matter of vast anxiety, and I am full of care, lest on the one side I should be found wanting in faithfulness; or, on the other, should cause the good to be evil spoken of, through lack of discretion. From temper and habit I know myself to be too prone to the former; yet I may, and probably in some measure shall, fall into both. I feel daily more and more that this is the real trial of my new station, so to order the life and conversation that the light may shine before men, and lead them to glorify the Father. On what are called great occasions, as they may arise, I feel no very appalling apprehensions; the promise, As thy day, so shall thy strength be,' seems framed for especial application to them; but it is in the moments which make up the year, in the unrestrained communications of ordinary intercourse, that the evil danger lies, a danger which can be averted only by the grace of increasing watchfulness. May I indeed be thus enabled to set a watch on the door of my lips, having that honest conversation' among the children of this world, that however they may be disposed to speak against us, they may by the good works which they shall behold, glorify God. Our Sunday service was in many respects very pleasing. The quarter deck is converted into a very handsome and convenient church, capable of accommodating the whole of the ship's company, except the few who are necessarily engaged forward and aloft in tacking the sails. The bell tolled for a quarter of an hour, to give notice of service. The morning was bright and calm; and as the shrill note of the bell sounded afar, amidst the measured roll of the waves as they beat against the vessel's sides, it was one of those combinations which find their way to the heart, and stir up the inmost feelings. I have since endeavoured to put these feelings into verse. You will begin to think that the waters of the Atlantic Bounding along the obedient surges, never Thine hand shall grasp, thine eye shall see. It speaks of home, and all its pleasures, Of scenes where memory loves to dwell; And bids thee count thy heart's best trea sures Far, far away that Sabbath bell. We are obliged to pass over, for the present, the remaining incidents of his lordship's voyage, and the history of his brief, but important, episcopate in India. These may form an interesting subject for a future statement; but our present limits allowing only of a few more columns, we proceed to mention a few particulars which have reached us respecting his last hours. He returned home to Calcutta last spring, in a state of great exhaustion, from an extensive visitation of his vast ecclesiastical charge. We have before us a variety of communications from various parts of his diocese, which abundantly prove his Christian zeal, unwearied activity, his extraordinary wisdom, meekness, and conciliating spirit, and the affection and esteem in which he was held by all with whom he had intercourse. The missionaries in particular speak of him with peculiar reverence and regard, and state that they derived great comfort and instruction from his presence, and his judicious and scriptural counsels and directions. The records also of the religious societies at home with which he corresponded, as well as his private letters, con tain most valuable communications respecting the religious state of India; its necessities; its capabilities; the openings in Divine Providence for the extension of the Gospel; the duty and facilities for so doing; and not least the indispensable need of at least two new bishops for India to discharge a portion of that important work under which he felt himself rapidly sinking, without being able to discharge one half of its demands. We trust that his statements will be powerfully urged upon the proper authorities at home, and particularly in regard to the approaching renewal of the East-India Company's Charter. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge has held a special meeting on the subject-one of the most crowded as well as the most interesting meetings ever assembled within its walls -and has issued a series of appropriate resolutions, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has undertaken to present and advocate with his Majesty's Government. Mr. Poynder, we are glad to see, has also brought the subject before the Court of East-India Proprietors. The friends of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missiorary Society, and other religious institutions connected with the Church of England, are exerting themselves to bring the question, with its proper weight, before the legislative and executive authorities; and we trust that suitable petitions will flow in from all parts of the country, representing the magnitude and importance of the duty. It is not to be disguised, that the obstacles are considerable; chiefly, however, in regard to the expense; though a very few prejudiced individuals may perhaps oppose it, as they did the first erection of an ecclesiastical establishment for India, on general grounds of mistaken and unchristian policy. We have not space to go into the subject at present; but we shall not lose sight of it. No country has done so little in proportion to its ability for promoting religion in its colonies as England, more especially in the vast peninsula of India; where, as appears in a letter from Bishop Turner to the Archbishop of Canterbury, there is an ample sphere not only for new bishops, but for a large accession of clergymen, and an indispensable need of them, not only to break up new ground, but to keep from relapse that which is already partially under cultivation. The extreme inconvenience of having but one bishop for India and this, moreover, under a system which, on account of the delay, forbids sending for clergymen already acclimated-is shewn in the fact, that during the last twelve years the diocese has been without a bishop one half of the time; and scarcely has a bishop begun to know any thing of his charge, and to commence his plans, before his death has thrown all into confusion,and his successor, in vainly trying, after eighteen months, to take up the tangled web, has found the whole work to be gone over anew. Nor is India the only place where English bishops are wanted. Why not have a bishop for the Cape of Good Hope? why not another for Malta, who might occasionally visit those places in the surrounding countries, where considerable numbers of English Episcopalians reside, without the means of obtaining for their children the primitive right of Confirmation? The benefit of such appointments would be incalculable, particularly in regard to ordaining and superintending native missionaries; and the expense to the mother country needs not be great, as the senior chaplain might, if qualified, be appointed to the office, which would not require the same temporal rank and expenditure which attach to it at home and in India. We would respectfully submit the suggestion to our church societies, and especially to the Most Reverend and Right Reverend prelates who preside over the province of Canterbury and the see of London. But to return to the last hours of Bishop Turner: The following passages from a letter written from Calcutta, July 11, to one of his lordship's relatives in England, convey the chief facts which have hitherto reached us. "Ere this reaches you, you will I trust have received a letter I did myself the pleasure to write you on the 24th May last. In that, I informed you that our venerated Bishop had not returned to us in such good health as when he left this to visit the other presidencies: it did not strike us, however, that his illness was at all serious; and we fondly hoped, that rest and freedom from exposure would entirely restore him; but it has pleased our Heavenly Father to dispose otherwise, and it is now my sad and painful duty to let you know he is no more." "We sympathise most sincerely with you, for even we feel bereft: such a friend we can hardly hope to meet with again : his image is enshrined in our hearts, and his sayings imprinted on our memory so long as that shall last. May we have grace to abide by the benefit they were calculated to convey." "You will be anxious to know particulars: I shall therefore just observe, that the medical men advised his taking a voyage to Penang, which it was thought would restore him. This being part of his diocese, he the more readily assented to the measure, as duty was always his paramount object; and he had actually engaged for his voyage, when he became so suddenly and rapidly worse that even he himself relinquished all hope of recovery. He was not totally confined to his room until within three days of his death." "On Sunday, the 3d instant, Mr. [Archdeacon] Corrie administered the sa crament to him, and we partook with him; after which he spoke very comfortably to Mr. Corrie: but for your more accurate information, I will transcribe some memoranda Mr. Corrie wrote down as conversations transpired. "In the night of the 5th, being restless, the doctor asked him if he would like to see me (Mr. Corrie), and on his assenting I was called. On going to his bed-side he shook me kindly by the hand, and said he feared he interrupted me, expressed how happy he should be, could he speak to the natives in their own tongue, and referred to his Sirdar. On my proposing to speak to him, he said, "No, not now, he is fearfully untutored.' He spoke a good deal on subjects of religion connected with his own state; asked me to pray with him, and then said he would try to compose himself to rest. July 6th, about 4 P.M., on going into the Bishop's room, I observed that I feared he had had a trying day he with emphasis, said 'very.' On saying, that when he felt able to attend, if he would just express his wishes, I should be glad to wait upon him, he assented; and after some time observed, in broken sentences, his articulation being indistinct, That we do not arrange matters in religion sufficiently for ourselves with-more I could not understand. In order to keep up the train of thought, I remarked when he ceased, that our mercy consists in that the covenant is ordered in all things and sure; on which he said, 'To those who live orderly, there might be more of joy and peace in believing. I replied, In great bodily distress it seemed to me, there could be little beside a child-like reliance upon a Father's care and love.' He said he had an assured hope,' and added, that we wanted God to do some great thing for us that should prevent the necessity of humiliation and closing with Christ. After this I read a hymn, 'Jesus the way, the truth, the life,' &c.; he said, That one feeling is universal, pervades all [Christian] hearts.' In confirmation of this I read the hymn, This God is the God we adore.' After which I read some of the prayers out of the Visitation of the Sick, ending with the Lord's Prayer, and The grace of our Lord,' &c. to which he added a fervent 'Amen.' After a short pause he broke out in prayer, rendered more affecting by his pausing at the close of each sentence from the difficulty of respiration, O thou God of all grace, stablish, strengthen, settle us: have mercy upon all, that they may come to the knowledge of the truth: there is none other 6 name given under heaven among men, by which they can be saved; other foundation can no man lay.' On his ceasing I added, And this is a tried foundation, a sure foundation,' at which his feelings were much moved.' So far Mr. Corrie. He "From this time our dear and much lamented bishop never spoke more. expired the following morning about ten o'clock, seated in an arm chair with Mr. Corrie's hand supporting his head. The commendatory prayer was read shortly before the Spirit took its flight. "Throughout the whole of his illness the exhibition of Christian graces was most exemplary-entire submission to the Divine Will-increasing patience under intense sufferings-freedom from all earthly anxieties-calmness in viewing the valley he was to pass through-and full assurance of those glories that were shortly to open upon him. What have we not lost in such a guide, such a director! What has not India lost! Where shall an Elisha be found to take up the fallen mantle? But our loss is his unspeakable gain, and this will, I doubt not, operate to soothe the wound, which He who has inflicted it can alone bind up! The very best medical advice that could be had was obtained, besides the constant, assiduous attentions of a domestic physician, who had been appointed by Government to attend the Bishop on his visitation: this young man remained night and day with him for the last few days. The medical opinion respecting him was, that he died of disorders contracted in England, but excited into activity by the heat and fatigue to which he had been exposed during his journeyings on the late visitation." We have not space to add even a single paragraph descriptive of his lordship's character, or his peculiar qualifications for the Indian episcopate; or to notice his publications, which were chiefly, we believe, a work on the Sabbath and a few tracts, suggested by the circumstances of his parish of Wilmslow, in reference to infidelity, popular ignorance, and the discontents arising out of the extreme distress of the manufacturers, which he so well illustrated in his evidence before the house-of-commons emigration-committee in 1827, as noticed in the popular work on the results of machinery. The great question is, where will be found a suitable successor? May the hearts of our readers be directed in earnest prayer to the Lord of the harvest, that he would raise up and send out labourers into this his harvest. It occurs to us, that some of our readers might think this notice of Bishop Turner useful for circulation among their friends, with a view to invite attention to the need of more bishops for India: we have, therefore, directed our publisher to have some copies printed separately, which may be had of any bookseller, price 3d.; or a hundred for One Pound. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. (Continued from December Number). WE fear that SURRIENSIS has not been more succesful than his predecessors in unravelling the real difficulties of the question of Necessity and Predestination. He adopts after Bishop Copleston, in his treatise on that subject, the three "axioms" of Mr. Dawson; none of which are really axioms, and the first of which is not only not an axiom, but is not even fit to be a postulate, since it is actually untrue; and so palpably untrue that it could only have been by mere inadvertence that so correct and acute a logician as that powerfully-minded prelate placed it in the very front of his pages. The so-called axiom is, that, " If we make a false proposition and reason justly from it, a contradiction or absurdity will be contained in the conclusion." Now try this by an example: take for instance the false proposition, that men are angels; then reason justly from it: men are angels; angels ought to obey God; therefore men ought to obey God. There is neither contradiction nor absurdity in this conclusion, which follows justly from a false proposition, and would also have followed from a true one. The axiom goes to the extent of saying, that nothing that is really true was ever attempted to be proved by a false argument; whereas propositions innumerable, neither contradictory nor absurd, but irrefragably true, are attempted to be proved from false premises, as we constantly observe in sermons, books of controversy, debates in parliament, and daily conversation; so much so that we often hear it remarked, "I agree with you in your conclusion, but I cannot reach it by your line of argument." It would not follow that we should reject, as absurd or contradictory, whatever a Papist should attempt to prove by the infallibility of his church; since the same point might happen to be tenable on distinct grounds either of reason or Scripture. Twenty people might come to the same conclusion in a matter of politics who set out upon premises the most contrary. R. L. asks, “Is it, do you think, a good thing to have Arians in the Bible Society?" We reply, Is it a good thing to have drunkards? Or is it a good thing to have pretended prophets and miracle workers? This is not the real question: the real question is, Is it a good thing to have a test in the Bible Society?" If R. L. says Yes, then let him fix what the test ought to be. Will the rejection of Arians be sufficient to make a society Christian and spiritual? W. has mistaken the facts. It is not a fact that the meetings of the Bible Society, or its committee, would have commenced with oral prayer if it had not been for the Socinians; nor is it true that they would of necessity thus commence, if Socinians were ejected. There has never, we understand, been a Socinian in the committee; how then could the presence of Socinians be the cause? Are there no other causes? Are there no churchmen who would not approve of dissenting ministers praying in their presence? Have not the society of Friends their own peculiar views also? Would some men listen to an extempore prayer? Would others approve of a form? May not prayers be too Calvinistic for one, too Arminian for another? May not prayers take their colours from varying views of doctrine? Would W. approve of all Mr. Irving's prayers, or some part of the Sackville-street committee of W.'s? SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY (Abstract of Report). SUCH facts as these are the society's best voucher. May the blessing of the Most High continue to shine upon its labours. HIBERNIAN SOCIETY REPORT. The peculiar circumstances of Ireland at this moment render the facts in this Report peculiarly important; and the objects of the society more than ever demand the enlarged patronage of the friends of Scriptural education. PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILY SOCIETY (Report and Speeches). We regret to find that this truly family society, if we may so speak, is so inadequately supported by many members of the household, who are exerting themselves diligently for objects of general Christian benevolence. To every churchman, above all in days like these, the writings of our revered Reformers, especially our authorised church formularies, are of inestimable value; and the interesting facts and statements contained in the annexed speeches will, we trust, incline the hearts of many of our readers to support a society whose sole object is to promote the glory of God and the salvation of men by their diffusion. We thus close our appended documents for the year, and have much satisfaction in knowing that they have been of great service in promoting the cause of various societies, making them known in new channels, and keeping up a constant interest in their proceedings. The great multiplication of societies prevents our noticing them so often, or so much at length, as we could wish in our columns; but we have much pleasure in opening to them this channel of communication with the public. |