goodly band of Native Pastors and Catechists. This field, therefore, with the surrounding country, will be adequately preoccupied, while wide-spread deserts will remain without a solitary labourer. Such an intrusion stands strangely in contrast with the example of that great Missionary who testified-" Yea, so have I strived to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation; but, as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not heard shall understand."

If it be intended, by this episcopal and clerical appointment, to ignore the Missionary labours of our Brethren, and practically to deny the Scriptural character of their ministry, then, without attempting to vindicate themselves by argument, they may be content to appeal to the enlightened and Christianized thousands of Madagascar, and say: "Ye are our epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart."

The Directors will not fail respectfully but firmly to remonstrate against this measure of aggression; but, should remonstrance prove in vain, which they would deeply deplore, they will nevertheless most earnestly exhort their Missionary Brethren to "leave off contention before it is meddled with," to "follow the things which make for peace," and "by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left," to"make full proof of their ministry," and "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things."

The CHAIRMAN said,-Ladies and gentlemen, you, I suppose, like myself, camehere to be instructed and not to instruct; you came here to listen to the statements that will be made by learned and experienced persons, by missionaries, by men who have laboured in this vineyard, and who can tell you of things within their own knowledge. That was my feeling in coming; and had it not been for the latter part of the statement just read by the Rev. Dr. Tidman, I would not have uttered a word on the present occasion. But I must say, that after such a statement as that with which he concluded that address, it is absolutely necessary that the Chairman of the evening should make some observations, and more particularly if that Chairman happen to be a member, and, by the blessing of God, a very sincere member of the Church of England. I confess I have heard with sorrow ay, and with dismay, the fact which has been placed before you, that it is contemplated, that over and above the efforts which are to be made by the Church Missionary Society, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, there shall be a Bishop and a certain body of clergy-the Bishop springing from what I know not, and tending to what I know not-a Bishop and clergy sent into that island not to roam over those regions where the Gospel has never been preached, not to carry light and life to the heathen who are "sitting in darkness," but to go to the capital itself, and there to encumber, by an effulgence of glory, the light that the blessed Missionaries have already diffused. I must say, giving all credit as regards their intentions to the parties who have proposed such a schemeI knew nothing of it in detail till this morning-I must say, that of all the undertakings that ever entered into the mind of man, in the first place it seems to me the most unnecessary. It is unnecessary because that ground is already

preoccupied; because, as you have heard from Dr. Tidman, a population not exceeding 40,000 persons will have eleven stated, learned, pious, active Missionaries to carry on the teaching of the Word of God, already planted among them; not to begin the evangelization of that country, but to carry on the work of their predecessors, and under God's blessing to bring to completion the labours of half a century. What on earth can be required more? If more can be required, let it be supplied by those parties who have instituted the work, who have given full proof of their ministry, who are abounding in zeal, whose qualifications no one can doubt, and who are ready by every means in their power, by their existing resources, by their appeal to the public for more, to do whatever may be needed for the diffusion of God's Word in that most interesting portion of the world. This scheme is altogether unnecessary, and, being unnecessary, it is very perilous. It is perilous, I do maintain, that there should appear before the eyes of these weak and uninstructed natives a body of Christian men, all professedly belonging to the Protestant faith, but apparently antagonistic to one another, leading these men to doubt whether they really concur in those great principles which they profess, whether there be not some wide and broad difference, placing them in the difficulty of having to choose between the two; or that, instead of leaving the plain simple path to pursue which is now open to them, they will be exposed to doubt and delay, while discussing with each other which of the two parties they should join for the purposes of public worship. I believe that the issue of all this must be fatal to religion. It will check the progress of our excellent friends of the London Missionary Society, and I believe it will bring very great discredit on the Church of England for having thrust itself in there uncalled for and unneeded. I believe great dissension, great schism, great doubt, great ridicule, will ensue. And have you not upon the spot a body of astute, ready, active, zealous men who will turn to account every evil appearance, who will turn to account every slip in action or in word? Have you not there the Roman Catholics, "wise in their generation," who will only delight more than it is possible to express, in such an exhibition as there must constantly be before the eyes of the people of the capital of Madagascar, that here are two distinct bodies of Christians in perpetual collision one with another, professing to come from the same country, professing to hold the same faith, professing to have the same end, yet perpetually at the ears one with another? I believe nothing can be more perilous. And it is absolutely unnecessary. But I will also maintain that nothing can be more ungenerous. Why, take the history of Madagascar and the labours of the London Missionary Society, take the self-devotion of these men, take all that they have expended in money, in time, in energy, in health and in life. See how they have made the soil, as it were, their Not that they ought to have a monopoly if there were any deficiency, anything wanting; I am not asking for a monopoly; I am only asking that they should be left undisturbed until it shall have been seen that even to a hair's-breadth they are incapable for the work they have undertaken to perform. I call it ungenerous. I read the history of the Christian Church in Madagascar. Is there anything so full, is there anything so noble, is there anything more grand than the history of those confessors and those martyrs among that primitive, simple, and heathen people? And by whose instrumentality was that effected? Under the grace of God, and by His blessing upon their operations, it has been done exclusively by the London Missionary Society. To them be all the glory; to them be all the respon

own.

sibility which they desire; to them be consigned all the work of this most blessed and most fruitful vineyard. I cannot conceive anything more ungenerous than to step into that vineyard, to enter into other men's labours, not for the purpose of carrying them on when those men have become disqualified, but to set them aside, and, under the prestige and influence of their great name and their holy operations, to come and disturb them in the great work which God has so signally blessed. Then again, is not this in direct contravention of a report that has been made by the Bishop of Mauritius, at the request of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and of the Church Missionary Society, who invited that eminent and most pious prelate to make a visit to that country? He did visit it; and read what he, a prelate of the Church of England says, speaking of the operations of the London Missionary Society; read the account which he gives of what he saw, and how his very soul was touched to its inmost depths by the manifestation of Christian truth, and by the fruits of their most blessed work. And what did he advise? Why, he said, "This is a vast region, with four or five millions of inhabitants: there is field enough for all; do not go and throw yourselves upon land that is already occupied, where there are labourers enough to till the vineyard; take those distant places of the island where the light of the gospel has never penetrated; go to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south; go inland, or keep on the coast: there are hundreds and thousands of places where the gospel may be preached with effect, because it has never been preached there before-let that be the scene of your operations; but until you can find out that there is something wanting, leave the capital to the London Missionary Society." And to that I understand the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church Missionary Society have consented as sound, and true, and Christian-like. Yet, with all this assent and concurrence in a matter of plain common sense, to say nothing of sound religion and piety, all of a sudden we are to have a new Society spring up, I am sorry to say, with the names of a great number of dignitaries appended to it, I firmly and honestly believe, in complete ignorance of the state of things in Madagascar. I am certain that there are persons whose names are on that list who, if they were acquainted with the state of things in Madagascar, with what has been done, what is doing, and what is in preparation, would no more think of disturbing the operations of this noble body than they would think of upsetting the Church of England and spreading disorder in all the parishes of this country. I am afraid too, that it will introduce a new principle that may be subversive of all harmony, and act most injuriously upon missionary operations in general. There has been hitherto recognised among all missionaries in the Protestant denomination a kind of courtesy that they should not interfere one with another, unless it could be proved that a field was shamefully ill-worked, or that there were heretical doctrines taught, or that mischief was being done instead of good. As to interfering one with another, thrusting yourself into another man's vineyard, not attending to your own, but ever spying out what your neighbour is doing-that is contrary to the received principle of missionary operations. It is contrary to acknowledged courtesies, and if it be allowed to gain head it will lead to a civil war among missionaries ten times more distressing in its consequences than even the civil war in America. I do hope that all parties will very seriously consider, before they allow themselves to go one step farther. I should most deeply lament to see that the Church of England, that has been so true and so energetic, that has exhibited so deep and solemn an appreciation of the work of its

brother Protestants and brother Christians in foreign lands, should now be coming forward in a spirit of selfishness and mean aggrandisement, for the purpose of tearing from the hands of others the work that they have so nobly and so signally performed. I confess that my own feeling-I am sure I speak the feelings of thousands and tens of thousands of this country-is that of deep reverence for the London Missionary Society, and thankfulness to God for the great men that it has produced-for their intellectual, for their spiritual power, for their earnestness, for their zeal. And what has taken place in time past is not less signal now. There are men of equal intellect, of equal spiritual energy, of equal determination, of equal zeal for the propagation of the knowledge of the gospel of their Lord and Saviour. I do humbly hope that they may not be disturbed in their great and glorious work. I do humbly hope-nay, I more than humbly hope-I most deeply pray, that they may be left with all their energies under the blessing of the Holy Spirit to carry to completion the work they so nobly designed, and have so magnificently performed. I pray that the blessing of God may rest upon all their endeavours, and that the same hand that sowed may reap the field.

The REV. SAMUEL MARTIN moved the following resolution

"That this Meeting gratefully and reverentially acknowledges the special providence and abundant mercy of God in the origin and history of the Mission Churches in Madagascar. To His praise it ascribes the faith and energy of those devoted Evangelists by whose unwearied zeal and cheer. ful self-sacrifice, the gross darkness of superstition and sin was first penetrated, and the light of knowledge and salvation widely diffused; and to His Divine Presence, and the living power of the Holy Spirit, the meeting also exclusively attributes the preservation and large increase of the Native Churches during a quarter of a century of cruel and relentless persecution, in which thousands of believers were doomed to slavery, subjected to torture, and condemned to death." In meeting this evening to recognise the Christian Martyrs of Madagascar, and to consider the claims of their fidelity upon our zeal and devotion, we meet for no novel object. Those who-like the Athenians and the strangers in Athens, of Paul's day, who spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing-have come to hear of novelties, will not find the speakers treat as novelties the Martyrs of Madagascar. To die for the Lord Jesus is almost as ancient as the Saviour's own death. Words which He spake while He was upon earth made His first disciples familiar with at least the possibility of their being hated, and betrayed and afflicted and killed for His Name's sake. The warning was like the scouts of an advancing army-like the darkness which precedes the storm-like the shadow which foreruns some moving object. The early Christians first heard or read of being hated, afflicted, and killed; then they thought of it, then they imagined it, and at last the strong words of Jesus Christ were translated into stern and patent facts. The heavens, which had been rent to receive the exalted Saviour and to send down the Holy Ghost, had scarcely been again closed, before imprisonment, and bonds, and scourging befel the Apostles. The precious blood of Christ had scarcely ceased to flow from his broken heart, before the blood of His martyr Stephen was shed. And ever since the shedding of that young deacon's blood, wherever the Gospel has been first preached, or wherever "another Gospel" has been denounced as an accursed thing, faithful martyrs have been slain.

It is no new thing to die for the faith, nor is it new to honour those who have endured the martyr's death. The common interests of our nature move us to honour all who incur peril or endure hardship for a good cause. Hence the interest which is felt in the soldier, and in the sailor, and in the medical practitioner, and in the sick-nurse, and in all who, with their health and comfort, and lives in their hands, devote themselves to the defence and to the service of others. But, blending

with this common instinct is a higher and nobler impulse moving us, when we remember them who have resisted unto blood, striving against sin. The great lamentation over Stephen, and devout men carrying him to his burial, are the natural expressions of the Christian heart. And, instead of thinking it strange that the primitive Christians kept as religious festivals the days of their martyrs' final sufferings; that they visited the graves of the martyrs; that they built churches where the martyrs slept in peace; we rather think it strange that, yielding to the law of action and reaction, we Protestants have almost forgotten that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Ambrose of Milan appealed to a deep and universal Christian sympathy, when, composing his immortal hymn for the Church in all ages and throughout the world, he penned the well-known line:

"The noble army of Martyrs praiseth Thee."

The Martyrs! They are the glory of our Lebanon, they are the excellency of our Carmel and Sharon, the most fragrant flowers in our garden, the passion-flowers on our church walls, the most fruitful trees in our orchards, the most majestic trees in our forests, as the rose and the apple-tree, and the palm-tree and the cedar. Our martyrs' graves! They are the upper foundations of the temple of truth. That structure, so large in its dimensions, so noble in its proportions, so Divine in design, has for its first and lowest foundation the rock in which we find the sepulchre of Christ; but for its upper and proximate foundation it has every martyr's grave. To drop the figure-Well did the Greek call those who shed their blood for Christ, martyrs; they are witnesses, whose voice is unmistakeably distinct; whose tones are supremely rich, whose faces shine as angels, whose form is like the Son of God; witnesses whose silver trumpet-voice penetrates us, and whose diapason utterance subdues us; witnesses whose presence is like the oak to the parasite; witnesses in whose courage we become bold and in whose strength we become strong.

I am quite aware that there is danger of excess of heat as well as of excess of cold. I am propounding no doctrine of extraordinary celestial privileges enjoyed by martyrs, or of unusual power with God. I am advocating no superstitious rever. ence or idolatrous homage, but echo the well-known sentiments of the Church in Smyrna. It will be remembered that when Polycarp was slain, the foes of the Christians urged the heathen judge to prevent the Christians taking the body, lest they should worship the martyred Bishop as they had worshipped the crucified Nazarene. The disciples of Christ replied:-"We can neither forsake Christ nor worship any other, for we worship Him as the Son of God, but we love the martyrs as the disciples and followers of the Lord, for the great affection they have shown to their King and Master."

Nothing that we do in recognition of the martyrs can be wrong, if what we do be really done as unto Christ; nor will our recognition of such hurt us while through them we see Christ. No amount of money can hurt a Christian, while the coin hath to his eye the image and superscription of Christ. No lands or houses can be a snare, while there is seen on soil, and sod, and floor, the print of the bleeding feet of Christ. And so long as a martyr is a crystal, through which I can see Christ, and a mirror in which I can look at Christ, and a step to a throne upon which I can see Christ, there is no danger of excess in reverence and esteem. Christ creates all that is noble and heroic in the martyr, therefore, no martyr can take the place of Christ; and, until the flower which the sun has painted withdraws my attention