and he died in this work, and his works do follow him. At this day, more than fifty years after his death, the British officers who are engaged in carrying telegraphic wires through Persia testify that the name of Henry Martyn is held in honour throughout the land, and his translation of the New Testament is known far and wide.

We thank Mr. Liddon for giving us the occasion to take this retrospect. We have confined ourselves to historical facts which speak for themselves. Certain views of Divine truth animated men, in various circumstances of life, to devote themselves to great and noble objects. These views sustained them against the world's ridicule and opposition, and the disappointment of many hopes. Increasing age and experience confirmed their conviction of the divinity of the doctrine they preached. They found no need of supplementary dogmas. They died in the full assurance of faith, having accomplished great works for the glory of Christ, through the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The light of their good works still shines as a beacon over vast spaces of undistinguished life in the past history of the Church.

Mr. Liddon clearly intimates that Mr. Hamilton's secession from the Evangelical Clergy enabled him to rise to a higher standard of spiritual attainments, of which proof is given in this "Sketch.' Let us, therefore, take the particulars of the Bishop's life as this Sketch states them. After leaving his Evangelical associates, Mr. Hamilton became more closely allied with the Tractarian movement. "Henceforth," says his biographer, "there was less of excitement and more of quiet earnest thought, &c." The mutual attachment between himself and his flock was most cordial and pleasant. From Oxford he removed to reside on a canonry in Salisbury Cathedral. He at once addressed himself to reforming and raising the tone of the daily service; his own value for the services was marked by an unfailing attendance all the year round. He added a third daily service in the early morning, for which he made himself responsible. His great design was to make a cathedral "a central sanctuary of warm and hearty Christian worship." He would have confined deans and canons to cathedral duties, lest "if they have parishes their hearts will be probably in the duties of their cure of souls." (p. 30.) When Canon Hamilton became a Bishop, he was "heart and soul for movement and progress." The increase of confirmations, the care bestowed upon candidates for holy orders, the building, repairing, and beautifying of churches, bore testimony to his self-sacrifice. But to no part of his diocesan work was the Bishop's interest directed with more eager intensity than to his Diocesan Theological College, to train the

spheres are means of bringing souls to Christ, and are needed as a supplement to the preaching of the Gospel and the cure of souls. But we think it must be evident how much at variance this view is from Evangelical principles; and it cannot be denied that the direct labours of Cecil, Venn, and Martyn, in the conversion of sinners and building up the faithful, were at least as high in Christian worth as the religious reformation of cathedrals.

Another particular to which we must refer is the recommendation of Bishop Hamilton, enforced by his own example upon the clergy, of those religious exercises called "Retreats." The Evangelical clergy have always encouraged private classes for mutual edification among their people, and have themselves directed such meetings. They have also instituted clerical meetings of a more or less strict and exclusive character. Many of them have observed weekly or periodical days of special fasting and prayer. But when the formality of a "Retreat" is proposed, in which the clergy are to place themselves under the spiritual direction of a brother, and circumstances are combined to produce a superstitious awe, such schemes are regarded with suspicion, as taking off the soul from simple dependence upon Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. The higher and more excellent way of girding up the loins of the mind is that of private prayer and meditation, and the direct intercourse of the soul with a personal Saviour.

We very willingly abstain from pursuing this comparison beyond these outlines. We shall be satisfied if many of our readers decline to strike a balance, and say, "to their own Master they stand or fall." Our main object has been to protest against a very common assertion, that the Evangelical religion of the last generation had a work to perform which it accomplished; but that it now needs to be superseded by a more advanced system. Let the standard of Evangelical truth and ethics be studied in the biographies of its acknowledged representatives, and then compared with the standard of Holy Scripture. We do not fear or doubt the result. It needs only to be adapted to the prevailing modes of thought and phraseology of the present generation, and it will be found as efficacious as in the days of our forefathers to arrest the conscience, and to bring man from a life of sin, worldliness, and infidelity, to live the life of faith upon the Son of God.

We cannot suppress a thought frequently recurring to our minds while studying the Sketch of Bishop Hamilton, that he did himself a great injustice by yielding to the influence of men, and of a system, below his own attainments in spiritual mindedness; that this influence overshadowed his spiritual joy, and checked the full assurance of hope; and we dwell with

infinite satisfaction on the last recorded sentiment of his departing soul. "The only thing I want," he said, "is to place my whole confidence more and more perfectly in the precious blood." Here we heartily recognise the voice of a model Evangelical preacher, and devoutly cherish the saying for the consolation and instruction of our own souls when the hour of our departure draws near.

SEQUEL TO THE SCENE IN THE COMMITTEE ROOM OF THE
CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE Scene in the Committee Room of the Church Missionary Society, given in our number for February of last year, excited so much interest, and has been so often referred to by our readers, that we have been induced to give a Sequel to that Scene, in extracts from the journals of two of the Missionaries who then took leave of the Committee on their departure for the Punjab, Messrs. French and Knott.

They went by the overland route to Bombay. Here they had the opportunity of consulting with other experienced Missionaries upon the special object of their enterprise. Dr. Wilson, of the Scottish Free Church Mission, like Dr. Duff at Calcutta, has devoted a whole Missionary life to the education of heathen youths and young men, imparting to them European science and literature, together with a thorough head knowledge of the nature and evidences of Christianity. Our travellers thus report their interview with Dr. Wilson :

"Wednesday evening was spent with Dr. Wilson, the eminent Missionary and Orientalist; a great and good man, full of thought, information, and conversation; seems to have the world, its religions, manners, and languages at his fingers' ends; almost adored by the natives. Were he a Mahometan, they would probably, after his death, make pilgrimages to his tomb. Such reverence is entertained for our Missionary, Mr. James Long of Calcutta, who was lately addressed by the natives of Lahore, on a visit there not long since, to the effect that as long as the fame of Alexander the Great, and the glorious memories of the illustrious Jamshed, should be spread through the nations, so long should the name of James Long be held in honour and esteem in Hindoostan.* It was a gathering

Mr. Long had cultivated the acquaintance of native gentlemen, and taken a deep interest in native literature. He edited, at the request of Government, a native play, which contained a critique on English manners, especially of English ladies. The

work was held to be libellous, and
Mr. Long was subjected to fine and
imprisonment, a condemnation and
sentence which all India repudiated,
and which the native gentlemen re-
garded as martyrdom in their cause.

!

of Missionaries of all bodies for discussion on the value, in a Missionary point of view, of schools and colleges, especially since the examinations for degrees at the Indian universities have turned the heads of the pupils, and made them inattentive to Missionary instruction. Dr. Wilson gave a description of the present state of the native mind. He is well satisfied with the results of his colleges. Some of his teachers as well as pupils have been baptised, and are valuable preachers and schoolmasters. He makes the upper students friends, opens his house to them when they like to come, and gives them lectures on Christian and other subjects."

From Bombay the Missionaries went by a steamer to Kurachi in Sindh. During the greater part of the voyage they were in a terrific storm. The captain said that in no monsoon had they shipped more seas than on this voyage. Under these circumstances, we have a graphic sketch of the Missionaries at their work.

"We had a little work given us to do during the time we were not so greatly suffering. Last night we conversed for a long time with a Mahometan gentleman, a pleader in the Court here, on religious subjects. There were two or three English soldiers on board, who came and had a little reading with us in the saloon last night. The deck was crowded with Hindus, Parsees, Arabs, Persians, Jews, one Chinaman. It was a curious and various spectacle of human nature. They lay huddled and crowded almost like cattle-men, women, and children; each race and nationality and creed keeping itself separate as much as it could. They really were exemplary in patience and tranquillity; only now and then grumbling at the continual deck-washing, which disturbed and damped their little bedding, on which they lay wrapped up like mummies in linen cloths and blankets. I wanted to talk to an aged Jewish rabbi, as he might be taken to be by his reverend aspect and bearing, by whose side sat a handsome Jewess, in queenly state and dignity, his daughter probably, God's stamp of honour and nobility upon them still, even though wanderers and pilgrims. As I saw him stretched upon the deck, covered with his dark mantle, I pointed him out to some Mahometans, with whom I conversed, as a standing proof of God's wrath against those who reject the Son of His love. With some Persians from the Gulf I tried, not unsuccessfully, to converse in Persian, on the great Gospel truths. I tried in vain to instruct some Arabs through an interpreter."

From Kurachi they ascended the Indus. At Multan they met the first group of a a race with which they hope to have much intercourse at Lahore. Mr. French writes :

"I got into conversation this morning, at the railway station, with some fine Persian-speaking Affghans from Lahore, on their way to Arabia. They were most polite and gentlemanly, and seemed delighted to find some one who could talk Persian with them. I find my Persian wonderfully come back; and it is so rich and beautiful and sparkling, that it is quite a pleasure to speak it,

especially when there is so glorious a subject on which to converse. I must yet give myself to the Punjabi proper, as I find Hindustani is unpopular in the Punjab, savouring too much of Government and the Law Courts.”

From Multan a railway carried them to Lahore, where various concurring circumstances seem providentially to point to their settlement, and the opening of their projected college. They arrived at the time when the King of Cabul was visiting the British Governor. They write:

"The great event of the season, perhaps the most remarkable since the Mutiny, is the visit of Shere Ali Khan to receive the hospitality of the British Government; and so the Station is turned upside down. One meets magnificent four-horse equipages, and caparisoned steeds and elephants, and squadrons of horse; and salvos of artillery are booming away. Fireworks are to go on in the evening. A ball, durbars, breakfasts, exhibitions, with all of which I have little indeed to do. I am house-hunting. My great helper is the native clergyman of our Mission here, a very simple, unobtrusive, amiable man. He has daily service twice in part of his house, which fulfils very decently the office of a temporary church. Last night seven or eight were present, and he gave an excellent exposition on a passage in the Epistles, admirably practical. To me the most interesting part of these splendid entertainments is the remarkable gathering of native chiefs and nobles, khans, nawabs, rajahs of all ranks, with the king of Cabul himself. At the grand durbar I stood near the king, and so could watch his countenance, which is stern, dark, and impenetrable, as Napoleon's is said to be; very impassive and unimpressible apparently. He sat in front, on a specially garnished sofa, with Sir D. Macleod, alone of course; his officers of state crowding round him, with a lord chamberlain or master of the ceremonies, a man of enormous breadth, a fabulous, almost colossal, head, who pushed the chiefs about most unmercifully if they left their assigned stations. It was to me a wonderfully interesting sight to look upon all these men, of various races and costumes, mingling, with perfect good humour, frank friendliness, and unsuspicious freedom, with no police of any kind, except that there were soldiers on the spot, probably under stricter orders than their apparent nonchalance seemed to indicate. There was I, talking with Kangrah Raj, Affghan Khans, and Ministers of State! What a strange thing it is that this fusion should have taken place, this bringing together in such harmony and fellow-feeling peoples so diverse."

The Missionaries were especially encouraged, upon their arrival at Lahore, by the cordial welcome they received from the American Prebyterian Missionaries, who have long laboured at this post, and whose large college for general education is one of the most successful in all India.

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