Missionary Society, for the Year Ending Jul Y, 1889
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THE SIXTY-EIGHTH Day fGissions library " ANNU-AL OF THE BIBLE CHRiSTIAN HOME' AND FOKEIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUL Y, 1889. With a List of Collections, Subscriptions, and Donations. " , ',' AFTER THESE THINGS~ PAUL DEPARTED lLROl\l ATH~~S, ANlJCAME • , AND HE REASONED IN THE SYNAGOGUE E\,~RY SABBATH, AND PERSUADED THE JEWS AND THE GREEKS ; " PAUL WAS, PRESSED, IN THE' SPIRIT, AND TESTIFIED TO THE JEWS THAT JESUS WAS CH-RJs:r', AND MANY OF ,THE CORINTHIANS HEARING; BELIEVED, A~ IJ WF-RE , BAI>'l'IZED."-ACTS. XYTJ1. 1, {, 5, ~. PRICE SIXPE~CE. LONDOX: CHRISTIAN' BooK.ROOM, 26, PATERNOSTER S6LD BY ALL' THE J I., /1/ ~ THE SIXTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BIBLE CHRISTIAN HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, FOR THE YEAR ENDING JULY, 1889. With a List of Collections, Subscriptions, and Donations. "AFTER THESE THINGS, PAUL DEPAl<.TED FROM ATHENS, AND CAME TO CORINTH AND HE REASONED IN THE SYNAGOGUE EYERY SABBATH, AND PERSUADED THE JEWS AND THE GREEKS PAUL WAS PRESSED IN THE SPIRIT, AND TESTIFIED TO THE JEWS THAT JESUS WAS CHRIST AND MANY OF THE CORINTHIANS HEARING, BELIEYED, AND WERE BAPl'IZRD." -ACTS XVIII. I, 4, 5, 8. PRICE SIXPENCE. LONDON: BIBLE CHRISTIAN BOOK.ROOM, 26, PATERNOSTER RO'V- SOLD BY ALL THE I1'INERANT PREACHERS. LONDON: PRINTED BY T. WILSON BOOTH, 43, WHITE HORSE LANE, :MILE END, E. BIBLE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Qtommitte.e ELEOTED .A UG UST 7th, 1889. M. BROKENSHIRE, President. BATT, J. H. MURLEY, D. BOTHERAS, J. NICHOLLS, 'V. J. BRAUND, T. OLIYER, T. P., Sen. BULLEN, R. PERRYMAN, 'V. DENNESS, W. REED, W. B. EDDY, B. ROBERTS, E. GA~D:ION, J. RUDDLE, T., B.A. HIGMAN, 'V. RUTTER, W. HOCKING, W. J. SMITH, 'V. HONEY, J. C. TERRETT, W. HORSWELL, J. TREMELLING, J. HORWILL, J. TRENGOVE, A. KEEN, J. 0., D.D. VAUGHAN, W. LARK, W. B. ,\VOOLCOCK, J. LUKE, W. YEO, J. MARTIN, J. F. W. BOURNE, T1·easurer. J. DYMOND, Home Secretary. 1. B. Y ANSTONE, Foreign Secretary. The Committee meet at Pro,idence Chapel, Exeter, on Wednesday, April 16th, 1890, at 9 a.m., and at Penzance, on Thursday, July 24th, 1890, at 9 a.m. Sermons in connection with the Sixty-eighth Anniversary were preached on Sunday, August 4th, 1889, in Bodmin Street Chapel, and in the Conference Hall, Holsworthy, Devon, by W B.I.. ARK, F. W~ BOURNE, and J. ORCH.ARD. Public Meetings were held in the Bible Christian and Wesleyan Chapels, the Conference Hall, and the Town Hall, on Monday, August 5th~ beginning at half-past two o'clock, The devotional exercises were conducted by Revs. J. HOWARD (Wesleyan), T. E. MUNDY, and J. BENDLE. J. HIGGS, Esq., W. YAUGHAN, Esq., and Mr. R. XICHOLLS, presided over the several meetings. J. DYMOND and I. B. VANSTONE read the Report, and F. 'V. BOURNE the Treasurer's Statement. Moved by J. O. KEEN, D.D., seconded by T. RUDDLE, Esq., B.A., and supported by G. W. ANGWIN- 1. That as the Sixty-eighth Annual Report contains a record of labour and blessing deserving the most grateful reoognition, showing, as it does, an increase 4 on our Home Missions of 319 in the number admitted into Society, 178 full members, 110 on trial, and 196 juvenile members, as well as an encouraging degree of prosperity in the Colonies, we affectionately invite all our friends to be constant in prayer, diligent in service, and seli-denying in liberality, that the Gospel, which has manifestly lost none of its power, may, through our instru mentality, be a source of life and gladness in ever-widening circles and to con stantly increasing multitudes. The same resolution was spoken to in the Wesleyan Chapel by J. WOOLCOCK, Mr. W. B. LUKE, and J. TREMELLING. At an over How meeting in the Town Hall addresses wer~ given by W. B. LARK, Mr. ISAAC GALE, and J. BENDLE. At half-past four a public tea was held, when upwards of 1,600 sat down. The adjourned meeting began at half-past six, the large Comer ence Hall being so crowded that an overflow meeting had again to be held. The devotional exercises were conducted by W. HIGMAN, and the chair was occupied by J. HORSWELL, Esq. Moved by J. ORCHARD, and seconded by S. POLLARD- 2. That, believing in the sufficiency of the Bible as a revelation from the Father, in the Atonement as the C'nly remedy for sin, and in the omnipotent agency of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of the world, this meeting trusts that the Colonial Stations may be suitably reinforced, and that additional agents may soon be sent to China, and resolves to pray that the brethren already there, and those who shall follow them, may be eminently useful in the prosecution of the work whose complete success is so fully assured. Moved by J. MORRIS, and seconded by W. H. TICKELL- 3. That as the action of the last Conference, in regard to home extension, has been thus far justified by the blessing attending our new Mission at Blackburn, this meeting calls upon the Committee and Conference, in view of the pressing needs of our large towns, to use all lawful endeavours to send agents as speedily as possible to all those important fields of labour, to the end that, as a branch of the Church of Christ in England, we may do our part in the spiritual emanci pation and general improvement of the people of our own land. At the overHow meeting in our chapel the chair was occupied by E. RICHARDS, Esq., and addresses were delivered by W. LUKE, T. E. MUNDY, S. ALLIN, and Mr. 1. GALE. FORM OF BEQUEST. I give unto the person or persons acting as Treasurer or Treasurers for the time being of the Missionary Society of the people calling themselves Bible Christians, the sum of £ sterling, free of legacy duty, to be applied W the general purposes of the said Society; and I direct that the said 18.dt-mentioned fegacy (with the duty in respect thereof) shall be fully paid out of such part of my personal estate as may legally be devoted to charitable pur poses, in preference to all other payments thereout. Provided always, that in case such parts of my estate as shall be applicable to the payment of legacies shall not suffice for the payment in full of all my legacies, the charitable legacy herein before given shall abate rateably and in proportion with the other legacies . ••• Each annual subscriber or collector of five shillings in behalf of the Society is entitled to a Report. REPORT. INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. '~ UR work may be looked at from three points of view-the I state of the world, the Cross of Christ, and the responsi g bility of the Church. Viewed in the light of either, while there is much that calls for gratitude, we cannot regard the result of the year's toil as a brilliant success. The moral portrait of mankind given by the pen of Prophet or Apostle was not more life like when taken than it is to-day. As in water face answers to face. so do the men of this age to the men described by the inspired writers. The state of the heathen world shows that there is nothing in nature, nor in discovery, sufficient to arrest the progress of evil or to lift mankind to a higher style of being. And if, in our own land, some of the grosser forms of vice, of which we hear so much among the heathen, are not to be seen, there is a depth and force of evil not exceeded in any heathen land. The drink traffic, our Modern Moloch, still demands his annual tribute of thousands of victims; the gamb ling hells are crowded with votaries of all ranks, rushing madly to ruin; relentless mammon still holds capital and labour in its terrible grip j the love of pleasure relaxes the principles and undermines the strength of thousands j the Sabbath is desecrated, religion set at nought, and the Divine name openly profaned; too many of the educated classes are enslaved by plausible theories, and employ their brilliant powers in opposition to the truth; creeping superstition spoils multitudes of the devout; worldliness proves too strong for numbers who have conscientiously assumed the Christian name; and doubt-cold, hollow, empty, heartless, withering and blighting doubt paralyzes multitudes more. Everywhere we see the works of the devil. On all sides we hear the cry of distress, the wail of the lost, " Woe is me, for I am undone," " Oh wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me?" On tbe shores of this raging, foaming sea of human sin and death, we have stood during another year, and have rescued, thank God, a few despairing ones. But, alas, how few, com pared to the millions apparently untouched! The Cross is the remeily, and the remedy is not for a few merely, but for all; it is not eimply for the units that come to its healing, but for the millions who know nothing of its virtue. If we believed, with some, that salvation is only for a. select few, we might think we had got a solution of the difficulty. At least we should be able to refer the matter to the inscrutable decrees of Him who " worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." But we do not believe it. This subterfuge therefore does not avail us. Whatever solace it may be to those who do believe it, it is none to us.