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CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY.
REPORT FOR 1822.

THE state of the Indian Missions was reported in the Survey. We shall now give an abstract of the Home Proceedings of the Year.

Sermon by the Bishop of Gloucester, The Annual Sermon, at St.Paul's Cathedral, was preached by the Lord Bishop of Gloucester, from Isai. XL. 11. We quote, with great pleasure, a few passages from this Sermon.

The gracious conduct of the Good Shepherd, as delineated in the text, is held forth as the model and pattern to Christians, in their endeavours to do good, whether as individuals or in associated bodies. His Lordship remarks

Measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves amongst ourselves, we shall not be wise. Human rules and human examples must have their errors and defects: they will deviate from the course; they will fall short of the mark.

But, referring to the only perfect standard, we cannot fail to judge aright.. The image of the Saviour will cast a light upon the whole scene of Christian Duties, and infuse a spirit into their performance, which will make each act of charity a true labour of love, a tribute of gratitude, an acceptable sacrifice.

On the clause in the text, He shall gently lead those that are with young, it is observed

This designation is intended to include a numerous and greatly diversified class of characters; even all, who, by the burden of past transgression, by the incumbrance of habitual sin, or by the pressure of present temptation, are checked, retarded, and perhaps altoge ther hindered in the Christian course, but who are at length sensible of the weight which oppresses them, and are somewhat alive to their guilt and their danger.

Will not history and observation, the testimony of others and our own selfknowledge, bear ample evidence to this distinguishing property of our Redeemer's dealings with his people? Various indeed are the ways, by which he extricates a soul from the dominion of sin, soothes its spiritual sorrows, relieves its cares, draws and binds it to Himself We see as yet, SUCH things especially, as through a glass darkly; and far clearer and more glorious will be the display of this gracious conduct of our Lord, when

the process of each man's salvation shall be revealed to the assembled world. Severity and terror appear sometimes to attend the commencement of a salutary change; but, when the whole case

comes into view, every part will be seen to be reconciled with a love which passeth understanding.

After tracing the Domestic Opethus adverts to its Foreign Prorations of the Society, the Bishop ceedings :

But, the Word of God is not bound, viour straitened and confined. He pronor are the overflowing mercies of the Saclaims (John x. 16), Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd. And from His beloved disciple (Rev. xiv. 6.) we learn, that an Angel was to fly in the midst of heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel, to preach unto

them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Here also our Society has kept in view her Divine Pattern: she has borne, in some measure, however as yet inadequate, her part in the fulfilment of the heavenly vision. Through her, în union with the Danish Mission, the first dawn of GENUINE Gospel Light broke upon the benighted millions of Hindoostan: a pure and hallowed fire was kindled, which, however hitherto contracted in its influence, has never been extinguished; and now promises, under happier auspices, in God's appointed time, to burn before it all things that offend the stumbling-block of Papal superstition and adulterated Christianity, the depravities of the Mahomedan Imposture, and the base fabric of Brahminical Idolatry; and (if blest from above) to enlighten and to warm each heart, from the Ganges to the Indus, and from Cape Comorin to the Mountains of Himalya.

Our Ziegenbalg, our Schwartz, and our Gericke, will then be ranked among the sainted heralds of salvation to hundreds of millions: and tongues without number shall bless the name of our Society, which had pity on the perishing multitude, when no man cared for their soul-at least with a zeal according to knowledge; and which first made known to them, in His true and full office, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, whose voice they had not heard, but whom their descendants will then gladly follow, through grace in time, to glory in eternity.

On the Duty of the Society; and her Encouragement to abound therein, his Lordship concludes with these salutary reflections:

Her DUTY is to persevere-to be instant -even to abound in the distribution of the Word, which cannot err; and of those Formularies of our Church, for which an exact essential correspondence with that Word has secured an authority, in our view, inferior only to inspiration.

Let her increase, if possible, her diligence and her expenditure in the support of Schools, founded and conducted upon the principles of Scripture, as in terpreted by her own Communion. Let her maintain and rivet her. connection with that Church, which acquires more value by every comparison, and comes

out brighter from every attack. In all her other efforts, may she ever be recurring to first principles, and to the old paths, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, in consistency with this standard, may she be ever observing the signs of the times, and adapting her instructions to the changing state of circumstances, and the fluctuations of popular error-in her statements of Doctrines, sound and full, declaring all the counsel of God; but ever accompanying her doctrines by the strenuous enforcement of their practical tendency and the inculcation of the whole moral law-in her exhortations to Duty, plain, clear, circumstantial, forcible; urging the obligations of private and social life with all becoming earnestness by an appeal to the sanctions of eternity, but referring the fulfilment of those obliga tions, at the same time, to the only availing and acceptable motive, the Love of God and Faith in the Redeemer, and laying no other foundation than that which is: laid, even Jesus Christ; resting all hope of salvation solely and exclusively upon the atonement, the intercession, the grace, and the righteousness of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep-in all her Controversial Publications, inflexibly upholding, without admitting addition or diminution, the faith once delivered to the saints, the truth as it is in Jesus, against the Infidel, the Papist, the Socinian, and the Pelagian, under all their modifications, and against the Antinomian, amidst all his vain boasts of Scriptural correctness; giving way, no not for a moment, to any views validate the authority or corrupt the which might tend in any measure to inmeaning of Scripture, to revive superstition and idolatry, to deny the Lord that bought us, to assert our own merit, to depreciate the necessity of the Holy Spirit, or to vindicate continuance in sin that grace may abound-in all Minor Differences, steadily maintaining the system and practices of her own communion; but in that spirit of Christian Moderation, which is a characteristic glory of that communion, and which is alone calculated to convince the gainsayer, to win those who cannot be driven, and to enervate the force of each persevering adversary, when it cannot, as it will in many cases, convert that adversary into a friend.

Fulfilling thus her Duty, pursuing her lofty but engaging way, the Society

of the

may then hope to find that way lead to
the accomplishment of her most san-
guine expectations; and, obeying the
Pattern of the Text, she may take to
herself the ENCOURAGEMENT
Chapter, from which it is taken.
Through her instrumentality-in con-
nection with other means-in union, or
in harmonious co-operation, with other
Societies of a kindred spirit and design
-the way of the Lord will be prepared,
the highway will be made straight in
the desert (of this evil world) for our
God. All the obstacles to the progress of
genuine religion will, in His due time,
be removed. Every valley shall be ex-
alled, and every mountain and hill shall

be made low; and the crooked shall
be made straight, and the rough places

plain. The objections of the infidel, the cavils of the disputer of this world, the prejudices of each various tribe of dissent, will then, we will venture to hope, gradually give way to the persuasive force of sound Scriptural argument, and to the evidences of superior practical utility in our Apostolical Communion. And, still further, the prediction will receive its full SPIRITUAL and PRACTI

CAL fulfilment: the grovelling debase ment of worldly lusts, the hostile front of carnal pride, the perversities and obliquities of selfish dishonesty, and the asperities of evil temper, will all progressively yield to the influence of Gospel Truth, blessed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and conveyed through vehicles which our Society will take an ample share in providing. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Our Zion, of which the Society will be the faithful handmaid, will then indeed hear

the voice of her Divine Head and Master-Arise, SHINE, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; and will become (may we not indulge the delightful anticipation ?) the centre of re-union to all the piety of our land, and the centre of diffusion for Christian Knowledge to all the ends of the earth.

And all flesh shall see it together—or, as St. Luke has completed the passageshall see the salvation of God. Through His inconceivable and boundless mercies, the sheep, who have kept the nearest, and those who through ignorance have strayed the farthest, shall be gathered, in the fellowship of repentance and faith, as one flock into one fold, under the common Shepherd Feb. 1823.

and Bishop of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Progress of the Society.

The number of Subscribing Members now amounts to 14,650; of whom 635 have been elected since the Audit in April 1821. Within the same period, an accession, of 20 Diocesan and District Committees has been made. The circulation of Bibles, Prayer-Books, and Religious Tracts has continued without abatement; and the general operations of the Society have been progressively enlarged.

Assistance to Ireland.

An edition of the Scriptures in the Irish Language is rapidly advancing toward completion: and a supply of Books, not exceeding the value of 10001, has been placed at the disposal of the Irish Association for " discouraging Vice and promoting Christian Knowledge," for the use of Gaols, Schools, Hospitals, and Workhouses, in Ireland.

Supplemental Catalogue.

The Supplemental Catalogue of entertaining and instructive books, formed in aid of the establishment of Parochial Lending Libraries, now contains 40 volumes of History, Biography, Science, and Amusement.

These are sold to Members, in calf lettered, at prices amounting in the whole to 81. 1s. lid.; while the cost of the same books to the Public is 127. 3s. 6d. On the advantage of forming Collections of this nature, the Board remark —

There are circumstances in the present age, which render such a measure not only expedient, but almost indispensable. The education now given to the poor naturally excites among them a taste for reading: they are no longer satisfied with the mere rudiments or knowledge, but are gradually learning to inquire into the history of past times, and to speculate on subjects of which their ancestors had no conception. This increased appetite for information must be gratified to a certain extent; and, unless it be supplied with wholesome and nutritious food, it will probably devour those poisonous productions of Infidelity, which are still disseminated with un. wearied diligence through the remotest

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districts of the land. The work of education is incomplete, or its advantage is at least precarious, if no effort be made to render the knowledge which has been acquired, a real and permanent source of truth, happiness, and edification.

Public Sale of Books and Tracts: The Shop opened in Fleet Street, in December 1819, for the sale of Anti-infidel Publications, has been found to answer the purpose in such an effectual manner, that the Board have determined to continue the Establishment, and to adapt it to the general promotion of the Society's designs. An extract from the Report will explain the plan:

To encourage the widest diffusion of sound religious knowledge, has ever been the main object of the Society, in all its counsels and operations. The Board, therefore, acting on this principle in the present instance, have endeavoured to

extend the benefit of their arrangements, as far as possible, to the whole commu nity. Bibles, Testaments, and PrayerBooks, are sold to the publie at cost price; and all other Books and Tracts, either in the General or Supplemental Catalogue, at a very trifling advance on the cost price.

The District Committee at Bath have established a Shop, on the same principle, with complete success: the same plan is in agitation at Liverpool and Bristol. Distribution of Books, Tracts, and Papers. From April 1821 to April 1822, the issue of Publications was as follows:

Bibles

Members Gratuitous Total

30,935 1,150 32,035

Payments.

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New South Wales
West Indies
British America
Friend, on a small Annuity
Legacies

Cost of Publications, sent
to the Auxiliaries

£. s. d. 29,106 17 8 7 15 4

88 18 7

150 O

35 15 0

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Net Receipts £. 30,252 6 7

Payments.

European Missions

West-Africa Missions

N.Testaments

£ 8. d.

52,371

and Psalters S

1,899 54,270

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Com. Prayers

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1,032 9 5

Other bd. Books 80,290

1,653 81,943

South-Africa Missions

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1,788 13 4

Small Tracts &

Papers.

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Australasia Missions
India and Ceylon Missions

8,769 2 1

3,783 8 11

Total 1,222,382

West Indies Missions

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State of the Funds.

Receipts.

Benefactions

74 1 0

2,040 5 8

Annual Subscription's

Legacies

Dividends on Stock, &c.
War Office, for Troops, &c.

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4,923 14 9 13,972 9 2

565 0 0 7,772 3 1

289 14 8

27,523 18 24,330 2 7 1,876 5 0 L. 53,729 9 3

British North AmericaMissions 2,531 0 4
Widows and Children of De-
ceased Missionaries..
Printing, Expenses of Manage-
ment, and Incidentals

Total f. 26,032 19

On the improved State of the Funds, it is observed—

The Committee expressed their strong confidence last year, that though the

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