every nation of mankind, and though received, above all, by the great majority of the Jewish nation in its fullest extent, and with almost all the circumstances of awe and majesty with which even Christians are accustomed to clothe it; I admit that this life after death, and a future state of reward and punishment were never so authoritatively declared, or so forcibly represented, or so experimentally proved, as they have been to us who believe in the doctrine and resurrection of Jesus. But I maintain that all these points of difference between Christ and the preceding prophets are not enough to account for that difference which I have remarked in the honours paid to Him, and the display of Divine power and angelic praise by which His birth and person were, above all other prophets, distinguished; and I maintain, above all, that in none of these respects, nor in all of them taken together, is His claim made good to that title which, of all prophets, is given to Him alone, and which constituted the specific ground of those congratulations which the angels bore to their fellow-creatures of mankind, the illustrious title of "Saviour."

Is it from the fear of death that the world is delivered by our Lord? And is this end accomplished by the spectacle of His own glorious triumph over the grave, and over them that had the power of it? Alas, are we ignorant that to the sinner (and who is there among men that sinneth not?) his fears are but the more increased by the clearness of this discovery! The same great Moralist who hath taught us by His words, and proved to us by His own example, that the grave is but the gate to a new and eternal state of existence, hath taught us also that there is an everlasting fire prepared for the workers of iniquity, and we must escape from the burden of our manifold offences before the resurrection of Christ can be to us any other than a savour of death everlasting!

Can, then, a pure and holy law of life be sufficient to save mankind from their sins? Verily, if a law could have been given which was competent to produce this effect, salvation would have been by the law of Moses! But it is evident that so long as we are ourselves carnal

and sold unto sin, the more spiritual and pure any rule of life may be, the less likely we shall be to comply with it; and it is no less evident that where Moses and the prophets had failed to produce repentance, not all the terrors and hopes of an invisible world, no nor, if Christ is to be believed, the very spectacle of one returning from the dead would be sufficient, without some further help, to alarm the sinner from the error of his ways, or to confirm the wavering soul when tost on the storms of temptation. But be this as it may, and even supposing us in time to come to avoid the crimes of our previous life, yet without some deliverance from the consequences of our former sins, this late repentance, though it might prevent our increasing their number, could not of itself rid us of apprehension. Repentance cannot make the past not to be; that we have not continued to act foolishly is of itself no reason for freeing us from those burdens which our folly has already incurred; and we must find out some atonement for sins past, as well as some preservative against sins future, before the people of God can lay claim to the blessed hope of being saved from those sins whose guilt defiles, and whose consequences terrify them.

Nor is it more needful to show the entire conformity of the Messiah's character and office, as understood by the great majority of His disciples, with the name by which He is best known among men, and by which the angels of the Most High proclaimed Him, who was clothed with our nature that He might reconcile us to God, who lived for our instruction, who died for our sins, who rose again for our justification, and who, from His Father's right hand, both intercedes for our infirmities, and sends forth His Spirit of holiness to prompt, and help, and sanctify our sincere, though imperfect services.

What then remains but that, thus mightily delivered, we should show forth in all our words and works a constant and becoming thankfulness; that, thus mightily aided, we should labour more abundantly in promoting our Master's praise; and that, united with the Godhead, as our nature is through Christ, we should the more aspire to emulate in diffusive goodness that God who maketh His sun to shine

on the just and the unjust, and is kind to the unthankful and the evil.

The present season is one in which, by a natural and laudable association of ideas and feelings, the great majority of the Christian world have been accustomed to express their thankfulness for the blessings bestowed on them, by imparting in a fuller measure than at other times the marks of affection and tenderness towards their fellowcreatures, by calling in, either literally or figuratively, their neighbours and brethren to rejoice with them, and by providing that, while they themselves exult in the bounty of the Almighty, the widow's heart should by their means be also made to sing for joy, and the blessings of him that was ready to perish, should mount up on their behalf an acceptable offering to their Maker. And here in Calcutta, in a city which, God be praised, may be honourably distinguished among the cities of the world for the extent and splendour of its public and private charities, the custom has long prevailed, in pursuance of which I yet further crave your attention, while recommending to your bounty the most ancient, and (I may be allowed to say), the most useful and necessary of all our humane institutions, that which alone administers to the pressing wants, alone alleviates the distress, the hunger, the nakedness, and the ignorance of the unhappy Europeans, and descendants of Europeans, who abound in the crowded dwellings and obscurer streets of this great and luxurious city. The necessity of such an institution is too obvious to require enforcement; but that necessity may be, perhaps, less known or less adverted to by those who are only occasional residents here, or who, immersed in public duties, or elevated above the access of petitioners, are but partially aware of the amount to which relief is given, and the still greater degree in which it is needed.

Of the great body of Europeans of every nation and class of life who come out annually to seek their fortune in the flattering land of India, it is obvious that a small number only can hope to succeed in attaining even a livelihood; and that there are very many who are labouring at this moment under severe distress, and who are only kept here

by the same poverty and want of friends which at once prevent their thriving, and prohibit their return. Nor is misfortune confined to these alone; in a country where speculation is so tempting, and where without speculation so little can be accomplished even by industry, not only are many humble but promising fortunes shipwrecked by undertakings which, if not strictly prudent, are under the circumstances of this country rendered almost necessary; but, where a prouder fabric of fortune and enterprise is shipwrecked, there are always many humbler barks whose fate depends on it, and whose industry and talent can rarely find another field till the assaults of famine, and the advances of disease, and the agony of ruined hopes and utter broken-heartedness have made them, even if another situation could be found, too often unfit to discharge its duties.

Nor are they misfortune and disappointment alone which multiply the claimants on the vestry fund, nor are these the most necessitous or the most interesting claimants on our bounty. As in no land under Heaven is death so sudden and so frequent, so in no land that I have ever heard of is the death of a parent, or a husband, attended with such utter and immediate ruin to those who depend on him, as with the description of persons of whom I speak, it ordinarily is in Calcutta. And when to these we add the multitude of orphans, or worse than orphans, whose existence and distress are alike the evidence and aggravation of their father's crimes; when we consider that not Calcutta alone, but the poor and populous colonies of Serampoor and Chinsura are included within the natural limit of our care; and that whatever be the amount of distress in all these districts, it is to Europeans alone, under ordinary circumstances, the sufferer can look for relief or sympathy; it cannot excite surprise that, large as the funds are which have passed through the hands of those who manage this good work, they are altogether insufficient to the number of claimants who besiege them. Yet if those funds fail, to what quarter must the poor apply? Shall private and individual charity suffice to feed so great a multitude? Let those answer who are already wearied with a daily swarm

of petitions, and who may be assured that those petitions would, without this institution, be augmented a hundred fold, and their doors be blocked up by suffering Christians in every hideous shape of hunger, disease, and nakedness, till their time and means were engrossed by giving to those whose cases they could not investigate, or their hearts hardened against all by the apparent impossibility of relieving many. Nor can further arguments be required to prove the advantage of a common fund under the management of a few benevolent individuals, who are content to give up no small portion of their time to inquire into the cases submitted to them; and who, from their long familiarity with this work of mercy, are really enabled, at a smaller expense of time than would, under any other circumstances, be necessary, to ascertain with tolerable accuracy the character and condition of each individual claimant.

Of the labours of the vestry, and of the effects of those labours, though not myself a member, I have frequent occasion to hear something; and when I mention that I have known instances of females respectably born and educated, soliciting for the monthly allowance of paupers; that I have known strangers who must have perished in the street for lack of friends and shelter, had not the bounty of the institution intervened; and that the free school of Calcutta, which owes its chief support to this fund, has been, under God, the only means of rescuing from an early death, or a life which was worse than death, many thousand children of Christian parents who had either abandoned or could not educate or maintain them; when I state that in the vestry alms, no Christian in distress, of whatever nation or sect, is suffered to go unrelieved; and that in the freeschool, though we naturally prefer the religious instructions of our own Church, yet those instructions are forced on no child whose parents are of a different persuasion; that Armenians, and Greeks, and Romanists, and even Hindoos, may be seen in our classes, their prejudices respected, and their progress and comforts no less attended to than the children of our own people, I shall have said enough, I trust, to establish the claim of the institution, for which I now am pleading, to the support of every man who wishes well to