REV. JOSIAH PRATT, SEC. C.M.S. DIED, 1844.

The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. Prov. xvi. 23.

It has been a mistake ever to suppose that men of feeble minds and limited intelligence were competent to the work of Missions, provided they were under the powerful influence of the grace of God. That grace applies all our powers with the highest effect to which they are adequate, but it does not supply the place of those powers and though it has pleased GOD to bless the simple testimony of upright and devout men of but feeble minds, yet there is no reason to doubt that their usefulness would have been greater, and its fruits more abiding, if, with equal piety, they had known how to open and apply the Gospel to a larger portion of those among whom they laboured. There is no natural gift nor solid attainment, which may not be rendered subservient to the great end which the devout Missionary has in view.

But the present circumstances of missions, particularly in the East, specially demand a higher order of labourers than may suffice for the direct communication of the Gospel to the heathen. The Teacher of teachers is called for from every quarter. The Seminaries and Colleges connected with Church Missions are seeking for men of eminent piety and distinguished powers. (Sermon at Consecration of Bishop Corrie by Rev. J. Pratt.)

Through wisdom is an house builded. Prov. xxiv. 3.

Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: Shall not they teach thee? Job viii. 8. 10.

Why then is not our success as great and extensive in ours, as in the Apostolick times ? The answer is easy:

They preached Christ as they had learnt of Him, without sophistication and dissimulation, as of sincerity, and as in the sight of GOD: many of us corrupt or deal deceitfully with the Word, accommodating it to the sinful customs, inventions, and likings of men, and nations: we dress it like Paganism, and yet wonder that Paganism should still subsist before it.

Again, they engaged the attention and affection of ingenuous tempers, with their zeal for God's glory, and their ardent love to the souls of the erroneous, which appeared to be the spirit of their undertaking. No advantage to themselves was proposed, as none accrued, from all their labours and hazards; neither honours, nor riches, nor applause; for they taught their followers, and did themselves renounce these things, or receive them with indifferency. They invaded no one's right; they meddled not with government; but enforced the duties of every relation, distinction and degree. Whereas the worldly spirit hath been shamefully prevalent in modern missionaries, even to the scandal of Christianity: early enquiries are made into the commodities of the land, as if their business was to barter religion for gold and silver. They came as spies, to discover the weakness of the people.-(Bp. Chandler.)

Thou, O man of God, flee these things. 1 Tim. vi. 11.

WILFRID, MISSIONARY IN SUSSEX, 634-709.-
DR. BASIRE DIED, 1675.

Go away, stand not still remember the off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

Lord afar
Jer. li. 50.

Dr. Isaac Basire was Chaplain to Charles I. and to Bishop Morton. He was deprived of all his preferments by the Civil War ; and he, his wife, and children were cast out beggars from their home. After this, he employed himself in propagating “the knowledge and discipline established in the Britannick Church, among the Greeks, Arabians,” &c. Jerusalem was the scene of his many and earnest conferences, both with the Greek and Latin Clergy, upon the points of difference between their Churches and our own; and here, as elsewhere, he vindicated, with zeal and openness, the distinctive privileges of our Church, avowedly declaring himself one of her ordained priests, even in the lowest hour of her depression. In all his arduous and long journeys, Basire travelled alone; and contrived to make his way by the help of the Arabic language, and by his knowledge of medicine, acquired by a residence at Padua. He availed himself, during the same period, of every legitimate opportunity to promote that reformation of the grosser errors of the Greek Church, which might lead to her communion with others. Evelyn calls him “that great travailler, or rather French Apostle, who had been planting the Church of England in divers parts of Asia."-(Anderson's Colonial Church.)

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Ps. cxxxvii. 5.

Our beloved brother Paul. 2 Pet. iii. 15,

Though the sternest indignation is expressed in the rebuke of St. Paul to St, Peter at Antioch, we have no reason to suppose that any actual quarrel took place between the two Apostles. It is not improbable that St. Peter was immediately convinced of his fault, and melted at once into repentance. His mind was easily susceptible of quick and sudden changes; his disposition was loving and generous and we should expect his contrition, as well as his weakness, to be what it was in the High Priest's house at Jerusalem. Yet it is a relief to turn to that passage at the conclusion of one of his letters, where, in speaking of the "long suffering of our Lord," and of the prospect of sinless happiness in the world to come, he alludes, in touching words, to the Epistles of "our beloved brother Paul." We see how entirely all past differences are forgotten,-how all earthly misunderstandings are absorbed and lost in the contemplation of Christ and eternal life. Not only did the holy Spirit overrule all contrarieties, so that the writings of both Apostles teach the Church the same doctrine: but the Apostle who was rebuked is not ashamed to call the attention of the Church to Epistles, in one page of which his own censure is recorded. It is an eminent triumph of Christian humility and love. (Rev. J. Howson.)

See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. 1 Pet, i, 22,

HENRY W. FOX, M. TO

MASULIPATAM, DIED, 1848.

They made me keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Cant. i. 6.

A missionary life does not deliver one from spiritual trials, such as used to beset me of old. There are just the same temptations to indolence and love of ease, which have been my besetting sins all along just the same reluctance to prayer and reading of the Scriptures: in fact I see nothing but the grace of GoD to prevent a missionary from being as cold and dead a Christian as ever vegetated in an English parish. Perhaps there are more temptations of this kind, for all around is ungodly. Probably my work will be deadening to my spirit, up-hill work with the lowest, most corrupt, and darkened of any men that I ever met; but my Saviour is at my side, He can deliver me; but we do indeed need the prayers of fellow-Christians for ourselves as well as for our people. It is one thing to give up home, country, friends; to be a Missionary is another, -to take up our cross, forsake all, and follow Christ. For that all which is to be forsaken has followed me here; it is not without, but within: a man may travel, and yet not bear his cross; all this I knew and expected; now I experience it. It does not dishearten me. I never expected that the being a Missionary was to work any such wonderful change which belongs to the work of the Spirit alone. But I have great cause to thank the Spirit for having made the circumstances of separation work for good in me.-(Letter.)

A bishop must be

vigilant. 1 Tim. iii. 2.