grace; here to be guided by his counsel, sanctified by his Spirit, and trained by infinite wisdom, skill, and love, for their allotted place as heirs of eternal life in the mansions of the heavenly kingdom.

A word may be added in reference to the period at which the Memoir makes its appearance. What it may have lost in freshness from the lapse of time, it may acquire in interest from the deep and universal feeling awakened in behalf of India, and everything connected with the state of religion in that country, by the terrible events of the years 1857 and 1858.

It was the writer's lot to know India when religious men were counted by a few units, and every such individual was known and marked-when of the older list of faithful and devoted missionaries, few remained; and they, aged and little capable of further exertion. A stern, exclusive policy then forbade the accession of any more. Of pious chaplains there were, alas! very few-of a different class, a large proportion. A brighter era had, however, begun to dawn shortly before Mr. Church arrived in India. To the few venerated names of a previous period in Bengal, had been recently added those of Thomason, Martyn, and Corrie, and that of Thompson, at Madras; to which latter Presidency Mr. Church and his biographer, Mr. Hough, belonged. To these

honoured men of God, it was given to commence the development of a blessed work of grace amongst our own countrymen in the south of India. The country had also at length been opened to missionary labour among the heathen, and the various Christian churches had hastened to avail themselves of the opportunity to send thither the messengers of the glad tidings. The stream of light in both lines of ministerial labour, those of the chaplain and the missionary, has since been continuous at all the Presidencies; and the result has been the raising up of a body of Christian public men such as no other sphere in our boundless territories can produce. Accomplished statesmen, eminent public functionaries in all departments of the State, distinguished soldiers, as well as Christian gentlemen in all the walks of private life, have both vindicated the national religious character of our country, and aided the Christian minister and missionary to spread the influence of a pure Christianity among the natives of India. In some parts the converts from heathenism are numbered by thousands; in few provinces are there none. The leaven of Divine truth, the appointed and sole remedy for the woes that afflict that great region and its unnumbered populations, is working its unperceived but beneficent purpose, awaiting the descent of

that mighty power of the Holy Spirit which can alone vivify the work, and call forth larger and more blessed fruits. Already the results have as far refuted the prognostications of the despisers and opponents of the work, as they have surpassed the hopes which the early friends and labourers in the vast and arduous field had ventured to indulge, as attainable by one generation of missionary labourers. Let but this Christian nation be true to its own recent pledges, given in the hour of India's suffering and peril, by multiplying its missionary efforts; by increasing the means of sustaining and extending those efforts; and by ceaseless prayer for the effusion of the Holy Spirit to render past and future exertions effectual for the extension of Christ's gospel in that country; and the largest desires of the fathers of modern missionary enterprise may be seen realized before another generation of labourers shall have finished their course. Then out of every kindred, and tribe, and tongue in India, multitudes of the redeemed will be heard praising that name which is above every name-to which every knee must bow, and every tongue confess, to the glory of the everlasting Father. Amen.

J. M. STRACHAN.

A MEMOIR

OF THE

REV. CHARLES CHURCH.

SECTION I.

Introduction-His Parentage, Birth, Education, Ordination-Appointment to the Perpetual Curacy of Hensingham-Exemplary Character-Theological SentimentsOpposition to the Bible Society: Removal of his Objections to that Institution-Feelings on Visiting a Pious Man at the Point of Death-Purposes to Preach a Course of Lectures-Conversion: Public Avowal of the sameIndisposition, and Recovery.

In the present age, little apology will be required for presenting to the world the memoirs of an eminent servant of God. So general is the thirst for religious information, and so lively the interest taken in those who have both adorned the gospel of God our Saviour, and proclaimed its sacred truths with zeal and effect to others, that probably no species of composition meets with greater indulgence from an enlightened public, than religious biography. Knowing that "they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as

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the stars for ever and ever," we take a peculiar interest in contemplating the light which they once reflected on this benighted globe. As we trace their footsteps through their pilgrimage below, we love to sympathize with them in their sufferings, to rejoice in their successes, to emulate their virtues, and to covet † their graces: and while thus occupied, we are led, almost unconsciously, to follow that Redeemer in whose paths they also trod. And when, at last, we read that death has translated them from time into eternity, still we do not feel as though they were parted from us for ever, but love to indulge the hope of one day beholding them face to face, and shining together with them around the throne of God.

Such a man was the late Rev. CHARLES CHURCH, the subject of these Memoirs. He was the fourth son of the late Rev. Charles Cobb Church, many years rector of Gosforth, minister of Trinity Church, Whitehaven, and one of His Majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Cumberland. His mother was the daughter of the late Anthony Benn, Esq., of Hensingham House, in the same county.

CHARLES CHURCH was born at Whitehaven, Sept. 9, 1785. At the age of ten years he † 1 Cor. xii. 31.

* Dan. xii. 3.