CH. XV.] LETTERS TO AN INQUIRER. 407 And this leads me to another subject. Is it quite impossible that both should be retained? The Christian recognises no opposition between them. On the contrary, the Gospel purifies and sanctifies family life, and Jesus Christ on more than one occasion gave His blessing to it in a peculiar manner. Can you not live at home as a Christian, conforming to such habits. as are indifferent-such as special rules about food? Do not answer this letter unless you are unable to come on Sunday. It will be sufficient for you to speak to me about it when you do come. In the words of the Lord Jesus, I trust 'that the Comforter,' who is the Holy Spirit of God, 'will guide you into all truth,' and give you a right judgment in the perplexing questions which you are called upon to decide. September 1864. I was very glad to hear from you, and particularly to learn that your health has improved. I will make a few remarks on the difficulties which you have sent me, though some of them would be better solved by a commentary on Scripture than by a letter. With regard to your personal difficulty as to decision in religion, I agree with you that intellectual concurrence without the corresponding love in the heart is of no great value, if you will allow me to add the words, ' in producing Christian practice.' But it is, I think, of very great importance in reference to the question of embracing Christianity. If you are intellectually convinced of its truth, it occurs to me that it is your duty publicly to profess yourself a member of the Christian Church. It is a question whether the corresponding love in the heart' can be expected till you are under Christian influence and a partaker in Christian ordinances. We find in the Acts, that those who received the words, and acknowledged the Divine claim, of Jesus of Nazareth, were baptised, and then were built up in faith and love by the preaching, worship, and other means of grace in the Church, and especially by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Epistles show us that many joined the Church whose love in Christ was cold, and whose obedience to Him was scanty. The Apostle Paul himself tells us that he was always pressing on to the things which are before, and that he counted not himself to have apprehended, i, e. to have fully realised, the glory of the Christian name and character. Church ordinances are especially intended to warm the sluggish heart. It would be a real happiness to me to receive you into the Church by baptism, if it please God to spare us both till February next; and from the account which you give of your state of mind in your letter, I feel perfectly justified in pressing that course upon you, provided that you adopt it with sincere conviction, even though you may be conscious of much weakness and many shortcomings. I will add a few words more about self-examination, and Goulburn's book on 'Personal Religion.' I entirely feel that we ought to examine ourselves and look into the condition of our own hearts, and am conscious that I myself am rather apt to forget this duty. But, after all, I think that it may be carried too far; that self-scrutiny may become morbid; and it seems to me that a native of India may be especially liable to this error. In the first place, Christ is the Redeemer of each man, and not himself; and the way for each of us to be redeemed is 'to think with will, mind and affections upon Christ; and not in himself '—I am quoting Coleridge here. In the second place, the true tests of our spiritual condition are not our feelings, but our actions. He that loveth Me,' says our Lord, 'keepeth My commandment.' The exact working of our desires, hopes and fears, of the degree of our repentance, faith, and disinterested love, depends on various causes, some external to our own hearts and minds. The state of the will is shown by the life. If 'to will is present with us, but how to perform that which we will we find not,' the remedy is in such resolution and prayer as leads to action. Above all things, I exhort you to practice. You may be assured that I will not forget you in my prayers, and I desire also to claim an interest in yours. It seems to me, if it is not presumptuous to scrutinise the course of Providence too narrowly, that the hand of God is mercifully guiding you to the Christian Church, and that the decisive action and practice which I venture to recommend should lead you to follow that guidance, to throw in your lot with Christians, and then to determine on that calling and mode of life, especially if it please God to restore your health, in which you may appear most likely to promote the glory of His holy name. CH. XVI.] CONNEXION WITH MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 409 CHAPTER XVI. VIEWS THE BISHOP'S RELATIONS WITH MISSIONARY SOCIETIES-EXTENSIVE FIELD THE case of the inquirer mentioned in the last chapter was the only one with which the Bishop came into personal and continuous contact. His work was to aid and guide missionary thought, rather than to share missionary labours. As president of the local committees in Calcutta, he maintained official connexion with the two great societies, the two arms of the Church of England' labouring for the conversion of India. The transaction of business with these committees was always a source of interest to himself; and harmony and good-understanding were never endangered by any disregard on his part of the twofold relation in which he stood towards the work that they administered. As Bishop of the diocese, he confirmed the native Christians, took cognisance of points strictly ecclesiastical, and ordained and licensed missionaries; but he never swerved from the decision at which he arrived quite early in his tenure of the see, of declining to ordain a missionary except on the title of a presentation by one society or the other, and he disclaimed, as a general rule, any control over details of management beyond that which his vote as a member of a committee gave him. This theory of his position was maintained quite as much in the interests of the parent societies as of himself. The bent of his own mind was so utterly opposed to all loose and irregular action for the furtherance of the great cause at stake, that it was always his sincere desire and, so to speak, his friendly policy, to uphold the distinct position occupied by the Church Missionary and Propagation Societies, and to vindicate a compact and organized system, such as they represented, as the only effectual means of grappling with the false religions of an empire. Moreover, he felt so keenly the responsibility involved in the care of the Churches among professing Christians, that he experienced a sense of personal relief in sharing the supervision of the Church in her missionary character with two powerful agencies practically representing the zeal and sympathy of the Church of England. The following letter bears testimony to his appreciation of the two societies, and it also exhibits the distrust with which he invariably met the aspirations of volunteers for a difficult and arduous work, whose zeal might be praiseworthy, but was often not according to knowledge : 1861. My chief object in writing is to answer your application for employment in the diocese, and the conditions which you annex to it. I own that I do not like these conditions. I should be the last person to undervalue independence of action, or to desire unduly to fetter it, and I fully agree with the opinion that government by a bishop is more in accordance with Church order, and likely to be more successful, than government by a society. But it appears to me that the Propagation Society really, in theory as well as in practice, and the Church Missionary Society, as at present administered, at least practically, do place their missionaries, in all theological and ecclesiastical relations, under the sole control of the bishop; indeed, I CH. XVI.] CONNEXION WITH MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 411 may say, in all relations except those of temporal and pecuniary character, in which it is, on all accounts, much better that he should only interfere as president of a managing committee, and not in his episcopal character, with which they have no necessary connexion. During your diaconate, I should think it contrary to Church order, and otherwise inexpedient, to give you the sole charge of any mission; and after your second ordination, it would probably be necessary for you to learn to act in union with some colleagues, certainly in connexion with some general system. I do not think that a person who would be unable to do so would be likely to submit very readily to a bishop who should think himself called upon to interfere with his proceedings. Indeed, I might have given a briefer answer without entering into all this reasoning. The thing which you ask is, as you have put it, impracticable. I have no means of employing clergymen in this diocese except in connexion with some society or with Government, or at least with some person or persons associated with myself in the administration of trust funds. But if I had merely stated this, and left you with this answer, I should not have expressed my feeling, that a mere impatience of control is not Christian independence, but a snare against which we ought to guard; that the system of the English Church, and certainly of the Propagation Society, which, I think, faithfully represents it, does provide for the combined subordination and independent action of the clergy, in a manner which ought, in my opinion, to satisfy any thoughtful Christian that he would have full scope for his activity and originality, within such limits as must be imposed, if we are to have any order or discipline at all. I must therefore reply to your letter, that, under present circumstances, I could only ordain you in connexion with the Propagation Society (I assume that its constitution is more akin to your own feelings than that of the Church Missionary); that, in afterwards appointing you to a station, I should do my best to meet your wishes and idiosyncrasies, and that I should be very glad to see your zeal and self-denial, your earnest Christian faith, and intellectual ability, enlisted in the service of our Church; and that I shall think it a subject of real regret if any restlessness or dislike of control, or other questionable feeling, should prevent you from devoting yourself to that high and holy |