kindled in my mind on the Sunday evening in prayer, and has continued since. I trust it was suggested by the Holy Spirit. Since that time, the pain, the waiting, the longing of spirit which I have felt is indescribable. God, thou knowest my heart and my desire. Accept the wish to serve Thee, and be glorified in me whether by life or by death." (p. 280.)

There is much reason to believe that Dr. Dealtry, to whom the bishopric was offered, largely influenced the Grant family in the appointment of Mr. Wilson; and Mr. Grant at that time not only possessed great influence with the government on ecclesiastical matters, but was next to omnipotent at the India House. Considerable delay, however, took place; objections were raised by the class of persons most opposed to evangelical opinions; a pamphlet written with reference to Bellingham, the murderer of Mr. Percival, was laid before the primate. But at length all opposition was overcome, and Daniel Wilson, the once apprentice in a silk warehouse, was consecrated to the see of Calcutta. The workings of his mind during this delay are powerfully described by Mr. Bateman, who himself then received the appointment of chaplain in the East India Company's service, and was to be the companion of his voyage. And after the history of meetings without end, public dinners and domestic breakfasts, we read the last entry in his journal :

"Sunday, April 29th, 1839, 7.30 a.m. I am now come to the beginning of this awful, solemn, delightful day-the day of my espousals to Christ my Saviour-the day of the renewal of my vows as Deacon and Priest, and of the additional vows of Superintendant, Overseer, and Bishop of the Church at Calcutta. O Lord! assist me in the preparation for this office. Aid me during the solemnities of the day. me grace after it to fulfil my engagements and promises." (p. 288.)

Grant

And, now, what is to become of us as Reviewers? We have gone to the full extent of our tether, and have reached only the hour of our honoured friend's consecration to the Bishopric of Calcutta. Our choice is between a long, but yet, after all, curtailed review-the head and the waist without the feet-and a second review in another Number. Both are evils; but we think that both the honour of the Bishop, and a due regard to those who desire to hear all they can about him from our pages, plead rather for the double than the single review. We will therefore stop for the present on the sea-shore to watch his preparations for embarkation, and prepare to follow him on the first opportunity.

In the meantime, how can we fail, as we watch his final movements at Islington, to pause for a moment and moralize over the scene we are thus permitted to survey? We have said, in the opening of this review, that the two main wishes by which men will be prompted to read it, will be, first, that of tracking the footsteps of his outward life; and, next, of searching into the

secret springs of thought and action by which he was controlled and impelled. Both of these natural cravings in our readers' mind, will be, we think, to some degree met in our numerous extracts, and our brief comments on them. The extracts are but parts of an immense whole, but they sufficiently supply both the story of the man up to a certain point in his life, and the great living, life-giving impulse, under which he thought, preached, acted, suffered. The incidents of the Life are, up to this point, far more stirring than those which occur in the lives of men nursed in the lap of early education and refinement, who distinguish themselves at a public school or at college, and, then, if men of unusual powers, step almost naturally, and by an easy gradation, into seats of honour and distinction. Daniel Wilson had, through all the course of a varied life, to force his way upward; and, upward he went,-rose like a rocket, in spite of all adverse circumstances. It was scarcely more difficult, humanly speaking, for the shepherd boy to rise to the throne of Israel, than for a London apprentice to become the Metropolitan of India. To such an elevation his courage, vigour, honesty, oneness of purpose, enthusiasm, and intense spirit of enterprise, all conspired, under the blessing of God, to raise him. But these various influential qualities might all have found vent in tumultuous irregularities of thought and action, in vast commercial enterprises, in political furor and ecclesiastical antagonisms. But the Spirit of God breathed into the man the great principle or passion-the "love of a Divine Redeemer "and constrained by love to that glorious Lord, all his powers took the one right direction. He lived for his Lord, and from Him descended on himself the will to resolve and the power to act. He clung to the Cross, and from it came down virtue to heal his infirmities and corruptions. Had he never crossed the seas to Calcutta but fallen asleep amidst his home duties, he would have inscribed on a monument "more lasting than brass," the imperishable truth, that the love of God, and of human souls, with a strong resolution to act up to our convictions, will, in the end, conquer what are often called "impossibilities."

(To be continued.)

THE CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA: MEREWEATHER'S DIARY.

Diary of a Working Clergyman in Australia and Tasmania, kept during the Years 1850-1853, &c. By the Rev. JOHN DAVIES MEREWEATHER, B.A., Author of "Life on Board an Emigrant Ship." London: Hatchard. 1859.

THE religious state of our settlers in Australia is worthy of all sympathy from Christians and churchmen at home. There are,

perhaps, few of us who have not a relation, a friend, or a friend's friend, in some lone spot in the Australian colonies; but whether this be the case or not, we have certainly some idea of the settlers, thinly scattered over a vast tract of country, and isolated from one another. The nearest neighbour may not be within five-andtwenty miles. Persons so circumstanced are thrown very much on their own religious resources. If they have been carefully brought up, they may continue in the things which they have learned and have been assured of, and may bring up their families after the manner of their own homes. If they have been brought by the Spirit of God to a knowledge of the truth, He will not leave them nor forsake them; and, in due season, He will give them grace to train their children in the fear of God, and in the knowledge and love of Christ, the Saviour of sinners. But if, as must often be the case, they have wished to get away from the restraints of the christian influences of the fatherland, or if they have been used only to treat Christianity as a respectable matter of form and observance, the last hope for them may seem to have been surrendered when they left these shores, except there be some special interposition of divine Providence in their favour, or the holy influence of a godly minister of the word brought to bear upon them. There is a further anxiety with which the eye of the Christian philanthropist follows his emigrating countrymen. Considering what many of the homes of England are, it is a bold thing to expect that the second generation in the colonies will have the advantage of real christian nurture, except in a comparatively small number of instances; and hence arises a fear of a progressive deterioration in a religious point of view,-the sons less careful and conscientious than their fathers, and a general relaxation taking place of the laws which are at least acknowledged in England, with regard to Sabbath observance, social worship, the sacraments, and whatever else entitles us to be regarded as a Christian country. These colonies, if the world last but half a century longer, may have become great and influential nations; and who can question the importance of their receiving by inheritance the habits and education of a Christian people?

In speaking of the isolation of our countrymen in Australia, we obviously have in view those who have settled in the interior, with their thousands of horned cattle, and their tens of thousands of sheep, the owners, or squatters, as they are called, and the shepherds in their service. For the latter, as well as the former, we must feel deeply, if we reflect on their situation. We may assume that they are labourers, drawn by the hope of improving their condition, from the rural parishes in England. They are probably the more enterprising and intelligent of their class. But, taking the most favourable view of their moral and religious state, we can only think of them as barely instructed in the first elements of christian truth, rarely communicants, few of them habituated to

a;

family prayer, not intelligent readers of holy scripture (seeking and gathering wisdom from these holy pages), in very few instances truly converted to God. Think of these men, and their wives and families; not placed near the Master's house, to profit by any good influence which it might be capable of extending to them but in some distant part of his " run," eight or ten miles off, living roughly, not speaking to a soul except within their own families from month to month, and, according to Mr. Mereweather, the man receiving his wages once a year, and then being permitted to go off to some village or town for a holiday, spending his time, and wasting much, if not all, of his year's earnings, in a long and deep debauch, to return when it is over to his loneliness, his coarse beverage of harsh tea ("raking green tea"), and the hope of next year's relief and enjoyment. It is a sad picture, but one that cannot surprise any one who considers whose history this is; while it makes us long to hear that everything has been done which might alleviate so pitiable a condition, and that the best influences might be brought to bear upon the minds and hearts that are left to so great an extent to feed upon their own scanty re

sources.

In the towns there are certain characteristic distinctions from the seaports in the old country. There is less of abject poverty, and a more independent spirit observable amongst the lower classes. Amongst the upper, less of the repose which realized capital induces, and more of the eager struggle and gambling for fortune. The world bears tremendous and tyrannical sway; but there is wealth and religious principle enough to maintain as large a proportion of clergymen as are to be found amongst our great populations in England, to afford them a fair maintenance, and to keep the churches in good order. There is public spirit, enterprise, and liberality; and if the armour of gold with which the hearts of so many are clothed be difficult to pierce, yet there is ample room remaining for the minister of the word to ply his sacred labours in his Master's service, with a fair expectation that his labour will not be in vain. He that plougheth may plough in hope.

Every work of the ministry requires its own special qualifications. The right man for the place is wanted for all colonial employment. This holds good especially in the interior. There are difficult classes of men, and different minds, to be pleased as well as improved. Some one wrote to the bishop of Brisbane, (as a circular of his, on the "Spiritual Wants of his new Diocese," informs us,) enclosing a letter which told him that

"A bush minister has a difficult part to fill, and must suit himself to his people individually; he must be a thorough gentleman, a man of the world, and a clever man. The first, in order that he may be respected by all. The second, in order that he may respect the prejudices of individuals, and converse freely on indifferent topics, and render himself agreeable. And the third, in order that he may argue

with a view to convince his opponents on religious matters.

He should

have four good horses at area;-for these he would have to give about £30 each; he would then be able to be always on the move. He would be thought none the less of if he could shoe his own horse or mend his saddle."

We accept this as describing certain requisite qualifications for the clergyman whose ministry is to be fulfilled amongst the pastoral settlers, and whose parish, if so it may be called, would be small in comparison with others, if it were but a hundred miles in diameter. Nevertheless we are persuaded that these qualifications will only subserve to the attainment of the blessed results proposed to be the aim of the minister of souls, (both in the spiritual characteristics of that ministry, and in the ordination services of the church of England,) when they are superadded to a living faith and a burning zeal for God. Where this is absent, the gentleman, and the man of the world, may be very pleasant and welcome, and the clever man may silence his adversary; but little will be done for the salvation of souls; the enemy will be left in possession of the territory which he has preoccupied. On the other hand, who can justly estimate the amount of influence for good which may be exercised by the colonial clergyman who, being of gentle birth and manners, acquainted with human nature, and gifted with intellectual powers of a superior order, is also every where recognised as the man of God, the bearer of glad tidings, the minister of Christ, the same man in all companies because his heart is always under the teaching of the Spirit of holiness? He will not be always sermonizing, but he will be always consistent in his own deportment; he will know how to speak the word in season, and he will be a living epistle known and read of all men. The ideal of the right man may be rarely approached in actual experience, through the want of life and grace; but it is easy to conceive that a most blessed influence would be exercised if such men were constantly itinerating, putting their four horses in requisition for the Lord's service, and passing much time in intercourse with the secluded settlers, one day gladdening the shepherd's hut by their conversation, expositions, and prayers; and another day letting their light shine in the well-furnished abode of the squire. How much might many a family owe to those visits; what useful hints might be incidentally dropped into willing minds respecting the training of the children; how likely that in after-life those children would trace many blessed thoughts and many good habits to the periodical presence and conversation of the man of God, and to the services which, from time to time, he held, perhaps in a room fitted up and prepared for these occasional happy seasons of social worship, conducted for the whole station, by the minister of Christ.