such a scene of spiritual destitution as called that noble institution into existence, when thousands of our Christian brethren were similarly situated in the North American colonies, nearly a century and a half ago. Worse, therefore, and under more aggravated circumstances of religious destitution than they were then in the plantations, are our bush population at the present day in this wide tract of country, without the observance of the Lord'sday, without the celebration of public worship, without the ministrations of religion, and without even the occasional visit of a clergyman, either to counsel or comfort, rebuke or exhort.

"This is their condition; and to add to the evils to which they are thus exposed, there are living amongst them thirteen hundred of the most degraded heathens. As the limits of occupation extend, this evil will be increased; for there are nearly three thousand blacks at no great distance beyond some of the remote stations, on which herds and flocks are now running. The further the bush is penetrated, the greater the evils to which all are exposed.

"Such being the religious condition of the population in the bush, without any prospect of a better state of things arising out of the efforts of that population itself, the Committee feel that they would be wanting in sympathy towards their fellow-Christians so situated, and also wanting in confidence in the readiness of the Church Societies to render aid, were they not to make known this great spiritual destitution to the Venerable Society, which has already done so much to supply the religious wants of this country. The Committee, therefore, is desirous to second the efforts of their beloved Bishop, in laying this statement of the religious destitution of the population in the interior before the Venerable Society, and would respectfully solicit such aid as the Society may be able to extend, for the maintenance of religion amongst the scattered members of the Church

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in Australia Felix, and for the conversion of the heathen amongst them, whose country God's providence has given to the British crown, and whose amelioration and happiness He has confided to British Christian benevolence.

"C. J. LATROBE, Chairman."

HYMN FOR SUMMER.

(FROM THE GERMAN.)

EARTH has nothing sweet or fair,
Lovely forms or beauty rare,
But before my eyes they bring
CHRIST, of beauty, source, and spring.

When the morning paints the skies,
When the golden sunbeams rise,
Then my Saviour's form I find,
Brightly imaged on my mind.

When the day-beams chase the night,
Oft I think on JESU's light;
Think how bright that light will be,
Shining through eternity!

When, as moonlight softly steals,
Heaven its thousand eyes reveals,
I think that He, who made their light,
Is a thousand times more bright.

When I see in spring-time gay,
Fields their varied tints display,
The awful thought awakes in me,
What must their Creator be?

If I trace the fountain's source,
Or the brooklet's devious course,
Straight my thoughts to JESUs mount,
As the best and purest fount.

Sweet the song the night-bird sings,
Sweet the lute with quivering strings,
Far more sweet than every tone,
Are the words, "the Virgin's Son!"

Sweetness fills the air around,
At the echo's answering sound,
But more sweet than echo's fall,
Is to me the Bridegroom's call.

Lord of all that's fair to see,
Come reveal THYSELF to me,
Let me, 'mid thy radiant light,
See thy unveil'd glories bright;
Let thy Deity profound

Me in heart and soul surround,
From my mind its idols chase,
Wean'd from joys of time and place.

Come, Lord JESUS, and dispel
This dark cloud, in which I dwell;
Thus to me the power impart,

To behold Thee, as Thou art.

(Translated by Miss E. Cox, with two or three slight alterations by the Editor.)

ON PROPERTY AND POVERTY.

JAMES i. 9, 10.

"Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low."

THE Bible is distinguished from every other book (except those that are founded upon it) by its regard for the poor. When the earlier books of the Old Testament were written, the poor were in every country either slaves, or little better than slaves; but by the Law of Moses, every Hebrew was a freeman, had an equal share of land to begin with, and

could not even part with his own freedom except for a time. And though difference in point of industry, skill, and judgement, soon introduced, as it always must, a corresponding difference in point of wealth, yet the poor Hebrew stood upon an equal footing with the rich in the eye of the Law, and God every where, by His prophets, proclaimed Himself the Protector of the poor and helpless, the God of the fatherless and the widow. The rich Hebrew was not wholly to reap the corners of his fields, nor gather the gleanings of his harvest; and even permission was granted to any one who passed through a corn-field or a vineyard, to eat of the corn or the grapes as he walked along: trifling institutions, indeed, in themselves, but not trifling in their import: they formed a kind of type, if I may say so, of the limits of property, and the spirit in which the owner of it should stop short of the jealous appropriation of all to his own advantage. The liberal and equitable spirit of the Mosaic laws has seldom had full justice done to it by writers on such subjects.

Christianity acted in the same spirit of tenderness towards the poor. It has ever regarded both the temporal and spiritual wants of the poor, with the utmost solicitude. "To the poor the Gospel is preached;" this was one mark by which our Lord would have John the Baptist infer that He was the Christ. "To the poor the Gospel was preached." Our Lord Himself dignified, hallowed, I may say, the state of poverty, by being born into it, and living in it Himself: He chose His intimate companions, those blessed Apostles who were to found His Church, and who will on That Day sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, from the lower ranks of his countrymen. He went about among the poor, teaching and healing them; and "not many wise men after the flesh, not many rich, not many noble were called, but God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God chose

the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."

It may seem strange to some, that Christianity has not done away with poverty; and that God allows it to exist, at least to the degree in which it does exist. And since it is all but certain that poverty will exist, as long as the world exists, it will be well to show you how it is that this must be so; and (what perhaps you do not suspect), that the existence of poverty is not only almost unavoidable, but also very beneficial; a great good in itself to the human race, such as it now is. You ought, indeed, those amongst you, I mean who are poor, to submit to the evils of poverty cheerfully, because it is God's will that you should be poor; and because (by bearing your poverty in a Christian spirit, and adorning it with Christian graces) you may lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven as abundantly as any of your brethren. But still it may be satisfactory to you to have this part of God's dealing with us cleared up-to know how it is, that there must be rich and poor, and that it is well for us that it must be so.

The necessity for there being rich and poor arises from the institution of Property; and where the right to Property is not established, man is in a savage state. We know that the curse pronounced upon man after his fall was, that he should eat his bread in the sweat of his brow-should live by his labour. The earth was to bring forth thorns and thistles for its natural productions; and consequently a very large tract of land will only support a very inconsiderable number, without a diligent cultivation of the soil. Wherever the soil is not diligently cultivated, the greatest distress prevails; and the soil is never diligently cultivated where property is not established.