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that of the Society? By no means. There is an ample field open for both to labour in, not in jealous rivalry, but in harmonious co-operation. Much as the Committee of Council is doing for the education of the people, there is much more that it leaves undone. There are very many schools, in our agricultural parishes, which its Inspectors never visit; very many which are not in a condition to receive any benefit from the funds intrusted to the Committee by Parliament.
Has the Society's zeal been abated, or its efforts been relaxed? It is not so. During the very last year, it helped (according to the means placed at its disposal) to build schools capable of containing 20,000 scholars; it sent out 193 trained teachers; it gave full employment to its Organising Masters; it enlarged its Depository; it caused the establishment of many branch depositories; it received for the sale of books and of other school-apparatus a sum amounting to more than 13,000l., and considerably larger than in any former year.
The Society, then, is still carrying on, and we trust will continue to carry on, with undiminished vigour and success, under the Divine blessing, its holy warfare against ignorance, and vice, against error, and ungodliness. It is still bearing aloft the banner of truth, and earnestly "contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." As the representative, and the voice, of the Church, while teachers of all kinds are offering their lessons, some of them questionable, some of them mischievous, to the rising generation, the Society is ever repeating the Psalmist's invitation, "Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." While many treacherous and misleading lights are abroad, the Society is ever impressing upon the people the solemn caution of their Lord, "Take heed that the light that is in you be not darkness." God forbid that this warning voice should ever be silent, or unheard, among us!
Sure I am then that a society so principled, and so working, ought not to be crippled in its operations by a want of that pecuniary support which it may well claim, if not from every Christian, at least from every Churchman. Sure I am that the actual amount of its receipts is miserably unworthy of a nation which is certainly the richest, and boasts itself to be the most enlightened, and the most religious, in the world.
But at this time more especially, the Society has a right to ask, and to expect, the free-will offerings of the Church in a fuller mea-
