placed under the direction of a society expressly recognised by the State, and governed by the highest authorities in the Church. A chartered body, with a perpetual succession of ex-officio members, gives a pledge for continued good management which no voluntary association can offer." The Diocesan Committees at the Presidencies in British India, composed of lay and clerical members, take the charge of the Missions in their several provinces, direct their proceedings, appoint the agents, audit the accounts, and authenticate the local reports of the different operations being carried forward. CHAPTER XX. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA (continued). - -SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-KINDRED INSTITUTIONS.— PROGRESS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION AND WESTERN SCIENCE.-CLAIMS OF INDIA AS A MISSION FIELD.-INVITING PROSPECTS.-THE GLORY AWAITING BRITAIN. In the preceding chapters we have seen how the early Mission of the Danes was aided by the liberality of the two great English Societies; and how at length the institutions, for many years supported by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, were formally transferred to the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It has been shown how the first Missions of the Danes were favoured by the presence of the British power, and consequently how they extended their operations beyond the limited territory of Tranquebar, where they were first planted. The evangelic tree springing from a right and vigorous seed, like the beautiful emblem of the Church, the self-propagating and shady banyan,— Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The central station at Tranquebar excepted, all the important branches from the parent stem, have long been watched and watered by the British Church. The widely-extended sphere of missionary action in Southern India, including Madras, Tanjore, Madura, Tinnevelly, and some other parts of the Carnatic, is now under the immediate control and superintendence of the Diocesan Committee, of which the Right Reverend the Bishop of Madras is the president. In the Presidency of Bengal the Missions are also under the care of a Diocesan Committee. The appointment of these Com |