their effectiveness
increased, while their expenses were lessened,"[187] what might have
been expected from the same instrument in a longer period of time, and
after the first difficulties had been overcome? However, for wise and
good purposes, no doubt, it was not permitted that the experiment should
be tried; and while we regret that the Church in Australia is not more
efficient and better supported than it is, we may yet feel thankful
that, by the grace of God, it is as it is.

[185] See Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales, p. 31.

[186] See Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. i. p. 45. The sums
mentioned above include all the expense of grants to other bodies of
Christians besides churchmen, but the greater portion of the money is
expended upon the great majority of the population who are members of
the Church of England.

[187] See Burton, p. 37.

It affords a sad proof of the continued enmity of the world against
Christ, to turn from the noisy outcries of the children of Mammon about
economy and ecclesiastical expenses, and to fix our eyes upon the plain
matter of fact. When it was confidently asserted, by the highest
colonial authority, that the wants of the Australian Church were fairly
supplied, the Bishop, in 1837, mentioned by name no less than fifteen
places where clergymen were immediately needed. And it is no uncommon
occurrence, as in the church at Mudgee, (quite in the wilderness,) for
a consecration to take place, the church to be filled, the inhabitants
around delighted, their children baptized, and then the building is
closed for an indefinite period, until some clergyman be found to
officiate! Some persons may hold that to _save money_ is better than to
_save souls_, but let not these men aspire to the name of Christians.

But, in spite of such enemies, whether endowed or not, whether supported
or spurned by the state authorities, the Church is likely to prove a
blessing and a safeguard to our Australian colonies. The absence of
endowment, the want of worldly means of extension, these are losses not
to the Church, but to the state. And while each individual member is
bound to spare of his abundance, or even of his poverty, for a work
so good and holy as that of propagating the gospel in foreign parts,
especially in our colonies;[188] while every lawful effort is to be made
to do what we can to resist the progress of evil, we may be satisfied to
wait quietly the