[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.] The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was the parent of another society of not less importance. Dr. Bray was deeply interested in Missions abroad; with extraordinary efforts for the diffusion of the Gospel in England, he combined extraordinary efforts for the diffusion of the Gospel in the American colonies. He went out to Maryland at his own expense, as Ecclesiastical Commissary to the Bishop of London, and did not return to England until after he had exhausted his resources. It appears that in March, 1697, when a Bill was being read in Parliament respecting estates devoted to superstitious uses, he presented a petition, praying that a portion of such estates might be set apart for the propagation of the reformed religion in Maryland, Virginia, and the Leeward Isles, or that some other provision should be made for the purpose. Animated by this spirit, he induced the Society to approve of libraries in North America for the use of the Clergy. He visited Holland to obtain from His Majesty a grant in aid, and reported the design of Sir Richard Bulkeley to settle on his Irish estate a rent-charge of £20 a year, and his gift of a share in certain mines for the furtherance of this object. At length, floating desires assumed definite shape, and steps were taken to secure a charter for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Dr. Bray, through the instrumentality of Archbishop Tenison and Bishop Compton, succeeded in accomplishing this object, and in May, 1701, the draft of a charter “was read and debated, and several amendments made, and the names of the secretary and other officers proposed and agreed to.”[452] Repeated conferences took place at the meetings of the Society, touching points connected with the new undertaking; and on the 9th of June, Dr. Bray stated that His Majesty in Council had signed an order for incorporating the Society. Convocation had turned its thoughts to Foreign Missions, but relinquished further proceedings upon finding this charter was granted. The instrument described the objects of the new Society as being, first, the providing of learned and orthodox ministers for the administration of God’s word and sacraments amongst the King’s loving subjects in the plantations, colonies, and factories beyond the seas. So far the enterprise was strictly colonial, intended for the spiritual instruction and welfare of English emigrants to distant shores. The charter, secondly, contemplated the making of such other provision as might be necessary for the propagation of the Gospel in those parts; and this, read in the light of subsequent operations, might be interpreted to signify the diffusion of Christian knowledge amongst such of the heathen as lived in the neighbourhood of English colonists. Still the objects remained limited; it was confined to the British dominions, and took no account of pagan countries lying outside. Now that our Indian dominion is so extensive, the old