BV 2060 .S83 1872 
 Stowell, W. H. 1800-1858. 
 The missionary work of the 
 
THE MISSIONAEY WORK 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH: 
 
 ITS PRINCIPLES, HISTORY, CLAIMS. AND 
 PRESENT ASPECTS. 
 
 W. H. STOWELL, D.D., 
 
 Late President of Eotherham College. 
 
 REVISED AND ENLABGED BY 
 
 EEV. E. STOEEOW. 
 
 JOHN SNOW AND CO., 
 
 2, IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
UNWrN BROTHERS, 
 
 PRINTERS BY WATER-POWER, 
 
 CDILWORTH, SURREY. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 Dr. Sto^\^ll's "Missionary Clmrch," which, iu a 
 somewhat modified form, is reprinted in the following 
 pages, is like one of those works of ancient art, some 
 time lost to the world by adverse events, and subse- 
 quently restored to the light of day and the appre- 
 ciative gaze of mankind. 
 
 Had the gifted and lamented author lived, he would 
 have greatly enriched our Christian literature with the 
 productions of his active and well-stored mind ; and 
 among these I cannot but think would have been fresh 
 editions of this admirable book. I am thankful that 
 the honour — for such indeed I deem it, alike because 
 of the grandeur and importance of the subject, and 
 that my name is thus associated with his to whom I 
 am so deeply indebted — has been left to me of bringing 
 this new edition before the public. A work so elo- 
 quent, so fervid, and dealing so admirably with the 
 first principles which underlie all Missionary effort, 
 should not be lost. Of its kind there is but one work 
 
comparable with it ;* and it is now needed quite as 
 mucli as wheu the earher editions were issiied. 
 
 True, the hostiHty of the last generation to Missions 
 has passed away, but the fervour of their early friends 
 has not spread as widely as could have been wished. 
 The general tone of opinion on tliis subject, in secular 
 circles at the present day, is one of scepticism ; 
 and even in Christian society something of the same 
 scepticism largely prevails, and is associated with a 
 sad and profound indifference toward the whole sub- 
 ject. By this I mean, that among professing Cluis- 
 tians generally there is no deep, adequate, and habitual 
 regret that so large a portion of our world is still 
 heathen, and so small a portion of it Christian — there 
 is no general conviction that the former suffer ii-re- 
 parable loss by not receiving the privileges of the 
 latter — there is no impelling belief that it is the 
 grand duty and highest honour of Christians to seek 
 the evangelization of the heathen ; — also, that there is 
 a large amount of scepticism as to the genuineness of 
 the work now being done by Missionaries and Mis- 
 sionary Societies — and that there is no fixed and 
 inspiring faith regarding the splendid future in reserve 
 for our race, as the consequence of the zeal and devo- 
 \^ tion of the Church. 
 
 * Dr. "Winter Hainiltou's "Missions: their Authority, Scope, 
 and Eucoiuagemcut." 
 
A writer would not be justified in making such grave 
 statements unless Le had substantial ground for doing 
 so. This I assuredly have, and could give, were this 
 the place. 
 
 Dr. Stowell's book is admirably fitted to correct 
 much of this, and to create a higher and nobler state 
 of opinion and feehng than is now x^i'cvalent. The 
 proof he gives that it is the grand duty of the Church 
 of Christ to seek the conversion of the world, is clear 
 and irrefragable ; and were it but generally received 
 and wrought into the mind and heart, through the 
 eloquence and devoutness of the author's utterances, 
 a new era would speedily dawn alike for the Church 
 and for the world. 
 
 My own share in the following pages is soon indi- 
 cated. I have revised the whole of Dr. Stowell's work, 
 omitting some passages which now seem unnecessary, 
 and altering a few others, so as to bring them into 
 harmony with the present time ; but leaving as much 
 as I could of the original composition untouched — for 
 I feared to mar its beauty and effectiveness. All the 
 notes I have added, together with three chapters — the 
 first, seventh, and eleventh. That which I have sup- 
 plied is chiefly information ; and in all cases I have 
 striven to be scrupulously accurate, both in fact and 
 in date. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 To Dr. Stowell's family I am indebted for their kind 
 permission to reissue the work in its present form, and 
 to the Kcv. William Stowell for valuable suggestions. 
 
 To the candour and judgment of its readers I now 
 commend this book. And may the Divine Spirit in- 
 cline all who read it to receive, exemplify, and propa- 
 gate whatever it contains of truth ! 
 
 Edward Storrow. 
 EuGBY, December 20, 1872. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAliE 
 
 THE PEESENT EELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 TO THE WORLD ------ 13 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE WARRANT OF THE CHURCH FOR MISSIONARY 
 UNDERTAKINGS ----.- 
 
 28 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS 39 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE PEOGRESSrVE DECLINE OF THE MISSIONARY 
 
 SPIRIT 
 
 66 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 REVrV'AL OF MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 NARRATIVE ....-- 73 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 THE SUCCESS OF MODERN MISSIONS. NARRATIVE - 111 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF MISSIONARY EF- 
 FORT IN THE CHURCH - - - - 140 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF MIS- 
 SIONARY EFFORT - - - - - 160 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM THE DE- 
 FECT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT - - 180 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD .... 199 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 ARGUMENTS AND MOTRTiS FOR INCREASED DEVOTION 
 
 TO MISSIONARY OBJECTS - - - - 213 
 
\^HSOLOGXG^I'/ 
 
 THE 
 
 MISSIONAEY WORK OF THE CHUECH. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Relative Proportion of the various Religions to tlie Earth's Population : Protes- 
 tantism ; Romanism ; the Greek and Oriental Churches ; Mahomedanism ; 
 Buddhism; Hinduism; lower Forms of Heathenism. — Influence of Religion 
 on National Life. — Protestantism the Highest Form of Chi-istianity. — Its 
 Purifying and Elevating Power. — Romanism opposed to National Growth. — 
 Debasing Influence of aU Superstitions. — State of Society under Mahomedan- 
 ism, Biiddhism, and Hinduism. — Fearful Character of the Hindu gods, and of 
 the Rites and Teachings of Hindu Worship. — Asjject of the Case to the Phi- 
 lanthropist and the Chi-istian. 
 
 Eighteen centuries and a half have passed away since 
 the Saviour of mankind gave the command to His 
 disciples, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature," and still two-thirds of the 
 human race are heathen. All Europe, with but the 
 slightest exception on its south-eastern frontier, is, 
 nominally at least. Christian. America, save with 
 similar exception on its northern, southern, and west- 
 ern borders, has received the faith which had its birth 
 in Palestine. But Africa and Asia are yet almost 
 entirely Pagan ; and the latter is more than twice as 
 populous as the two former united. 
 
 2 
 
ii THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS 
 
 A more minute autalysis of tlie religious condition 
 of tlie world will fittingly introduce all tliat follows in 
 this volume respecting the duty of the Church of Christ 
 to seek its evangelization, and will present a state of 
 affairs which should shock, sadden, and stimulate 
 every Christian mind. 
 
 The entire population of the earth is supposed to 
 number one thousand two hundred and fifty millions. 
 
 About one hundred and sixteen millions of these 
 profess Protestantism. One hundred and sixty milhons 
 adhere to the Church of Rome. More than eighty 
 millions belong to the Greek and other Oriental 
 Churches, Mahomedanism has not less than one 
 hundi-ed and seventj^-five million followers. Hinduism 
 has almost an equal number. Buddhism may boast 
 of not less than four hundred and twenty million 
 disciples ; whilst more barbarous and less systematised 
 polytheisms exert their malign influence over one 
 hundred and twenty million souls. ''■' 
 
 It will be seen from these numbers, which approx- 
 imate as near to the truth as circumstances will allow, 
 tliat but one in eleven of the earth's population is 
 a Protestant ; — that of the Christian world the latter 
 do not form one -third ; — that we are singly far out- 
 numbered by Mahomedans, Hindus, and Buddhists; 
 and that Protestants stand to Pagans in the proportion 
 of only one to seven-and-a-half. 
 
 If we examine the social, moral, and political stato 
 of the nations and tribes professing these religions, we 
 find that just to the extent that they have corrupted 
 
 * See "A IMainial of Missionary Facts and riiuciples," p. G. 
 (J. Suow and Co.) 
 
CONDITION OF THE WORLD. 6 
 
 and left the inspired conceptions of truth and duty 
 given to us in the Bible, do they fall away towards 
 barbarism, demoralization, and wretchedness. 
 
 As Protestantism is the closest realisation of New 
 Testament Christianity, so it is associated with a higher 
 form of civilization than anywhere else is seen. The 
 nations professing it have steadily grown in freedom, 
 virtue, knowledge, wealth, and power, as no others 
 have, until the lioj)es and the destinies of the world 
 lie in their hands. For if we inquire for the principles 
 and usages which are most necessary for man, in his 
 individual, social, or national relations, we find them 
 pre-eminently among Protestants. They have that 
 which, mentally, morally, and relatively, would enrich 
 all the heathen world, whilst no province of that 
 world has anything to give in exchange which would 
 enrich them, 
 
 Piomanism is a lower form of Christianity than Pro- 
 testantism, and it is identified with a lower type of 
 civilization and morality. The principles representing 
 the two have been in active operation, face to face 
 with each other, for three hundi-ed and fifty years, and 
 during this time they have completely changed places ; 
 England, the United States, and Prussia, all rising to 
 the first rank, and the Catholic states retiring from it. 
 The fall of Spain and Portugal, from a position similar 
 to the one now held by England, to their present ab- 
 jectness ; the poverty and unrest of Ireland; the in- 
 stability and degradation of the South American States ; 
 the weakness and demoralization of Italy, until it 
 broke with the Papacy; and the chronic agitation of 
 France; — all prove that when the rights of God are 
 2- 
 
4 THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS 
 
 usurped, aud His truth corrupted, decay aud disaster 
 will retributively follow the transgression. 
 
 The Greek aud Oriental Churches are less danger- 
 ous to the well-being of nations than Popery, because 
 they are less ambitious of priestly and political power, 
 but they are eqiially fatal to all free, spiiitual, aud 
 intellectual life. 
 
 Mahome danism, like a cancer, has spread itself 
 over most of the regions which formed the world prior 
 to the Christian era ; for whilst dominant in Turkey, 
 Arabia, Persia, all the states of Northern Afi-ica, and 
 among the tribes of Central Asia, it has also pene- 
 trated into Central Africa, into Western China, and 
 the glorious islands of Indo-China, and can boast 
 of twenty million adherents in India alone. It has 
 never yet lifted a people higher than semi-civilization. 
 It ossifies all that it touches. It is, in every coimtry 
 where it is dominant, identified with forms of govern- 
 ment and administration so utterly corrupt and des- 
 potic that even the best of them no body of English- 
 men would endure. Slavery, polygamy, the degradation 
 of women, and intense intolerance, are its invariable 
 concomitants. It has marvellous power to assimilate 
 every individual disciple to the character of Maho- 
 med (would that Christianity showed equal power to 
 make us like Christ !), and no character is so in- 
 tolerant, repellent, unaraiable, and dangerous. 
 
 Buddhism, the faith of Ceylon, Siam, Burmah, Japan, 
 China, and Thibet, has more adherents than Chris- 
 tianity, or even than IMoslemism and Hinduism united. 
 It, too, has never lifted a people beyond semi-barbarism. 
 Beneath its influence their growth, if up to that point 
 
CONDITION OF THE WORLD. 5 
 
 rapid, lias ceased, aiid given i:)lace to the stagnation of 
 a thousand years. It has a form of moraUty, fair 
 enough to the e^'e, but utterly powerless over the 
 heart and life ; and a conception of the divine and the 
 future so vague, dreamlike, and hopeless, that scep- 
 ticism, apathy, or despair is its usual result. 
 
 Hinduism is the religion of but one race, nor can 
 it possibly be the profession of any other.* Of all 
 superstitions this is the most incongruous, irrational, 
 and demoralizing. Thus, whilst acknowledging one 
 god, it has built but one temple to his honour ; though 
 it has erected myriads to one or other of the three 
 hundi-cd and thirty million subordinate divinities it 
 recognises. Viewed from different standpoints it is 
 seen to be monotheistic, pantheistic, polytheistic, tri- 
 theistic, and atheistic. It has not one trait of that 
 exquisite beauty and grace which characterised the 
 ancient polytheisms of Greece and Kome. Without 
 one quality to commend it to the respect and admira- 
 tion of other races, it treats them all with grotesque 
 contempt. Its social and moral influence is blighting 
 and cruel beyond anything the v/orld has ever wit- 
 nessed. For centuries it taught that the holiest deed 
 of a wife was to immolate herself on the funeral pile of 
 her husband ; — that she who did not this must be for 
 ever a widow, from whose life all joy and sunshine 
 should carefully be shut out ; — that mental culture was 
 for all the sex a bane and not a blessing ; — that feiiiale 
 infanticide was preferable to caste pollution and to 
 
 * India and China together contain nearly one-half the popu- 
 lation of the globe. Power may be in the north-west, but the 
 mass of humanity ia in the south-east of the earth. 
 
6 
 
 THE PKESENT RELIGIOUS 
 
 non-marriage ; — and tliat the worship most pleasing to 
 the gods is that which is associated with the extremest 
 license of the sensual appetites, or the utmost infliction 
 of j)ain and degradation on the individual worshipper. 
 
 Besides these great systems of superstition, there are 
 numerous rude polytheisms found throughout Africa, 
 Polynesia, the Indian Archipelago, and the tribes and 
 races thinly scattered over the hill regions of India and 
 Central Asia and South America. All these tribes are 
 barbarians, in whose religious notions and practices 
 there are no elevating or purifying qualities. 
 
 If we carefully analyse the influence of all these 
 religions, we discover that, diverse as they are, they 
 all operate disastrously in certain dii-ections, though, 
 of course, in different degrees. 
 
 Thej^ all degrade rather than elevate. 
 
 In no existing instance have any people outside 
 Christendom risen from barbarism or from semi-barba- 
 rism to civilization. On the other hand, every Christian 
 country, save Italy, was once barbarous, and has risen 
 toAvard civilization just to the degree that it has become 
 Christian. The rude tribes of Asia and Afi-ica, and of 
 the Pacific and Indian Oceans, are still in a state of 
 nature. China and India had made no advance for 
 two thousand years previous to their contact with 
 Christian nations; whilst in morals and religious 
 usages they had actually deteriorated ; — in the one case 
 allowing a vague but simple monotheism to become 
 obscured by a ghastly fear and reverence for demons 
 and spirits ; and in the other by the usurpation of a 
 crowd of gods more monstrous, cruel, and immoral than 
 even Phoeuicia, Babylon, or Canaan ever recognised. 
 
CONDITION OF THE WOELD. 7 
 
 Eaces wlio believe in caste, the transmigratiou of the 
 soul, and nirvana, or absorption into the essence of the 
 deity, will be preserved from ntter barbarism, but they 
 can never rise to a high degree of civilization. 
 
 Islamism has been the faith of most countries now 
 IDrofessing it for the past thousand years, and in not 
 one single instance has there been decided growth, 
 whilst in some the deterioration has been great. 
 
 Contrast all this with the marvellous advance of 
 every state during the last two hundred years in which 
 the principles of our sublime faith have had free play. 
 
 Again, these religions are, for the most part, as- 
 sociated with CRUEL, AND BRUTALISING CUSTOMS. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the slavery, 
 polygamy, and female degradation of all Mahomedan 
 states. Slavery, polygamy, witchcraft, sorcery, and 
 religious rites which inflame and brutalise the wor- 
 shippers, distinguish most African races. The infan- 
 ticide, cannibalism, human sacrifices, and barbarous 
 worship of some of the Polynesian tribes are well known. 
 The customs of India have been alluded to ; but to these 
 may be added the witchcraft and sorcery of the Hill 
 tribes, the Meriah sacrifices of some districts, the 
 devil dances of Southern India, the caste usages of 
 all Hindus, and the license, brutality, and cruelty iden- 
 tified with the worship of the more popular divinities. 
 Most of all these are associated with worship and 
 religion ; and in hardly a single instance has the latter 
 protested against such enormities, or initiated any 
 movement for their destruction. 
 
 None of these superstitions are identified with a 
 
 PUKE AND BENEVOLENT SYSTEM OF MORALITY. 
 
8 THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS 
 
 Most of tliem consist of vague and terrifying notions, 
 associated with rude and debasing ceremonies, and 
 witliout the least pretence to an ethical basis or design. 
 Others of them, like Islamism, have some true and 
 admirable laws ; but they are neutralized by others of 
 an opposite nature, and by the hard, bitter sentiment 
 they breathe into all the relations of life, and the gross- 
 ness and sensuality which they associate with the hopes 
 of a future state. 
 
 Buddhism has the purest moral code of any false 
 religion ; but its characteristic vagueness regarding a 
 supreme being and the future destiny of the soul, as 
 well as the manner in which it leaves all to struggle, 
 without supernatural aid, to work out their own eman- 
 cipation from the bondage of the flesh, dex^rives its 
 ethical inculcations of more than half their power. 
 
 Hinduism, properly speaking, is not a moral teacher. 
 There are found in its philosophical writings, and the 
 Vedas and Purans, sentiments of the highest virtue ; 
 but the religion, as such, claims no moral power and 
 authority, whilst in its general influence it is absolutely 
 demoralizing. This is a grave charge to make against 
 the most ancient religion in the world, which h<ilds 
 sway over one-seventh of our race, but it can too 
 easily be sustained. Neither the present i)eace nor 
 future well-being of a Hindu depend to any very large 
 extent on his moral goodness; nor does his religion 
 or any of its divinities demand from him the repu- 
 diation of vice and the possession of virtue. His 
 worship consists in adoration, profuse ceremonialism, 
 and service which is either degrading, as in the case 
 of the Jogi and Shuniashi, or most painful, as with 
 
CONDITION OF THE Y/OELD. 9 
 
 the pilgrim and the devotee, or most demoralizing and 
 polluting, as in Tuntra and Sliakti worship. 
 
 The supreme aim of a Hindu is to keep his caste 
 pure. To do this the utmost ceremonial care is essen- 
 tial, but morality and virtue are not. Even his 
 elevation through the successive stages of transmi- 
 gration depends far more on punctilious ohservanccs 
 and rites — not seldom painful and degrading — tlian on 
 the attainment of virtue and goodness. He may suc- 
 ceed without the latter ; without the former, never. 
 
 The example of the gods is hostile to all that is 
 pure and elevating. Almost all those popularly wor- 
 shipped have characters ascribed to them which would 
 be simply disgraceful if belonging to any human being. 
 Brahma, for instance, seduced his own daughter. 
 Vishnu, as Krishna, stole, lied, induced others to lie, 
 and lived in the utmost licentiousness. Indra, the 
 Icing of the gods — according to the ancient mythology' — 
 seduced his own religious teacher's wife. Shiva was 
 inflamed with lust and passion, and was rebuked by his 
 wife Parbati, because he was a drunkard, consorted 
 with prostitutes, and danced naked before a renowned 
 devotee for the purpose of breaking his contemplations. 
 These arc but specimens of a long and odious list, 
 which need not, and indeed cannot, for decency's 
 sake, be given. An eminent Missionary writes: "The 
 Hindu system contains enactments calculated to pro- 
 duce an opposite effect to morality. For instance, 
 falsehood is not only permitted, but taught to be meri- 
 torious, when thereby a Brahmin may be benefited. 
 The same may be said of suicide, when it takes place 
 in the shape of self-immolation on the funeral pile of a 
 
10 THE PRESENT RELIGIOUS 
 
 deceased husband, or iinder the wheels of Juggernaiith's 
 car. Formularies and charms are prescribed for the 
 destruction of enemies, and for accomplishing other 
 infamous purposes. The Purans, which are the class 
 of books most read, and by which the views, feelings, 
 and general character of the people are, for the most 
 part, formed, are full of the grossest allusions. And 
 still these books are chanted and explained in the 
 areas of temples, the court-yards of wealthy individuals, 
 and other public places, to companies of both sexes 
 and all ages, and it is even meritorious to hear them. 
 Much to the same effect may be said of what takes place 
 at the festivals kept in honour of some of the gods ; 
 where fathers, sons, and brothers assemble in front of 
 the image, and x^erform before their own and their 
 neighbours' female relatives, nay, before children, the 
 most lascivious and disgusting gesticulations, accom- 
 panying the whole with such indecent songs as in other 
 countries would shock even the most profligate of the 
 land. I have seen such things done even at the holy (?) 
 Pari, by the priests; and heard songs sung of such filthy 
 trash as I could never have imagined to enter into the 
 mind of man ; and this done openly, with the high 
 sanction of religion, before crowds chiefly composed of 
 females. It has filled my heart with a disgust and 
 sorrow I cannot describe. Of the same demoralizing 
 character, and shocking to every sense of modesty, are 
 the figures often carved or painted on Avails and cars, 
 and the images commonly exhibited at festivals. Num- 
 bers of these, as I have repeatedly seen, are so utterly 
 abominable that it is impossible to attempt description." 
 The effect of all these superstitions on the happiness. 
 
CONDITION OF THE WORLD. 11 
 
 morality, and elevation of their adherents might, alike 
 by argument and testimony from numerous sources, be 
 shown to be most disastrous. " The dark places of the 
 earth are full of the habitations of cruelty" — "Their 
 sorrows shall be multii^lied that hasten after another 
 god" — are inspired sayings, as true to day as they were 
 in the dim, long past, when first they were written ; 
 just because alienation from God must inevitably lead 
 away from all that is divine, pure, elevating, peaceful, 
 and good. Human nature has nothing to save it from 
 a downward tendency when it forsakes God. Its own 
 propensities are toward evil, and these arc actually 
 stimulated rather than checked by idolatry and false 
 religion. Who can conceive or describe the utter false- 
 ness, the ignorance, the selfishness, and the hopeless- 
 ness pervading the heathen world? 
 
 This condition of things should profoundly affect the 
 philanthropist and the mere man of the world ; but 
 how much more the Christian ! To be indifferent to so 
 much evil, wrong, misery, and loss, indicates a nature 
 itself most defective ; and sad as the contemplation 
 of the state of humanity is, it is, if possible, yet more 
 saddening to know that there are millions who profess 
 to serve God, and to receive the Bible as their guide, 
 and to have through Christ the hope of a better life, 
 who live without the burden of the world's alienation 
 from God pressing heavily on their minds, and who 
 make no habitual effort for its redemption, or take the 
 least interest in what is being attempted for its evan- 
 gelization. Regarded even simply in an earthly light, 
 superstition is a frightful curse, far more destructive 
 and malign than war, slavery, or disease in all their 
 
12 THE PRESENT F.ELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE WORLD. 
 
 forms combined; and it is justifiable and even meri- 
 torious to cherish toward it a profound, passionate, and 
 undying hostility. But Christians should especially be 
 influenced by the fact that God is dishonoured and 
 wronged by false religion as He is by nothing else, and 
 that all the souls it enthralls suffer final and irre- 
 parable loss. The future condition of the heathen we 
 shall not now discuss; but this much is certain, if 
 Christ be as necessary, as precious, as much to man 
 in his relations to sin, to eternal life, and to God, as we 
 usually profess to believe He is, then the condition of 
 those who are ignorant of His name and of His gospel, 
 is alike to be pitied and deprecated, and should lead, 
 on the part of all His followers, to the most strenuous 
 and sustained endeavours to impart to others the glad 
 tidings which God has communicated to them. Nor 
 can they refrain from this Avithout incurring great 
 personal loss and guilt. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 The Relation Explained. — The Church Dcsigrned for Expansion. — No Peculiar Diffi- 
 culties. — Controversial Questions. — The Missionary Question of Paramount 
 ■ Importance. — Stateinent of the Question. — Main Cause of Apathy. — Spirit of 
 the Church. — Feelings of the most Devoted Christians. — Variety of Conditions 
 showing the Daty of all.— Advantages of the ]\Iissionai-y Work to the Church: 
 prosperity; hai-mony; elevation of character ; the Spuit's influence ; glory of 
 the Church. 
 
 The Church of Jesus Christ is now, as we have seen, 
 but a portion of the inhabitants of our world. Posses- 
 sing much in common with other men individually 
 considered, the members of the great spiritual com- 
 munity sustain, in theu' collective caj)acity, a special 
 RELATION TO THE REST OF MANKIND. To Understand that 
 relation is a matter of no small moment. With this 
 view, it may be of service to contrast the general 
 condition of mankind with the character of those who 
 composed the Christian Church when the gospel was 
 introduced, marking, at the same time, the position 
 of the Church as developing her special relation to the 
 world. The grand distinction between the Jews and 
 the other nations is familiar to the readers of the New 
 Testament. The principle of this distinction is to be 
 found in the fact that the Jews were taught by rcve- 
 
1-i THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 latioii the worship of the true God, whilst the other 
 kindreds of the earth, having left the scenes of early 
 revelation and wandered in the darkness of theii' own 
 vanities, knew not the true God, but worshipped idols. 
 To the Jews, consequently, as knowing and worshipping 
 the true God, the gospel was sent. They were the 
 witnesses of the facts on which the gospel is founded : 
 amongst them were its first disciples, and its first 
 preachers. All the Jews did not believe the gospel : 
 the greater part of them rejected it, persecuting its 
 professors, and doing their utmost to prevent its pro- 
 pagation. They allied themselves to the world, in 
 opposition to the Church ; placed themselves as ob- 
 stacles to the spreading of that truth which had been 
 proved, by the ancient writings and by vncoiitcstcd 
 miracles, to be the consummation of their own religious 
 system ; and thus they brought upon themselves the 
 signal vengeance of heaven. 
 
 The Jewish polity being broken up, the infidelity and 
 superstition of that people became integral parts of the 
 dread mass of evil against which the energies of the 
 Church were to be directed. The world was spread out 
 before her view, a vast and variegated landscape of 
 ignorance, superstition, idolatry, impiety, and crime! 
 Ages had demonstrated the inefficiency of all the re- 
 sources of man to preserve him from these evils, or to 
 work his deliverance from them, when he became their 
 victim. Whatever mystery there may be in the long 
 continuance of so much wretchedness combined with 
 weakness and with guilt, one thing is clear : — that what 
 primary tradition had not done, — what human reason, 
 aided by the lights of experience and philosophy, of 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 15 
 
 genius and civilization could not do, — God liimsclf 
 resolved to do, in the spreading of His gospel by the 
 agency of the Church. 
 
 The position of the Church, entrusted with this 
 agency was this : it teas a feeble minoritij of converted men 
 in exclusive possession of the truth fur the benefit of the 
 ivorld. The doctrines communicated to the Church 
 were the truths of inspiration ; the discipline main- 
 tained by the Church was the submission of its members 
 to the "mind of Clirist ;" the inculcation of those 
 doctrines and the preservation of that discipline were 
 not intended, like the Jewish system, as the symbols 
 of a circumscribed community, but as the means by 
 which an active body, proceeding under the guidance 
 and j)rotection of the Universal Father, was to be kept 
 awake to the end of its existence — the instruction 
 and conversion of the world. Every thing in the 
 constitution of the Christian Church will convince 
 a thoughtful inquh-er that it is a constitution in- 
 tended for expansion. Let the expansion stop at any 
 point short of universality, and from that point will 
 be seen to arise the symptoms of decay, the presages 
 of death. 
 
 There is nothing in the present aspect of the world 
 unfriendly to the expansive operations of the Church, 
 that did not exist, in greater power, more active hos- 
 tility, and wider extent, at the commencement of the 
 Christian era. There were, moreover, at that time, 
 numerous and potent obstacles that have long since 
 melted away. And there are now, on the contrary, 
 combinations of agencies and circumstances for facili- 
 tating the work of the Church, such as never existed 
 
16 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 at any former iieriod. Still the world displays the 
 same broad field of operatiou, and still the position 
 of the Church towards it, in her essential character, 
 and with her improved advantages, is the same as at 
 Y the first. 
 ** Long have questions been agitated respecting the 
 precise forms of creed and polity for which the customs 
 of antiquity and the sanction of inspiration can be 
 claimed ; and, in all human probability, the time is 
 yet far distant when the contending parties shall agree 
 to leave these questions at rest. There is one question 
 more nearly allied, perhaps, to their solution than has 
 been usually suspected : — What was the constitution 
 of the Church in its aspects toicards the ivorld / In what 
 particulars did that constitution differ from the 
 systems of Pagan idolatry, and from the limited and 
 shadowy institutes of Judaism ? AVhat was there in the 
 visible character, the living s^^irit, of the great Christian 
 corporation, that stamped it as the selected instrument 
 of heaven for the supplanting of error, and the extirpa- ' 
 tion of idolatry, by the establishment of truth and 
 religion in every part of the world ? 
 
 This, surely, is a question relating to the Church in 
 ancient times, not less interesting than the judicature 
 of her ofiicers or the confessions of her faith. And 
 since those questions have produced more strife than 
 conviction, is it not a probable case, that, in pursuing 
 them, men have often been neglecting the greater 
 matters for the less, the practical for the speculative, 
 the certain for the dubious ; and that when the order 
 shall be reversed — when the chief attention of in- 
 quu-ers shall be directed to the grand practical designs 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 17 
 
 wliicli the Church was destined to accomplish on the 
 largest scale, they may discover, before they are aware, 
 and in a way of which they have not dreamed, those 
 minuter truths respecting her interior economy which 
 they have been so long disputing to so little purpose ? 
 
 Let us, now, waive the consideration of the Primitive 
 doctrine : only assuming that it exhibited, in the fresh- 
 ness and freedom of inspiration, the truths designated 
 by common consent in our own day as Evangelical. 
 Let us waive, too, the consideration of the Primitive 
 polity : allowing the adherents of the variou.s forms of 
 evangelical profession to assume for themselves, re- 
 spectively, it was precisely that to which education or 
 conviction or usage may have guided their own attach- 
 ment. Then, let all parties survey the Church accord- 
 ing to their own conceptions of its outward form, and 
 ask this simple question, — What was the end, the 
 ulterior end on earth, for the sake of whicli that form 
 existed ; and what was the vital spirit by wiiich it was 
 animated for the attainment of the end ? 
 
 It will not be doubted that the Church was composed^ 
 of x^rofessedly converted men. Each of these was con- 
 verted not for his own sake merely, but for the sake of 
 others ; and one of the clearest indications of the 
 reality of a man's conversion was his earnest desire 
 for the conversion of others. Any association of men 
 so converted and so evincing their conversion, must 
 have been a Missionary association. The spread of the 
 gospel, proved by their own experience to be the de- 
 signed instrument of human salvation, must have been 
 a constant object of devout anxiety and strenuous 
 effort. To them it must have appeared as the main 
 
 3 
 
18 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 purpose of their union. To tliem it could never have 
 presented itself as, chiefly, an aft'air of charity and 
 compassion towards their deluded and suffering fellow- 
 creatures, but as the proper business of the Church, 
 a business to which the Church was bound by her 
 allegiance to God, and by her special relation to the 
 world. The gifts of the Church — ^the prayers of the 
 Church- — the officers of the Church — the visible pro- 
 fession of the Church — her baptism — her holy supper 
 — her preaching of the gospel — all these were the 
 tokens and seals of her character as the Evangeliser 
 of the earth. Each believer was a witness for truth 
 against error, for holiness against sin ; and the col- 
 lection of behevers constituting the Church was "a 
 cloud of witnesses," a confederate band brought 
 together by their Celestial Leader to denounce the 
 usurpation of the grand deceiver, to tear away the veil 
 of delusion which he had spread over the face of the 
 nations, and to draw theu' feUow-men of every rank 
 and climate to the belief of the truth, and to the enjoy- 
 ment of the common salvation. Such is the true 
 character and the perpetual office of the Church of 
 Christ — " x)ut in trust " with the gospel for the nations, 
 that they may be saved. He who refuses to embrace 
 the gospel for his own salvation, is not only his own 
 enemy and the enemy of the Saviour : he is an alien 
 from the Church, and takes his part in opposition to 
 the best interests of the world. While he who professes 
 to receive the gospel for his own salvation, and yet, 
 from narrow views, from worldly selfishness, or un- 
 believing timidity, decUnes to share the efforts of the 
 Cliurch for the salvation of the world, is a stranger to 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 19 
 
 the sympatliies of the body of Christ. Kehgion is life. 
 Christianity is a religion of movement. The Church is 
 A Missionary Institution. 
 
 A most solemn conclusion from the foregoing train 
 of observations here forces itself upon us. The main 
 cause of apathy towards the Missionary work, in im- 
 mense numbers of professed Christians, is the want of 
 that spiritual religion which alone can truly unite 
 them to the Church of Christ. Alas, how many hear 
 the gospel without believing it, habitually hardening 
 their spirits against the mcrci/ which invites them to be 
 saved ! The Missionary Enterprise is, in many in- 
 stances, the strongest test to which their profession 
 can be brought, and when brought to this test they are 
 found wanting. They are not unwilling to attend our 
 worship. They are ready to afford assistance to the 
 poor and ignorant around them. But, — the Missionary 
 Cause, — what is that to them ? Their own salvation 
 rouses no concern within them ; how shall they be 
 anxious for the salvation of the world ? They have 
 not submitted to the Eedeemer's sceptre ; how should 
 they be zealous for the universal triumph of His king- 
 dom ? In vain do we urge on them, that ours is a work 
 on which the lights of prophecy are casting their bright- 
 est radiance, and that it is dignified by whatever is 
 awful in a Divine Command or ennobling in the de- 
 votion of the Apostles. They are destitute, voluntarily 
 destitute, of the elementary feelings on which such 
 appeals have power. It is like pressing the calls 
 of patriotism on an alien. In severer times they 
 would have shrunk from martyrdom as they now recoil 
 from Missions, and for the same reason : they "are not 
 3* 
 
20 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 of US,"' and therefore they will neither suffer nor labour 
 uith us. 
 
 It is to the Church, to the collective body of sound 
 and practical believers, that we are to look for co- 
 operation in such a work as this ; a work into which 
 the Church alone can enter, for the accomplishment 
 of which she has received her existence and endow- 
 ments from " the Lord of all," and neglecting which 
 she ceases to be the Church of the living God, loses her 
 light, her energy, her glory, — and expires. 
 
 The spirit of the Christian Church is self-devoted 
 obedience. That orderly acquiescence in the purposes 
 of Heaven which is at once the serenity and the bliss 
 of angels, was lost in the apostacy of man : it is re- 
 stored to the heart of every convert of the gospel, and 
 impels him to dedicate his being to that end for which 
 he has been created and redeemed. Composed of such 
 converts, the Church is summoned to the consecration 
 of all her powers to that work, which, embracing the 
 highest counsels of the Infinite Mind, kindles the 
 flames of ardour, and nerves the effort of exertion, for 
 their comx^letion. Oh, to hear men talk of obedience 
 and devotion, without extending their thoughts to the 
 revealed pleasure of Him whom they are to obey, or to 
 the sublimity and magnitude of that end of which it is 
 the honour and felicity of a redeemed intelligence to 
 / be devoted ! Obedience is the substituting of the will 
 of God for our own. Devotion is the bringing away 
 of .our whole selves from every thing else, that in all 
 things we may be yielded unto God. And shall that 
 be called obedience, which puts the erring inchnations 
 of man in the place of the infallible decisions of God ? 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 21 
 
 Shall tliat be called tlevotiou wliicli evaporates in 
 dreamy sentiment, or exhausts itself in personal enjoy- 
 ment, instead of hourly offering up to God, with the 
 intensity of passion and the solemnity of sacrifice, 
 every active principle of our nature ? ^ 
 
 The Church consists of individuals, and that which 
 is the work of the entire body is the work, in one form 
 or other, of every one belonging to it. As the faith of 
 the Church is the faith of every member, and the 
 salvation of the Church is the salvation of every 
 member, so, also, is her employment. The proper tone 
 of the Church, therefore, in reference to that employ- 
 ment, must be the collective impression resulting from 
 the sense of individual responsibility. Every man is 
 bound to feel himself personally responsible for the 
 performance of the duty of the Church. If no one 
 man feels this, the Church cannot feel it. — Where is 
 the conscience of the Church ? 
 
 Those who have signalised themselves the most 
 illustriously in this, w^hich is the common duty of the 
 wdiole body, have ever been the most acutely sensible 
 of the deficiency of their own devotion to it. To them 
 it never occurred that they were starting from the true 
 level of ordinary Christians and soaring to an elevation 
 of principle, below which they might have gone forward 
 with safety to their last account. Nor do they ever 
 seem to have regarded themselves as ha\-ing received 
 any commission i)lacing them under a responsibility 
 specificalbj different from that under which all their 
 Christian brethren are hastening to the tribunal. Their 
 simple conviction has avowedly been, that their duty 
 as Christians demanded of them the efforts they were 
 
22 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 making. Any self-complacent feeling towards those 
 efforts would have been repelled as suggestions from 
 the malignant spirit, or mourned in deep contrition as 
 a sin against their Lord. We may admire what to our 
 dwarfish conceptions of duty do indeed seem to he 
 seraphic specimens of self-devotion; but it is a truth, 
 not less plain than humbling, that they, who did what 
 we admire, were conscious, all along, that they had 
 never come up to that devotion which is required from 
 all. They deplored the coldness of a zeal at which we 
 are astonished. They confessed the languor of exertions 
 which almost appal us by their power. Their ideas of 
 the Church of Christ were such that they would have 
 blushed at the thought of making their zeal and their 
 labours the standard of universal duty. Can we modify 
 the essential and permanent obligations of the whole 
 Church ? Are we permitted to choose the walks of 
 obedience we happen to prefer, and leave the rest to 
 others ? 
 
 It deserves consideration that the very diversity of 
 qualifications, temperaments, and conditions existing 
 in the Church, which may present itself to some minds 
 as an objection, or at least a difficulty, in the way of 
 the views now inculcated, is itself a striking proof that 
 it is the duty of all to be engaged, directly or indirectly, 
 in the Missionary business of the Church. We may apply 
 to this matter, in the most direct form of legitimate 
 and literal application, the language of an apostle :* 
 " There are diversities of operations, but it is the same 
 God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation 
 
 * Soe tlic wluilo of the twelfili chapter of 1st Corinthians, and 
 Ej^hesians iv. 7-16. 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 23 
 
 of the Sxnrit is given to every man to profit witlial 
 
 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
 all the members of that one body, being many, are one 
 
 body: so also is Christ Now ye are the body of 
 
 Christ, and members in particular." On one man there 
 comes down a baptism of the Spirit and of fire, and, 
 amid his deep musings, all nature seems to echo a voice 
 speaking to his heart, " lllioni shall I send ? ivho will 
 I/O r' The forms of men in a distant region crowd his 
 daily thoughts, haunt his nightly dreams, and beckon 
 him away from friends and family and country, that he 
 may tell them of that eternal life which is his greatest 
 treasure, and of which as heathen they know nothing. 
 To another is committed, as a sacred trust, command- 
 ing influence in his own community. Another is 
 invested with office in the Church, with wisdom and 
 learning, with genius and rexDutation, all bestowed on 
 him under the same responsibility and for the same 
 end. While to millions is given, in larger or smaller 
 proportions, but to all collectively, in measure equal to the 
 occasion and destined for the same service, the means of 
 equipping and sustaining those who go forth in the 
 spirit of the Church, to do the work of the Church. If 
 it be right, and a matter of plain Christian duty, for 
 some to dedicate all their talents (as hundreds of British 
 Missionaries, besides men of other countries, have done 
 and are doing still), by what plea of exemption can the 
 rest excuse themselves from the dedication of the talent 
 they are called to occupy, to the same Christian enter- 
 prise ? Who shall draw the line of duty ? Who will 
 reveal the religious princijile on which the sage keeps 
 back his counsel, the orator his eloquence, the rich man 
 
11^4 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 his wealth, and the poor the savings of his self-denial, 
 from that catholic system of agencies by which the 
 Church is to evangelise the world ? It has been written, 
 as by the finger that "scorched the tablet-stone," in 
 Sinai, on many a Christian's conscience — oh that it were 
 so written on every one's, — " I must go myself, or send 
 another, so far as my means, faithfully applied, admit, 
 to preach the gospel to the heathen." — When will the 
 hour arrive when every man that calls himself a 
 Christian shall open the depths of his soul to the light 
 of the Bible, and ask the oracle that gives responses 
 there. What does " the God of the whole earth " require 
 me to say, to do, to give, as the expression of my sym- 
 pathy with His Church, the fulfilment of my duty to 
 His world ? 
 
 The RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE WORLD is OHC of 
 
 deep responsibility. The duty of every member of the 
 Church in this relation is abundantly clear. Is that 
 duty discharged ? Is it even considered ? 
 
 A most imperfect estimate will be formed of the posi- 
 tion of the Church here contemplated, if we confine 
 our view to the obligation under which she is placed to 
 the performance of a solemn duty. All her interests 
 flourish in projwrtian as she assnines her i^roper place and 
 acts in her appointed character. And this is as true of the 
 individual Christian and the local Church as it is of the 
 Church in a nation or in the entire world. It is, con- 
 fessedly, of incalculable moment, that the Church of 
 Christ should at all times, through all her members, 
 be pervaded with a vivid impression of those primary 
 truths which are essential to her existence. But can 
 human ingenuity devise a scheme for deepening and 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 25 
 
 spreading that impression equal to the Missionary 
 work ? Here we are brought habitually to feel that 
 our nature is in a ruined state ; that our salvation 
 must be gratuitous ; that we cannot be saved but 
 through the mediation of the Son of God ; that the 
 agency of the Divine Spirit is as necessary to the life of 
 the soul as the nix we breathe to the life of the body: — 
 these truths are the elementary principles of Christian 
 Missions, at once urging their necessity, inspiring their 
 motives, and stimulating all their efforts. To be occu\ 
 pied, therefore, in the endeavour to bring these truths 
 before the mind of man in every region, is the most 
 effective method of preserving the simplicity and fresh- 
 ness of their impression on ourselves. And is it not 
 likely that when the plain facts and fundamental prin- 
 ciples of Christianity are viewed in the same light, and 
 with the same desire for their universal communication, 
 in every portion of the Church, a key may then be dis- 
 covered to the many controversies by which the Church 
 has been distracted ; that an energy will be secretly at 
 work, by which the elements so long severed from each 
 other, as though they had been essentially discordant, 
 shall be harmonised ; and the Church shall resemble 
 those celestial luminaries which maintain their perfect 
 form, and keep their proper path, by that simple prin- 
 ciple which pours their light along the sky on other/ 
 worlds ? 
 
 Another internal advantage accruing to the Church 
 from Missionary ideas and projects may be clearly ob- 
 served in the variety and attraction imparted to her 
 ordinary services. The chill of formality gives way 
 before the glow of interest for a world ! There is a 
 
26 THE SPECIAL RELATION OF THE 
 
 positive enrichment of mind. The sympathies of the 
 heart embrace a wider range. Public discourses and 
 private conversations are imbued with an endless 
 diversity of images and associations all subservient 
 to the growth of devout feeling. Christians find that 
 their religion is not only their most serious concern, 
 but that which possesses the liveliest interest, the 
 strongest charm. 
 
 The elevation of individual character, that which in 
 the aggregate makes the character of the Church, is 
 another felicitous result of the Missionary spirit. The 
 thoughts are conversant with the loftiest themes and 
 the grandest hopes. The principles are regulated by 
 the sublimest standard : while the imagination and the 
 feelings are regaled with those high aspirations which 
 raise the man above what is mean and transient, and 
 associate him, in his plans and operations, with holy 
 men and holier angels, and even with God Himself! 
 
 Let us not forget Iioav dependent the Church must 
 ever ba for her illumination and her sanctity on the 
 free bestowments of the Spirit's influence. That in- 
 fluence is assuredly vouchsafed to the Church most 
 copiously when she is most devoutly and actively 
 urging all her means and opportunities to diffuse the 
 truths and institutions of the gospel through the 
 world. Then the need of such influence is most really 
 felt, and its communication most fervently implored. 
 Then it is that, in answer to the united cry of the 
 whole body of the faithful to the Lord G od of Sabaoth, 
 the heavens are opened, and showers of life and peace 
 come down. Tlie Church is blessed herself that she 
 may become a blessing to the world. 
 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO THE WORLD. 27 
 
 Never shall wc see the unity and spiritual grandeur 
 of the Church, until, instead of looking only within, she 
 looks, also, ahroad, — looks abroad in the conscious- 
 ness of her responsibility, and with hearty, combined, 
 strenuous effort labours to acquit herself as the Eepre- 
 sentative on earth of that Saviour, who appears as her 
 Eepresentative on high. Then, then shall " the nations" 
 behold her glory ! Tlu-n shall the benignant spirits of 
 the skies admire her order and her beauty ! Then shall 
 the demons of darkness, who have so long usurped a 
 foul dominion over the mind and destinies of man, 
 retreat from their strongest holds, and vanish before/ 
 her rising splendour ! 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE WARRANT OF THE CHURCH FOR MISSIONARY 
 UNDERTAKINGS. 
 
 Right of the Church fotindeii on the Dominion of the Saviom'. — Asserted in 
 the Commission of the Disciples. — The Command to Preach the Gospel 
 given to them as Disciples. — Not fulfilled by the Apostles. — They ap- 
 pointed others. — The Command obeyed, and the Promise fulfilled, in the 
 various efforts of the Church. — Moral Obligation. — Self-dedication. — 
 Activity. — Conseci'ation of Property. — Idolatry at Home supporting Idolatry 
 Abroad. 
 
 There are two considerations practically connected 
 with the views we have been taking of the mission of 
 the Church : the right by which the Church assumes 
 to herself the office of evangelising the world; and 
 the kinds and degrees of labour to which she is called 
 in the exercise of that right : for we consider a right 
 as implying duty, and a warrant as involving respon- 
 sibility. 
 
 The undertaking of the Church is, in fact, grounded 
 on the claim of the Saviour to universal homage, super- 
 induced on the original and eternal right of the Su- 
 preme Jehovah to be worshipped and acknowledged by 
 His creatures. The immutable obligation of all men, 
 to worship God lies at the basis of all religion and. 
 morality. The breaking of this bond gives idolatry 
 its real character, doing dishonour to the Creator by 
 changing His glory into a lie. The fact that idolatry 
 
THE WAKRANT OF THE CHURCH. 29 
 
 is widely spread and lias contiuucd long, cannot in the 
 slightest degree alter our view of the demands of the 
 true God, unless we entertain the absurdity of sup- 
 posing that a great moral evil loses its nature by the 
 extent to which it reaches, and the time through which 
 it endures ! 
 
 Equally binding with the obligation to serve God, 
 is the obligation to bring back to His service those 
 who have departed fi'om it. The idea of tnnnhers has 
 no relation to the idea of obligation, in this case. 
 Suppose only two persons in the world, both under 
 equal obligation to love and worship God their com- 
 mon Father ; one forsakes His altar, abandons His 
 ways ; is it not clearly binding on the other to try 
 to bring him back ? But let the one be multiplied by 
 millions ; each of those millions is in the same posi- 
 tion, and the duty of the unfalleu one to attempt his 
 restoration is the same, as though he alone were guilty. 
 Neither has the idea of time any relation to the idea of 
 this obligation.^ Let it be the duty of Abel to seek the 
 conversion of Cain in the first hour of Cain's apostacy : 
 no succession of hours, accumulating into years or 
 centuries, could possibly annul the duty binding at the 
 first. Nor, in truth, has the idea of ^j/^ct; any relation 
 to this idea of obligation ; — ichercver the wanderer is, 
 the faithful must call, invite, persuade him to return. 
 
 The right of the Divine Saviour to universal homage 
 as " Lord of all" in virtue of his Mediatorial exalta- 
 tion, has been superinduced on the original right of 
 the Creator to the worship of His offspring. This im- 
 portant principle of the Christian Theology is inter- 
 woven with all its facts and discoveries. The advent 
 
30 THE WARRANT OF THE CHURCH 
 
 of the Messiah, resulting from eternal counsels, for 
 substantiating the types and accomplishing the chief 
 predictions of all i^revious ages, was hailed by celestial 
 witnesses as bringing "glory to God in the highest, 
 and on earth peace, good will toward men !" Then 
 arose uj)on the world that meridian light whose morn- 
 ing beam had pierced the darkness of four thousand 
 3'ears. Then was seen the mystery concealed within 
 the shadows of the Jewish System — a Saviour for the 
 World ! Then was exhibited the mighty power of God 
 in that nature which Satan had seduced, which sin 
 had ruined. Then was achieved the victory of holi- 
 ness over sin, and the triumx^h of immortality over 
 death. Man obeyed, suffered, foiled the Tempter, 
 bowed his head, and died ! And Man was raised 
 from the grave, exalted to the heavens, and seated at 
 the right hand of God. " Without controversy great 
 is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in the 
 flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached 
 unto the Gentiles, beheved on in the world, received 
 up into glory !"* 
 
 Now what is the peculiar glory of that estate to which 
 the Incarnate Word has been exalted ? Is it not that 
 His dominion may be supreme and universal — that all 
 the hosts of the saved may adore Him, and that all the 
 nations of the earth may own Him as then- Lord, to the 
 glory of God the Father ? He has a eight, therefore, 
 secured by His Father's promise, and grounded on His 
 own obedience and sacrifice, to issue the mandate, and 
 to employ the moans of universal conquest : for to Him 
 every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess ; to Him 
 1 Timothy iii. IG. 
 
FOR MISSIONARY TJNDERTAICINGS. 31 
 
 shall be given "the Heathen for His inheritance, and 
 the uttermost x^arts of the earth for His possession." 
 In His name that possession is to be asked, in prayer 
 to God. In His name that possession is to be rescued 
 from the usurpation of Satan, and from the reluctancy 
 of man. 
 
 He asserted this right when. His work on earth being 
 finished, He was about to ascend His throne. "Then 
 the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a 
 mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And 
 when they saw Him, they worshipped Him : but some 
 doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, sajdng, 
 "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
 
 THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FaTHER, AND OF THE SoN, AND 
 
 OF THE Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all 
 
 THINGS whatsoever I HAVE COMMANDED YOU : AND, LO, I AIM 
 WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD."* 
 
 Here, then, is the Divine Warrant, — the command 
 in which the Church reads her duty to her Lord, in her 
 appointed relation to the whole world. Here, too, she 
 reads her encouragement to prosecute the duty fully, 
 to the utmost verge of her allotted sphere. 
 
 However vaguely this command may have been 
 quoted in application to general efforts for the diffusion 
 of the gospel, nothing can be more groundless in argu- 
 ment as well as mischievous in tendency (as keeping 
 Christians from their duty), than the notion that would 
 confine it exclusively to the Apostles, — regarding it as 
 exhausted, so to speak, in their peculiar commission. 
 Let the following observations be weighed. 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 16-20. 
 
82 THE WAEKANT OF THE CHUECH 
 
 1. Admitting that this command was addressed to 
 the Apostles only, it must be noticed that they are 
 spoken of as dificijiles. Being themselves disciples they 
 are commanded to disciple all nations. They are en- 
 joined to teach all nations to observe all things which 
 He had commanded them, the command just given 
 being of course included. Having thus provided a suc- 
 cession of teachers through all the ages of the Church, 
 He gives a promise running parallel with the command 
 along those ages — "even unto the end of the world," 
 The i^rinciple of this commission must commend itself 
 to every unsophisticated mind as being plainly this : — 
 The disciples of Jesus Christ are to observe whatever He 
 has commanded, and to teach all nations what they 
 have learnt themselves. The manner in which this is 
 to be done may afterwards appear. It is with the 
 principle of clisciplesldp involving the obligation to teach 
 that we are now concerned, 
 
 2. The command of Christ was not obeyed, nor the 
 fulfilment of the promise experienced, in their full extent 
 by these eleven apostles. They did not visit all nations. 
 Christ has not been with them, personally, to the end 
 of the world. Their services were limited by time and 
 space. They went to their rest. Can any man imagine, 
 on the one hand, that the Omniscient Sa'siour would 
 give so comprehensive a commission to men under a 
 physical impossibility of performing it ; or, on the other 
 hand, that the A]}ostles failed in the accomplishment of 
 that which He designed them to perform ? 
 
 3. Whatever the extent of the apostolic labours might 
 be, or however long or short their continuance, it is 
 quite apparent on the surface of the New Testament 
 
FOR MISSIONARY UNDERTAKINGS. 66 
 
 that tliey — the Apostles — did not discharge the duty 
 enjoined, nor partake the blessings promised, exclu- 
 sively, in their own life-time. They appointed or en- 
 couraged other disciples to co-operate with them in this 
 service ; and to those other disciples, as well as to their 
 apostolic leaders, was the presence of Christ vouchsafed, 
 according to His promise. 
 
 4. The same command has been obeyed in successful 
 reliance on the same promise, by multitudes, of various 
 classes, since the death of the Apostles. Witness, for 
 examx^le, the ordinary labours of the public ministry of 
 the gospel, by which, in every age, and among all de- 
 nominations of Christians, sinners have been converted 
 from the error of their way, and conducted along the 
 path of holiness to heaven ; and the humble consecra- 
 tion of talent in the more private walks of life, b}' prayer, 
 by conversation, by circulating books and tracts, by the 
 instruction of children or adults, and by the various 
 aid rendered to institutions for carrying on such objects 
 on an extended scale. Witness, too, the signal prooTs 
 of divine favour resting on the self-devotion of Mis- 
 sionaries going forth from different lauds, and turning 
 the heathen from their darkness to the light of Truth. 
 In all these instances the command has been obeyed, the 
 promise has been fulfilled. The Church has discharged 
 her original and permanent commission, and her Lord 
 has blessed her in the deed. The Missionary engage- 
 ments of the Church stand, therefore, on the broad 
 and simple basis of moral obligation, and are urged by 
 the solemnities of Conscience and Eesponsibility. The 
 Command and Promise of her Lord constitute her right 
 and her encouragement to prosecute these engagements. 
 
34 THE WARRANT OF THE CHURCH 
 
 5. That tlie Apostles themselves unclerstoocl our 
 Lord's words in this sense is obvious from their sub- 
 sequent lives. St. Mark, in the closing verse of his 
 gospel, after he had been writing of the Saviour's last 
 commands to His disciples, adds, "And they went forth 
 and preached everywhere, the Lord worlcing with them 
 and confirming the word with signs following." We 
 have but to turn to the Acts and Epistles of the 
 Apostles for the amplest illustrations of the man- 
 ner in which they understood the will of Christ and 
 obeyed it. 
 
 The next consideration is — What lands and degrees 
 of labour are demanded in fulfilment of the obligation 
 resting on the Church ? 
 
 The nature of the Christian religion implies that God 
 has an inherent and inalienable right to the entire 
 surrender of our being ; and that the doctrines and 
 privileges of Christianity, so far from interfering with 
 that right, press it home by motives of most tender 
 and constraining interest. The belief of the Gospel, 
 and the peace and confidence which come along with 
 that belief into the soul, can never relax our obliga- 
 tions, but must confirm them, while they strengthen 
 their appeal by awakening our gratitude and drawing 
 our hearts, at the same moment in which they touch 
 our consciences and our fears. This surrender of 
 being, in which personal Christianity consists, although 
 the result of Divine Influence, is as spontaneous as all 
 the other acts of a free and intelligent spirit. The 
 heart yields to the guidance of Him who is infinitely 
 true and wise ; to the mercy of that offended Father 
 who has Himself provided the atonement for sin ; to 
 
FOR MISSIONARY UNDERTAKINGS. 35 
 
 tlie fiutliority of that Supreme Governor, who, while 
 He stoops from His throne to embrace the penitent 
 behever, has never left His throne, never broken the 
 sceptre of His Majesty nor abrogated the sanctions of 
 His will. By this surrender we become embodied with 
 the Church, share her privileges, and participate in 
 her responsibility. The charge committed to the 
 Church is the evangelization of the world. To each 
 member of the Church, then, this is an object to which 
 he must regard himself as dedicated. It is required 
 of the whole Church of God (and, therefore, of each 
 member in particular) that whatever peculiarly con- 
 cerns the honour of God our Saviour should excite a 
 lively interest. To every Christian it must be a mat- 
 ter of high consideration, that his fellow-men should 
 know his Lord, should love Him, and be saved by Him/^ 
 These are objects to which our thoughts should flow 
 as in their natural current. Our hearts should come 
 forth to meet them and give them welcome. We 
 should feel towards them the fidelity of servants and 
 the warmth of partisans. Our position in the world 
 requires that to these objects our active energies both 
 of mind and body should be devoted. True it is that 
 God does not require what we cannot do ; but what we 
 can. He does require. He has appointed a work to be^ 
 done. He has commanded His Church to do t\iSLt\ 
 work. He gives the inclination to do it. He gives the ', 
 ability to do it. He gives the opportunity to do ii. ' 
 Let each do what he can, and all he can, and the work y 
 will be accomplished. ^ 
 
 The simple principle of dedication to God, which 
 glows with living fire in the language of the Scriptures 
 4. * 
 
3G THE WAERAXT OF THE CHURCH 
 
 and in the examples of the saints, and which is, in 
 truth, the spirit of the Christian Church, involves all 
 that can be desired or done in the great work before us. 
 Let a man imbibe this principle, and we would say to 
 him : — Follow it out : — Act upon it : — Try what you 
 can do : — Do it faithfully, devoutly, honestly : — Do it 
 with all your heart : — Do it noic : — Do it always : — Do 
 it in the best way you can. You may have little time 
 to dedicate : — Kemember you ou-e that little time to the 
 v^ork. You may have little strength of body : — that 
 also you owe. Y^ou may have slender talents : — they 
 belong to God. Y'"our influence may be feeble and 
 limited : — such as it is you have no right to keep it 
 back. You. can converse with jouv childi'en, or your 
 servants, or ignorant neighbours, winning their con- 
 fidence by the example of your cheerful and consistent 
 piety. You can invite your friends and acquaintance 
 to accompany you to the house of God. You can give 
 a tract, or lend a book ; and these you can read to such 
 as are unable or unwilling to read themselves. You 
 can engage your services, statedly or occasionally, in a 
 Sabbath School — one of the simplest and most effective 
 spheres of usefulness on which it is possible to enter. 
 You can be ready with your hearty advice and en- 
 couragement to others who are thus employed. 
 
 The consecration of Property to this service is a 
 very simple question as to the principle ; though one 
 of great delicacy and difficulty in many of its specific 
 applications. 
 
 It is a trite yet most important truth, that all the 
 property in the world belongs to God ; and that its 
 earthly possessors are responsible to Him, as His 
 
FOR jnSSIONARY UNDERTAKINGS. 37 
 
 stewards, for its faithful appropriation. Ou this 
 princixile it would be easy to argue the duty of men, as 
 men, to consult the will of God and to aim at His glory 
 in the distribution of all the property committed to 
 their charge. But let us take narrower ground. We 
 are arguing not with men merely, but with Christian 
 men, converted men — the men who constitute the 
 Church of Christ. With such men it ought to be a 
 first principle that they themselves belong to God in 
 a high and peculiar sense, as redeemed by His grace, 
 and given up in voluntary dedication to His service : — 
 most assuredly the Church is the " purchased posses- 
 sion " of the Lord of the Church. The property of the 
 Church, that is, all the property of every member of 
 the Church, is His. No man, therefore, acts on 
 Christian principles, who has not offered His all in 
 sacrifice to God his Saviour. 
 
 It is most true that man is not accountable to his 
 fellow-man, beyond the claims of honesty and justice, 
 for the use he makes of his property : the Supreme 
 Disposer has left this to the conscience and discretion 
 of each individual. But this discretion involves re- 
 sponsibility to Him who has given it. There must, of 
 course, be a wise discriminating of particular applica- 
 tions ; but on what principle will a Christian withhold 
 the contribution of his property from evert/ application 
 made to him, under the direction of Divine Providence, 
 on behalf of the illumination of the world ? . 
 
 Only let the Christian Church be thoroughly con- \ 
 viuccd that the universal spread of the gospel is an 
 end that must, by Christian means, be accomplished ; 
 and let the Church be at the same time trained to the 
 
38 THE WARRANT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 recognition of right principles in regulating tlie dis- 
 tribution of property ; — and most of the practical 
 difficulties which beset the question, and actually 
 hinder the work, will disappear. When men (to say 
 nothing of Christians) set their hearts on an object, 
 see how they act ! How large their sacrifices ! How 
 lavish their expenditure ! How admirable their con- 
 trivances ! How effective their conduct ! And oh ! 
 how long, how much longer, shall men thus demon- 
 strate their earnestness under the urgencies of a tran- 
 sient want — in the indulgences of passion — often in 
 pursuits that conscience must condemn — always in the 
 gratification of tastes that are idle and frivolous in 
 comparison with the spiritual interests of a world ; 
 while Christians will not give the same demonstration 
 of their earnestness to save their brethren from the 
 second death ? 
 
 It is delusive to assure ourselves of the judgments 
 and hearts of Christians, while their silver and their 
 gold are " kept back." Idolatrn at home is the mightiest 
 auxiliary to idolatry, in its less subtle though more 
 palpable forms, abroad. Here then, within the temple 
 of the Church itself, idolatry must be assailed — exposed 
 — condemned ; till every worshipper shall truly act on 
 the impulse of that stanza in the touching record of 
 Cowper's mournful self-reproaches : — 
 
 " The dearest idtil I have kiiowu, 
 Whate'er that idol he; 
 Help me to tear it from Thy throne, 
 And AYorshii) ouly Thee." 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Proofs that the Primitive Christians were a Mssionary People. — The Difficulties 
 they encountered. — Habits of the Nations. — Power of the Roman Empire. — 
 Difficulty of access to Remote Places. — SmaU Number and Feeble Resoui'ces 
 of Christians. — En-or respecting Mh-aclcs. — Extent of the Laboiu-s of the 
 First Christians. — Testimonies of Tacitus : Pliny : Justin Martyr : Tertul- 
 lian : Clemens Alexandi-inus. — The Natm-e of the Doctrines Preached. — The « 
 kind of Agency Employed. — No Organised Missionary Societies. — Why ? 
 — Vohmtary Activity of Individuals and of Churches in their Social Capacity. 
 — Illustrations from the New Testament. — Sph-it of the Early Missions. 
 
 That the Primitive Cliristiaus were a Missionary- 
 people might be fairly presumed from the principles 
 which formed the basis of their union ; from the cir- 
 cumstances in which they became acquainted with the 
 gospel, and the sufferings they patiently endured for 
 its sake ; from the spirit of charity which animated their 
 intercourse with one another and with the world ; and 
 more especially ^/Vci»?- tlie astoiiishiiK/ pi'oijrcss made hij the 
 (joHpel in tJu'ir day throtajh varioKS regions of the earth. 
 To the last of these facts our attention is now dh-ected. 
 To see this fact with sufficient clearness and im- 
 pression, it will be necessary to bring into one view 
 the difficulties which the Primitive Clu'istians had to 
 encounter in the propagation of the gospel, the extent 
 and rapidity of that propagation, the means by which 
 it was secured, and the spirit in Avhich they were 
 employed. 
 
40 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 Of tlie difficulties encountered by the Primitive 
 Missions, some, and the chief, were those which exist 
 always and everywhere — the depravity of the human 
 heart opposing itself to the doctrines and precej^ts of 
 the gosx^el — and the agency of Satan, adding subtlety 
 and strength to that depravity. To these we may 
 add, the impediments arising from prejudices created 
 by particular systems of thought ; the interests of large 
 and influential bodies of men ; the deeply-rooted habits 
 of education ; the hold maintained by the mythology 
 of Paganism on the imaginations and x^assions of man- 
 kind, i^ervadiug their domestic customs and national 
 institutions, their festivals, their business, and their 
 language. These difficulties, though not peculiar to 
 the primitive age, seemed to form an impregnable 
 barrier, and to present the enterprise to which the 
 Christians of that age were summoned, as one, in 
 human estimation, altogether hopeless. At no period 
 of time, and in no part of the world, were the ordinary 
 obstructions to the progress of the gospel so numerous 
 or so great as in the Koman Empire at the com- 
 mencement of the Christian history. The following 
 passage, though designed by the writer for a very dif- 
 fi'rent purpose, contains so vivid a picture of these 
 difficulties, that we may safely leave the impression 
 of the whole to neutralise the sarcastic insinuations 
 mingled with it. 
 
 "But the belief of tlie Christian was accompanied 
 with horror. The most trifling mark of respect for 
 the national worship he considered as a direct homage 
 yielded to the demon, and as an act of rebellion against 
 the majesty of God. In conse(|ueuce of this opinion, 
 
THE PEIx^nXIVE CHRISTIANS. 41 
 
 it was the first but arduous duty of a Cliristian to 
 preserve himself pure, and uudefiled by the practice of 
 idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely 
 a speculative doctrine professed in the schools or 
 preached in the temples. The innumerable deities 
 and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with 
 every circumstance of business or pleasure, of public 
 or of private life ; and it seemed impossible to escape 
 the observance of them, without, at the same time, 
 renouncing the commerce of mankind, and all the 
 ofQces and amusements of society. The important 
 transactions of peace and war were prepared or con- 
 cluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magistrate, 
 the senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside or 
 to participate. The public spectacles were an essen- 
 tial part of the cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and 
 the gods were supposed to accept, as the most grateful 
 offering, the games that the prince and i^eople cele- 
 brated in honour of their peculiar festivals. The 
 Christian, who with pious horror avoided the abomina- 
 tion of the circus or the theatre, found himself encom- 
 passed with infernal snares in every convivial enter- 
 tainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable 
 deities, poured out libations to each other's happiness. 
 When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, 
 was forced in hymeneal pomp over the threshold of her 
 new habitation, or when the sad procession of the dead 
 slowly moved towards the funeral pile, — the Christian, 
 on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert 
 the persons who were the dearest to him, rather than 
 contract the guilt inherent to these impious ceremonies. 
 Every art and every trade that was in the least con- 
 
42 
 
 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 cerned in the framiug or adorning of idols was polluted 
 
 by the stain of idolatry If we cast our eyes over the 
 
 numerous remains of antiquity, we shall perceive, that 
 besides the immediate representations of the gods, and 
 the holy instruments of their worshij), the elegant forms 
 and agreeable fictions consecrated by the imagination 
 of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest ornaments 
 of the houses, the dress, and the furniture, of the 
 Pagans. Even the arts of music and painting, of 
 eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same impure 
 
 origin Even the common language of Greece and 
 
 Eome abounded with familiar but impious expressions, 
 which the imprudent Christian might too carelessly 
 utter, or too patiently hear. The dangerous tempta- 
 tions which on every side lurked in ambush to surprise 
 the unguarded believer, assailed him with redoubled 
 violence on the days of solemn festivals. So artfully 
 were they framed and disposed throughout the year, 
 that superstition always wore the appearance of plea- 
 sure, and often of vu'tue. Some of the festivals in the 
 Eoman ritual were destined to salute the new calends 
 of January with vows of public and private felicity, 
 to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and 
 living, to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property, 
 to hail, on the retu^rn of Spring, the genial powers of 
 fecundity, to perpetuate the two memorable eras of 
 Eome — the foundation of the city, and that of the re- 
 pubhc — and to restore, during the humane license of 
 the Saturnalia, the primitive equality of mankind. Some 
 idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the Chris- 
 tians for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous 
 delicacy which they displayed on a much less alarming 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 43 
 
 occasion. On days of general festivity, it was the 
 custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps 
 and with branches of lam-el, and to crown their heads 
 with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant 
 l">ractice might, perhaps, have been tolerated as a mere 
 civil institution. But it most unluckily happened that 
 the doors were under the protection of the household 
 gods, that the laurel was sacred to the lover of Daphne, 
 and that garlands of flowers, though frequently worn 
 as a s_ymbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedi- 
 cated in their first origin to the service of superstition. 
 The trembling Christians, who were persuaded in this 
 instance to comply with the fashion of their country, 
 and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under 
 the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches 
 of their own conscience, the censures of the Church, 
 and the denunciations of Divine vengeance. Such was 
 the anxious diligence which was required to guard 
 the chastity of the gospel from the infectious breath 
 of idolatry."''' 
 
 We must remember that in the age of which we are 
 treating, there were also difficulties of a most formid- 
 able nature peculiar to itself. There was arrayed 
 against the proceedings of Christians all the authoritij 
 of the Roman empire. Taking the most moderated view 
 that even scepticism allows, of the persecutions of the 
 Church by the Eoman power, it will be confessed that 
 men exposed to so much danger, for the peaceable ob- 
 servance of a proscribed religion, were placed in circum- 
 stances singularly disadvantageous for the propagation 
 of that religion. If the lloman princes inflicted ou 
 * Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," chap. xv. 
 
44 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 tliem "severe xninisliment " for having " chosen for 
 themselves a singular but inoffensive mode of faith 
 and worship ;" if "about fourscore years after the death 
 of Christ, His innocent disciples were punished with 
 death by the sentence of a proconsul of the most 
 amiable and philosophic character, and according to the 
 laws of an emperor distinguished by the wisdom and 
 justice of his general administration ;" — then, surely, 
 whatever religious efforts were made by men so situ- 
 ated, viHst hQjYe been made at hazards of which we can 
 form only a slight conception. To profess the gospel 
 was to provoke the jealousy of the established priest- 
 hood, to denounce the prevailing systems of philo- 
 sophy, to arraign the profligacy of the camp, the city, 
 the palace, and alternately to excite the contempt or 
 alarm the fears of the masters of the world. To per- 
 severe in such a i^rofession, when forbidden, was obsti- 
 nacy for which no chastisement was considered too 
 severe. In what light, then, could the same authorities 
 regard any movements that proceeded on the principle 
 that this religion was destined to be universal, and on 
 the conviction that it was the duty of every disciple to 
 do his utmost that it might become so ? Imperial vigi- 
 lance might slumber, but it awoke with glances that 
 would kindle persecution in the obscurest hamlet. 
 Keen as the conflict of the servants of truth must ever 
 be with a compact and interested hierarchy, and with 
 the clamours of a superstitious and licentious multitude, 
 how terribly is the danger of the conflict aggravated 
 by the authority of the magistrate and the resentment 
 of the prince ! Yet, it is not the danger we are now 
 considering, so much as the peculiar nature of the 
 
THE PPJJIITIVE CHRISTIANS. 45 
 
 difficult!/ thus placed in tlie way of spreading tlie gospel. 
 It had a positive tendency to prevent any effort for that 
 purpose being made ; and when there were spirits bold 
 enough to make them in the face of such opposition, it 
 had an equally direct tendency to prevent their success. 
 For it is to be remembered that the interposition of the 
 secular power, in these cases, was in defence of popular 
 opinions and practices, and for the suppression of a 
 party at first despised for the insignificance of its j)re- 
 tensions, and then hated for the inflexibility of its 
 religious notions and the severity and pureness of its 
 morals. 
 
 The spread of the gospel by the Primitive Christians 
 would, of necessity, be greatly impeded by tJie difficulty 
 of intercourse with diatunt parts of the u-orld, and the 
 constant sacrifices of enjoyment, ease, and safety, with 
 which enterprises for such a purpose must have been 
 carried on. We know too little of these enterprises to 
 be able to furnish a detail of the struggles through 
 which they passed. An inspired Missionary has, in- 
 deed, spoken not only of his stripes, prison, deaths, 
 but also of his journeyings, perils of water, perils of 
 robbers, perils by the heathen, perils in the city, perils 
 in the wilderness, weariness, painfulness, watchings, 
 hunger and thirst, fastings, cold and nakedness.''' 
 Still the fact that these efforts icere made at all in the 
 circumstances of the primitive times, is enough to 
 assure us that the full amount of difficulty arising 
 from the causes we have specified must have been 
 experienced. 
 
 The smallncss of their nuwhers and the feebleness of their 
 * 2 Cor. si. 23. 
 
46 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 resources would make these difficulties more appalling. 
 To a hundred and twenty persons in a remote, despised, 
 and suspected eastern province was the commission 
 given to evangelise the world ; and of these, some were 
 women, and the greater part were poor and unlearned. 
 Such was the original extent of the Missionary Church, 
 and such were its visible means of encountering alike 
 the power of Eome and the genius of Greece, the re- 
 finements of luxury or the grossness of barbarism, in 
 every nation under heaven ! Christians in modern 
 times are apt to overlook these difficulties, and to think 
 they were miraculously prevented or miraculously 
 overcome. They forget that there is no record of such 
 viiracles. They forget the hunger and thirst, the 
 weariness, the shipwreck, the fears and perplexities and 
 sinkings of heart, which beset the Missionaries of the 
 infant Church. They forget the touching allusions in 
 the narratives or letters of those Missionaries to the 
 privations they endured, and to the sympathy with them 
 expressed by their Christian brethren, in the tender- 
 ness of their prayers and the cheerfulness with which 
 they aided them. They forget that whatever mu-acles 
 were wrought by the first Missionaries of the Cross, 
 were for the attestation of the doctrine, uot for the 
 safety of the teacher ; and that they were often wrought 
 for the relief of others, scarcely ever for their own. 
 
 The advantages connected with miraculous j)owers 
 have been egregiously misunderstood. They were 
 proofs of the divinity of the Christian religion appealing 
 to men's senses, securing their attention and shaking 
 their prejudices : thus placing the Christian teacher in 
 the most favoui-ablc condition for the delivery of his 
 
THE PRnnTIVE CHRISTIANS. 47 
 
 message. The possession of sucli powers woukl, of 
 course, elevate tlieir faith and courage in a very high 
 degree, urging them to encounter opposition, and sus- 
 taining them amidst discouragement. But in gaining 
 access to mankind, in pressing througli the hindrances 
 to such access, which woukl. have obstructed the pro- 
 gress of persons in ordinary circumstances, the gifted 
 preachers of the primitive age seem to have been left 
 to the same means and appliances as other men. 
 Miracles were of infinite service in the exercise of their 
 ministry ; but, in order to the exercise of tlieir yninistrij, 
 it was necessary that they should make every sacrifice 
 of personal comfort and interest, exposing themselves 
 to every kind of hardship, braving the tempests of the 
 deep, the powers of the magistracy, the rage of in- 
 furiated mobs, superstitions which no miracles could 
 dislodge, and malice which no virtues could appease. 
 
 On the whole, the difficulties attending the propaga- 
 tion of the truth by the Primitive Christians were 
 such as no combination of human wisdom and heroism 
 could surmount. The historian of the "Decline and 
 Fall of the Eoman Empire " has, indeed, attempted, as is 
 well known, to account for the spread of the gospel in 
 the first age by assigning what he calls the "secondary 
 causes of the rapid growth of the Christian Church." 
 " While," says Mr. Gibbon, " that great body (the 
 Koman Empire) was invaded by open violence, or 
 undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion 
 gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up 
 in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from op- 
 position, and finally erected the triumphant banner of 
 the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol Our curiosity 
 
43 MISSIOXARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 is naturally prompted to inquire by wliat means the 
 Cluistian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over 
 the established i-eligionsof the earth. To this inquiry', 
 an obvious but satisfactory answer may be returned; that 
 it was owing to the covi-incvitf evidence of the doctniie 
 itself, and to the ruling providence of its Great Author. 
 But as truth and reason seldom find so favourable a 
 reception in the world, and as the wisdom of providence 
 frequently condescends to use the passions of the human 
 heart, and the general circumstances of mankind, as 
 instruments to execute its purpose ; we may still be 
 permitted, though tvith hecominrj submisssion, to ask, not 
 indeed what were ihe first, but what were the secondary 
 causes of the rapid growth of the Christian Church. "=•" 
 
 An examination of Mr. Gibbon's development of these 
 " secondary causes " has been pursued with great success 
 by several Christian A^i-iters. The popular " Apology " 
 of Bishop Watson is highly satisfactory ; as is also 
 the less known work of Dr. Chelsum. " Gibbon's 
 Account of Christianity Considered," by Milner, is 
 worthy of the highest praise. An admirable exposure 
 of Mr. Gibbon's fallacies will be found in Ilaldane's 
 "Evidences of Christianity;" and Mr. Douglas, of 
 Cavers, has made some very just and acute observations 
 in his work on " Errors Regarding Religion." The 
 " Inquiry " of Sir David Dalrymple (Lord Hailes), is 
 one of the finest specimens of cool, judicious, masterly 
 reasoning in the English language, and deserves the 
 careful study of all who have been startled by the 
 positions and insinuations of the eloquent historian. 
 
 "We shall now proceed to consider the actual progress 
 * Chap. XV. 
 
THE PRIMITR'E CHRISTIANS. 49 
 
 of tlie gospel in primitive times, notwithstanding the 
 difficulties, marking the extent and rapidity which so 
 wonderfully distinguished that progress. 
 
 The narrative of Luke in the Book of Acts contains 
 the authenticated statement of the facts on which our 
 views are to be founded. He lived at the time when 
 those facts occurred, and of many of them he was a 
 witness, and perhaps an agent. His work does not 
 profess to be a complete history. It is, obviously, a 
 selection of examples of the way in which the gospel 
 was propagated, first among the Jews, and afterwards 
 among the heathen. The whole is composed on a 
 principle the reverse of that which would have guided 
 a writer whose object had been to 7nake out a case, or to 
 advance as much as possible the honour of the cause 
 to which he was attached. Hence, many of the lights 
 thrown upon the rapid and extensive multiplication of 
 Christian converts are of a kind which we should call 
 accidental, being involved in facts which are stated 
 with a totally different design. Instances of this must 
 be familiar to every reader of the Acts : — such as the 
 murmuring of the Grecian converts — the death of 
 Herod — the tumults of the Jews — the clamours of the 
 craftsmen at Ephesus, and numerous other cases. 
 
 From the narrative of Luke we learn, that for less 
 than two years from the death of Christ, the labours 
 of Christians were chiefly confined to Jerusalem : no 
 record being given of the probable efforts of those Jews 
 from various countries who witnessed the amazing 
 scenes, and felt the spiritual powers, of the day of 
 Pentecost. In the single city of Jerusalem, during 
 these two years, the little band of one hundred and 
 
 5 
 
CO MISSIONARY EFFOKTS OF 
 
 twenty increased by thousands, multitudes being added 
 to tlie Lord, a great comi^any of the priests and others 
 being obedient to the faith. Being driven by persecu- 
 tions throughout Palestine, they went everywhere 
 preaching the word. Some of them, extending their 
 travels, afterwards, to Phenice, and Cyi)rus, and Au- 
 tioch, carried not only the gospel to their own coun- 
 trymen, but also that voluntary spirit of Missionary 
 enterprise which was followed by the most magnificent 
 results.* 
 
 It was seven years after the ascension of our Lord, 
 when a revelation fi-om heaven removed the prejudices 
 of Peter and the rest of the apostles, against proclaim- 
 ing the gospel to the heathen. From this time, we 
 trace the labours of Christian preachers in Syria, 
 Pisidia, Cyprus, at Lycaonia, Derbe, Antioch, in 
 Cilicia, and in other parts of Asia, where multitudes 
 were converted and increased in number daily. 
 
 The introduction of the gospel into Europe deserves 
 special attention. 
 
 The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one of the 
 most splendid triumphs of the Eedeemer's grace, and 
 was effected in a manner w4iich marked him as 
 destined to accomplish the most extraordinary purposes 
 in the extension of the Church, at a time when the 
 other apostles were still lingering at Jerusalem. His 
 boldness in preaching at Jerusalem provoked a con- 
 spiracy against his life, so that the brethren, anxious 
 for his safety, had him conveyed to Tarsus, f Not 
 long after, wo find him preaching with great success 
 for a whole year at Antioch. From thence, having 
 * Actn ii. S. t Actu ix. 
 
THE PRIMITH'E CHRISTIANS. 51 
 
 Barnabas for liis companion, lie visited Jerusalem 
 again, bearing the contributions of the Syrian believers 
 for the relief of their suffering fellow-Christians in 
 Juclea. Keturning from this journey of benevolence, 
 he and his companion were appointed by the solemn 
 designation of the Holy Spirit, uii a 2Iisiiion to the 
 heathen, being recommended by their brethren to the 
 grace of God. This Mission, which we may sux^pose 
 to have occupied two years, extended to Scleucia, 
 Cyprus, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Galatia, Phiygia. On 
 their return, they gathered the church together and 
 rehearsed all that God had done by them, and 
 how He .had opened the door of faith to the 
 Gentiles. It is calculated that two years had elapsed, 
 when Paul, accompanied by Silas, undertook a second 
 Mission, being again recommended to the grace of 
 God. The primary object of this Mission, in the 
 mind of Paul, was to visit the churches planted 
 on his former journey. This being accomplished, 
 he and his companion would have extended their 
 travels in Asia, but were twice forbidden by the 
 Spirit. They came to Troas. There they were 
 directed by a vision to Macedonia, in Europe. The 
 ministry of the gospel, in this quarter of the globe, 
 commenced in much trouble, but with great success. 
 Passing from Philippi through Berea, Thessalonica, 
 Athens, Paul went forward to Corinth, where he con- 
 tinued eighteen months, aided in his labours by 
 Timothy and Silas, by Aquila and Priscilla. From 
 thence he went to Ephesus, and then returned to 
 Antioch. While tracing these interesting journeys on 
 a map, how delightful it is to realise the full import 
 
52 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 of such brief intimations of success as arc given in 
 the simple expressions of the historian ! 
 
 " The institution, T\-hich properly began only after 
 its author's removal from the world, before the end of 
 thirty years had spread itself through Judea, Galilee, 
 and Samaria, almost all the nmiicrous districts of 
 Lesser Asia, through Greece, and the Islands of the 
 ^gean Sea, the sea-coast of Africa, and had extended 
 itself to Rome, and into Italy. At Antioch in Syria, 
 at Joppa, Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Berea, 
 Iconium, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia, at Lydda, Saron, 
 the number of converts is intimated by the expressions, 
 ' a great number,' ' great miiltitudos,' ' much people.' 
 Converts are mentioned, without any designation of 
 their number,''' at Tyre, Cfesarea, Troas, Athens, 
 Philippi, Lystra, Damascus. During all this time, 
 Jerusalem continued not only the centre of the Mission, 
 but a principal seat of the religion ; for when St. Paul 
 returned thither at the conclusion of the period of 
 which we are now considering the accounts, the other 
 apostles pointed out to him, as a reason for his 
 compliance with their advice, ' how many thousand 
 (myriads, ten thousands) there were in that city who 
 believed.' "f 
 
 • " Considering the extreme conciseness of many parts of the 
 history, the silence about the number of converts is no proof of 
 their paucity; for at Philippi, no mention whatever is made of 
 the number, yet St. Paul addressed an epistle to that church. 
 The churches of Galatia, and the affairs of those churches, were 
 considerable enough to be the subject of another letter, and of 
 much of St. Paul's solicitude ; yet no account is ]n-eserved in the 
 liistory of his success, or even of his ju-eaching, in that country, 
 excei)t the single notice which these words convey : ' When tlu'y 
 
 had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia they 
 
 assayed to go into Bithynia.' Acts xvi. (>, 7.'' 
 
 t Paloy's Evideuces. Part ii. chap. 9. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 53 
 
 There are several passages iu the Epistles coutaiuiBg 
 remarkable iutimations of the very great extent to 
 which the gospel had spread withiu thirty years from 
 the death of Christ. The following are sufiicieutly 
 striking, and may suggest many others of a similar 
 nature. " Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the 
 more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in 
 mind, because of the grace that is given unto me of 
 God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to 
 the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the 
 offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof 
 I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which 
 pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of 
 those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to 
 make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through 
 mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit 
 of God ; so that from Jerusalem, round about unto lUy- 
 ricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." 
 " Which (gospel) is come unto you, as it is in all the 
 
 world ; which was preached to every creature which 
 
 is under heaven." " To the strangers scattered through- 
 out Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." 
 " Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach 
 Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the 
 Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not 
 Titus my brother : but taking my leave of them, I went 
 from thence into Macedonia. Now thanks be unto 
 God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, 
 and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by 
 us in every place." * 
 
 *Eoiri. XY. 15-19; Col. i. G, 23 ; 1 Pet. i. 1 ; 2 Cor. ii. 1::-1-1. 
 
54 IVnSSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 The bitter liostility with which the apostles were 
 encouuterctl, both by Jews and Gentiles, affords con- 
 clusive evidence of thuir success. Had they failed, or 
 but very partially succeeded, they would have been 
 left alone ; but in many instances opposition was ex- 
 cited by their growing influence. Thus at Antioch 
 in Pisidia, "the whole city came together to hear the 
 word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes 
 they were filled with envy."* 
 
 One or two familiar extracts from illustrious heathen 
 WRITERS, connected with the representations of the state 
 of religion by the earliest Christian advocates after the 
 ax^ostles, will complete our survey. 
 
 Tacitus, referring to the accusation of the Christians 
 by Nero, on the occasion of the burning of Eome, tlih-ty 
 years after the death of our Saviour, speaks of the 
 Christians as holding a " pernicious superstition, which 
 though checked for a while, broke out again and spread 
 not only over Italy, but reached the city also. At first 
 they were only apprehended who confessed themselves 
 of that sect ; afterwards a vast multitude were dis- 
 covered by them."-|- 
 
 Fifty years after, the letter of Pliny the Younger to 
 Trajan, respecting the Christians in Bithynia, mentions 
 " the great number of persons who are in danger of 
 suffering ; for many of all ages, and of every rank, of 
 both sexes likewise, are accused and will be accused. 
 Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities 
 only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country.'"]; 
 The temples are referred to as having been ahiiotst 
 
 * Acts xiii. 44, 45. f Ann. : Lib. xv. c. 44. 
 
 * C. Pliuius Trajani Imp. : Lib. s. Ep. 97. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 55 
 
 forsakm, and the victims for sacrifice, as liaving few to 
 purchase them. It is imxDortant to notice that the 
 j)rovinces in which these things took place were at a 
 great distance from Jerusalem, and that there is no 
 reason for supposing that in these provinces the gospel 
 had been more successful than in other places. 
 
 Of the early Christian apologists from whose works 
 it has been usual to gather testimonies on this subject, 
 Justin Martyr, about thirty years after Pliny, has this 
 remarkable and beautiful passage: "There is not a 
 nation, cither of Greek or Barbarian, or of any other 
 name, even of those who wander in tribes and live in 
 tents, amongst whom prayers and thanksgivings are 
 not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe 
 in the name of the crucified Jesus." '■'- 
 
 Tertuklian, who addi-essed his Apology to the Koman 
 emperors about fifty years after the time of Justin, 
 having vindicated the character of the Christians, and 
 shown their loyalty and innocence, proceeds to show 
 that their harmlessness arises not from want of power 
 to revenge themselves. "Are there not multitudes of 
 us in every part of the world ? It is true we are but 
 of yesterday, and yet we have filled your towns, cities, 
 islands, castles, boroughs, councils, camps, courts, 
 palaces, senate, forum; — we leave you only your 
 temples. If we were to make a general secession from 
 your dominions, you would be astonished at your soli- 
 tude." f He also says, in another work, " The Moors 
 and Gfetuleans of Africa, the borders of Spain, several 
 nations of France, and parts of Britain inaccessible to 
 the Komans, the Sarmatians, the Daci, Germans, and 
 * Dial, cum T.-yijlio. f Apol. : c. 37. 
 
56 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 ScytLians," "*= aud other countries, belong to Christ ; and 
 " in almost every city we form the greater part." f 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, before Tertullian, had spoken 
 of Christianity as " spread through the whole world, 
 in every nation and village and cit}', both of Greeks 
 and Barbarians, converting both whole houses and 
 separate individuals, even philosophers included." I 
 And Origen, giving the same view of the e.rtcnt of the 
 propagation of the gospel through "a thousand ob- 
 stacles," speaks of " invnmcrable and imwcnse vniltitiules 
 having given themselves up to the religion of Christ." § 
 
 These facts and testimonies are well known. The 
 principal use made of them, however, has been to 
 regard them as ei-idenccs of the Divine Authoritij of the 
 Christian Fieli(jion. And, indeed, it has hitherto been 
 found impossible to explain so extraordinary a propaga- 
 tion of such a religion, in such circumstances, but by 
 admitting (as Paley has demonstrated with inimitable 
 clearness and strength of argument) that the first 
 preachers of the gospel had "means of conviction 
 which we have not, that they had proofs to appeal to, 
 which we want." Another truth, which Paley has 
 omitted, must also be conceded before we can account 
 for the effects attending the Primitive ministry : that 
 ministry was accompanied by a divine influence on 
 the minds of men, which iu later times has been greatly 
 disregarded. But are we to see nuthinj mure in the 
 early propagation of the gospel than a confirmation 
 (f our faith iu the Christian doctrine? Do we not 
 discover most important illustrations of the nature of 
 
 • Ad. Jud. : c. 37. t Ad. Scap. 
 
 X Sti'oiu. : Lio. vi. ^ Orig. iu C'cls. : L,ib. i. vii. 
 
THE PEIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 57 
 
 that cToctrine — of its power not only to console but to 
 stimulate, not only to unite but to extend, the body of 
 its disciples. Here are facts, demonstrating' to us that 
 it is in the nature of true Christianity to advance and 
 spread: the history of the Church no less than its 
 constitution serves to show the design of its Great 
 Founder, that it should advance and spread, by the 
 agency of its disciples. 
 
 Let us examine, according to our materials for 
 judging, the nature of that auencij and the spirit in 
 which it was exerted. 
 
 It is manifest, at once, that there were, at the\ 
 beginning, no organised institutions resembling those 
 with which exclusively we now associate the idea 
 of Missions to the Heathen. Tlien they were not 
 needed. The whole family of believers composed oxe 
 MISSIONARY CHURCH. Eacli localiscd community of 
 Christians was, in its jirujwr character, a Missionarj/^ 
 institution. Not only were such organised bodies as\ 
 those we are now acquainted with unnecessary : in the 
 cu-cumstances chosen by the wisdom of God for the 
 commencement of Christian affairs, they might have 
 been fraught with much evil. For when we recollect 
 how soon the simplest offices of the Church were 
 perverted by the designs of ecclesiastical ambition, 
 it is easy to conjecture how much more portentous 
 those designs might have been, had a central and 
 ramified system of Missionary agencies existed. That 
 jealousy, too, which was alarmed by the loneliest 
 efforts of pious zeal, would have been enraged into 
 madness by the show of strength and combination 
 which such a consolidated union would have afforded 
 
58 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 to the persecuted Cliristiaus. The ahseuce of a formal 
 organisation which would thus have increased the 
 dangers of the Church both from without and from 
 within, is itself a proof of that Divine wisdom by 
 which Christianity was guided, and of the Almighty 
 power by which it was at once protected and diffused. 
 Like the unperceived yet certain processes of nature, 
 the spiritual kingdom arose from feebleness to strength 
 and from obscurity to splendour. The little leaven 
 continued working till a mighty mass was leavened. 
 The precious seeds, sown in secret, sent forth their 
 germs in the depth of many a soil, and at length their 
 stems sprang up with a strength beyond the power of 
 monarchs to extirpate, their branches shadowing the 
 nations that feasted on the fruit. 
 
 There are sufficiently numerous examples in the 
 New Testament to aid us in forming a general esti- 
 mate of the wc(nis by which the unparalleled success 
 of the gospel, in the primitive period, was accom- 
 plished. 
 
 The great principle at work was that of roUmtarii 
 a<jcncij on the part of indiriduah: not, indeed, an agency 
 without authority or control, or originating in mere 
 will, but resulting from those holy impressions and 
 convictions that accompany a personal experience of 
 the power of grace. The tone of spiritual feeling was 
 regarded as equally important with soundness of 
 Christian doctrine, and both were inculcated by the 
 example of the apostles as well as by their preaching. 
 The spread of the gospel was as constantly kept in 
 view as its honour, the latter being guarded with 
 trembling vigilance for the sake of the former. On no 
 
THE PKIMITIA-E CHEISTIANS. 59 
 
 other principle can we nnderstand innumerable direc- 
 tions and exhortations addressed to the early disciples, 
 as well as allusions to their state of mind in reference 
 to this matter. They are reminded that they are "the 
 light of the world:" they are commanded to let their 
 light so shine that others may glorify their Father 
 which is in heaven. On the day of Pentecost, the 
 Spirit came down on all the disciples. Peter tells the 
 awakened Jews that the promise is unto them, and 
 their children, "and to all that are afar off, even as 
 many as the Lord our God shall call." On the same 
 day on which those who gladly heard Peter's word 
 were baptised, there were added about three thousand 
 souls : all this growing company sympathised in the 
 labours and sufferings of their leaders, and united witU 
 them in prayer : all were filled with the Holy Ghost : 
 all were of one heart and soul : great grace rested on 
 them all : they went everywhere preaching the word, 
 the apostles remaining at Jerusalem. Philip went on 
 a Mission to Samaria, preaching with great success iu 
 that city, and afterwai'ds to the Ethiopian treasurer. 
 The Gentiles spake with tongues and magnified God, 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost attending the 
 preaching of Peter to Cornelius and his company. It 
 is surely plain, from these records, that the early 
 Christians as such entered into the spirit of that work 
 in which the apostles took the chief direction, and 
 that they laboured <jcneralhj, for the propagation of 
 the faith. The apostles were themselves voluntary 
 labourers, and they enlisted into the same seiwice xaQUy 
 and women too, of kindred spirit. Such was Phoebe ; 
 such were Ac^uila and Prise ilia ; such were Timothy, 
 
60 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 Titus, aucl Apollos; such were Audrouicus and Juuia, 
 Urbane, Apelles, Trypheua and Trypliosa, and the 
 beloved Pcrsis, " which laboured much in the Lord." 
 How noble and how instructive are the allusions made 
 by the Apostle of the heathen to "every one that 
 helpeth;" to the " brethren in the Lord, speaking the 
 word without fear ;" to " those women which laboured 
 with him in the gospel, with Clement also, and other 
 his fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book 
 of life ;" — to Tychicus, and Epaphras, to Aristarchus, 
 and Mark, to Jesus, suruamed Justus, his " fellow- 
 workers unto the kingdom of God, who were a comfort 
 unto him ;" to Archippus and Gains, to Trophimus 
 and Eubulus, and Luke, and many others/'' "What- 
 ever gifts might enrich these individuals, or whatever 
 offices they might or might not sustain, what endeared 
 them to the apostle was their hearty dedication of 
 themselves to labour as well as suffering for the exten- 
 sion of the gospel. We may be unable to specify, 
 minutely, the nature of these labours, or nicely to 
 adjust the line that separates those of men from those 
 of women, the stated from the occasional, the local 
 from the itinerant, the piiblic and official from the 
 private and iinofficial. It is not easy to distinguish 
 such as were guided by special inspiration from those 
 which were tacitly approved as impelled by Christian 
 love, and regulated by Christian wisdom. There is 
 enough to show that the propagation of the gospel was 
 effected by the voluntary active efforts of its disciples, 
 generally, in every place to which it came. 
 
 The Primitive Churches, in their social character, 
 * Eom. xvi. ; 1 Cor. x\i. 15 ; Col. iv. 7. 
 
THE PKIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 61 
 
 aimed at the extension of the gospel, as a principal 
 end to be accomplished by their mutual faith and 
 charity. An examination of the Acts and of the 
 Epistles, with this particular object in view, would 
 open a wide field of fruitful instruction. We can now 
 refer to only a few distinct instances of what appears 
 to have been a prevailing practice. The first is the 
 church at Jerusalem. We have seen that they went 
 everywhere preaching the word, when they were scat- 
 tered abroad, on the death of Stephen. When tran- 
 quillity was restored, this church at Jerusalem sent 
 Barnabas to Antioch, to aid the work so happily com- 
 menced by some of their own brethren from Cyprus 
 and Cyrene. 
 
 The next is the church at Antioch, from which Paul 
 and Barnabas were sent forth on their Mission to the 
 heathen. Then there is the church at Thessalonica. 
 In the first chapter of the first epistle to that church, 
 the apostle makes grateful mention of their " Uihnur of 
 love " in connection with the work of faith and patience 
 of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, which knits them 
 as followers of the apostles, causing the work of the 
 Lord to sound out in Macedonia and Achaia. 
 
 To the Corinthians the same apostle addi'esses an 
 exhortation, founded on his glorious argument for the 
 resurrection of the saints, to be " steadfast, unmovable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 
 as ye know that your labour in the Lord shall not be 
 in vain." In a similar strain he addresses the Galatians. 
 He urges the Philippians to "hold forth the word of 
 life," shining as " lights in the world." 
 
 The careful reader cannot fail to notice the numerous 
 
62 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 indications, scattered throughout the Acts and the 
 Epistles, of the sympathy and aid given by churches 
 and individuals to the apostle in his efforts to spread 
 the gospel among the Gentiles. They sent him forth 
 with their benedictions and praj^ers ; they contributed 
 to his support ; they rejoiced in his successes ; and not 
 a few persons from among them shared with him in 
 the toils, successes, and honours of his work. 
 
 That these labours of the churches continued through- 
 out the first age, and extended beyond their own 
 respective vicinities, is very interestingly proved from 
 the epistle of John to Gaius. The brethren had 
 testified to the church the hospitality of Gaius, when 
 for " his name's sake they had gone forth, taking 
 nothing of the Gentiles."' That this was not a singular 
 effort of Missionary zeal is apparent from the apostle's 
 declaration, " "We therefore ought to receive such, that 
 we might be fellow-helpers to the truth;" and that 
 they were authorised by apostolic sanction is manifest 
 from his commending the interest felt in such under- 
 takings as "following that which is good," and his 
 denouncing opposition or indifl'ereuce to them as "fol- 
 lowing that which is evil." 
 
 These imperfect hints may suffice to show the deci- 
 dedly Missiunari/ character of the first cJturches, and to 
 account for the ready occurrence of fitting agents for 
 the extension of the gospel through the world. Every 
 supernatural gift and every ordinary endowment, every 
 acquired facility for reaching men's minds, and all the 
 means that wisdom could select, or conscientious piety 
 approve, were employed with willing energy in this 
 great work. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 63 
 
 It now remains that we observe the spirit in which 
 these vohmtary labours were conducted. • This is an 
 inquiry of the highest concern, for there is a spirit by 
 "which men must be actuated, or they cannot be suc- 
 cessfully engaged in the propagation of the gospel. 
 It is possible to provide a large apparatus of means for 
 this end, to direct these means with much wisdom, and 
 to employ vast numbers of persons enriched with every 
 mental and physical quality desired for such a service, 
 and yet the whole may be a melancholy failure, from 
 the simple want of this proper spirit. 
 
 The peculiarity of the gospel, as distinguished from 
 all other forms of truth, lies in the total dependence of 
 all successful efforts for its propagation on the influence 
 of the Divine Spirit, (/iccn both to those who teach and 
 to those who are taught. "If there be an explicit^ 
 truth in Scripture, it is, that the success of the ministry 
 of the gospel, in the conversion of men, is the con- 
 sequence of divine influence ; and if there be a well- 
 ascertained fact in ecclesiastical story, it is, that no 
 groat and indisputable results of this kind have been 
 produced but by men who have achwivlcdycd this truth, 
 and have gone forth in humble dependence upon that 
 co-operation which is promised in the words, ' And, lo, 
 I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.'/ 
 This fact, equally striking and notorious, is a strong 
 confirmation that the sense of the sacred oracles on 
 this point was not mistaken by them. The testimony 
 of the word of God is, that, as to ministerial success, 
 ' God giveth the increase ;' the testimony of experience 
 is, that no success in producing true conversion has 
 ever taken place in any church, but when this, co- 
 
64 MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF 
 
 operation of God has been acknowledged and sought hy 
 the agents eniploj'ed in it. 
 
 " The doctrine of divine influence, as necessary to 
 the conversion of men, being thus grounded on the 
 evidence of Scripture, and further confirmed by fact, 
 it may follow, and that in perfect conformity with 
 revelation, that such influence may be dispensed in 
 different degrees at different periods. That it was 
 more eminently exerted at the first establishment of 
 Christianity than at some other periods, is certain ; 
 and that not only in extraordinary gifts (for though 
 these might awaken attention and silence unbelief, we 
 have the evidence of Scripture history to prove, that 
 miracles cannot of themselves convert man from vice) 
 but in sanctifying energy, without which the heart is 
 never brought to yield to the authority and will of God 
 in its choice and affections." '■'■'■ 
 
 / This divine influence is promised in connection, not 
 with any efforts of any kind that may have the propaga- 
 tion of the gospel for their end, but with efforts made 
 in such a temper of mind as honours both the grace 
 and the power of God in the bestowment. This is the 
 temper of mind which pre-eminently characterised the 
 Missions of the Primitive Age. This, and nothing 
 else, is the ^lissionarij spirit. If we may venture to 
 analyse this spirit, we discover in it a firm belief of the 
 great truths of the gospel as the only means of human 
 salvation — a solemn conviction of the duty of making 
 these truths known universally, with a distinct aim at 
 the conversion of mankind — love to the Saviour and to 
 all men for His sake — a humble sense of imworthiness 
 • Watson's Life of "Wesley. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. 65 
 
 to be engaged iu any service, however lowly, directed 
 to so sublime aii object — an utter abandonmeut of 
 selfish aims and gratifications — simple reliance, che- 
 rished alike in labour and in prayer, on that divine 
 influence which alone can ensure success — and a cheer- 
 ful expectation of success in the present state, with a 
 *' crown of joy and glory " in the day of Christ. Such 
 was the spirit of the Primitive labourers — such their 
 faith, their convictions, and their love ; such their 
 humility and self-denial, their dependence and their 
 hox^e. We have partly seen the fruits, in the most 
 wonderful revolution of the minds and morals of man- 
 kind that time has ever witnessed. The final issue 
 will be announced in the disclosures of the Judgment, 
 and contemplated in the fulness and grandeur of 
 Eternity. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE PEOGEESSIVE DECLINE OF THE MISSIONAKY SPIRIT. 
 
 Painful Impressions proilucecl by the Study of Ecclesiastical History. — Escep- 
 ■ tions. — Declension foretold. — Decline of simple and spiritual Piety. — Specula- 
 tive Controversies. — Secular Ambition of the Clergy. — Corruptions flowing 
 fi'om Luxury. — The Crusades. 
 
 When we treat of the decline of the Missionary spirit, 
 we must be understood as meaning the dechne of 
 thai spirit wliich we have been tracing as the charac- 
 teristic of the Church in her earliest and best days. 
 
 It is confessed that we cannot turn to any age in 
 the chronicles of what is called the Chuech without 
 observing the extension of the system ; and if nothing 
 more than this had been required for preserving the 
 original temperament of the Church, it might be said 
 with truth, that temperament never declined at all. 
 But the reader of Ecclesiastical History, should his 
 mind be braced to the tone of the New Testament, will 
 often feel confounded. As century after century passes 
 before him, picturing on his mind the actual progress 
 of the scenes with their busy actors and ever-shifting 
 events, he cannot but lament the symptoms of de- 
 generacy crowding on him as he advances ; so that 
 with every desire to hope the best, he strives to repress 
 the cold and sickening sadness with which hs follows 
 
DECLINE OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 67 
 
 out the spread of what oiKjht to have been the gospel 
 by that which professed to be the church. Not uii- 
 frequently will he surmise, if he be of a candid and 
 liberal disposition, that the work of the true Church 
 was oftener accomplished by men whose memories are 
 branded with the odium of heresy, than by their more 
 powerful calumniators. He will, at least, discover no 
 very striking imitation of the Primitive Mission in the 
 enterprises of ambitious ecclesiastics or conquering 
 princes. He will look with suspicion on conversions 
 taking place without instruction, among nations to 
 whom no other alternative was left than slavery or 
 death. He must see with grief and almost indignation 
 that what was offered to the world for Christianit}', 
 through a long and dreary waste of time, was a 
 wretched substitute, agreeing with Christianity in little 
 else besides the name, having nothing of its power to 
 convert the souls and transform the characters of men. 
 There were exceptions. — It is impossible to survey 
 the memorials of churches planted, or to examine the 
 versions of the Scriptures executed for many of those 
 churches, among the Ethiopians, the Saxons, the 
 Gauls, the Germans, the Britons, and several other 
 nations both in the West and in the East, without 
 believing that these were the works of men whom any 
 age would venerate for sanctity and learning, and who 
 were blessed in the spiritual advancement of the 
 Church of Christ, It is fair to presume, there were 
 many who, whatever errors might cloud their views, or 
 however the observances of religion were blended in 
 their practice with the usages of superstition, were still 
 enlightened by the Divine Spirit in the essentials of 
 
 6- 
 
68 THE TKOGKESSIVE DECLIXE OF 
 
 the gospel, and liououred as the iustrumeuts of turning 
 sinners to repentance. 
 
 We may trace the causes and accompaniments of 
 Missionary declension amidst the general body of pro- 
 fessed Christians, in the facts by which history records 
 the existing condition of the Church. Christ and His 
 apostles had foretold that there would be a falling off 
 from the freshness and energy of primitive piety ; that 
 this falling off would be occasioned by the various 
 workings of human passions and infirmities ; that it 
 would be marked by certain characteristic features ; 
 that it would long continue ; but that it would be 
 followed by a return to the older and better way, in the 
 remoter ages of the Church. 
 
 An acquaintance with human nature, and more 
 especially with its treatment of the Patriarchal and 
 Jewish revelations of religion, ought to have convinced 
 men that a similar deterioration of the Christian 
 institutes was highly probable. The predictions of the 
 New Testament prepared them to expect it. The 
 annals of the Church record it. 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in the view of this 
 matter is the early decline of that simple and spiritual 
 piety ivhich prevailed, at the he(jinnituj. — We can scarcely 
 look at even the best remains of the ages next suc- 
 ceeding that of the apostles without lamenting the 
 rapid growth of those seeds, amidst the sowing of 
 whicli they had shed their tears and uttered their 
 prognostications. Persecution, indeed, by preventing the 
 accessions of the insincere, and compelling Christians 
 to adopt those habits which secured their separation 
 from the world and their union with each other, had 
 
THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. C9 
 
 for a while preserved the spirit of tlie Church in some- 
 what of its genuine purity and fervour. But the cahus 
 that came were treacherous. Outward prosperity was 
 abused. The sunshine of imperial favour relaxed the 
 nerve of ancient principle. The blending of the Church 
 with the world weakened the tone and cooled the ardour 
 of piety. Christianity became diluted. Hence it was 
 that forms, professions, legends, ceremonies, and visible 
 adornments were increasing ; and to the worldly eye 
 THE Church was diffusing her power and her splendour, 
 while to the spiritual observer she presented a spectacle 
 of inward poverty, weakness, and contraction ! We 
 look in vain for that general consecration of individual 
 talent to the spread of the gospel which cheered us in 
 the review of former times. That ancient respect for 
 the teachers of the Church, courteously accorded for 
 their work's sake, which led to a vigorous co-operation 
 with them, was lost in that servile reverence for official 
 character which would have shuddered at the impiet}^ 
 of trespassing upon their functions. When they were 
 looked upon as lords rather than as brethren, as men 
 whose labours were to be trusted in, not actively and 
 generally aided, the very principle on which the gospel 
 w^as spread at the beginning, the only principle on 
 .which we have reason to believe it ever was or ever will 
 be spread, was laid aside. The inevitable result was, 
 that the gospel ceased to be propagated as it had been 
 before. The minds of men were carried still farther 
 away from the proper work of extending the gospel by 
 the eagerness displayed, and the consequent time and 
 power exhausted, in controversies on j^oi'its of abstract 
 and spcculatice ojiinion. — Many controversies arose on 
 
70 THE PROGEESSIVE DECLINE OF 
 
 questions of the most frivolous nature, and were carried 
 on after the most puerile fashion. The mention of 
 them provokes the laughter of the profane, and ought 
 to excite the sorrow of the saints. Some of them re- 
 ferred to matters infinitely removed from practical 
 interests, and often beyond the grasp of the human 
 intellect. But even granting to these controversies a 
 higher measure of importance, and admitting that they 
 might be carried on at times in a style becoming 
 reasonable men and Christians, we must still advert to 
 them with serious regret, as diverting attention from 
 one great business of paramount and urgent duty — the 
 diffusion of the gospel amongst ignorant nations. They 
 left no inclination for this work, nor leisure : and they 
 produced or cherished that disputatious temper which 
 has always proved injurious to the extension of the 
 truth. Oh, how mournfully must the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity have degenerated when the sophisms of the 
 schools, the gladiatorship of dialecticians, the disputes 
 of learned doctors on fourth marriages, on the time of 
 celebrating Easter, on the modes of honouring saints 
 and images, on the use of leavened bread in the Eu- 
 charist, on the unfathomable mysteries of predestina- 
 tion, on the immaculate conception of the Virgin, on the 
 manner of the birtli of Christ, and on the worshipping 
 of the blood of Christ — when themes like these em- 
 ployed the thought, and absorbed the passions of the 
 Church ! Could they not read in the New Testament 
 the words whereby men may be saved ? How could 
 tliey overlook the plain command which bound all 
 Christians to bring the nations to the knowledge of 
 these words ? 
 
THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 71 
 
 A third symptom of cTeclensiou is betrayed iu the 
 secular ambition which appeared so soon and has prevailed 
 so Jong amongst the leaders of the church. To rule the 
 Church was more tempting than to serve her. Power 
 had more attractions than usefulness. The very in- 
 stitutions whose whole meaning was a constant en- 
 forcement of humility, were rendered tributary to pride. 
 How was it possible, when the interests of religion 
 itself were made secondary to the worldly projects of 
 its teachers, that any of those movements could take 
 place which are at once the indications and the stimu- 
 lants of self-renouncing devotion to the spiritual object, 
 and in which movements the Missionary work consists ? 
 
 Tlie corrupjtions follon-intj in the train of lud'anj are 
 additional symptoms of the declension we are tracing. 
 When the professors of Christianity robed themselves 
 iu purple, and dwelt in marble x)alaces amid the pomp 
 of gold, and song, and wine, they could not afford the 
 undertakings which the Church of better days sustained 
 in poverty. The spiritual miseries of the world were 
 forgotten in the fulness of earthly indulgence. It is 
 true that an opposite state of things arose, from the 
 tendency of one extreme to produce another. Multi- 
 tudes, disgusted with the evils of society, or hopeless 
 of tasting its pleasures, repaired to the living tombs of 
 the monastery, or retu-ed to the solitudes of the desert. 
 In each extreme, the proper business of Christians was 
 neglected. In the city the gospel was dishonoured by 
 the profligacy of its professors. In the cell of the 
 hermit, and in the cloister of the monk, it was hidden 
 from the world to which it ought to have been preached. 
 
 Finally, — The Crusades exhibited what could be 
 
72 PROGRESSIVE DECLINE OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 effected by the states of Cliristendom iiucler tlie garb of 
 religious zeal excited by eutlmsiasin. The tales of 
 chivalry have given to those guilty enterprises the 
 power of enchantment over our imaginations. No 
 reasoning can now dissolve the spell. But what, at 
 this day, would have been the state of Europe, of 
 Africa, and of Asia, if the Cross that blazed in the 
 pride of battle on theii* banners had been truly appre- 
 hended by the men who clothed themselves in steel, 
 and left their household hearths to die around the 
 Holy Sepulchre ! 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 EEVIVAL OF MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 NARRATIVE. 
 
 Efforts of the Roman Hiernrchy. — Relipions Orders.— Xavier. — Propaprancin.— 
 Queries supgeKted to Protestants. — The Reformation. — First Protestant 
 Mission. — Swedes. — Pntch. — Pilr,Tim Fathers. — Early Missionary Projects iu 
 Enfrhmd. — Danish Missions. — Jloravians. — Missionary Constitiition of the 
 Moravian Cluireh. — AVesleyan Missions. — Baptist Jlissions. — The London 
 Missionary Society. — Missions to the South Seas. — South Africa. — India. — 
 China. — West Indies. — Impressions produced on the Church by the sucf.ess 
 of Missions. — Scottish Societies. — Church Missionary Society. — American 
 Societies. — Summary of Missionary Societies and Agents. 
 
 A REVIEW of Christian Missions would in many quarters 
 be considered incomplete, without noticing the special 
 efforts of the Eoman Hierarchy to extend its influence 
 among heathen nations. Any attempt at a fair exami- 
 nation of their proceedings would entangle us, at every 
 step, in the meshes of inextricable controversy. A 
 brief sketch, however, may lay a foundation for a 
 few remarks connected with our present subject. 
 
 At all times the power of the Papal Church was 
 exercised for the odan/ement of tcrn'tori/ heyornl its limits, 
 as well as for the maintenance of authority within them ; 
 and zealous efforts were continually made, sometimes 
 with boasted success, oftener with marked failure, to 
 proselyte the members of other churches existing iu 
 
74 EEVIVAl. OF MISSIONARY 
 
 the eastern parts of Europe, and in the contiguous 
 regions of Asia and Africa. 
 
 The sixteentli century opened the okl world of tlie 
 East, and the new world of the West, to the Portuguese 
 and Spanish monarchies, most powerful and devout 
 adlierents of the Papal system. These tempting realms 
 of ghostly empire presented themselves to the Pontiff 
 at that crisis when some of the mightiest states of 
 Europe were ahandoniug his jurisdiction, and when 
 even those who adhered to him were learning, from the 
 events of the Keformation, to modify their ohedience 
 to a power at whose footstool they had hitherto been 
 blindly prostrate. The Spanish and Portuguese Mis- 
 sionaries followed the tract of their victorious com- 
 patriots. The zeal of the Franciscan and Dominican 
 orders was roused by the subtle activity of the Jesuits. 
 The tomb of Xavier in Goa, at which the Eastern 
 pilgrim still offers his devotions, will long perpetuate 
 the memory of the unshrinking firmness, surprising 
 genius, keen penetration, and inextinguishable zeal, 
 with which that extraordinary man established the in- 
 fluence of his ORDER, and the authority of his church, 
 over a portion of the Indian Continent and many of 
 the adjacent islands — never resting till, as with the 
 speed and power of lightning, he had celebrated equal 
 triumphs in the great empire of Japan, and led the way 
 for enterprises of similar magnificence and daring into 
 the heart of China. Obscure]- efforts were made, during 
 the same period, by Capuchin Friars accompanying 
 the Portuguese settlers on the coast of Africa, to bring 
 the fierce natives of that dark continent under the 
 same dnninion. To narrate the history of the Para- 
 
EFFORT IX THE CHURCH. 75 
 
 guay Mission were to repeat a tale over wliicli religion 
 weeps, and humanity burns with indignation ! 
 
 It was not until a century after Xavier's Mission, 
 that tiie spirit of foreign conquest in the Eonian 
 Church aci|uired a local habitation and a name. A 
 system embracing the largest views, and endowed with 
 the amplest revenues, by the donations of successive 
 Popes and other wealthy persons, was commenced by 
 Gregory the Fifteenth. " The Congregation for the 
 Propagation of the Faith," holding its councils in one 
 of the most sumptuous palaces of the Eternal City, was 
 followed by another institution, founded by a Spanish 
 nobleman residing at the court of Eome, for training 
 Missionaries. France and other countries followed 
 the example; and the numerous religious fraternities 
 directed their most zealous regards to the same object. 
 The agents of these vast and concentrated schemes of 
 propagation w^ere soon beheld labouring with great 
 assiduity over large tracts of India. Some of them 
 were tolerated and even patronised by the King of 
 Siam, in Avhose dominions they Avere not altogether 
 without success. But the most signal achievements of 
 these Eoman Missionaries were in Japan and China. 
 In every province of the Celestial Empire they are said 
 to have acquired influence and converts. An edict was 
 issued by the Emperor Chang Hi (whose talents and 
 virtues obtained the highest eulogies), permitting all his 
 subjects who chose to embrace the Christian religion. 
 So auspicious indeed was the i)olicy of this prince, that 
 he ordered a superb and costly church to be built for 
 the Missionaries within the precincts of his palace. 
 
 The stauchest Protestant can scarcely survey the 
 
7G REVIVAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 Missions thus hastily glaucetl at, without hoping, 
 perhaps beheving, that many of these agents were 
 moved by sincere obedience to the command of Christ, 
 and that in the Labours to which the}^ gave themselves, 
 often encountering peril, and sometimes leading their 
 followers by their own example to die rather than 
 abjure their faith, they were truly accomplishing the 
 proper business of the Christian Church. However 
 waveringly this belief may be held by some of us, we 
 cannot think of those who were engaged in such imder- 
 taldngs without admiring their constancy, their courage, 
 their zeal, and, above all, the simplicity of aim with 
 which they lived and died for one great end. The 
 general features of the si/stcin itself are, alas, too plain 
 to be misunderstood. The time of its commencement, 
 the means by which it was nvowcdhj carried on, the nature 
 of its success, the character of its prime conductors, the 
 principles and usages it propagated, and such monu- 
 ments of its power as the inquisition at Goa, — these are 
 facts that glare on us too vividly to admit of error. Still, 
 a question of vital seriousness occurs before we pass away 
 from the present contemplation. Did these Missionaries 
 preach the gospel or not ? If they did, is not their 
 example in so doing binding on Christians of every 
 name ? If they did not preach the gospel (and this for 
 the greater part is probably the truth), then their 
 conduct presents a double appeal to every Christian ; 
 for if they devoted themselves thus to the support of 
 what you denounce as imposture, will you not be at 
 least equally devoted to the service of truth ; if they 
 were successful in deceiving their fellow-men, can you 
 be indiflercnt to their instruction and salvatii n ? 
 
EFFORT IX THE CHURCH. 77 
 
 It was natural to suppose that the same mighty 
 causes which protTuced the Keformatiou from Popery 
 in Europe, by opening men's minds to the gospel 
 in its original simplicity and power, would gradually 
 lead the churches and nations throwing off the thraldom 
 of the Papacy to that feature of Primitive Christianity 
 which we have considered in the fourth chapter. Nor 
 was it unnatural to expect that this gradual return to 
 the ancient practice might he accompanied with much 
 of the imperfection attendant on the transition from 
 ideas long rooted in the minds of men by the regnant 
 superstition. That Protestants were long before they 
 entered fully and heartily into the great work of pro- 
 pagating the gospel among the heathen, will not be 
 surprising to those who consider how slowly the 
 principles of truth and duty make their way, and who 
 also remember how the leading instruments of the 
 Pieformation had to struggle against power, as well as 
 prejudice, in the establishment of their principles at 
 home. For three or four generations they had to con- 
 tend at several points against force, falsehood, and 
 intolerance for all that they held dear ; and thus all 
 their attention was absorbed in a struggle for religious 
 existence. Some of the difficulties with which the 
 earlier Protestants had to grapple, in France, in 
 Bohemia, and afterwards, even iinder Protestant 
 government, in England, were overruled by the Pro- 
 vidence of God to become remarkably subservient to 
 the propagation of the gospel in heathen nations. 
 
 It was, chiefly, with a view to an asylum for his 
 Protestant brethren from the persecutions they en- 
 du ed in France, that the Admiral de Coligny used his 
 
78 EE\1VAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 influence at the French court for the sending out of a 
 colony to Brazil in 1556. The governor appointed 
 over the colony, himself a Protestant, applied for some 
 divines from Geneva, who, accompanied by a large 
 number of French Protestants, repaired to the new 
 colony in the hope of introducing the gospel to the 
 natives. This first trotestant mission to the Western 
 continent was crushed in its commencement. A change 
 occurred in the religious profession of the governor. 
 He became the persecutor of the men who had settled 
 in Brazil by his own earnest invitation. They were 
 di'iven from the country ; and after suffering the most 
 terrible distresses from the treachery of their perse- 
 cutor, and the perils of a long and disastrous voyage, 
 the survivors returned to France, after an absence of 
 not more than two years. 
 
 In the year after that in which the Swiss Missionaries 
 returned, the renowned Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, 
 commenced a series of operations, j)i'osecuted. with 
 considerable vigour by his successors, for the jpropaga- 
 tion of the gospel in Lapland. In one year three 
 hundred rix-dollars (about fifty pounds sterling) were 
 contributed by the poor Swedish congregations towards 
 the support of these measures. There are slender 
 materials for judging of the spirit in which these Mis- 
 sions were conducted, though there is some reason to 
 fear that the form of godliness was more regarded than 
 its power. 
 
 The naval triumphs of the Dutch over the Portu- 
 guese, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, put 
 them in possession of a splendid empire in the East. 
 Ceylon, Java, Amboyua, Sumatra, and other places in 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 79 
 
 the Moluccas submitted to their sway. The nominal 
 conversions of the natives in all these places might 
 amount probably to half a miUion. 
 
 But when we examine the means by which these con- 
 versions were effected, the general system pursued by 
 the ruling power, and the actual condition of the people 
 when the dominion over them was transferred to the 
 authorities of our own country, we shall see little in 
 these schemes of worldly policy to identify them with 
 the Missionary operations of the Christian Church. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers of the American States were 
 honoured to behold the commencement of a very 
 different work. Banished by x>ower from their English 
 sanctuaries, they sought liberty of thought for them- 
 selves and their children in the newly-discovered 
 regions of the West. When the difficulties arising on 
 their first settlement were in some measure overcome, 
 their Christian anxieties were drawn to the heathen 
 natives of their adopted home. The labours of Eliot, 
 " the apostle of the Indians," of the Mayhews, of 
 Serjeant, of the great Jonathan Edwards, and of the 
 self-denying Brainerd, furnish a story of Missionary 
 trials, perseverance, and success, fraught with lessons 
 of the deepest instruction and excitement to the whole 
 Christian Church. To British and American Churches 
 they have a special interest. 
 
 In England more attention was given, previous to 
 the close of the eighteenth century, to the state of the 
 heathen than is usually supposed. As early as 1578 
 there accompanied the great sailor Frobisher to Green- 
 land, a minister of good repute, named Wolfall, "for 
 the only care he had to save souls, and to reform those 
 
80 KEVIV.U. OF MISSIONARY 
 
 infidels, if it were possible, to Cliristianity." Among 
 the many noble designs of Cromwell was one for the 
 purpose of supporting and extending the Protestant 
 faith in foreign countries.''' 
 
 Alleine,the author of "An Alarm to the Unconverted,'' 
 when ejected from Taunton by the Act of Uniform- 
 ity in 1G62, and no longer i^ermitted to preach in 
 England, resolved to go to China, or some other part 
 of the world, there to plant the Christian faith. Dr. 
 Doddridge, before the middle of last century, attempted 
 to form a small society in his own congregation for 
 the propagation of the gospel among the heathen, and 
 strongly urged other ministers to adopt the same course. 
 After educating two students for foreign Mission 
 service, he wrote: — "I hope I can truly say that if 
 God would put it into the heart of my only son to go 
 under this character, I could willingly part with him, 
 though I were never to see him more. What are views 
 of a family and a name when compared with a regard 
 to extending my Redeemer's kingdom and gaining 
 
 * " Stonpe told me," says Bishop Biiruet, " of a great design 
 Cromwell had intended to begin bis kingsbip witb, if he had 
 assumed it. He resolved to set up a council for the Protestant 
 religion in opposition to the Congrcsiatioii de Propaganda fide at 
 Eome. He intended it should consist of seven counsellors and 
 four secretaries for different provinces. These were the first, France, 
 Switzerland, and the Vallej's; the Palatinate and the other C'al- 
 vinists, were the second; Germany, the North, and Turkey were 
 the third ; and the East and West Indies were the fourth. The 
 secretaries were to have £500 salary ajnece, and to keep a cor- 
 respondence everywhere to know the state of religion aU over the 
 world, that so all good designs might be by their means protected 
 and assisted. They were to have a fund of £10,000 a year at 
 their disposal for ordinary emergencies, but to be further supplied 
 as occasions should require it. Chelsea Ctillege was to be made 
 tip for them, which was then an old decayed building, that had 
 been at first raised to be a college for writers of controversy." 
 
EFFOET IN THE CHUKCH. 81 
 
 souls to Christ ?" Subsequently, shortly before his 
 death in 1752, he wrote, — " I am now indeed upon 
 having something done among the Dissenters in 
 a more public manner for propagating the gospel 
 ' abroad. I wish to live to see this design brought into 
 execution, at least into some forwardness, and then I 
 shall die the more cheerfully." The Countess of Hunt- 
 ingdon greatly desired to spread Christianity in distant 
 lands. In one of her letters, about 1770, she wrote, — 
 " Some great, very great work is intended by the Lord 
 among the heathen. Should this appear, I would be 
 rejoiced to go myself to establish a college for the 
 Indian nations " (North American). Subsequently, 
 her broad, noble sympathies were sent out in another 
 direction. "I saw her," says the Eev. Mr. Eyre, " a 
 few days before her death. She was then contriving, 
 amidst great lassitude and excruciating pain, to send 
 Missionaries to the islands lately discovered in the 
 South Seas." ■■'- 
 
 The Danish Mission to the Coromandel Coast in the 
 East Indies, was undertaken by Ziegenbalg, under 
 the auspices of Frederick the Fourth of Denmark, in 
 1705 ; a date which marks the beginning of Protestant 
 efforts in that vast, populous, and most interesting 
 empire. Great were the sufferings endured in this 
 Mission, not only from pecuniary embarrassments and 
 the hostility of the natives, but from the persecutions 
 of Roman Catholics. Yet, aided by successive rein- 
 forcements of labourers from Denmark, by remittances 
 of money from the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge, incorporated in England in 1701, by the 
 * Brown's " History of Missious," vol. iii. p. 4.89. 
 
 7 
 
82 EEVn'AIi OF MISSIONAKY 
 
 unexpected bounty of individuals, and by the high. 
 patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his 
 royal master George the First, it was prosecuted with 
 vigour and perseverance." One of the most interesting 
 features of this Mission is connected with the virtue 
 and reputation of the venerable Schwartz, whose 
 entire devotion and captivating address have long 
 rendered him a study to Christian Missionaries. Ani- 
 mated by his example, his coadjutors and successors 
 laboured with such indefatigable diligence at Tranque- 
 bar, Madras, Cuddalore, Calcutta, Trichinopoly, and 
 Tanjore, that their congregations and schools acquired 
 a firm settlement, and went on steadily increasing. 
 The services of these Missionaries, and of Schwartz 
 in particular, in mitigating the calamities of war and 
 famine, afforded a noble illustration of the political 
 advantage arising from the wisdom and uprightness 
 of well-conducted Missions. These services were 
 frankly acknowledged both by Hyder Ali, and by the 
 English civil and military authorities; — a. fact standing 
 in strong contrast to the refuted calumnies by which 
 Missionaries were assailed, even in the British Par- 
 liament. 
 
 "It is an undeniable fact, that no persons have been 
 so popular in India, as the men who have exerted 
 themselves with the most steady and persevering zeal 
 in the dissemination of Christian principles ; of which 
 we have a striking example in the excellent Schwartz, 
 for many years a Missionary on the coast of Coro- 
 mandel, who, by his wise and benevolent conduct, 
 rendered, on various occasions, the most essential 
 
 * See Dr. Bucbanau's " Christian Researches in Asia." 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 83 
 
 service to the British interests, and became the object 
 of the most enthusiastic attachment of the natives."* 
 Splendid was the triumph of Christian worth, when the 
 British East India Company erected a monument, in 
 Madras, to the memory of Schwartz, and when the Kajah 
 of Tanjore placed his portrait amongst those of the 
 princes of his country, in his audience-chamber ! 
 This Mission was carried on through various successes 
 and reverses, until, the resources from which its means 
 were drawn having gradually failed, and the most 
 active Missionaries having died, without their places 
 being adequately filled up, it declined from that palmy 
 condition which had brightened its earlier history, 
 whilst its fruit was subsequently gathered, and its 
 fields of labour adopted by other societies, which now 
 successfully occupy them. 
 
 Near the time when the Danish Mission to the East 
 began, the pious Hans Egede became deeply interested 
 in the sphitual welfare of the Greenlanders. Remem- 
 bering that their forefathers had been Christians, and 
 learning the miserable state into which the existing 
 generation were sunk, he felt that a special obligation 
 rested on his countrymen to care for a peoj^le of the 
 same ancestry, and under the same government with 
 themselves. The utmost efforts that so ob&cure a man 
 could make to interest others in this work, seemed to 
 be insufficient. After thirteen years of perplexity and 
 vexatious disappointment, he succeeded in procuring 
 the royal sanction to a commercial scheme subservient 
 to his great object, and embarked with his family and 
 
 • Kev. R. Hall's Address on Missious. — "Works, vol. iii. p. 208. 
 8vo edition. 
 
84 REVIV.U, OF MISSIONARY 
 
 a few settlers for that country which had so long 
 engrossed his devout solicitude. The failure of the 
 commercial part of the undertaking soon involved him 
 in deep distress. His own spiritual labours were 
 greatly impeded by the obstinacy of the people, by the 
 ravages of disease, by the miseries of personal and 
 domestic suffering in such circumstances, and by the 
 want of that sympathy and encouragement for which 
 he looked in vain to his native country. After 
 struggling with these difficulties for fifteen years, with 
 little apparent success, he left Greenland with almost a 
 broken heart. However, he lived to see new colonies 
 established on the coast, which were greatly promoted 
 by his j)ersonal activity in Denmark ; he superintended 
 a seminary patronised by the king for the siDecial 
 purpose of preparing Missionaries for the work in 
 Greenland ; and he witnessed the successful industry 
 of his own son in translating portions of the Old and 
 New Testaments, and publishing a dictionary and 
 grammar of the Greenland language. The fruits of 
 this Mission were not such as to satisfy the early 
 expectations of its founder. Yet by the means em- 
 ■plojed many of the Greenlanders were brought to the 
 knowledge of the Saviour. Civilization with its amelio- 
 rating customs was introduced amongst a barbarous 
 j)eople. An impulse, too, was given to that spirit 
 which produced subsequent Missions, conducted on 
 better principles, and distinguished by greater success. 
 The Missions now referred to, are those of the 
 Moravians. This interesting people claim descent fi'om 
 the Hussites of Bohemia, among the earliest of the 
 Ecformed Churches. Compelled by the i)ersecutions of 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 85 
 
 the times to leave their own couutry, they settled in 
 various places. A portion, of them formed a union with 
 the Swiss Church, to which circumstance has been 
 attributed their title of "United Brethren." The 
 greater number of the wanderers found their way into 
 Saxony and Poland, and were soon blended with the 
 mass of the population. Some of those who were left 
 in Moravia were revived in then- relifjious spirit by the 
 zealous exhortations of Christian David, who (after 
 many unsuccessful attempts in other quarters) obtained 
 permission from Count Zinzendorf to build a house for 
 himself and his family, on the estate of that pious 
 nobleman, in Upx^er Lusatia. In 1722 this spot became 
 a point of attraction to other families, and the building 
 of other houses soon followed, forming the village of 
 Herrnhuth. The Count having in vain endeavoured 
 to prevail on these Moravian refugees to join the 
 Lutheran Church established in that country, consented 
 to their forming a separate church in communion with 
 the Lutheran. He afterwards became one of their 
 bishops, and the distinguished leader of all their 
 operations. 
 
 The partial success of Egede in Greenland has been 
 narrated. At the coronation of the King of Denmark 
 Count Zinzendorf was present, and during that visit to 
 Copenhagen, he met wntli two of Egede's Greenland 
 converts, and heard that the Mission was about to be 
 given up by the Danish government. His own mind 
 had, many years before, been impressed with anxiety 
 for the heathen, and the same object had taken early 
 possession of the thoughts of the Christian settlers at 
 Herrnhuth. The information received by the Count 
 
86 weyivaij of missionary 
 
 in Denmark, naturally formed this general desire for 
 the conversion of the heathen, into a special concern 
 for the inhabitants of Greenland, while, at the same 
 time, the description given by a Negro, of the eagerness 
 of his countrymen generally, and of his sister in 
 particular, for instruction in the gospel, drew their 
 attention to the Island of St. Thomas, in the West 
 Indies. Their character, as a Christian community, 
 thus received its germ on Missionary principles, and 
 was animated, from the first, by the Missionary spirit. 
 In the short space of eight or nine years, this band of 
 six hundred exiles had sent forth Missionaries to 
 Greenland, to St. Thomas, to St. Croix, to Surinam, 
 to Berbice, to the Indians of North America, to Lap- 
 land, to Tartary, to Guinea, to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and to the Island of Ceylon ! They afterwards ex- 
 tended to other parts of the West Indies, to Persia, 
 Egypt, Labrador, Tranquebar in the East Indies, and 
 the Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean ! And now 
 the Missions of the Brethren are found in Greenland, 
 Labrador, British North America, the West Indies, the 
 Mosquito Coast, Surinam, South Africa, Australia, and 
 on the borders of Thibet. They occupy 90 Stations, 
 with 300 European Missionaries, 1150 Native Assist- 
 ants, and 300 School Teachers. 
 
 The history of these Missions is full of interest. 
 For touching instances of heroism, for lively trust in 
 Divine Providence, for the simple and successful 
 l)reaching of the gospel, and for the accomplishment of 
 the grandest objects in the greatest poverty of outward 
 means, we have not found their parallel in the modern 
 Christian Church. In them we see a model of what. 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 87 
 
 in this respect, all Christian Churches ought to be, — 
 Miasiouari/ in their essential constitution, makiug the dis- 
 semiuatiou of the gospel through the world a leading 
 object, engaging the constant attention of the whole 
 body of the people. We see what can be done, what 
 /;^/.s' been done, by a small community devoted to one 
 object. From what feeble and apparently accidental 
 causes do the greatest undertakings date their origin ! 
 
 The Wesleyan Methodist Missions form an impor- 
 tant link in the series of revivals in Missionary 
 enterprise. They sprang from a train of striking 
 providential circumstances. They have been favoured 
 with the agency of men distinguished by their labo- 
 riousness and zeal. Any man who has candidly 
 considered the condition of this country, when Mr. 
 Wesley and his companions began their labours, must 
 be convinced that they were raised up by the Head of 
 the Church for the accomplishment of ends incalculably 
 momentous to the spiritual interests of the empire. 
 Whatever objections may be entertained, whether from 
 prejudice or from principle, against some of the 
 doctrines maintained by them, or against the system 
 of their ecclesiastical government, it is very certain 
 that they are now, as they have ever been, distin- 
 guished by then* active zeal in bringing home the plain 
 and vital doctrines of the gospel to the consciences and 
 the hearts of men. 
 
 Yet it is not in the labours and successes of this 
 large body, that we see the whole of the revival of 
 Missionary spirit which has arisen to diffuse so many 
 blessings through this and other nations. The impulse 
 given both to the clergy and to the laity in the Estab- 
 
bo REVIVAL OF JIISSIONAEY 
 
 lislied Church, and the renovated life and vigour 
 imparted to the churches inheriting the principles of 
 the English Nonconformists, are to be included in our 
 estimate. The spirit which animated John "Wesley, 
 and which, joined to his extraordinary powers and at- 
 tainments, ranks him among the great men of the 
 earth, was breathed on others besides those Avho retained 
 his name ; and that spirit still lives to actuate religious 
 communities which differ, notwithstanding, from Wesley 
 and his followers, in many points of great importance. 
 
 It was not likely that those schemes of extending 
 usefulness, which had been attended with such wonder- 
 ful success in Great Britain, Ireland, and America, and 
 which had induced Mr. Wesley to direct his views to 
 the European continent, would long be confined within 
 these limits. It was, however, in circumstances which, 
 in ordinary language, were altogether of an accidental 
 nature, and not in any preconcerted j)lau, that the 
 W^esleyan Missions to the heathen took their rise. 
 Long before any formal Missions were undertaken, Mr. 
 Gilbert, Speaker of the House of Assembly in Antigua, 
 had visited this country for the benefit of his health, 
 and received the gospel under the ministry of Mr. 
 Wesley. Returning to Antigua with this new spirit, he 
 laboured for the conversion both of the Whites and of 
 the Negro Slaves ; and having encountered, as became 
 a Christian, much opposition and calumny, he suc- 
 ceeded in forming a Christian Society of about two 
 hundred members, over which he presided with pa- 
 ternal fidelity and tenderness until his death. 
 
 Many years after, the remains of this interesting 
 Society were collected by a shipwright of the name of 
 
EFFORT IX THE CHURCH. 89 
 
 Baxter, wlio had joined a Methodist Society in 
 England, and who had gone out to Antigua in the 
 employ of government. By such labours as he could 
 devote after the secular toils of the day were over, 
 he was the instrument, in a few years, of raising the 
 Society to nearly two thousand members. Mr. Baxter 
 subsequently relinquished his lucrative situation, and 
 gave himself entirely to the service of the gospel. He 
 was aided, at tirst, by a brother Missionary whose 
 original destination was Nova Scotia, for which place 
 he had left England in company with Dr. Coke and 
 two other preachers. Dr. Coke's visit to the West 
 Indies was occasioned by a succession of storms which 
 j)revented his reaching Nova Scotia. During this and 
 subsequent voyages, he established Missions at Antigua, 
 St. Vincent's, St. Christopher's, St. Eustatius, Barba- 
 does, Dominica, Tortola, Jamaica, and other islands ; 
 and laid the train for subsequent Missions to Bermuda, 
 the Bahamas, and St. Domingo. ' The difficulties with 
 which many of these Missions had to struggle were 
 often of the most appalling description ; and the 
 slanders and reproaches that fell to the lot of their 
 supporters and advocates at home were such as would 
 have overwhelmed them, had they not been sustained 
 by the consciousness that they were engaged in the 
 work of the Lord. 
 
 The heart of Dr. Coke had become so thoroughly 
 kindled with Missionary ardour, that he could not rest 
 without engaging the Society to direct its enei-gies to 
 the Eastern World. Associated with men of less 
 sanguine temperament, who were deterred from enter- 
 ing into his large views by the pressure already on 
 
90 REVIVAL OF MISSIONABY 
 
 tlieir financial means, lie proposed, at the age of sixty- 
 six, to take with him a band of Missionaries to Ceylon ; 
 and, to remove the difficulty he saw might prevent the 
 concurrence of his brethren, he offered to advance six 
 thousand pounds from his own fortune. He at length 
 sailed, under sanction of the Conference, but died 
 on the voyage, and was committed by his mourning 
 companions Avith every circumstance of solemnity and 
 veneration to the deep. He who for thirty years was 
 absorbed in the work of Missions to the heathen, who 
 seems to have been the first to think of the South Sea 
 Islanders, who crossed the Atlantic eighteen times in 
 this service, who begged from door to door, and pleaded 
 with those in authority in England on its behalf, who, 
 by his holy zeal, amiable temper, unwearied activity, 
 and generous self-devotion, was the chief agent in 
 exciting, and for many years conducting, those opera- 
 tions which not long after his death led to the forming 
 of one of the most prominent and useful Missionary 
 Societies in existence, — such a man must be held in 
 affectionate remembrance by us all. TJie cold-hearted 
 suspected him of enthusiasm. The "children of this 
 world " thought they had explained his character when 
 they charged him with ambition. Such enthusiasm 
 and ambition are but too rarely seen ! Let not Chris- 
 tians of any party lose sight of his example, nor neglect 
 the duty under which we are all laid, equally with him, 
 of cultivating that sjiirit which the world derides, 
 because it neither feels nor understands it. 
 
 The development of these early efforts has been most 
 marked. The Wesleyan Missionary Society devotes a 
 considerable portion of its great resources to nominally 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 91 
 
 Christian spheres of labour. Thus it has Mission agents 
 in Irehind, in Austraha, and British North America ; 
 in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. The 
 efforts among the heathen extend to Ceylon, India 
 (especially in the south), China, South Africa, Western 
 Africa, the West Indies, and a portion of Polynesia. 
 The entire income is now £147,000, about two-thirds 
 of which is expended on work among heathen nations, 
 sustaining 303 European Missions and 935 Native 
 agents. These superintend a yet larger number of 
 subordinate agents. 
 
 It was near the time of Dr. Coke's first visit to the 
 West Indies, that a small company of Baptist ministers 
 met in 1792, at Kettering, in Northamptonshire, 
 for the institution of a Missionary Society, which, 
 though extremely small in its beginning (the original 
 subscription was thirteen pounds, two shillings, and 
 sixpence), soon acquired considerable encouragement 
 in Baptist Churches, and from Christians of several 
 other communions. The personal services of Mr. 
 Thomas, surgeon of an Indiaman, prepared the way 
 for the introduction of Mr. Carey into India, who was 
 afterwards joined by Messrs. Marshman and Ward. 
 The establishment of these excellent Missionaries at 
 Serampore, a Danish settlement near Calcutta, arose 
 out of very trying circumstances. Though contrary to 
 their own desire, it proved of the highest importance 
 to the permanence and prosperity of the Mission. The 
 surprising industry of the Serampore brethren in the 
 translation and printing of the Scriptures, besides 
 numerous grammars and works of a philological, scien- 
 tific, and literary, as well as of a religious nature, in a 
 
92 EEVn^AL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 great variety of languages, effected much for India. 
 Their hibours as preachers of the gospel extended over 
 an immense track of Continental India, and to Ceylon, 
 Burmah, Assam, Java, and Sumatra. Besides the 
 direct labours of its founders, and those of their 
 brethren, under the immediate auspices of the Baptist 
 Missionary Society in England, we have to take into 
 account the direction of British zeal towards India, 
 which they have been the main instruments of exciting, 
 and the (jeneral impresaion both in England and in the 
 East, in favour of Indian Missions which their learning, 
 character, and perseverance have produced. It is no 
 small thing to record of three Missionaries, that they 
 contributed to Christian objects more than fifty thou- 
 sand pounds ! In this fact we see Christian principle 
 working in a style that demonstrates the Avcakness 
 and ignorance as well as malignity which so easily 
 accounts for the sublimest efforts of Missionary zeal on 
 the vulgar principles of a selfish world. And now this 
 Society, with an income of thirty-two thousand pounds, 
 and a staff of 283 Missionaries and Native Preachers, 
 has been greatly honoured of God in Bengal and the 
 North-West Provinces of India, has been most success- 
 ful in the West Indies, and has Missions in Ceylon. 
 
 It has already been hinted that the first idea of 
 sending ]\Iissionaries to the South Sea Islands has 
 been said to have risen in the mind of Dr. Coke, though 
 it did not give birth to any practical measures for their 
 evangelization on the part of the Christian brethren im- 
 mediately associated with him. The discovery of those 
 islands by Captain Cook, in his voyage made by order 
 of George the Thii'd for observing the transit of Venus, 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH, 93 
 
 created a powerful interest throughout the British 
 Empire ; but, as was observed by the originators of 
 the Missions to them, they afforded little to excite tlie 
 ambition of princes or the avarice of merchants, and 
 they were again sinking into oblivion, and were left to 
 that state of barbarism in which they were discovered. 
 
 The year 1795 witnessed the formation of the London 
 Missionary Society, an institution on a Catholic prin- 
 ciple, for uniting Christians in the propagation of the 
 gospel among the heathen, without any reference to 
 those conflicting views of the government of the Church 
 which have divided the body of the faithful. The 
 unanimity and ardour which marked the rise of this 
 institution were soon diffused from London through the 
 kingdom, and were eagerly imbibed by Christians on 
 the Continent of Europe and in America. The first 
 attention of this Society was directed, by the dying 
 bequest of the Countess of Huntingdon, and by the zeal 
 and liberality of her Chaplain, Dr. Haweis, to the South 
 Sea Islands ; and the object was i^ursued with such 
 warmth and energy, that in the following year the ship 
 Duff, commanded by Captain Wilson, sailed with 
 twenty-nine Missionaries. After a tempestuous voyage, 
 in which they called at Eio Janeiro, and from thence 
 took the eastward passage, they arrived, in little more 
 than five months, at Tahiti. The natives received them 
 with open arms. The district of Matavia, with a large 
 house, originally built by the king's father for Captain 
 Bligh of the Boimtij, was granted to them by the king. 
 
 The earlier attempts of the Missionaries to introduce 
 the gospel to this people were impeded by many 
 obstacles, especially those arising from the Ai-reois-^ 
 
94 REVIVAX, OF MISSIONARY 
 
 a species of licentious conjurors, who bound themselves 
 by a vow to murder every infant born among them. 
 The extremely barbarous condition of the natives was, 
 also, a great hindrance. The Missionaries were thus 
 led to make vigorous efforts for their civilization, which 
 were attended with the happiest effects. This circum- 
 stance gave the Christian teachers a well-earned and 
 honourable influence with both the chiefs and the people. 
 Encouraged by the accounts brought by Captain Wilson, 
 on his return, the Society resolved on a second voyage, 
 and sent out twenty-nine new Missionaries, with the 
 Kev. W. Howell as their superintendent. Several of 
 these Missionaries were qualified by medical knowledge 
 and the acquisition of several useful arts to promote 
 the civilization of the islanders. The disasters of this 
 second voyage are well known, having been described 
 at length in the affecting early communications of 
 the Society.* Scarcely had the tidings of these cala- 
 mities reached England, when they were followed by 
 intelligence of the removal of great part of the first 
 Missionaries from Tahiti. The cause of their departure 
 may be briefly explained. — There was a deeply-laid con- 
 spiracy of some of the natives to plunder the Mission- 
 aries ; various difficulties arose from the prejudices and 
 impatience of the Tahitians in connection with the 
 medical treatment of the strangers; and an attempt 
 was made to murder them, when peacefully engaged in 
 assisting the captain of an English ship to recover some 
 deserters from his crew. In the consternation excited 
 by these circumstances, most of the Missionaries left 
 the island, and returned to New South Wales, where 
 * See " The Night of Toil." 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 95 
 
 they met with the kindest treatment from the Grovernor, 
 and received a brother's welcome from the Eev. Mr. 
 Marsden, the chaplain at that colony. Here they 
 laboured for the promotion of their spiritual objects. 
 Their success, however, was far from being great. 
 They were exposed to sufferings scarcely inferior to 
 those from which they had escaped. One of their num- 
 ber was murdered. Some of them unhappily conducted 
 themselves in such a manner, that their removal from 
 Tahiti was justly regarded as a blessing to the Mission 
 in that island. The seven Missionaries who remained 
 after the departure of their brethren, were left in a trying 
 condition, amidst alarms and native wars. No sooner 
 was outward peace restored, than the religious defection 
 of two of their own small company overwhelmed them 
 with the keenest sorrow. 
 
 In the year 1800, this little band was reinforced by 
 the arrival of twelve additional Missionaries. They 
 co-operated with their brethren in the acquisition of 
 the language, in teaching the children, and in preach- 
 ing the gospel. They were greatly discouraged by the 
 want of success. The prospect of a general civil war, 
 added to the urgent advice of the king, made it appear 
 to them a duty to abandon an enterprise which had so long 
 been hopeless, and now was wrapped in deeper gloom 
 than ever. They saw with grief and despondency the 
 rapid decrease of the population from the frequency and 
 the destructive fierceness of their wars, aided by the 
 practice of infanticide, by the offering of human victims 
 in sacrifice to their gods, by the shocking licentiousness 
 of their habits, and by the terrible ravages of disease. 
 — Here, in all human appearance, the Mission ended, 
 
96 EEVIVAL OF MISSIOXARY 
 
 amicl the scoffs of its euemies, aud the lamentations of 
 its friends. 
 
 x\bout two years after the inauspicious apparent 
 faihire of the first Mission to Tahiti, several of the 
 Missionaries who had long desired to resume their 
 labours (in which desire they were strengthened by the 
 earnest invitations of King Pomare), took up their abode 
 in the neighbouring island of Eimeo. It was but a few 
 months after their settlement there, that Pomare, who 
 had formerly been quite indifferent to Christianity, ex- 
 pressed to them his persuasion of the truth and value 
 of the gospel, and desired to be baptised. 
 
 The change in Pomare was followed by the most 
 encouraging and striking consequences. Other indi- 
 viduals were brought at the same time to the knowledge 
 of the Saviour, and one, who died, left a pleasing 
 testimony of his repentance and unfeigned faith. 
 From this time the Missionaries were comforted under 
 the remembrance of former disappointment and the 
 recent experience of severe domestic calamities, by the 
 general impression in favour of Divine things that was 
 spreading on the minds of the people. It was now 
 hoped that even the instructions of past years had not 
 been lost, but had been going on till some powerful 
 impulse, guided by the Spirit of Grace, should arise to 
 secure the triumph of the Gospel over Idolatry en- 
 trenched in barbarism. 
 
 This new state of society awoke in Tahiti, as such 
 changes even on a smaller scale have awakened in all 
 places, the bitterest enmity of those who continued in 
 their former state. Priests, chiefs, and warriors re- 
 solved to exterminate the Christians. Their malicious 
 
EFFORT IN THE CnUECH. 97 
 
 clesigns were anticipated. The converts took refuge in 
 Eimeo. The idolaters quarrelled among themselves. 
 On the restoration of peace, Pomare and his Christian 
 adherents returned to Tahiti. Though a seeming re- 
 conciliation was effected, the Christians were attacked 
 when engaged in divine worship. They were better 
 prepared than their enemies expected. They defended 
 themselves, mingling the prayers of faith with the war- 
 shouts of the foe. The idolatrous chief was pierced 
 near the beginning of the onslaught, and his party were 
 entirely vanquished. The failure of this treacherous 
 assault was attended with important results. The 
 assailants were dispu-ited by the death of their leader. 
 The lenity and even kindness with which the Christians 
 pursued their victory astonished and subdued them. 
 Pomare was reinstated, by universal consent, in the 
 government of Tahiti and the dependent isles, of which 
 the rebellion seven years before had deprived him. 
 The people of Tahiti unanimously declared that they 
 would no longer trust the gods that had deceived them. 
 They admired and embraced the new faith, which had 
 taught these warriors such unwonted mercy to the 
 conquered. They abolished idolatry in Tahiti and- 
 Eimeo. The spirit of this momentous change reached 
 the adjacent islands. The chiefs besought the Mission- 
 aries to come and teach them. One of the chiefs, Mai 
 of Borabora, appealed to them in a short sentence 
 involving the whole argument for Missions, — " Jesiis 
 Christ and His apostles did not confine themselves to one 
 country or one place.^^ 
 
 The labours of the Missionaries were now prosecuted 
 with a vigour and to an extent proi^ortioned to the new 
 
 8 
 
98 EEviv.y:, of biissioxary 
 
 aspect of tilings ai'ouncltliem, and beautiful indeed was 
 the living picture that sprang up in contrast to the 
 blighting influence of idolatry ; large bodies assembling 
 from great distances at their own desii'e, eager for in- 
 struction, giving enlightened answers to the questions 
 of their teachers ; — individuals seeking the covert of 
 the lonely bush for private prayer ; — domestic worship 
 conducted in nearly every hut ; — meetings for social 
 prayer, when i^reaching could not be obtained, in which 
 the converted priests of the ancient superstition often 
 presided ; — the Sabbath a day of perfect rest ; — schools 
 whether for childi'en or adults gladly crowded ; — nume- 
 rous efforts of industry made to purchase the gospels 
 and other books, and groups of men, women, and 
 children, reading them beneath the shade of their 
 noble trees ; — Missions commenced for the spread of the 
 gospel; — marriage instituted and honoured; — family 
 peace prevailing; — infanticide abolished; — licentious 
 amusements discontinued ; — x^opulatiou rapidly in- 
 creasing ; — roads, laws, arts, spreading their conveni- 
 ences, protection, and enjoyments over some of the 
 loveliest spots on earth, which, but for the introduction 
 of the gospel, might have been the dismal abodes of 
 war and misery. 
 
 All this oi)ening promise has been greatly clouded, 
 by no failure in the Mission itself, but by the perni- 
 cious results of the French Protectorate. Its establish- 
 ment was an act of the grossest injustice, which, whilst 
 disgraceful to the French nation, has wrought untold 
 iiiischief among the people they have tempted and 
 driven back into sin. 
 
 This "beginning of the Gospel" in Tahiti has been 
 
EFFOET IN THE CHURCH. 99 
 
 followed by widespread efforts and remarkable success 
 in numerous groups of islands in the Great Pacific ; 
 and now tlie London Missionary Society in tlie 
 Hervey, Society, Austral, Samoan and Loyalty groups 
 of islands, and in New Guinea ; the Wesleyans in 
 the Tongan and Fijian groups ; the American Con- 
 gregationalists in the Mosquitos and Sandwich Islands ; 
 and other Agencies elsewhere, have spread a light and 
 won a success of which we shall tell in a subsequent 
 chapter. 
 
 The same Society which was instrumental in pro- 
 ducing the interesting changes in the Pacific, com- 
 menced in 1798 similar operations in the unpromising 
 region of South Africa, which had been recently brought 
 within the limits of the British Empire. Long before. 
 Dr. Johnson, in contemplating that portion of the 
 world, had expressed himself in the following just and 
 powerful language: — "What mankind had lost and 
 gained by European discoveries and conquests it would 
 be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. 
 Much knowledge has been acquired, and much cruelty 
 been committed : the belief of religion has been very little 
 propagated, and its laws have been outrageously and 
 enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcely 
 visited any coast, but to gratify avarice and to extend 
 corruption ; to arrogate dominion without right, and 
 practise cruelty without incentive. Happy had it then 
 been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had 
 slept in his bosom ; and, surely, more happy for the 
 oppressors ! But there is reason to hope, that out of 
 so much evil, good may sometimes be produced ; and 
 that the light of the gospel will at last illuminate the 
 8* 
 
100 EEVIVAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 sands of Africa and the deserts of America, though 
 its progress cannot but be slow, "when it is so much 
 obstructed by the Hves of Christians." * 
 
 The Mission to South Africa was commenced by Dr. 
 Vanderkemp, under the hearty auspices of General 
 Duudas, the British Lieutenant-Governor. Consider- 
 able difficulties were presented in the changes of govern- 
 ment, the wandering habits of the people, and the 
 oi3position of the Dutch Colonists ; but by wisdom and 
 conciliation, joined to zeal and perseverance, Vander- 
 kemp and his associates maintained their ground. 
 Their labours were crowned with large success in the 
 temporal improvement of the natives, and in the con- 
 version of many of them to the Saviour. Settlements 
 were formed at Cape Town, Bethelsdorp, Zak Eiver, 
 Orange Eiver, Griqua Town, Pella, Lattakoo, and at 
 the Kraal of Africaner. This fierce and powerful 
 robber had been for many years the dread of the 
 Colony. He was transformed by the power of Divine 
 grace accompanying the gospel into a meek and con- 
 sistent Christian, and died peacefully in the faith 
 of Christ. The Travels of Mr. Campbell, Mr. Freeman, 
 and the Eesearches of Dr. Philip, throw much light on 
 the general condition of the Hottentots at that early 
 period, and on the progress and effects of the gospel 
 amongst them. From these works it would be easy 
 and gratifying to fill the pages of this volume with 
 copious and interesting extracts. The following fine 
 passage is still true, and exhibits the inevitable result of 
 
 • Introcluction to " The World Pisplnyed." The reference is to 
 riince Henry of Portugal, the lirst euoounigor of remote naviga- 
 tion. 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 101 
 
 Missionary operations in a light too little regarded : — 
 " To such as think that nothing is doing by the 
 Missions, unless they are continually hearing of 
 miraculous conversions, I must be allowed to hazard 
 a remark, for the accuracy of which I can vouch, as far 
 as my own observation extends, — that the number of 
 conversions which come under the notice of Mission- 
 aries does not bear a greater x^i'oportion to the general 
 good done by the Missions, than the conversions and 
 triumphant deaths recorded in our monthly publica- 
 tions in England, do to the entire sum of good done in 
 our native country, by the preaching of the gospel and 
 the institutions of Christianity. While the Mission- 
 aries are complaining that they have so very few striking 
 instances of the x^ower of Divine grace to record in the 
 communications to their respective Societies, let it be 
 remembered, that their influence is much more ex- 
 I tensive, and the change carrying on by them much 
 greater, than they themselves are able to imagine. In 
 those countries where our Missions have gained a 
 marked ascendency, there is scarcely one spot, however 
 much secluded, impervious to their all-pervading light 
 and heat. Where, perhaps, they are grossly misrepre- 
 sented and spoken against, they are checking the 
 grinding power of oppression, raising the standard of 
 morals, proclaiming liberty to the captives, opening the 
 prison doors to those that are bound, diffusing abroad 
 the lights of science and literature, undermining the 
 false systems of religion against which they have to 
 contend, multiplying those charitable institutions that 
 have for their object the relief of suffering humanity, 
 vanquishing infidelity by the most direct and powerful 
 
102 JIEVIVAL OP MISSIONAEY 
 
 of all arguments, by living exhibitions of the truth of 
 Christianity, and changing the very face of our colonies ; 
 while they are accelerating the spread of that moral 
 revolution which will shortly usher in the kingdoms of 
 this world, as the kingdoms of our Lord and His 
 Christ." * 
 
 The same motives which prompted the Missions to 
 the South Seas and to South Africa, induced the 
 Directors in 1804 to send forth Messrs. Eingletaub, 
 Des Granges, and Cran, to the Coromandel Coast in 
 India ; and subsequently to establish Missions in Tra- 
 vancore, at several stations in South -Eastern and 
 South - Western India, in Bengal, the North -West 
 Provinces, and in the Himalayas. 
 
 In 1807 the same Society sent Dr. Morrison, the 
 first Protestant Missionary to China. The singular 
 language and manners of the Chinese, and their 
 peculiar jealousy of strangers, presented greater im- 
 pediments than, perhaps, are found among any other 
 people, to the introduction of the gospel. Dr. Morrison 
 so far overcame these difficulties as to have printed his 
 translation of the Scriptures into their language, besides 
 a Dictionary, a Grammar, and another splendid philo-. 
 logical work, to facilitate the studies of others. By his 
 long residence in the country, too, as the interpreter to 
 the East India Company, he acquired confidence and 
 influence amongst the natives. Great as were the 
 difficulties in his way, and much as they were increased 
 by the opposition of the government to the Eoman 
 Catholic Missionaries and their converts, there were 
 various features of this Mission, marking it as one 
 
 •'' Researches in South Africa," by John Philip, D.D. 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHUECH. 103 
 
 wBicli ranks with the most signal and important enter- 
 prises of the Christian Church in modern times. 
 
 The Missionaries of this Society were introduced 
 into the West Indies in 1807 by Mr. Post, a pious 
 Dutch gentleman, anxious for the instruction of his 
 slaves ; though Moravian and Wesleyan Missionaries 
 were there previously. From the commencement of 
 the Mission till his death, he displayed the most steady, 
 generous, and ardent devotion to its objects. Notwith- 
 standing the disadvantages arising from the slavery of 
 the people, and the martyrdom of one of their Mission- 
 aries, the persecuted John Smith, the Society prose- 
 cuted its labours at Demerara and Berbice with clear 
 tokens of the Divine blessing. 
 
 It would be unjust to this Society not to introduce 
 the glowing testimony of Dr. Brown to the general 
 Missionary impression produced on the Christian Church 
 AT LARGE by its formation and first success. " Inde- 
 pendent of the extraordinary success which hass, at 
 length, crowned the Mission in Otaheite and the 
 neighbouring islands, the undertaking, in the first 
 instance, gave such a mighty impulse to the Christian 
 world, that had it entirely failed as to the conversion 
 of the South Sea islanders, the whole expense and 
 labour attending it would have been amply compen- 
 sated by the powerful effect which it has had in promot- 
 ing the interests of Christianity in other parts of the 
 world, particularly in Pagan countries. Eliot and 
 Mayhew and Brainerd, the Danes and the Moravians, 
 the Methodists and the Baptists, had all engaged in 
 Missionary undertakings, and most of them with 
 considerable appearances of success. But their opera- 
 
101 EEVIYAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 tious never awakened tlie Christian work! from tlie 
 lethargy into which it had fallen. Individuals were 
 interested and delighted with their exertions ; hut the 
 great body of professing Christians scarcely ever heard 
 either of them or of their labours. It was not till the 
 London Missionary Society was formed ; — it was not tiU 
 the magnificent Mission to the South Sea Islands was 
 undertaken, the splendour of which dazzled the eyes of 
 mankind, that the Christian world was aroused from 
 its slumbers. Then a general concern was excited 
 throughout the whole of Christendom, for the conver- 
 sion of the heathen. Old establishments were sup- 
 ported with more vigour, and prosecuted with fresh 
 zeal. New institutions were formed for the propagation 
 of the gospel at home and abroad, some of which have 
 already been crowned with extensive success, while 
 others promise a yet more abundant harvest. In 
 short, a new impulse was given to the operations of the 
 Christian world ; and this, we think, may be traced, in 
 no inconsiderable degree, to the splendour and magnifi- 
 cence of the first Mission to the South Sea Islands," "' 
 And now with a purely Missionary income of £111,000 
 a year, — one-fifth of which is derived from its foreign 
 fields of labour, — this Society employs the Agents, and 
 has gained the results tabulated in the following 
 statistical statement, along with GO, 000 Scholars in 
 its schools. 
 
 * "Brown's History of the Propagation of Cluiatianity," vol. ii. 
 p. 234, third edition. 
 
EFFOBT IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 105 
 
 
 EugUsh 
 
 Native 
 
 Native 
 
 Church 
 
 Native 
 
 
 MiBsion- 
 
 Ordaineil. 
 
 Ttacliers. 
 
 Members. 
 
 Adherents. 
 
 
 aiies. 
 
 Pastors. 
 
 
 
 
 China .... 
 
 18 
 
 4 
 
 56 
 
 1,655 
 
 3,045 
 
 North India 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 359 
 
 1,588 
 
 South Ind^a. . 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 70 
 
 931 
 
 5,244 
 
 Teavancoee . . 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 196 
 
 2,588 
 
 32,024 
 
 Madagascar . . 
 
 23 
 
 50 
 
 2,683 
 
 38,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 South Africa . 
 
 30 
 
 
 107 
 
 5,598 
 
 31,410 
 
 West Indies 
 
 12 
 
 i 
 
 23 
 
 5,459 
 
 17,660 
 
 Polynesia . . 
 
 2G 
 
 50 
 
 343 
 
 13,705 
 
 68,552 
 
 Totals .... 
 
 152 
 
 130 
 
 3,495 
 
 68,295 
 
 459,523 
 
 The iustitutiou of the Missiouary Society in London 
 was followed in 179G by tlie formation of the Scottish 
 AND Glasgow Societies, which selected Western Africa 
 as the sphere of their efforts. A Mission was afterwards 
 commenced in Tartary; and they also laboured with 
 much energy in the West Indies. These Societies 
 have since been merged in the Church of Scotland, the 
 Free Church, and the United Presbyterian Missionary 
 Societies. 
 
 The commencement of the nineteenth century 
 witnessed the establishment of the Church Missionary 
 Society. The Missionaries of this Society have 
 laboured with great assiduity, and have been blessed 
 with much encouragement amidst great trials and a 
 fearful sacrifice of lives, in the destructive climate of 
 Western Africa. The early difficulties were unspeak- 
 ably aggravated by the terrible influence of the slave 
 trade. It is well known that the abolition of that trade 
 by the British Parliament was followed up by the 
 settlement at Sierra Leone, for the reception of negroes 
 recaptured from smugglers in that illegal and accursed 
 traffic. Here the Missionaries entered on a trying but 
 
106 REVIVAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 interesting field of labour. The education of cliildren 
 — the preaching of the gospel, often with marked 
 success — and the outward improvement of the x^eople 
 at Eegent's Town and other places in the colony, soon 
 bore testimony to the fidelity, earnestness, and patience 
 with which these holy men fulfilled the duties to which 
 they had devoted themselves. 
 
 At the suggestion of Mr. Marsden, the chaplain at 
 New South Wales, the Church Missionary Society 
 formed a Christian settlement in New Zealand. The 
 Missionaries proceeded in their work, and were as 
 successful as could be expected, in the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances in which they stood, among so fierce and 
 barbarous a x^eople. 
 
 The next scene that opens on us in the view of these 
 important Missions is in the vast sphere of India. 
 This work began under the auspices of the Venerable 
 Archdeacon Corrie. The first Missionary was Abdool 
 Messee, a converted Mahomedan — a man of good 
 abilities and indefatigable industry, happily combined 
 with decided Christian principles and feelings. By the 
 efforts of Abdool at Agra, great attention to the gospel 
 was excited among all classes of the natives. In 1814, 
 two Missionaries arrived from England, at Madras. 
 Since that time the Society has been spreading the 
 blessings of Christian education, literature, and institu- 
 tions over a large portion of the Indian Continent. It 
 has met with the most marked success in Tinnevelly ; 
 it has numerous Mission Stations in South India, in 
 Bengal, and the North-West Provinces ; and its eft'orts 
 are more widely difiused throughout India than those 
 of any other Society. It has been specially active in 
 
EFFOBT IN THE CHURCH. 107 
 
 the formation of female schools. — In Antigua, Barba- 
 does, and other parts of the West Indies, this Society 
 has devoted part of its funds to the support of schools, 
 which have, as in other instances, been followed with 
 most beneficial results. Large portions of the funds of 
 the Society have also been employed in the translation 
 and publication of valuable works, for distribution in 
 ]\Iahomedan and heathen nations. 
 
 This active spirit of diffusing the gospel, we have 
 previously observed, was an essential feature of the 
 churches of Christ planted in America. In 1810 some 
 students preparing for the ministry at Andover College, 
 having dedicated themselves to the service of Christ 
 among the heathen, the General Association of Mas- 
 sachusetts established " The American Board of Foreign 
 Missions," consisting chiefly of the Congregational and 
 Presbyterian Churches of America. Southern and 
 Western India, the Turkish and Persian Empires, and 
 China, are the principal scenes of their labours in the 
 East. Their efforts among the American Indians have 
 been conducted on a most extensive scale with great zeal 
 and vigour. From the same Board, the first Missionaries 
 visited the Sandwich Islands, on which the same 
 brightness of spiritual glory is seen as on the other 
 islands of the same ocean which we have before con- 
 templated. 
 
 Mr. Judsou was one of the students in Andover 
 College when the Missionary spirit awoke in that 
 seminary. Dr. Buchanan's " Star in the East," led 
 his thoughts to an Oriental Mission. With such 
 thoughts he visited England under the direction of the 
 Board of Foreign Missions. After his return he 
 
108 REVIVAL OF MISSIONARY 
 
 accompauiecT Mr. Kice, aiid Mr. and Mrs. Newell 
 to India. From the government of India they met 
 with great annoyances. Their stay at Madras was 
 short. They proceeded to Eangoon in Burmah. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Eice having joined the 
 Baptists whilst in the East, a Missionary impulse 
 before unknown was now given to that denomination in 
 the United States. The Ameri€an Baptist Board of 
 Foreign Missions was formed in May, 1814. The ac- 
 count of the Mission to Burmah, by Mrs. Judson, 
 minutely details the origin, progress, trials, and suc- 
 cesses of an enterprise on which, in this general and 
 rapid survey, we can only cast a hurried glance.''' The 
 Boards of Missions in America were followed, in 1817, 
 by the United Foreign Missionary Society — consisting 
 chiefly of the different bodies of Presbyterians in that 
 country, and engaged in propagating the gospel among 
 the Indians of North America. 
 
 These Societies were the Pioneers of modern Mis- 
 sionary enterprise. They have been followed by a 
 large number of others, which are worthy of equal 
 honour, and participate in the same noble work, though 
 their spheres of labour are more circumscribed. It is 
 indeed one of the most auspicious signs of the times 
 that almost every section of the Church of Christ feels 
 called upon to share in the great attempt to convert 
 the heathen. This will be seen by a careful perusal of 
 the following tables : — 
 
 * See the i\Icmoirs of Sirs. Jmlson, by her liusbaiul ; auil of Dr. 
 JuJsou, by l>r. Wnylaud tiud Dr. II. Douar. 
 
EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 109 
 
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110 EEVIVAL OF MISSIOXAEY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 II.— CONTINENTAL MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.- 
 United Brethren, or Moravian Missionary Society. 
 Berlin Missionary Society. 
 Ebeuish Missionary Society. 
 Evangelical Missionary Society, Berlin. 
 North German Missionary Society, Bremen. 
 Leipsic Lutheran Missionary Society. 
 Basle Mission. 
 Paris Missionary Society. 
 Netherlands Missionary Society. 
 Netherlands Missionary Union. 
 Utrecht Missionary Society. 
 Netherlands Reformed Missionary Society. 
 Danish Missionary Societj'. 
 Norwegian Missionary Society. 
 
 *^* These have an aggregate annual income of not less than 
 £120,000, and sustain 430 European Missionaries. 
 
 III.— AMERICAN SOCIETIES. 
 American Board of Missions. 
 American and Foreign Christian Union, Continental, etc., 
 
 Society. 
 American Missionary Association. 
 American Baptist Missionary Union. 
 Dutch Reformed Church. 
 Methodist Episcopal Mission. 
 American Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 American Presbyterian Missions. 
 
 These have an aggregate annual income of £320,000, and 
 sustain 550 American Missionaries. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing classified organised agencies, 
 there is much individual and private effort, which cannot 
 he tabulated. 
 
 The Missionary value of such Institutions as the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society, is 
 immense, and merits the most warm and cordial recognition 
 from all the friends of Missions. 
 
 * See " London and Calcutta," by Ecv. Dr. Mullens. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE SUCCESS OF MODERN MISSIONS NARRATIVE. 
 
 Seventy years of Missionary Enterprise. — Prox-itlential Opening out of the World 
 for the Work. — Obstacles and Hindrances. — Missionary Agencies a token of 
 the World's Progress and Evangelization. — Their Briefness and small Pro- 
 portion to the Magnitude of the Work. — Valuable Aid of Native Evangelists. — 
 Modem Diffusion of Civilization and Christian Ideas an Indii-ect Effect of 
 Missionary Labour. — The Direct Results of Missions : The West Indies : 
 Polynesia ; South Africa ; Madagascar ; The Turkish Empire ; India ; Bur- 
 mah ; China ; Siam and Japan ; The Indian Archipelago ; New Zealand ; 
 Extreme North of Em-ope; Greenland and the North of America. — Reality 
 and Greatness of the Work Accomplished : Abolition of Heathen Customs ; 
 Changes in Social Life ; Infusion of Chi'istian Ideas ; Spread of Education. — 
 The Spiritual Influence of Missions : Renewal of Life and Hope in the Soul ; 
 Triumphant Deaths of Christian Converts. — Urgent claim of these Facts 
 upon every individual Christian. 
 
 We have sliowu tliat it is the primary duty of the 
 Christian Church to aim at the diffusion of the Truth 
 and the conversion of the workl. This duty, there- 
 fore, is not dependent on success or faikire, but on 
 the will of God and the Saviour's command and ex- 
 ample. Success, however, is grateful and stimulating, 
 since it encourages those whose faith and convictions 
 of duty are weak, exhibits the Divine approbation, 
 and proves that, even judged by the low standard of 
 the world, the Missionary enterprise is worthy of en- 
 couragement, because it consummates the ends at 
 which it aims. 
 
112 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 It will not be clifilciilt to show tliat modern Mis- 
 sionary effort, during the past seventy years, has ac- 
 tually achieved more splendid results than have been 
 gained in the same length of time during the past 
 eighteen centuries ; that its results have far exceeded 
 the expectations of the " fathers and founders " of 
 modern IMissions ; and that, taking into account the 
 obstacles to be encountered, the general apathy and 
 indifference, and, in many instances, hostility of pro- 
 fessing Christians, and the comparatively small amount 
 of agency that has been employed, the success has been 
 large and encouraging, — such, that is, as amply to 
 recompense the Church for all its expenditure of effort, 
 vfcalth, and life, and to justify her in prosecuting her 
 enterprise with fresh vigour and hope. 
 
 The manner in icJiich the ivorhl Juts been opened out 
 for Christian effort, since the hctjinniixj of the present 
 century, is very worthy of notice. 
 
 Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria were then effec- 
 tually barred against Protestantism ; and other Eoman 
 Catholic states were almost as jealous and exclusive. 
 There was not a single Mahomedan country fairly 
 open to Christian agencies, and in most of them pro- 
 selytism to any great extent was impossible, so sure 
 were the penalties awaiting the convert. China and 
 Japan were rigidly closed. In the Native States of 
 India, then so numerous and powerful. Christian pro- 
 pagandism vfould not have been allowed ; neither was it 
 there in our own newly-acquired Northern dominions, 
 whilst in the South it was jealously watched and 
 suspected. The whole of Africa, with the exception 
 of the extreme south, was little known and greatly 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 113 
 
 dreaded. So closed were nine-tenths of heathendom, 
 that the newly-formed Missionary Societies felt it diffi- 
 cult to find spheres for their operations, and had to 
 occupy, not such spheres as they preferred, but such as 
 they could enter. 
 
 All this aroused the Church to energy and prayer, 
 and God seeing her eager desu-e to preach the gospel 
 to every creature, gradually broke down every barrier, 
 and set before her a wide and an effectual door. It is 
 only by recollecting the exclusiveness and intolerance 
 •jf Eomau Catholic nations, seventy and even thirty 
 years ago, and the manner in which their policy was 
 controlled by the priesthood, that we can adequately 
 measure the fact that Spain, Portugal, South America, 
 Italy, and even Kome itself, have now an open Bible, 
 their Protestant churches, and their evangelising asso- 
 ciations. Mahomedan exclusiveness has largely given 
 way, though not to the same extent ; so that Egypt, 
 Syria, Turkey, and Persia are the spheres of flourish- 
 ing Missions. China, Japan, Burmah, and Siam have 
 gradually, though reluctantly, accorded a hearing to 
 the ambassadors of Christ ; whilst throughout India 
 the gospel may be freely proclaimed, and in most of 
 its provinces with less opposition than is met with 
 in hundreds of English parishes. Central Asia, where 
 political exclusiveness in Thibet, and Moslem lawless- 
 ness and bigotry in Bokhara, Khasgar, and Turko- 
 mania are stiU rampant, is, in fact, the only region 
 actually closed against the Christian Missionary. Thus, 
 almost as completely as Jericho was laid low before 
 the hosts of Israel, is the antichristian world made 
 accessible to Divine Truth. 
 
 9 
 
114 THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 In estimating the success of Missions, due considera- 
 tion must be f/iven to the obstacles they hare had to contend 
 against, and the amount of 2>r^p(ti'(ttori/ xcork they have had 
 to accomplish. 
 
 Tlie Missionary agents have been exposed to the 
 clangers of unknown and unhealthy chmates. They 
 have had to hve among rude and savage tribes and 
 races. They have had to concihate suspicious, lawless, 
 and greedy kings, chiefs, and heathen priests. They 
 have had to gain the confidence of races as i^eculiar 
 as the Hindus, as exclusive as the Chinese, as savage 
 as the African tribes, as suspicious as the Burmese, 
 and as ignorant as the Polynesian islanders. They 
 have had to learn strange and difficult languages and 
 dialects, without the aid of grammar or lexicon. They 
 have had to create all the Christian and correctly 
 scientific literature which exists in hundi-eds of 
 islands, among scores' of tribes, in several kingdoms, 
 and in some empu-es. They have had to feel their 
 way to the best methods of destroying superstition 
 and disseminating truth. They have had to build 
 churches and schools, and to gather converts and 
 scholars, and to train all whom they have won to 
 adopt Christian ideas and lead Christian lives, and seek 
 — oh, hard lesson for those nurtured in heathenism ! — 
 to be disinterestedly of service to others. Let any one 
 fairly endeavour to estimate the aggregate of all that 
 has thus been accomplished, and he will find that the 
 physical and mental labour has been stupendous, and 
 the result of it vast and gratifying. 
 
 The translation of the Scriptures is the most im- 
 portant of these undertakings, whilst it fittingly illus- 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 115 
 
 trates tlie forms of labour involved in the others. 
 When the Bible Society commenced its honoured work 
 in 180-4, the Holy Scriptures existed in only thirty- 
 four languages and dialects, spoken by less than two 
 hundred millions of our race — not one-sixth of man- 
 kind ; now it is found in one hundred and seventy- six 
 languages and dialects, spoken by at least one thousand 
 millions, or five-sixths of our race. Indeed, there is 
 not, with the sole exception of Japanese, a single 
 widely-spoken language which has not its translation 
 of the whole Bible. 
 
 The creation of Missionary agencies alike marks the 
 growth of i^uhlic ojnnion and the jjrogress made toward the 
 tcorhVs evangelisation . 
 
 We have marked the rise of the principal Missionary 
 
 Societies, but some notice, however brief, should be 
 
 given to the comparative insignificance of their first 
 
 efforts, and to the opposition with which they had 
 
 to contend. The hostility and ridicule of those who 
 
 had no sympathy with the forms of religiousness 
 
 exliibited in the New Testament was to be expected ; 
 
 but the general apathy of professing Christians, and 
 
 the hostility of many others, seems strange and sad. 
 
 Certain it is, that the first Societies had few friends 
 
 and many enemies, whilst numbers, whose sympathy 
 
 and aid should freely have been given to them, stood 
 
 coldly and doubtfully aside. "■'■ In this respect, Christian 
 
 * At a meeting of ministers, held about 1788, at North- 
 ampton, Mr. Kyland, senior, called on the young men around 
 him to propose some topic for discussion ; ou which Mr. Carey 
 rose, and proposed for consideration : "The duty of Christians to 
 attempt the spread of the Gospel among heathen nations." The 
 venerable- divine received the proposal with astonishment, and, 
 springing ou his feet, denounced the proposition with a fi'owu, 
 
 9* 
 
116 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 Bcntiment and opinion has undergone a great and 
 ausj)icious change ; and if few have the zeal and enthu- 
 siasm of the past age, still fewer have its apathy, 
 its scepticism, or its disbelief. It is at least admitted 
 generally in Christian circles, that the heathen should 
 have the gospel preached to them. In accordance with 
 this accepted principle, every denomination has its 
 Foreign Missionary Society, and a reproach rests on 
 individual congregations of any size which do not -an- 
 nually recognise and aid their work. The Missionary 
 spirit — estimated either by the teachings or example 
 of the New Testament, or by any set of opinions and 
 sentiments fairly deduced fi-om them — must be pro- 
 nounced still to be painfully low ; but comparing what 
 it now is with what it was eighty, sixty, and even fifty 
 years ago, it is clear that a great and gratifying ad- 
 vance has been made. 
 
 In estimating the success of modern Missions, not only 
 the comparatively small number of agents should he home 
 in mind, but also the short time during ivhich they or 
 their predecessors have been actually at icork. 
 
 The change in opinion has led to an improvement 
 in revenue and resource, and this again to an advance 
 in actual agency. Eighty years ago, it is questionable 
 if there were as many as 80 Missionaries labouring 
 in all heathendom. Greenland, Lapland, the West 
 Indies, South Africa, Ceylon, and South India had 
 
 and thundered out : " Young man, sit down ! When God pleases 
 to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine." 
 — Marshman''$ Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward. 
 vol. i. c. 1. 
 
 When the Baptist Missionary Society was formed at Kettering, 
 in 1792, the first collection only amounted to £13. 2s. 6d. 
 
MODEBN MISSIONS. 117 
 
 a few eacli ; and oh, how few ! But in all China, 
 Japan, Burmah, and Siani ; in Central and Northern 
 India ; in Central Asia and Central Africa ; in Egypt, 
 Turkey, and Persia ; and in all the thousand islands 
 of Asia, Australasia, and the Pacific, there was not one I 
 The whole land was desolate ! Superstition reigned 
 unchecked, and no voice in clear and faithful utterance 
 proclaimed the rights of the one true God, or the 
 mercy and grace of His Son. Even sixty years ago, it 
 is questionable if all the existing Missionary Societies 
 had as many as 500 Missionaries. Gradually, how- 
 ever, the number has increased, until it is now close 
 upon 2,000 ; and of these about one-half are the 
 agents of our English Societies, — the rest in equal 
 proportions of those from the Continent and from 
 America. 
 
 But the Missionaries do not now labour alone. The 
 most useful fruit of their toil is seen in the large num- 
 ber — certainly not less than 16,000 — of native preachers 
 and teachers who now aid them. All these, or their 
 fathers, were once adherents of the superstitions they 
 now are striving to destroy. Sixty years ago there 
 were not a thousand such ; and the growing efficiency 
 of these men is a more gratifying fact than even their 
 multiplication. There are now many Chinese, Burmese, 
 Hindu, Polynesian, and Malagashi preachers and pas- 
 tors, whose ability, zeal, piety, and efficiency is un- 
 doubted; and the number of such is greatly on the 
 increase. The proof of this is seen in the fact that 
 in large numbers of the older stations the foreign ele- 
 ment can be wholly or in part dispensed with — or be 
 employed in purely evangelistic effort — whilst the care 
 
118 .THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 and culture bf the Christianised community can be 
 intrusted to indigenous agencies.* 
 
 The diffusion of Christian ideas is a most marked effect 
 of preachinrj and teacldng in heathen lands. 
 
 The dispersion of the Jews through the ancient 
 civiHsed world, and the translation of their Scriptures 
 into the Greek tongue, were undo'ubtedly the grand 
 means of preparing the minds of devout, thoughtful, 
 
 * In 1820, the Ameiieau Missionaries commenced their labours 
 in the Sandwich IsLauds. For twelve j'ears they had no success ; 
 hut then the tide turned, and now the islands are Christian. Of 
 the 120,000 inhabitants, almost one-fourth are communicants and 
 Church members. They have 58 independent and self-supi^orting 
 Churches, 44 of which are in charge of native ministers. They 
 raise annually £6,000 for religious purposes, and send a fifth 
 of their native miiiisters to evangelize distant heathen islands; 
 whilst the proportion of those who can read and write is greater 
 than in most English or American towns. So completely has the 
 Missionary work been accomplished, that the American Board 
 of Foreign Missions last year jn-oposed the following resolution : — 
 " That inasmuch as the proper work of this Board in those 
 islands is now virtually completed, so that there remains only the 
 duty of sustaining the few veteran Missionaries in comfort and 
 continued usefulness till they shall enter into rest, and the name 
 of that Mission will henceforth disapj^ear from our anniial reports, 
 we record once more our reverent and thankful acknowledgment 
 of the success with which God, in His providence and by His 
 Sjiirit, has crowned the work of our Missionaries in that field, 
 and by which a race of barbarians — without letters, without arts, 
 without industry, and with no humanising institutions — has been 
 transformed into a Christian nation, civilised and free, under go- 
 vernment of laws, with free schools for all the children, and with the 
 Bible in the homes of the people." We refer the reader to Dr. 
 Eulus Anderson's " History of the Sandwich Islands Mission," a 
 trustworthy and remarkable volume. 
 
 In further illustration of this part of our subject, it may be stated 
 that numerous native Churches in Burmah, in India (both north 
 and south), in Polynesia, in Madagascar, and still more in the 
 West Indies, are now entirely self-supporting; whilst a yet greater 
 number are more or less so. This is proved by the fact that some 
 of the older Missionary Societies now derive a considerable propor- 
 tion of their income from the Churches they have planted iu 
 heathen lauds. 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 119 
 
 and intelligent men and women to receive the Gospel, 
 or at least to give it a candid hearing. The Syrian, 
 the Persian, the Arabian, the Egyptian, the Greek, and 
 the Armenian intellect and imagination were akeady 
 familiarised with the grand and fundamental concep- 
 tions of one supreme, spiritual, and benevolent God, — 
 of an eternal and immutable moral law, — of human re- 
 sponsibility, — of Divine government, — and of Divine 
 mediation. Thus, when the first preachers of the 
 Gospel disclosed their message in Alexandria, Antioch, 
 Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, audEome, — and it is worthy 
 of notice how they selected great centres of intelligence 
 and population as then' principal spheres of labour, — 
 they found numbers prepared to listen to their message, 
 to understand then* ideas and their phraseology, and to 
 welcome the sublime truths they taught.* Even so, 
 a process of preparation of an analogous kind is now 
 going on throughout almost the entire Gentile world. 
 The most distant islands and the most alien tribes 
 and races are now reached by Christian explorers and 
 traders ; and evil as their actions often are, the general 
 
 * Those who are of oj^iuiou that modern Missions make slow 
 progress in comparison with those of the first and second 
 centuries, should remember that for not less than 500 years did 
 this leavening preparatory process go on. The triumphant 
 position, therefore, won by Christianity at the beginning of the 
 tliird century, though primarily due to the zeal and fidelity of 
 the apostles and their successors, may fairly be described as the 
 rssult of 700 years of Providential and human effort to prepare 
 for and to establish the kingdom of God. On the other hand, 
 nine-tenths of our modern Missions have actually been established 
 within the lifetime of thousands now living. It is not eighty years 
 since the first Missionaries commenced their labours in Northern 
 India, in any part of Africa, and in Polynesia. The splendid 
 fruitage of effort in Burmah, and in Madagascar, is due to less 
 tlian fifty-five years of toil ; and, properly speaking, Chinese 
 Missions are of yet more recent date. 
 
120 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 effect of such intercourse is undoubtedly to call atten- 
 tion to the religion which underlies the greatness and 
 the civilisation of the nations they rei^resent. The 
 Anglo-Saxon Missionary rests his claim to be heard 
 on the truth and importance of the rehgion he teaches ; 
 but he is undoubtedly, in most instances, commended 
 to the forbearance, if not the respect of those he seeks 
 to influence, by the fact that he is one of a race whose 
 power, wealth, and influence are everywhere manifest. 
 His two grand aims are — to lead individual men and 
 women to believe and follow Christ, and to spread 
 abroad a knowledge of the essential truths and doc- 
 trines of the Bible. He seeks to accomplish the 
 former by means of the latter, and though he often 
 fails in reaching the ultimate end, the proximate one 
 is moderately sure. Printing has greatly multiplied his 
 power, so that now — by means of the sacred Scriptures, 
 and Christian tracts and books, and school books satu- 
 rated with Christian ideas, as well as by the living 
 voice — attention is everywhere called to Christianity 
 as the faith of the whole civilised world, and to its 
 grand leading doctrines, — the unity of God, the incar- 
 nation and atonement of the Saviour, the immortality 
 of the soul, and human responsibility. 
 
 Not only has public attention throughout the semi- 
 civilised world been thus directed, but there has been 
 a marked modification of opinion in some directions, 
 and a change in others, as the result. No one can be 
 familiar with the intellectual, social, and religious state 
 of Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Persia, India, Burmah, Japan, 
 and China, three-quarters of a century ago (or even 
 half that time) and now, without being struck with th^ 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 121 
 
 marked change. And tins is all tlie more significant 
 if it be remembered that these countries represent four- 
 fifths of all the heathen world, and the only three great 
 systems of Paganism with which Christianity has now 
 to contend. 
 
 But direct as tvell as indirect good has followed 
 Missionary effort in almost every case ichere it has been 
 tried for a reasonable lenyth of time, as the folloidng 
 details abundantly show. 
 
 In the West Indies, the degradation, the ignorance, 
 and the superstitions of the early part of this century 
 have been greatly reduced. Schools and chax^els have 
 been multiplied, and they may now justly be considered 
 as regions won from heathenism to Christianity. 
 
 Eighty years ago Polynesia was entirely heathen. 
 Probably not a Christian could be found there, nor any 
 one who could read or write. Cannibalism, human sa- 
 crifices, and infanticide were frequent. The prevailing 
 superstitions had in them not one redeeming quality of 
 nobleness, goodness, or beneficence ; and the people 
 were given over to fraud, falsehood, violence, and im- 
 purity. Much of this yet remains, but much also of it 
 has been diminished, and much has totally disappeared. 
 At least two hundred islands have embraced the faith 
 of Christ. In these, idol-temples, and the j)riestcraft, 
 superstition, and cruelty associated with them, have 
 almost disappeared ; whilst chapels, schools, and the 
 arts and industries of Christianity and civilised life 
 have taken their place. In about an equal number of 
 islands the same process of evangelizing is in operation, 
 and year by year heathenism, with its darkness, cruelty, 
 and wretchedness, is giving place to Christianity, with 
 
122 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 its liglit, beneficence, and peace. At least half a million" 
 j)eople are now professing Christianity, and of these 
 GO, 000 are communicants and Church members ; whilst 
 not less than 2,500 are pastors of the native congrega- 
 tions already gathered, or Missionaries to the islands 
 where heathenism still reigns. All this has been done at 
 a cost of not more than a million pounds sterling — less 
 than the price of constructing many single miles of 
 railway in London ; and so well and thoroughly has the 
 work in numbers of instances been done, that it has 
 ceased to be a charge on the resources of Missionary 
 Societies, and actually supplies agents and funds for 
 evangelistic work elsewhere. 
 
 The progress made in South Africa has been very 
 great. Slavery, oppression, and bloodshed have been 
 restrained. The wretchedness and terror identified 
 with sorcery, witchcraft, and fetish- worship, have been 
 lessened. Whole tribes and races have begun their 
 march from barbarism to civilisation, from heathenism 
 to Christianity. There are many settlements, towns, 
 and villages where the Christian faith is professed, and 
 its usages adopted. Missionaries, Bibles, schools, chapels, 
 are now found from the eastern to the western coasts, 
 to a distance of more than 1,200 miles north of Cape 
 Town ; and abeady upwards of a quarter of a million 
 converts — Kaffirs, Hottentots, Bushmen, Fiugoes, 
 Bechuanas, and others have received the Gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 Madagascar deserves special notice. It is question- 
 able if, for the jiast thousand years, any more striking 
 illustration of the unaided power of the Gospel to win 
 its way to success, in spite of all that force, craft, and 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 
 
 123 
 
 malice coukl do to hinder it, lias anywhere been seen. 
 It is only fifty-two years since the work commenced, 
 and the feebleness of its first beginnings may be inferred 
 from the fact that one solitary Missionary, with only 
 three scholars, commenced that school-work which sub- 
 sequently became so potent. For less than eleven years 
 the Missionaries laboured without hindi-ance, but their 
 number never exceeded eleven, most of them being 
 artisans. Then came a long dark period of obstruction 
 and persecution. From July, 1830, to August, 18G2, no 
 Missionary was allowed to labour in the island ; and for 
 as long a period all attempts to propagate Christianity 
 were sternly repressed, and its profession prohibited by 
 fine, imprisonment, and death. Yet it spread, even in 
 the darkest times ; and now the national idols have 
 been destroyed, the monarch is a devout Christian, 
 the capital is well supplied with chapels, and the Sab- 
 bath is as well kept there as in many English towns. 
 Far into the country around the Gospel has also pene- 
 trated, and there are hundreds of thousands ready to 
 " cast their idols to the moles and to the bats ; " whilst 
 already 300,000 people have been baptised, of whom 
 38,000 are communicants and Church members. 
 Such is the wish to hear and to learn, that the Mission- 
 aries have gradually increased the number of native 
 assistants to 2,557, whilst copies of the Scriptures and 
 school books have been required as fast as they could 
 be printed. All this has been done by the Bible and 
 the Missionaries alone, at a total cost of less than 
 £150,000.* 
 
 Eeal progress has been made in some parts of the 
 * See Ellis's "Martyr Churoli of Madagascar." 
 
124 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 Turkish Empire. Attention lias largely been called 
 towards Christianity by the presence of Missionaries and 
 the wide circulation of the Scriptures and other books, 
 as well as by the growing intercourse with Christian 
 nations. The bigotry of Islamism has given way so 
 far, that proselytism is allowed, and converts suffer no 
 grievous wrong. There are now more than 20,000 
 such ; and through the various Mission schools, liberal, 
 enlightened, and true ideas are being widely spread. 
 
 India, the seat of the oldest superstition now known, 
 and the magnificent trophy of England's power and 
 greatness, demands special notice. No one in the least 
 acquainted with Hindus and Hinduism will deny that 
 extraordinary difficulties lie in the way of converting 
 the former and subverting the latter. 
 
 The first Protestant Missionaries reached India in 
 1706, but up to the close of the century there were 
 never twelve Missionaries there at any one time, and the 
 labours of these were confined to a very small portion 
 of the empire. In the first twenty-five years of this 
 century the average number of Missionaries was under 
 100 ; and during the past half century it has not 
 reached 400, — or one to every half million of the popu- 
 lation. Thus it is clear that the labourers have been 
 indeed few, and the time during which they have 
 laboured has been short. 
 
 But marked progress has been made alike in the 
 changes which Hinduism has undergone, and in the 
 conversion of individuals to a purer faith. Suttee 
 has been abolished. Infanticide has been greatly 
 abated. Female education is spreading. The condi- 
 tion of women is much ameliorated. Widows are 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 125 
 
 being treated witli more humanity, and tlieir marriages 
 are becoming frequent. The more inhuman and in- 
 decent exhibitions of idolatry are disappearing. The 
 great rehgious festivals are seldom attended by the 
 large and enthusiastic crowds of former days. Caste 
 is losing its strange, strong, fascinating power.* The 
 authority of the Shasters is being discredited, and the 
 impression is everywhere abroad that the Hinduism 
 of the past is ready to vanish away. New ideas and 
 conceptions also are already taking shape in the minds 
 of multitudes who, from their rank and intelligence, 
 have most influence in shaping the opinions of others. 
 Thus, the belief of the uneducated in a multitude of 
 hideous and licentious gods and goddesses, and of the 
 learned and intellectual in Pantheism, or in Brum, 
 the soul of the universe, the impersonation of supreme 
 and selfish blissful repose, is giving place to the belief 
 in one God, infinitely wise, just, pure, benevolent, holy, 
 and active, not easily distinguishable from the Jehovah 
 of the Old Testament. The hitherto universal belief in 
 the transmigration of the soul, with all its fatalistic 
 and demoralising effects, is giving place to Christian 
 conceptions of the individuality, dignity, and resjion- 
 sibility of man. And with all this, true moral ideas 
 are likewise spreading. Through the wise and careful 
 policy of government and the administration of just 
 and equal laws, through commercial intercourse, by 
 means of government schools and colleges, and still 
 
 * " That in eating there should be no prejudices, even Hindus 
 are beginning to admit as an axiomatic truth and the prejudice 
 against beef and wine, as forbidden articles of food; are now con- 
 fined only among bigots of the orthodox class." — Essays by Ihibu 
 Shoshi Chunder Dutt. p. 38. This statement must be limited to 
 the educated classes in the large cities. 
 
126 THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 more tlirougli direct Christian teaching, new and 
 correct conceptions of truthfuhaess, honesty, right, and 
 benevolence, of the brotherhood of mankind, and the 
 claims of all to equal justice and good- will, and of 
 human responsibility to God, are taking root in 
 myriads of minds and hearts. And those who have 
 the slightest acquaintance with the excessive demora- 
 lisation of Hindu society, and the utterly false and 
 impure influence of Hinduism as a popular religion, 
 will best be able to estimate the importance and value 
 of such changes.* 
 
 But whilst the old sux^erstition is thus undergoing 
 a process of rapid and thorough disintegration, the 
 faith which the Missionaries have planted is steadily 
 gathering strength and influence. Every decade of 
 this century has witnessed a marked advance in the 
 number or quality of the converts ; in the fresh ground 
 that has been occupied ; or in the strength of the 
 Indian Church, through its growing intelligence, its 
 enlarged liberality, and the higher type of its indige- 
 nous ministry. Indian Missions can show their quarter 
 
 * Ample proofs and illustrations of all these statements coulcl 
 readily be given. We cite but two writers, neither of whom can 
 be stispectedof partiaUtj'. 
 
 " The middle and upper strata of Hindu society, under the 
 du'ect propagandism of Missions and the moderate results of 
 our rule, are seething with now ideas, desires, and beliefs, and 
 present a study full of significance to the philanthropist and 
 scientific observer." — lite Calcutta Corri'Kjwndent of " The Times.'" 
 
 " To borrow a simile from Lord Macaulay, the seven sleepers 
 of the legend, who closed their eyes when the Pagans were per- 
 secuting the Christians, and awoke when the Christians were 
 persecuting the Pagans, did not find themselves in a world more 
 completely new than what about fifty years hence, at the present 
 rate of progress, will be the moral and intellectual aspect of 
 British India." — Essays hij Babu Shosi Chunder Dutt. pp. 39, 40. 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 12? 
 
 of a million converts, and their two thousand teachers 
 and preachers ; and among the former it can point to 
 numbers of self-supporting churches, and a state of 
 growing prosperity nowhere else equalled among the 
 multitudinous races and sects of our splendid Eastern 
 empire ; whilst among the latter it has a large and 
 growing number of men who for piety, eloquence, 
 intellectual acumen, and attainments, would compare 
 favourably with the ministry of Christian lands. 
 
 The Burmese Missions, being almost solely conducted 
 by the American Baptists, are not as well known in 
 England as they should be. They have always had 
 a small staff of Missionaries, seldom numbering twenty. 
 The Mission was commenced in 1813, and for some 
 years its work was impeded by war, persecution, and 
 X)olitical jealousy. In spite of these, nevertheless, a 
 Christian literature has been created ; — some remark- 
 able conversions have taken place ; — 100,000 Karens 
 have received the gospel ; — the churches into which 
 they have been gathered are chiefly self-supporting, 
 and have their native pastors ; — whilst a considerable 
 number of their members are zealous and efficient 
 , evangelists to their unenlightened countrymen* 
 
 * In one Association with 50 native teachers, no aid for their 
 support has been received from abroad for some time. The 
 , Karen Christians in one year sent out and supported 13 of their 
 number as Missionaries to their countrATnen. One Association of 
 Chiirehes which recently had only (5,109 church members, in 59 
 churches with 58 pastors, had also 50 licentiates and 52 students 
 for the Ministry in the Seminary. This exhibits a condition of 
 things very analogous to that found in the Sandwich Islands ; 
 which we see contributing 30,000 dollars for various objects of 
 Christian benevolence, besides (3,000 dollars to send the gospel to 
 the heathen islands and regions elsewhere. 
 . See the " Gospel in Bui-mah," by Mrs. Wylie. 
 
128 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 Thougli the first Protestant Missionary to China 
 was sent in 1807, it has only been during the past 
 thirty years that the present stafi" of about one hundred 
 and twenty Missionaries has been sustained — a number 
 totally inadequate to the spiritual claims of one-third 
 of the human race, and which gives but one Missionary 
 to three millions six hundred thousand persons, or less 
 than one to a population larger than that of Scotland. 
 The number of converts baptised falls short of twenty 
 thousand ; but Missionary labour has told power- 
 fully in other directions. The sacred Scriptures have 
 been given to the people, whilst numerous scientific 
 and literary works have been translated into Chinese, 
 together with many Christian treatises and tracts. 
 
 The learned classes of the Empire have had their 
 attention drawn to the doctrines and principles of 
 Christianity; and the incidents of the Taipiug rebellion, 
 as well as the hostility recently exhibited in various 
 quarters toward Christian propagandism, prove how 
 much they apprehend its growing power. 
 
 In SiAM and Japan a few Missionaries, chiefly from 
 America, "are laying broad and deep the foundations 
 of the future Christian Church ; and the recent de- 
 claration of the Japanese Government, that they are 
 preparing to establish a new form of religion through- 
 out the empire, shows how little hold, as a faith, 
 Buddliism has on the people, and how much more than 
 is usually supposed they have become influenced by 
 extraneous opinions. 
 
 Of the Indian Archipelago we know far too little, 
 but we have sufficient evidence to prove that here 
 and there the Dutch Missionaries and Ministers are 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 129 
 
 labouring with commeudable zeal, and reainng ade- 
 quate success.* 
 
 The history of New Zealand Missions is dark and 
 melancholy in the main, and is relieved only by few 
 and partial rays of comfort. Begun by the Church 
 Missionary Society in 1814, and subsequently by the 
 Weslej^ans in 1822, they gave promise of gratifying suc- 
 cess ; for the former could tell of numerous native pas- 
 tors, of large contributions, and of five thousand five 
 hundi'ed communicants ;f whilst the latter could tell of 
 thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-two attend- 
 ants on public worship. But the recent wars have 
 dissipated much of this promise, and demoralised a 
 large j)ortion of the population, preparing the way for 
 
 * " The Missionaries, however, have much to be i^roud of iu this 
 country. They have assisted the Government in changing a sa- 
 vage into a civihsed community in a wonderfully short space of 
 time. Forty years ago the country was a wilderness, the people 
 naked savages, garnishing then- rude houses with human heads. 
 Now it is a garden worthy of its sweet native name of " Minakasa." 
 Good roads and paths traverse it in every direction ; some of the 
 finest coffee plantations in the world surround the villages, in- 
 terspersed with extensive rice-fields, more than sufficient for the 
 support of the pojiulation. The peoi^le are now the most indus- 
 trious, peaceable, and civilised in the whole Archipelago. They 
 are the best clothed, the best housed, the best fed, and the best 
 educated ; and they have made some i^rogress towards a higher 
 social state. I believe there is no example elsewhere of such 
 striking results being produced in so short a time — results which 
 are entirely due to the system of government now adopted by the 
 Dutch iu their Eastern possessions." — " The Malay ArcJiijwlago,^^ 
 hij Wallace. Vol. i. p. 253. 
 
 t A large portion of the district is worked eutu'cly by native 
 l^astors, and it is no longer an experiment whether this principle 
 will answer. It is so acceptable to the natives that they are 
 anxious to have the number of their pastors increased, and are 
 willing to contribute to their support. The sum already raised . 
 amounts to £750, and is still going on, though to effect this they 
 have exercised much self-denial, and have left but a small portion 
 of their wheat for the purchase of clotheo. 
 
 10 
 
180 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 a new form of fanaticism which threatens the overthrow 
 of all that is sacred and virtuous. 
 
 The Missions in the extreme North of Eueope arc 
 relatively of little importance, but they have served to 
 exhibit in a marked degree the heroism of the Mis- 
 sionary character, and the triumphs of the gospel over 
 obstacles of a peculiarly trying nature. Esquimaux, 
 Lapps, and Greenlanders have all felt the elevating power 
 of Christian truth ; and whilst their barbarous man- 
 ners and customs have been softened, not a few have 
 given clear evidence of a divine change. These solitary 
 desolate regions may now indeed be regarded as lands 
 won to the kingdom of God. A Missionary who has 
 spent forty years of toil in Greenland, recently wrote : — 
 " In all Greenland there is but one station in the 
 neighbourhood of which there are heathen. With this 
 exception, all the Greenlanders now profess Christi- 
 anity." 
 
 The corresponding regions of North America are 
 steadily opening to the light of the gospel. This vast 
 but thinly populated country, part of which belongs to 
 the United States, part to England, and part of which 
 is independent territory, is the field in which four 
 British and some American Societies now labour^ A 
 fair amount of success has crowned their toils. In the 
 localities where the people lead settled lives, churches 
 have usually been built, congregations have been 
 gathered, and schools established. Even the nomadic 
 tribes have come beneath the influence of Christianity. 
 It may be that the aborigines scattered throughout this 
 wild and sterile region are destined to extinction ; but it 
 is some satisfaction to reflect that they have at length 
 
MODEEN MISSIONS. 131 
 
 been reached by the gospel, which, if it do not rescue 
 them from ethnic destruction, will at least convey to 
 individuals among them the great gift of eternal life. 
 
 Thus the disciples of the Saviour have gone into all 
 the world accessible to them, and in every place where 
 their labours have been carried on for a reasonable 
 length of time, a blessing more or less rich has borne 
 witness to the approval of God ; and African, Poly- 
 nesian, American, and Asiatic missionaries, labouring 
 among a hundred tribes and races, have each been 
 able to say, " Now, thanks be unto God, who always 
 causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest 
 the savour of His knowledge by us in every place."* 
 
 But the inquiry naturally arises. Does all this repre- 
 sent any real change in the hearts, feehngs, and 
 opinions of the converts ? Is it merely outward, — the 
 effect of fear, or self-interest, or a love of change and 
 excitement ? Or is it, at least in a fair number of 
 instances, the result of intelligent conviction and choice 
 on the part of the individuals, and of the Divine 
 influence operating to enlighten, reform, and save ? 
 There may be much of the former, but assuredly there 
 is also much of the latter. Nor should the indirect 
 result of Missionary effort be either depreciated or 
 overlooked. And equally it is unreasonable to expect 
 that the good accomplished will be unmixed and com- 
 plete. When and where has it been found so ? What 
 Christian is there, however saintly, who has received 
 and expressed all that his religion can give to him ? 
 What i)i"cacher of the truth, or what faithful pastor, 
 accomplishes all the good he desires ? Does not defect, 
 * 2 Cor. ii. li. 
 
 10* 
 
132 THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 limitation, and comparative failure characterise all 
 liuman efforts to bring individuals, churches, families, 
 and communities to their ideal state of perfectness, 
 even when they are favoured with the blessing of the 
 Divine Spirit ? We see, indeed, that even under the 
 most favourable circumstances, human nature is very 
 slowly reformed, improved, and elevated ; and if this 
 be so with the work of the social reformer, the philan- 
 thropist, and the Christian teacher in England, it is to 
 be expected that the difficulties in the way of the 
 Missionary in a heathen land will be far greater. "We 
 write not thus to ward off inquiry, but simply because 
 truth and justice demand that it should be remem- 
 bered. There are no evidences of success in attempts 
 to civilise races, to destroy evil customs and supersti- 
 tions, to introduce new and elevating principles and 
 habits, to reform individual lives, to bring men into 
 right relations with God, and to fit them for a future 
 life, which modern Missions cannot exhibit, and that 
 too in numberless instances. 
 
 Cruel and harharous customs have hccn ahoUslied. — 
 India, the West Indies, and Polynesia afford numerous 
 proofs of this. In the latter region Missionary agency 
 may claim the solo glory of whatever has been done ; 
 and if in the two former other causes have been 
 operating for good, it alone can claim the honour of a 
 bold, unvarying protest against suttee, human sacri- 
 fices, infanticide, and slavery. 
 
 In other instances such practices have been abated and are 
 (iraduallj/passinri ajrai/. — The savage and bloody disregard 
 of human life and right, prevalent throughout Western 
 Africa, with the di'eaded power of the sorcerer and 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. l33 
 
 i^aiu-makcr in its Soutliern aud Central regions ; the 
 dark and demoralising midnight orgies of the West 
 Indies ; the bloody and licentious festivities of Poly- 
 nesia ; and the cruel, heartless, aud unjust usages of 
 Hindu society, which, in the days of our fathers, 
 wrought misery and degradation, unchallenged, like the 
 small-pox in a savage tribe, are now things of which 
 men are beginning to be ashamed. 
 
 In jihice of these, Chriatian ideas of moralitij are heijin- 
 niiir/ to ]>rerail. — It constitutes a fatal indictment 
 against all forms of polytheism, that they either 
 encom-age or are powerless to repress such forms of 
 evil as fraud, falsehood, and impurity ; and these 
 prevail everywhere unchecked, save by fear. It is 
 unnecessary to state that Missionaries invariably ])vo- 
 test against these, though their own countrymen, alas! 
 too frequently do not, except when they themselves are 
 wronged. And the protest is not in vain. Two facts 
 will show this. The Hindus educated in Mission 
 Schools throughout our Indian empire are morally 
 far superior to any other class, save the best of the 
 Christian converts. Turning to quite a different race, 
 it would be easy to cite the testimony of numerous 
 witnesses, affirming that in those islands of the Pacific 
 where Christianity prevails, a markedly improved moral 
 tone is perceptible ; and that such islands most 
 favourably contrast with others yet in heathenism. 
 The word, the honesty, and the honour of the Christian 
 can be relied on ; and in numerous instances the 
 islanders are far more likely to suffer wrong and injury 
 by intercourse than are their white visitors. " The 
 Earl and the Doctor," in the recently published work, 
 
134 THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 " South Sea Btthhles," though having a strong bias 
 against evangeHcal effort and evangehcal oinnion, as 
 we understand it, incontinently make certain admis- 
 sions which to us are of considerable value. The worst 
 thej'^ say of Missionaries is, that they are too strict and 
 rigid in checking many of the old customs and 
 in enforcing new ones ; that they make too many 
 native preachers ; that they persuade the converts to 
 give too liberally to the Missionary Societies ; and that 
 the Protestant and the Catholic — especially the latter 
 — deal unfairly with each other, and to the great detri- 
 ment of their common object, by invading each other's 
 spheres of labour. They acknowledge that barbarous 
 customs have disappeared ; only they affirm that the 
 reformation of manners is but superficial, for that 
 underneath the improved exterior the old love of revelry 
 and of license still exists, and not seldom is secretly 
 indulged. There is probably much truth in this, but 
 the writers themselves evidently never looked beneath 
 the surface of the religious profession, to ascertain how 
 far there was proof of the power of religion as a divine 
 influence. After visiting several of what may now be 
 called Christian islands, they happened to be wrecked 
 on a small uninhabited one, near to which were some 
 others reported to be peopled by cannibals, and they 
 thus moralise on the event : — 
 
 "It is rather provoking to think that we are within 
 sixty miles of islands flowing with milk and honey, 
 and yet dare not go near them. If we had been lucky 
 enough to get wrecked on the Society, Cook's Island, 
 or Samoas, we should have been half killed with 
 kindness, and made little gods of; whereas now we 
 
MODERN MISSIONS, 135 
 
 pray fervently that no one may see the ■wreck and find 
 us out." 
 
 Further on they add: "The London Mission has 
 certainly had great success. At the Society, Cook's 
 Island, &c., the islanders are for the most part nomi- 
 nal Christians, and although their sexual morality be 
 very lax, their honesty, bravery, and general good 
 feeling would compare very favourably with European 
 races. They are lazy — but why should they not be ? 
 They are very well off without working, and wise 
 enough to be contented. When one mixes with such 
 generous, kind-hearted people, gentle without cowardice 
 — gentle but not fearful — courteous without humbug — it 
 is difficult to imagine that so few years ago they could 
 have been disgraced — some by human sacrifice, others 
 by actual cannibalism; and when one remarks how 
 infinitely the virtue of common honesty has progressed 
 since Cook's time, let us pay all honour to the Mission- 
 aries, if they have wrought the change." 
 
 It cannot be denied that education has received a iconder- 
 ful imioetus from the labours of Missionaries. — In some 
 instances when their labours commenced, they found 
 that ignorance was universal — as in Polynesia, Africa, 
 and Madagascar ; in others, that instruction was, as a 
 policy, denied to those they sought to elevate — as in the 
 West Indies, among the lowest castes and outcasts of 
 the Southern Provinces and among the 100,000,000 
 women of India; and in others that it was confined 
 very closely to a class — as in China, Burmah, India 
 generally, and the realms of Islamism. Wherever the 
 Missionaries have gone, the establishment of schools 
 has early had their attention. To them it is owing 
 
136' .THE SUCCESS OP 
 
 tliat now there are myiiads of readers in Polynesia, 
 and numerous islands where education is as general as 
 in England ; — that in Madagascar so great a thirst for 
 instruction exists, that schools and school books can- 
 not he supplied in adequate numbers ; — that Chinese 
 education has been modified ; — that the right of the 
 Shoodra to education equally with the Brahmin and 
 the Vaisya has been conceded ; — that the prison doors 
 of the Zenana have been opened, and the purdah drawn 
 aside ; — that Hindu women, kept from knowledge for 
 many centuries, may now receive it ; — and that our 
 Western ideas of religion, science, and social life are 
 beginning to spread through the regions around Pales- 
 tine. The education of the world has received a more 
 l^owerful impetus from Missionaries than from states- 
 men, from philosophers, or from x:)hilanthropists. 
 
 But results far more durable and precious than any 
 of these have been produced, of which it becomes us 
 to speak with mingled gratitude, reverence, and joy. 
 
 The grand and ultimate aim of all purely Christian effort 
 is to impart to men that priceless gift of eternal life, of uhich 
 our Lord and Saviour so often spoke. — How far tliis has 
 been accomplished cannot be known in our present 
 limited sphere of existence. But, taking the truths of 
 the New Testament as our standard, and judging of how 
 far they have been believed, by the testimony of those 
 who have received them, aud the evidence they aflbrd 
 by lives of patient and strenuous effort to overcome 
 evil, to become better and holier, and to serve and 
 honour God, we are justified in believing that there are 
 many myriads now in heathen lands, where formerly 
 there were none, who arc Christians by reason of a divine 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 13T 
 
 change, and who are ou their way to join the great com- 
 pany of the blessed iu heaven. Each of our great 
 Missionary Societies has many thousand adherents of 
 whom these things may be affirmed. There are few 
 congregations gatliered from among the heathen where 
 there are not many such ; and we have personally met 
 with scores of Missionaries who could affirm these 
 tilings of numbers, and confirm them by the amplest 
 and most satisfactory evidence. 
 
 It becomes us to speak yet more reverently of the 
 evidences of renewal and hope e.rhihited hij converts at the 
 close of life. — We attach no undue importance to death- 
 bed scenes and final utterances, but rightly understood 
 and justly analysed they are most significant. The 
 irreligious may meet death calmly or carelessly ; they 
 often greatly di'ead it ; but they never meet it joyfully 
 and triumphantly. The true Christian, on the other 
 hand, never dies in terror, but often with peaceful trust 
 and hope, as if sustained by more than human concep- 
 tions ; and not seldom do his emotions in that dread 
 and testing hour partake of the joyful and the exultant. 
 This test, if applied to converts from any form of 
 heathenism, presents very marked results. Spurious 
 religions can do nothing better for their adherents than 
 to nerve them to meet stoically their stern and in- 
 exoi'able destiny. Islamisni inspires the most ardent 
 of its disciples with a hope which vanquishes all human 
 fear ; yet we have never heard of a heathen man dying 
 joyfully. But converts from heathenism often do. We 
 have often been surprised at the uniform fidelity and 
 hope of such in life's last hours. We have wondered 
 that the old dread of malignant deities has not then 
 
138 THE SUCCESS OF 
 
 more frequently returned, and a terrible fear seized the 
 soul tliat in having left the ancestral faith it had made 
 a grave mistake. This does not happen — we never 
 heard of it happening. But we have read and heard of 
 multitudes of instances where thankfulness was ex- 
 pressed that the change of faith had been made ; where 
 a peaceful trust sustained the dying ; where the hope of 
 a better life triumphed over pain and sorrow and 
 bereavement ; and where calm, deliberate, and exultant 
 utterances gave evidence of the presence and blessing 
 of God. " How good it is to die as a Christian !" was 
 one of the last expressions of a Hindu convert very dear 
 to the writer, who, after a too brief but most exemplary 
 life, passed away with a calmness, trustfulness, and joy, 
 which astonished and moved all who witnessed it. We 
 recently heard a most reliable Missionary, who has 
 laboured many years in Polynesia, speak of the "tens 
 of thousands " who there had passed away, leaving in 
 the minds of those who knew them well, the joyful 
 assurance or the restful hope that they had gone to 
 form part of the redeemed family of God in heaven. 
 And respecting all the great fields of labour similar 
 testimony is given. 
 
 Thus we have given a large number of facts, which 
 are worthy the attention of all who care for the 
 elevation and improvement of the human race. They 
 prove how real, deep, and varied the influence of Mis- 
 sions is. They justify all that has been attempted for 
 the evangelisation of the heathen, and encourage us to 
 fresh effort. 
 
 We especially invite Christian ministers and laymen, 
 who are for various reasons indifferent to Missions, or 
 
MODERN MISSIONS. 139 
 
 sceptical as to their value, to ponder over tliese facts. 
 Mission work abroad will bear looking at. It is often 
 treated, not only by the irreligious, but by great num- 
 bers of devout persons, with a suspiciousness and cold- 
 ness which cannot be justified. If there is cause for 
 these, by all means let it be stated. We challenge 
 investigation. We dare to affirm that modern Mis- 
 sions will bear comparison, as to reasonableness, 
 economy, and results, with any work undertaken any- 
 where by social reformers, philanthropists, or ministers 
 of Christ.''' 
 
 * See " A Manual of MissioDary Facts and Principles." By 
 Edw. Storrow. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THH; KEYIVAL OF MISSIONARY EFFORT IN 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Illustration of principles. — The Bo\-ival Partial. — Want of Personal Encasement, 
 and of an Exercised Conscience. ^ Excitement. — Decision. — Appeals to 
 Christians. — Divisions of the Chm-ch. — Advantaf;es. — Means of Union. — 
 Personal Sacrificos. — Value of Existing Institutions. — Questions as to the 
 Duty of the Church as such. — Duty of Individuals, and of Societies. — 
 Prospects. 
 
 The Eevival of Missionary Enterprise has now been 
 traced, so as to present in one outline view the 
 exertions to which that revival has been stimulating 
 the Church of Christ. The foregoing sketch has been 
 drawn, not as a full history of the spread of the gospel, 
 but with the hope of establishing on the facts exhibited 
 some further illustrations of the principles of the 
 Missionary Church. The Church is a Missionary 
 Institution. Its vital powers are expansive. Its laws 
 and sanctions are incitements to efforts for enlargement. 
 Its prosperity has risen, fallen, and revived, with the 
 spirit of Missions. These are facts. They are in ac- 
 \ cordance with the revealed constitution of the Church. 
 
 The following observations are such as must often 
 occur to those who think on the subject of Christian 
 Missions. 
 
 The Eevival of Missionary enterprise in the Chi'istian 
 
jnSSIONARY EF70ET IN THE CHUKCH, 141 
 
 Cliurcli is, as yet, but partial. — When -u'e compare the 
 efforts made both in Europe and in America, during 
 the hist eighty years, with the apathy which was so 
 general before, we must rejoice in the improvement 
 which has taken place. It is an improvement. It 
 indicates, so far as it reaches, a return to larger views 
 and deeper convictions of the duties of the Church. 
 It is an evidence of greater individual attention, in 
 many quarters, to the state of the world, to the 
 character of the gospel, to the demands of the Saviour, 
 and to the obligations of Christians. It is, unques- 
 tionably, the result of an effusion on the minds of 
 men of that spirit without which the Church cannot 
 prosper. 
 
 Yet this revived sph-it is partial. It has not, up tox 
 the present time, pervaded the Church as in her best 
 days. It has not secured the attention of Christians 
 individually, coming home to their bosoms as an 
 integral part of their personal engagements. It has not 
 yet obtained that consecration of personal interests, 
 anxieties, prayers, sacrifices, and efforts, which en- 
 lightened Missionary principles demand. These prin- 
 ciples have not yet received the homage of Christian 
 understandings. They are not yet heartily embraced. 
 They do not now grasp and direct men's consciences. 
 ]\Iany are willing to attend a Missionary anniversary : 
 whilst listening to touching narrations of misery, they 
 pity ; whilst addi-essed in strains of commanding 
 eloquence, they feel ; whilst urged by the appeals of 
 earnestness or the incitements of example, they give 
 their money to the Missionary work. But, of these, 
 how many are there who first give their own selves 
 
\ 
 
 142 OBSERVATIONS ON THE RE\T:VAL OF 
 
 unto the Lord ? How many are there who consider 
 their own relation to their heathen brethren ? How 
 many are there who think, seriously, cogently, and 
 honestly, of the consequences resulting from their own 
 possession of that gospel which Christ commanded 
 them to send to the heathen ? How many are there 
 who would pursue active measures for the sending 
 of the gospel to the heathen — independently of public 
 meetings and periodical excitements ? It is painful to 
 consider, after all that has been said, written, and 
 done, by men and women truly alive to this grandest 
 of objects, how very small is the amount of information 
 respecting it even among intelligent Christians. The 
 spiritual condition of a world where every man is 
 a brother, every woman a sister, is little known ! It 
 might be known. Materials are in abundance. Alas ! 
 there is not yet a general disposition to seek such 
 knowledge. There is more anxiety to be acquainted 
 with the landscape by which our perishing brethren 
 are surrounded, the language they speak, their di-ess, 
 dwellings, and manners, their wars, their history, than 
 there is to know the character they are forming, and 
 the kind of preparation they are making for the 
 day when we shall meet them face to face at the 
 tribunal of ovx common Lord ! 
 
 We want an exercised conscience in this matter. We 
 shudder at the thought of being accessory to a gross 
 act of impiety, or inhumanity, or injustice, to a large 
 body of our fellow men. " Herein" we ought to 
 "exercise" ourselves, "to have always a conscience 
 void of offence toward God, and toAvard men.'"'^ It is 
 * Acts xxiv. IG. 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 143 
 
 our duty towards God our Saviour to make the gospel 
 known. If we are not concerned to fulfil this duty, 
 our conscience is clouded by error, lulled by delusion ; 
 or else we are biassed against our conscience by the 
 selfish indolence of inclinations in the heart. It is our 
 duty to man, in all regions and in all circumstances, to 
 convey to him the message of peace which we have 
 received, not for ourselves only, but also for him. In 
 this matter there is no option. From this obligation 
 there is no discharge. We are bound to do this thing. 
 We hold the gospel on these terms. We are amenable 
 both to man and to God. Under the power and sanction 
 of this obligation we are going to our account. Oh, 
 let every Christian see that his conscience is neither 
 deceived nor neglected ! 
 
 The excitement which has been felt in connection with 
 Missions has been imagined to be great, even ex- 
 travagant. It will be confessed that the objects brought 
 before the mind, whenever the Missionary enterprise 
 is rightly presented, are of a nature to stir up the 
 deepest emotions. He is little to be envied, or even 
 esteemed, who can contemplate idolatry in its insult of 
 God, in its debasement of man, in the vices it engen- 
 ders and the miseries it inflicts — without excitement. 
 Feeble indeed is the love of Christ in that man's heart, 
 who can reflect on the woes on earth foreshadowing 
 the destruction and loss which crowd upon the destinies 
 of nations without Christ, and yet not be excited ! 
 What ! Is there nothing to excite in the spectacles of 
 guilt, degradation, wretchedness, and despair ? Nothing 
 to excite in the assurance that this guilt may be can- 
 celled — this wretchedness relieved, this despair sup- 
 
144 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF 
 
 planted by hope ? Is there nothing exciting in the 
 ^ consciousness that the means of blessing all our fellow 
 sinners throughout the world are in our hands, placed 
 there for this very purpose ? Is there nothing exciting 
 in the remembrance that we have not done our duty in 
 the faithful and devout application of these means ? Is 
 there nothing exciting in the grand conceptions given 
 us in prophecy of what our world will become when 
 it more truly loves and obeys God ? There ought to 
 be excitement. There must be more excitement. 
 What we desire is the excitement that is felt in the 
 thoughtful study of the Scriptures, and on our bended 
 knees in secret. We want the excitement which is 
 kindled by conscience and fanned by reflection. We 
 want the excitement which is not fitful, but constant ; 
 not dependent on the breath of popular eloquence 
 and crowded assemblies, but deep in the recesses of 
 the heart, growing with the enlargement of our know- 
 ledge, pervading the elements of our character — the 
 beating of the heart, the breathing of the spii'it, the 
 " divine nature " working in us mightily ! This is 
 the healthy excitement of life guided by the light 
 of truth, maintained by strength of principle, and 
 exhibiting the glow of feeling in the constancy' of 
 \ exertion and in the earnestness of prayer. 
 
 In the Missionary work we have not yet attained to 
 that InijU tone of decision Avhicli comports with the 
 sacredness of our authority and with the dignity of 
 our aim. There is a controversy in the world between 
 the error which destroys and the truth which saves. 
 These two are utterly hostile : the one manifesting 
 itself as the destroyer of man, cursing him with the 
 
JVn^SIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 145 
 
 fellowship of liis owu iniquity — the other reveahug to 
 him the Saviour of mau ready to hless him with the 
 fellowship of His own felicity. The adherents of error, 
 whether conscious or unconscious of the work they 
 do, are sufficiently explicit in their movements. They 
 scruple not to deride the fanaticism of meddling with 
 the religion of the people of other regions. Their 
 opinions are freely uttered and widely circulated. 
 They are resuined to the fate of their brethren. They 
 offer no struggle against the wasting dominion of sin. 
 No zeal have they for the honour of God. They pro- 
 fess not to be constrained by the love of Christ. They 
 tremble not at the mandate of Him who " both died, 
 and rose, and revived, that He might be the Lord both 
 of the dead and living.'"'' They have taken their side. 
 They must therefore abide the issue. Their choice is 
 made. The end is coming. The day shall declare it. 
 
 But — "who is on the Lord's side?" — How stands 
 this matter with professing Christians ? What is 
 their profession ? They profess that they love Christ. 
 They profess that they have been translated into 
 the kingdom of God's dear Son. They profess that 
 they are concerned for the honour of their Saviour, 
 and for the salvation of their fellow men. Before the 
 period of Missionary revival, such profession, however 
 sincerely made, had few opportunities of being tested. 
 But in these days, every man must take his ground. 
 We are brought into the "Valley of Decision." The 
 banners are unfurled — trumpets are pealing — the field 
 is covered with the host panting for the fight. Will 
 the soldiers of the Cross desert their Leader '? Will 
 * Eom. xiv. 9. 
 11 
 
146 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIV.VL OF 
 
 they disgrace their standard ? The time for timid 
 profession is gone. Now — secrecy is alienation, silence 
 is treason. — "He that is not with Me is against Me; 
 and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad."* 
 If the Missionary work is an error, let it be exploded. 
 If it is a romantic " passion for saving souls," let it be 
 considered what that means. If it be a mischievous 
 intrusion on the wholesome prejudices nursed by the 
 wisdom of the ancients, and cherished by the tender- 
 ness of power, let it be unmasked. If it be a waste of 
 money, let it be proved and exposed. If it be a failure, 
 let it be openly shown to be one, and let not its de- 
 tractors deal so much in vague insinuation. If it 
 detract from the amount and value of work needing to 
 be done at home, let such be clearly proved. But, oh ! 
 let " the Church of the Lord which He hath purchased 
 with His own blood" be faithful in her day. Let every 
 man who believes the gospel be "valiant for the truth 
 upon the earth." Individually, let us take a simpler, 
 higher, more apostolic tone. Collectively, let us put on 
 the armour of light. Let us abandon all petty views. 
 Let us abjure all timid policy. Let the question of Chris- 
 tian Missions in our minds be decided. Let us " settle 
 it in our hearts" — that this is an elementary and 
 essential part of Christianity. Let us rise higher than 
 expediency, however wise. Let us go beyond compas- 
 sion for our fellow-men, however tender and enlight- 
 ened. Let us not be content to follow examples, 
 however laudable and winning. Let us be fixed firmly 
 in our principles. Let us be earnestly devoted to our 
 objects. Let us be a Missionary Church. It must 
 * Matt. xii. 30. 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 147 
 
 become ihe business of our life, that to which all other 
 business is secondary and subordinate. We are, in the 
 largest sense, to " seek first the kingdom of God.'"'' 
 The character we sustain as private Christians is that 
 of the Lord's appointed agents in the diffusion of His 
 gospel. The object for which we are associated in the 
 "fellowship" of the Church, is to make the "word of 
 the Lord sound out " into the regions beyond us. — It is 
 clear that we do still want, in the Christian Church, a 
 higher tone, a firmer principle, a grander conception, a 
 more resolute position, and more vital energy of action, 
 in the great work committed to us. 
 
 The revival of the Missionary spirit has yet to 
 produce a more full and hearty co-operation in the 
 Church of Christ. The Church is one — Catholic. The 
 Missionary Institution, which is the Church, is there- 
 fore one. Whatever benefits may arise from the 
 existing divisions of the Church under different names, 
 and with conflicting opinions, it might occur to us 
 oftener than it seems to do, that "in the beginning it 
 was not so," and that it will not be so in the end. 
 
 Doubtless, advantages arise from our separations. 
 There is greater freedom both of thought and of ac- 
 tion than there was in the olden days of uniformity. 
 There is more concentration on specific points of truth. 
 There is moi-e activity, much of which springs from 
 rivalry and emulation. In proportion to the enlarged 
 effusions of the Missionary spirit, we have been 
 brought nearer to each other. We have learned to 
 respect the conscientious peculiarities by which we 
 were severed. The fierceness of controversy hath been 
 * Matt. vi. 33. 
 11* 
 
148 OBSERVATIONS ON THE EE^T^'AL OF 
 
 iimcli allayed. Perhaps the measures we have been 
 pursuing have done little to settle disputes in the way 
 of argumentative discussion. But they have done 
 what is better. They have been gradually raising us 
 to a height, from which many of us can look down on 
 the manly controversies of our fathers without passion. 
 We venerate the principles for which they contended. 
 We admire the learning, the skill, the wit, and some- 
 times the temper, in which they wielded tlieii* giant 
 strength. We do not sit in judgment on these mighty 
 champions. They did the work of their day. We are 
 to do the work of our day. 
 
 We are thankful that on all the essential principles 
 of the gospel we find all the parties ht the Chiorh 
 substantially agreed. This agreement is felt. There 
 is an invisible unity. If ever there shall be a visible 
 union of all the faithful — and why should we doubt of 
 this ? — that union will not be effected by forms and 
 creeds, but by active and consentaneous effort in the 
 spreading of our common faith. 
 
 On this basis, to this extent, we must have more 
 mutual confidence than has yet been witnessed. We 
 need no compromise of any of our own principles, nor 
 expectation of such compromise from others. There 
 will be — and the sooner the better for all parties in the 
 Church and for the world in general — there will be an 
 anxiety to ascertain how near we are to each other in 
 reality, how much there is of essential unity beneath 
 the surface of our technical diversities ; and this being 
 ascertained, there will be, there ought to be, an explicit 
 acknowledgment of error in oi;r former jealousies, and 
 a hearty demonstration of our good-will to one another 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 149 
 
 as the servants of oiie Lord. Our co-operatiou must 
 be tlie result of a uniform conviction that we have one 
 end in view. That end must be realised to our appre- 
 hensions as transcendently important. And along with 
 this conviction we must be fully alive to that which is 
 a fact, whether we be fully alive to it or not, — the 
 principles we all maintain are such as to urge us to the 
 attainment of our common end. We all feel that it is 
 our duty to send the gospel to the ends of the earth. 
 The gospel which we all send is preached, by those who 
 go, in such wise as to exhibit to the heathen the great 
 doctrines in which we all agree. They mostly do not, — 
 pity it is that any should be so weak, — they do not 
 press on the attention of the heathen the controversies 
 of the Church, but the well-understood "revelations 
 of the Lord" to which the whole Church consents. 
 Already, then, there are amongst us the rudiments of 
 a solid and effective union. "What we are still wanting 
 is the gathering of these rudiments, by the attraction 
 of some central and harmonising principle. Thus much 
 has the providence of Christ already taught us as a 
 thing that ought to be and may be. The Spirit of 
 Christ is stirring up within us a desire that this union 
 may be realised, and that it may be seen. It will be 
 realised. It will be seen. Amidst the rapids of society, 
 a silent but deep and mighty stream has set in, bearing 
 the hearts of the faithful towards each other. Where 
 is the friend of Chi'ist that icoitlil, where is the enemy 
 of Christ that am, roll back that stream ? 
 
 A more copious effusion of the Missionary spirit on 
 the Church will produce a most valuable effect on tlie 
 n.inds of Christians respecting pcrsoital sacrijiccs, both 
 
150 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF 
 
 of pecuniary advantage and of local attaclmieuts, for 
 the accomplishment of the end proposed. Examples 
 are not wanting either to illustrate our meaning or to 
 enforce our argument. The denial of self belongs to 
 Christianity. Our Lord demands it. Our happiness, 
 as well as our duty, requires it. It is our first lesson 
 in the experience of religion. It is, also, a lesson we 
 are learning all along. It is never so well understood 
 as on the bed of death. The j)ublic organs of Mis- 
 sionary excitement have made us all familiar with 
 numberless calculations and comparisons which present, 
 in truth, a mortifying proof of the low state in which 
 the spirit of Missions still languishes even in the best 
 portions of the Church. And — is it true, that real 
 Christians love their luxuries more than the souls of 
 men ? 7s it true, that real Christians are too strongly 
 spell-bound by the charms of home to think of listening 
 to the voice of duty, to entertain any course of 
 reflections or aj)peals that might by possibility call 
 them away from their endearments ? Oh, let them 
 ponder, " If any man will come after Me, let him deny 
 himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."* 
 This is the law of Christ. These are the terms of 
 discipleship. The law is universal. The terms are 
 perpetual. To this law the attention of the Church 
 has long been called. That attention is but feebly 
 awakened, and within but a limited extent. "We are 
 hoping for better things. Facts, principles, reasonings, 
 the private convictions of individuals, and the iniblic 
 acknowledgments of the ministers of Christ — all 
 support the declaration that better things are needed. 
 * Luke ix. 23. 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 151 
 
 We must liave recourse to private, lieart-searcliiug, aud 
 wrestliug prayer. When we have felt our need of the 
 Spirit of Christ, and have asked for the gift, heheving 
 the promise of our Heavenly Father, who icill give His 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ; then we shall find a 
 simplicity in our views, a force in our convictions, 
 which will supersede the arguments and persuasions 
 which hefore were unavailing hecause our hearts were 
 closed against them. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, hecause we regard the present 
 state of Missionary movement as partial and defective, 
 that we undervalue what has been done, or what may 
 be now in progress. Indeed we are disposed to prize 
 very highly the existing Missionary institutions. By 
 means of them, a very large amount of benefit has 
 enriched the Christian Church. By them the Missionary 
 thoughts, talents, gifts, prayers, and intelligence have 
 been elicited for reviving and carrying on the work. 
 They have been instrumental both in pressing the work 
 on Christians at home, and in aiding its extension 
 abroad. These institutions have attracted, so far as 
 we know, nearly all the minds in Christendom that 
 care for the spread of the gospel through the world. 
 They have created a new literature. They have cultivated 
 a mode of popular address, the practical value of which, 
 to all the purposes of the Christian ministry, has not, 
 we think, been fully appreciated. They have excited 
 an interest in Missions unknown through many previous 
 ages. They have infused a liveliness and energy, 
 greatly wanted, into the proceedings of numerous 
 Christian churches. They have shown the Church her 
 duty. They have called her forth. They have urged 
 
152 OESKRVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF 
 
 her. They have done, as the j^roxies of the Church, 
 that which the whole Church ought to have done, 
 and ought now to be doing herself. They have in- 
 troduced the gospel into many i-egions which but for 
 them had remained in all the darkness and woes of 
 heathenism. They have " attended to the neglected, 
 and remembered the forgotten." They have, in a great 
 measure, conquered public opinion. They have silenced 
 a gainsaying world. They have roused a slumbering 
 Church. 
 
 A comj)reliensive survey, or, if we might hazard 
 the expression, a philosophical survey of Missionary in- 
 stitutions would open a wide field of manly discussion 
 and Christian contemplation. It is beneath our own 
 understandings, as well as unfair to these mstitutions 
 themselves, to be always regarding them either in 
 a financial view, or with a mere reference to the foreign 
 results of their activity. It could be shown that they 
 have been closely connected with the improved sim- 
 plicity and vigour of our doctrinal theology, rescuing 
 it from the dryness of scholastic disputation, and the 
 distortions of Antinomian phrenzy, from the coldness of 
 Socinian unbelief, and from the absurdity of fanatical 
 pretensions. It could be shown that these institutions 
 have brought us nearer than we were before to the 
 beautiful harmony and healthy tone of Christian 
 morals. They have shed the light of the Gospel on 
 both the tables of the Law. They have taught us 
 most impressively, that the fulfilling of the law is — 
 Love. They have reiterated the solemn lesson, that " all 
 our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength," are to be 
 consecrated to the Lord. They have held up the mirror 
 
]\n.:SIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHUECH. 153 
 
 of ti-utli ; and whilst men aucl women of many climes 
 have passed before us, all speeding to the eternal state 
 in which the gospel alone can assure them of felicity, 
 tlu'ij have said to us, "These are your neighbours; if 
 you love them as you love yourselves, send them the 
 gospel which has taught you how to die." It could be 
 shown that Missionary institutions have done much to 
 call attention to a matter unhappily still too much 
 neglected — the oneness of the Church of Christ — by 
 making us feel that this oneness does exist in principle ; 
 by inclining us to desire that it should stand forth 
 before the world in living demonstration; and by giving 
 us to see that such a demonstration is much more 
 practicable, and much nearer at hand, than those who 
 stand aloof from such engagements can possibly con- 
 ceive. It could be shown that Missionary institutions 
 for sending out the gospel to distant lands have 
 strengthened instead of weakening all the interests of 
 the gospel amongst ourselves. Those ministers of the 
 gospel have been most blessed in the conversion of 
 sinners, who have cared most for the general salvation 
 of their kind. Those Christian churches have flourished 
 most which have been most active in the Missionary 
 work. Those parts of our own country, in which the 
 universal spread of the gospel has been most strenu- 
 ously pursued, are the parts in which the greatest 
 amount of successful effort is carried on for the 
 spu'itual welfare of immediate neighbours. And let 
 Britain, as we see her iu our fatherland, or as we hear 
 her voice re-echoed from beyond the Western waters, 
 bear witness to the nations of the earth, of the 
 influence of Foreign Missions on the Missions that 
 
154 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF 
 
 pervade our colonies, our states, counties, cities and 
 villages at home. Tliey are sympathetic movements 
 of the same vital energy. They are the diversified 
 ox)erations of one Spirit, 
 
 He who calmly thinks of these and many other 
 blessings which have followed in the wake of our 
 Missionary institutions, will be very slow in forming, 
 and slower still in propagating, any opinions that 
 might tend to injure or embarrass them. In the 
 comparison of one institution with another, men must 
 exercise their own judgments, and make their choice. 
 All of them have been honoured of God. All have 
 contributed to the general results. They ought to be 
 supported. And they ought to be watched. They are 
 conducted by men. The direction of them involves 
 great responsibility both to God and to His Church. 
 Under God, then' work is committed to them by the 
 Church. Have their principles been at all times 
 sufficiently defined ? Are their plans at all times 
 judicious ? Have their arrangements for the supply of 
 means, or for their expenditure, been at all times 
 governed by Christian prudence and directed by sound 
 economy ? Have they at all times kept at a becoming 
 distance from secular patronage and worldly expediency? 
 These are fair questions. The conductors of the 
 Societies themselves ought not to shrink from them : 
 they need not, and they do not shrink from them. 
 Others ought to approach the discussion of them with 
 purity of motive, with calmness, candour, and en- 
 lightened charity. 
 
 ' One point there is on which the spirit of these 
 observations has led us to fix much attention and to 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 155' 
 
 lay much stress : — it is the priuciple of this work : — 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GoSPEL IS THE PROPER BUSINESS OF 
 
 THE Church, as the Church. The existence of any 
 institution for this end which is not the Church, not 
 composed of its members, ruled by its officers, governed 
 by its laws, and acknowledging the authority of its 
 Head, is, itself, an implied condemnation of the Church. 
 That was, confessedly, the best state of the Church in 
 all time past, when there were no such separate 
 institutions. And surely, if we follow out our cherished 
 principles, and reason from the simplest analogies, that 
 will be the best state of the Church in time to come, 
 when such institutions shall not exist. Happy the day 
 for the Church of Christ herself, when she finds in 
 her own appointed organization the true Missionary 
 SOCIETY, all her officers and all her members entering 
 as a matter of course and of duty into this great work ; 
 when the urging of it shall form an integral part of 
 pastoral instruction, mutual counsel, and fraternal 
 discipline ; when every Christian congregation, in its 
 distinct character, and all in their visible union, shall 
 be found faithful to their engagements and active in 
 their duty. Happy for the world, still overspread with 
 spiritual darkness, when the whole Church shall thus 
 hold forth the word of life ! 
 
 To eifcct this desirable consummation, a wide field 
 is opened both to " the churches of God" and to those 
 valuable institutions which have sprung up within the 
 Church. We do hope that the voluntary associations 
 which God has already honoured in so signal a degree, 
 will urge their principles at home with increasing 
 boldness and energy, and prosecute their aim abroad 
 
156 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIA'AL OF 
 
 ■with increasing earnestness and zeal. Through them 
 we trust the Church, which has heen partially roused 
 from her apathy, will eventually he brought out into the 
 place assigned to her by her sovereign Lord. We do 
 not desire to see these institutions quenched, like 
 evening stars, in the gloom of night, but rather like the 
 morning stars, absorbed in that brighter flood of glory 
 which they have ushered in. In the present case, as 
 in all practical undertakings, wise and holy men will 
 avoid all extreme, extravagant, and i^arty views. They 
 will endeavour to repress the rashness that would 
 sacrifice the work of existing sj^stems to the arguments 
 of theorists, however ingenious and well-meaning. 
 They will be apt to say, in emulation of very high 
 examples — " I am doing a great work, so that I cannot 
 come down : why should the work cease, whilst I leave 
 it, and come down to you ?"'■'• And God forbid that 
 they should leave their work for a single hour to debate 
 with idle men their right to do it in the best way they 
 can ! Yet, on the other hand, it were great weakness 
 to cling to our accustomed mode of working, because it 
 is 07ir mode, or that of our fathers. There is a want of 
 wisdom as well as of courage in the attempt to stifle 
 inquiry, to elude discussion, to ridicule suggestions, or 
 to put down the investigation of principles. There are 
 principles as clearly revealed in Scripture, and as fully 
 tested by experience, applying to Christian Missions, 
 as those which ajiply to Christian doctrine, or to 
 Christian morals. Let these principles be brought out. 
 Let tlieni be examined. Let no man, however obscure, 
 be afraid to enounce them. Let no man, however 
 * Neliem. vi. 3. 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 157 
 
 eminent, think himself entitled to discourage them. 
 Let them be viewed as principles — truths which are to 
 be acted out. Principle is Power. 
 
 In thus reviewing the Missionary work of modern 
 times, there is much to awaken gratitude, and very 
 much to enkindle hope. The question of Missions 
 is settled. We are too well informed to be deluded 
 now by romantic tales of innocence and pmity in hea- 
 then lands. Too much has already been accomplished 
 to allow the Church to be deterred from the prosecution 
 of her high calling. The family motto of the great 
 Hampden expresses our true X)osition — " Vestujia nulla 
 relrornum." — There (ire iio footprints for retreat. Many 
 have received a spirit of holy daring in the name of 
 the Lord. They have " set up their banner." Like 
 Freedom's, it " floats against the wind." The hearts 
 of numbers have been opened to cherish the fervour of 
 their enterprising brethren. God helping them, they 
 will not suffer them to languish for want of aid. Much 
 incense of supplication hath gone up from many 
 temples and from many hearts. Many souls have been 
 saved from death. Churches of Christ are flourishino- 
 amidst the wastes of heathenism. God, we hope, will 
 raise up very many of his servants, giving unto them 
 ''the spirit of jwwer, and of love, and of a sound mind." 
 The Church will send out such men, will labour with 
 them, will pray for them. The Missionary work will 
 be a matter of universal interest in the Church. That 
 interest will be felt every day. Instead of evaporating 
 in tender emotion, it will produce the substantial fruits 
 of personal activity. There will be a cheerful preference 
 of this work to private gratifications and party objects ; 
 
158 OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVIVAL OF 
 
 or rather this will be the chief private gratification, the 
 main party object. The love of Christ will constrain 
 His people by a gentle, yet stimulating pressure, to live 
 for Missionary ends. The time will come when greater 
 simplicity in laying hold of Missionary view^s will be 
 the result of a more entire surrender of every thought 
 to the obedience of Christ. Then, it is needless to add, 
 there will be more inquiry, more information, more 
 effort, more sacrifice, more union, — and more prayer. 
 
 Whither shall we look for the accomplishment of 
 these hopes? To Him with whom is "the residue of 
 the Spirit." Had His Spirit not been shed forth, there 
 had been no retrospect like that which the history of 
 Missions has presented. On the Church the Spirit /u/K 
 been poured ; and on the Church His grace must more 
 largely descend, or she will never realise the prospects 
 we are painting to our hopes. For ourselves we are to 
 pray, though not with selfish aims. Oh ! let each 
 minister of Christ daily seek the renewing of his own 
 spirit in earnest devotion to this work ! Let every 
 believer do the same. Let us not regard our prayers as 
 a substitute for labour, nor our labour as a substitute 
 for prayer. Let us not perplex ourselves with the 
 comparative importance of prayer and labour in relation 
 to each other. Let us rather feel that to vs both are 
 necessary alike, and always. Our labours are most 
 strenuous when we have most humbly sought the Lord 
 for His Spirit. The prayers of those that are w^orking 
 the work of the Lord, are hearty and fervent as their 
 diligence and zeal increase. For ourselves, then, yet 
 with a view to the spiritual benefit of others, we are to 
 pray. Let each believer thus pray for himself. Let 
 
MISSIONARY EFFORT IN THE CHURCH. 159 
 
 each lionseliold thus pray for itself. Let each congre- 
 gation thus pray for itself.— Out of these widening circles 
 there will arise another and a wider circle, embracing 
 all the rest, — the whole Church wii-l be one in prayer ; 
 and that prayer will ever culminate in the sublime 
 petition — " Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in 
 earth as it is in heaven !" Towards this we are 
 approaching. To this we must come. Then shall we 
 see a universal care for the perishing world impelling 
 the Church of Christ to go and preach to all that world 
 the gospel of salvation. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE PROGRESS OF JIISSIONARY 
 EFFORTS. 
 
 Theory of Progi-eseion. — Survey of the Church. — A Defective View of the -vrhole 
 Question of Missions. — Apathy. — Ajipearance of Sectarianiem. — Evil Influence 
 of Party Operations. — "Want of Personal Interest and Conviction the Main 
 Iiindrance. — Mai'tyrdom of the Nineteenth Centui-y. — Coldness and Languor 
 of the Church. — Missionary hearts requued. — Consequences Anticipated. 
 
 Missionary Efforts ought not only to be niatle, but to 
 be continued ; not only continued, but increased, and 
 increased by a sort of geometrical ratio. Were we 
 laying down a theory of progression, the following 
 mode of proceeding would commend itself to every 
 thoughtful person, as rational and probable. — The 
 gospel is freely preached to every man. A part of that 
 gospel consists in the declaration of its own adaptation 
 to every human being — in the statement that every 
 human being stands in need of its instructions, its 
 consolations, and its blessings — and in the enforcement 
 on every man that it is his immediate dutij to embrace it 
 for his own salvation, and then to lay himself out for 
 its universal propagation throughout the Avorld. On 
 these grounds we might fairly presume that every 
 believer would instantly become a Missionary ; that his 
 X^rivate religious exercises would be diligently attended 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIOXAEY EFFORTS. 161 
 
 to with an earnest desire for the culture of the 
 Missionary spirit in his own heart ; and that the cliief 
 business of liis daily life would he to diffuse the 
 knowledge of that gospel which he has found so much 
 blessed in his own experience, and that spirit of 
 diffusion which he has felt it to he both a duty and a 
 pleasure to cherish in himself. We might fahly 
 presume that the public officers of the Church would 
 labour with a constant and earnest reference to the 
 ultimate design of all the institutions of the Church ; 
 would seek the conversion of sinners for the sake of 
 those multiplied conversions w^hich may be hoped to 
 follow from the spirit implanted within the heart of 
 every convert ; and would habitually present to the 
 people the great truth — that their own edification is 
 inseparably connected with the ingathering of wan- 
 derers to the fold of Jesus Christ. We might fairly 
 presume that prayer, praise, preaching, the adminis- 
 tration of symbolic ordinances, the discipline of the 
 Church, the daily assiduities of the Christian pastorate, 
 would have a perpetual reference to the work we are 
 now considering. We might fairly presume that in all 
 large associations of Christians and their jiastors, 
 whether in parishes, circuits, counties, synods, dioceses, 
 or provinces, the extension of the gospel to the utmost 
 limits would be the leading object of every consultation 
 and every project. Now supposing all these presump- 
 tions to be fair, — which they are, most demonstrably, 
 if we have rightly stated the design of the gospel 
 dispensation, — it would follow, of course, that active 
 effort for the spread of the gospel would be made in a 
 rapidly increasing progression. Every individual con- 
 
 12 
 
1G2 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 vert would be aiming at the multiplication of converts 
 imbibing the same sj^iiit as well as the same principles 
 with himself ; and all who were actuated by this spirit 
 would be united in the demonstration of it, and in 
 pressing on towards the accomplishment of the grand 
 design. — On this theory, we see a provision made for 
 the perpetual presence of Missionary life in the Church. 
 We see a provision made for the communication of the 
 gospel to families, villages, towns, counties, nations, 
 and to the world. We see more. We see a provision 
 made for the success of such a communication of the 
 gospel. For He who has made it the duty of Christians 
 (as we conceive He has) to act in the way we have been 
 supposing, has assured them that they shall not labour 
 in vain. He has pledged himself to this. He invites 
 the Church to prove Him, to make an experiment on 
 His faithfulness and power. 
 
 Such then is our Theory of Missions, deduced from 
 the declarations of the gospel — from the constitution of 
 human nature — from the structure and tendencies of 
 society, — and from the promises of our Lord and 
 Saviour. 
 
 But every theory must be taken into consideration 
 along with those practical forces which will be found 
 to work against it, when it is brought into practical 
 operation. Let us deal in this manner, then, with our 
 theory of Missions. Let us survey the Church as it is. 
 Let us see what there is in the position of the Church, 
 in the temper of the Church, in the capacities of the 
 Cliurch, in the doings of the Church, to obstruct our 
 theory, to impede the work. 
 
 We might here take a wide field indeed, if our object 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 1G3 
 
 were to lay hold of temptiiig themes for declamatiou. 
 Our object, however, is a very different one. All we 
 aim at is to bring together a few hints which may 
 serve to explain the fact that Missionary efforts are 
 not making the progress which, according to our 
 theory, they oiKjht to make. 
 
 It is not necessary to enlarge, here, on the obstruc- 
 tions in the heathen world to Christian exertions. 
 These obstructions are manifold. But it has been 
 proved that similar and greater obstructions have 
 given way before the activity and supplications of the 
 Church. We are not, at this moment, considering the 
 difficulties which lie against the measures of the 
 Missionary Church. We are considering the causes 
 ivitJun. the Church, by which the increase and enlarge- 
 ment of such measures have been prevented. 
 
 It cannot be questioned by any intelligent observer, 
 that there still prevails throughout the Church a defec- 
 tive view of the whole Question of Missions. There may be 
 occasional glimpses of it. There is not a steady looking 
 at it. It is not understood. The time ma]j come, nay, 
 we earnestly believe it ivill come, when the whole 
 Christian Church will be convinced that the whole theory 
 of Missions has not been generally understood. But 
 ivhy is it not understood ? Because it was forgotten — 
 because it was neglected — because the return to it has 
 been very slow, and very feeble — because the means 
 employed to bring us back to it, have been separate 
 from the ordinary means of Christian instruction and 
 excitement — because it has been left to special men, at 
 special times, in special places, and in special circum- 
 stances, to make Christian ]\Iissions the matter of their 
 12 * 
 
164 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 special attention — and because it lias been inferred in 
 fact (whether wisely or unwisely is not our present 
 question), that there is something in the Missionary 
 work binding so peculiarly on these men, that the 
 obligations resting on all others, if any obligation is 
 confessed at all, goes no further than to a demand of 
 aid in a good and charitable cause. — Such, if we 
 mistake not, is the prevailing estimate of Missions in 
 the Church, even at the present time. There does not 
 seem to be a perception of the true character of Christian 
 Missions. It is viewed too much as a charity — a work 
 which it is well to assist, in which the objects are pitied, 
 in which the agents are admired and lauded, and on 
 which it is desirable to implore the Divine blessing. 
 There is not, to any great extent, an intelligent con- 
 viction of the judgment, founded on the revealed will 
 of God, that it is a work committed, htj anthorUy, to 
 every human being by whom the gospel is heard. 
 Now such a want of plainly seeing the nature of the 
 Missionary work, must, of necessity, be a most effectual 
 barrier to the progress of Missionary effort. 
 
 It becomes us to wa-ite carefully when the defects of 
 Churches and their individual members are concerned, 
 but we cannot repress the conviction that selfishness has 
 much to do with this apathy and indifference. Is it not 
 the great aim of our age to make life as easy and 
 pleasant as possible ? Does not this lie at the root of 
 the eagerness to make money, to live in a higher style, 
 to have more enjoyments, which, in the present day, 
 characterise Christians as well as others ? And thus 
 because we spend more money on ourselves we have 
 less to give to God. Is there not, moreover, in Non- 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS, 165 
 
 conformist Christians especially, a disposition to grudge 
 what is given for a foreign and extraneous purpose, as 
 if it were so much subtracted from home purposes ? 
 Local and foreign claims are thus regarded as rival and 
 antagonistic ; and when the latter are discouraged, 
 through a narrow and selfish i^olicy, the former are no 
 better supported, and lack so frequently the blessing of 
 Him who alone can make our affairs to prosper. 
 
 We cannot help observing, too, that there stands \ 
 in our. way a great apatlnj as to indicUhud ohUqaiion. ] 
 This ari^ff, partly, from a general apathy on the whole ' 
 subject of Christianity amongst its professors. There 
 is too much relatire attention to mere views and 
 opinions, to mere forms, and minor principles. So 
 long as men are iv it h out feeling on the great interests of 
 salvation, as they affect then- own safety and happiness, 
 we look in vain for any feeling on those interests as/ 
 they affect the world at large. But this apathy also 
 arises, in a great measure, from the blindness or 
 inattention to the special feature of Christianity now 
 before us, to which we have just been adverting. If 
 professed Christians icill not look at the plain command 
 of Christ which demonstrates their individual duty, 
 both to Him and to their fellow men, we cannot expect 
 them to be sensibly alive to that duty. It is very 
 possible tliat this insensibility may be, in some degree, 
 accounted for by the manner in which the honest 
 advocates of Missions have been led by existing cir- 
 cumstances to plead their cause. They have been 
 placed on their defence. They have been compelled to 
 justify their own proceedings. They have had to 
 answer captious and selfish objections. They have had 
 
166 PEESSNT OBSTEUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 to rectify misuntlcrstanclings, aucl to refute misrepre- 
 sentations. They haye had to narrate facts, to detail 
 anecdotes, to interest the pubHc mind in their object. 
 They have had to make specific aiTangements of a 
 financial nature, to enable them to meet the demands 
 ■which their Christian enterprises have brought upon 
 them. They have had to incur a heavy responsibility, 
 and to devote much thought, and time, and labour. 
 They have been driven to a system and mechanism 
 in their proceedings, which have given to those pro- 
 ceedings the appearance and character of a business 
 peculiarly their own. The effect has been, though 
 contrary to their intention, that they have come before 
 the Church at large, as men voluntarily engaged in 
 a scheme of great benevolence, pledged by inevitable 
 engagements, needing the support of the ])ublic, and 
 ever ready to acknowledge with courtesy and thank- 
 fulness the support which the liberality and kindness of 
 the public may accord to them. The fact, therefore, 
 is, that while a very small fraction of the Church is 
 overwhelmed with official duty, the great mass may be 
 said, without any censorious imputation as to motives 
 in any quarter, to continue in a state of apathy, which 
 apathy is lulled and soothed by the very agencies that 
 exist for the purpose of rousing and destroying it. 
 
 We must advert, in this p»lace, to another view of 
 existiiig Missionary institutions which, we are honestly 
 convinced, is prejudicial to the progress of Missionary 
 effort in our day. Tlirre is too much of the appearatice 
 of sectarianism and ]>arti/ riralnj in the constitution and 
 manaijemcnt of these institittio)ts. They present them- 
 selves to the public as the separate and competing 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 1G7 
 
 struggles of hostile commuuities, rather thau as the 
 combined enterprises of the one Christian Church. 
 We refer to the fact without animadversion on any 
 l^arty or individual. We know not that, in the divided 
 state of the Church, which — we must take leave to say, 
 unhappihj — has existed so long, Missionary institutions 
 could have been organised in any other way. At the 
 same time, the hope is too strong and too bright to be 
 repressed, that by means of these very institutions, 
 sectarian as they are, "a more excellent way," both of 
 professing Christianity at home, and diffusing Christi- 
 anity abroad, will be at length developed. 
 
 It may be allowed to us to point out some of the 
 modes in which these party efforts are considered as 
 oiJerating against the cause to which they are devoted. 
 
 We must take for granted that all true Christians 
 would wish it to be said of them, that they attach 
 higher moment to the vital principles in which they 
 agree, than to the subordinate points of faith, form, or 
 discipline, in which they differ. We must also take 
 for granted that all true Christians are convinced that 
 Missionary institutions found their claim to public 
 support on the broad basis of settled vital truths, and, 
 in no degree, on the specific views which the con- 
 ductors of any of them have conscientiously adopted 
 for themselves, or retained from their fathers, of the 
 questions still litigated in the Church. We must, 
 further, take for granted that all true Christians, in 
 their Missionary undertakings, are aiming at the 
 conversion of the heathen, by means of the plain and 
 uncontrovcrted truths of the gospel, and that therefore 
 they all have more sympathy with the success of any 
 
168 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 efforts made by auy men of any party in the exhibition 
 of these saving truths to the heathen, than they have 
 with the propagation, amongst the heathen, of their 
 own private convictions or sectarian peculiarities. — We 
 take these things for granted, because they are things 
 which ought to be, which are professed by the advocates 
 of all our Missionary institutions, and which we have no 
 doubt are sincerely professed by all who feel auy con- 
 cern for the progress of the gospel in the world. 
 
 Let it be observed, then, in the ^first place, — that the 
 carrying on of sectarian institutions for the spread of 
 the gospel must, as human nature is constituted, very 
 much endanger that simplicitj' of aim, and purity of 
 motive, which are confessed to be of such vast 
 importance in this work. So long as we associate on 
 jiSivtj principles, it is not in us to keep aloof from party 
 designs and party feelings. "We cannot help feeling a 
 strong desire for the special triumphs of our society, for 
 the popularity of our measures, for the success of our 
 efforts, in distinction from the triumphs, and popularity, 
 and success of societies, measures, efforts, which we 
 feel 7iot to be ours. Argument on such a matter as this 
 is quite out of place. Our appeal is to human nature — 
 to conscience — to fact. It cannot be otherwise. One 
 man may state the truth on this subject more nakedly 
 and boldly than another. IMen may have different 
 opinions as to the desirableness of such a state of 
 things. Various apologies and excuses may be offered 
 to give it a less offensive aspect. The actual working 
 of things in the Missionary field certainly does strike 
 different classes of thinkers in very opposite lights. 
 But we may fahly put it to all — whether societies for 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 1G9 
 
 spreading the r/ofipd in uhich ice all (v/ree would not be 
 carried on with greater simplicity of object, and more 
 earnestness, if wholly disencumbered of all the views, 
 calculations, and expectations, which are now mingled 
 with the one great object. 
 
 Then in the second place, let the friends of Missions 
 consider the feeblenesa of the cjeneral impression made in 
 favour of their object, in consequence of the apjuirentlt/ 
 sectari(Oi character of tJiese institutions. 
 
 Without charging absolute sectarianism of spirit on 
 the conductors, or the sux)porters, or the agents, of 
 any of our institutions, there can be no question that 
 most of these institutions do present themselves, in 
 fact, before the general i)ublic, in a character quite 
 as sectarian as our respective congregations for the 
 maintenance of our peculiar opinions and modes. No 
 man will question the ri'jht of any sect to use all candid 
 and Christian methods of propagating its own peculiar 
 principles. It is a right which they can all claim, 
 which they can all exercise. But if it should so happen 
 that their actually exercising that right is found to 
 interfere with the excitement of general attention, and 
 general co-operation, to the enterprise of sending the 
 gospel of Christ into all the nations, ought not this 
 fact to receive serious consideration from us all — must 
 it not awake painful regrets in the minds of all who, 
 by the supposition already made, are much more 
 concerned for the conversion of men's souls to Christ, 
 than for the aggrandisement of their own particular 
 party? 
 
 The question then is, whether the fact be so or not. 
 That it is so, every enlightened observer of the ex- 
 
170 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 pression of the public mind will, we are assured, bear 
 witness. One of the main grounds of indifference to 
 the cause of Missions lies, as we understand it, in this 
 very fact. Our zeal is considered — perhaps unjustly, 
 yet so it is considered — as the zeal of party — as the 
 fear of being outdone or outstripped by others — as the 
 rivalry of contending sects — as a determination to get 
 beyond each other in the number of our supporters, 
 and the wealth of our resoiirces — as an anxiety, by 
 means of our Missionary advocacy, to bespeak public 
 favour on behalf of our Church, or our creed, or our 
 party. Whether right or wrong, such is the impression 
 resulting from our mode of working at home for the 
 extension of Missions. And we have no hesitation in 
 marking this impression amongst the hindrances to 
 that progress of Missionary effort which we have so 
 deeply at heart. 
 
 Let us reflect, in the tJdril place, — on the impedinients 
 arisiiKj from this same cause, in the scenes of JMissionary 
 hilioiirs ahroad. There have been fields of Missionary 
 labour occupied by men of one party only. They 
 have been able with tolerable efficiency to occupy them, 
 and to present Christianity to the people as one 
 and undivided. In such cases the whole energies 
 of the Missionaries have been given to the overthrow 
 of superstition, and their converts, undistracted by 
 rival representations of the gospel, have received it 
 in its x'ower. Then, when success has begun, and 
 the Spirit of God has been at work, the Mission- 
 aries of another Society have appeared, either to share 
 in the labour, though iininvited, or to attempt, sur- 
 reptitiously or openly, to reap the harvest which others 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 171 
 
 have toilet! to plant and mature. Then, if not before, the 
 simple minds of native converts have been distracted 
 with one or more of our unhappy controversies at home. 
 From that moment a very great and grievous hindrance 
 has arisen — heart-burnings and alienations — and, in 
 not a few instances, the work of conversion has been 
 checked, whilst in others it has almost ceased, as if 
 the Spirit of God had departed, and the converts 
 already made have been distracted, dwarfed, and de- 
 moralised by sectarian rivalries and pretensions. Irre- 
 parable harm in numerous instances has thus been 
 wrought, not merely by Eomish but by Protestant Mis- 
 sionaries. Surely decency and courtesy demand, if 
 charity to those who differ from others is out of the 
 question, that if the Missionaries of one Society are 
 labouring in some island, or groux? of islands, or in a 
 tribe, or town, they should be left in undisturbed pos- 
 session of the field they have chosen ; and that only in 
 large populous cities, and extensive kingdoms and 
 provinces, like those of India and China, should the Mis- 
 sionaries of more than one Society be sent to labour. 
 
 And, foil rtJih/, may we not inquire — whether the dis- 
 jointed operations now referred to, arc not (lisjilcdsiiu/ 
 the Head of the Church, so as to exclude us from that 
 patronage which can alone command success ? We 
 are treating of the progress of Missionary effort in the 
 Church. This progress, we deem, ought, upon the 
 Christian theory, to be much more rapid than it is. 
 The Lord of the Church has been calling out His 
 servants to do a great work in His name, and for His 
 glory. He has, in a measure, poured out His Spirit ou 
 them to incite them to this work, and to fit them for it. 
 
172 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 He lias placed before them tlie most admirable coucur- 
 reuce of circumstances that has ever existed siuce the 
 commencement of the Christian era. To our nation He 
 has given an extent of empire of which one cannot 
 think but with awe and trembling. To that same na- 
 tion He has given greater facilities for the spread of the 
 gospel than ever were enjoyed before. On many of the 
 people of that nation He has been pouring out, for three- 
 quarters of a centur}', a Missionary spirit. From this 
 spirit have arisen, perhaps entirely — certainly to a 
 great extent — our various Missionary Societies. By 
 those Societies great good, as has been shown, is done. 
 But ivhi/ is the same spirit not more widely diffused '? 
 Why have the efforts which indicate such a spirit not 
 been increasing in the proportion which the principles 
 of the gospel Avould warrant us to expect ? Is it not a 
 fair, a reasonable, a Christian procedure, for believers 
 of every sect to inquire whether there be anything in 
 the structure of these institutions incompatible with 
 the order and economy of the dispensation of the 
 Spirit ? — These questions are i)ut in anything but a 
 querulous temper. It may be that all is as it ought to 
 be, in these respects. It may be that Christians are 
 pursuing the simple path of duty, in associating for 
 Missionary purposes on sectarian principles. It is 
 possible that such is the only course which, in the 
 present state of men's minds, they can pursue with 
 peace, and with vigour. Most clearly it is their duty, 
 having entered on the Missionary career under such 
 circumstances, not to abandon their present state of 
 operation, until another shall commend itself to their 
 hearts and then- judgments, as more congenial with 
 
PROGRESS OF 3IISSI0NARY EFFORTS. 173 
 
 the character of the Christian Chiu'ch, more accordant 
 with the spirit of the times, and bidding fair, in the de- 
 ductions of sound reason, and in the analogies of past 
 history, to be more effective in the subhme work before 
 them. We do beheve, after long and careful examin- 
 ation, and therefore say it with the boldness of convic- 
 tion, that there is a spirit abroad in all our communities 
 of a very healthy and energetic character, v\'hich will pro- 
 duce, at no long distance of time, a great and benefi- 
 cial change in our mode of Missionary operation. And 
 it is no small consolation to reflect that the indications of 
 this spirit may be felt in the society of the most sober, 
 cautious, well-informed, and tried friends of most of 
 our Societies. Let it but be clearly made out to the 
 Christian Church, that there is anything defective in 
 any of the principles on which its voluntary efforts for 
 the conversion of the world are carried on, and the way 
 is even now prepared for any wise, simple, well-con- 
 certed scheme which is sufficiently catholic to compre- 
 hend us all, and sufficiently iwacticable to secure the 
 concurrence of those amongst us to whose zeal, fidelity, 
 and judgment, the whole Church is already so much 
 indebted. Until such a liberal and hearty union of all 
 sects of true Christians does take place, we are appre- 
 hensive that the work will go on but heavily. It 
 seems likely to want the simplicity and strength which 
 have ever characterised the most successful human 
 undertakings. And, what is more important, it scons 
 to want that "unity of the Spirit" on which God 
 commands the blessing, even life for evermore. 
 
 There was a time when observations of this tendency 
 would have been ill received. And, possibly, there are 
 
174 PRESENT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 quarters in wliicli tliey will not now be received in the 
 sx^irit in wliich tliey are offered. Be it so. Let the 
 principle advocated be examined, and if it lias no 
 foundation in the Documents of our Faith — the inspired 
 Warrant and Guide of the proceedings of the Church — 
 let it be condemned, and cast away as worthless. But 
 if it be, as we hold it, a principle which pervades those 
 documents, we must cling to it, urge it, and anticipate 
 its final establishment in that coming age, when the 
 partitions of sectarianism will be known only as the 
 monuments of times of darkness. 
 
 Let no man say within himself, "I do not approve 
 of the present mode of carrying on the Missionary 
 work, therefore I withhold my support from that work, 
 until I see it carried on in a manner more agreeable 
 to my views." — This is wrong in ?7st7/',— because the 
 present mode of carrying on the work has been 
 blessed in a degree proportioned, we sincerely believe, 
 to the prevalence of the catholic spirit we are ad- 
 vocating amongst our Missionaries abroad, and their 
 friends at home. For any man to withhold his aid 
 entirely from existing Societies, is, for the present, to 
 withhold his aid from the work altogether. Whatever 
 else is wrong, this cannot be right. Besides, such 
 withdrawment of aid from existing Societies is doing 
 all that can be done to prevent, or indefinitely post- 
 ])one, the improvement which is professedly desired. 
 It is not by attack — insinuation — defection — dis- 
 couragement, that any beneficial modification of 
 Missionary Societies will ever be effected. Oh no. It 
 is by the men who compose voluntary Societies, and 
 hj tlu'iii vnJij, that improvements, adapting themselves 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 175 
 
 to tlie general progress of improvements, are likely to 
 be made. Let us have more Christians, bringing their 
 intelligence, their prudence, their liberality, their zeal, 
 their activity, their " love of the brethren," into these 
 Societies. If they find on examination that no im- 
 provement is desirable, they vs^ill reject all theories to 
 that effect. If they find that improvement is desu-able, 
 they wiU adopt that which they conceive the best. 
 
 The main obstruction to the progress of Missionary 
 effort in the Church, is the want of a personal interest 
 in the work, producing a want of personal conviction of 
 ihitj/ in relation to it. This is a mournful symptom, 
 wherever it exists, of a very low state of personal 
 religion. We are touching, indeed, a most delicate 
 matter. But if there be not a very low state of 
 personal religion in many, of whose sincerity of 
 profession no doubt is entertained, zchi/ should the 
 Missionary work languish ? If Christians everywhere 
 are alive and earnest, wh>j so much advocating — 
 arguing — appeahng — exciting, in this matter? If 
 there be no marks of spiritual lethargy, but in the 
 distempered fancy of conceited theorists and wild 
 enthusiasts, whij does the Missionary cause everywhere 
 come to our doors as a mendicant, and so often go 
 from them, as other mendicants, without relief? Alas, 
 this great enterprise has performed an ofiice at home, 
 not less important than its ostensible ofiice abroad ! 
 It has tried us. It is still trying us. Our Lord is 
 putting us under a solemn and searching dispensation 
 of experiment. This is the martyrdom of a liberal 
 age. This is the fire of the nineteenth century. We 
 arc brout/ht to the test. 
 
176 PEESEXT OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE 
 
 / 
 
 Let ns draw a picture of a floiirisliing state of 
 personal religion in the Cliurcli. Tlie minister, fully 
 aware of the weighty office he sustains, as one " who 
 watches for souls," earnestly addresses the people with 
 a view to their individual conversion ; urging the 
 converted to care with him for the souls of the uncon- 
 verted. There is much attention paid to accuracy and 
 catholicity of theological belief — more to soundness of 
 theological sentiments. There is much regard to social, 
 domestic, and secret prayer. There is much careful- 
 ness in the cultivation of Christian graces in all the 
 departments of human life and human intercourse. 
 There is a great decision of character. There is much 
 love. There is a strong desire — a cheerful readiness 
 to be useful in the Church. The family, the neigh- 
 bourhood, the people of our native land, enter into the 
 warm affections of the heart, and their salvation 
 becomes the theme of serious thought, of benevolent 
 conversation, and of anxious x^i'^'^jci'- Never did 
 personal religion flourish without xn-oducing the 
 originals from which our picture is drawn. But are 
 we villi in such originals ? Are there not complainings, 
 all over the land, of our poverty in this respect ? 
 
 A careful observer of what is very improperly called the 
 religious world, but which is The Church, is daily struck 
 with the necessity of a great and general revival of 
 personal godliness in the Church itself. AVe want a 
 firmer grasp of Christianity, as having on our consciences 
 the authority of a Divine law to the individual man, 
 and as having the power of a Divine influence on our 
 hearts. We want a heartier surrender to Christ as 
 both our Saviour and our Lord. We want a simpler 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 177 
 
 experience of the peace which is promised to the peni- 
 tent behever. We want more of " the heart of flesh." 
 — Ai-e these imaginings ? 
 
 The Missionary progress is arrested by the coldness 
 and latujuor of the Church. Here the impulse must 
 begin which is to subdue the world. We need a suc- 
 cession of impulses. We need new baptisms of ^'fire 
 and of the Holy Ghost" Oh that we felt our responsi- 
 bility to the world ! Our coldness and deadness end 
 not with ourselves. We propagate coldness and death. 
 We taint the moral atmosphere of the world. For our 
 own sakes, and for the sake of our children, it is of 
 vast consequence that our religion should be not only 
 enhghtened, but warm and lively. But our present 
 solicitude is for the world. For the sake of a world 
 which has been sleeping in the sepulchres of spiritual 
 death ever since the quickening word was uttered by 
 the Lord of Life, we lament, we deplore with tears of 
 bitter sorrow, the insensibility of the Church. While 
 she slumbers, one sinful spirit after another passes 
 every moment into eternity with the cry, piercing the 
 very ear of death, — " Xo man cared for my soul.'" These 
 Bouls are not cared for. It has not been proved that 
 they do not perish. Is it possible that they have been 
 perishing all along ? If it be admitted, even as a possi- 
 bility, that they have perished — then, surely, the need 
 of the gospel is not admitted ? Is it to be feared — that 
 multitudes have perished, and perished through the 
 neglect of the Church, though they have died ♦' in 
 tlieir iniquity,'' and receive ^' according to their works V 
 Surely, surely, had Christians felt an interest in the 
 conversion of the heathen, or were Christians now to 
 
 13 
 
178 PRESENT 0BSTEUCTI0N3 TO THE 
 
 feel cm interest in sending tlie gospel to them as the' 
 means appointed for their conversion, all the obstructions 
 to the j^^of/ress of Missionary effort would be at once 
 destroyed by the energy and union of their zeax,. 
 
 This is a fire that would ever burn on every altar, 
 consuming the vanities of selfishness, and burning to 
 ashes the last fragment of sectarianism ! This is a spirit 
 which would soon bring down upon the Church the 
 light of heaven, and its inspirations, and its love, and 
 its mighty power : " the feeble would be as David, and 
 the house of David as God, as the angel of the Lord!" 
 Let us have, in the Church, Missionary hearts — and all 
 the rest will follow. The wisdom to devise — the pru- 
 dence to restrain — the ardour to advance — the courage 
 to dare — the sympathy to encourage — the hand to help 
 — all will follow. The hindrances within being once 
 overcome, no outward hindrance will appal. A deter- 
 mined and united Church, listening to the voice of her 
 Almighty Leader, drinking of the cup u-hereof He iJrank, 
 and receiving the baptism ivherexvith He ivas baptised, will 
 go forth throughout the world, which He claims as 
 His inheritance. She will lift up her voice upon 
 the mountain-top to every dweller on the earth, pro- 
 claiming the salvation of her God. She will take the 
 Cross of the atonement to every nation. She will 
 advance with the majesty of truth, and the earnest- 
 ness of mercy. Every word will be clothed with power. 
 Every step will be guarded by the shield of The Most 
 High. Her enemies shall crouch at her feet. The 
 idol-gods of the heathen shall be smitten, and shall 
 perish. God will " pour out His spirit upon all flesh." 
 And can such scenes be reahsed ? We need not ask. 
 
PROGRESS OF MISSIONARY EFFORT. 179 
 
 It is promised that tliey shall be realised. And ichcii / 
 Whenever the Church of Christ resolves to do her duty, 
 and, in the doing of it, pleads the promise that beams 
 so brightly on the command : " Preach the gospel to 
 
 EVERY creature, AnD, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN X 
 
 UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD." 
 
 13* 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE EVILS EESULTING TO THE CHUECH FROM THE DEFECT 
 OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 Sin of the Churcli.— Positive Loss to the Chiirch.— Facts.— Early Sects in the 
 East. — Movements in the West. — Universal Improvement. — Discoveries. — 
 W'ars. — Personal Loss sustained for want of the Mlssionaiy Spirit. — Loss to 
 the Church at large. — Language of Baxter. — Defect of the Missionary Sph-it 
 produces feebleness, languor, divisions. — National Chm'ches. — Laiguage of 
 Dr. Morrison. — Coldness of the Church. — The Missionaiy work to revive the 
 Church. — Swan's Letters. 
 
 "^If the Missionary spirit be one of the elements in the 
 prosperity and glory of the Christian Clinrch, it is 
 obvious that many evils must result to the Church fi'om 
 a defect of that spirit. We have dwelt on certain 
 features in the present state of the Church, which 
 account for such a defect. The defect is itself an evil, 
 springing from many other evils. But it is the tendency 
 of all evils to spread a baneful influence around them. 
 So it is with the one under our present consideration. 
 The Church si)is in not caring for the world. And the 
 Church suffers for not caring for the world. As she 
 sows, so she reaps. Her prosperity, in a great degree, 
 is in her own hands. She may be happy, peaceful, 
 
 \ triumphant, if she will. 
 
 A very cursory recollection of the history of the 
 Church will illustrate the general position— r/u/i a tia^it 0/ 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONAKY SPIRIT. 181 
 
 Uveli/ devotion to Missionaru objects is a j^ositive loss to the 
 Church of Christ. It has proved to be so in fact. When 
 she drcumscribed her soUcitudes, and the distant 
 nations committed to her charge faded away from her 
 conscience and her heart, her own hght was soon 
 covered with the clouds of error ; her simphcity was 
 soon corrupted by the devices of her enemies ; her 
 purity was soon tarnished by the worst vices of society ; 
 her spirituahty was soon debased by the alHances and 
 dependencies of earth. She fell from her high estate. 
 At one time the favourite, and at another the victim, of 
 a tyrant's whims, she mingled with the strife of warriors 
 and the arts of courtiers ; and, instead of being the 
 Teacher, she assumed the garb and arrogated the style, 
 of the Mistress of the Nations. Her glory was degra- 
 dation — her strength was weakness — her union was 
 the tameness of death. The evils thus resulting to the 
 Church from the failure of the Missionary spirit have 
 been pourtrayed, though too briefly, in the fifth chapter 
 of this volume. Their weight will, perhaps, be more 
 fully perceived, if we review the costly eflbrts which 
 were demanded, in other countries and in our own, to 
 rouse her from her stupor, and to restore her to her 
 ancient spmt. 
 
 It is to be hoped that, even in the darkest ages of 
 the past, there were not a few of the faithful who pre- 
 served, according to their power, some sparks of the 
 ancient spirit. Many errors, it is true, sprang up in 
 every age within the bosom of the Church. But these 
 errors were often mixed with truths, and with genuine 
 zeal for their propagation. The errors have been, 
 happily, forgotten : the truths were remembered, the 
 
182 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 spirit retained, aud tbey are remembered and retained 
 still. Those who embraced the truths, and cherished 
 the diffusive spirit of the condemned sectaries, were 
 branded with names descriptive of the imputed errors — 
 errors, often, which the persons thus branded never 
 heard of, or heard of only to reject them. It ought 
 never to be forgotten, though it too often is forgotten, 
 that the most popular histories of the Church have 
 been drawn from sources over which the enemies of 
 these men presided. In the seventh centiuy many of 
 them were scattered abroad ; and the candid reader of 
 then- opinions, practices, and sufferings, will perhaps 
 agree with us in the conclusion — that, however the 
 Paulicians and other sectaries of the East may have 
 erred, not the errors they maintained, so much as the 
 truths they brought to light, and their active spirit in 
 diffusing those truths, secured for them the honours of 
 tlie sword, the gibbet, and the flames. 
 
 The same causes which produced desertion from the 
 vast system of spiritual monopoly which had grown 
 hke a deadly fungus on the ruins of the ancient spirit 
 in the East, were operating, with still greater energy, 
 in the West. A continuous ray of historic hght gleams 
 through the gloom of ages, illustrating the struggles of 
 devoted men, panting for the freedom aud expansion 
 of former days. 
 
 Many courses of events were preparing the way, 
 under the guidance of that Lord to whom all power in 
 heaven and earth is given, for the spreading of the 
 gospel, for a more vigorous rescue of the Church 
 from the inactivity which had benumbed her. The 
 spu'it which awoke these western nations from their 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 183 
 
 slumber was the spirit of iiniccrsal improvement. Every- 
 tliiug served to show that the race of man was moviiig 
 on to a new development of his social nature. A new 
 path to India was traced along the seas. A new hemi- 
 sphere was found on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 Men's minds expanded with the enlargement of the 
 world in which they lived. The movements of Europe 
 had long been advancing in the direction of enlightened 
 freedom. The feudal aristocracy had been gradually 
 losing its strength, having no foundation in the prin- 
 ciples of human nature. The Crusades, and other 
 wars, had impoverished the nobility. Commerce had 
 enriched the trading class. Free cities and voluntary 
 confederations sprang into existence. The fall of the 
 Greek Empire, and the conseq[ueut dispersion of learned 
 men, had given a new impulse to the diffusion of 
 general knowledge ; and schools for teaching the 
 ancient languages, history, criticism, science, rapidly 
 rose against the clamours of ignorance, and the me- 
 naces of superstition. Printing was invented, which, by 
 giving certainty and permanence to the results of wisdom 
 and civilisation, secured the world from the possibility 
 of going back to the darkness and despotism of the 
 barbarous ages that had passed away. The fountains 
 of intelligence were unsealed. The stone was rolled 
 away from the well's mouth. TdE SoRipruRss could no 
 longer be withheld. There was a resurrection of the 
 human mind. The Church felt the vital energy, and 
 began to move. Then came a war of eLhereal weapons. 
 The giant power that had overlaid the prostrate nations 
 was smitten, and shuddered, and shook all Europe. 
 Kings, priests, swordsmen, girded on their armour. 
 
184 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 Dreadful was the struggle. For it was a sf-rife of 
 principles as well as of interests — of principles and 
 interests reaching to the deep foundations of society, 
 and leading to a conflict which the world will never see 
 ended till " the mystery of God is finished." 
 
 Amid these outward agitations, the Christian mind 
 is allured by the glowing brightness of that historic 
 light in which he sees the ancient spirit of the Church 
 retracing her steps to the ascendency from which she 
 had been cast out. This is not the occasion on which 
 to commemorate the names, the energy, the majestic 
 eloquence, the high daring, the meek endurance, the 
 agonising prayers and labours of those saints of Christ 
 who had to win for us the liberty we now enjoy, of 
 propagating the gospel at our pleasure. Yet it is the 
 occasion on which to remind the churches of the Lord, 
 as they repose, with but too much ease and inactivity, 
 beneath the tree of Christian peace, that the tree was 
 planted by the toil, and watered by the tears, of the 
 men of other times. " Other men have laboured;'' — are 
 ive " entering into their labours ?" " They have sowed," 
 — are we " reaping what they have sown ?" 
 
 Now if the evils flowing from the decline of the old 
 Missionary spirit of the Church are so great and 
 many, if the partial restoration of that spirit has been 
 brought about by such mighty workings of providence, 
 and at so vast an expense of human conflict and suffer- 
 ing, ought we not to behold the apathy of the Church 
 tjwards Christian Missions with fear and trembling ? 
 
 There are two methods which we may pursue in 
 displaying the evils noiv resulting to the Church, from 
 the defect of the Church in the life and energy of the 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 185 
 
 Missionary work. We may sliow, theoretically, what 
 evils must result : and we may, then, show, practically, 
 the evils which we see and feel to result, in fact, from 
 such a state of things. 
 
 First, — Let us see, theoretically, what evils must, 
 according to the principles of the gospel, proceed from 
 this cause. These evils may he traced, in the ex- 
 perience and character of individual Christians, and, 
 as consequences flowing from hence, in the general 
 asjiect of the Church collectively considered. 
 
 Where there is a personal deficiency of Missionary 
 spirit, there will, of necessity, be the want of an ha- 
 bitual and constant reference to some of the sublimest 
 aims of Christianity, as well as to some of the most 
 solemn and urgent demands of the Kedeemer. The 
 mind is contracted in its range, takes a limited view of 
 the gospel dispensation, perceives not the grandeur, 
 elevation, and expansion of the great system in which 
 the Christian finds the grounds of his faith, the principles 
 of his character, and the elements of his peace and 
 hope. The eye of the mind is not opened to the ful- 
 ness and splendour of the scenes which are painted by 
 the hand of God on the fields of Kevelation. The ear 
 of the inner man listens not to the loud and clear 
 tones in which the Lord of the universe summons every 
 believer of the gospel to sound its invitations through 
 the world. The conscience thrills not to the call of 
 duty. The heart is not exercised in that sympathy 
 with the end of the Saviour's agony, which is the pre- 
 paration for a final entrance into the Saviour's joy. 
 The talents entrusted by the Lord for improvement iu 
 a patient course of self-denying usefulness, are not laid 
 
186 EVILS KESULTIXG TO THE CHURCH FROIX 
 
 out, occupied, improved, in the spirit of heedful aud 
 humble fidelity, iu the daily auticipation of the hour 
 when the Lord of the servants shall come to reckon 
 with th3:n, and whon Ha will pronounce so hearty an 
 approval, and confer so gracious a reward on the 
 " good and faithful servant." The prayers which are 
 offered at the throne of mercy, in the name of Him 
 who endured the " travail of His soul " for the redemp- 
 tion of a world, cannot, in the absence or languor of 
 Missionary spirit, breathe the warmth aud earnestness, 
 for the accomplishment of the will of God, which belong 
 to genuine believing prayer. There is much sphitual 
 loss sustained. There cannot be that firm laying hold 
 of the truth, that delight in it, that confidence in its 
 power, that sympathy with its progress, that longing 
 fcr its triumphs, with which the God of grace has con- 
 nected our spiritual prosperity. " Theij shall prosper that 
 lore Thee." Were the Missionary spirit taken home 
 with eager welcome into the heart, — would there not 
 be a hiijhcr order of experienee realised by Christians'? 
 And each Christian, iu every sphere of life, feeling 
 himself associated with a course of proceedings stamped 
 with the authority of God, subordinating to itself all 
 the workings of providence, and assured of final and 
 universal triumph, would there not be a more marked 
 decision of character, a higher bearing, a nobler con- 
 sistency, a clearer and brighter evidence from day to 
 day of being " changed into the image of the Lord from 
 glory to glory ?" We are, surely, not making an ex- 
 travagant or censorious averment, when we say that 
 there do prevail amongst Christians narrow aud un- 
 worthy views of the dispensation under which they are 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 187 
 
 called — that there is a lack of diligence aud fervency 
 of spirit in the service of the Lord — that there is not a 
 faithful and anxious improvement of the capacities for 
 usefulness — that there is a lamentahle inattention to 
 the knowledge of Christ in the fellowship of His suffer- 
 ings, and in hcing " made conformable unto His death" 
 — that there is a low and feeble tone in the personal 
 experience of religion — that there is much inconstancy, 
 much timidity, much ambiguity of character, great 
 inconsistency of profession. 
 
 It were a waste of words to show that these are 
 evils. And whence do they arise ? The causes of 
 human evil are too complex to allow a wise man to 
 give a single answer to such a question. Nor are 
 we now entering on a discussion. Yet we may safely 
 say that where a true Missionary spirit exists, many 
 of these evils disappear ; and where such a spirit does 
 not exist they continue, they multiply, they increase. 
 Were the mournings of Christians more frequently 
 viewed as arguments for self- inspection, and for a manly 
 and vigorous application of the wliule gospel to then' 
 case, how much would their perplexities be simplified, 
 and the source of their uneasiness explained. We 
 can be happy only in conformity with the will of 
 Christ, as well as in reliance on His grace. To seek 
 consolation in any other way, is to court disappoint- 
 ment. To think we are happy in any other way, is to 
 shut our eyes, lull our consciences, and dream. The 
 hour of awaking must, sooner or later, arrive. 
 
 Now, if there be a want of clearly apprehended 
 principle, and a want of lively and satisfactory expe- 
 rience in the spiritual history of individual Chiistians, 
 
188 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHL'RCH FROM 
 
 the deficiency ■will pervade the wliole Cliurch to a 
 greater or less extent. Without a Missionary spu'it, the 
 Christian Church never did prosper, never can. We 
 are not forgetting the labours of holy ministers, nor 
 the piety of private Christians, in times when there 
 were no collective efforts for the spread of the gospel, 
 such as is now oiu- privilege to witness. We owe to 
 them a debt of veneration and gratitude for their 
 noble stand, their treasures of theology, their prayers 
 for vs, and their preparations for the work, on which 
 we shall enter with a zeal and devotion proportioned 
 to the degree in which we embrace their principles 
 and imbibe their temper. But they had a Missionary 
 spirit, though its modes of manifestation and means 
 of exertion were different from ours. The following 
 extract from Baxter's Narrative of his Life and Times, 
 is a very touching iUustration of the tendency of 
 matured principles to excite a Missionary spirit. " My 
 soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of the 
 miserable world, and more drawn out in desire of their 
 conversion, than heretofore. I was wont to look but 
 little further than England in my prayers, as not 
 considering the state of the rest of the world ; or, if I 
 prayed for the conversion of the Jews, that was almost 
 all. But now, as I better understand the case of the 
 world, and the method of the Lord's Prayer, there is 
 nothing in the world that lietli so heavy upon my 
 heart as the thoughts of the miserable nations of the 
 earth. It is the most astonishing part of all God's 
 providence to me, that He so far forsaketh all the 
 world, and confineth His special favour to so few, that 
 so small a part of the world hath the profession of 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONABY SPIEIT. 189 
 
 Cliristianity, iu comparison of Heathens, Maliomme- 
 dans, and other infidels ! And that, among professed 
 Christians, there are so few that are saved from gross 
 dehisions, and have but any competent knowledge ; 
 and that among those there are so few that are 
 seriously religious and truly set their hearts on heaven. 
 I cannot be affected so much with the calamities of 
 my own relations, or the land of my nativity, as with 
 the case of the Heathen, Mahommedan, and ignorant 
 nations of the earth. No part of my j)rayers are so 
 deex)ly serious as for the conversion of the infidel and 
 ungodly world, and that God's name may be hallowed, 
 and His kingdom come, and His will be done on earth 
 as it is in heaven. Nor was I ever before so sensible 
 what a x)lague the division of languages was, which 
 hiudereth our speaking to them for their conversion ; 
 nor what a great sin tj'ranny is, which keepeth out 
 the gospel from the most of the nations of the world. 
 Could we but go among Turks and Heathens, and 
 speak their language, I should be but little troubled 
 for the silencing of eighteen hundi-ed ministers all 
 over in England, nor for all the rest that were cast 
 out in Scotland and Ireland, there being no employ- 
 ment in the world so desirable in my eyes, as to labour 
 for the winning of such miserable souls ; which maketli 
 me greatly to honour Mr. John Eliot, the apostle of 
 the Indians of New England, and whoever else have 
 laboured in such work." 
 
 Similar feelings, however expressed, might be 
 gathered from the remains of the most distinguished 
 servants of God in every age ; and it is far from 
 being improbable that, in the order of providence, 
 
190 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 their feelings, uttered in their day, imparted to the 
 l)eople with whom they had intercourse, and embodied, 
 more or less, in their immortal writings, have often 
 been the remote means of calling forth the spu'it- 
 stirriug efforts of a more peaceful and more enter- 
 prising age. Their history, far from weakening, serves 
 to strengthen the general principle — that the spirit of 
 Missions is essential to the prosperity of the Church. 
 Amongst the evils arising in the Church from the defect 
 of this spirit, we may enumerate the following : — 
 
 It produces feebleness and languor in the Church. 
 The energy and life which characterised the Church 
 at the beginning were, doubtless, the gifts of Christ 
 by the agency of the Holy Ghost. These gifts were 
 intimately connected with that simplicity of individual 
 consecration, and that heartiness of general union, 
 which covered the nations with the heralds of the 
 Cross. When that consecration became rare and that 
 union ceased to be vital and effective, the Church 
 was shorn of her strength, and her members became 
 as other men. In the degree in which the healthful 
 sphit of antiquity has urged the Chm-ch to the great 
 work of propagation, she has lifted up her head, and 
 regained her standing amongst men. But because 
 this spirit has not yet attained its living mastery and 
 commanding influence in the Church, the Church is 
 still weak and prostrate. Whilst idolatry reigns in 
 all the revelry of vice and misery — whilst the fierce 
 ardour or stupefying fatalism of Moslemism are still 
 kindling the soldiers of the Crescent to the chivalry 
 of war, or benumbing them with the opiates of delusion 
 — while the emissaries of the false church are com- 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONAEY SPIRIT. 191 
 
 passing sea and land, and making proselytes — while 
 the votaries of pleasure, and gain, and ambition, in 
 the various walks of dissipation, and commerce, and 
 politics, and art, and science, are urging their career 
 with vigour, and earnestness, and success — where — oh 
 where is the Church of the Lord — the Church on 
 which He has poured His light and grace — the Church 
 which He has equipped for the holy war — the Church 
 on which He has lavished the gifts of His Providence 
 and His Spirit ? She is not holding forth her light 
 as a blazing torch amid the darkness of the earth. 
 She is not lifting up her voice like a trumpet, calling 
 tlie nations to enter into the temple of salvation. She 
 is not girding herself with strength for the combat 
 with evil principles and with invisible powers. She 
 is not pushing her conquests. She is not taking her 
 proper, her assigned position, as the Instructress of 
 mankind. Compared with what she ouriht to be, — 
 she is feeble and languid. Compared with what she 
 mvjlit now be, — she is feeble and languid. Compared 
 with what she once ivas, — she is feeble and languid. 
 Compared with what she must be, — she is feeble and 
 languid. She wants the renewing of her mighty youth. 
 She wants that comprehensiveness of thought, that 
 largeness of heart, that depth of feeling, that anxiety 
 of desire, that activity of effort, directed to her own 
 enlargement in the destruction of every form of error 
 and in the withering of every element of opposition, 
 which should indicate her march to universal empu*e. 
 
 The lack of Missionary spirit produces, also, in a 
 certain measure, many of our unhappy divisions in the 
 Church. The same facts are often both the causes and 
 
192 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 effects of the geueral state of miud in human society, 
 and it is often a question of much difficulty to settle 
 precisely when they are causes and when they are 
 effects. That the inactivity of the Church in spreading 
 the vital doctrines of the gospel over the earth is in- 
 creased by all those divisions which take place on 
 points of confessedly less importance than the plain 
 duty here considered, is instantly perceived to he a 
 statement in full accordance with the known working 
 of human nature. For the attention of Chi-istians 
 being warmly and eagerly as well as conscientiously 
 directed to the centres of their respective parties, their 
 attention, to that degree, is almost necessarily with- 
 di'awn from the grand centre of life and activity, which, 
 notwithstanding our separations, does vii'tually bind us 
 in one whole. And let us look at facts. Let con- 
 troversies be taken into account, and surmisings, and 
 jealousies, and local rivalry, and the timid shrinking 
 from contact, and the disjointing influence of personal 
 alienation, and temporary ebullitions of party feeling. 
 Do these things not occur ? And, occurring, do they not 
 absorb the mental energies and the social sympathies 
 and resources, which, but for these things, might have 
 been happily consecrated to the Missionary operations 
 of the Church ? 
 
 Then, on the other hand, the absence or lowness of 
 Missionary spmt, opens the way for divisions, affords 
 time for them, allows the operation of those tempers 
 in which they originate, and by which they are formed 
 and prolonged. Had the founders of the National 
 Churches in Christendom been imbued with a Mission- 
 ary spirit, how much error, persecution, schism, and 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONAEY SPIRIT. 193 
 
 waste, both of political and Cliristian energies, might 
 have been prevented. Their attention would not have 
 been confined to their own states. They would have 
 remembered that the Church of Christ is of no country, 
 but designed for all countries without respect of persons, 
 governments, or nations. They would have perceived 
 that the affairs of the Church ought not to be identi- 
 fied with the limited interests of separate kingdoms, 
 and with the disputes arising from the conflict of those 
 interests. With the exception of the Jewish nation, 
 God has never regarded any nation as His " peculiar 
 people." The most unwarrantable assumptions of 
 this kind have been current in our own country. 
 " Our Grod will crown His chosen isle with fruitfulness 
 and peace" — is a beautiful 2^(itnotic sentiment, and has 
 some portion of truth, if it is meant merely to recognise 
 the sovereign goodness of God in blessing the people 
 of this " isle " with so bright a dispensation of His 
 gospel. But it is a question deserving of high and 
 weighty consideration, whether the identifying of 
 church and state, by circumscribing the proclamation 
 of mercy within the boundaries of particular countries, 
 may not be regarded as originating in too narrow con- 
 ceptions of the duty of Christians in relation to the 
 gospel ; and, also, whether these narrow conceptions, 
 reduced to practice in nationaUsiiu/ Christianity, are 
 not chargeable with much of that spirit of contest and 
 division by which the Church has been so much 
 wounded and dishonoured. It would be very distant 
 from the intention of these pages to produce an im- 
 pression unfavourable to the faithful members of the 
 churches in Europe which arc more or less national, 
 14 
 
194 EVUiS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 or to afford tlie slightest ground for sectarian triumph 
 to those whose education, or convictions, or prejudices 
 have placed them in a state of separation from the 
 national churches. The following language, from the 
 pen of one of the most liheral of men, both in principle 
 and practice, himself a tried and energetic Missionary, 
 comes very near to the expression of the views which 
 we desire to see promoted on this subject, and they 
 are, alas, as true now as when they were first given to 
 the world. " Christian churches do not yet seem to feel 
 that effort to evangelise the world is so much a duty as 
 it really is ; and a duty binding on each Christian to 
 the extent of his means. Hence it is that there are so 
 many staying at home to sit in judgment on others, 
 and so few going forth to do the work. Missionary 
 Societies have, generally, far more Directors than 
 Missionaries — more generals than soldiers ; and a very 
 large number of the ministers of religion in the United 
 Kingdom, as well as the philosophers, are totally 
 regardless of the subject ; as if the propagation of 
 Christianity, the religion of the divine Saviour, whom 
 they profess to serve, was no part of their concern. 
 The Protestant churches of Scotland, England, and 
 Ireland, have but very slowly acknowledged that the 
 diffusion of Christianity in the world is at all a part of 
 their duty; and many of the most pious Christians 
 seem to feel proud that these churches have at length 
 acknowledged it to be right and proper to use means 
 to evangelise the nations, instead of mourning over 
 their remissness and neglect in days that are past, 
 and proceeding immediately to vigorous action. In 
 the nature of things, it is necessary that there be a 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONAKY SPIEIT. 195 
 
 division of labour in the ministration of the gospel — • 
 
 the same individual cannot be, at the same time, a 
 
 resident pastor and a foreign Missionary; but to be 
 
 concerned for the diffusion of the doctrines of the 
 
 gospel throughout the earth, is equally binding on all 
 
 Christ's ministers, to the extent of their opportunities ; 
 
 and any Christian minister who knows his duty will 
 
 never tlnnk that Missions should have no part of his 
 
 care, and attention, and help. It is lamentable to see 
 
 what a large portion of the bishops, and presbyters, 
 
 and deacons, and people, in British churches, put 
 
 themselves quite outside of the Missionary concern, and 
 
 think that they may innocently have nothing to do 
 
 with it, except now and then to cavil, and sneer, and 
 
 find fault. "Whereas, if these self-called apostolic 
 
 churches were to emulate the Apostolic Age, they 
 
 would select from themselves the ablest, and wisest, 
 
 and most pious, and most dignified of their own number, 
 
 and send them forth to preach the gospel, as the church 
 
 of Antioch did Paul and Barnabas. Then, instead of 
 
 seeking for a new class of men from amongst the 
 
 people — a class of men whom they think inferior to 
 
 the clergy — some of them would themselves go, and 
 
 let their vacancies at home be filled by others. But 
 
 how few are the examples, in these days, of either the 
 
 Episcopal, Presbyterian, or Congregational churches 
 
 having acted thus." * 
 
 Whilst Christian churches are thus defirtive in one of 
 
 the primitive features of Apostolic Christianity, who 
 
 can wonder at their divisions and their weakness ? Oh 
 
 that all Christians " were children in malice, but men 
 
 * " Thoughts on Missions," by Dr. Morrison, of China. 
 14* 
 
196 EVILS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH FROM 
 
 in iinderstandicg !" Oh, that in the golden cup of 
 charity for a world of perishing brethren, bishops, 
 presbyters, preachers, people, would di-ink the spirit of 
 their Lord and His apostles ! Till we all di-ink into 
 that one spirit, our inactivity will inci'ease our divi- 
 sions, and our divisions will increase our inactivity in 
 the work which Christ has given us to do. 
 
 In so languid and divided a state of the Church, 
 it were strange if we had not cause to lament the great 
 degree of coldness which repels and almost freezes our 
 better feelings. In the closet — there is coldness. At 
 the family altar, and in the domestic circle — there is 
 coldness. In the spheres of social intercourse — there 
 is coldness. In the public solemnities of religion, 
 amidst much that is serious, decent, reverent, to a 
 mind imbued with the olden spmt of the gospel — there 
 is a coldness that makes the heart shiver. Our Chris- 
 tianity is too much an intellectual system — too me- 
 taphysical — too mechanical — too narrow — and too 
 stationary. The ideas and expectations of our wor- 
 shippers do not glow with that warmth, that en- 
 lightened ardour which is due to our God and Saviour, 
 and which ought to be inspired by the recollection and 
 the presence of Him whose humanity was consumed by 
 the intensity and tenderness of His zeoJ for our salva- 
 tion. How rarely do we realise those burning thoughts 
 which live in all the language of the Scriptures ! How 
 seldom do we enter, either alone or socially, into those 
 high, commanding, constraining, enkindling views of 
 our Christian duties, and Christian hopes, which shed 
 such grandeur on the religion of the Cross as ex- 
 pounded by the apostles and martyrs of the Lamb ! What 
 
THE DEFECT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 197 
 
 a poor substitute have we for the freshness and power 
 tJiat, of old, carried men away from earthly thoughts 
 and fleshly consultations into the wide field of spiritual 
 glory which opens to the Church on earth the dazzling 
 prospects of eternity ! Alas, are not many of us more 
 concerned for the casquet than for the jewel — for the 
 altar than for the flame — for opinions than for senti- 
 ments — for the forms of religion than for religion itself ? 
 Are not many of us afraid of being counted enthusiasts 
 by the enemies of our Lord ? It is more than probable 
 that if one man were now to betray, for a single year, 
 the ardent devotion of wisdom to Christian objects 
 which Paul displayed from his conversion till his death, 
 not ojily the profane but the pious would call him an 
 enthusiast. Would to God that enthusiasts of such an 
 crder would arise — men of strong intellect, sound judg- 
 ment, practical experience, good temper, firm in-iuciples, 
 and warm hearts, — " Full of faith and of the Hohj 
 Ghost. '^ 
 
 If there be any course of mental eliscipline likely, in 
 the order of Divine Providence, to produce such men, 
 we do conceive that such a course is traced in the 
 Missionary work. " The apostolic days exemplified the 
 true Missionary spirit. And what did the disciples do 
 then ? They that had houses or lands sold them, and 
 brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. 
 And what then ? Were they fools and enthusiasts for 
 so doing ? Had they formed an extravagant estimate of 
 the riches in glory by Christ Jesus ? Were they carried 
 away with vain hopes of the inheritance of the saints in 
 light ? Did they think too much of the exceeding 
 great reward ? Is the example of Zaccheus not to be 
 
198 EVILS EESULTING TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 imitated, who gave the half of his goods to feed the poor ? 
 Is there not one rich Christian in Great Britain — are 
 there not ten — are there not a hundred — yea, a thousand 
 who ought to say, ' The half of my goods I give to the 
 poor heathen ' ? Much has been said, by some, of 
 churches upon the Scripture model. I wish there were 
 more ambition to be followers of the first churches in 
 their unreserved consecration of persons and property 
 to the cause of Christ. These would be scriptural 
 churches indeed ! Every thing in its own place, and 
 in its due order— but I say, avaunt boasted scriptural 
 order and simplicity, where tins spu'it is wanting ! Let 
 but the true spirit of zeal to promote the cause of 
 Christ fully possess the hearts of the Christian part of 
 the population of Great Britain, and there will be no 
 want of Missionaries, and no lack of funds to support 
 them." * Is it so ? Then how great an evil it must 
 be to want that spirit ! What an injury to the Church ! 
 What a loss to the world ! 
 
 * Swan's "Letters ou Missions." 
 
CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The Spirit of Modem Thought indicative of great changes in the Fntvire. — Protes- 
 tant Christianity the onlj' Religion caimble of ultimate and universal diffusion. 
 — Probable Future Results of its Influence. — The Millennial Glory. — Its long 
 duration. — The Evangelization of the World. — Its certainty assured from 
 the Divine Character and Purposes ; fi-om the declarations of Holy Scrijj- 
 ture ; from the Power and Tendencies of Christian Truth. 
 
 The world cannot remain as it is. From the analogy 
 of the past, we may assuredly argue that flux and 
 change will also characterise the future. We see, too, 
 the signals of change in that large and powerful class 
 who think and theorise, that they may believe and act. 
 The deepest principles of political and social life, 
 science and its applications, religion, its province and 
 its authority — are all investigated with an earnestness 
 and boldness which must result in the destruction of 
 much which now exists. The Christian is most pro- 
 foundly moved by whatever affects the destiny of his 
 religion, and though no intelligent person believes 
 otherwise than that it will endure as long as our race, 
 the form of its existence is not equally certain. 
 Will it merge into a different dispensation ? Will it 
 ever be the religion of the vast Tartar and Indo-Ayran 
 races ; and, if so, how will it be modified by their 
 
200 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 mental and moral idiosyncrasies ? Will it ever have 
 a greater i^ower over individual wiljs, and hearts, and 
 lives, than it now has ? Will it ever be universal ? 
 These are questions which the benevolent, the san- 
 guine, and the despondent ask, though with very 
 different emotions. 
 
 Waiving the rest, to the latter we give an affirmative 
 reply. Before giving our reasons for this, it may be 
 well, at the outset, to define broadly what is meant by 
 the universal diffusion of Christianity. We believe, 
 then, that Islamism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all 
 existing polytheisms will die out and give place to 
 Christianity, in some such way as Druidism and Greek 
 and Eoman paganism did. That Popery and Oriental 
 Christianity will disappear, either by some signal 
 judgment from God, or by the gradual spread of the 
 truth. That not only can none of the other religions 
 of the world spread, but that no new form of faith can 
 possibly gain the suffrage of any large portion of our 
 race. That the Christianity which is to become world- 
 wide is substantially the same which evangelical Pro- 
 testants now possess ; but that in the future it will 
 exert a power over individuals most widely, such as is 
 now but occasionally seen, and over communities to an 
 extent which has never yet boeu witnessed. That as 
 the result of this universal diffusion and augmented 
 power, grand social and political changes will ensue, 
 all conducive to human enlightenment, elevation, and 
 happiness. — For instance, the nations will learn war 
 no more. The wisest and best forms of government 
 will be adopted. All the vexed questions relating 
 to land, to the rights of nations, to the relations of 
 
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 201 
 
 rich and poor, masters and servants, rulers and tlie 
 ruled, will be wisely and impartially settled. Science 
 and art will be made entirely subservient to the welfare 
 of humanity ; the earth will be far more productive 
 than now ; labour will be lightened, and life will be 
 prolonged ; the conditions of life will be made more 
 X)leasant and restful ; and it will be comparatively easy 
 to be good, kind, and helpful, because sin, selfishness, 
 meanness, and falseness will be as comparatively rare. 
 
 How long this millennial glory will endure, it is not 
 for us to say ; but there are good and sufficient reasons 
 for measuring it by not less than tens of thousands of 
 years. We believe this, because all the operations of 
 God are deliberate, and stretch through periods which 
 to the human mind seem vast ; because, in the past, all 
 great moral and religious revolutions have been very 
 slowly elaborated ; because there is not a particle of 
 evidence, either in nature, in science, or in the Bible, 
 to prove that the history of humanity is approaching to 
 its close ; because there are numerous Scripture intima- 
 tions that the time during which Messiah shall reign 
 and triumph will be greatly in excess of all previous 
 cycles of history ; and because the very conditions of 
 the Divine government demand that the past six 
 thousand years of prevailing darkness, error, evil, and 
 unrest, shall be but a short period when compared 
 with the vast ages during which all God's purposes of 
 love and beneficence, having ripened, shall yield their 
 precious fruitage of light, truth, goodness, and peace. 
 
 We argue, then, that tlie world will be ermuicliscd. 
 
 I. From various reasons affecting the Divine pur- 
 poses AND character. 
 
202 THE FIJTTJRE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 II. From the declarations of Scripture. 
 
 III. From the power and tendency of Christlan 
 Truth to consummate, fin.ally, such a result. 
 
 I. The ultimate end of everythiiuj done, or alloiced to 
 be done, by God must he His own glonj. — Should this be 
 questioned if api^lied to the history of eyery individual, 
 or of any single event, it will, we think, be conceded as 
 true of the entire history of a race, or of a world like 
 our own. In designing the creation of the world, for 
 instance, He must have set this before His mind, as 
 indeed the highest of all purposes. His omniscience 
 must have foreseen every contingency ; His power must 
 have provided for it ; and His benevolence must alike 
 have desired and willed it. We know that this was 
 His grand purpose in the creation of our race. (Rev. 
 iv. 11.) AVe know too that the Fall, however disastrous 
 and widespread in its effects, cannot defeat the original 
 purpose of the Eternal, but that rather it will be 
 made subservient to His infinite will. This antidote 
 exists in the work of Christ. As a remedy, it is perfect 
 in conception and intention. It not only secures the 
 final triumph of the Divine pleasure and glory, but 
 enhances that glory immeasurably. But although 
 redemption is complete as a principle, it is not as 
 a fact. Time is necessary for the full exhibition of its 
 power and beneficence. But that time will be given. 
 "We see not yet all things put under Him." "But 
 He must reign until He hath put all enemies under 
 His feet." " The whole creation groaneth and travaileth 
 in pain until now," waiting for the redemption which is 
 to make it free and happy. But surely nothing less 
 than the utter defeat and overthrow of evil, and its 
 
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 203 
 
 subservience to God, nothing short of the universal and 
 complete ascendency of Christian truth and feeling, 
 will satisfy the longings of creation, the demands of 
 the Divine authority and government, or the measure- 
 less love and pity of the Saviour. If the religious 
 history of our world should stop short of this, then evil 
 would be proved to be stronger than good, and failure 
 niiglit be charged against the plans and purposes of the 
 Almighty ! 
 
 II. The statemmts of Scripture seem verij clearly to show 
 that the ivhole world idll he finaJJij Christianised. — It is 
 the uniform doctrine of Scripture that the population 
 of the world is to be rescued from the hands of him 
 who is now its god. Sin and Satan, however strong, 
 and however widely spread their dominion, have to 
 be defeated and overthrown. " The seed of the woman 
 shall bruise the serpent's head," is the utterance 
 with which the first promise of Messiah is associated; 
 " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 
 that He might destroy the works of the devil," is 
 the declaration associated with Messiah's coming ; and 
 in Kev. xx. 1-4, we are told that Satan shall be bound, 
 cast into the bottomless jnt, and shut up, that he may 
 deceive the nations no more, for a thousand years. 
 We will not stay to inquire into the details of this 
 remarkable and variously interpreted passage, but 
 that it is declaratory of the utter defeat of the power 
 of evil in our world, and the consequent spread and 
 tril^mph of goodness for a vast and indefinite period — 
 symbolized by a thousand years ; or by prophetic com- 
 putation of a day for a year, and consequently for 
 three hundred and sixty-five thousand years — is clear. 
 
204 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Or it may be that, in accordance with another Scripture 
 usage, a large definite number is employed to express 
 a yet greater general one.* 
 
 This overthrow of evil, this triumph of goodness, 
 is ever represented as the final and inevitable result 
 of Christ's kingly power. " All kings shall fall down 
 before Him ; all nations shall serve Him ;" for all 
 nations shall call Him blessed. "All the ends of the 
 world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and 
 all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 Thee." (Psa. xxii. 27.) 
 
 But this reign of Christ is the reign of Christianity. 
 It is impossible to separate the two. Christ's kingdom 
 is not of this world — it is a kingdom of souls. It' 
 differs from all earthly kingdoms. It is founded in 
 truth, love, and goodness, and all its aims and ends 
 are spiritual, not material — divine, not human. So 
 clearly is all this deducible from what Christ was, 
 from what He taught, from what He founded, and 
 from what grew up as the result of apostoHc effort, 
 that it seems strange that any different conception can 
 be entertained. 
 
 There are two series of prophetic revelations relating 
 to the history and final triumph of the kingdom of 
 Christ which especially deserve notice. One is in the 
 Old Testament, the other in the New ; one in the 
 prophecies of Daniel, the other in the Apocalypse of 
 St. John. The former is repeated twice ; first in the 
 second chapter, containing a description of the great 
 image seen in vision by Nebuchadnezzar ; and then 
 
 * See, for example, Psa. xci. 7 ; Dan. vii. 10 ; Ezek. xlviii. 30 
 Matt, xviii. 27 ; Eev. vii. 4 ; jdv. 13. 
 
THE FUTUEE OF THE WORLD. 205 
 
 in the seventh chapter, in Daniel's own vision and 
 dream of thj five monarcliies. Botla tliese unfold the 
 history of the world in grand outline ; hut in hoth 
 cases it is the culmination and issue to which all 
 else not only leads on, hut is made suhservient. In 
 the first instance, a stone, cut out of the mountain 
 without hands, breaks in pieces all that is opposed 
 to it, and fills the whole earth ; which Daniel thus 
 interprets: — "And in the days of these kings shall 
 the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall 
 never he destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be 
 left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and 
 consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for 
 ever." (ver. 44.) In the second vision the same result, 
 though with different imagery, is unfolded, (vii. 13, 14, 
 27.) 
 
 The views exhibited by Daniel reappear in the 
 visions of John, but more in detail. There, in the 
 opening vision, we have presented to us the Ancient 
 of Days, and the Son of Man as the Lamb, with 
 the elders or representatives of the entire redeemed 
 Church. Then scene after scene follows, of instruction, 
 warning, help, protest, wrath, and punishment ; but 
 all hastening to the inevitable issue of the world's 
 doom and the Church's victory. And so the whole 
 ends with the utter destruction of the beast, and with 
 the saints living and reigning with Christ upon the 
 earth, or, in other words — possessing the kingdom.* 
 
 But as the Divine benevolence is illimitable in its 
 desire for the reclamation of our entire race, and as 
 the redemption provided in Christ is sufficient for all, 
 
 * Fairbairn ou Prophecy, p. 308. 
 
206 THE FUTURE OF THE WOELD. 
 
 and yearns pityingly for all, so the utterances of the 
 Bible, when foretelling the future of the Church, describe 
 a state of things which can only be fulfilled by her 
 universal diffusion and complete triumph. The follow- 
 ing passages seem clearly to point to such a consum- 
 mation. " Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen 
 for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for Thy possession." (Psa. ii. 8.) "For as the 
 earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth 
 the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the 
 Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring 
 forth before all the nations." (Isa. Ixi. 11.) " The 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as 
 the waters cover the sea." (xi. 9.) " For from the 
 rising of the sun even unto the going down of the 
 same. My name shall be great among the Gentiles, 
 and in every place incense shall be offered unto My 
 name, and a pure offering : for My name shall be great 
 among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Mai. 
 i. 11.) " And the seventh angel sounded, and there 
 were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of 
 this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
 of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever." 
 (Eev. xi. 15.) Besides these, no limits short of univer- 
 sality will fulfil the conditions, or realise the anticipa- 
 tions and hopes, of such passages as Psa. ii., Ixxii., 
 xcvi. ; Isa. Ix. ; Micah iv. ; Matt. xiii. 33-35 ; John 
 xii. 32. 
 
 III. We argue the nnii-ersa} sj^rccnl mid triinnph of 
 Christianitij from the power and tendencij of Divine truth 
 finally to consummate such a ijlorious result. — -That there 
 is poAvcr in the gospel to evangelise the entire human 
 
THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 207 
 
 race, few of our readers will doubt. It can reach, save, 
 elevate, aud set on a career of limitless improvement 
 the greatest sinner, the most debased savage, the most 
 prejudiced opponent, and the coldest and darkest 
 spiritual nature. It has done this times without 
 number, and thus, as it professes to be for all, and 
 has to be offered to all, so it can reach all. And this 
 power to meet all the wants and exigencies of man 
 as a depraved, debased, and suffering creature of God, 
 is eternal and ever active. We know what it did in 
 apostolic times among the Jews, Greeks, Eomans, and 
 Barbarians ; but we see equal proofs of its power now, 
 among our different Western races. Then, too, we have 
 in recent years taken it to yet other peoples ; and among 
 Hindus, Chinese, Polynesians, and Africans, it is still 
 mighty through God to work its great spiritual and 
 moral revolutions. 
 
 We have abundant proof, also, of its great i^ower to 
 reform and elevate society. Nowhere has the world 
 ever seen families comparable to Christian households, 
 for nobleness, purity, and happiness — and these exist 
 in tens of thousands. No system, either political, 
 social, or religious, has ever formed communities, 
 which, for virtue, benevolence, divineness of purpose, 
 and eagerness to realise such purpose, can be compared 
 to Christian churches — and these now exist in tens of 
 thousands. Widening the circle of the community, we 
 see in the Port Eoyalists of France, the English Pu- 
 ritans of the age of Cromwell, and the new England 
 States, during almost the whole time of then* existence, 
 conditions of life, which for nobleness, virtue, religious- 
 ness, aud all that adorns and elevates humanity, has 
 
208 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD, 
 
 nowhere else been surpassed. And, finally, tlie power 
 of Christianity has lifted our own nation to a higher 
 position than any other has hitherto reached. Doubt- 
 less we have much to learn as well as to unlearn ; 
 but even that very consciousness we have of defect, 
 that restless impatience with ignorance, wrong, and 
 crime, and that eager stretching towards a higher level 
 still, — what are they but the result of the educating 
 power of Christianity ? No nation was ever so free 
 from great crimes ; none ever rose to power and wealth 
 so steadily and legitimately ; none ever used its power 
 more moderately ; none ever sought with equal zeal and 
 disinterestedness to befriend others and amend itself. 
 
 What Christianity has done for these persons, these 
 communities, these states, and nations, it is capable 
 of doing again and again. We can see, indeed, more 
 widely than ever was seen before, its divine work of 
 reclamation, reform, and renewal going on. Supersti- 
 tions are dying out, great evils are denounced, ignor- 
 ance and vice are attacked, and the assimilating in- 
 fluence of true religion is successfully at work nearly 
 all the world over. 
 
 We can but allude to its ability to elevate yet 
 higher, as well as to diffuse itself more widely. No one 
 has ever yet become all that Christianity could make 
 him. Still more truly may this be said of communities 
 and nations. But there is an ever accelerating power 
 in true religion when applied to the heart and life. If 
 we lived only among the good, how much easier it would 
 be to be good, and to become better still ; and if all 
 nations were as much leavened with Christian prin- 
 ciples as our own, how rapidly we should ascend to a yet 
 
THE FUTUKE OF THE WORLD. 209 
 
 loftier attitude. Now, it is evidently the will of God 
 that the Gospel should he diffused uuiversally, and He 
 lias therefore endowed His Church with great power 
 for self-propagation. The Gospel is ever represented 
 as needed by the whole world. All men are the 
 creatures of God, and as all are fallen, all require a 
 Saviour. The reasons which moved the Divine mind 
 to provide help in one direction must equally influence 
 Him in any other. The Divine love, therefore, and the 
 Saviour's grace can nowhere stop short of a desire for 
 the salvation of all mankind. And those who receive 
 the gospel in its fulness, receive also the desire to 
 spread it. It must be the wish of every one who has 
 " tasted of the heavenly gift," that all others should 
 taste it ; and this desu-e, if not in every case, yet in 
 great numbers, leads to active effort to diffuse it around. 
 It is impossible that a true Christian can be content 
 for any around him to remain in sin. And it is equally 
 impossible for the Church to leave any tribe or country 
 a prey to superstition. It must be aggressive, as it is 
 intolerant of evil and impatient of limit or restraint ; 
 and this zeal for God's rights, this sympathy with 
 Christ's all-comprehending love, this wish to rescue 
 and save, this eagerness for spiritual conquest and 
 acquisition, will itself suffice finally to give Christianity 
 an universal dominion. 
 
 There is another line of argument to which we can 
 do little more than call attention. There are signs 
 everywhere that the religious condition of the world 
 cannot remain as it is. Barbarous races are every, 
 where being invaded by the explorer, the colonist, tho 
 trader, and the Missionary ; and then- crude supersti- 
 
 15 
 
210 THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 tions cannot, in any instance, withstand tlie influence 
 of the white stranger. Mahomedanism has lost al- 
 most all its former zeal and diffusive energy. It has 
 power to resist, not to attack ; and though life still 
 exist in its members, at its heart it is torpid, decrepit, 
 and almost dead. The vast superstitions of India 
 and China exhibit every sign of disintegration. Con- 
 tact with Western thought and ideas must as inevit- 
 ably cause them to vanish away, as does the iceberg 
 when di-awn by the currents of ocean into warmer 
 latitudes. But what shall take the place of these 
 varied superstitions when they are dead, as die they 
 must ? Protestant Christianity is the only possibility 
 left for the world. The rise of any great system of 
 idolatry is now inconceivable. No system of deism 
 has ever been the religion of a nation, or can be. The 
 Greek Church has never been aggressive. It would 
 belie all the signs of the times if Protestantism were 
 to let her splendid power and promise be seized by the 
 belated Papacy, bent as that is on going backward, 
 not forward. Protestantism, or, we might say, Christi- 
 anity, was never so strong as it is now, never had it 
 such vantage ground from whence to issue to attack 
 its adversaries, never was it more active, and never 
 from so large a number of centres did it spread light 
 and life around. Nowhere is it driven back and de- 
 feated. All forms of heathenism are now, not aggi-es- 
 sive, but stagnant and on the defen^:ive. Christianity 
 alone is aggressive, and, of Christian systems. Protest- 
 antism alone is spreading. Must it not continue to 
 do so ? 
 
 "We adduce a final argument for the universal 
 
THE FUTUEE OF THE WORLD. 211 
 
 spread of Christianity from the fact, that from its es- 
 tabhshment this end has been steadily set before it, 
 and it has ever successfully advanced thereto. How 
 weak and insignificant did the cause of Christ seem 
 when He challenged the conquest of the whole world 
 by the sublime command to His disciples, " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." 
 (Luke xxiv. 47 ; Mark xvi. 20 ; Acts i. 8.) They went 
 everywhere preaching the Word, and they triumphed 
 so in every place, that by the close of the apostolic 
 history churches were scattered over the extent of the 
 civilised world. We know how exultingly Tertullian 
 speaks of their increase early in the third century, and 
 we know that a hundred years afterwards the Faith had 
 won imperial power. Nor did it rest there. Its course 
 was on and still on, until it had driven paganism right 
 out of the civilised world, never more to return, and had 
 won many barbarous tribes and races to itself, lifting 
 them up, in spite of heresy, confusion, and corruption, 
 towards strength, civilisation, and truth. We dare to 
 say, that even in the middle ages, notwithstanding the 
 rise of Moslemism and the blighting curse of the 
 Papacy, Christianity was still spreading century by 
 century, if not year by year.* But what an accelerated 
 and undoubted expansion it has had since the Keforma- 
 tion — since the reign of Elizabeth — since the Hanove- 
 rian succession — since the beginning of this century ! 
 Never was it so widely spread ; never had it so many 
 firm and intelligent adherents ; never was it allied with 
 greater power— political, commercial, and intellectual ; 
 never had it less cause for fear ; and never was it more 
 * Liddon's Bampton Lectures, p. 133. 
 15* 
 
212 THE FUTURE OF THE WOELD. 
 
 aspiring and lioxDeful. This onward march through the 
 past must have its counterpart in the future. Analogy 
 suggests it, the very genius of the rehgion necessitates 
 it, and the fixed idea which has now taken j)ossession 
 of the Church, that Christianity must be universal, and 
 through Christ win back the world to God, will fulfil 
 itself. 
 
CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 ARGUMENTS AND MOTIVES FOR INCREASED DEVOTION TO 
 MISSIONARY OBJECTS. 
 
 Appeal to Conscience. — Ministers. — Churches — Satisfaction and Comfort of in- 
 dividual Chi'istians. — General Felicity of the Church. — Pastors: Teachers: 
 Families : Reading Societies : Schools. — Men to be prepared. — A Church of 
 Missionaries. — The benefit to be communicated. — Position of our Country. — 
 State of the Church. — Prospects of Futurity. — Doctrine of Rewards flowing 
 from the Doctrine of Grace. — Principles of Action. — Promise of the Saviour. 
 — Final issue. 
 
 The TRUE Missionary Argument is an appeal to the 
 couscience of every Christian, on the duty of obeying 
 THE EXPRESS COMMAND OF OUR LoRD. There are many 
 other arguments, branching out of this, and serving to 
 place it in its true position. It may be well to show 
 how those arguments enforce the duty of devotion to 
 Missionary objects, and then to show the motives which, 
 at the present time, are urging us to increased devotion. 
 First of all. Let our consciences be fairly and fully 
 imbued with the conviction that such, in fact, is our 
 
 DUTY. 
 
 We have endeavoured to prove that the conveyance 
 of the gospel to the understanding of every creature 
 in all the world, is a work to which the Church is 
 bound by solemn obligation — each individual in the 
 
214 ARGUMENTS AND MOT WES FOR INCREASED 
 
 Cliurcli being called to the cliscliarge of the obligation 
 according to the measure of his light, opportunities, 
 and means. The end of aU narrations and treatises on 
 the subject of Missions, is to call Christians to meditate 
 on that duty, and to arouse them to a vigorous perform- 
 ance of it. Whatever views of Christian doctrine inter- 
 fere with the clear apprehension or energetic fulfilment 
 of such a duty must, for this very reason, be erroneous ; 
 and ought, on this very ground, to be rejected and 
 opposed. The same principle is applicable to every 
 mode of Christian profession, and to every style of 
 
 / ministerial instruction. If the mode of profession has 
 a tendency to fetter the exi^ansive operations of the 
 whole Church, or if the style of ministerial instruction 
 is not such as to aw^aken Christians, and keep them 
 awake, to the work of spreading the gospel enjoined on 
 them by their Lord, that mode is unscriptural, that 
 style is fundamentally opposed to the style of the 
 
 \-apostles. 
 
 It is clearly an essential branch of what is ordinarily 
 termed clerical duty, to aim, by all means sanctioned 
 in the Scriptures, at the conversion of the whole world. 
 Wc have no right to restrict our solicitudes to our par- 
 ticular parishes or congregations. We are to seek the 
 salvation of all — and to stir up those who are called with 
 a holy calling to sympathise in our pursuit, and to help 
 u^ in the work. A truly weighty responsibility, in this 
 /'niatter, rests on the preachers of the gospel and the 
 pastors of churches. Their public prayers should 
 recognise, most distinctly, the binding duty of diffusing 
 the gospel. Besides their more specific instructions 
 and exhortations on this head, there ought to be a vein 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONARY OBJECTS. 215 
 
 of Missionary tendencies, a flame of Missionary ardour, 
 pervading their ordinary addresses to the people. To 
 what extent this is now the case generally, it is diffi- 
 cult to estimate. But, assuredly, were this ministerial 
 pressing of the duty of Missionary enterprise constant 
 and universal in our pulpit communications, we should 
 see more life, and power, and activity in the Mission- 
 ary operations of the Church. " It is an awful fact," 
 •WTote Mr. Ward of Serampore, " that the spirit of 
 Missions has to Christianise the Church, before the. 
 Church can Christianise the world." 
 
 In urging the argument of Christian duty in this 
 case, we cannot overlook the influence of so momentous 
 a duty, heartily discharged, on the satisfaction and coin- 
 fort of our state as individuals, and the consequent 
 serenity and even joyfulness flowing in this channel 
 throughout the entire Church. Obedience is the evi- 
 dence of that faith through which we are saved by the 
 grace of God in Christ Jesus. A Missionary spirit, 
 combining the strength of principle with the fervency of 
 love, in a wise and decided course of active effort for 
 the conversion of the world, is the special sign of 
 genuine faith on which the New Testament writers 
 expatiate with the greatest warmth and frequency. 
 How clear a proof does such a character exhibit of really 
 believing the word of the gospel — of having " the Spirit 
 of Christ," — of being renewed after the image of God — 
 where " Christ is all and in all !" How confidently, 
 though in all humility of mind, may a man of such a 
 spirit receive in application to himself the promises of 
 God, deriving from those promises all the light, and 
 succour, and joy, and purity, included in the privilege 
 
216 ARGUMENTS AND MOTIVES FOR INCREASED 
 
 of being made a " partaker of the divine nature." 
 There can be no question that a mind thoroughly and 
 practically imbued with this spirit obtains a fuller per- 
 ception of the " glorious gospel," a firmer grasp of its 
 j)rivileges, a higher personal enjoyment of its comforts, 
 and a much greater degree of power to walk according 
 to its precepts in every branch of the Christian temper, 
 than men who have not such a spirit can possibly 
 imagine. He is cast in a finer mould than other men. 
 His spirit breathes a purer air. His heart throbs with 
 a holier and healthier action. He enters into a higher 
 walk of existence. His range of thought, desire, pur- 
 pose, calculation, is ampler — stretching into scenes 
 which God enlightens with His own presence, and 
 which are enriched with the mysteries of redemption, 
 wdth the revelations of truth — a spiritual world bright- 
 ened with the glories, or shadowed with the gloom of 
 eternity. On such a mind, raised and upheld as it is 
 by the power of the Holy Spirit, the vulgar temptations 
 of this world's course have little power. He has nobler 
 thoughts and better joys. He has deeper anxieties, 
 grander struggles, than those which agitate the haunts 
 of business or the fields of strife. He has got beyond 
 them and above them. He looks back on them, and looks 
 down on them, as on things that filled his mind in days 
 of darkness. But now he is clothed with the armour 
 of light. He is living for Christ. He is praying, and 
 labouring as well as praying, for the coming of a 
 heavenly kingdom. 
 
 For our own sakes, then, let us, by every means, 
 and at all times, repair to those sources from which 
 we may imbibe an increase of the Missionary spirit. 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONAKY OBJECTS. 217 
 
 And let lis not be afraid to drink deeply. Let tis not 
 be afraid of more spiritual apprehensions. Let us not 
 be afi'aid of more dignity of character. Let us not be 
 afraid of yielding to impulses that come from God. 
 Let us not shrink from hajipiness. 
 
 Were individual Christians fully to believe their own 
 religion, and faithfully to serve their Saviour in de- 
 votion to the work for which He lived, and died, and, 
 •reigns, who does not see the ten thousand channels 
 through which the streams of joy and gladness would 
 overflow the general body of the Church, — the joy and 
 gladness, we mean, which the Clmrch would feel, in 
 the very act of doing that which is at once the evidence 
 and the means of her prosi^erity. It is the ordinance 
 of God, and it is the promise of God, that His Church, 
 in watering shall be watered, in blessing shall be 
 blessed, in exercising her gifts shall increase them. 
 And the providence of God has ever acted in accord- 
 ance with the appointments and predictions of His 
 grace. The prosperity of the Church is in the line of 
 Missionary operation. Her best days (we must reite- 
 rate the statement) were the days of her gi-eatest ac- 
 tivity in the spreading of the gospel ; and the return 
 of those days is hastened or deferred according to the 
 measure in which such activity revives."^' 
 
 * These remarks are all verified in the facts of individual and 
 congregational history. No jierson can be carefully and extensively 
 acquainted with the condition of Christian communities throughout 
 our land, without being struck with the connection which, exists 
 between their internal prosperity and attractiveness, and the 
 amount of zeal, sympathy, and aid displayed by them toward 
 objects beyond themselves. Where there is much of the latter 
 there is also much of the former ; and where selfishness thinks 
 only of home, it is visited with a sterile curse, which miserably 
 defeats its narrow calculations. Too frequently the excuse is : — 
 
218 ARGUMENTS AND MOTIVES FOR INCREASED 
 
 Oar appeal to the couscieuce of each Christian is, 
 therefore, strengthened by our regard for the happy 
 enjoyment of the gospel in the heart of each Christian; 
 and it is still further enforced by our consideration for 
 the general felicity of the Church. Let every Christian 
 cherish a deep and conscientious conviction that, in as 
 much as the conversion of the world is to be attained 
 by means of human agency, he is personally respon- 
 sible to Christ for exerting a portion of that agency. 
 Let Clivistian /ami I ies include the objects of the Chris- 
 tian Missions within the circle of their domestic cares, 
 and the means of furthering those objects within the 
 scheme of their domestic economy and calculations. 
 Lot every Christian pastor and teacher infuse, with due 
 regard to the harmony of truth, a large portion of 
 Missionary intelligence and excitement into his wonted 
 ministrations. Let the conductors of libraries and 
 reading societies avail themselves of the power afforded 
 them for giving a decidedly Missionary tincture to the 
 literature they circulate. Let schools be impregnated 
 with the living germs of Missionary thoughts and 
 habits. Let young men and young women of decided 
 
 " We are poor, and that which we can do is so little, that it is not 
 worth doing at all;" or, " All that we can do we need for our- 
 selves;" or, " We have this to do, and that, and must defer all 
 help to Missions until some less burdensome time." Anyhow, 
 the noble cause is altogether sacrificed, or but coldly aided ; and 
 if the result be injurious to it, far more so is it to those who act 
 thus. We are persuaded that there are thousands of congregations 
 now doing little or nothing for Missions, or doing something 
 reluctantly, which would begin to enter on a new life of internal 
 l^eace, progress, and holiness, if they could but rise above their 
 selfishness, and receive the principles and impulses of a lofty and 
 disinterested evangelization. " There is that scattereth, and yet 
 increaseth ; there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it 
 tendeth to poverty." 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONAEY OBJECTS. 219 
 
 piety, of promising abilities, of well-disciplined educa- 
 tion, be introduced within the sphere of Missionary- 
 impulses. In such a qaickening climate of Christian 
 society, it cannot but be that a race of Missionary 
 men and women will rise up. Out of such a race ot 
 Christian people, there will be no difficulty in obtain- 
 ing that which is now the cliief difficulty — men to do the 
 work of preaching the gospel to the heathen. It is to 
 be feared that, as in former times, Christians will be 
 driven to a work, to which we are unwilling to be 
 drawn. In our own country, every course of successful 
 industry is crowded with disappointed expectants. But 
 the world is before us ; — we are called to spread the 
 gospel through the world ; — we have not obeyed the 
 call ; — and God is placing us in circumstances in which 
 we shall do well to consider, whether His Providence is 
 not concurring with His Word, to stimulate us to the 
 work we have been too long neglecting. Commercial 
 and social difficulties may do that in the nineteenth 
 century for Britons, which persecution did, in the first 
 century, for Jews, in the sixteenth for German Pro- 
 testants, and, in the seventeenth, for the English 
 founders of the American churches. May not British 
 Christians, as such, lay to heart the apparent workings 
 of Divine Providence, and might not large and intelli- 
 gent groups of pious men and women now be found in 
 various parts of our country, who are so situated that 
 they might feel it to be a duty — and, at the same time, 
 find it to be an advantage, in all respects — to emigrate 
 on Christian principles, and with a specific view to the 
 establishment of Christian institutions in the midst of 
 heathen lands ? 
 
220 AEGUMENTS AND MOTR'ES FOE INCEEASED 
 
 Independently of these hints, it would be a good 
 thing for our churches at home, a good sign of growing 
 B]oirituality, and a decided means of promoting their 
 prosperity, if efforts were wisely and diligently carried 
 on with a particular view to the calling out of well 
 furnished and believing men, to go forth into the 
 Missionary field. Whilst we have so many that are 
 willing and able to preach the gospel at home, ought 
 there not to be a general and constant course pursued, 
 by which a much larger body mght be raised of candi- 
 dates for the same work abroad ? The labours of Mis- 
 sionary Societies at home have been too much, yet of 
 necessity, directed to the procuring of funds for the 
 support of Missions. But the necessary funds would 
 pour in more freely and in much greater abundance, 
 if there were in all our churches a higher tone of that 
 Missionary devotion by which proi3er men are to be 
 elicited and sent forth by their brethren, " commending 
 them to the grace of God.'" It is with this view, more 
 especially, that these pages have been thus occupied. 
 A MissiONAEY Church is a Chuech composed of Mis- 
 sioNAEiES. How far this is from being the ostensible 
 character of the Church of Christ ! It is true we can- 
 not all go to the heathen. But, are we all to stay at 
 home, till persecution or distress compel us to wander 
 through the world ? Ought there not to be a deeper 
 and more general interest in the Missionary work 
 amongst Christians, as Christians — Christian families, 
 as families — Christian ministers, as ministers — Chris- 
 tian churches, as churches ? And would not that 
 wider and more general interest secure a larger body 
 of well qualified Missionaries ? And would not the 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONAKY OBJECTS. 221 
 
 sending out of such a body of Missionaries, amid the / 
 hopes and prayers of their beheving brethren, be fol- 
 lowed by an ample provision of all the aid they might 
 require ? And is it not as clear as the theory of the 
 gospel, illustrated by the history of the gospel, can 
 make it, that such a state of active devotion to the 
 work of Missions amongst the heathen would be at 
 once the sign of great prosperity, and the means of 
 still greater prosperity, throughout the whole Church ? 
 
 Let us not forget the nature and amount of the^ 
 BENEFIT we are proposing, by Christian Missions, to 
 communicate to all the nations of the earth. It is 
 " The Gospel." It is scarcely possible to spread the 
 gospel without scattering, in our 'wsij, the seeds of 
 civilisation, of freedom, of order, of science, of do- 
 mestic peace, and of x^ubhc safety. But quite distinct 
 fi-om these, and far above them, is the blessing en- 
 trusted to us for the advantage of the world. It is 
 pre-eminently — emphatically — simply "the gospel.V 
 After all that has been so ably written and so elo- 
 quently said, in advocating Christian Missions, let us 
 keep in memory the simplicity of our object. It is an 
 object dignified by its association with truth — the truth 
 of God — the truth of God revealed to man universally, 
 that by believing it he may be saved. We know of no 
 salvation for ourselves but that which is through faith 
 in Jesus Christ. It is only by virtue of the universal 
 aspect of this gospel that we are guided to any personal 
 hope of forgiveness, and meetness for a happy futuiity. 
 "What we were without the gospel, that the heathen are 
 now. What we now are, by means of the gospeh that 
 the heathen may become, will become, when the gospel 
 
222 ARGUMENTS AND MOTR^ES FOR INCREASED 
 
 is preached to tliem as it has been to us. Wliosoever 
 ' helieveth in Christ shall not j^erish. Is there not a lurking 
 scepticism in the bosom of the Church on this — the 
 plainest and most vital truth in all the Scriptures ? 
 Unless Christians are prepared to affirm — that the 
 atonement of Christ was unnecessary — that idolaters 
 are not, as such, sinners — that the heathen are not 
 Hving in that perishing state from which the gospel 
 has been the instrument of our salvation — that the 
 heathen are known to have been converted to God more 
 fi'equently and more extensively without the gospel 
 than with it — they must surely be convinced that the 
 sending of " The Gospel" to every human being is the 
 highest charity which earth can witness, as well as the 
 most solemn duty which God has enjoined. And shall 
 Christians imbibe the old scepticism of the ungodly, 
 to steel their hearts against the faith of apostles, 
 against the command of then' Saviour, and against the 
 claims of their brethren ? 
 
 It is for every man who hears the gospel to believe 
 it without delay, for his own present and eternal salva- 
 tion. And it remains for every believer to weigh the 
 arguments which demonstrate his j)articular duty to 
 the world. Whether we think of the sanctity of our 
 obligations — the worth of our privileges — the princi- 
 ples involved in our profession — the pleasure of our 
 Lord in this matter — or the glory that will redound 
 to Him from the simplicity and energy of our efibrts 
 to make known His name and His atonement to the 
 world, — whithersoever we turn our thoughts, the 
 motives to increased devotion in the Missionary work 
 flash on our consciences and melt om* hearts. 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONAEY OBJECTS. 223 
 
 In concluding these cbai^ters, we cannot refrain from 
 urging on the reader's attention some of those views 
 of things around us which serve to corroborate every 
 argument, and to give pungency to every appeal on 
 behalf of Christian Missions. 
 
 Let us look at the position of our country. A dis- 
 pensation of the gospel has been committed unto us. 
 As for those amongst us who " reject the counsel of 
 God against themselves," let us pray for them, and 
 warn them, before they pass away into a world where 
 they will find, too late, that all they have been rejecting 
 was true, and divine, and gracious ! But as for those 
 of us who do believe unto the saving of our souls, let 
 us look at the high vantage ground on which God has 
 placed us, for the sake of other nations. We are a 
 free, a spirited, an enterprising people. Our language 
 has been flying on the wings of the wind over all the 
 world. Our commerce traces every -sea, and links us 
 with every country. We hold an empire of terrific 
 responsibility in the East ; in the West we claim pos- 
 sessions and aifinities unequalled, of which, though the 
 past history is darkened by the national crime of slavery, 
 the future history is being brightened by the fruits of a 
 Christian people's repentance, with justice and mercy 
 following; whilst- in the Australian colonies another 
 and a greater England is rapidly rising up to power. 
 Our influence is, at the present time, more command- 
 ing than that of any other nation. Wherefore has 
 God dealt thus with us ? Surely not to pamper our 
 pride, or to arm us with the power of standing before 
 all other people in the foolish attitude of boasting or 
 defiance ! It seems to the most rational and sober 
 
224 ARGUMENTS AND MOTIVES FOR INCREASED 
 
 tliinkers, that our position is assigned us by the King 
 of nations, for the spiritual welfare of the world. 
 Without arrogating to ourselves a superiority over 
 other countries, it is the dictate both of wisdom and 
 of piety that we should avail ourselves of every ad- 
 vantage for the communication of the gospel, which 
 we have, to those who have it not, under the conviction 
 that our advantages are bestowed on us for this very 
 purpose. That we have greatly lost sight of this 
 truth is to be unfeignedly lamented. To redeem the 
 time is our present duty. Let us do our work. If we 
 do it not — then should our country perish in the wreck 
 of nations — which may God, in His mercy, forbid! — 
 the unfaithfulness of England to the gospel given her 
 for the nations, will be the blackest spot in that as- 
 cending cloud of sins which will bring down the 
 thunder of His power for her destruction. 
 
 On the Churches of England, the call to effort in 
 the prox^agatiou of the gospel is loud, and clear, and 
 solemn. For aught we know, that night in which we 
 cannot work is already gathering its gloom around us. 
 It has not yet come. It may be far distant. It is our 
 privilege to know nothing that is before us. If ever 
 there were churches on whom rested a peculiar obliga- 
 tion, they are ours. If ever there was a time in which 
 that obligation pressed closely and tightly around the 
 minds of men, we are fallen on such times. We are 
 rich in the fruits of experience. History has told her 
 tale for our instruction. Men of former days have 
 bequeathed to us the treasure of their wisdom. If we 
 cast our eyes around us, we behold all the signs of a 
 new epoch, a fresh starting point for the minds of 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONARY OBJECTS. 225 
 
 men. There is everywliere a war of principles. New 
 speculations are afloat, and exploded errors are revived. 
 Men are panting for what is new, or clinging with the 
 tenacity of a death-grasp to what is old. An age of 
 vigorous and united action for good or for evil is rapidly 
 advancing. Public opinion is acquiring a force never 
 known before. This is not the time for the churches 
 of Britain to slumber. We must either conquer the 
 world or be conquered by it. Of ourselves we cannot 
 conquer. But He who has lifted up His standard in 
 the midst of us, has the power to conquer, and the 
 will. " lie )iuist reiipi, till He hath jiiit all eiwuiies under 
 His feet." He is the '^ Head over all thinf/s to the 
 Church." As portions of His one Church, let British 
 Christians press every advantage, improve every talent. 
 Let us all consecrate ourselves to the service of Christ 
 in the conversion of the world to Him. In the cultiva- 
 tion of our secret inety, in the promotion of domestic 
 rehgion, and in all our separate or combined endea- 
 vours for the spiritual good of those who are locally 
 related to us, let iis hourly keep in view the ultimate 
 design of the public ministry, and of private iuotruc- 
 tion, and, indeed, of the whole Christian dispensation 
 — " God icas in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." 
 Let Christians care for the world, pray for the world, 
 and preach the gospel to the world, and they will 
 exhibit the character, and share the joy, of the 
 Missionary Church. 
 
 No truth is more clearly revealed in the gospel than 
 the perfectly gratuitous nature of our personal salva- 
 tion. It is the " GIFT of God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." All the blessings received by the penitent 
 ^ 16 "^ 
 
226 ARGUMENTS AND MOTrVES FOR INCREASED 
 
 believer, from liis first convictiou of siu through the 
 whole eujovmeut of eternity, are graciously vouchsafed 
 to him for the sake of Jesus Christ. In full accordance 
 with this fundamental principle of the gospel, the 
 PROSPECTS OF FUTURITY are so presented to believers in 
 Jesus Christ, as to excite them to fidelity and diligence 
 in discharging their duty to their Eedeemer. He is 
 their Lord as well as their Saviour ; He demands their 
 service no less than their confidence. In His charac- 
 ter as the Supreme Master, He has committed to His 
 servants their various capacities and opportunities 
 of usefulness ; has taught them that these capaci- 
 ties and opportunities of usefulness are to be 
 conscientiously and unremittingly employed in His 
 service, and with a single regard to His anithority, 
 and will, and honour ; has assured them that 
 their means of honouring Him shall gather strength 
 from use ; and has raised their expectations towards 
 the coming of that day, when He will scrutinise 
 their service, receive their account, and reward 
 them according to their works. To J)e " accepted of 
 Him" is the grand object of Christian ambition, 
 purified by His Spirit from all selfish motives and 
 earthly views. To receive " the crown of righteous- 
 ness " is the aim of every one who "fights a good 
 tight," who "keeps the faith, who finishes his course." 
 Our Lord Himself was sustained in His Cross and 
 Passion by "the joy set before Him." His apostles had 
 respect to the recompense of the reward. And the 
 early Clrristians laboured in the spread of the gospel 
 with a clear and unsophisticated view of the heavenly 
 state as containing the reward of those who, having 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONARY OBJECTS. 227 
 
 been justified by faith, and saved by grace, have sought 
 glory, honour, and immortahty, by patient continuance 
 iu well doing. 
 
 The doctrine of reward ha=!, indeed, been often 
 perverted, so as to place the righteousness of man 
 iu the place of the perfect work of Christ, or so as to 
 mingle it, in some measure, with the work of Christ 
 iu the grand article of the sinner's acceptance with 
 God. The error is a very gross one, leading men 
 utterly astray. But, on the other hand, the doctrine 
 of GRACE has also been perverted. It has been taken 
 away from its connection with the principles of human 
 nature and the principles of the government of God. 
 Thus perverted and distorted from its true position 
 in the harmonious scheme of divine truth, the notion 
 snhstitittal for the Christian doctrine of grace has pro- 
 duced on men's minds and characters an effect precisely 
 the reverse of that which it is the object of all truth 
 to secure. It has made them torpid in their con- 
 sciences, instead of being quick and tender. It has 
 made them selfish in their affections, instead of being 
 kind and liberal. It has made them narrow and 
 shrivelled in their conceptions, instead of being 
 vigorous and expansive. It has made them indolent 
 and sentimental in their professed religious character, 
 instead of being active, and self-denying, and assiduous 
 in their labours for the salvation of a dying world. 
 Uoctrines of the gospel which are there introduced for 
 the encouragement of believers suffering and working 
 for the spiritual benefit of their fellow-men, have been 
 purloined, if wc may so express it, from the classes of 
 believers to whom they belong, and made to minister 
 
228 ARGUMENTS AND MOTH'ES FOR INCREASED 
 
 to the pride and slotlifulness of a very different class 
 indeed. Now between these two extremes we find the 
 true doctrine — the rewards bestowed by; Christ Himself 
 on those who rely on Him for salvation, and bestowed 
 by Him according to their fidelity in warm and simple- 
 hearted devotion to His service. We ought not to 
 overlook the simple truth, that the happiness of the 
 future state arises not more from its positive safety 
 and glory, than from its full development of ininciples, 
 implanted within us by Divine grace, and disciplined 
 by Divine providence in the present state. 
 
 What those j)i'iiiciples are, it is easy to perceive. 
 They must be those by which we are made to resemble 
 the character and to exemplify the spirit of our Lord 
 and Saviour — His meekness in suffering — His patience 
 under provocation — His constancy in action — His 
 supreme regard to. His Father's will — His tender com- 
 l^assion towards sinful and suffering men — His entire 
 devotion of Himself to the work of human salvation — 
 His simple and energetic improvement of every hour 
 and every opportunity for accomplishing the ends of 
 His incarnation, working " the u-orks of Him that sent 
 Me ichile it is day: the ni(jht cometh when no man can 
 u-ork." Whilst the happiness of the future state is 
 to result from the development of this character in 
 believers, we are taught to expect that happiness as 
 consisting in a very high degree of social as well as 
 personal enjoyment. And of that social happiness a 
 princii)al element will be found, in the consciousness 
 and recollection of spiritual good communicated and 
 received by the instrumental agencies appointed in 
 the Church on earth. Happy will every convert be ! 
 
DEVOTION TO IIISSIONAKY OBJECTS. 229 
 
 But happier still the honoured instrument of his con- 
 version ! Happy will every sinner be that has been 
 brought to Jesus here, and to heaven hereafter, from 
 the darkness and pollutions of idolatry ! But happier 
 than even he, the faithful and devoted Missionary who 
 left the house of his fathers with the simple aim, and 
 in the believing hope, of leading this his fellow sinner 
 to salvation ! The entire economy of the Divine govern- 
 ment shows us that the permanent bliss of futurity 
 is the result of present character, and that the degree 
 of the bliss will rise according to the degree in 
 which the character has been matured. The whole 
 tenor of the gospel assures us that the glory of the 
 eternal kingdom will be vouchsafed to the redeemed 
 for the sake of the atonement of their Lord, and in 
 proportion as they have imbibed His spuit. It is His 
 glory, His joy, His reward — and it is as members of 
 Him, as sympathising with Him, as being like Him, 
 as following Him, that they are to behold His glory, 
 to enter into His joy, to share His reward, sitting 
 down with Him on His throne. And, truly, he who 
 has done and suffered the most on earth, in the solemn 
 consecration of himself and his all to Christ, in the 
 extension of His gospel, will be at once the humblest 
 and the most exalted of all the saints in heaven. 
 
 Fired by such hopes, urged by motives of so much 
 stimulus and power, let every member of the Mis- 
 sionary Church brace every nerve. The course is 
 before us. Our Leader sits on the throne. He holds 
 forth the prize. He warns us — amidst the temptations 
 to erroneous views of our duty, or to sloth unworthy 
 of our privileges — He warns us of the curse awaiting 
 
230 ARGUMENTS AND MOTR'ES FOR INCREASED 
 
 the xniprofitaJile scrcant. And to cheer ns m discourage- 
 ment, as well as to call forth our best and noblest 
 energies in fulfilment of that work which Ho has given 
 us to do, and which we must not, will not, dare not 
 neglect. He opens before our faith the fulness of that 
 glory and rejoicing, in which we shall for ever feel the 
 value and the freeness of His approbation. " Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful 
 ore)' a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: 
 enter thou into the jog of thg Lord." 
 
 The joy of thy Lord ! What words are these, may 
 every Christian say ! The joy of thy Lord ! And shall 
 I — a sinful man, who might have been driven for my 
 sins into banishment from His presence, shall I enter, 
 not only into the place of safety, and light, and bliss, 
 but into the joy of my Lord ? When He shall look 
 back on the scenes of Judea and Galilee, rejoicing that 
 He lived with men, and died for them, shall I enter 
 into that joy ? When He rejoices in the ineffable 
 manifestations of His Father's love, well pleased in 
 Him, shall I enter into that joy ? When He rejoices in 
 that look of triumph with which He surveys the ene- 
 mies He has foiled, the victories He has achieved, shall 
 / enter into that joy ? When He rejoices in the hymns 
 of praise and services of love wherewith the multitude 
 of His redeemed shall worship Him throughout an 
 eternal Sabbath in the temple of His glory, shall I 
 enter into that joy? Yes, fellow Christian, thou shalt 
 enter into that joy, if thou art till death a good and 
 faithful servant of that Lord ! Let the Missionary think 
 of this, and let it rouse him to effort, and encourage 
 him to perfect the work of faith and the labour of love in 
 
DEVOTION TO MISSIONARY OBJECTS. 231 
 
 the patience of hope iu our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the 
 Churches thhik of this, aiicl let it stir them up to such 
 exertions as they caii make, aucl all they cau make, 
 to carry the tidiugs of snlvatiou through the world. 
 Let us work now. Let us work daily. Let us all 
 work. Let us worlc in faith. Let us work with 
 prayer. Let us work iu hope. Let us work in love. 
 Soon shall we leave the things that are seen, and 
 be conversant only with the things that are not 
 seen. Let us bring the prospects of futurity home 
 to our hearts, as they were brought home to the 
 hearts of believers iu the times when the Church 
 was alive to her responsibility, and calmly antici- 
 pated her reward. 
 
 And, oh, who can think, without being raised, and' 
 purified, and urged, in all his spiritual sympathies 
 and principles, of the reward which awaits a faithful 
 Church ! What a meeting that, which shall consummate 
 the history of the Church ! What mysteries will then 
 be developed, — mysteries of providence, and mysteries 
 of grace, — iu the progress of the Church through all 
 her trials and delinquencies, her persecutions, corrux)- 
 tions, reforms, divisions, revivals, to that age of light 
 and purity, of prosperity and glory, of union and of 
 effort, which, we believe, awaits her even on earth ! And 
 then, when the years of time shall merge in eternity, 
 when the themes of prophecy and the hopes of ages 
 shall be explained and verified before the throne of 
 God and of the Lamb, what crowns of joy, what palms 
 of victory, wdiat songs of praise, what sounds and 
 sights, what greetings and recognitions, will attest the 
 faithfulness of the Lord we serve, and the wisdom of 
 
.<? 
 
 232 AEGUMENTS AND MOTIVES. 
 
 being now devoted to His service ■with all our hearts, 
 aud with all our i^owers ! It is our duty, as believers 
 in Jesus Christ. If we are faithful in discharging the 
 duty. He will reward us. Let us believe — act — and 
 wait — as servants that are looking for their Lord. 
 " Behold, I come quickly ; and my kewaed is with me, 
 
 TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORK SH.\LL BE. 
 
 Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus." 
 
 fKTilN BROTHEKS, THE ORESHAM PKKSS CHILWOETH AND LONDON. 
 
 It