[John A. Gray, Printer and Stereotype, cor. Frankfort and Jacob Streets, S. Y. 
 
A SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED HEFORE TUP. 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN, 
 
 ON SABBATH EVENINGS, NOVEMBER 3 and lO, 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN. 
 
 WITH REPORTS BY CORRESPONDING SECRETARY AND TREASURER 
 
 |Gtblisbeb bg t be ^ocufn. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 ALMON MERWIN, BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 
 
 1862. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SERMON. 
 
 Mark 1G: 15. 
 
 ‘ And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
 every creature." 
 
 The spirit of the Master, the nature of the truths 
 which he taught, the instructions whicli he gave, from 
 the very beginning of his ministry ; the final injunc- 
 tions to his apostles, and their commission, all clearly 
 show that Jesus came on no personal errand, to open 
 no provincial school, to establish no national religion, 
 but to declare a religion radical, penetrative, recon- 
 structive, universal, and ever-enduring. These are the 
 peculiarities of the Christian faith. It is radical. It 
 is penetrative. It is revolutionary and reconstructive 
 It is universal. It is everlasting. 
 
 1. It is radical in its estimate of human character 
 and the changes to be wrought upon it, and in its 
 whole method of treatment. In the contemplation 
 of the Gospel, there is not a just man on earth. 
 All men need forgiveness, and a new spiritual life. It 
 is not tauo-ht that there are no relative excellencies. 
 All are not heathen. All are not vicious. Nor are all 
 alike evil. But there are none that answer the end of 
 their creation, or conform to the law of their being. 
 
 7 O 
 
4 
 
 The faculties of the human mind, as divinely con- 
 ceived, are entirely admirable. It is the administration 
 of them that is sinful. The use to which these facul- 
 ties are put in each individual of the whole race, vio- 
 lates the law of love and of obedience toward God, 
 puts a man at disagreement with himself, brings him 
 into selfish collision with his fellow-men, draws him 
 from the spiritual toward the material, moves him 
 down from his proper rank and degree in the order 
 of creation, defeats the divine purpose of happiness, 
 and works discontent and sorrow and suffering in all 
 conceivable degrees. Although this takes place in an 
 infinite variety of degrees in different men, it so takes 
 place in all as to justify the declaration that there is 
 no man living that sins not, and that has not been 
 depraved by sinning. And such has been the long 
 continuance of this sinfulness, such the hereditary in- 
 fluences, the bad training, the evil example, that the 
 whole mind is disturbed, unbalanced, out of harmony 
 with itself, with its fellows, and with its circumstances. 
 Its appetites and its passions have the mastery. They 
 are not obedient either to reason or to the moral sen- 
 timents. The very conceptions of love, of justice, of 
 truth, are imperfect ; but imperfect as they are, they 
 far transcend the power of man to realize them in 
 practice. The human race is not, after six thousand 
 years, even civilized. A dreadful and innumerable 
 majority live under the habitual control of their ani- 
 mal nature. Nor has it ever been better than now. 
 The history of the race, for six thousand years, is a 
 record of aggressions and wrongs, of crimes and wars, 
 of undescribed and indescribable evils. The morning 
 stars are said to have sung for joy when the earth was 
 born. Since that day, there has not been an hour when 
 tears and sighs would not have been a fitter accompa- 
 
niment. Let other men adjust a nomenclature to these 
 tacts. Let men differ in their philosophies and theo- 
 ries ; none can deny the great practical truth that men 
 are so depraved that they need to he horn again. Such 
 re-creation must proceed from divine power. There is 
 no self- developing remedy from within. Nature stands 
 dumb and powerless. If men are to he healed, and 
 trained, and perfected, the same power that created 
 must re-create. 
 
 For character so radically wrong, the Christian relig- 
 ion proposes a change the most utter and thorough 
 which the mind can conceive. It seeks to penetrate 
 the soul hy the divine Spirit ; to touch the springs of 
 action, of thought, of feeling, and of will, hy the very 
 power of God’s own mind. 
 
 Christianity did not so much need to reveal or pro- 
 claim man’s sin, which needed no proclamation, as to heal 
 it. Christ came for redemption. Not a better life sim- 
 ply was demanded, hut a new one, upon another plan, 
 with new aims, with other emotions, with higher in- 
 spirations, and with more effectual and continuous 
 motives. Christianity grasps the whole nature of the 
 soul, and seeks to apply the remedy at the very foun- 
 tain of feeling, of choice, and of reason. 
 
 The means employed are equally radical. It is the 
 power of God that is to change and sanctify. The 
 natural world was designed, undoubtedly, to exert an 
 influence, and. a moral influence, upon man. Society, 
 and its institutions, restrain men from evil, and have a 
 limited influence for good. From his own fellows man 
 derives, with much evil, some benefit. Nor are his 
 own efforts of will and reason without a partial influ- 
 ence for good. But none of these, nor all of them, 
 are adecpiate to the necessities of his condition. Com- 
 pared with the work to he done, they are superficial 
 
6 
 
 and transient. It is tlie power of God exerted directly 
 and personally upon every soul, that inspires, controls, 
 and sanctifies. We are taught that God acts upon the 
 soul, through the great primal revelation in nature, and 
 through his glorious word, and through the events of 
 his providence. But it is a direct and efficacious influ- 
 ence of the divine power upon the human soul, that is 
 taught in God’s word as the highest and characteris- 
 tic method of divine activity in human regeneration. 
 Though a man may not enter again his mother’s womb 
 and be born, it may almost be said that he enters again 
 the heart of God, and issues thence re-created. 
 
 Thus the Christian faith is radical in its reformation 
 of human character; radical in demanding the very 
 highest type of spiritual excellence ; radical in taking 
 hold of the springs of action which lie in the inmost 
 center of the soul ; radical in bringing to bear upon 
 life, not only the ordinary influences of morality, but 
 the power of the divine nature itself. 
 
 2. It is penetrative. “The words which I speak 
 unto you (they) are spirit, and (they) are life.” The 
 Christian religion admits of formulas of doctrine, it has 
 intellectual and philosophical elements, its precepts and 
 moralities, its history, and duties. In all these it in- 
 finitely surpasses any other religious system of the 
 world. But that which is peculiar to it is, that, while 
 it employs the instrument of words and doctrines, it has 
 the power of conveying an ineffable spirit. It propa- 
 gates itself by the contact of heart with heart, of spirit 
 with spirit, more than by intellectual forces. It is the 
 only religion which, including and using every legiti- 
 mate influence that belongs to ordinary teaching, de- 
 pends characteristically upon the force which the soul 
 has upon the soul. It was the divine life streaming 
 forth from Christ that made him the teacher that he 
 
7 
 
 was, speaking as never man spoke. It was not merely 
 the words and their meanings, but that subtle power 
 behind the words, which made truth omnipotent. It 
 was this, too, when the Holy Ghost descended upon the 
 Apostles, at the day of Pentecost, that gave them power 
 to sway men as winds sway forests when they blow 
 upon them. 
 
 In. every age, since the Apostles 1 day, there has been 
 a power in Christian truth-speaking which could not be 
 accounted for or measured by the ordinary efficiency 
 of words or arguments. As God reaches forth and 
 
 O 
 
 touches our souls by his own, so, in their degree, when 
 holy men are filled with the divine Spirit, there is 
 given to them a spirit-touch. This is no mysterious 
 thing. It is no superstition. Is not love more power- 
 ful than any statement of the doctrine of love ? Is not 
 radiant hope more potent than any analysis of hope ? 
 Are not faith and glowing desires and impetuous joys 
 more powerful than the mere ideas of these things can 
 be ? Moral sentiments and affections are more power- 
 ful than the symbols of affections and sentiments can 
 ever be. Life is more than any philosophy of life. 
 The flaming soul, harmonized to love, in joyful alle- 
 giance with God, full of pure desires and gracious affec- 
 tions toward men, radiant with faith, and strong in 
 hope, that is the life-power that throbs through the 
 words spoken to men. It is this soul - power, and not 
 merely the words of truth, that give to Christianity its 
 peculiarity. 
 
 It is this that is the key of many of the seeming 
 mysteries of teaching. The most magnificent structures 
 of thought, wondrously curious illustrations, poetical 
 imaginations of entrancing beauty, musical utterance, 
 sweetness of words, persuasiveness of manner, have 
 often been brought to bear upon the human heart 
 
8 
 
 without great effect, or any permanent benefit, be- 
 cause there was no infusing soul, no divine influence 
 and power ; while, on the other hand, meager state- 
 ments, remarkable simplicities, seemingly the most inad- 
 equate and powerless of all presentations of truth have 
 seized the soul, first with shakings of fear, and afterward 
 with a divine rapture, that has led men to declare that 
 they were caught with irresistible influences. There is 
 no power like that which shines and burns in the very 
 life of every man who rightly speaks the truth. Be- 
 hind eacli word and every symbol is this heart-force of 
 him who uses it ; and behind his heart is the soul of 
 God, giving both to the word and to the speaker some- 
 thing of his owm glorious energy. 
 
 The Christian religion is superior to all other relig- 
 ions in the ethical ideas it unfolds, in the aims it pro- 
 pounds, and in the results it seeks to accomplish ; but 
 these are differences in degrees of the same things. 
 That which is unique is the soul-power that goes with 
 the teaching. The Gospel is never truly taught, nor 
 can be, by the mere enunciation of the lips. There 
 must be a fire, a subtle spirit, from the very heart, 
 which shall carry a sacred infection with it. Affec- 
 tions are a common language to all mankind. The 
 words by which we describe them may differ in a 
 hundred tongues; the thing itself is understood alike 
 by all men, speaking in whatsoever tongue they may. 
 And so, when a holy man, full of zeal, sends forth the 
 longings of his heart, then again is seen the Pentecostal 
 miracle, and every one hears in that tongue wherein he 
 was born. 
 
 3. Christianity is revolutionary and recon- 
 structive. “ Except a man be born again, lie can not 
 see the kingdom of God.” Blessed utterance ! This 
 is not alone a necessity imposed : it is a rescue pro- 
 
9 
 
 pounded. We are sent to say, Ye must be born 
 again ; but could men know wliat is the fullness and 
 blessedness thereof, we should rather say : Ye may be 
 born again ! Would not men rejoice, if, after an expe- 
 rience of forty or fifty years in the entanglements and 
 complications of business, all the past might be swept 
 away, and they, with their accumulated experience, 
 might start anew ? lie that takes the Bankrupt Act, 
 and is cleansed from all debts, and cleared from all 
 debtors, is commercially born again. It has pleased 
 God to pass a universal spiritual bankrupt act, by 
 which men are cleared of all debts of sin. The past 
 is counted as if it had not been: transgressions and 
 iniquities are forgiven. It is true that certain physical 
 effects of sinning can not at once be remedied. It is 
 true that habits are not transformed in a moment. But 
 there is peace with God, and reconciliation ; the fear of 
 doom is removed ; and the soul, no longer dreading 
 divine retribution, confidently looks to Him against 
 whom it has sinned, for pity, for help, and for sympa- 
 thy in bearing the remaining pains and penalties of its 
 past misconduct. 
 
 But this is not all. In reconstructing the character 
 of the individual, Christianity proposes also to recon- 
 struct the whole system of human society. While it 
 has a law for individual conduct, it has likewise a law 
 for every combination in whicli men exist and for every 
 institution through which they act or are acted upon. 
 It enters each individual heart to renew it from the 
 foundation. It enters every household to renovate it 
 radically, giving conceptions of the family state that 
 never could have dawned upon the world but for the 
 advent of Christ. It glorifies the office of parents, and 
 makes them vicegerents of God to their infant children. 
 It lifts up the child before the loving parents as some- 
 
10 
 
 tiling lent to tliem of God. It is not theirs. Nor is it 
 to be reared for their pleasure, but for glory and im- 
 mortality. It unites brother and sister through the 
 faith of immortality with affections purer and sweeter 
 than could ever have sprung from an unsanctified 
 human nature. The family, in the contemplation of 
 religion, is the innermost apartment, the holy of holies, 
 of the church upon earth. It is the very gate of 
 heaven. Through that gate men enter into this life ; 
 from that gate they depart out of it. Living or dying, 
 there is no place this side of heaven so like heaven as 
 the Christian household. It is the very home of 
 love whose fires never burn dim ; whose odorous flame 
 never goes out. Its law is love, and obedience is easy. 
 While in the great world outside, passions rage and 
 pride and malice rend the peace of men, we escape 
 gladly thence, as storm-driven mariners from a clouded 
 sea, and enter the family as upon some island of the 
 blest, itself peaceful in the midst of tempestuous and 
 roaring seas.' 
 
 Christianity goes forth into the ways of daily life 
 to impose the law of holiness upon every pleasure, 
 upon every business, upon every pursuit and profes- 
 sion. It enters the legislature, and demands righteous- 
 ness in its enactments. It stands in the court, and 
 authoritatively calls for equity. It assumes supreme 
 authority at the very capital of the nation, and de- 
 mands, in the name of Jehovah, a Christian govern- 
 ment. The law of God follows every man through 
 each step and every path, and its solemn requirements 
 include all occupations and every form of industry. 
 
 “ Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
 all to the glory of God.” Wherever the heart of man • 
 throbs with power, and wherever his brain teems with 
 fertile suggestions, there is the law of Christ and the 
 
11 
 
 authority of religion. Nothiug is too small for its 
 notice. Nothing is so minute as to escape its demands. 
 Nothing is so vast as to tower above it. Nothing is so 
 strong as to defy its authority. No matter how great 
 the ruler, nor how high his sphere, and no matter how 
 high the king, or how glorious the emperor, God is 
 their master. “ He is King of kings and Lord of lords.’’ 
 It is this force which has acted for two thousand 
 years upon modern society. It is the secret of devel- 
 opment. It is the law of growth. Were men wise to 
 understand it, changes would take place in human insti- 
 tutions and societies gradually and naturally. Laws 
 and customs would adapt themselves to each succes- 
 sive generation, as the bark adapts itself, each year, to 
 the increasing diameter of the tree. But, being re- 
 sisted, this secret, silent force of God at length rends 
 and revolutionizes ; and so it shall go on, pulling down 
 and building up, destroying only evil, and reconstruct- 
 ing from past and imperfect forms higher and nobler 
 societies. It is a fire and a hammer that breaks the 
 flinty rock ; but to genial soil, it is solar fire"" that 
 strikes no blows, yet brings forth from its bosom fruits 
 and flowers innumerable. They that desire quietude 
 — let them never preach the Gospel. They that would 
 never be disturbed by new ideas — let them not take 
 into their bosom the fire of divine truth. The Bible 
 is a dangerous book for men that love indolence, and 
 old wrong, and spiritual death. Lightly understood, 
 the Bible is the most dangerous book in the world for 
 despots and tyrants. Men that have their interests in 
 wrong can have no peace but with a muzzled Gospel. 
 With a Gospel free-speaking, demanding renovation 
 and disinterested benevolence, there can not but be 
 turmoil, and disturbance, and retribution, till man 
 changed from evil to good, and the earth is purLoa. 
 
12 
 
 The Bible is a magazine of mercies to those who will, 
 and of woes to those who will not, accept it in the 
 spirit in which it is sent. If it be taken even as an 
 embellishment or luxury, with its precious promises 
 and sweet singings, out of those veiy promises and 
 singings there may come that fire of the Holy Ghost 
 which shall turn all calmness to agitation. For the 
 will of God is our sanctification. So long as there is 
 any thing in the individual not perfectly obedient to 
 the will of God, religion must disturb it and change 
 it. So long as there is any thing in the family that lifts 
 itself up against the law of love, there must be change 
 passed upon that. In every business, in every profes- 
 sion, in every philosophy, in all arts, in government 
 in every section of worldly affairs, whatever men’s 
 thoughts and purposes and interests may be, there is 
 let loose from the heart of God a spiritual power that 
 is to revolutionize and renovate until the earth shall be 
 purified, and sin be banished, and all mankind be holy 
 and happy. 
 
 As when the earth is locked and bound fast in 
 winter ice, the spring sends embassies of sweet winds 
 and gentle-falling rains, and will not let the ice alone, 
 making war against it, and thawing it, night and day, 
 till at last a little vantage - ground is gained, and the 
 rivers are set loose, and all things feel the teeming life, 
 and break forth into joy ; so, when the Spirit of Christ, 
 which is love and justice and truth, comes to the world, 
 it sets itself to loose all that is locked and bound in the 
 winter of sin ; to bring forth all sweet graces, like the 
 flowers of early summer. “As the rain cometh down, 
 and the snow from heaven, and retumetli not thither, 
 but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth 
 and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread 
 to the eater ; so shall my word be that goeth out of 
 
13 
 
 my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, but it 
 shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall pros- 
 per in the thiug wliereunto I sent it.” 
 
 4. Christianity is universal. It teaches the Fa- 
 therhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. All 
 those must needs be brothers to each other of whom 
 God is the Father. lie hath said to the whole human 
 race : “Ye are members one of another.” Christianity 
 is the common and universal law of this one brother- 
 hood. Its truths are not of one age, nor for one people^ 
 nor of any one school. They reach out to all peoples, in 
 every land, and of every age. Christianity is universal 
 because it is co-incident with natural law, conformed to 
 the very structure of the human mind, applicable al- 
 ways and every where. 
 
 In other religions there was adaptation to peculiar 
 nations and ages. Even in the forerunning faith of the 
 Jew there was much that was transient. The precepts 
 and doctrines of Christ are equally well adapted to 
 every different period. They belong to no civilization, 
 to no age, to no race. They belong to man universally, 
 at all • times, and in every place. They are as fresh to- 
 day as they were eighteen hundred years ago. The 
 philosophies of the wisest men of Greece are worn out. 
 The utterances of Socrates are wise yet, but most of 
 them seem so only when we conceive of them as they 
 were applied to his own time and country. They have 
 little or nothing for us. They were relative. Much of 
 the wisdom of Plato seems trite even to children. It 
 has lost its savor and its perfume. It is only by acquaint- 
 ance with cotemporaneous history that one can truly 
 understand the greatness of the teachings of these far- 
 distant men of the East. But of the words of Christ, 
 not one has ever perished, not one has lost any power ; 
 while yet there is treasured up in them worlds of in- 
 
14 
 
 fluence still undeveloped and unsuspected, there is not 
 a people on the globe to whom that matchless prayer 
 of our Lord is not as applicable as to the disciple band 
 who first received it from his lips. After two thousand 
 years, with all the changes that Christianity has itself 
 wrought upon the human mind, there is no sentence in 
 it that needs to be changed ; none that needs to be 
 added thereto. The Sermon upon the Mount was no 
 more true, and deep, and heart-searching in Jerusalem, 
 two thousand years ago, than now it is in New- York or 
 London. It was not a sermon for Jews, but for man- 
 kind. The wondrous consolations which the Saviour 
 breathed into the ears of his disciples upon the eve of 
 crucifixion, are as heavenly and divinely fragrant of 
 love in these late hours of the world, as on the day 
 when he spoke them. The Gospel works the same 
 fruit, whether in Greenland or Madagascar, among the 
 Chinese or the Indians of our Western forests. To Jew 
 and Gentile, to bond and free, to the highest in culture 
 and to the rudest, it bears the same truths needed alike 
 by all, and working in all the .same penitence and love. 
 
 The duties enjoined in the Gospel are universal from 
 the beginning of life to the end of it. From the cra- 
 dle to the coffin, from the barbarous condition to the 
 highest reach of civilization, the teachings of the Sav- 
 iour are continuously applicable. Nor can the imagin- 
 ation picture any state which will outrun the law of 
 Christ. There is no moral philosophy that will teach 
 us any thing better than Christ taught. There is no 
 conception of purity more transcendent and beautiful 
 than that which was evolved in the life of the Saviour. 
 There is no disinterested benevolence to be compared 
 with that which is portrayed by the New Testament. 
 Metliinks I see the Christian saint going to school to 
 the modern new-fangled philosophies, and asking les- 
 
15 
 
 sons of tlieir disciples, that they may be led by them 
 in better ways, and to higher attainments ! AVhen the 
 summer shall go to Nova Zembla to be instructed in 
 blossoming and fruit-bearing, then may we expect gro- 
 veling and sensuous material philosophies to give men 
 that divine effluence, that soul-unfolding of God, which 
 comes to them through the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 5. Christianity is everlasting. Heaven and earth 
 shall 2 )ass i but my word shall not pass away. In 
 so far as it enunciates the nature and dispositions of 
 God, it must remain forever true and the same. If its 
 teachings of man, his nature, his character, his necessities, 
 are true, then it must remain as long as mankind re- 
 mains. If it provides a train of divine influences for 
 the remedy of sin, and for the education of the human 
 heart, it must endure as long as a heart shall beat, or a 
 nature need spiritual culture. Christianity is not to be 
 regarded as something grafted upon nature, or super- 
 imposed upon the course of things ; it is itself a part 
 of that universal nature of which this world is a sec- 
 tion. Its applications may be special, but it is itself 
 original, universal, everlasting. The institutions of 
 Christianity, the governments which have sprung up 
 under it, the special inflections of its laws, their appli- 
 cations to usages and customs, may change to meet the 
 changing wants of man ; but its principles, its truths, 
 its divine influences can never change. The progress of 
 investigation of man’s nature may modify the modes in 
 which the doctrine of human sinfulness shall be stated, 
 but that great and dreadful truth, that man is so sinful 
 that he will perish without the divine interference for re- 
 demption and restoration, remains the same. Some 
 things may be added, and some things may be changed, 
 in the statements which we make of the divine nature ; 
 the theory of moral government may be altered ; but 
 
16 
 
 this can never affect the great verities themselves. The 
 change is only on the side of the human mind. Newer 
 glasses and more careful examinations change the doc- 
 trines of astronomy, but no glass and no examination 
 ever change the planets themselves, which roll in un- 
 conscious grandeur far above reach or human muta- 
 tions. He that is the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
 ever can not be reached by our speculations. It is to 
 be believed, with the progress of holiness, with a larger 
 experience in divine things, that we shall understand 
 better the nature aud operations of divine government 
 over men. None of all the changes that are incident 
 to the progress of knowledge in the human mind 
 amounts to any essential change in the truths or de- 
 velopments of Christianity. Thus far in its history it 
 has gained by every assault made upon it. At suc- 
 cessive periods men have thought that they had accom- 
 plished its downfall ; but after a little it has risen 
 brighter and stronger for all the opposition it has met. 
 Since it carries in its heart the welfare of the human 
 race, and is itself the power of God for salvation, it 
 shall endure as long as the sun and the moon. Its vie- 
 tories are yet in progress. In no other period of the 
 world has it ever exerted so great an influence upon 
 civilization as now. The philosophies that seem to 
 shape it are themselves more molded by it than it by 
 them. Its invisible restraints are upon governments. 
 It is infusing its spirit into courts, aud into the laws 
 which they administer. With all its defects and ex- 
 cesses, the literature of the globe is penetrated with 
 this divine influence. It rules in the family. It modi- 
 fies political economy. Indirectly, it leavens commerce. 
 The morals and the manners of the globe acknowledge 
 the sway of Christianity. It gives to the world its 
 ideals of virtue, its model of true manhood. While 
 
17 
 
 the Church is the seat from which its truths do act, the 
 Churcli does not represent the whole sphere of its 
 influence. From its altars goes forth the light that 
 illumines the whole of human society, revealing the 
 forms, and giving color and beauty to all things upon 
 which it rests. As long as the earth endures, so long 
 shall the name of Christ be precious. And the king- 
 dom of Christ shall be better understood. It shall be 
 stronger in all its developments, and more glorious in 
 its victories, until the heathen shall be given to him 
 for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
 earth for a possession. 
 
 Such, in briefest suggestion, is the Christian faith ; 
 and the command that has never been revoked is : 
 Go, preach it to every creature. Much has already 
 been done, but the campaign is not yet completed. 
 "When that is done, and the seed is sown in every land, 
 so that every people shall have its Bibles and homilies 
 of instruction, even then the work will be but begun. 
 For Christianity is not a thing merely to be taken in 
 by the' ear. It is a leaven destined to leaven the whole 
 lump of society. It is designed to carry human life, 
 in all its combinations, up to higher forms than any 
 yet known. Were every island of the sea, and every 
 dark place of the continents, reached by the missionary 
 of the cross, were the Sabbath-day established, and its 
 ineffable peace shining over every city and upon every 
 village of the world, still the work of Christianity 
 would be but just begun. While it is renovating, in 
 each generation, the hearts of men, and preparing them 
 for heaven, it is silently acting in a larger sphere, and 
 changing the world’s governments, ideas, and usages. 
 It is educing a nobler civilization for every century. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 The Gospel having come to us, by us it must be car 
 ried further. For, as uothiug iu nature is beautiful 
 except as it has the power of reflecting light — as the 
 crystal takes that very light by which it is illumined, 
 and lets it stream through it or reflects it from it — so 
 every heart that has been made light must let that 
 radiance go through it, or reflect from it that by which 
 it is itself made glorious. No man may receive the 
 hope of salvation and the joy of pardon, and keep the 
 news to himself. He must declare what the Lord has 
 done for him. The man that has walked in the garden 
 of the Lord can not keep the secret. His very raiment 
 will exhale spice and odor, if he has been among celes- 
 tial flowers. When Moses came down from the Mount 
 he had no occasion to say : “ I have seen the Lord.” 
 The shining of his face declared the celestial interview. 
 If one has walked in the very presence of Christ, and 
 heard the Master say to him, “ Thou art mine, and thine 
 is the eternal inheritance,” shall he suppress the fact ? 
 If one has found a remedy for the deep disorder of sin, 
 shall men die all around about him, and he withhold 
 the tidings % If the hunger of the heart has been 
 satisfied with bread from heaven, shall any sordid 
 hand sequester the loaf while dying men pine around ? 
 Every man that is born into the kingdom of God be- 
 comes, from that very moment, according to his degree 
 and in his own sphere, a preacher of the glad tidings 
 of salvation. 
 
 No man can say, “ I am a Christian,” who has not 
 the spirit of Christ. And what is that spirit ? “ For 
 
 ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, 
 though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, 
 that ye through his poverty might be rich.” No 
 church, no Christian community can afford to be with- 
 out this all-diffusing spirit of Christ. It is not enough 
 
19 
 
 that we have the blessings of Christ ; we must send 
 them abroad to others. In heart-life, it is what men 
 oive away that makes them rich. How could there be 
 brightness if there were no forth-putting of beams of 
 li<dit \ As with all teaching it is more blessed to <?ive 
 than to receive, so is it with the gifts of Christ in the 
 Gospel. Does not a mother gain more than she gives ? 
 Does not her heart grow richer by loving the child 
 than the child’s does by being loved ? The parent that 
 instructs is yet more instructed. For as shrubs and 
 flowers which line the bank of tranquil lakes cast their 
 shadows forth upon the barren water, are mirrored back 
 again to themselves now more beautiful in reflection 
 than upon their own root — since the heaven, too, is 
 imaged in the water, and they see their beauty on the 
 celestial background — so, they that freely give them- 
 selves to the hearts of men live double, in themselves 
 and in others, and heaven is behind every one whom 
 we bless, and our deeds stand pictured on its ineffable 
 beauty. He that casts gifts into the lap of the needy, 
 casts them into the hand of God. We think that it is 
 poor and sinful man whom we bless, but straightway 
 we hear a voice, saying : “ Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto 
 me.” And this is the law of societies as well as of in- 
 dividuals. Churches thrive by the blessings which they 
 diffuse to others. They never are so strong at home 
 as when they are employing their strength wide abroad 
 through the world. That church that is onlj r taking 
 care of itself will die of selfishness. That church which 
 is cooperating with God for the whole world, will go, 
 in the power of God, from strength to strength. 
 
 There is a benevolence that acts with the senses. It 
 relieves visible suffering ; its objects must be brought 
 within the reach of the sight, or the ear, or the hand. 
 
20 
 
 We call such benevolence generosity. That is a trait 
 good and noble. It should be largely developed in 
 every Christian bosom, and in every church. But there 
 is a benevolence nobler than this. It is allied to faith ; 
 it believes without seeing ; it takes the measure of in- 
 visible suffering ; it projects its plans into times unseen, 
 and into places unvisited. This is the peculiar benevo- 
 lence of the Gospel, and this is the peculiar training 
 which missions give to the Christian Church. As com- 
 pared with selfishness, generosity is above all praise ; 
 but there is a quality higher than that, and more divine. 
 To take the gauge of one’s moral condition, to have 
 sympathy with the wants of myriads speaking foreign 
 tongues ; to make provision for the education of gen- 
 erations of children lying beyond our sight or personal 
 knowledge ; to rear up institutions and renovate gov- 
 ernments in distant continents, and in the isles of the 
 sea ; to give of means and thought and zeal, for results 
 known to belong to distant generations ; dying, to leave 
 this work as a legacy to our children — this is the sub- 
 lime benevolence of Christian'faith. And there is no 
 mere generosity that can frame the character to such 
 nobleness and breadth and moral power as can this phi- 
 lanthropy, which is the very spirit of Christian missions. 
 
 Modern civilization has both hindrances and helps to 
 the great diffusive work of Christianity. 
 
 1. There are stores of moral power at home which 
 will give great energy to the spread of the Gospel. 
 When the Apostles went abroad, they could only point 
 to the yet unfruitful fact of a Christ born, crucified, 
 risen again. To be sure, mighty portents, wonder-in- 
 spiring miracles had accompanied his advent, and 
 witnessed the divinity of his power. But no church 
 had then a legacy of experience to bequeath to the 
 
21 
 
 world. The old Jewish Church Lad received its 
 death- wound. Jerusalem was shaking already with 
 those earthquakes that destroyed her. The Apostles 
 had been scattered by persecution ; there was no Christ- 
 ian literature, there were no Christian institutions. The 
 Apostles could not point the nations to whom they went 
 to the achievements of Christian piety, to Christian 
 governments, to Christian literature, to Christian fami- 
 lies, to Christian art, and say : “ These are the fruits 
 which shall follow among you the reception of our Gos- 
 pel.” But when missionaries go from our midst in this 
 age to heathen lands, the whole heaven glows behind 
 them with the radiance of Christian civilization. They 
 stand in the darkness of heathenism, with a history of 
 eighteen hundred years 1 corroboration of the mighty 
 power of the Gospel to overthrow evil, to regenerate 
 decaying institutions, to intone virtue, to sweeteu fam- 
 ily affections, to redeem the life from sin and the soul 
 from death. 
 
 2. Our knowledge of the work to be done is such as 
 was never before possessed. History, geography, and 
 ethnography are contributions to the sacred cause of 
 missions. The world has been surveyed. Its statistics 
 have been taken. The manners and customs of all its 
 people have been studied. We are no longer approach- 
 ing single nations, laboring to detach fragments only 
 from the mighty fortress. We have gone round the 
 whole great citadel of heathenism. Every step in de- 
 tail is part of a mighty system which contemplates 
 nothing less than the capture of the whole. The mis- 
 sions of all nations are becoming related to each other. 
 The different groups of the great Christian brother- 
 hood are but parts of the one great army of the Lord 
 of hosts moving straight on to victory. 
 
 3. All the material instruments by which the imple- 
 
22 
 
 ments of knowledge are multiplied and. diffused, are de- 
 veloped in our age as never before. In the time that was 
 required to write one Bible in the Apostles’ days, we 
 can now print a million. The money that would have 
 given the fortunate possessor a single manuscript, will 
 now provide Bibles for a tribe or a nation. Knowledge 
 may be said, almost literally, to be without money and 
 without price, when for a penny a man, every day, may 
 have newspapers that cover the cotemporaneous history 
 of the globe. Books are cheaper than bread. None 
 are so poor that they can not have the reading of the 
 record, of the events transpiring in every nation on the 
 globe. And while we multiply the means of know- 
 ledge at home, the facility of transportation makes it 
 easier to send them to the uttermost parts of the earth 
 than in our fathers’ days it was to supply the near dis- 
 tricts of our own land. One can now go round the 
 earth and come home again quicker than Paul could go 
 in his day from Jerusalem to Rome. The eyeless press 
 is giving eyes to the ignorant, the world over. Ma- 
 chines are missionaries. The vast marine engine that 
 bears freights for commerce, toils unconsciously for the 
 cross. The clanking printing-press under the pavement 
 is preaching to China, to the Sandwich Islands, and to 
 the Indians of the forest. 
 
 But, besides all this, there is a spirit of nations, a 
 spirit of the age, which compels learning, philosophy, 
 art, wealth itself, to serve the poor and the weak. 
 And although the most visible exemplifications of this 
 tendency are developed at home, this great democratic 
 impetus can not but affect the work of missions through- 
 out the globe. Art was once the peculiar glory of kings, 
 of aristocrats, of the rich. Already it has bowed down 
 and is seeking the poor. Already art is teaching Christ- 
 ian democracy. More and more every year it is striving 
 
23 
 
 to express, in forms and colors, Christian sentiments. 
 The humanities of the Gospel now glow from marble 
 statues, shine from the canvas. The atelier of the artist 
 is a pulpit. His silent brush is a living tongue. In 
 like manner, learning has lost its proud seclusion. The 
 scholar has become the teacher of the common people. 
 He walks home empty-handed who walks with the 
 aristocratic alone, while he whose great heart takes in 
 all, and feels for all, and works for all, receives remun- 
 eration from all, and achieves success. Although this 
 may be perverted to purposes of selfishness, it springs 
 from that great Christian spirit of the age which is 
 causing the strong to work for the weak, and which is 
 bringing down the heavens, with all their power and 
 glory, in a ministration of mercy to the poor and the 
 ignorant. 
 
 Nor is it a little thing that civilization and the greatest 
 political organizations of the globe are nominally, and 
 to no inconsiderable extent really, Christian. When 
 the Gospel was first preached, the civilizations of the 
 world were heathen. The Grecian civilization had cul- 
 minated; the Egyptian had burned out ; the Roman 
 was just coming to its full. There was not one place 
 on the earth where Christianity was in the ascendant. 
 Its ideas had as yet leavened no law, controlled no in- 
 stitution, changed no custom, inspired no respect, over- 
 mastered no power. The commercial spirit of the world 
 was heathen. The military power of the age was hea- 
 then. Roman banners were consecrated before heathen 
 altars. Their victories were celebrated with heathen 
 ceremonies. The literature of the world, and its learn- 
 ing, were heathen. The art of the world served hea- 
 then ideas. Every statue spoke a lie. Forms and colors 
 were the handmaids and instruments of lies. Every 
 sweet song sang falsehood or corruption. Every book 
 
24 
 
 and parchment was the vehicle of untruth. Seals and 
 cameos, gems and jewelry, silently taught in the inter- 
 ests of heathenry. The very forms of nature, by asso- 
 ciation, had become the teachers of falsehoods. The 
 oak, the myrtle, were tilled with lying mythologies. 
 The fountain, the stream, the mountain, were full of 
 mischievous legends. The sun by day, and the moon 
 by night, and all the stars, conveyed false moral con- 
 ceptions to mankind. The very flowers with the dew 
 that iay upon them, as fair hands plucked them and 
 wove them into chaplets for the temple services, ex- 
 haled untruth. If the Gospel had done nothing else 
 but to disenchant the world and make it true again, 
 that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
 earth shows his handiwork, that would have been a 
 sufficient reason for glorifying God. 
 
 But now, after eighteen hundred years, there is not a 
 single government of considerable power that is not 
 Christian. The heathen governments are lowest in the 
 scale, and least in influence ; and among Christian gov- 
 ernments, those are strongest that stand upon the plat- 
 form of Protestant Christianity. The nearer you ap- 
 proach to the purer forms of spiritual truth, the more 
 shall you find among the people political wisdom, com- 
 mercial ability, and every element of civil strength and 
 national grandeur. The very literature of the world is 
 on our side. The song-power of the globe, in spite of 
 bacchanal songs and the inspiration of the sensual pas- 
 sions, is every year growing more Christian. Hymns 
 and psalms and spiritual songs, with sweet, melodious 
 battle, are bearing down the lyrics of the passions. A 
 divine Apollo slays the Python. There is enough joy- 
 ful experience of souls made luminous by the Spirit of 
 God put into hymn-forms, to inspire the heart of every 
 man on earth with noble desires and purposes. The 
 
25 
 
 religious literature of the world is amazing for its depth, 
 its breadth, and it abundance of all conceivable riches. 
 The genius of the world every year is more and more 
 accepting the service of Christ, and laboring for the good 
 of man. I know not what others’ conceptions of rapid- 
 ity may be, but to my mind the progress of the world 
 in Christianity for the last eighteen hundred years has 
 been exceedingly rapid. Nor has there been cessation 
 in that progress. I)o you not suppose that night is as 
 much a part of the day as the daylight itself? Is not 
 sleeping as much as waking a part of life ? You lose 
 nothing in night that you do not find again in the glo- 
 rious vigor of your waking hours. It is said that God’s 
 work stood still during the dark ages. Hidden it may 
 have been, but it was neither inert nor dead. The 
 orb of Christian work revolves, and carries nights and 
 seasons as the year does. But darkness and winter in 
 both one and the other are full of benefits. 
 
 I have thus far spoken of the advantages of modern 
 civilization for the work of Christianity. Must we 
 not pause to speak of some of the corresponding disad- 
 vantages ? 
 
 One of the tilings unfavorable to the work of mis- 
 sions, is the intense materiality of our age. We are in 
 a transition state, in which God, in his providence, is 
 permitting the human mind, doubtless for some final 
 reason of wisdom, to take a direction almost exclusive- 
 ly toward the material and the visible. It can not be 
 
 V 
 
 denied that the spirit of the principal nations of the 
 globe, at this time, is intensely material ; that the wis- 
 dom of men is downward rather than upward. I 
 know not of a single nation where a painter would 
 now dream of making the ideal man, as the old paint- 
 ers made theirs, with reverential uplifted head, as if 
 seeking communion in the great invisible realm. If so 
 
26 
 
 painted, men would imagine tliat lie was gazing after a 
 balloon, or taking an observation of tlie stars, for scien- 
 tific profit. Our national thought, the genius of our 
 times, is material. We are a scientific people, an invent- 
 ive people, a calculating people, a thrifty, accumulating 
 people. Men are in communion with the crust of the 
 globe. They are piercing mines, bridging rivers, break- 
 ing through mountains, building ships. They are dig- 
 ging, weaving, building, creating, accumulating, as they 
 have never done before. But this, a present evil, is but 
 one stage of a great progression whose whole movement 
 shall be sublimely beneficial. Yet, at the present, this 
 tendency is accompanied with the decadence of faith, 
 with a reaction from belief in the invisible. We are 
 getting rid of superstition by getting rid of faith itself. 
 That which men can see they believe. Men worship 
 their own senses ; and the ear, the nose, the mouth, the 
 hand — these be thy gods, O England and America ! 
 Even when men, by the force of their imagination, 
 form some conceptions of invisible things, their fellows 
 regard the product, not as realities, but as the ara- 
 besques of Christianity. A faith in invisible things on 
 which a man can lay his whole weight, that shall in- 
 spire his life more than all visible things, that shall 
 penetrate his heart with a divine enthusiasm, that shall 
 make suffering easy, and patience facile — there is but 
 little of that. The reason, not the imagination, is gain- 
 ing ground at the present era. The whole world is 
 asking for reality, meaning that lower* part of truth 
 which the senses can appreciate. 
 
 This decadence of faith causes the subsidence of 
 contagious enthusiasm. I have already said that 
 soul-touch, spiritual contact, was the power by which 
 God means to propagate the Gospel, and renovate 
 the world. In our revivals of religion we still pre- 
 
27 
 
 serve something of this power. These are the river- 
 heads from which flow streams of divine efHuence. 
 Yet there is an increasing decline in religious enthu- 
 siasm. Than this nothing could be more fatal to the 
 hope of missions. 
 
 I mention these disadvantages, not to excite fear or 
 despondency. Already there are tokens of remedy. 
 That Providence which has never left the world with- 
 out the witness of a divine guidance, is, even in these 
 things, restraining the wrath of man, and his folly, and 
 causing the remainder thereof to praise him. 
 
 It may seem to some that this is not the time, when 
 civil war rages, and the ear is familiar with the tramp 
 of armies, to attempt to arouse the churches and fire 
 their zeal for the diffusion of the Gospel ; but the great 
 work of missions has been, from the beginning of the 
 world, a child of revolutions. The Gospel itself, like 
 its Master, has found strength in suffering. Not then, 
 Avhen peace was most profound, and prosperity beguiled 
 men to selfish joys, have the triumphs of religion been 
 easiest or greatest. Religion is the child of persecu- 
 tion. It will never forget the Cross. The Roman sol- 
 diers gave to the world that precious life which has 
 breathed regeneration through two thousand years. It 
 will not hurt the Church to walk again in the desert ; 
 to follow her Master into the wilderness ; to feel the 
 spear as he felt it ; to wear some of those thorns which 
 crowned him. Our faith would be sterner and more 
 resilient, our enthusiasm would be deeper and more 
 generous, if only we could be persuaded to suffer for 
 our belief. We mark the value of any principle by 
 what we are willing to suffer for it. Let us take no 
 excuse from ourselves. Our sufferings are few ; but 
 the whole creation groans and travails in pain until 
 now. Shall we withdraw our eyes from the world’s 
 
28 
 
 great woe, and be absorbed, in our own bour of trouble ? 
 It does not become a Christian nation to staler in the 
 day of trial. We ought to carry forth this glorious 
 renovation in our land, without laying down any other 
 duty. I look upon this struggle as only one step in 
 the evangelization of the globe itself. I connect this 
 immortal strife. against slavery with the divine work of 
 missions. That Gospel which is wasting superstitions 
 in Asia, destroying obscene altars in Africa, weakening 
 tyrannic thrones every where, is loosening the bands of 
 slaves at home. That same power that crumbled the 
 Parthenon at Athens, and laid the amphitheater at 
 Rome in a heap of ruins ; that changed the once awful 
 Jupiter to a myth; that has overturned governments, 
 enfeebled thrones, and revolutionized the world, bring- 
 ing down nations that were at the top, and lifting up 
 nations that were at the bottom ; that has fought every 
 where for the right, and every where conquered — that 
 power is now at work in our land ! Wicked men are 
 only God’s instruments. It is the regenerating power 
 of the Gospel of Christ that has met the dark spirit of 
 evil in our laud, and is moving upon it; and this is a 
 conflict between good and evil which God has himself 
 set on and supervised since the beginning of the world. 
 
 We are not yet touched in the sources of our strength. 
 Our people are reared to industry. They are versatile, 
 economical, resilient. The outflowing stream of their 
 wealth may be sucked up or perturbed, but the sources 
 and fountains are untouched. You can not make 
 them so poor that they will not soon be rich again. 
 Our wealth consists not in accumulations, but in the 
 power to accumulate. I laugh to scorn the idea of 
 bankruptcy in this country. Changes there may be in 
 individual fortunes, but the foundations of society will 
 not be changed nor shaken. Christ is walking toward 
 
29 
 
 us. To be sure it is in the night ; to be sure it is upon 
 the troubled sea. Even so ; it is Christ that is coining, 
 and night, and storm, and darkness are nothing. It is 
 a shame that prosperity should weaken us, that wealth 
 should take away our power to do with less. Wealth 
 should make manhood tougher, more elastic, more plas- 
 tic. A true wealth and a true culture augment the 
 bounds of inward manhood in a greater ratio thau of 
 outward comfort. r lhe sources of recuperation are 
 open to us more than to any other paid of this whole 
 land. Ours are the fairer latitudes, neither too hot nor 
 too cold. Ours are the temperate zones, which are the 
 very bosoms of the world. Ours are the oceans, the 
 rivers, and access to the whole earth. Under such cir- 
 cumstances, with an auspicious future undisturbed by 
 internal conflicts, shall we shrink, retrench our charities, 
 and retrench first toward God ? Economize, but let it 
 be in food for appetite and passion ! Economize, but 
 not first in religion and philanthropy. Let your own 
 lamp go out, but never take oil from the lamp that 
 burns in the sanctuary. If you must retrench, let it 
 not be in the means by which the Gospel is to be 
 spread. Let us not take back books from the Indian 
 children, nor the trumpet that calls men to the sanc- 
 tuary in the Orient. Let us divide our loaf with the 
 missionaries, and make ourselves worthy to be the 
 children of the men who founded this nation, by our 
 fortitude in trouble, by our courage in danger, and by 
 our inflexible sympathy, through good report and 
 through evil, with the work of God in all the world. 
 
 There are some things that to the external vision 
 look dark in our history, but revolutions do not go 
 backward. I laugh at the idea that slavery is to spread 
 over this nation. It subverts all our faith in provi- 
 dence and in Christianity to speak of such a monstrous 
 
80 
 
 tiling as that. It is quite immaterial whether in this 
 struggle you or I perish, whether yours or mine perish : 
 the cause of liberty in this country will not perish. 
 Though all the standing men in this land are cut off, it 
 will be as when the grass is cut upon your meadows. 
 The scythe does not reach the root. If the root re- 
 mains, all is well. If our manhood remains, there can 
 be no great national disaster. That will carry us 
 through. If I were to make an appeal in behalf 
 of missions drawn from the necessities of our time, it 
 would be this : Since God has brought you into tribu- 
 lation and trial, it behooves you to manifest your faith 
 and love by more zeal in his cause than ever before. 
 
 It is related that on a baronial castle in Germany, 
 there stood two vast towers between which were 
 stretched huge wires. On them ordinary winds had 
 no effect. Only when fierce storms, rising, rolled and 
 wrought, did this gigantic yEolian harp begin to sound 
 strange and sublime melodies. 
 
 There are in the human soul chords which are not 
 touched by times of prosperity. Only when in days 
 of tempests God moves with mighty power, do these 
 deeper tones of our nature sound forth. Such times 
 have come. Such sounds are beginning to fill the air. 
 Multiply then your works. Call more upon God. 
 Throw away the obstacles that stand between him and 
 you. Cleanse your churches. Supplicate revivals of 
 religion for all this land. Identify yourselves with 
 God. Throw out the white banner of salvation. Un- 
 sheath the sword and fight the battle of the Lord. 
 Never so much as now did this land need piety. It is 
 the very root of patriotism. 
 
 Now, more than ever, O Jesus! open thy bosom, and 
 show thy heart. Now, for our banner’s sake, for the 
 
31 
 
 poor and despised slave’s sake, and for the sake of 
 tliine own cause, show tliy people thy salvation ! 
 
 In the salvation of Christ, in the blessed power of 
 faith in the Gospel, in that love which from the bosom 
 God has come to our hearts, and in the spirit and work 
 of it, make yourselves strong, and all other things shall 
 be given unto you. Amen and amen. 
 
 
THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 gtatJ-gorli and Droolilp Jfoiptp Iftissionmug ^orictg. 
 
 The New- York and Brooklyn Foreign Missionary Society presents to its patrons 
 and the public the following Report, at the close of the thirty-fourth year of its 
 existence. 
 
 In surveying our history for the period under review', and that also of the insti- 
 tution to which we are auxiliary, we find, among reasons for profound gratitude, 
 cause for grief and humiliation. We can not but lament that when the harvest is 
 extending and becoming more inviting, there has been no corresponding growth, 
 but rather a diminution, in the contributions of the Church at large. We mourn, 
 that when the cry of want is reaching us on every side, like that which, in a vision, 
 saluted the ears of the Apostle, saying, “ Come over into Macedonia and help us,” 
 missionaries ready to respond are compelled to restrain their ardor, and aw r ait a 
 replenished treasury. AYe contemplate with sadness all those embarrassments 
 which make it difficult to meet necessary demands from established missions, and 
 altogether forbid a liberality of administration commensurate with the opportunities 
 of progress in our work. 
 
 Yet there is another side. AYe rejoice that dark apprehensions in respect to the 
 indebtedness of the parent organization have been so happily disappointed ; and 
 that, in a time of great financial disturbance, a burden is imposed upon the Board, 
 so light as to call for thanksgivings rather than complaints. As respects our own 
 Society, w'e are happy to say that the total regular receipts, as will appear from the 
 Treasurer’s report, have been a little in advance of those of the previous year. 
 And deducting from both the amounts specially contributed for the debt, the result 
 is still in favor of the period just closed. AYe can not contemplate this fact w ith- 
 out mingled surprise and gratitude to God. Yet it must not be forgotten that it is 
 due partly to the change in the financial year, which brings into the present report 
 the receipts of thirteen months; while special instances of individual liberality 
 have swelled the amount to proportions which it otherwise would have fallen far 
 short of. Amid our congratulations, therefore, let us keep in mind that our work 
 will by no means take care of itself, and that it can be sustained only through 
 unremitting zeal on the part of all the friends of the cause, and a systematic effort 
 to sectire a practical recognition of its importance from all the members of our 
 congregations, passing by not even the little ones in our Sunday-schools. 
 
 The actual additions to our laboring force in the missionary field have been, of 
 course, few. The number of missionaries under appointment is also small. But 
 while a wise caution is thus observed, it becomes us to record our satisfaction at 
 the decision reached by the American Board, that while every thing is to be done 
 
33 
 
 which a judicious economy demands, no retrenchment is to be undertaken which 
 can in any wise be destructive of vital interests. Efforts arc to be made to secure 
 a larger cooperation from the native churches, in the support of their pastors and of 
 the schools. But the faith and conscience of God’s people can not allow actual 
 retrogression. The reaction would be disastrous. Our faith would become weak 
 and timid. And nothing is left us but cheerfully and hopefully to go forward. 
 
 The successes on missionary ground, during the year, call for the liveliest grati- 
 tude. Among the Zulus, in South-Africa, there have been clear indications of the 
 special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Twenty-six members have been added to 
 the churches, a native convert has been set apart to the ministry, and the people 
 have contributed liberally to his support. The government is friendly, and the 
 blessings of civilization and education are better appreciated and more eagerly 
 sought. 
 
 In the several missions to Turkey, notwithstanding serious obstacles, especially 
 at Constantinople, there has been encouraging progress. More than two hundred 
 have been received into the churches. The schools have been prosperous ; and 
 the printing-presses have been diligently employed. Thirty years ago, the Arme- 
 nian field was spiritually a desert. Xow the standard of the cross is planted all 
 over the land. Dr. Dwight not long since preached in Marash to nearly fifteen 
 hundred people, and saw forty received at once into the Church, where, six years 
 before, no church existed, and twelve years before not a Protestant was to be 
 found in the community. “ What hath God wrought !” 
 
 In Syria, the brethren have pursued their work with trembling. Yet the year 
 has been one of advancement. Seventy-five thousand starving people, sufferers 
 through the terrible atrocities so recently enacted in their land, have received bread 
 through the agency of the missionaries, who have thus had peculiar and advan- 
 tageous opportunities for publishing the Gospel. The sales of the Scriptures 
 reached during the year to more than four thousand copies, nearly ten times as 
 many as were sold two years ago. A Greek church in the mountains has been 
 turned into a Protestant house of worship. And the people, especially in South- 
 ern Syria, are eager for privileges which it is not as yet in our power to extend to 
 them. 
 
 Among the Xestorians the most interesting feature is the wonderful liberality 
 displayed in their contributions for the relief of the Board. The spirit they have 
 shown is instructive to our own churches, and gives promise of great spiritual ad- 
 vancement among that people. 
 
 In the Mahratta Mission, one hundred and thirty-one new members have been 
 received to the churches. Of these it is interesting to know that fifteen were 
 children of native converts, and had been baptized in infancy. The mission were 
 expecting to occupy a new station at an important point, through the benevolence 
 of the English magistrate at Ahmednuggur, who is erecting, for their use, a house 
 and chapel at a considerable cost. 
 
 A recent letter from one of the missionaries contains the gratifying and hopeful 
 intelligence, that never before has there been so much intercourse with the higher 
 castes, and so great an influence exercised over them as within the last four years. 
 
 In the Madras Mission, the weekly union prayer-meeting continues to be a 
 feature of great interest. Educational efforts have been diminished on the score 
 of economy. The press has been actively and efficiently employed. Dr. Winslow 
 3 
 
34 
 
 remarks, as the conviction which has grown up in his mind after forty-one years of 
 close observation, that the success in that field “ has been in full proportion to the 
 means employed and the difficulties to be overcome.” 
 
 The Madura Mission affords particular encouragement. It occupies a territory 
 whose immense population gives an average of one hundred and eighty thousand 
 persons to the care of each of ten missionaries. Provided with a very inadequate 
 staff of laborers, it has yet been largely blessed with the divine favor. Persecu- 
 tion has diminished ; the liberality of the native Christians has been in some cases 
 remarkably exemplified ; a Home Missionary Society is in operation ; and upon a 
 part of the field, the showers of grace that have so signally blessed Tinnevelly 
 have begun to descend, giving promise of a powerful work of grace. Intelligence 
 lately received, and not yet published, strengthens our hopes. Revivals of religion, 
 with clear marks of genuineness, have blessed several portions of that field, and 
 were still in progress, giving increased numbers and strength to the churches. 
 The additions to the churches during the past year were seventy-six, and the total 
 membership reported was eleven hundred and nine. 
 
 The Ceylon Mission may still be said to be in a transition state. Nevertheless 
 the Lord has showed it tokens of good. In connection with the services of the 
 week of prayer, a new religious interest was awakened. Benevolence has in- 
 creased. And in the face of great difficulties and temptations, the spirit of the 
 church-members has been generally steadfast, giving evidence of the real power 
 of the Gospel over their hearts. 
 
 In China, the hopes that have at times been cherished in connection with the 
 political disturbances of the country, have received little or no encouragement. 
 Yet the missions have made favorable progress; and special mention needs to be 
 made of the establishment of a new station at Tientsin, in the vicinity of Peking 
 the capital. 
 
 Prom no quarter is the intelligence more inspiriting than that from the Sandwich 
 Islands. A revival of religion, such as they have not known before for twent) 
 years, has been enjoyed, and nearly fifteen hundred converts have been added to 
 the churches. The contributions of the twenty-three churches for the year, for 
 supporting and extending the Gospel, have reached the sum of $21,000, while 
 their own missionary work has been creditably sustained in the Marquesas Islands. 
 
 From the Micronesian Islands we have welcome news. Despite the difficulties 
 to be overcome, and the persecutions that await those who acknowledge the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the labors of the missionaries are not left without valuable fruit. On 
 Ponape or Ascension Island, three persons of high position have recently confessed 
 Christ. Their conversion can not but have an important influence. The mission- 
 ary, in a season of personal affliction, received such tokens of sympathy from the 
 people as indicate a growing preparation of heart for the lasting impressions of 
 divine truth. 
 
 The work among the American Indians has exhibited nothing specially remark- 
 able, though hopeful indications of good have been observed. 
 
 We can not close this Report, without reminding you that our Society has never 
 been convened in circumstances so extraordinary as the present. Internal convul- 
 sions, long dimly apprehended, and yet scarcely regarded as of possible occurrence, 
 have distracted our land, and dangers of alarming magnitude are threatening the 
 stability and even the very existence of our political institutions. It would be idle 
 to affirm that the Church has not suffered in her interests. Not only have congre- 
 
35 
 
 gations boon weakened by depictions, and by the partial paralysis of trade, but the 
 zeal of the whole Church has seemed to be depressed, or directed in other chan- 
 nels, by the formidable public difficulties which, both by their greatness and their 
 novelty, have absorbed attention. 
 
 Yet we can not doubt, that, along with these results, influences have been opera- 
 tive of a most salutary kind. We believe that there has been much earnest prayer 
 to God. Our people have been learning the duty of self-sacrifice. Discipline is 
 developing principle. And apart from the direct benefits of chastisement, may 
 we not confidently expect that recent events will indelibly impress upon every 
 thoughtful mind the conviction that the Gospel of Christ, as a living Power, is the 
 one indispensable element of national virtue, prosperity and happiness? 
 
 It will be but natural, therefore, to act in the light of this conviction, in refer- 
 ence to other lands. What we have always maintained in theory, that the Word of 
 God is to be the first and great instrumentality in reaching, civilizing, and saving 
 the ignorant and superstitious — the pioneer in works of beneficence and love, as 
 indeed it includes them all within itself — this we shall be better prepared to re- 
 duce to a practical principle of action, and its stimulus we shall feel in impelling 
 us to send the Gospel, at whatever cost, where there are yet to be found darkness 
 and guilt. 
 
 The sympathies awakened by the true religion are large and generous. Our 
 national peril, appealing so mightily to our patriotism, and so effectively we trust, 
 does not forbid us or indispose us to look at the spiritual necessities of the heathen 
 world. Rather, reminding us of our own guilty undervaluing of high privileges, 
 may it serve to point out the way of duty and the measure of our responsibility. 
 And by our faithfulness in the great work of God may we so secure his blessing, 
 as that our political Union shall be cemented, not only, but that also, from this 
 then happy land, the streams of salvation shall flow into all the earth. 
 
 Already, a great work has been accomplished among the heathen. We shall not 
 comprehend its magnitude until we can estimate the importance of having secured 
 a sure place for the entering wedge of truth that is to shatter the rock of super- 
 stition and wiekedness. The oak is in the acorn. Redemption for the world is in 
 the leaven whose first workings we are only just beholding. Let us have courage 
 and faith. Let us remember that we are laboring for Jesus Christ. And forget- 
 ting not that by fiery trials our Christian principles are now being tested, let us 
 see that they be not found wanting. Let us do our part toward making a history 
 that shall prepare the way for a more joyous jubilee, and furnish richer material 
 for a memorial volume. God’s Spirit is operating with us and for us. And so, 
 praying, laboring and giving — as we shall surely do the last, if we do rightly the 
 first — our eyes shall see, if not the complete fulfilment of prophecy, the certain 
 indications that the time is at hand when Christ “ shall have dominion from sea to 
 sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” 
 
 T. RALSTON SMITH, 
 
 Corresponding Secretary. 
 
Ik fomgrc JJisstarg jsimetg of Jfcto-gorlt ;mb §tooldp, 
 
 in account current with their Treasurer , ALMON MERWIN. 
 
 From August 1, 1860, to August 31, 1861. 
 
 Alien-street Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Broadway Tabernacle, . 
 
 Central Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Congregation of Central Presbyterian Church, Twenty- 
 
 Cr. 
 
 $94 68 
 758 42 
 510 33 
 
 Sixth street and Broadway, 
 
 
 759 
 
 Eleventh Presbyterian Church,. 
 
 
 130 
 
 Fourteenth-street Presbyterian Church, 
 Of which for the debt, . 
 
 $50 00 
 
 1038 
 
 Fourth-avenue Presbyterian Church, 
 
 452 
 
 First-street “ “ 
 
 
 . 31 
 
 Harlem “ “ 
 
 
 54 
 
 Madison-square “ “ 
 
 Of which for the debt, 
 
 650 00 
 
 3394 
 
 Mercer-street Presbyterian Church, . 
 Of which for the debt, 
 
 500 00 
 
 2101 
 
 Manhattanvillc Presbyterian Church, 
 
 
 . 13 
 
 North “ “ 
 
 
 82 
 
 Seventh “ “ . 
 
 
 219 
 
 Spring-street “ “ 
 
 . . 
 
 64 
 
 Thirteenth-street “ “ 
 
 
 103 
 
 West Presbyterian Church, 
 Of which for the debt, . 
 
 200 00 
 
 384 
 
 93 
 
 A merchant of New-York City, .... 
 A lady “ “ . . . . 
 
 Sundry donations in New-York and Brooklyn, 
 
 Of which for the debt, . . . 824 00 
 
 5300 00 
 700 00 
 5316 01 
 
 $10,192 60 
 6,300 00 
 700 00 
 5,316 01 
 
 BROOKLYN. 
 
 Bedford Congregational Church, 
 
 Clinton Avenue Congregational Church, 
 Church of the Pilgrims, 
 
 Of which for the debt, 
 
 Central Congregational Church, 
 
 City Park Mission Church, . 
 
 First Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Of which for the debt, 
 
 New-England Congregational Church, 
 Plymouth Congregational Church, 
 
 Of which for the debt, 
 
 Park Presbyterian Church, . 
 
 South “ “ . . 
 
 “ Congregational Church, 
 
 Third Presbyterian Church, 
 
 Westminster Presbyterian Church, 
 Warren-street Mission Church, . 
 Williamsburgh First Presbyterian Church, 
 For the debt, 
 
 
 $46 
 
 68 
 
 
 1157 
 
 52 
 
 
 2945 
 
 36 
 
 $1000 00 
 
 
 
 
 . 22 
 
 14 
 
 
 44 
 
 00 
 
 
 1137 
 
 43 
 
 75 00 
 
 
 
 
 120 
 
 24 
 
 
 1625 
 
 19 
 
 1160 00 
 
 
 
 
 226 
 
 30 
 
 
 438 
 
 54 
 
 
 123 
 
 49 
 
 
 225 
 
 00 
 
 
 100 
 
 00 
 
 
 11 
 
 36 
 
 110 22 
 
 $8,383 37 
 
 $29,841 98 
 
 Contributions for the debt, included in this amount, $4,559 22 
 from churches and individuals, . . 25,282 76 
 
37 
 
 I)R. 
 
 Paid for carriage-hire, 
 
 “ 3000 copies of Dr. Clark’s Sermon, 
 
 Entered at sundry times in account with James M. 
 
 Gordon, Treasurer of the A. li. C. F. M., in- 
 cludin'; sums sent by contributors directly to 
 him, '29,691 40 
 
 $6 00 
 . 144 58 
 
 $150 58 
 
 29,691 40 
 
 $29,841 98 
 
 New- York, August 31, 1861. 
 Examined, and found correct, 
 
 L. E. .Jackson. 
 
RECEIPTS OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 The following statement exhibits the receipts of the Foreign Missionary Societ 
 of New-York and Brooklyn, from its organization in 1827, to August, 1861. 
 
 For the year ending Aug. 31, 1827, 
 
 “ “ “ 1828, 
 
 “ 1829, 
 
 “ 1830, 
 
 “ 1831, 
 
 “ 1832, 
 
 “ 1833, 
 
 “ 1834, 
 
 July 31, 1835, 
 “ 1836, 
 
 “ 1837, 
 
 “ 1838, 
 
 “ 1839, 
 
 “ 1840, 
 
 “ 1841, 
 
 “ 1842, 
 
 “ 1843, 
 
 “ 1844, 
 
 “ 1845, 
 
 “ 1846, 
 
 “ 1847, 
 
 “ 1848, 
 
 “ 1849, 
 
 “ 1850, 
 
 “ 1851, 
 
 “ 1852, 
 
 “ 1853, 
 
 “ 1854, 
 
 “ 1855, 
 
 “ 1856, 
 
 “ 1857, 
 
 “ 1858, 
 
 “ 3 859, 
 
 “ 1860, 
 
 “ 1861, 
 
 $6,970 99 
 
 3,407 20 
 
 6,682 49 
 
 9,564 29 
 
 7,597 23 
 
 9,984 91 
 
 14,044 64 
 
 7,635 57 
 
 13,401 83 
 
 12,164 95 
 
 17,107 34 
 
 11,234 86 
 
 13,796 61 
 
 11,132 91 
 
 12,447 64 
 
 15,301 06 
 
 13,390 01 
 
 - . . . . 10,923 95 
 
 11,885 04 
 
 7,974 42 
 
 13,807 09 
 
 11,598 39 
 
 21,252 76 
 
 13,241 69 
 
 17,847 31 
 
 23,230 49 
 
 22,173 26 
 
 20,842 43 
 
 18,106 29 
 
 21,648 94 
 
 28,914 41 
 
 24,208 24 
 
 20,308 62 
 
 28,013 09 
 
 29,841 98 
 
 $531,182 93 
 
LIST OF OFFICERS 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1861. 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 DAVID HOADLEY. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
 
 A. R. WETMORE, I WILLIAM E. DODGE, 
 
 S. B. CHITTENDEN, | OLIVER E. WOOD. 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. 
 
 Rev. T. RALSTON SMITH. 
 
 RECORDING SECRETARY. 
 
 ALMON MERWIX. 
 
 TREASl RER. 
 
 ALMON MERWIX. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 Alien-street Presbyterian Church , 
 Broadway Tabernacle , 
 
 Central Presbyterian “ 
 
 Eleventh Presbyterian “ 
 
 Fourteenth-street “ u 
 
 Fourth-avenue “ “ 
 
 Harlem “ “ 
 
 Mercerstreet “ “ 
 
 Madisonsquare, “ “ 
 
 North 
 
 Seventh “ u 
 
 Presbyterian Church cor. Twenty-sixth 
 street and Broadway , 
 
 George Betts, Joseph W. Lester. 
 
 . . . ,W. H. Thomson', m.d., L. Ranney, m.d. 
 . . . .W. S. Dorr, John Short. 
 
 . ...Alex. McVey, J. H. Bulen. 
 
 . . . .S. H. Wales, J. F. Joy. 
 
 . . . .Alfred C.Post, M.D. ,W.A.Wheeler. 
 . . . .E. Ketchum, James Riser, Jr. 
 
 . . . W. W. Chester, Richard Bigelow, 
 Thos. Bond. 
 
 . . . .Geo. D. Phelps, Z. S. Ely - , Charles 
 Trask. 
 
 . . . .Charles H. Rusher, John Camerdon. 
 
 Charles Merrill, H. B. Littell, 
 
 Jas. W. Bishop. 
 
 Hermon Griffin, F. G. Burnham. 
 
40 
 
 First-street Presbyterian Church , 
 Spring-street “ 
 
 Thirteenth-street “ “ 
 
 West 
 
 Bedford Cong. Church , Brooklyn, 
 Clinton-av. “ “ “ 
 
 Church of the Pilgrims , “ 
 
 Central Cong. Church , “ 
 
 Elm-place “ “ “ 
 
 First Presbyterian “ 
 
 Plymouth Cong. “ l ' 
 
 Park Presbyterian “ “ 
 
 South “ “ “ 
 
 South Cong. “ “ 
 
 Third Presb. “ “ 
 
 IPestoims^er Presb. 1 ' “ 
 
 UParrera-si. J/iss. “ 
 
 Presb. Church, Williamsburgh, 
 City Park Mission Church, 
 
 . . . .John Kerr. 
 
 . . . .John Endicott, John R. Wilcox. 
 
 . . . .Ri fus S. King, George W. Heale. 
 ... . A . L. Earle, F. W. Whittemore. 
 
 . . . .Edward T. Goodall. 
 
 . . . .A. S. Barnes, Samuel E. Warner, 
 Alfred Smithers. 
 
 . . . .Sidney Sanderson, S. F. Phelps. 
 
 Rich. P. Buck, Ely Mygatt, Jr. 
 . . . .S. B. Cole. 
 
 . . . .F. W. Burke, Chas. B. Williams. 
 
 . . . .Fisher Howe, David Wesson, Henry 
 Ide. 
 
 . . . . J. T. Howard, Arthur Nichols, 
 J. B. Hutchinson. 
 
 . . . .E. A. Lambert, Wm. W. Wickes. 
 
 . . . . R. F. Howes, A. L. Van Buren, 
 J. Milton Smith. 
 
 . . .S. N. Davis, Henry Law. 
 
 . . . . W. W. Hurlbut, J. C. Halsey, M.D. 
 . . . .George Walsh, Allen L. Bassett. 
 
 . . . .James Hawkins. 
 
 . . . . J. W. Buckley, Geo. W. Edwards. 
 
 . . . .Isaac N. Judson, H. C. Perkins.