** v wy 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS: 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 BOSTON YOUNG MEN’S SOCIETY 
 
 FOR 
 
 DIFFUSING MISSIONARY KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 December 29, 1841. 
 
 BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. 
 
 Published at the request of the Society. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
 
 1 8 4 2 . 
 
Owing to circumstances beyond the control of the Society, as well 
 as of the Author, the following Lecture was prepared on short notice, 
 and, indeed, a considerable part of it within only a few hours of its 
 delivery. The writer was therefore unwilling to commit it to the 
 press, without first subjecting it to revision ; and in correcting it for 
 publication, he has felt himself at liberty to expand, a little, one or 
 two passages, which, for want of time, were not so fully illustrated 
 as he desired. 
 
LECTURE. 
 
 At the beginning of a course of popular lectures 
 entirely novel in its character, the Public may naturally 
 ask for information, as to the grounds on which their 
 attention is thus appealed to ; the range of subjects in- 
 tended to be embraced ; and the benefits which the exe- 
 cution of the plan may be expected to confer. 
 
 The following lecture being introductory of such a 
 course, my topics have been selected and will be treated, 
 with a view, among other things, to meet inquiries of this 
 sort so far as they may arise on the present occasion. 
 
 It is implied, in the very title of the Association, which, 
 this evening, commences its public career, that its founders 
 take a lively interest in the work of Christian Missions ; 
 that they think it important to acquire and to diffuse, cor- 
 rect knowledge in regard to them ; and that they believe 
 this may be done, in some useful degree, by means of 
 public lectures. 
 
 Assuming, (as I am doubtless fully authorized to do,) 
 that such are, in fact, the motives which have led the 
 Young Men of Boston to establish this course of public 
 instruction, I proceed to remark, that the interest they 
 have thus manifested in the general diffusion of Christian- 
 ity, (the grand purpose of the Missionary Enterprise,) is but 
 a just homage to the object itself, and to their own respon- 
 sibilities in respect to it. 
 
 To say nothing of extensive regions in which a corrupt 
 or nominal Christianity prevails, we perceive, on the 
 
4 
 
 slightest survey of the religious character of the human 
 family, that a vast majority of its members are wholly 
 ignorant of the Christian faith ; that some of this number 
 are yet in a savage state and others only partially civilized ; 
 and that all are sunk in the mire of Heathenism, or bowed 
 beneath the yoke of the Mohammedan imposture. 
 
 In many respects, Mohammedan and Pagan nations may 
 be classed together ; for both experience most of the evils, 
 individual and social, which always flow from a false 
 religion. 
 
 The number and enormity of these evils, I shall not 
 now attempt to specify or describe. 
 
 It is enough to say, that while they vary in degree, they 
 include, as a general fact, all the pernicious consequences 
 which result from false standards of moral duty ; from 
 unnatural social and domestic arrangements ; from political 
 despotism ; and from popular ignorance. Among these 
 may be reckoned falsehood, impurity, and fraud ; polyg- 
 amy, infanticide and the universal debasement of the 
 female sex ; absurd notions in science ; unjust and de- 
 grading classifications of society ; the perpetual servitude 
 of caste ; slavery in various other forms ; unlimited and 
 irresponsible power in rulers, with all the abuses which 
 usually attend the possession of^ such power ; the utter 
 absence of free discussion, of public spirit, and of enlight- 
 ened charity ; frequent and bloody wars, at the pleasure of 
 the sovereign, uncontrolled by public opinion or by any 
 other moral power ; and the general prevalence of error, 
 inhumanity and crime. Not that all these evils are to be 
 found in connection with every form of Heathenism, or in 
 every Mohammedan country ; nor, that when found, they 
 always exist in equal degree ; but that these enormities 
 are the natural fruits of those systems, and abound, to a 
 greater or less extent., wherever they prevail. Look at the 
 unchristianized portions of the globe — even those most 
 favorably circumstanced — and see every where exemplified 
 the truth of this statement. 
 
5 
 
 Is this state of things to last forever? Are the temples 
 of obscene and cruel gods always to insult the majesty of 
 Heaven ? Shall their altars send up, through slowly re- 
 volving cycles, till Time shall be no longer, their polluted 
 incense ? Is man, immortal man, forever to be crushed 
 into the dust, by the double pressure of heart-withering 
 Superstition and soul-subduing Tyranny? Shall the de- 
 votee forever torture his body for the sins of his soul ? 
 The mother forever cast her offspring to the turbid stream ? 
 The widow forever ascend the blazing pile ? The whole 
 sex, throughout the East, be forever kept in debasing 
 vassalage ? Blessed be God, we are not left thus to despair 
 of the human race! There is hope of a brighter and bet- 
 ter day. There is a remedy for this moral desolation : a 
 means of recovering the world from its wretchedness and 
 ruin. 
 
 Christianity, the best gift of God to man, is equal to this 
 great emergency. She is, emphatically, the parent of civ- 
 ilization ; the tamer of the passions ; the teacher of kind- 
 ness and philanthropy ; the dispenser of knowledge, liberty, 
 and happiness. She has the promise “of the life that now 
 is,” as well as “ of that which is to come.” It is her glo- 
 rious mission to diffuse “peace on earth and good will 
 towards men ;” to enlighten the ignorant ; to relieve the 
 wretched ; to raise the down-trodden ; to deliver the op- 
 pressed ; to compose the dissentions of hostile classes ; to 
 reconcile contending nations ; to bind them together in the 
 bonds of amity and concord ; to secure the rights of each 
 and of all ; and to spread over the world the genial influ- 
 ences of light and love. Christianity is not only equal to 
 this task ; but it is only by bringing beneath her sway the 
 dark corners of the earth, that they can be filled with the 
 like measure of civilization and of happiness, which has 
 been allotted to ourselves. In the universe of God there 
 exists no other remedy for the evils they suffer ; no other 
 instrumentality by which they can be led forth to liberty 
 and life. 
 
6 
 
 Does any doubt the perfect adequacy of Christianity to 
 the accomplishment of this end? Review the history of 
 our religion. See it, on the day of Pentecost, “ beginning 
 at Jerusalem melting into penitence the bigoted and 
 cruel multitude whose hands were yet reeking with its 
 Author’s blood; spreading, in despite of the power and 
 malice of its enemies, through Judea and the surrounding 
 provinces ; gathering its trophies in the idolatrous cities of 
 Asia ; crossing into Greece ; confuting the philosophy of 
 Athens ; invading Italy ; entering the palaces of the 
 Caesars ; flying, with the Roman eagles, to the farthest 
 corners of the earth ; and reforming the habits and mould- 
 ing the polity of nations the most diverse in their origin, 
 circumstances, and laws. See its influence on the char- 
 acter of individuals ; how it turns the proud, unsocial Jew 
 into the disinterested lover of mankind ; the persecuting 
 Saul into the affectionate apostle ; the heathen of Antioch 
 into Christian confessors ; the scoffers of Athens — the 
 Epicureans, the Stoics, and the careless votaries of folly 
 and amusement — into penitent believers ; the voluptuaries 
 of Corinth into self-denying disciples ; the idolaters of 
 Galatia, and Ephesus, and Philippi, and Thessalonica, into 
 saints and martyrs. See it pouring into the bosom of the 
 Roman, the new sentiments of humility in respect to 
 himself, and of brotherhood towards others; suppressing 
 the shows of the gladiator and the crimes of poisoning, 
 infanticide, and self-destruction ; abolishing polygamy, 
 slavery, and the parental power of life and death ; mitiga- 
 ting the penal law; confining, within just limits, that of 
 divorce ; and bringing back to connubial life the blessed- 
 ness of Eden, by raising woman to the companionship, the 
 duties, and the confidence for which she was designed. 
 See it, in after ages, humanizing the ferocious Briton ; 
 softening the Vandal ; and teaching mercy to the Goth. 
 See it scattering throughout Europe the seeds of truth, 
 and justice, and humanity, and social order, from which 
 have sprung those various institutions which render Christ- 
 
7 
 
 endom so superior in government, in knowledge, in the 
 arts and charities of life, and in all the elements of indi- 
 vidual, domestic, and national happiness, to the most 
 favored portions of the Mohammedan and Pagan world. 
 See it, from age to age, repeating its miracles of mercy, in 
 the transformation and improvement of human character ; 
 changing the vulture to a dove, the tiger to a lamb ; teach- 
 ing the revengeful to forgive, and the miser to be liberal ; 
 purifying the hearts of the unclean, the hands of the fraud- 
 ulent, and the lips of the profane ; making the proud man 
 humble, and chastening the desires of the ambitious ; fill- 
 ing the bosoms of the poor, the friendless, and the afflicted, 
 with resignation, cheerfulness, and hope ; and converting, 
 oftentimes, the abandoned drunkard and the profligate 
 debauchee — the very plague-spots of the earth — into orna- 
 ments of society and benefactors of mankind. 
 
 See it, in our own times, as dispensed by the faithful 
 Missionary, effecting the like results among the heathen 
 both civilized and savage ; and this, not merely in respect 
 to isolated individuals, but on a wide and noble scale. Look 
 at those far off isles of the Pacific, long the subject of 
 painful interest as the death place, by cruel hands, of the 
 most distinguished of modern navigators ; but now so dear 
 to the heart of American philanthrophy ; and see what 
 wonders have there been wrought ! It is but twenty-two 
 years since the American Missionaries commenced their 
 labors among the inhabitants of these islands — then almost 
 as much the children of nature, as when first discovered 
 by Capt. Cook. Within this short period, the old idolatry, 
 with all its abominations, has passed away ; the language 
 of the nation has been reduced to writing ; the whole 
 Bible, and several other works of various extent, have been 
 translated into the native tongue, printed on the spot, and 
 circulated among the people ; schools have been establish- 
 ed throughout the islands ; thousands of the adult popula- 
 tion have been taught to read and write ; these invaluable 
 attainments have been generally acquired by the youth of 
 
8 
 
 both sexes ; useful arts have been introduced ; and the 
 chiefs, having learned from the Missionaries, some of the 
 leading principles of our own legislation and jurisprudence, 
 have enacted laws, limiting their former arbitrary power, 
 and protecting private rights through the agency of courts 
 of justice, and of trial by jury. The nation has greatly 
 improved in manners, and in morals ; Christian marriage 
 has come in the place of polygamy and other kindred 
 abuses ; the Sabbath is generally observed ; and the gos- 
 pel is preached, in nineteen different churches, to the body 
 of the people, no less than twenty-one thousand of whom 
 have been received, at different times, into the communion 
 of the Christian Church ; and eighteen thousand of whom 
 are now church members in good standing. What are 
 the physical improvements of the age, splendid as they 
 confessedly are, in comparison with this heavenly achieve- 
 ment ? How, too, does it cast into the shade, the most 
 successful schemes of commercial enterprise — the most 
 brilliant results of military power ? It was one of the 
 pointed sarcasms of Swift, “ that he who could make two 
 ears of corn or two blades of grass, to grow where only 
 one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do 
 more essential service to his country, than the whole race 
 of politicians put together.” If there be some basis of 
 truth in this remark, what measure of renown is due to 
 those, who have been the instruments, under Providence, 
 of civilizing a barbarous community ; of reclaiming a 
 moral desert ; and where before were only known the 
 deadly productions of ignorance and sin, of causing the 
 arts of social life, the knowledge of letters, the institutions 
 of justice and religion, to grow up and to flourish ? 
 
 Such, as shown by the experience of eighteen hundred 
 years, is the adaptation of Christianity to the necessities of 
 mankind. In every quarter of the globe, and under every 
 sun ; in every sphere of life, and among all classes of society 
 — the polished and the barbarous — the high and the low — 
 the rich and the poor — the old and the young — the learn- 
 
ed and the unlearned — this divine religion is equally 
 fitted to the wants of the individual and of society ; equal- 
 ly sure, where its doctrines are received, and its precepts 
 are obeyed, to bless the one, and to elevate the other. 
 
 Every faithful Missionary is, therefore, a pioneer of civ- 
 ilization, of domestic purity, of equal rights, of social order, 
 of civil liberty. — lie carries with him the Bible — that 
 most wonderful of books — soon to be translated into the 
 mother tongue of the people to whom he goes; the Print- 
 ing Press — that sure pledge that the waters of barbarism 
 shall never again overflow the nation which receives it ; 
 the institutions, the science, and the literature of Christen- 
 dom. Richly laden, above others, with such treasures, 
 are the English and American Missionaries, (and it is to 
 them that Protestant Missions are chiefly intrusted,) for 
 they carry with them our noble language, so rich in works 
 of a religious and moral kind, from whose perennial springs 
 many channels may be opened, for “ streams in the desert 
 and waters in the wilderness.” 
 
 Well, then, may every friend to the progress and well- 
 being of his race — every right minded and reflecting man 
 — take a profound interest in the Missionary Enterprise ; 
 for, at the very lowest view which can be taken of it, it 
 must be ranked among the noblest efforts of genuine phi- 
 lanthropy. Especially may this interest be felt by the 
 Young Men of Boston. Descended from a pious ancestry; 
 born in a land of Bibles ; reared under Christian institu- 
 tions ; and enjoying, in largest measure, the freedom, 
 knowledge, and refinement, the consolations, and the 
 hopes, of which Christianity is the source ; how can they 
 acquit themselves to the Author of these benefits, if they 
 fail to sympathize with the millions of His children — 
 “bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh” — from 
 whom, in His inscrutable wisdom, He has seen fit to 
 withhold these inestimable blessings ? 
 
 And is it not a strong proof, that man, in his present 
 2 
 
10 
 
 condition, is not only far gone from holiness, but from 
 reason, when we see so many intelligent and benevolent 
 men ; so many brilliant geniuses ; so many accomplished 
 statesmen ; so many, in every department of life, whose 
 talents we admire and whose virtues we venerate — utterly 
 indifferent to the propagation of Christianity among the 
 unevangelized portions of the earth? — Many of this class 
 are not insensible of the moral degradation, the social 
 misery, or the political evils of Mohammedan and Pagan 
 nations ; they would doubtless rejoice at the diffusion of 
 knowledge, virtue and liberty among them ; and yet, in 
 the pride and perverseness of the human understanding, 
 they reject, with contempt, the only means by which this 
 end can be secured ; or, amid the duties and schemes and 
 rivalries of active life, the pursuits of literature and science, 
 and the enjoyments of society, they perceive not the claims 
 of this enterprise upon their sympathy — they feel no dis- 
 position to help it forward by their patronage, their coun- 
 sels, or their prayers ! 
 
 So thought not the sublimest of England’s Bards, when, 
 in one of his polemical essays, rising “ on seraph wings of 
 exstacy,” far above the petty interests of sects and parties, 
 and apostrophizing the Prince of Light, he cries, “ Seeing 
 the power of thy grace is not passed away with the primi- 
 tive times, as fond and faithless men imagine, but thy 
 kingdom is now at hand, and thou standing at the door, 
 come forth out of thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the 
 Kings of the Earth ! Put on the visible robes of thy im- 
 perial majesty ; take up that unlimited sceptre which thy 
 Almighty Father hath bequeathed thee ; for now the voice 
 of thy bride calls thee, and all things sigh to be renewed !” 
 So thought not her greater master of harmonious verse, 
 when he condensed the glowing prophecies of Isaiah, into 
 that most beautiful of sacred idyls, which celebrates the 
 advent and the triumphs of Messiah. So thought not the 
 immortal Sir Isaac Newton, who gave his old age to the 
 study of the Sacred Scriptures, “ inquiring and searching 
 
11 
 
 diligently,” like the seers of old, “ what, or what manner 
 of time, the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signi- 
 fy, when it testified beforehand, the glory that should fol- 
 low ” his incarnation. So thought not his great contempo- 
 rary, the virtuous Boyle, who, at his own expense caused 
 the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles to be translated in- 
 to Malayan, and furnished five hundred copies to the East 
 India Company, to be circulated by them ; and who was 
 also one of the founders, and the first Governor, of the 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel among the natives of 
 New England. So thought not, in later times, the gifted 
 Cowper when he sang of 
 
 “ scenes surpassing fable, and yet true, 
 
 Scenes of accomplished bliss 
 
 nor the eminent Sir William Jones, nor the enlightened 
 Wilberforce. And so thinks not now, the oldest, perhaps 
 I might say, the greatest, of living poets, who uses the 
 English tongue, the at last appreciated Wordsworth ; nor, 
 in a neighboring land, his venerable compeer, the imagina- 
 tive Chateaubriand, the brilliant De La Martine, or the dis- 
 tinguished Guizot. So reasons not the last great work of 
 Schlegel of Vienna, (an English translation of which has 
 lately issued from the American press,) in which the idea 
 of an universal history — with Christianity as the grand 
 central point, to which all things, prior to its introduction, 
 tended, and from which, since that epoch, all things have 
 gone, and yet go, forth, preparatory to its final triumph — 
 first deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, by your own 
 Edwards, in his History of Redemption, is developed with 
 signal power and beauty. In dwelling on its pages, we 
 can scarcely regret, Protestants though we are, that its 
 author went from the dead Rationalism which has sup- 
 planted the living Faith of the Reformers, to a more spirit- 
 ual though yet erroneous creed ; and we cannot but honor 
 his active labors for its propagation, as a fit proof of the 
 depth and sincerity of his religious feeling. 
 
12 
 
 Would to Heaven, that more of the great popular writ- 
 ers of our day and especially of our own language — more 
 of our scientific, and professional, and public men, — could 
 claim communion with this temper, and could see in Chris- 
 tianity, what Milton, and Boyle, and Cowper'saw; and 
 could feel as they felt, in prospect of its ultimate diffusion 
 throughout the earth. Byron has described, with terrible 
 sublimity, the sad procession of prodigies, sufferings and 
 horrors which would follow the extinction of natural light, 
 until at length Darkness, sole survivor of the train, should 
 be, herself, the Universe. Oh why did he not remember, 
 that compared to the loss of Christianity, and its attendant 
 luminaries, the blotting out of the stars and even of the 
 sun itself, were but a slight calamity ; and that were the 
 former to be extinguished, Sin and Misery asking “ no 
 aid” from Hell, would indeed “write Fiend” on every 
 brow, and the moral universe be given up to Darkness, 
 Desolation and Despair. 
 
 Would to Heaven, too, that the statesmen, the reform- 
 ers, the philanthropists, of our age, on both sides of the 
 Atlantic, more generally understood, that neither just sys- 
 tems of government, nor extended means of education, 
 nor great improvements in science, nor high perfection in 
 the arts, nor all combined — important as they are, and 
 much as they deserve the thoughts, and demand the care 
 and reward the labors of men, — are not sufficient, in them- 
 selves, to secure national prosperity ! That to render these 
 advantages effectual, and to prevent the decay of patriot- 
 ism, the decline of virtue, and the loss of freedom, there 
 is needed, in addition to every other instrumentality, the 
 enlightening, the restraining, the elevating influence of 
 the Christian faith : That to establish, on a solid founda- 
 
 tion, the doctrine of the equality of human rights, and 
 the other principles of civil liberty which rest on this doc- 
 trine as their corner stone, that foundation must be laid in 
 the existence of one God — the common Parent of all the 
 nations of the earth — the benevolent Father of even the 
 
13 
 
 humblest of the sons of Adam: That neither Atheism, 
 which deprives man of this glorious parentage ; nor Poly- 
 theism, which assigns to each nation, or to each fragment 
 of every nation, its peculiar divinity; nor Pantheism, 
 which reduces the Deity to a mere abstraction, and de- 
 stroys the activity of the individual man; can find, by any 
 process of sound reasoning, a basis for this doctrine: 
 That hence it was, that in all the republics of pagan an- 
 tiquity, the right of free citizenship was confined to so 
 small a portion of the people ; that the masses were held in 
 such degrading servitude ; and that the principle of rep- 
 resentation was so utterly unknown : That hence also 
 it was, that the congregation of the Mayflower, giving 
 themselves up to the full influence of the sentiment, that 
 they were all, and each, and equally, the children of the 
 Universal Father, discovered those sublime truths in po- 
 litical science, so long hidden from the sages of the old 
 world : That hence also it was, that after the French 
 people had cast off the belief of a Supreme Being, it be- 
 came, in the nature of things, impossible, that their scheme 
 of democratic liberty should succeed : That the casting 
 off of this belief, was, in their case, not merely the dis- 
 ruption of all those bands of truth and justice and duty 
 which hold Society together ; but the overthrow, the en- 
 gul phing of the only foundation on which the doctrine of 
 equality and of brotherhood can possibly be rested: And 
 
 that there is no ground to hope for the emancipation of 
 the millions of Africa and Asia, from the thraldom of des- 
 potic power, until the pure doctrines of the Christian faith, 
 and its beneficent morality, shall have taken the place of 
 those systems of religious error from which that despotic 
 power claims to be derived, and by which it is nourished 
 and upheld ! 
 
 Thus far, I have considered the Missionary Enterprise 
 in reference, chiefly, to its general bearings on the secular 
 interests of mankind. But there is another and to the 
 spiritually minded Christian, a much more important and 
 
14 
 
 impressive consideration. The nations of the unevangel- 
 ized are made up of individuals , each of them an immor- 
 tal, an accountable being, subject., like ourselves, to God’s 
 righteous law. Not, indeed, to the precepts written on 
 the tables of stone given to Moses in the mount, and ex- 
 pounded in the Scriptures ; but to that original and univer- 
 sal law of which the decalogue is but a republication ; — 
 that law which is described by the greatest of Roman 
 orators and by the apostle of the Gentiles, in terms sub- 
 stantially identical, — as the law, written by the finger of 
 God on the hearts of men ; proclaimed by the works of 
 His hand ; attested to by His vicegerent, Conscience ; and 
 confirmed by His providence in the government of the 
 world. Every being who wears our form in Mohammedan 
 and Pagan countries, is guilty like ourselves (though un- 
 der circumstances less aggravated) of breaking this law ; 
 and in like manner with ourselves, needs the forgiveness 
 of his sins, the renovation of his imperfect and polluted 
 nature, and the salvation of his soul. The gospel of 
 Christ is the appointed means of effecting this end ; of de- 
 livering men from the “ corruption that is in the world 
 through lust ; ” of making them “ partakers of the divine 
 nature of fitting them for the society of Heaven; and 
 of bringing them, as the end of their faith, and hope, and 
 virtue, into that inheritance of purity and bliss, that 
 “shall never fade away.” And because it is so, its divine 
 author taught his disciples daily to pray for the coming 
 of his kingdom, and thus, by the most obvious implication 
 daily to labor for its coming ; and when he ascended from 
 the hill of Olivet, he enjoined it on them, as his last com- 
 mand, that they should “go into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature, and make disciples of all the 
 nations of the earth.” 
 
 Those who concur in the foregoing views of the ten- 
 dencies of Christianity, and especially if they regard it as 
 the only means by which the victims of false religions 
 can be delivered from their sins, and be trained up for 
 
J. 
 
 15 
 
 heaven ; — who feel that the commission of the first disci- 
 ples has descended to these times ; and that it is equally 
 incumbent on us, as it was on them, either in person, or 
 by the agency of others, to fulfil it to the uttermost ; — all 
 such will readily comprehend why it is, that the Young 
 Men of Boston connected with this Society, have felt it 
 to be their privilege, not less than their duty, to take mea- 
 sures for acquiring for themselves, and for diffusing among 
 others, a familiar acquaintance with the history, condition, 
 and prospects of a work so beneficent and godlike. — They 
 have reason to rejoice, that while to the “ sightless eye- 
 balls ” of many of the wise and great, the learned and 
 the noble, the Missionary Enterprise presents nothing to 
 attract even a casual glance ; to them it is given, “in the 
 dew of their youth,” — ere their hearts have been seared 
 by contact with the world, or their hands have lost their 
 aptness for works of love — to see it to be worthy of their 
 most deliberate regards. 
 
 In employing the popular lecture for the diffusion of 
 missionary knowledge, the founders of this Society have 
 erected another beacon to adorn our intellectual horizon ; 
 one whose beams, I would fain hope, may reach from 
 “New England’s rock-bound coast” to the remotest prairies 
 of the West, and by whose blaze other lights may be en- 
 kindled. It was fitting that a scheme of instruction so 
 benevolent, should be originated in this ancient metropolis; 
 from which have already gone forth so many streams of 
 illumination and of mercy. Young Men of Boston! By 
 combining with the harmless excitement and healthful 
 recreation of the well-conducted lecture room the sacred 
 lessons of the Missionary Enterprise, you have opened, in 
 this place, a new and ample field of research and reflec- 
 tion ; one in which the Muses of History and of Eloquence 
 may delight to range ; in which Fancy may cull many a 
 blooming floweret, and Imagination, snatching from the 
 
16 
 
 tree of life the harp of Prophecy, bring from it, 
 
 “ strains that might create a soul, 
 
 Under the ribs of death.” 
 
 Here you may study the obligations of the world to 
 Christianity; its adaptation to the condition and necessities 
 of mankind ; the duties of Christians to disseminate it to 
 the uttermost parts of the earth ; the means by which the 
 work is to be accomplished ; the difficulties to be encoun- 
 tered, and the manner in which they are to be overcome. 
 Here you may expatiate on the life and teachings of our 
 Redeemer ; the introduction of his kingdom ; its advance- 
 ment in the world ; the certainty of its ultimate triumph ; 
 and the light, and happiness, and glory, which shall then 
 fill the habitable earth. Here, you may dwell on the story 
 of the first missionaries and martyrs ; trace out the jour- 
 neyings, and recount the labors, perils, sufferings and 
 achievements, of Peter and Paul, and their associates ; 
 pursue the blood-stained track of their successors, through 
 the ten imperial persecutions ; explore the immense field 
 of missionary labor, traversed by the Nestorians, from the 
 gulf of Persia to the Caspian sea, and eastward through 
 India, to the coasts of Malabar, and the vast regions of 
 China ; follow the steps of those who planted the Gospel 
 in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia ; study the history of its 
 propagation in Gaul, Britain, and northern Europe ; gaze 
 on the strange but brilliant drama of the Crusades, and 
 investigate the consequences, for good and for evil, which 
 resulted from them ; mark, in the gloom of the middle 
 ages, the apostolic labors of Waldo and Wickliffe ; review 
 the history of the Dominicans, devoted, from their origin, 
 to the double task of preaching the faith, and extermin- 
 ating the enemies, of Rome ; refer to a holier zeal, blend- 
 ed, in the bosom of Columbus, with the love of adventure 
 and the hope of fame, and swaying, as a master passion, 
 the soul of Isabella, the discovery of the new world ; re- 
 hearse the great deeds of the reformers and their immediate 
 
17 
 
 successors ; contemplate the rise, progress, fall, and recent 
 revival, of the Society of Jesus — that remarkable frater- 
 nity, in which Missionary zeal and political ambition, love 
 of learning and love of intrigue, open-handed charity and 
 iron-hearted intolerance, insolence and servility, candor and 
 falsehood, have received so many and such varied illustra- 
 tions ; commemorate the celestial piety and active be- 
 nevolence of Eliot and the Mayhews, of Brainard and 
 Schwartz, and Martyn ; render to the Danish and Mora- 
 vian missions, the homage of grateful reverence ; hail the 
 dawn of a new spirit in the Wesleyan Methodists and 
 Baptists of Britain ; see it spreading among the Dissenters 
 and Churchmen of that country, and creating the London 
 and other Missionary Societies, and at length, leading to 
 the formation of those mighty auxiliaries, the British Bible 
 and Tract Societies ; and returning to our own country, 
 find in the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions, and its great kindred associations, new and most 
 successful laborers in the work of evangelizing the world. 
 
 From these various departments of Missionary effort, em- 
 bracing a period of eighteen hundred years, and spreading 
 over the remotest portions of the earth, those who are to 
 speak to you, may bring forth treasures new and old ; nar- 
 ratives of journeyings and perils and adventures, to win 
 and to repay attention ; accounts of the geography, natural 
 history, arts and sciences, institutions, superstitions, rites, 
 ceremonies, and habits, of many and widely different na- 
 tions ; tales of romantic heroism and of patient endurance ; 
 examples of genius as well as of faith ; comprehensive 
 plans of statesmanship, along with the humblest efforts of 
 piety ; memorials of commanding talent and proofs of dis- 
 interested love ; fitted to instruct, to entertain, and to 
 delight the most intelligent assembly. This, the historian 
 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has shown 
 by many instances ; though it is deeply to be lamented, 
 that with the vivid coloring and elaborate finish of his 
 3 
 
18 
 
 pictures, the infidelity of the artist should be so constantly 
 intermingled. It is shown too, by other writers of this 
 class, in their notices of kindred topics, and especially by 
 your gifted townsman, the author of the History of the 
 United States, in the pages devoted to Eliot and the May- 
 hews, (one of the gems of his beautiful work,) and more 
 largely in his extended account of the Jesuit Missions in 
 Canada and the West. 
 
 The able men, whose names grace your catalogue, will 
 find, in the manifold and diversified subjects which belong 
 to this department of knowledge, abundant materials for 
 their purpose ; and as the Missionary efforts of each suc- 
 ceeding year shall add to our existent stores, I see not why 
 annual courses of such lectures may not easily be kept up, 
 provided care be taken to avoid sameness in the choice of 
 subjects, and to present the matter of each lecture in an 
 attractive dress. 
 
 The benefits which may be expected from such a course 
 of public instruction, are obvious and manifold. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge, on any subject which 
 has engaged any considerable share of human action, and 
 more particularly if it continue to employ a large number 
 of our contemporaries, is not 'only a rational, but, to a 
 greater or less extent, a necessary pursuit. 
 
 The past history of Christian Missions embraces, as we 
 have seen, a Avide range of interesting research ; in our 
 own day, the Missionary Enterprise has taken a most im- 
 portant place among the great movements of the age ; and 
 it is therefore, to all men, a fit subject of inquiry and 
 reflection. 
 
 KnoAvledge, of any useful kind, repays, at once, the 
 labor spent in acquiring it, by the pleasure its acquisition 
 imparts. But, it is not for this gratification alone, which 
 is, in some respects, a selfish one, that knowledge should 
 be chiefly sought. 
 
19 
 
 “ Not enjoyment ami not sorrow 
 Is our being's end and way ; 
 
 Cut to act that each to-morrow 
 Find us farther than to-day 
 
 The knowledge which may be acquired here, will afford 
 much both of enjoyment and of sorrow ; enjoyment in 
 the contemplation of the good accomplished, sorrow in 
 reflecting on the wretchedness and ruin which remain to 
 be relieved : but if it be pursued and received in a proper 
 spirit, it will be eminently useful. 
 
 The subjects which will be here presented, will with- 
 draw the mind from the grovelling pursuits of every-day 
 life, and thus give it a more elevated tone; they will teach 
 you to feel for the miseries and care for the happiness of 
 others, and thus promote a generous and healthful sensi- 
 bility ; they will rouse you to activity and self-denial, and 
 thus prepare you to become efficient benefactors of man- 
 kind. 
 
 This Association, if its plan of instruction be success- 
 fully carried out, may become an efficient auxiliary in pro- 
 moting the Enterprise concerning which it proposes to dif- 
 fuse information ; it may give to that enterprise a new 
 and deeper hold on the affections of its friends ; it may 
 commend it to the favor of many, who have hitherto re- 
 garded it with indifference ; it may ally it to its true as- 
 sociates, the cause of Liberty, and the cause of Letters ; it 
 may awake the slumbering spirit of some Swartz or 
 Brainard, or Martyn, or Mills, and send him forth to teach 
 the nations of the unevangelized ; it may, in these and a 
 thousand other ways, pour out a rich stream of blessing 
 on the world, and aid in promoting the glory of the 
 Highest. 
 
 I would urge its members not to faint in their way ; 
 not to relax in the good work upon which they have en- 
 tered. You will sometimes be discouraged, when you re- 
 flect on the obstacles which oppose the propagation of the 
 gospel in heathen and Mohammedan countries ; but yield 
 
20 
 
 not to despondency, still less, to despair. Remember that 
 He, who has promised to “fill the earth” with his glory, 
 has promised, also, the aid of his spirit for the accomplish- 
 ment of the work. Remember that “ the silver and the 
 gold are his.” His, “the cattle on a thousand hills;” 
 His the ministry of nature ; and His the government of 
 the nations of the earth : that in His hands are the hearts 
 of men, the councils of Princes and the course of empire; 
 that He makes even “ the wrath of man to praise Him ; ” 
 and that when He pleases, He will employ them all in the 
 accomplishment of his merciful designs. Not that He has 
 need of their assistance, but because He works by appro- 
 priate means, and because to His intelligent creatures this 
 employment is a necessary means of discipline and of 
 good, of beneficence or of judgment. Have faith in God: 
 faith in his purposes of love to his creatures — faith in his 
 fidelity to his promises. Have faith also in man : faith in his 
 vocation to the best and most glorious of destinies, that of 
 becoming a feliow-worker with the Almighty, in the sal- 
 vation of his species. Cultivate this sacred source of holy 
 motive, of active effort, of living hope. When your faith 
 flags, recur to the lyre of David and the harp of Isaiah ; 
 listen to their songs of triumph, and the unbelieving spirit 
 shall be charmed into silence.' Connect with the predic- 
 tions and promises of Scripture, their actual fulfilment, to 
 so large an extent, which has already taken place. If you 
 are sometimes told by sneering Infidelity, that the hun- 
 dreds of millions of China and Hindostan, and other pagan 
 countries, who bow to-day to their idols “of wood, and 
 of stone, and of silver and of gold,” and “ to birds, and to 
 four-footed beasts, and to creeping things,” and to the 
 images of such things, have done so from their infancy ; 
 and that they and their posterity will do so forever ; re- 
 member who it is that hath said — in reference to the ad- 
 vent of his Son — “ the idols He shall utterly abolish ; and 
 they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the 
 caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of 
 
21 
 
 His majesty, when he ariscth to shake terribly the earth.” 
 Read in the events of the first three centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era, the incomplete but glorious accomplishment of 
 this promise. Remember that the habitable earth, save 
 one small and isolated part, was then wholly given up to 
 Idolatry ; and that the gods of Western Asia, of Greece, and 
 of Rome, the seats of learning and refinement, had then, 
 in their poetical mythology, and in the charms with which 
 imagination and fancy had arrayed it, a hold on the culti- 
 vated mind, stronger than any of which existing systems 
 can boast ; and that equally with them those exploded 
 superstitions enjoyed the patronage and support of the 
 rulers, and the blind confidence of the people. And yet 
 how swiftly were they swept away ; how soon were they 
 “ cast to the moles and to the bats ! ” Before even the 
 Angels’ song, announcing the Redeemer’s birth, had died 
 away upon the plains of Bethlehem, (such is the glorious 
 vision of Milton’s muse) the work is done — the victory 
 accomplished. 
 
 “ The oracles are dumb, 
 
 No voice or hideous hum 
 
 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 
 Apollo from his shrine 
 Can no more divine, 
 
 With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 
 
 No nightly trance, or breathed spell 
 
 Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 
 
 In consecrated earth, 
 
 And on the holy hearth, 
 
 The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint ; 
 
 In urns, and altars round, 
 
 A drear and dying sound 
 Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ; 
 
 And the chill marble seems to sweat, 
 
 While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat. 
 
 Peor and Baalim 
 Forsake their temples dim, 
 
 With that twice-battered God of Palestine; 
 And mooned Ashtaroth, 
 
 Heaven’s Queen and Mother both, 
 
22 
 
 Now sits not girt with tapers’ holy shine ; 
 
 The Libyc Hammon shrinks his horn, 
 
 In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thannnuz mourn. 
 
 And sullen Moloch fled, 
 
 Hath left in shadows dread 
 His burning idol all of blackest hue ; 
 
 In vain with cymbals’ ring 
 They call the grisly king, 
 
 In dismal dance about the furnace blue : 
 
 The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 
 
 Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste. 
 
 Nor is Osiris seen 
 In Memphian grove or green, 
 
 Trampling the unshower’d grass with lowings loud : 
 
 Nor can he be at rest 
 Within his sacred chest; 
 
 Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud ; 
 
 In vain with timbrell’d anthems dark 
 
 The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipp'd ark. 
 
 He feels from Judah’s land 
 The dreaded Infant’s hand, 
 
 The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn : 
 
 Nor all the gods beside, 
 
 Longer dare abide, 
 
 Nor Typhon huge ending in snaky twine : 
 
 Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, 
 
 Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew.” 
 
 So too, but with greater majesty and power, when He 
 comes to take to himself his “ everlasting dominion,” shall 
 it be again. Then shall the gods of modern heathenism 
 be driven from their temples, like “ the chaff of the sum- 
 mer threshing floor” or “the dust before the whirlwind,” 
 and “the Lord alone be exalted in that day.” 
 
 Before the coming of our Saviour, there was an evident 
 preparation for that event, in the general peace which 
 shortly preceded it ; in new facilities for intercommunica- 
 tion between different parts of the known world ; and in 
 other circumstances Avhich marked the signs of that aus- 
 picious era, and promoted the rapid propagation of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
The predictions of holy writ, analogy, and other con- 
 siderations justify the belief, that the like arrangements 
 may be employed, to facilitate its general diffusion and its 
 final triumph. 
 
 As “ the time of the end ” draws nigh — such is the 
 assurance of the prophet Daniel — “men shall run to and 
 fro, and knowledge be increased.” The Protestant Re- 
 formation and the new march of mankind in science, in 
 politics, and in religion, which began about the same 
 period, and has ever since continued, was preceded and 
 has been followed, by great discoveries, and by many other 
 events, which may justly be regarded as the partial fulfil- 
 ment of this prophecy. On the certainty of its complete 
 accomplishment, the illustrious founder of the inductive 
 philosophy grounded the cheering hope, often expressed in 
 his writings, “that proficience in navigation and discove- 
 ries may plant, also, an expectation of the further profi- 
 cience and augmentation of all science.” In the advances 
 since made, especially in the increased and constantly 
 increasing means of intercommunication between the 
 various parts of each civilized country, and between dif- 
 ferent states and continents ; and in the influence thus 
 exerted on the social feeling of mankind, and on the diffu- 
 sion of knowledge throughout the earth ; we may see, that 
 already the prediction of the Jewish exile has become his- 
 tory, and the hope of the English philosopher been real- 
 ized. 
 
 In the great national revolutions which have signalized 
 the last fifty years ; the movements which are still going 
 on in many parts of the world ; the social changes in 
 Mohammedan Europe ; the extension of European power 
 (not always it must be confessed, in a justifiable way, 
 though usually with beneficial results) over many parts 
 of Asia and Africa, and to the great islands of the Indian 
 and Southern Oceans ; the progress made in North and 
 South America, and above all by our own country during 
 the same period ; and the swift march of civilization 
 
24 
 
 wherever it obtains a foothold ; he who studies the history 
 of his race in the light of the Bible, cannot but see plain 
 indications, that the authority, institutions and influence 
 of Christendom are soon to overspread the globe, as a ne- 
 cessary preparation for the universal triumph of Christiani- 
 ty itself. 
 
 It is delightful to reflect, that all the great social and 
 political changes which are going on in the world, and 
 all the agencies employed by men for the acquisition of 
 Power, the benefit of Commerce, the diffusion of Knowl- 
 edge, or the advancement of Science, are, in the Provi- 
 dence of God, subservient and tributary to this great end. 
 While ambitious leaders are striving for pre-eminence, 
 and haughty governments waging wars of aggression ; 
 while masses of men are agitated by new ideas, and mov- 
 ing forward in the march of freedom ; while commercial 
 enterprise is compassing sea and land, and bringing to re- 
 gions unknown to ancient song, “the wealth of Ormus 
 and of Ind while scientific inquirers are pushing their 
 researches into the deepest recesses of matter and of mind, 
 and men of practical skill tasking to the utmost their in- 
 ventive faculties ; while many of the busy millions who 
 are thus playing their respective parts in these various 
 spheres, think little of any interest but their own, and least 
 of all of the interests of God’s kingdom ; “ He who sitteth 
 in the heavens ” is using them all, as instruments for the 
 completion of his own grand and beneficent designs. Let 
 it be our highest wish, our most earnest prayer, that He 
 may grant to each of us, the disposition to be willing co- 
 operators, and the ability to render some useful service, in 
 this work of heavenly love !