THOUGHTS 
 
 PAM. 
 
 M1$C» 
 
 V/vS. 
 
 //rN 
 
 MODERN MISSIONARY ENTERPRIZE, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 OUTLINES OF A PLAN 
 
 FOR 
 
 GIVING GREATER EFFICIENCY 
 
 TO 
 
 MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 BY JAMES JOHNSTON, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, FRAMINGHAM. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 MODERN MISSIONARY ENTERPRIZE, 
 
 WITH THE OUTLINES OF 
 
 A PLAN FOR GIVING GREATER EFFICIENCY 
 
 TO 
 
 MISSIONS IN GENERAL. 
 
 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to ob¬ 
 serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world. Amen.— Matthew xxviii. 18,19,20. 
 
 BY JAMES JOHNSTON, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, FRAMINGHAM. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 1843 . 
 

 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 The following thoughts on modern missionary enterprize, are 
 earnestly recommended to the consideration of the followers of 
 Jesus Christ, among the various evangelical denominations who 
 are engaged on one common principle as missionary bodies in the 
 propagation of the gospel among the heathen. The importance 
 of the topic will be considered sufficient to justify the inquiry 
 which I have made as to the working of the system now in general 
 operation; and as its results, after an experience of half a century, 
 give no very good ground to anticipate a larger amount of success 
 than has already been obtained from it, the plan I propose for 
 adoption will, at least, I hope, meet with a candid and a prayerful 
 consideration from the friends of religion. 
 
 Besides, it is high time that the present fiscal management of 
 missionary corporations should be put an end to. Since their or¬ 
 ganization they have proceeded upon the eleemosynary principle; 
 and highly objectionable as this is in a case where it is admitted 
 there is no lack of wealth in the churches, but an indisposition to 
 part with it; this evil is increased by the circumstance of almost 
 every such organization operating beyond its means, expending 
 far more than its income, and deeply involved in debt, and thus 
 doing in the cause of religion what would not be expedient or jus¬ 
 tifiable in the ordinary transactions of life. I ask, should we do 
 evil that good may come? 
 
 The eleemosynary system, to which I have alluded as the basis 
 of modern missionary effort has filled me even to loathing when I 
 have read of the rebuffs to which a man like Fuller, the first Sec¬ 
 retary of the Serampore Missionary Society, was subjected while 
 going about in quest of subscriptions for its support; and the same 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 feeling has been excited towards it when I have heard of its re¬ 
 quiring or countenancing the females of England to forsake their 
 proper sphere, the piety of home, to solicit from door to door do¬ 
 nations to a cause which the churches themselves were fully com¬ 
 petent to sustain; while in our own country the continual outcry 
 for money from missionary directors is heard on every hand and 
 by all sorts of voices, by speeches, by pointed appeals in the pul¬ 
 pit and out of it, just as if the people of God had nothing to do 
 with missionary enterprize but to give of their money to the few 
 individuals who, under cover of an unscriptural system, have become 
 its sole directors and managers. Now such things ought not to 
 be, as will be shown in the course of remark contained in the fol¬ 
 lowing essay. Neither should we hear about the onerous nature 
 of missionary direction. Why should men voluntarily impose 
 upon themselves duties which they avow they consider to be 
 onerous, “who,” to use the language of the President of the 
 Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, the Rev. D. Sharp, D. T)., in 
 his published letter addressed to the Rev. B. Stow of Boston, 
 “have grown gray in the unpaid, but mind-exhausting and time- 
 sacrificing cause of missions, ” when by the adoption of a scriptu¬ 
 ral system of enterprize, the burden of it, if it be a burden, would 
 be laid upon the shoulders of those whom Jesus Christ intended 
 should bear it in the churches of his saints, in that privacy of ac¬ 
 tion in which all are brethren, and where no supremacy is per¬ 
 mitted or is claimed. 
 
 With individual characters, however, I have no fault to find. My 
 quarrel is with religious missionary corporations. I may seem, 
 it is possible, to some persons, to have singled out that of the de¬ 
 nomination with which I have the honor of being connected to 
 particular animadversion. But this arises simply from the circum¬ 
 stance of my being better acquainted with its general proceedings 
 than I am with the missionary direction of other corporations, 
 while I am satisfied that they all bear one common character. 
 Besides, the decidedly independent character of the Baptist 
 churches, and of which we justly boast, demands from their mem¬ 
 bers that this independence should not be tamely surrendered or 
 be suffered to be usurped as is the case in missionary organiza¬ 
 tions where a decided display of aristocratic influence is permitted 
 to subvert this independence, and a pecuniary qualification made 
 the prerequisite of membership and the basis of a system professing, 
 to work out the great commission of preaching the gospel to the 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 heathen, but in fact usurping the action of the churches of Christ, as 
 independent missionary bodies, in this most important particular. 
 
 The inconsistent character of such organizations as I have al¬ 
 luded to with the associations of the New Testament, that is, the 
 churches of Christ, must be seen in a moment when viewed in the 
 light in which I have now exhibited it; and the sooner it is aban¬ 
 doned the better for one in strict accordance with the will of Jesus 
 Christ. The question is, is a civil establishment of a portion of 
 a religious denomination for doing the work of preaching the gos¬ 
 pel to the heathen permitted by the New Testament, when it is the 
 duty of individual churches to do so? or if that question will not 
 settle the matter, I may be permitted to ask, can there be any 
 other organization more perfect or more adapted to answer every 
 purpose which the Lord had in view by the dispensation of the 
 gospel, than that which is the result of his infinite wisdom, the or¬ 
 ganization of a New Testament church? 
 
 It is astonishing how easily men’s minds are led astray from the 
 simplicity which is in Christ, if they be but brought under the in¬ 
 fluence of that which has become popular, never inquiring whether 
 it is based upon the authority of God, or even whether it can 
 stand the simplest examination. A writer in the Christian Re¬ 
 view for September, 1842, (article, The Great Commission,) page 
 392, describes the theory of missionary organization. He sup¬ 
 poses a number of individuals savingly brought under the influence 
 of the gospel. “They are formed into a church—And as soon as 
 this first church has been instrumental in calling into existence 
 others in its vicinity, they combine their influence again for the 
 same good object, the furtherance of the gospel. ” But I would 
 inquire, why should not ihe churches so formed, imitate the ex¬ 
 ample of the mother church in her single-handed effort, and seek, 
 like her, individually to extend the gospel? Is it likely they would 
 be less successful than their progenitor? or is it the nature of 
 Christianity to be less powerful and influential the more it is dif¬ 
 fused in society? If not, why then combine together in an asso¬ 
 ciation which they find from experience weakens rather than 
 strengthens their power of doing good? It is true such an 
 association may embrace men of great talents, wealth and re¬ 
 spectability in the churches, but we might as well talk of in¬ 
 creasing the power of an army to conquer and subdue a ter¬ 
 ritory which it had invaded, by subtracting from its various bat¬ 
 talions their colonels and staff and other officers, leaving behind 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 in the camp the rank and file and non-commissioned officers, and 
 sending the former forth with the general in command to conquer 
 and subdue, by the splendor of their epaulettes, the gorgeousness 
 of their uniform, and the authority of their titles, rank and commis¬ 
 sions. 
 
 The attention that is being given to the subject of missions at 
 the present time, encourages me to hope that something will be 
 done towards effecting a reformation in the working of the great 
 commission. The various associations of young men formed for 
 the express purpose of missionary inquiry in this country is en¬ 
 couraging, and I trust their inquiries will be directed to practical 
 results rather than to topics which may be termed the romance of 
 missions, or to philosophical investigations on the subject, and 
 that as Christians and lovers of the Saviour and philanthropists in 
 the noblest sense of the term, they will engage heart and hand 
 without delay in seeking the propagation of the gospel by the in¬ 
 dividual action of the churches of which they are members, with¬ 
 out the intervention of an agency such as is afforded by mission¬ 
 ary corporations. 
 
 It will be to me a source of deep regret if the spirit which has 
 led to the formation of young men’s societies for missionary in¬ 
 quiry be permitted to evaporate, and lose itself in the very trivial 
 matter of patronizing lectures drilled and bored from encyclope¬ 
 dias and similar sources, or in listening to mere missionary decla¬ 
 mation from popular speakers, and then to be embodied in one of 
 the multiplied forms under which dollars and cents are collected in 
 support of a system which cries give, give, and never can be sat¬ 
 isfied, possessing all the clamorousness of mendicity, without 
 the dignity and grace of a poor, but virtuous vital Christianity. 
 
 If Christ is to entreat and plead, “ in forma pauperis, ” this can 
 only be done by His true and proper representatives, the churches 
 of His saints; but I have submitted a plan, which, if adopted, will 
 encircle Him with a halo of glory in His churches, instead of ex¬ 
 hibiting him as hitherto like a Lazarus fed with the crumbs falling 
 from our tables. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 MODERN MISSIONARY ENTERPRIZE. 
 
 To the mind of the Christian, awake to duty and to a deep 
 sense of responsibility, the present condition of the heathen world 
 is truly appalling ; for although eighteen centuries have elapsed 
 since our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ commissioned his 
 churches to evangelize the world, more than three fourths of its 
 vast population are at this moment ready to perish and to sink 
 into hell, enveloped in all the darkness, degradation and misery of 
 idolatry. 
 
 During the last half century something has been attempted to 
 ameliorate this fearful condition, but it must be confessed that the 
 slow progress made in its amelioration is exceedingly discouraging, 
 for after every exertion during this long period by various denom¬ 
 inations of orthodox Christians, all that has been subtracted from 
 the vast ocean of idolatry, is but as a drop; and we are warranted 
 in the conclusion that unless some important changes be effected 
 in the agency or means employed to convert the heathen world, 
 that so the bright predictions of scripture prophecy may be fully 
 realized, it is as vain and useless to expect it from modern mis¬ 
 sionary organizations as the attempt would be to drain one of our 
 large inland lakes by the help of a bowl or of a tea-spoon. 
 
 I am well aware that not a few are of opinion that missionary 
 effort has been eminently successful, and this opinion has been in-. 
 
8 
 
 dustriously circulated and made the subject of gratulation by those 
 interested in its management. But while I fully respond to all 
 that has resulted of benefit to the world, and to the unutterable, 
 the priceless value of the human soul, and shall concede that the 
 salvation of one soul is worth all, and more than all that has ever 
 been expended, or can be expended in the shape of human effort, 
 still this must not satisfy our expectations or our desires. We 
 are to be guided in these, by the expressed will of God, by the 
 bountiful nature of the provision of the gospel for man’s necessities 
 as a sinner, and by a due regard to the glory of Christ in the ex¬ 
 tension of His kingdom, to whom is promised the heathen for His 
 inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. 
 
 If we refer to the official recorded statistics of some of the 
 principal missionary societies, it will be found that so far from the 
 success of modern missionary enterprize being a cause of gratula¬ 
 tion, the results of their labors call rather for deep humiliation be¬ 
 fore God. For instance, the American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions was instituted in Jan. 1810, and its commu¬ 
 nicants in 1839 only numbered 7,311. The Baptist Board for 
 Foreign Missions was instituted in the year 1814, and its commu¬ 
 nicants in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, in 1842, only 
 amounted to 3,700 persons. 
 
 Again, that magnificent missionary organization, the London 
 Missionary Society, embracing in its direction and membership 
 persons from all the various evangelical denominations of Great 
 Britain, and formed in the year 1795, after an existence of nearly 
 fifty years, had only in 1842, 13,156 communicants in the various 
 quarters of the world. And yet this pitiful amount of success, 
 with upwards of 1,000 persons employed as missionaries, in the 
 service of these three powerful evangelical missionary societies, is 
 to be regarded as a cause of gratulation !! To me it is a cause 
 of utter astonishment that any one can be found who can view 
 these results in any degree satisfactory. 
 
 What would the primitive Christians have thought of such a 
 measure of success, notwithstanding the world was up in arms 
 against them and the religion they propagated? In some of the 
 heathen cities of Greece or Asia, it is not improbable there were 
 found, within a few years after the ascension of Christ, a far greater 
 number of converts to Christianity than all these put together, as 
 
9 
 
 the result of thirty to fifty years’ toil on the part of those three 
 large corporate missionary bodies. 
 
 If the Lord’s hand be not shortened that it cannot save, and if, 
 as doubtless it will be admitted, that the spirit of the commission 
 as recorded in the gospel by Matthew xxviii, 18-20, demands 
 that all who participate in the blessings of the gospel themselves, 
 are bound to communicate these blessings to others, it becomes 
 imperative, then, upon all such to inquire into the causes which may 
 have led to such a fearful condition as that which the heathen world 
 still presents at this moment, and which are impeding its evangeli¬ 
 zation. 
 
 It is to be regretted that such an inquiry has never been suffi¬ 
 ciently made, and to this very circumstance may be attributed not 
 a little of the apathy displayed with regard to the present condition 
 and future prospects of the heathen. That a spirit of indifference 
 to the condition of the heathen prevails to a most alarming extent 
 cannot be doubted, while it is impossible to justify it upon any 
 Christian principle; and any inquiry which might have a tendency 
 towards the removal of this apathy and culpable indifference to¬ 
 wards the condition of the heathen, ought to be hailed with satis¬ 
 faction. 
 
 However important the inquiry therefore is, it is not my inten 
 tion to attempt anything like such an investigation as the impor 
 tance of the case demands. The limits of our pamphlet will not 
 admit of it. But I may be permitted to affirm that the present 
 condition of the heathen world does not arise from the following 
 considerations. 
 
 1. From the sovereignty of God, so as to exclude culpability 
 from ourselves; for the sovereignty of God has not been made the 
 subject of experiment, and cannot be until the gospel be fully 
 preached to the heathen, when its rejection or its reception by 
 them will then, and not until then, indicate the sovereignty of God 
 without our culpability in the matter. It is the duty of the 
 churches to communicate the gospel to every creature, leaving 
 the results to the sovereignty of God in its saving application to 
 the hearts and lives of those to whom it is declared. The doc¬ 
 trine of the Divine sovereignty, has no more to do with our duty 
 in sending the gospel to the heathen, than the scriptural doctrine 
 of election with the duty of every man who hears the gospel to 
 2 
 
10 
 
 embrace it and to believe it. To shelter ourselves under the one 
 or the other, as relieving us from the weighty obligations these 
 considerations involve, must bring upon us an awful amount of 
 guilt in the sight of God, who has so mercifully interposed in our 
 behalf, and in behalf of the heathen; and as God has so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life, it is 
 our duty to communicate the gospel, in the hope of its cordial 
 reception by all to whom it is addressed. 
 
 2. Neither does the present condition of the heathen arise 
 from any lack of adaptation in the gospel itself, to their present 
 condition and circumstances. These are the same as the human 
 family has always presented, while the gospel itself is as unchange¬ 
 able as its author. 
 
 3. Neither does the present condition of the heathen arise 
 from the refusal of the Lord to work with His people. The par¬ 
 tial success which has accompanied missionary effort during the 
 last half century, proves that God will always work when His peo¬ 
 ple work. It is affirmed by the author of one of the gospels, the 
 evangelist Mark, after recording the commission to preach the gos¬ 
 pel to every creature, that the Lord worked with them in doing so; 
 and looking at the history of the propagation of Christianity, it is 
 evident that until the church ceased to work out this commission, 
 He ceased not to bless the world with His renewing and sancti¬ 
 fying grace. The moment the churches of Christ resume their 
 proper work, that moment the Lord will make bare His holy arm 
 and work with them as in days of old. 
 
 4. Neither does the present condition of the heathen world 
 arise from the circumstance, that much of intellectual greatness 
 has not been called into requisition, in the evangelizing of the hea¬ 
 then. Supposing this was true, God does not require it, and for 
 this very reason, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, 
 and not of us. ” He has wisely determined that an agency bear¬ 
 ing another stamp than that of intellectual greatness shall accom¬ 
 plish the mighty object. “But God, ” says the apostle, “hath 
 chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and 
 God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the 
 things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things 
 
11 
 
 which are despised hath God chosen; yea, and things which are 
 not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in 
 His presence. ” 
 
 Now this was the character of primitive instrumentality; and if 
 so, the low standard which has been supposed as marking the 
 character of modern instrumentality must not be considered as one 
 of the causes for the present deplorable condition of the heathen 
 in the nineteenth century after Christ. I fear the error rather lies 
 in an opposite direction, and that intellectual qualifications have 
 been more prized and sought after in the missionary of the cross, 
 than the wants of the heathen world demanded, while God was 
 determining by frequent demonstration the wisdom of His deter¬ 
 mination as to the character of human instrumentality, by causing 
 the simple presentation of the story of His love, by the gift of His 
 Son as a suffering Saviour, to find its way into the hearts of the 
 most savage and untutored tribes of earth. Told in artless simpli¬ 
 city, and clothed with its own native charms, it has been embraced 
 and welcomed by the stupid Greenlander, the voluptuous Polyne¬ 
 sian, the gentle Hindoo and the ferocious inhabitant of New Zea¬ 
 land; while men from the most degraded tribes of Africa have 
 held out their sable hands to God imploring mercy, all conquered 
 and subdued by the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 5. The present condition of the heathen does not arise from 
 the inadequacy of the means placed at our disposal. 
 
 There is no lack of means, so far as numerical strength is con¬ 
 cerned, in connection with mental, physical or spiritual advantages. 
 The sacramental host comprises hundreds of thousands, I might 
 say, millions, who all ought to feel and acknowledge their personal 
 obligations to aid in the evangelizing of the heathen world. I 
 question whether there were so much of numerical strength in the 
 primitive churches at the time they achieved so much, as there is at 
 the present day, and yet at no very distant period from the pro¬ 
 mulgation of Christianity, the heathen priesthood were compelled 
 to acknowledge that their temples were depopulated, and their 
 idols famished. 
 
 In the case of the apostle Paul, we have a specimen of the 
 prowess of the primitive churches, who, as the apostle of the Gen¬ 
 tiles, carried the gospel into all parts of the known world, achiev- 
 
12 
 
 ing almost single-handed those bloodless victories of the cross of 
 Christ with a celerity and a power utterly unknown in modern 
 times. 
 
 And who was the apostle Paul? It is true he was an accredit¬ 
 ed ambassador of Christ, and the seals of his apostleship he un¬ 
 doubtedly displayed by his miraculous endowments. But he had 
 about him many drawbacks. He was not supported by a power¬ 
 ful missionary corporation, but only commended to the grace of 
 God by the church which sent him forth to labor, and when sent 
 forth, receiving more rebukes from the world than favors, so that 
 the apostleship itself, were it to be had upon such terms in the 
 present day as he possessed it in his, it would go a begging for lack 
 of candidates. At Corinth he was a tentmaker, and in Rome and 
 elsewhere a prisoner, everywhere presenting a picture of external 
 human misery, <c in weariness, and painfulness, in watchings often, 
 in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; ” 
 and yet he never dropped the missionary character, but calmly 
 threaded his weary way through this world’s miseries, “as sor¬ 
 rowful, yet always rejoicing, strong in faith, giving glory to God. ” 
 
 And wherein lay his power of endurance and of suffering, and 
 the secret of his enlarged benevolence, which prompted him to do 
 so much, and to suffer so much? It was the love of Christ con¬ 
 strained him, because he thus judged, “that if one died for all, 
 then were all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live, 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which 
 died for them and rose again. ” 
 
 But there are other means placed under our control than merely 
 numerical strength, which gives us a superiority over primitive la¬ 
 borers in the enterprize of evangelizing the heathen. The world 
 was not blessed with those arts of life which tend so greatly to 
 facilitate the intercourse of mankind. Why, Paul’s voyage in the 
 Mediterranean sea and journey to Rome, which occupied so many 
 weeks, is now accomplished in a few days, and with little or no 
 hazard, while the most distant portions of the world are visited 
 with comfort and safety, and a celerity wholly unknown in primitive 
 times. Besides, we have that mighty engine, the press, far more 
 than counterbalancing the gift of tongues on Pentecost; while to 
 give power to all these physical advantages, evangelical Christianity, 
 
13 
 
 embracing its hundreds of thousands of communicants, speaks but 
 •one common language, both in the eastern and western hemis¬ 
 pheres, developing a power unknown to primitive times, and of 
 the advantages of which, evangelization has not yet reaped the 
 benefit, by reason of the sectarian spirit which, in spite of the 
 teachings of Christ and his apostles, everywhere prevails. 
 
 If the present condition of the heathen world cannot with truth 
 be attributed to any of the causes specified, to what then is it to 
 be attributed ? I answer, to the following causes. 
 
 1. To the total absence of zeal in regard to the diffusion of 
 the gospel among the heathen. A listless indifference is charac¬ 
 teristic of the age, notwithstanding all that is attempted to rouse 
 the dormant energies of Christians. But to the present system of 
 missionary enterprize may be justly attributed a large portion of 
 this indifference. By the present system, it is everybody’s busi¬ 
 ness, and nobody’s business to evangelize the heathen. It lacks 
 individuality, and hence there is no room for the operation of 
 zeal in its behalf. It never disturbs the conscience. A man 
 may be aroused to inquire what is wanted of him with regard to 
 the heathen. He is answered, give us money; that is all that is 
 required of you. And is it possible he can consider missionary 
 effort, as far as he is concerned, but a thing of u foreign concern¬ 
 ment? ” He has no voice in the appointment of the missionary, 
 nor anything to do with the selection of the field of labor; the cor¬ 
 respondence with the missionary is out of his hands; it is con¬ 
 ducted by persons with whom he has no acquaintanceship; in short 
 he has as little to do with the evangelization of the heathen, as he 
 has with the government of his country, nay, much less,—and I ask, 
 is it possible in such circumstances, can that zeal exist, the ab¬ 
 sence of which is shedding at present so destructive an influence 
 over the interests of the heathen. It is impossible. The unalter¬ 
 able laws of the human mind forbid its existence. 
 
 But this lack of zeal is not only wanting in the churches, but I 
 fear it is wanting, to a great extent in the missionary. Doubtless 
 there are many exceptions, but no man should be engaged as a 
 missionary, no matter what are his attainments, who is destitute of 
 it. The ears of all such should ring with the words of our Lord, 
 
 What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world and lose his 
 
14 
 
 own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” and 
 thus impelled, press forward under its influence into the depths of 
 this world’s miseries, disregarding all earthly considerations, ex¬ 
 claiming, if I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my hand forget its cun¬ 
 ning, and my tongue cleave unto the rOof of my mouth. 
 
 In no cause, can anything like distinguished success be antici¬ 
 pated, where zeal in its behalf is wanting; and this holds equally so 
 in the propagation of the gospel. Without it, mental endowments 
 are as nothing. It is in fact, indispensable to the Christian mission¬ 
 ary. With it, the primitive Christians “turned the world upside 
 down. ” Let one man be found with it in his possession, absorb¬ 
 ing his time, his thoughts, his pursuits, let the enlargement of 
 Christ’s kingdom be the ruling passion, and that man, if placed in 
 the missionary field, will achieve more than a host, if it may be, of 
 well informed, intellectual men, trained up and fitted with all the 
 classical endowments of the age, but destitute of that absorbing 
 zeal which characterized the individual. Such was John the Bap¬ 
 tist, that missionary pioneer of the Lamb of God. u He was a 
 burning and a shining light, ” and his success comported with the 
 scriptural delineation of his character, for fervent quenchless zeal. 
 
 Contrast a Francis Xavier with the generality of men des¬ 
 patched as missionaries of the cross in the present day. Instead 
 of offering themselves on the altar of devoted love to God and 
 man, they are in too many cases, it is to be feared, swayed by a 
 variety of motives, independent entirely of that zeal which should 
 induce to so holy and so noble a consecration, and which Xavier 
 so conspicuously displayed. With no opposition to encounter, 
 like the illustrious individual to whom I have alluded, months are 
 devoted to preparation and to outfit. A companion is selected. 
 The voyage is undertaken and finished. He arrives safely at his 
 place of destination. There the little of romance which tinctured 
 his imagination leaves him. His spirit sinks. He sighs for home, 
 and moping out a monotonous existence, sinks into the grave un¬ 
 der the paralyzing influence of spiritual weakness, in a cause in 
 which he should have manifested a giant spirit, or else remained 
 at home. Such, it is to be feared, is the character of too many of 
 our modern missionaries. The papal missionary alluded to, Xavier, 
 was distinguished for his learning, his eloquence and his other ac- 
 
/ 
 
 15 
 
 complishments, but fired with zeal to carry the gospel to distant 
 lands, and overcoming all the obstacles thrown in his way by argu¬ 
 ment, ridicule, or lack of co-operation, he fearlessly threw himself 
 into the first vessel that offered itself for India, depending for his 
 existence upon the bounty of his fellow passengers for daily bread; 
 and arriving on the shores of India, rushed into the thickest of its 
 midnight moral darkness, with no other guide than his burning 
 zeal, enkindling a flame of heaven’s light wherever he went, con¬ 
 quering, or overcoming all difficulties, till at last he breathed his 
 last breath, the spiritual conqueror of hundreds of thousands of de¬ 
 graded heathen, in India, China and Japan. 
 
 2. To the selfish, grasping, 1 , covetous character of religious 
 profession in the present day, may be ascribed the painful lack of 
 missionary effort amongst us. The haste to be rich, the desire 
 to appear so, the love of the world, the lusts of the flesh, the lusts 
 of the eyes, and the pride of life, all these are acting with a fearful 
 influence in impeding the diffusion of Christianity amongst the hea¬ 
 then. Money is required,—it cannot be spared from our lusts. 
 Men are required by the thousands,—they will not come forward. 
 The young and the vigorous, educating in our theological institu¬ 
 tions for the ministry, are nearly in all cases preparing to fill parishes 
 at home, while ministers of Christ, qualified from age and experience 
 to fill such parishes, are driven from them and laid upon the shelf, as 
 unfitted for an age of excitement and denominational ascendancy. 
 
 If Paul, while writing to the Philipians from Rome, lamented 
 the existence of such a spirit of selfishness as was displayed around 
 him there, tc for all seek their own,” said he, tc not the things 
 which are Jesus Christ’s,” I wonder what he would say, were 
 he permitted to revisit earth, and pen a description of existing pro¬ 
 fession. I fear it would be an exceedingly dark and gloomy pic¬ 
 ture, and few or none could be found who could say to their Mas¬ 
 ter, Christ, u Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. ” 
 
 3. Another cause of the present condition of the heathen world 
 is the present system of superintending, and fiscal agency em¬ 
 ployed. 
 
 When Christians about fifty years ago were at length to some 
 extent, aroused to a sense of their duty to the heathen, the effort 
 put forth by them, unfortunately took a wrong direction, by the 
 
16 
 
 employment of the present fiscal agency, and general superintend¬ 
 ence of an institution unknown to, and unauthorized by the New 
 Testament; and that beaten track has been ever since that pe¬ 
 riod followed with but little or no deviation from it, both in Eu¬ 
 rope and in America, notwithstanding its unscriptural character. 
 It threw the collection of funds for missionary purposes upon the 
 eleemosynary principle, and removed the responsibility of the 
 management of missionary labor from the churches of Christ and 
 placed it upon combinations unknown to the New Testament. In 
 that pure code of duty and example, the churches are supposed to 
 be capable of doing, if they will, the whole will of the Lord, with¬ 
 out the aid of worldly and carnal policy, and I apprehend that ex¬ 
 cepting their compulsory character, civil establishments of religion 
 might be pleaded for, in support of the kingdom of Christ, with 
 as much propriety as the complicated machinery of corporate mis¬ 
 sionary societies, comprising Presidents, Vice Presidents, Boards 
 of Management, Treasurers, Home, Foreign and Recording Sec¬ 
 retaries, all bearing their blushing honors thick upon them, like the 
 arch-bishops, bishops, deans and chapters of a civil establishment 
 of Christianity. 
 
 And yet some persons will affirm that this is all scriptural, and 
 profess to see in the Baptist Triennial Convention, for instance, 
 an organization quite apostolic; but for my own part, I have never 
 been able to discover it. Some have supposed that the germ of 
 the plan of the Triennial Convention may be found in the case of 
 the contributions made by the gentile churches, and carried by 
 delegation to the poor saints in Jerusalem. But there can be no 
 parallel drawn betwixt them in favor of the Convention. These 
 contributions were made for a specific and a temporary purpose, the 
 relief of the poor, at a peculiar juncture, occasioned by a famine, 
 and the money was carried by deputations to Jerusalem, that so 
 the love of the respective churches who had contributed of their 
 substance, might be more powerfully displayed, by this additional 
 proof of self-denial. The truth is, the case now under considera¬ 
 tion is not a case affording a precedent for the formation of organ¬ 
 izations by delegations intended to supplant the peculiar work of 
 the churches of Christ, but is simply one of precedent and rule in 
 the important matter of regulating the pecuniary contributions of 
 
I 
 
 17 
 
 the churches , and extends no farther than to these. The delega¬ 
 tions accompanying the gift of money, were peculiar to the exi¬ 
 gency of the case. The delegates employed, instead of taking 
 the money to a convention, or board, or society, which should 
 afterwards disburse it to applicants, carried it at once to the very 
 spot where it was needed, where misery was felt, and relief de¬ 
 manded, and there they disbursed it. 
 
 Instead, then, of affording a precedent for such a complicated 
 machine as the Baptist Triennial Convention, the pretensions of 
 which extend to the preaching of the gospel to the heathen, the 
 very case now cited in support of it, is entirely against it, as being 
 a scriptural institution. In the case of the collection for the poor 
 saints in Jerusalem, the money was carried by the delegates to 
 the objects of their bounty, and in doing so, no church duty was 
 abandoned, or delegated to them; but churches, attaching them¬ 
 selves to the Baptist Triennial Convention, separate themselves 
 entirely from missionary work, their proper and imperative duty, 
 save in the matter of the pecuniary support of the convention, 
 while the few churches who are qualified by the rules of the con¬ 
 vention, (and they are but few comparatively,) to send delegates 
 to sit as members in the convention, send them upon the aristo¬ 
 cratic principle of representing money , namely, a subscription of 
 three years continuance, of one hundred dollars annually; and 
 when they are there, they have nothing more to do with missionary 
 direction, than mere automata, made to be played upon by the 
 wire-drawers who conduct the movements of the body. It is true, 
 a few of the most influential delegates may have resolutions put 
 into their hands, to be moved for the adoption of the convention, 
 and it is but fitting and proper that they should have something to 
 do, after a long and expensive journey to meet the convention ; 
 while it must be a source of great satisfaction to be so employed, 
 but alas ! such resolutions contribute little towards the evangeli¬ 
 zing of the heathen. It would be doubtless an advantage and 
 might be rendered a profitable subject of inquiry, to bring to 
 the light the multitude of good resolutions which have been 
 moved, and seconded, and adopted by missionary Boards and 
 Conventions, with their corresponding fulfilment; such, for ex¬ 
 ample, as the famous Richmond resolution of the Baptist Tri- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 ennial Convention of 1835, which resolved to raise $100,000 for 
 the service of that year, besides instructing the board of manage¬ 
 ment “to establish new missions in every unoccupied place, 
 where there may be a reasonable prospect of success, and to em¬ 
 ploy in s6me part of the great field, every properly qualified mis¬ 
 sionary, whose services the Board may be able to obtain. ” 
 
 By instituting such an inquiry as I have now proposed, the folly 
 and wickedness of such a procedure of solemn trifling with the 
 everlasting interests of the heathen would be shown, and its utter, 
 and entire destitution of the simplicity which is in Christ, made 
 truly manifest. The Spanish proverb says, and says truly, “that 
 the road to hell is paved with good intentions. ” I am confident 
 that other roads are no less so, and among them may be found the 
 beaten track of modern missionary organizations, not only paved 
 with good intentions, but absolutely encumbering and impeding 
 the traveller who may be truly concerned for the welfare of the 
 perishing heathen. 
 
 And 1 would here inquire, can such an aristocratic state of 
 things belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, such as I have 
 pointed out, and which modern missionary organizations exhibit? 
 It is impossible. The evangelizing of the world is the duty of 
 the churches of Christ, and cannot be delegated by them to any 
 other body, no matter what may be the object of its organization, 
 or the rank, the reputation, or the influence of its membership. 
 It is the duty of churches , in which all are brethren, and not the 
 duty of the church catholic (which, if it has an existence has no 
 tangible visibility, for any purpose of utility,) to work out the 
 commission of Christ, which requires the evangelizing of the world, 
 and not to commute this duty, by simply advancing money to 
 Conventions, Missionary Boards, or Missionary Societies, all of 
 which, with their high sounding pretensions as icholesale mission¬ 
 ary agents, swallow up and engross the spirit of missionary enter- 
 prize, and render its display, or its production, almost impossible 
 among the membership of churches. 
 
 If, then, this be the true character of the missionary enterprize 
 of the last fifty years, it ought not to be matter of astonishment 
 that so little has been done for the heathen, and that the people of 
 God, almost in despair, fold their hands, in utter astonishment, 
 
19 
 
 when they contemplate the picture, and say, “ and at this rate, 
 when shall the world be evangelized, and brought to Christ ? 
 When shall he have the heathen for his inheritance, and the utter¬ 
 most parts of the earth for his possession?” 
 
 Why, the system is deficient in love to Christ, and to the souls of 
 men, and God cannot honor it, as he did the exertions of those who 
 were impelled in all they did and suffered for the diffusion of the 
 gospel, by the constraining love of Christ. Money, money is the 
 object of such organizations, and this, if it be obtained, no matter 
 what may be the principle which actuates the donors. The con¬ 
 tinual cry is money, give us money, and we shall evangelize the 
 heathen; appealing to some of the worst passions of our fallen nature, 
 to vanity, and to the pride of distinction, that so they may obtain sup¬ 
 plies of money, without regard to the only motive of all acceptable 
 obedience in the sight of God, the love of the Saviour. This is 
 strong language, but let the Baptist Board for Foreign Missions 
 speak for itself. In the Report submitted to the Triennial Conven¬ 
 tion in 1841, it says, “ the expediency of providing for the ap¬ 
 pointment to honorary memberships in the Board, annual, and for 
 life, is also submitted respectfully to the consideration of the con¬ 
 vention. The pecuniary condition of membership in the conven¬ 
 tion, is the annual payment of $100. A similar payment, or rather 
 the same might be allowed to constitute, also, an honorary mem¬ 
 bership of the Board, for the year or years in which it was made, 
 and the payment of $ at any one time, to constitute an hono¬ 
 rary life membership. A provision to this end, would have a direct 
 favorable bearing upon the collection of mission funds, and at the 
 same time, promote a feeling of common interest, and of the duty of 
 hearty co-operation in some, who having no personal agency in 
 the doings of the committee or of the Board, are liable to regard 
 them as matters of foreign concernment. ” 
 
 And can such a recommendation be in accordance with the spirit 
 of Christ, and his holy religion? No. It needs to fall under the 
 exhortation of our blessed and humble Master to his disciples, 
 “ except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall 
 not enter into the kingdom of heaven. ” He read this lesson to 
 aspirants after greatness and distinction in the kingdom of heaven, 
 (see Matthew xviii., 1-4,) and I would particularly recoin- 
 
20 
 
 mend its careful study to all missionary financiers, with whom the 
 end sanctifies the means, so long as the present system of mission¬ 
 ary organizations continues. 
 
 But even as a system adapted to raise the greatest amount of 
 pecuniary support, the present organizations are greatly deficient, 
 notwithstanding the utmost ingenuity has been resorted to by de¬ 
 vising plans to ensure it, and the most vigorous efforts employed 
 to give these plans efficiency. And yet all fail. All these soci¬ 
 eties are in debt, expending more than their receipts, and telling 
 the public so, in order that it may take compassion upon them, for 
 doing that for which they would be justly censured in private life. 
 Not a cent a month is collected for the missionary enterprize from 
 the communicants of the Baptist denomination in the United 
 States, and I suppose the working of the system is equally bad 
 throughout the other evangelical denominations, employed in the 
 missionary enterprize. Though the Baptist denomination in the 
 United States be perhaps apparently the lowest in the scale of 
 contribution, when the number of its communicants are taken into 
 the account, the wealth of the other denominations, although perhaps 
 increasing the amount of their contributions, does not, in fact, 
 attest their liberality, as exceeding that of their Baptist brethren. 
 The Baptists in England are often appealed to as contributing 
 far more in proportion to their numbers than their brethren on this 
 side of the Atlantic ; but this is occasioned by the large contribu¬ 
 tions they receive from members of other denominations, whose 
 benevolence cannot be confined by sectarian limits.' In this 
 country this is rarely the case, every denomination being left to 
 its own resources. 
 
 No small portion of the evils attaching to the present sys¬ 
 tem is occasioned by the continual artificial excitement which 
 is resorted to for the purpose of enlarging the contributions 
 for missionary purposes. An extraordinary effort for prayer, for 
 the spread of the gospel, means, too often, an extraordinary effort 
 to raise money, instead of seeking the out-pouring of the Holy 
 Spirit upon evangelizing effort ; and thus the pure, the holy, and 
 the benevolent spirit which ought to characterize the communica¬ 
 tion of the gospel to the perishing heathen, evaporates, and is lost, 
 by coming in contact with pretensions, so easily seen to be wholly 
 secular, instead of pure, and benevolent, and holy. 
 
21 
 
 Another evil connected with the present system of missionary 
 organizations is the absence of responsibility as it respects pecu¬ 
 niary contributions, the neglect of which it cannot reach. A man 
 may give, or he may not give, just as it pleases him, without in¬ 
 curring any degree of inconvenient censure; but were missionary 
 effort combined, as it ought to be, with the action of the church 
 of which he was a member, he could not shrink from the respon¬ 
 sibility of its support, according to his means, without incurring the 
 loss of the confidence of his brethren in his religious character. 
 And why should it not be so? The man who would neglect to con¬ 
 tribute to the support of the ministry of the gospel at home, in the 
 church of which he was a member, would be justly excluded from 
 its fellowship for his covetousness. If then, the propagation of the 
 gospel abroad be equally his duty, the neglect of its support should 
 be in all cases visited with the same penalty. The one must be 
 done, and the other not left undone ; and it is high time that the obli¬ 
 gations of Christians to evangelize the world, as well as their own 
 immediate neighborhoods, were thus pressed upon their attention, 
 and an opportunity afforded them for its display, which by the 
 present missionary organizations is altogether impracticable. Sup¬ 
 posing that modern missionary organizations were proper, it is ut¬ 
 terly disgraceful to professed Christianity, and ought not to be 
 tolerated, that such organizations tell us that they cannot attend to 
 the urgent appeals made by the circumstances of the heathen, 
 where doors of usefulness are opened, for lack of pecuniary means, 
 while abundance of money, and to spare it is admitted, is in the 
 possession of professors of religion, who are members of Christian 
 churches, more than sufficient for the purpose. Surely in such a 
 case as this, the guilt and misery of the heathen must lie at the 
 door of such, and their blood be required at their hands who thus 
 refuse to them the means of safety. Here then is a fearful respon¬ 
 sibility, but who can enforce the penalty of its neglect ? The 
 man who thus treats the claims of the heathen, and the commission 
 of his Saviour, should be written Christless; but who is to do it ? 
 A Missionary Board cannot. But a church of Christ could and 
 ought to do it, and would do it, were the duty of evangelizing the 
 heathen or the world around it considered to be as much its 
 duly as the maintenance of the gospel at home. To the present 
 
22 
 
 system then, may be fairly attributable a large amount of the cov¬ 
 etousness of religious profession, for responsibility in pecuniary 
 contribution is a mere shadow under the present eleemosynary 
 system of contribution for missionary enterprize. It may appeal, 
 as it continually does, to the conscience, but there can be no action 
 to back this appeal. The independence of the churches forbids 
 such an exercise of authority on the part of missionary corporations, 
 and hence responsibility as to the pecuniary support of missions 
 is almost unknown, requiring its inculcation in a connection other 
 than such organizations afford, where it could be enforced and 
 displayed. 
 
 After having pointed out what I consider as limiting and imped¬ 
 ing missionary enterprize, and narrowing the field of success, I 
 now proceed to point out a remedy, such as would ensure a far 
 more extensive system of effort, bring into action the superintend¬ 
 ence of a more effective agency, and the production of such pecu¬ 
 niary support as would leave the energies of this agency free and 
 unfettered in pursuing the great object of evangelization. All 
 this I believe, and more, might be effected by the adoption of the 
 following plan, which I submit with all due deference to the 
 prayerful consideration of the friends of missions generally, and to 
 the Baptist denomination in particular, whether in the United 
 States, or in Great Britain, inasmuch as they were the first to 
 adopt the present defective system, employed to work out the 
 Great Commission, they may be the first to abandon it for one 
 more in accordance with primitive example, the humble and the 
 devoted spirit and temper of Christianity, and the true and proper 
 independence of the churches of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The plan which I propose for the adoption of the churches is 
 the following. 
 
 1. That churches consider themselves in the scriptural light 
 of independent missionary bodies, and bound to discharge all the 
 functions peculiar to this character, in accordance with the com¬ 
 mission to preach the gospel to all nations, as recorded by the 
 evangelist Matthew, xxviii. 19—20. 
 
 2. That in accordance with this view of the missionary char¬ 
 acter of the churches, it be considered imperative upon them to 
 provide missionaries either from among their own membership, 
 
23 
 
 or from the membership of sister churches, men educated for the 
 purpose, and otherwise qualified for the missionary character. 
 That these be sent forth under the sole direction of the church of 
 which they already are or may become members, to that field of la¬ 
 bor to which they may be appointed by the advice of their brethren. 
 
 3. That where one church cannot support two such missiona¬ 
 ries, then let it support one, and uniting with another church simi¬ 
 larly circumstanced, let them thus united send these two mission¬ 
 aries to labor in one locality, (that the example of Christ may be 
 closely followed in this important particular,) under their joint 
 superintendence and direction, each missionary corresponding di¬ 
 rectly with the church to which he belonged, in reporting his labor 
 as the missionary of that church. 
 
 4. That the necessary funds for the support of the mission¬ 
 aries of the churches, be obtained on the same principle as the 
 salaries of the pastors of the particular churches, that is, on 
 one common principle of pecuniary contribution as enjoined by 
 the apostle, in his 1st epistle to the Corinthians, xvi. 2, u Upon 
 the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him 
 in store, as God hath prospered him, ” viewing this injunc¬ 
 tion as not only exhibiting a system as to the mode and time 
 of giving, but also a system shewing the amount of individual con¬ 
 tributions expected under its operation. 
 
 1. The mode of contribution here enjoined, appears in a cer¬ 
 tain sum of money being laid aside for the specific purpose of 
 being paid on a stated occasion. 
 
 2. It was to be contributed on the Lord’s day, when they 
 came together for public worship. 
 
 3. The amount of contribution was systematic , in accordance 
 with an understood rule, and not a capricious or a vague and un¬ 
 defined sum of money which was contributed. 
 
 That the tithe or tenth of income was the rule or standard of 
 contribution, is extremely probable. 
 
 1. Because from the earliest period, it was the standard of 
 contribution for the worship of God, and not peculiar to the Jew¬ 
 ish dispensation. It was paid by Abraham to Melchizedek, the 
 king of Salem, the priest of the most high God, and undoubtedly 
 as a tribute for the support of public worship. When Jacob was 
 
24 
 
 brought to a sense of the enjoyment of the Divine favor by the 
 vision at Bethel, he vowed that when he returned from the distant 
 country to which he was then travelling, he should designate the 
 tenth of his income to the service of Jehovah. 
 
 In these two illustrious cases, we see what was then considered 
 to be the standard of pecuniary contribution for the service of 
 God; and when we reflect that during the patriarchal dispensation 
 no expensive or typical establishment of religion existed, these ex¬ 
 amples are to be viewed as exhibiting public opinion or the pre¬ 
 vailing sentiment on the subject of the support of religion, while 
 to succeeding generations, they ought to be understood as an ex¬ 
 ample of moral obligation to the same import, exhibiting a standard 
 by which all could contribute equally in the sight of God, although 
 not to the same pecuniary amount, owing to the diversity of men’s 
 incomes. 
 
 In the time of our Lord, this equable mode of contribution was 
 neglected to some extent; consequently we see one poor widow 
 contributing in a most disproportionate degree to the service of 
 God, while the rich, though casting into the treasury larger gifts 
 out of their abundance, yet did not do so, after all, to the extent 
 and in accordance with conscientious duty. To bring the churches 
 of Christ to a better state of consecrated conscientious action in 
 pecuniary contribution, seems to me to be the intention of the 
 apostolic rule already referred to. 
 
 2. The application of the apostolic rule required some under¬ 
 stood standard, such as the tithe to fix the amount of contribution, 
 inasmuch as men’s minds would have been otherwise variously in¬ 
 clined according to their natural dispositions with regard to its 
 amount, and doubtless that of the tithe being the well known amount 
 of contribution was the standard by which their contributions were 
 guided in accordance with the state of their worldly circumstances. 
 
 Unless this view of the subject be admitted, we can see no way 
 by which any thing like equality in giving according to their cir¬ 
 cumstances could have been displayed. Under any other system 
 one man would have supposed, for example, one dollar to be amply 
 sufficient as corresponding with his prosperity, while another man 
 with far less means, but possessing a far more devoted and gene¬ 
 rous soul, would have deemed three dollars his proportion. With 
 
an understood standard, and its conscientious application, this ine¬ 
 quality was rendered impossible. 
 
 An assessment upon property to meet the support of the gospel 
 and its propagation either at home or abroad, would not be in ac¬ 
 cordance with the scriptural principle of contribution now stated. 
 In fact it would be at variance with it. That the principle em¬ 
 braces income , from whatever source it is derived, and not pro¬ 
 perty, is obvious from the very circumstance of the contributions 
 being required on the first day of every week ; while the very 
 hebdomadal character of the contributions indicates uncertainty in 
 the source from whence the collection was to be drawn, a char¬ 
 acter which could not apply to hoarded treasures. 
 
 But an assessment upon property, it would be easy to show, 
 would be oppressive and unjust, whereas if laid upon income, it 
 would be equitable and easy. For instance, a person may derive 
 his means of support from money we shall suppose loaned on in¬ 
 terest, or vested in a farm, and rented by another. The capital 
 sum may be $ 4000 , producing an income of $240 per annum. 
 Another individual has only $1000 of capital, but this he has vested 
 in trade or in business, and he derives from it an income of $ 600 . 
 Now if the support of religion was to be derived from an assess¬ 
 ment upon property, would there not be an act of manifest injus¬ 
 tice in assessing the one at $ 4000 , and the other only at $ 1000 , 
 when the difference of income or prosperity are so disproportion¬ 
 ate, making the man with more property but less income, pay four 
 times more than the other. Surely this would not be in accord¬ 
 ance with the divine injunction, “as the Lord had prospered 
 them. ” 
 
 The principle of the tithe applied to income, I recommend then 
 as essential to the working out of the plan I propose. Upon no 
 other principle, so far as pecuniary means are concerned, can the 
 evangelizing of the world be accomplished. It accords with the 
 injunction of Jesus Christ, “seek first the kingdom of God and 
 his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you,” 
 demanding our first attention to the cause of religion, in its propa¬ 
 gation, leaving to His providence every other consideration, 
 whether personal or relative. This injunction, and the promise ap¬ 
 pended tb it, in no wise differed from that which as a general thing 
 4 
 
26 
 
 \ 
 
 was pressed upon the attention of the fearers of God under the 
 old dispensation. u Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with 
 the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with 
 plenty, and thy presses shall burst with new wine. ” 
 
 , But although a tenth or tithe of income be obviously the most 
 moderate amount of voluntary obligation, in contributing to the 
 cause of God, if it can be shown that a less amount will suffice for 
 evangelizing purposes, and the support of the ministry at home, 
 let a smaller amount of contribution be fixed for the time and ad¬ 
 hered to. I care not what this amount may be ; let it be even a 
 twentieth part of income instead of a tenth, only let it be uniform 
 in its application to the members of individual churches, that so 
 there may be conscientious equality in contributing to the cause 
 of God, on the part of every one, as the Lord hath prospered him. 
 All I plead for is the adoption of the general scriptural rule, 
 which will apply to all the members of a church, thus obviating 
 one of the most repulsive features of the present system, that of 
 permitting the covetous, or those who expend nearly the whole of 
 their earnings or income upon the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of 
 the eyes, or the pride of life, from contributing according to their 
 earnings or income, leaving the support of the gospel, in a great 
 degree, to be borne by the truly conscientious and devoted amongst 
 their brethren. 
 
 To apply the general rule now recommended, all that is neces¬ 
 sary is, that every church should adopt a scale of contribution 
 which should meet the general circumstances of its members, and 
 to cover by its adoption every thing demanded from them as a 
 body, in the shape of pecuniary effort. This scale to be applica¬ 
 ble only to weekly payments, in accordance with apostolic rule, 
 and to comprehend payments of 5, 10, 20,25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 
 150, and 200 cents per week, and which scale would certainly 
 embrace the circumstances and condition nearly of all its members, 
 u as God had prospered them.” The members of the church 
 conscientiously ranging themselves according to this scale of con¬ 
 tribution, and making the corresponding payment every Lord’s 
 day to the collecting deacon of the church, or to persons appointed 
 for the purpose. But it must be considered indispensable never 
 to postpone its payment except in the case of unavoidable absence, 
 
27 
 
 the excellence of the scriptural principle, arising from the regular¬ 
 ity of the contribution, and the consequent avoidance of the pres¬ 
 sure of a comparatively large sum at one time, a matter of no 
 little importance to persons with limited incomes, and of which 
 description the churches of Christ must be always composed. 
 
 Christianity, be it observed, is a religion intended to meet the 
 circumstances of such. “ To the poor the gospel is preached, ” 
 and while it does not exclude the rich, it says, “how hardly shall 
 they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. ” The sa¬ 
 cred rites and simple institutions of Jesus Christ are all nicely ad¬ 
 justed with a due regard to the circumstances of comparative pov¬ 
 erty, in which his disciples as bodies were to be found; and to this 
 very circumstance is to be attributed the institution of weekly pe¬ 
 cuniary contribution, as best adapted to their circumstances. The 
 present mode of contribution towards the support and propagation 
 of religion is more adapted to meet the circumstances of persons 
 in a prosperous condition, as to temporal things, than the circum¬ 
 stances of those whose incomes are narrow, and perhaps uncer¬ 
 tain. But by the scriptural plan as enjoined by the apostle, both 
 classes can meet in perfect harmony and equality upon one com¬ 
 mon principle in contributing to the support of the kingdom of 
 God, and the spread of His gospel, the poor rejoicing in that he 
 is exalted, and the rich in that he is made low. 
 
 It ought, then, to be no small recommendation of the scriptural 
 principle of pecuniary contribution, now proposed for the adoption 
 of churches for the propagation of the gospel among the heathen, 
 and for its support at home, that it enables all to be contributors 
 by the payment of small sums weekly, easing none who should 
 not be eased, nor burdening those who should not be burdened. 
 
 Another recommendation of the plan proposed is, that the pay¬ 
 ments being made in detail, they are comparatively unfelt, and the 
 wisdom of God is seen in the appointment, when it is considered in 
 this light. The fact is, by disbursements in themselves small, the 
 great expenditures of mankind are commonly made, and large 
 results realized from this mode of operation. The immense sums, 
 for instance, expended by the use of that filthy and detestable 
 weed, tobacco, never would be expended were its purchases 
 made by its consumers every quarter, but being purchased from 
 
28 
 
 hand to mouth, the gratification of this vile lust commands an ex- 
 penditure which it never could command upon any other principle.* 
 
 Enough has been said, I would lain hope, in commendation of 
 the principle, by the operation of which, adequate funds would be 
 obtained for every purpose in accordance with the working out of 
 the great commission, both at home and abroad. 
 
 To show the practical working of the principle proposed to 
 guide the contributions of the churches, I will suppose a church 
 of 1G0 members to adopt it, and under its operation to raise the 
 funds requisite for every purpose required by the church. I sup¬ 
 pose it will hardly be necessary for me to explain that the proposed 
 mode of contribution does not simply apply to weekly incomes, 
 but only to weekly contributions , in accordance with the current 
 general circumstances of individuals. These may be furnished 
 by weekly, monthly, or annual incomes, or averaged estimates' 
 of income from trades, just as the providence of God may have 
 disposed the circumstances of individuals. The members I shall 
 suppose would contribute according to the following scale, at 
 the rate of one twentieth part of their income. 
 
 10 
 
 members without income 
 
 or wages, 
 
 • 
 
 * 
 
 $000 
 
 25 
 
 u earning 
 
 $1 per week, l-20th, 
 
 or 5 cts 
 
 per 
 
 week, 65 
 
 50 
 
 CC CC 
 
 2 “ 
 
 CC CC 
 
 CC 10 CC 
 
 CC 
 
 “ 260 
 
 20 
 
 CC u 
 
 4 “ 
 
 CC CC 
 
 “ 20 “ 
 
 CC ‘ 
 
 “ 208 
 
 50 
 
 CC CC 
 
 5 “ 
 
 CC CC 
 
 “25 “ 
 
 CC 
 
 “ 650 
 
 5 
 
 CC CC 
 
 10 “ 
 
 CC CC 
 
 “ 50 “ 
 
 CC 
 
 “ 130 
 
 160 members, 52 
 
 weeks, l-20th of income, 
 
 - 
 
 $ 1,313 
 
 * It will scarcely be credited, but yet it is no less true, that in one year duty has been 
 paid to the government of Great Britain upon 18,504,510 lbs. of unmanufactured tobacco, 
 entered for home consumption, amounting to the enormous sum of £2,775.676 10a-. ster¬ 
 ling, and which, before it reached the consumer, had to be charged with the importer's 
 price and profit as well as that of the manufacturer’s and retailer's, making together a 
 cost of little short of twenty millions of dollars, paid by the inhabitants of Great Britain 
 and Ireland for this article of luxury , and in the manner above referred to. 
 
 The consumption of tobacco in the United States, I suppose, exceeds that of Great 
 Britain, although the population is but one half that of the latter, but let us take it at the 
 same amount and as costing the American consumer only one third what it costs the 
 British consumer, and we have the enormous amount of nearly seven mil/imis of dollars 
 expended upon this vile narcotic weed by all classes of the community, including pro¬ 
 fessors of religion and ministers of the gospel, who can have no better plea for its use 
 than could be made and sustained for opium and brandy. Talk of temperance and right¬ 
 eousness, while expending seven millions of dollars on tobacco and not half a million on 
 the missionary enterprize!! 1 
 

 29 
 
 To accomplish the above collection in as short a period as pos¬ 
 sible, let fifteen collectors be appointed, each having charge of the 
 collection to be taken from ten contributors. Let them be fur¬ 
 nished with books containing 52 tables, having on the left pages 
 blank lines for the names of the ten members, and on the right 
 hand page columns headed with the various items of contribution, 
 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200 cents. When a pay¬ 
 ment is made let it be immediately filled into the proper column 
 corresponding with the name, and when all was collected, which 
 would be the work of but a few moments, (the parties handing 
 their contributions in small packets of paper, on which their names 
 should be written,) let the whole sum be paid to the collecting 
 deacon or treasurer, whose signature to the same would be a 
 voucher for the collector’s faithful discharge of his duty and a 
 check upon the deacon or treasurer. 
 
 In the supposed case of the church of 160 members, I have 
 not included any payments above fifty cents per week, and have 
 supposed the rate of assessment at only one-twentieth part of in¬ 
 come; but if the scriptural principle of a tenth had been supposed, 
 the amount would have been exactly double, $2,626. And who 
 can say that upon this principle this sum could not be easily raised 
 from the poorest of our orthodox churches. Why, the payment 
 of ten cents from an individual only earning $1 per week, a female 
 help, I shall suppose, and leaving ninety cents for her own purposes, 
 putting it into a bag without holes, and enjoying the blessing of God, 
 who would say that the ninety cents would not procure to her all 
 needful necessaries, and that no real comfort would be abridged by 
 being confined to its expenditure. The same remark would hold 
 equally good, nay, much more so, when applied to larger incomes. 
 
 The application of the principle I have now recommended, is 
 destined, if adopted, to produce the most wonderful results in favor 
 of religion. Then would the stated ministry at home be ade¬ 
 quately supported, the destitute portions of our own country sup¬ 
 plied, the foreign field overspread and occupied, the Bible largely 
 distributed, education promoted, and many running to and fro, the 
 knowledge of the Lord would be increased with a rapidity and to 
 an extent such as prophecy in its glowing descriptions warrants 
 us to anticipate, but which from the present eleemosynary princi¬ 
 ple in general use, never can be realized. 
 
30 
 
 That this is no exaggerated picture, let it be considered that at 
 the very moderate rate of supposed contribution for religious pur¬ 
 poses, of one-twentieth of income in the church of 160 members, 
 the Boston Baptist Association, which is composed of 38 churches 
 containing 8734 members, would yield a sum not less than $71,673 
 for the worship of God, and the propagation of the gospel. But 
 who does not know, who knows anything at all of the wealth in 
 these churches, that this sum would be more than quadrupled were 
 the equitable mode of contribution adopted, such as I have pro¬ 
 posed, although but to the extent of one-twentieth of income, and a 
 sum far greater than is contributed by all the Baptist churches in 
 the United States, to the Baptist Board for Foreign Missions for 
 the missionary enterprize, be obtained from this Association alone. 
 Even at the rate assumed in the supposed case, where the highest 
 rate of contribution is only $26 per annum from an income of 
 $520, after defraying the salaries of the pastors of the various 
 churches, there would remain for evangelizing purposes nearly 
 $40,000. If, however, a voluntary assessment of a tenth were 
 adopted even upon the very low scale of individual income, sup¬ 
 posed not exceeding $520 per annum, there would remain after 
 defraying the salaries of the pastors of the thirty-eight churches of 
 the Association, more than $100,000 for evangelizing purposes. 
 Such would be the power of the application of the scripture prin¬ 
 ciple now recommended for adoption, even supposing the income 
 of the members were to be estimated at this very low rate, and 
 which has been purposely done to meet the fact of the great num¬ 
 ber of female members of our churches with very limited incomes. 
 In the supposed case, however, more than half of the church is 
 supposed not to earn more than $2 per week, i. e. 10 nothing, 
 25 members $1, and 50 members $2 per week, thus embracing 
 85 out of the 160 members. 
 
 In the case of the Boston Baptist Association, I have not al¬ 
 luded to the building of places of worship and the consequent 
 charges of interest on money borrowed for their erection. By 
 the proposed scriptural plan of contribution, I have no doubt but 
 this would in all cases be adequately met, taking rent of pews only 
 from persons who are not members of the churches, and who 
 would not, it is probable, occupy places statedly unless they were 
 
31 
 
 permitted to pay for them. But supposing it was deemed proper 
 to take rent for pew accommodation from members as well as 
 others, I could see no objection against it, inasmuch as it would 
 be only paying for a temporal accommodation, and which for the 
 time was held as their property. In all cases, however, the rent 
 exacted should be so low as to cover at the utmost the interest 
 only of the money expended upon the erection of the place of wor¬ 
 ship, and thus no hindrance but rather an encouragement would be 
 afforded to attendance upon public worship. 
 
 Let us suppose a case. A place of worship has been erected 
 at an expense of $40,000, affording pew accommodation for 900 
 sittings. The interest of this sum, supposing it were all borrowed 
 at 6 per cent, would be $2,400. Of the 900 sittings I shall sup¬ 
 pose 600 were occupied. Let these be rented at the rate of $4 
 each, or one dollar per quarter, and we have at once the required 
 sum,—a rate so moderate that it could not interfere with the 
 amount of stated and regular attendance upon public worship, but 
 would rather encourage and promote it. There would besides be 
 equity in this mode of proceeding, because a man would not be 
 taxed for the support of religion when it had no hold of his affec¬ 
 tions, but only for that which he actually enjoyed, his pew accom¬ 
 modation. It is a great absurdity, if it be not positively sinful, to 
 tax an ungodly man for the worship of God who has no heart to 
 it, while it is evident that by the present system, there is a ten¬ 
 dency to drive such men away from our public assemblies whose at¬ 
 tendance ought rather to be encouraged, by our demanding nothing 
 more from them than a reasonable compensation for their comfort¬ 
 able accommodation in the pews they occupy.* 
 
 * The debt of the nine Baptist churches in the city of Boston, amounts to $62,7G9. 
 Of this sum, no less than two-thirds of the annual charge of interest is provided for by 
 the rents received from stores, school-rooms, &c., under the places of worship, and rent¬ 
 ed by occupants. The number of communicants in the nine churches, is 4023. Now ap¬ 
 ply the supposed case of ono twentieth of income as the scale of contribution by these 
 members of the nine churches, and low as is the supposed amount of income they enjoy, 
 we shall have a product of no less than $33,012 
 
 From this deduct the salaries of the pastors of the churches, $13,600 
 
 Interest of money borrowed on the erection of the places of wor¬ 
 ship, $22,269, and to be provided for, 1,336 
 
 Leaving $18,076 
 
 for evangelizing purposes, and which would enable these nine churches to sustain no less 
 than thirty missionaries, while if a tenth of income was applied as the scale of contribu- 
 
 I 
 
32 
 
 5. That if the plan now submitted should meet with the gen¬ 
 eral concurrence of the various evangelical denominations, the mis¬ 
 sionaries employed at present by the various boards of foreign 
 missions be requested to become the missionaries of the particular 
 churches, adopting the plan, and upon their becoming so, their 
 connection to 'Cease and determine with the boards. In this way, 
 in no short time would such organizations be speedily released 
 from all responsibility, and their labors cease being merged in 
 the action of the churches at large. 
 
 6. As a necessary consequence of the adoption of the plan 
 now proposed, more prominence would be given to the diffusion 
 of the gospel, both at home and abroad, by the individual action 
 of the churches ; it would therefore be necessary to form associ¬ 
 ations of ten to fifteen churches in each, who by taking cognizance 
 of missionary enterprize, and exhibiting its interesting details as 
 communicated by the missionaries of the respective churches of 
 these associations would thereby excite a more general interest in 
 the propagation of the gospel, titan exists at present, besides con¬ 
 tributing to the permanence of this interest. Such associations of 
 churches to meet quarterly, and a digest of the missionary infor¬ 
 mation communicated, to be afterwards published either in some 
 of the religious periodicals of the day, or published by the associ¬ 
 ations themselves, for general circulation amongst the members of 
 the churches. These associations could combine, with what is 
 now proposed, all that is done at present by the association of 
 churches, particularly in the Baptist denomination, (which is chiefly 
 statistical,) and further, they would undoubtedly prove, wherever 
 
 lion, this number could be doubled, besides permitting the expenditure of more than 
 $15,000 upon other benevolent objects, such as the support of the Bible cause, and our 
 theological educational institutions. 
 
 And who daresay that all this could not be done by these churches, and easily done, 
 and ought not to be attempted. I have confidence in their love and attachment to the 
 Saviour and to His cause. From what I know of these churches, I have estimated their 
 pecuniary ability far too low, and I must, therefore, say to them, u forgive me this 
 wrong." But low as is the supposed case of their ability to contribute, what a noble ex¬ 
 ample would be presented to the world were this view of ability acted vpon, and thirty 
 missionaries sent forth from the Baptist churches in the city of Boston, to labor in that 
 interesting field now opened up in the immense empire of China for the propagation of 
 the gospel, besides employing thirty more in what is denominated the Home field—the 
 destitute portions of our own country. Some may say, where are the men ? I reply, 
 they are in the churches. They can provide both the men and the means if duty be ap¬ 
 prehended as it is now pressed upon their attention; 
 
 » 
 
33 
 
 they were held, truly beneficial to the interests of religion, com¬ 
 bined as they would be with the religious exercises adopted and 
 proper for such occasions. 
 
 This is a brief outline of the plan which I propose to work out 
 the Great Commission of preaching the gospel to the heathen, and 
 to the destitute portions of our own country, namely, by individ¬ 
 ual churches becoming what Jesus Christ has intended they should 
 be, truly missionary in their character, and as a necessary result 
 of this character, engaging directly and personally in the work by 
 the support of missionaries either in the home or in the foreign 
 field, such persons laboring under their sole direction, without the 
 aid of a missionary Board, and all this based upon a holy consecra¬ 
 tion of property to the service of God on the part of the members 
 of these churches, according to their circumstances. 
 
 The following advantages would be more than realized by its 
 adoption. 
 
 1. Jt would present missionary enterprize in a more scriptural 
 light to the world, and it would be more authoritative, because 
 more in accordance with the will of Christ, than the present mis¬ 
 sionary organizations of legally incorporated bodies, to whom the 
 Great Commission cannot by any possibility apply. Its execution 
 is enjoined upon churches, and its most encouraging promise, u Lo 
 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, ” is ad¬ 
 dressed to churches engaged in working it out; while at present, 
 by the existing missionary organizations of Boards, &c., the pas¬ 
 tors, deacons and members of churches are turned into mere col¬ 
 lectors of cents and dollars, without ever once coming into direct 
 and personal contact with missionary direction, unless they are 
 aristocratic enough to represent a sum of money, which in the 
 case of the 'Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions 
 must be not less than $300 contributed in sums of $100 annually 
 for three years, or some similar or honorary qualifications, present¬ 
 ing a system of exclusiveness and usurpation, although avowedly 
 made in the service of God, yet utterly repugnant to the institu¬ 
 tions of Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. Another advantage resulting from the proposed plan would 
 be, that if adopted, the heavy expense attending the direction of 
 missionary enterprize by the present system would be saved, and 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 every cent contributed for the purpose of evangelizing the heathen 
 would in that case be appropriated to its legitimate purpose. I 
 do not mean, however, to be understood as insinuating that the 
 charges attending the present management of missionary corpora¬ 
 tions are extravagant; far from it. Such an expenditure, heavy as 
 it is, is unavoidable by the present system, but it is a humbling 
 consideration, that from the receipts of the Baptist Board for For¬ 
 eign Missions for instance, for the year ending 16th April, 1841, 
 amounting to $50,924,44, no less a sum than $9886,59 was neces¬ 
 sarily expended in the expense of management and collection, being 
 a charge of more than nineteen per cent, or about one fifth part of 
 the whole, while the expense of the last year’s management and 
 collection, ending 1st April 1842, amounted to $9015,14, and the 
 receipts up to the same period not including legacies and dividends 
 on bank stock and loans w T as only $46,053,83, shewing the perma¬ 
 nence of the amount of the charge for management and collection 
 to be nearly one fifth of the entire revenue derived from the con¬ 
 tributions of the Baptist churches in the United States. 
 
 Now this whole sum is totally lost, as far as it regards the great 
 object for which it was collected, for of every $100 collected by 
 a church, $19 of it or more is expended by the management of the 
 Board in Boston or its agents; and it is surely high time that the 
 churches, by doing their own missionary work, should not only in¬ 
 crease their means of promoting the work of God, but prevent 
 this unnecessary expenditure of money by the adoption of the plan 
 I have proposed, or some other, combining the same scriptural and 
 rational principles which it embraces. 
 
 But a very large sum of money is expended by ministers and 
 others in travelling to distant parts of the United States as dele¬ 
 gates to conventions and annual meetings of a similar character, 
 which should be saved, and which, although the present system 
 deems essential for its support, is rendered burdensome to indi¬ 
 viduals; while such meetings afford no scope for business of any 
 importance as pertaining to the great and professed object for 
 which they are convened, being limited more to that which is 
 purely honorary or necessary to sanction the official action of their 
 officers. 
 
 The great expenditure attending such convocations may be best 
 
35 
 
 understood, when I state that at the tenth Triennial Meeting of 
 the Baptist General Convention held in Baltimore in 1841, no less 
 than 261 members were present, whose travelling expenses, avera¬ 
 ging them at $20, (which is certainly a very low average,) must 
 have exceeded the sum of $5220! ! I ask, is such an expendi¬ 
 ture justifiable, and should it be permitted when it is ostensibly 
 made in behalf of the cause of missions, and yet has no possible 
 influence of a salutary description, unless solemn trifling with the 
 interests of the perishing heathen is to be considered as salutary 
 and useful. For what, after all, do such conventions produce ? 
 Perhaps a few good resolutions moved seconded and adopted, the 
 performance of which is always doubtful, and as I have already 
 shown, sometimes impracticable. No doubt they elect a board of 
 managers, but in general these managers have nothing more to do 
 in missionary direction than the slips they occupy for the time 
 being in the place of meeting where they are convened, while this 
 idle position, this otium cum dignitate , is coveted and sought after; 
 and on the last occasion of the meeting of the Triennial Conven¬ 
 tion at Baltimore, was made the arena of the alleged influence of 
 pro-slavery men over the real directors and managers of the conven¬ 
 tion in the disposal of this dignity. And are such doings worthy 
 of men whose minds are enlightened as to the claims of the per¬ 
 ishing heathen? Solemn trifling and idle words at an expense of 
 some $5000, which would have sufficed to have employed several 
 missionaries for years, preaching the love of God in the gift of 
 His Son, in the promising field of missionary labor now opened 
 up in China, but which cannot be occupied, it seems, for want of 
 funds—$5000 expended for the benefit of rail road and steam boat 
 corporations, to bring together men, not as the representatives of 
 the piety and the wisdom of the churches of Christ, but actually as 
 the representatives of their wealth; and this ostensibly for the benefit 
 of the perishing heathen ! ! ! 
 
 3. Another advantage resulting from the proposed plan, if 
 adopted, would arise from the circumstance of the funds employed 
 in missionary enterprize being all derived from sources satisfactory 
 to the parties, under whose superintendence they would be ex¬ 
 pended, and the independence of the churches secured, both in 
 the north and in the south upon the subject of slavery, in connec¬ 
 tion with the propagation of the gospel among the heathen. 
 
4. The plan proposed, if adopted, will introduce and promote 
 a system of liberality towards the support of missionary effort and 
 every other benevolent enterprize, now so lamentably deficient. 
 
 The complaint has become universal respecting the absence of 
 liberality in pecuniary contributions, from all the orthodox mis¬ 
 sionary organizations in the land. But I do not blame the churches 
 so much for withholding it, as the system which is so clamorous to 
 obtain contributions, because the responsibility of the churches has 
 never been urged upon them in a tangible shape. It has always 
 come before them in a vague and undefined form; but the plan 
 submitted for the adoption of the churches, brings responsibility to 
 every Christian’s door, under a system from which none can or 
 ought to be exempted, and men’s professions of religion w'ould be, 
 to some extent at least, tried by their works under its operation. 
 For lack of a system of responsibility, the commission of Christ 
 which enjoins the evangelization of the world, has been fed like 
 Lazarus by the crumbs which fell from our tables, and men have 
 been permitted to rob God in tithes and offerings without any 
 feeling of compunction or remorse, as if it were no crime to in¬ 
 dulge in covetous desires and ambitious projects, while the word 
 of God sounds in their ears, that no covetous man who is an idol¬ 
 ater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 
 
 With a system of weekly contributions, such as I have recom¬ 
 mended from the word of God, such a state of things could not ex¬ 
 ist as is at present displayed by all denominations with regard to 
 pecuniary effort. At the late missionary conference of the Bap¬ 
 tist denomination, held in Worcester, Mass., one member de¬ 
 clared that the church of which he was the pastor, could do with 
 ease for the missionary enterprize all that was contributed by the 
 Baptist churches in the United States for the same purpose. 
 Startling as is such an announcement with God’s declared hatred 
 of covetousness, and its total inconsistency with the Christian char¬ 
 acter, yet I believe there are many such churches, not only in the 
 Baptist denomination, but in every other denomination in the land 
 who are in the possession of wealth, but will part with no more 
 than is barely sufficient to maintain the decencies of public wor¬ 
 ship, and even this in so limited a degree that the ministry of such 
 churches is held on a pinching tenure, approaching to, if not abso- 
 
/ 
 
 37 
 
 kite poverty, while the cause of God in the regions beyond them 
 must be supported by contributions, which is to them of no com¬ 
 parative importance, and go a begging elsewhere to receive a sim¬ 
 ilar stinted measure of countenance, that so it may not absolutely 
 perish. We want then a system, and such a system as will insure 
 the action of responsibility in contributing of our pecuniary means 
 for every department of the service of God. Such a system the 
 word of God has unfolded. It possesses the attribute of being 
 purely voluntary and not compulsory, leaving to every individual 
 to fix the weekly amount of his contributions, in accordance with 
 his general circumstances, while it at the same time enables his 
 brethren to judge of his sincerity and conscientiousness in doing so. 
 
 5. Another advantage resulting from the plan I have proposed 
 would be, that the missionary enterprize would not be presented 
 in its present imposing sectarian attitude , either at home or 
 abroad. For example, individual missionaries would be found 
 prosecuting their labours and advocating their peculiar views of 
 the ordinances of Jesus Christ, not as the representatives of the 
 Baptist denomination of England or of America, but of individual 
 churches. Truth would not be presented so strongly denomina¬ 
 tional as is now done by Baptists and Pedo Baptists. Individual 
 effort would be displayed to the perishing heathen on the part of 
 the missionary, not as the action of a unit of a large and powerful 
 denomination, but as that of a unit of an independent body of 
 Christians, a church of Jesus Christ. 
 
 With regard to the influence of the proposed plan upon party 
 spirit at home, there would be a corresponding advantage gained, 
 as by its adoption there would be, to some extent, at least a les¬ 
 sening of sectarian influence, so far as the diminution of denomi¬ 
 national masses is concerned in missionary organizations. Such 
 masses, controlled as they often are by the elite of the various 
 denominations, have naturally this tendency, keeping sects apart 
 from each other, producing exclusiveness, fortifying prejudice and 
 strengthening those platforms of doctrine or order, which operate 
 so disastrously to the cause of truth by impeding investigation. 
 
 6. Another advantage resulting from the proposed plan would 
 be, the sympathy produced by it in behalf of the missionary. At 
 present this exists nowhere but in the imagination of those who 
 
 i 
 
33 
 
 know no better. It may be felt officially by the Board under 
 whom he serves, but it ought to be felt as for the ministry at home, 
 and even to a far greater degree by personal considerations, such 
 as the plan proposed would serve to elicit. For instance, the 
 correspondence being mutual, and direct, and regular, would in¬ 
 sure a sympathy which cannot exist under the present system. 
 The journal of a missionary in such a connection would be read 
 with an interest which is nowhere displayed by the perusal of 
 such a document in the pages of a magazine. Our missionary 
 would sound somewhat like our minister in the ears of an affec¬ 
 tionate, a deeply devoted and pious people. They would then 
 have an object to pray for in the success of his labors, and a soli¬ 
 citude to feel for his personal comfort, which is unknown by the 
 existing plan of operations; while this very sympathy would ope¬ 
 rate in producing a missionary spirit it is probable, in the breasts 
 of many among them, who would seek to share in person with 
 him his toils, his privations, and his triumphs in the propagation 
 of the gospel. And this is just what is wanted. Missionaries 
 ought to be augmented ten thousand fold. By the present system 
 this is impossible, while the plan laid down by me is evidently 
 calculated to do so. 
 
 Such are a few of the obvious advantages which would result 
 from the adoption of the plan proposed, to give energy and power 
 to missionary enterprize. I have now to notice some anticipated 
 objections to the proposed plan. 
 
 1. Missionaries would not be inclined to exercise that confi¬ 
 dence in churches which they now repose in missionary societies 
 or boards for their support. This objection supposes that men 
 will be governed by sordid pecuniary considerations in this matter, 
 and that the spirit which is enkindled in the bosom of the mission¬ 
 ary, of love to Christ and to the perishing souls of the heathen, 
 would be quenched for lack of confidence in the church for his 
 support, which designates him and sends him forth to his field of 
 missionary labor. I have shown that by the proposed plan of sys¬ 
 tematic responsibility with regard to pecuniary contributions ope¬ 
 rating in churches, there would be always abundance and to spare 
 for the support of every good work, and therefore no missionary 
 under its operation could miss an adequate and due support, which 
 
39 
 
 he hardly enjoys by the present eleemosynary system of contribu¬ 
 tion to missionary boards. My plan is to remove him from a de¬ 
 pendence upon a society supported by a miserable system of men¬ 
 dicity, to one of simple dependence upon the church of which he is 
 a member, and for which he is a missionary of the cross of Jesus 
 Christ, and who of their abundance shall minister to his necessi¬ 
 ties upon the same principle upon which they support their minis¬ 
 ter at home. 
 
 2. Another objection may be anticipated and answered, as 
 arising from the difficulty of possessing in our churches suitable 
 persons for conducting the necessary correspondence with the 
 missionaries employed. But surely between pastors, church 
 clerks and deacons, so very simple a matter as this cannot be seri¬ 
 ously urged ^s an objection. There is no mystery in such mat¬ 
 ters, at least there should be none. 
 
 3. Another objection may be stated and obviated, and that is, 
 the difficulty of remitting monies to the missionaries employed in 
 foreign lands. To this I reply that commercial houses of agency 
 are to be found in all directions, who receive money and pay drafts 
 upon them with as much readiness from or in behalf of an individ¬ 
 ual, as they will from a corporate body. The difference betwixt 
 a number of churches remitting monies abroad, and that of a so¬ 
 ciety or board, would be a mere matter of postage and not one of 
 impracticability, as some may suppose. Nothing is more easy. 
 The directors of missions find more difficulty in getting the money 
 from the public, than they do in remitting it to the missionaries; 
 the latter trouble never turned any man’s hair gray, the former 
 doubtless has in some cases contributed to do so. 
 
 4. Another objection may arise, and that is the difficulty of 
 fixing upon proper spheres of missionary labor. This objection 
 disappears when we consider that by the proposed plan there 
 could be no objection against the occupying of the present loca¬ 
 tions, but especially when we reflect that missionaries are re¬ 
 quired in every heathen land where they would be tolerated. 
 Shew me a spot on earth where the gospel has not been preached, 
 or is not preached, and there is the spot where we are bound to 
 carry it. 
 
 Such are a few of the anticipated objections against the pro- 
 
40 
 
 posed plan. I know of no others which can stand examination, 
 I fear none but such as that pride which courts distinction, covet¬ 
 ousness, and the love of the world will bring against it. May the 
 Lord consume such objections with the breath of His mouth and 
 with the brightness of His coming. Prejudice in favor of old es¬ 
 tablished practice may also shake its hoary locks and say, u beware 
 of tampering with that which time has rendered venerable. ” But 
 let the pile be what it may, the foundation I have proved to be rick¬ 
 ety, insecure, and even condemned by the word of God as raised 
 without His authority; and although it has stood for half a century, 
 it ought to come down and give place to one possessing divine 
 authority, upon which missionary enterprize could build upwards 
 and onwards to eternity. 
 
 I am well aware, that before the plan I have submitted for the 
 consideration of the people of God can be adopted generally, they 
 must display a higher tone of piety in their souls, and a deeper sense 
 of obligation to the love of God than appears at present. Both are 
 lamentably deficient. That this high tone and that this sense of ob¬ 
 ligation is deficient in the churches, is however their crime and 
 not their misfortune, and ought to be sought after and obtained 
 without delay. It is not wealth nor membership which we re¬ 
 quire, but divine influence which is needed to effect this, com¬ 
 bined with scriptural views of duty, inducing to a holy consecra¬ 
 tion, such as our obligations to God should produce, and which 
 His cause demands. Under the views which I have presented 
 of the 'duty of churches as to the support and propagation of the 
 gospel, this holy consecration is not dependent upon the posses¬ 
 sion of wealth, but upon self-denial , and honorable as this is in 
 the sight of God, it is within the reach of every individual to dis¬ 
 play it, with but few exceptions. It is testified of the churches 
 of Macedonia u how that in a great trial of affliction, the abun¬ 
 dance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches 
 of their liberality.” 
 
 Some may think the application of such a rule as I advocate as 
 to contributions for the support of the gospel would be grievous 
 and burdensome, but I am convinced it would be found the re¬ 
 verse, and would prove a source of joy and satisfaction to every 
 rightly constituted mind enlisted in the service of the divine Re- 
 
41 
 
 deemer, besides contributing much to the peace and to the har¬ 
 mony of churches. 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood by every individual joining him¬ 
 self to the churches of Jesus Christ, that the cause of God in 
 which he is embarked, requires pecuniary support, and must have 
 it in accordance with the scriptural precedent and rule which regu¬ 
 lates the pecuniary contributions oj churches , “ upon the first day 
 of the iveek let every one ofi you lay by him in store as the Lord 
 hath prospered him , ” and from the application of which to his 
 circumstances there must be no shrinking nor holding back per¬ 
 mitted, u for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. ” 
 
 Such expectations should not be concealed from the member¬ 
 ship of churches. They ought to hold a prominent place in all 
 church articles of faith and covenant engagements, and should be 
 forthwith universally adopted, not as a hardship or as a grievance, 
 but as a high privilege. A fifth part of income was required by 
 the benefactor of Egypt for the service of its monarch, for the 
 purpose of maintaining the government of the country. This was 
 far from being an oppressive impost, and when all things are con¬ 
 sidered, was a wise and a proper one. The Egyptians consid¬ 
 ered it to be so, for Joseph was hailed as the saviour of the coun¬ 
 try, and its benefactor; and shall Christians grudge a tenth or even 
 a twentieth of their incomes to the service of Him, who hath re¬ 
 deemed them with His own precious blood from the lowest hell, 
 while they behold a heathen nation willingly yielding a fifth of their 
 yearly incomes at the demand of a man who had only saved their 
 lives from famine, and their nation from ruin. 
 
 Under the present system of supporting the cause of God and 
 propagating the gospel, too much is expected from the wealthy 
 on the part of those who find it convenient to plead their poverty 
 as an excuse for the smallness of their contributions, but which is 
 occasioned not by their poverty, but by the lack of self-denial. 
 This is an intolerable meanness which ought to be discounte¬ 
 nanced wherever it is displayed, and Christians ought to know 
 that it is not wealth after all, but self-denial on which dependance 
 should be placed for the support and the propagation of the gos¬ 
 pel both at home and abroad. In the exercise of self-denial on 
 the part of Christians, all that the world requires to supply its 
 6 
 
42 
 
 \ 
 
 spiritual destitution can be obtained without difficulty, and a stop 
 put to the present eleemosynary system, which in my humble 
 opinion is as disgraceful to religion as it is pernicious to its in¬ 
 terests. 
 
 In conclusion, for the members of the various boards and so¬ 
 cieties employed in the work of conducting foreign mission¬ 
 ary operations, I may be permitted to say, I entertain the 
 most profound respect. With not a few of the members of 
 such boards and societies I have had the pleasure of personal 
 acquaintanceship and friendship, and which I hope will continue, 
 and wherever I have labored in the pastoral office I have 
 done all in my power to sustain them and hold them up to pub¬ 
 lic confidence. But 1 cannot shut my eyes to the conviction 
 that the system of organization pursued by all is not com¬ 
 petent for the task it has assumed, and that it has had, and still 
 has a paralyzing influence upon the churches, leading them to 
 delegate to such bodies their own proper work , instead of evan¬ 
 gelizing the heathen by their direct and personal effort; committing 
 this most important of all duties, next to that of their own salvation, 
 to a delegation such as a missionary board, comprizing a few indi¬ 
 viduals raised to notoriety by its operation, and possessing appa¬ 
 rently a life interest in the important matter of conducting, in a 
 kind of wholesale w 7 ay, missionary enterprize among the heathen. 
 
 Such a state of things as I have pointed out ought not to con¬ 
 tinue any longer. The churches of Jesus Christ I trust will 
 awake, and shake themselves from the dust of sloth and love of 
 the world, and look no longer on their own things, but every 
 man also on the things of others with the benevolence of Christ 
 streaming from their hearts, till the wilderness and the solitary 
 place shall be glad for them, and the desert rejoice and blossom 
 as the rose. 
 

 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I