Christians can sustain a reputation for Christian consistency without laboring to extend the gospel to pagan lands. 3. The accession of the American churches to the missionary enter prise was another and a glorious stage in its progress. 4. But if the adhesion of Christians to this object, in their denomirations and larger divisions, was important, equally important was it to be able to announce that the missionary spirit had descended to the individual members of the particular churches and congregations of which these denominations are composed, and had created for itself a deep, general, and permanent interest in the mass. 5. The formation of branch and auxiliary societies, by which the cause of missions becomes located among a people, draws them gradually within the circle of its action, and lays all the piety which may exist among them under contribution for its advancement, is to be marked as another leading event. 6. The conviction which has now generally obtained that the missionary service deserves the consecration of the greatest talent, and the most marked wisdom and piety, which the churches can supply, is a distinct indication of another stage in the progress which that service is making in public opinion, and is full of promise as to the character of its future agency. 7. Another era in its history was the employment of native agency, and the project of instituting colleges abroad with an ultimate view to the education of that agency for more efficient service. If we are not intending to furnish the nations with an adequate supply of stated preaching from our own land, and for generations to come, the heathen must be rendered independent of Christendom for their religious instructors as soon as possible. And in no other way can this be done than by taking the necessary steps for raising up a native ministerial agency. 8. And another important step in the progress of missions is the conviction which is beginning to obtain, not only that the Christian church must be brought to look more closely and practically at the object of evangelizing the earth, but that for this end it must act on a system. The more vast its projects, the greater the necessity of a fixedness of design, and a steady adaptation of means to the end. On this principle it is that an American Missionary Society has lately presented the outline of a plan for its own operations, the filling up of which, under the divine sanction, will plant four or five hundred stations in the more eligible parts of Africa and Asia, as well as thirty or forty

theological seminaries, and require about twelve hundred ordained missionaries, and three hundred laymen, as physicians, printers, and teachers. Thus the most enlarged desires are beginning to assume that distinctness of plan which is essential to their wise and steady prosecution.

*

IV. The following table [p. 161] contains a statistical survey of our principal missionary societies, arranged alphabetically, and of their present operations. Other societies exist of a strictly missionary character; but they are not here introduced, not because they are not equally meritorious with those named, but because they do not directly contemplate the conversion of the heathen. Such are the Colonial Missionary Society; the European Society for aiding the Diffusion of evangelical Christianity on the Continent of Europe; and the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East.

From this survey, and from other inquiries made by the writer, but to which the replies have not been sufficiently definite to justify insertion, it will be seen that there exist at present, in Britain and America, about † fourteen missionary societies; of which seven may be denominated first-rate; the remaining seven, were they blended into one, would not much more than equal a single society of the former class.

That the annual income of these societies amounts to about £505,000; of which about £400,000 are contributed by British Christians, and the remainder by the Christians of America.

That the number of missionaries at present in the field of labor is about fifteen hundred; and that these missionaries occupy about twelve hundred principal or central stations.

That at these stations are to be found, in subordinate cooperation with the ordained missionaries from Britain and

* Where a dotted line occurs in the table, it denotes that the results under that head, if there are any, have not been ascertained.

Of course, these figures claim to be regarded only as an approximation to the truth. Even the income of one society, as compared with that of another, is to be understood with this qualification, that one society includes in its general accounts the pecuniary support which it receives for a particular field of labor; for the prosecution of which, perhaps, another Christian denomination maintains a distinc society. In this summary the three continental societies are omitted.

America, about five thousand native and other salaried teachers, catechists, readers, helpers, and assistants of various kinds, engaged in the offices of education and religious instruction. That about fifty of these stations have printing establishments.

And that all the missions, combined, exhibit about 180,000 converts in Christian communion; and about 200,000 children and adults belonging to their schools.

The only remark which it would here be in place to add, is, that these results have been attained gradually; that, taking the collected reports of all the missionary societies for any given year, they will be found to exhibit an advance on the reports of the year preceding; leaving us to indulge the hope that by the same blessing by which they have been progressively brought to their present state of enlargement, they will continue to report an annual increase of resources, activity, and usefulness, for an indefinite number of years to The practical benefits arising from missionary labors will next become the subject of distinct consideration.

come.

Ar the commencement of the preceding chapter we remarked, that such are the gracious arrangements and promises of God, that every return of the church to its missionary design entitles it to hope for corresponding prosperity. Having taken a general survey of the manner in which Christians have recently resumed their missionary vocation, we are the better prepared to look after the expected results of their activity.

And here, the first fact which meets us on opening the inquiry is, that, independently of the direct and spiritual benefits at which we aimed, a host of minor but magnificent temporal advantages have been gained, and which alone. would have amply repaid all the cost of the missionary effort. This is as if, in attempting to estimate the benefits of the Savior's mission, a contemporaneous inquirer, who had only heard of him as a Teacher sent from God, and had only thought of spiritual results, should have had to make his way to those results through the thronging and grateful ranks of those who had been healed, and who insisted on presenting themselves first, as a part of the fruits of that mission. And, indeed, what was the character of Christ, but the character of his dispensation? and what was the design of his divine mission, but that it should be the source and type of all the good attending the march of his gospel through the earth?

Accordingly, we find, that even where Christianity has, for obvious reasons, produced but slender spiritual results, the inferior benefits which it has scattered have rendered its progress through the nations as traceable as the overflowing of the Nile is by the rich deposit and consequent fertility which it leaves behind.* This is a well-known subject of devout exultation in many of the inspired epistles. The apologies of the Fathers prove it; and the records of profane history, unintentionally, but abundantly, confirm it. Every city which the gospel visited presents itself in proof of its corrective influence; and every nation we enumerated in the preceding chapter, stands forward as a witness to the same effect. It produced charity even in Judea, humility at Athens, chastity at Corinth, and humanity at Rome-cleansing her imperial amphitheatre of human blood, and evincing that her boasted civilization had been only a splendid barbarism. Softened by its influence, the Armenian, says Jerome, lays down his quiver, the Huns learn to sing the praise of God, the coldness of Scythia is warmed by the glow of faith, and the armies of the Goths carry about tents for churches.† Theodosius and Justinian took much of their codes from its inspired lips; and thus the gospel may be said to have read laws to the Visigoths and Burgundians, the Franks and Saxons, Lombards and Sicilians. On the Irish, as well as on

* Vide Ryan's Effects of Religion on Mankind, passim.
+ Epist. Ivii.