found in his Gospel, but, on looking back and remembering the stony indifference to that design evinced by the Church in general; and the actual opposition to the first steps of the Missionary enterprise, offered by many a professed Christian; and the truly insignificant measures in which the work began-measures, in which the actors often owed their toleration to contemptwho can doubt that the primary human movers were themselves moved by God? If the apostle could say of the primitive churches, "they glorified God in me," how often have we been constrained to recognise the hand of God in raising up and baptizing with a measure of the apostolic spirit many a modern Missionary! If they acknowledge the Divine superintendence in selecting their spheres of labour, and preparing the way for their successful occupation, how often have we been called to adore the presence of the same agency in the Missionary field, manifested in unexpected interpositions, in the universal concurrence of multiplied and repellent circumstances, and in the issue of the whole in some most unforseen success. How many a burst of sacred joy has been occasioned by the intelligence of new conquests achieved over heathenism, and new honours accumulated around the name we love-joy, the most pure, ennobling, and rich, which grace can awaken in the faithful on earth, and which, more than any other sentiment, connects the Church below with the Church above in one spontaneous ascription of praise.

As to the manner in which some of the most distinguished of these triumphs were won-who can mark the sudden abandonment of idolatry in the Polynesian islands north and south; in the latter, when the Mission was on the point of being relinquished in despair; and in the former, by the spontaneous will of the natives before any Missionary had reached them, without perceiving how evidently God designed to secure the glory of the work to himself? How often and how emphatically have we been taught the same lesson by the

superior success which has crowned the artless efforts of the native teachers-success which has frequently left the British Missionary nothing to do, but, like Barnabas,. to go and see the grace of God, and be glad. On comparing the Missionary contributions and activity of the churches at present-small as they still are—with the apathy of the past, and remembering the grandeur of the results to which they tend, how many a Christian has been led to say with the mingled abasement and gratitude of David, "Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort. . . to build thee a house for thine holy name?" What deep humiliation has been felt by thousands and never perhaps was more deeply felt than at this moment-at the fact that the heathen world is crying to us for spiritual help and perishing in its cries; that God is saying to us by his word and providence," Hasten to their relief with the Gospel," and yet that we should be so deplorably unprepared to obey. What grateful admiration, that God should have afforded us so many distinguished proofs that he is still in the midst of us; and what earnest entreaties that he would arouse the entire Church to a sense of its new and vast obligations, and would graciously pour out upon us his Spirit from on high. The direct tendency of all our Missionary operations hitherto, is to bring the Church on its knees before God in unfeigned gratitude for the past, and entire dependence for the future; prepared to inscribe on the sublime result of the whole, to the praise of the glory of his grace."

From this review of the spiritual benefits of Christian Missions on the churches at home, we repeat the question with which the section commenced, in the full expectation that it admits but of one reply-Had the same amount of effort which the Missionary object has received been devoted to the diffusion of piety at home, is there any reason to conclude that our country would have reaped greater advantage than it is now enjoying from the reflex influence of that object? Is

it likely that more would have been done to impress a deep, salutary, and general conviction of the infinite importance of the Gospel; more to call forth the resources and multiply the agencies of Christian usefulness; more to counteract the worldliness of the Church, and to give enlargement and elevation to its views and affections; more to illustrate the excellence, and to raise the standard, of Christian charity; more to silence the irreligious objector, to engage the intercessions of the faithful in the behalf of the world, to fill us with devout dependence and holy anticipation for the future, and to prepare the Church to arise and shine as the light of the world, and to prove, through God, a universal blessing? So far from this, we venture to affirm that not only would less have been done in all these respects, but that, humanly speaking, had it not been for the influence of the Missionary cause, many a society now in active operation expressly for home, would never have come into existence; many a heart which now beats high with a hallowed patriotism, would have been cold to the claims of home; and many a Christian Church, now known as the centre of a large circumference of local benevolence, would have been comparatively living to itself. And, indeed, what is all this but saying, in effect, that the history of Christian Missions will eventually be found to furnish a grand illustration of that sublime principle of a kingdom founded in love, that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."

CHAPTER IV.

ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS FOR THE INCREASED ACTIVITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

If the Christian Church is expressly designed to embody and diffuse the influence of the Cross, and if its full efficiency for this end, depends, under God, on the entireness of its consecration to this office, we may expect to find that every page of its history illustrates and corroborates the fact. Such is the remark with which we open this Second Part. But as the nature and limits of our subject forbade us to open the volume of ecclesiastical history, we contented ourselves with remarking generally, that the period of the first and greatest activity of the Church was the season of its greatest prosperity; that the subsequent decline of its devotedness was the decline of its prosperity; and that as every departure of the Church from its Missionary design has been invariably avenged, so every return to that character may be expected to be divinely acknowledged and blessed. Such a return, in part, we professed to recognise in the operations and aims of our Protestant Missions. And the subsequent chapters have been intended to enable us to show, that, as far as their history is concerned, it may be made most clearly and impressively evident that every step in return to the aggressive design of the Christian Church is a proportionate return to its first prosperity. It remains, therefore, that we make such use of those chapters as shall tend to

render this fact apparent; thus connecting them with the former Part, and strengthening the whole by enforcing the additional motive supplied to entire Christian

consecration.

I. Now this may be done by showing, first, that our Missionary success has been fully proportioned to our efforts. Perhaps the only persons disposed to question this proportion of success will be found among those who would have been the last to commence those efforts. For it is characteristic of a certain class, that though they would never have originated an enterprise, they are among the earliest, and the loudest in their complaints if it is not speedily crowned with complete success. No sooner do they awake from the slumber of doing nothing, than they seem to expect that every thing will rush to their aid, and are mortified at finding that they are doomed, like all their predecessors, to work by means, and not by charms. But we would ask such persons, What is the standard by which, in the present instance, they regulate their expectations of success? Is it by the rapidity with which the Gospel was diffused in apostolic times? But surely they do not expect this, independently of the zeal, self-denial, and earnest supplications which distinguished those times. Or would they say that the proportion of success now, is much less, as compared with the means employed, than it was at that time, even allowing for the present diminution of zeal? But how is the rate of this diminution to be ascertained and yet, until it is, an essential element of the question remains undetermined. The truth is, that although the Church of late has begun to exhibit a spirit of Missionary activity-of zeal it knows comparatively little. We might ask the persons supposed, for instance, How many years, or rather how many hours, have you given to this object of your professed solicitude? To how many seasons of wrestling in prayer with God; and to how many acts of practical self-denial; and to how many efforts to enkindle the zeal of others, has it led?