The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-02-22 00:00:00

ESSAY ON CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

PRIZE OF TWO HUNDRED GUINEAS, x.
URING the last forty years, many excellent Sermons,
1.1 Tracts, and Pamphlets, have appeared on the subject of
Missions to the Heathen ; but the want of a comprehensive
work, embracing all the topics directly and collaterally in-
volved in the general theme, has long been felt and very
generally acknowledged. It has occurred to a few friends of
the Missionary enterprise in Scotland that this desideratum
in our Christian literature might be supplied by means of
friendly competition, were the theme of Missions proposed as
the subject of a Prize Essay. Dispensing, for the present,
with the consideration of the causes that may instrumentally
have retarded the progress of Christianity throughout the
world, and with the investigation of the most approved me-
thods of practically conducting Missions abroad, a PRIZE of
Two HUNDRED GUINEAS is hereby offered for the Essay,
and another PRIZE of FIFTY GUINEAS for the second best
Essay on " The Duty, Privilege, and Encouragement of
Christians to send the Gospel of Salvation to the unenlight-
ened Nations of the Earth." The grand object of Missions,
viz., the regeneration of a lost world through the all-sufficient
atonement of the Lord of Righteousness and the renewing of
the Holy Ghost, must be distinctly unfolded and vindicated
from the Sacred Scriptures. The Duty, Privilege, &c., must
be illustrated as enjoined or sanctioned by Divine commands,
Evangelical motives, and explicit prophecies, as well as re-
commended by a review of the beneficial effects of Christianity
on the civilization of the world, and the reflex influence of
the Missionary enterprize in improving the spiritual tone and
condition of the Reformed Churches. Under the head of
Duty, must be comprehended the obligation to advance the
kingdom of the Redeemer by means of prayer, counsel, pe-
cuniary contribution, and personal services. Answers must
also be furnished to all the most plausible objections that
have from time to time been urged against the cause of
Missions.

In order at once to demonstrate the Catholicity of the pre-
sent design, and inspire universal confidence in the rectitude
of the decision, the following gentlemen have been requested,
and have kindly consented, to become adjudicators, viz.:—
The Rev. DAVID WELSH, D.D., Professor of Church
History in the University of Edinburgh.
The Rev. RALPH WARDLAW, D.D., Glasgow.
The Rev. HENRY MELVILLE, RD., Camberwell, late
Fellow and Tutor of St. Peter's College, Cambridge.
The Rev. JABEZ BUNTING, D.D., President of the Wes-
leyan Conference, London.
The Rev. THOMAS S. CRISP, President of the Baptist
College, Bristol.
The Essays will be received on or before Ist June, 1839,
by the Secretaries of the Church of England, London, Bap-
tist, and Wesleyan Missionary Societies, at the respective
Mission Houses in London, and by the Rev. Dr. BRUNTON,
Convener, or Rev. Dr. GORDON, Secretary of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland's Committee for Foreign
Missions, Edinburgh. Each must be accompanied witha
sealed Letter, enclosing the name and address of the author,—
the Letter and Essay bearing some motto or superscription com-
mon to both. No Essay need be forwarded which is not writ-
ten or copied in a clear, distinct, legible hand. The adjudica-
tors are oxpected to make their decision known on or before
Ist June, l 840 ; after which date the Essays wilkbe returned, on
proper application at the several offices where they were ori-
ginally left, with the letters unopened, except those accom-
panying the successful Treatises. Half of the profits arising
from the sale of the Copyright of the Essay, to which the
Prize of Two Hundred Guineas shall be awarded, to be given
to the Author; the other halt to be applied to such object,
promotive of the great cause of Missions, as the Contributors
to the present Prize may deem most expedient. In the rune
of the Contributors,

STEVENSON M;GILL, D.D.,
Professor of Divinity in the University qi
Glasgow.
THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., L.L.D.,
Professor of Divinity in the University ql
Edinburgh.
ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D.
Church of Scotland Mission, Calcutta.