RELIGIOUS MISSIONS,.

The present time, says Leibnitz, is the child of the past, and the mother of the future. Yet though every generation derives not only its existence, but in some measure its lot and its fortunes, from the one that preceded it, it is often most influenced by circumstances which attracted least the notice of its immediate predecessor. We are well aware of many of the changes which are taking place around us; they are such as strike the most inattentive eye. There are others of equal potency, but which force themselves less on observation, and in which a portion only of the community are interested. Such are the religious missions now coming into operation, which are scattering the seeds of new institutions, and laying the foundation of future empires, and which will cause that which is now a waste and howling wilderness to rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Protestant missions are so late in their origin and partial in their establishment, that, if we look merely to themselves, we have scarcely sufficient data for estimating their effects. Fortunately, in the history of the world we may trace the operation of similar causes, and be enabled to estimate upon a great scale, during a long lapse of time, the immense benefits which missions for the diffusion of religious opinions have produced.

At first view it may appear like a paradox to assert that the civilization of the world is greatly owing to religious missions; and yet no truth in remote antiquity is so well ascertained.

The ancient forms of civilization with which we are best acquainted is that of Egypt and Greece in the west, and that of India in the east. The civilization of Egypt was eminently sacerdotal; it spread with the colonies of the priesthood, and had its chief residence around the temples. The original inhabitants of Egypt long retained traces of their ancient barbarity; and it was not till the system of life introduced by the sacred caste, and conformed to the religious institutions, was complete, that Egypt assumed that national character which so eminently distinguished it from the surrounding nations. Whether Meroë or Thebes was the original college of the priests, is of small consequence to the present purpose. From either, new sacred colonies issued out in continued succession and in widening circles, until not only Egypt, but the banks of the higher Nile, and the green islands of the sandy desert, had their temples and their oracles, their arts and their institutions.

But these institutions were not confined to Egypt. These religious colonies crossed over the sea to impart their rites to different lands; and amongst others the priests of Sais, bringing with them the worship of the divine wisdom, laid the foundations of a temple to Neith, a name which was afterwards transposed into Athene. From this religious mission, then, Athens, “the eye of Greece,” and the light of the world in secular wisdom, derived that lustre which length of years has rather increased than impaired.

Not dissimilar from the progress of the priesthood over Egypt was the advance of the Brahminical caste or tribe over India, except that the latter were attended by military companions, and made their way by force of arms as well as that of opinions. Wherever the country was rich and open enough, this well-organized priesthood introduced its temples and its creed, its philosophy and its regulations, institutions that were not indigenous to India, but which were spread over its plains by colonies and conquest; whilst among the hills are found a race, unmixed with the foreign intruders, speaking a different language, and still following the simple rites of their rude forefathers. Still more widely the rejected offspring of the Brahmins, namely, the Buddhists, have spread as missionaries over the half of Asia, and penetrated alike the seclusion of China, the remoteness of Japan, and the pastoral solitudes of Central Asia.

But these, it may be said, are the missionaries of a false religion. True; but if so much good has accompanied so much evil and error, what may not be expected from the missionaries of a faith founded upon revelation, who proceed upon their enterprise in more favourable times and with greater resources?

When the true religion was established in the Jewish nation, it appeared at first view to be stationary rather than progressive. The Jews had the advantage of a central position. They bordered upon the states which in early times did most for the advancement of knowledge, Egypt, Phoenicia, and afterwards the dominions of Assyria and Babylon; but what facilities the Jewish people gained for spreading their opinions by their being central, was in a great measure lost by their being morally isolated.

Providence, however, unfolded means, independently of the exertion of the Jews, for spreading the knowledge of the divine unity. The other descendants of Abraham, who, as is seen by the book of Job, retained the true religion, obtained that lot amongst the nations which placed them in the direct route by which the early commerce of the world was carried on; and their favourable position enabled them at once to promote knowledge and to diffuse religion. The two points to which their journeys were especially directed were Sheba and Saba, Arabia Felix, and that part of Africa which still retains in a portion of it the name of Azab. Extending along this line of intercourse, a portion of the Ishmaelites occupied Mecca, in the paucity of Arabian towns early named the Great, at once the mart of superstition and commerce; and where the Ishmaelites united to the worship of the black stone their own religious opinions, a mixture which is observable down to the time of Mahommed, who endeavoured to separate the doctrine of the unity from idolatrous rites, but who, from the inveteracy of ancient habits, was still forced to retain some of the Pagan customs.

We have a subsequent proof of the line of communica[7:19:110]tion being kept open between Judaea and Arabia Felix, in the journey of the queen of Sheba to Jerusalem in the time of Solomon. And the Jewish religion was still more extensively introduced, whether by early colonists or proselytes, both into Meroë, the dominions of Queen Candace, and also into the remoter mountains of Abyssinia.

The Jewish worship had a strange aspect to the surrounding countries of the Gentiles. To their besotted minds it appeared a wonder and an absurdity that a nation should exist without idols.

Nil praeter nubes et coelos numen adorant.

But although the Jews, as far as we have positive information, made but few converts in their prosperity, they became missionaries as soon as they became captives; and the Israelitish maid who directed Naaman the Syrian for a cure to consult the prophet of her country, indicates to us the way in which a large accession was made from amongst the Gentiles to the true worshippers of Jehovah.

We are better acquainted with the removal of the Jews to the east than with the dispersion on a smaller scale which was taking place towards the west, where the Phtenicians were selling the Jewish captives to the isles of the Gentiles or the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. We have even in the case of Jonah an instance of a Jew attempting voluntarily to expatriate himself in a Phoenician vessel to Tarshish; the Tarshish doubtless of the far west, not the Tarsus of Cilicia, but the Tartessus of Spain.

It is striking to observe how the great bulk of the Jewish nation were subsequently dispersed throughout those very tracts which war and commerce opened up in the remotest periods of history; and how much more their misfortunes have contributed to the success of their tenets than the victories of their ancient kings. The moral influence of the Jewish nation appears to have reached its greatest height when their civil power was on the eve of vanishing, about the time of our Saviour. Dissatisfied with their own sentiments of belief, many in the countries of Greece and Rome were looking to the East, their original instructress, for a deeper philosophy and a more venerable religion; and whilst many were only the more bewildered amongst the mysteries of eastern superstition, in the case of others the pursuit was not fruitless, for they had revealed to them “whatever Moses had handed down in his dark volume.”

The influence which the Jews were acquiring is strongly indicated in the jocular excuse which Horace’s friend makes him for not entering upon any business, because it was the “thirtieth Sabbath of the Jews, or their solemn passover; and in the support which the Jews received from “devout and honourable women not a few” throughout the Roman empire, including sometimes, as in the instance of Poppaea, the empress herself.

The progress of early Christianity is wonderful, and becomes the more so in proportion as we narrowly inspect the agency by which that progress was carried on. To obtain a just view, we should not dwell too much on the activity of a few, and too little on the backwardness of the many. The first Christians, with some rare exceptions, were men of like passions and of like failings with ourselves. The apostles and disciples had received a command, “Go and baptize all nations,” without (as far as appears by the record) taking one step to put it into execution. The first missionaries were those involuntary labourers who were driven by persecution to Antioch, in answer to that early petition, “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He would thrust forth labourers into His harvest.” Still the work was proceeding slowly till Paul appeared, and then, as Christian churches are compared to lights shedding their salutary effulgence over the dangers of the deep, a hundred beacons seemed at once enkindled along every cape and headland, to guide the mariner bewildered on his darksome way.

Christianity, as planted by Paul, took the shortest course to become universal. It followed the line of greatest communication, and took up a position in each of the principal cities; from thence, as from new centres, to spread its influence over the surrounding country. Its success was various in various places; slow where the population was remote, scattered, and barbarous; rapid where it was condensed and civilized. It had nearly attained an early predominance in the most refined region of the earth, that of Asia Minor; and had it not been immediately checked by the dread and majesty of the empire, and by an early persecution, which showed how different nominal adherents are from real friends whenever a day of trial arrives, its supremacy would have been complete.

It deserves to be remarked, that it was not only by means of the Greek language, but of the Greek race, that Christianity was speedily diffused. To the east of the Roman empire it had its chief seats in the Grecian colonies, reduced indeed under the Parthian sway, but still spirited and intelligent; and still in its farther progress it kept in the line of the same pre-eminent race, and sprung out again with fresh vigour in the Bactrian regions, where the Greeks, after Alexander, had been extending a kingdom that at one period promised to subjugate the East. From thence Christianity penetrated into China and into Tartary, and, from its ancient success in these quarters, kept in suspense the emperors who wielded the sceptre of Zengis, whether they should desolate the world with the sword in one hand, and the Koran or the Bible in the other.

Much more might have been expected of the popes, for the diffusion, if not of religion, at least of tenets that were favourable to their own interest and sovereignty, than was actually performed by them. Their attention was too much distracted by the quarrels of nominal Christendom, and the more tempting opportunities of increasing their power at home at the expense of Christian kings, to enable them to look steadily and far abroad, or to form any settled plan for extending their spiritual dominion over foreign nations. Another obstacle presented itself, the Papists were inferior in knowledge to the Moslem; the Greek church might boast of some superior civilization; but the Franks were despised by the Saracens for their ignorance and barbarity, as well as held in abomination for their gross idolatry. Their missions therefore were there chiefly confined to tribes of kindred and German origin, whose conversion was facilitated by the greater number of their own tongue and blood having already submitted to the papal sway.

But if the popes did little in comparison with their resources, individuals did much. The mission of St Patrick to Ireland may compare in zeal and in success with whatever had been undertaken for the spread of Christianity since the times of Constantine; and its effects were not confined to Ireland, but spread over Scotland and the north of England, and reached even to Germany. The popes, indeed, when aroused by the fear of a Tartar invasion, despatched an ill-contrived and hopeless mission to the sovereigns of Tartary, in order to avert the danger which threatened Europe, by converting them; but any real and disinterested zeal throughout the dark ages is chiefly to be found in individuals, who, like the ingenious but fantastical Raymond Lully, were meditating plans for extending religion whilst the rest of the Christian world were careless and asleep.

The Reformation gave a revival to Popery itself; and as the Carthaginians sought to regain the resources which they had lost nearer home by founding a new empire in Spain, so the Roman Catholics endeavoured to counterbalance the loss of the third of Europe by extending the spiritual dominions of the church over the regions of the boundless and populous East. Of the Jesuits, with Bacon, regarding their talents and unwearied application, we can only speak with [7:19:111]regret. “Talis quum sis, utinam noster esses.” “Seeing they are such, would they were ours.” The Jesuits alone understood the power of education; but it shows the spirit of the body, how differently they used that mighty instrument in Europe, and in the countries that were beyond the range of Christendom. Where they had to contend with the reformed, they raised up disciples not unequal to the contest; but where this motive was withdrawn, they soon showed they had no great liking to education for its own sake, for all their arts were employed to train submissive, not enlightened disciples; and this is an error which Protestants as well as Papists may fall into. All men, good as well as bad, are fond of power, and they naturally, if there is no check over them, retain their disciples longer than is necessary in the state of pupillage. How different would have been the resources of the Jesuits, and how much greater the renown they have justly acquired, had they taken the same pains to instruct their Asiatic and American, that they did for their European scholars; and how different would have been the condition, at this day, of their missions throughout the world.

The Reformation, of all religious revivals, least abounded in missionary efforts; the cause of which, though obvious, has not yet been sufficiently attended to and pointed out. Other changes of religious opinion were owing to the personal exertions of missionaries. The Reformation was spread chiefly by means of writings; nor otherwise, with the ecclesiastical and secular power united against it, could it so rapidly have penetrated the different countries of Europe. It was the first great manifestation of the power of printing, and, being an unexpected attack, no defences whatever were prepared, as in after-times, against its inroads. The use of so new and mighty an engine seemed to supersede for a time all other exertions; and the general mind, already stirring and awake, hailed with eagerness the new dawn of civil and religious freedom. Unfortunately the Reformation, necessarily controversial in its origin, continued, and almost ended, in controversy; and, immersed in disputes with the Church of Rome, and in dangers from the civil power, and in domestic strifes about standards of orthodoxy, lost first the spirit, and then the form, of sound doctrine, and its followers became equally unable and unwilling to proclaim that truth to others which they were forsaking themselves.

The revivals amongst the reformed, and their returns to the primitive doctrine and spirit, were local and sectional, and their efforts, of course, were feeble and circumscribed; but they were operated by personal exertion and fervent preaching, and therefore possessed more of a missionary character than the Reformation itself; and though much less powerful at their centre, spread to a wider circumference, and exerted a remoter influence. The Danes deserve the praise of being amongst the earliest and most persevering of the Protestant nations in planting Christianity in foreign lands. But the plant has too much the air of an exotic still; it does not fully take root and imbibe its nourishment from the soil; it wants the strongest symptom of vitality, growth. No cause can prosper that is chiefly dependent upon foreign aid. External force may prop up a stationary and a sinking cause; but whatever spreads and flourishes must have an interior principle of life.

How numerous were the converts of the Dutch, if we might believe the reports that were given of them; but when the Dutch dominion was withdrawn, how suddenly did numbers of the Dutch converts disappear. The Dutch, like the Jesuits, were doubtless contented in many instances with an outward conformity to Christianity; yet still it is striking how slight a hold even the practice of outward rites had upon multitudes, who quietly relapsed into the profession of Paganism. It is evident that primitive Christianity proceeded upon a different plan. It collected its converts into free societies, who were instructed by native teachers, trained to rely upon their own resources, not only in furnishing their own funds, but also in supplying the wants of others, and who, in assuming the form of a church, assumed at the same time the model of a missionary society, and became themselves the new centres from which light and civilization proceeded to still remoter regions.

The zeal, devotion, and activity of the primitive Christians seemed revived in the Moravians, who, scarcely escaped from persecution themselves, proceeded without delay to subject themselves to new trials, and, like the forlorn hope of Christianity, chose the most desperate situations and the most degraded tribes to exemplify what Christianity might be enabled to do in more favourable circumstances, when it had succeeded where all things seemed to be against it.

The Wesleyans, after Christianizing the abandoned districts of England, and encountering the rage of their own savage countrymen, often backed by their civil or religious guides, the neighbouring magistrate or clergyman, have carried the same zeal, dexterity, and success, to the slaves of the West Indies, more docile than their masters; and to the savages of the remotest countries and islands, less infuriated and dangerous than the rude agricultural population of England.

In the Serampore Mission we might produce equal if not superior names to any of which the Jesuits can boast; superior to them even in the arts of education when applied to a half-civilized people, and incomparably above them in extending information amongst the general population of the country, and in the most important of all operations, the raising up of native labourers, and creating resources for their maintenance, in part at least, in the country itself.

The London Missionary Society, distinguished for its catholic spirit, and the largeness of its undertakings, has achieved one of the most visible triumphs of Christianity, in bringing so many islands into subjection to the mild law of the gospel; and the Episcopal Church of England, so long eminent for the numerous lights it has given to science, to knowledge, and to morals, is preparing to transplant that learning to the banks of the Ganges; and the Church of Scotland, after originating a national system of education at home, is laying the commencement of an admirable plan of instruction for the learned region of the East. In addition to the different religious denominations, each able from its own resources, if concentrated in any direction, for producing a wide and lasting effect, several single congregations, without extrinsic aid, and with a self-devotion worthy of the apostolic days, send out their own missionary or missionaries, supported by their private funds, and strengthened by their fervent prayers.

Independently of what Britain can effect, with resources far greater than any other nation has yet possessed, a new empire has come into the conflict, with all the energy of youth and freedom, and exulting in the consciousness of ever-growing strength. The Americans are eminently fitted for missionaries. The maxim is scarcely true when applied to them, that of all animals, man is the most rooted in the soil. They move over America as if they were already masters of that great continent, and revisit Europe as another home, and their original birthplace. They bring with them ardent hopes from the land where, in spite of many disappointments, hopes are most speedily and abundantly realized; and, accustomed to overcome the obstacles of nature, they engage with no less alacrity in the more stubborn contest with the perversity and prejudices of mankind. Their plans are admirably conceived, and in the course of being ably executed; and they are already receiving their due applause in the dread and detestation of the corrupt priesthood of the East, who deeply feel and sincerely express with what dangerous enemies they have now to deal.
[7:19:112]

If it be a duty to send the gospel to all nations, it cannot cease to be a duty because we have been unsuccessful in our efforts. The want of success should merely lead us to reconsider the means to be employed. Hume remarks, that, prior to experience, we do not know whether or not the throwing of a pebble against the sky may not produce the ruin of the world. Some with regard to missions seem equally to overlook the proportion between cause and effect, and expect that any efforts, however ill directed, should be crowned with immediate success; whilst others seem to suppose that no efforts can be successful, that the Orientals never change their opinions, and that they will continue steadfast to the same errors and the same idols which they have worshipped ever since the earliest dawn of history.

But history itself might inform us that all nations have already changed their opinions. In China all modes of superstition are comparatively recent, the oldest, as far as they exist in that country, not being prior to Confucius, at least in their present form. If we look for aboriginal rites in India, we can only trace some broken remains of them amongst the barbarians of the remoter hills, or in the depth of the undisturbed forest. Where are the idols of the countries to the west of the Indus? They are with the idols of Hamath, Arphad, and Sepharvaim. The beautiful deities of Greece are mingling their dust with the monster gods of the East, in irretrievable and indiscriminate confusion. Whatever obstacles may exist to the spread of Christianity, we cannot reckon amongst them, as of most importance, the obstinate tenacity with which men cleave to their previous opinions. No one need despair of converts since the orphan of Mecca has planted his victorious standards over the ruins of the thrones of Chosroes and Constantine.

Not only are religious opinions continually changing, but all religions at this present moment, with the exception of Christianity, are in a state of continuous decay; and not merely decaying themselves, but imparting their caducity to the states which uphold them; and so forcible and rapid is that decline, that it counterbalances both the tendency of society to improve, and of the numbers of mankind to increase. On the contrary, wherever Christianity exists, even in its lowest form, there is an augmentation of the numbers of mankind and an improvement in their condition, so that the balance between Christianity and the unchristianized portions of the world is continually changing; and whilst Christendom is filling with inhabitants, even to a dread, on the part of some, of an overflow, barbarous tribes are almost disappearing, and the Moslems are decreasing, and the far East is stationary, so that there is a provision making, even without the intention of Europe, for Europeans spreading their augmenting numbers over the remotest shores of the world.

Independently of colonization, the new intercommunity of nations will efface ancient prejudices and national peculiarities. This has already taken place in Europe itself. The former French, were they to rise from the dead, must take their descendants for Englishmen; and the ancient English might have equal difficulty in recognising their descendants, though, like all insular nations, less subject to change from the influx of foreign manners. Increasing intercourse has its effects upon the remotest districts. Individual originality and national peculiarity have, from continual attrition, lost their salient points, and are wearing away. The same causes which have operated in Europe will operate on a greater scale, though more slowly, on the world at large. The Moslems are forsaking their creed, and, what is still harder, their dress; and Hindu rajahs quote Shakspeare, and read the Elegant Extracts.

But the loss of old principles would merely produce demoralization, if no new ones were supplied. We are communicating to all the world our vices and our diseases; shall we withhold the remedies with which we are combating, and, we trust, successfully struggling against both? We are sending out missionaries of evil, the convict and the runaway, who are adding to the atrocities of savage warfare and of savage life. Their vices spread even faster than themselves, and reach to tribes which the white man has not visited; and in a still more rapid and wider circle the diseases which are generated amidst the corruption and misery of European society, are spreading desolation and death in recesses where the name of Europe has scarcely been heard. It would be but common charity to send out physicians to these distant tribes, if they could be reached, to combat, with European remedies, diseases originated in Europe; and it would be most unchristian neglect not to send out the physicians of the soul to apply healing remedies to those moral diseases, the contagion of which, as a nation, we have been so instrumental in extending.

Protestant missions are only in their commencement, therefore we have not the means to judge fairly of their success. Success in missions also must be distinguished into two kinds; the gaining nominal, and the making real converts. We may compare the success of the gospel abroad with its results at home. The promised results are great and unconfined; the real results comparatively small and limited. Multitudes of nominal Christians in our land pay just as much regard to the precepts of the gospel, in all the real business of life, as they do to the injunctions of the Koran. If we number those who are really living under the influence of the gospel, success in proportion to the number of those who proclaim it may be found to be fully as great abroad as at home. Each missionary effort will be found to have had nearly as much success, and of the same kind and value, as they originally proposed to themselves.

The success of the Jesuits cannot be compared to that of any Protestant mission. Their aim was entirely different. What they asked of their converts, was not so much to embrace opinions, as to submit to rites; and if they became outwardly Christian, they hoped partly to influence them, and still more their children, whose training would necessarily be placed in their hands. They attempted, and they succeeded in gaining the consideration, and in some degree the favour, of the higher classes, for their European attainments, by their politic habits of insinuation. It was not for their interest that the higher classes should become immediate converts. Whilst these retained their ancient superstition, they could afford the Jesuits a more effectual protection. As soon as the more powerful left their ancient belief, instead of helps they became hindrances to the mission, by the jealousies which they inspired, as the natural heads of a new and rising sect. Thus the influence which the Jesuits had acquired amongst the wise and powerful, and which had forwarded their cause at first, contributed to overthrow it; for the political dexterity which had gained them friends necessarily raised up to them enemies in a still greater proportion. We cannot, on the whole, regret that the attempts of the Jesuits were not more successful. The experiment of Christianizing Paganism had already been attempted, on a large scale, in the Roman empire, under the successors of Constantine; and the result was, as Mr Coleridge justly expresses it, “Paganized Christianity.” The success of the Jesuits in China would have ended in attaching a new load of Pagan opinions and observances to that degenerate form of Christianity which was already labouring under an intolerable burden of them.

The Dutch, the lowest in character perhaps of Protestant missions, appeared to have that measure of success which they aimed at. Numbers, under their routine of superficial teaching, assumed the outward form of Christianity, which was all that could reasonably have been expected from their efforts. In many later instances the success has [7:19:113]been beyond the means employed. The distinguished abilities of Dr Carey succeeded beyond all reasonable expectation in the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the East. The education conferred by the Serampore missionaries, by means of the circle of schools under their superintendence, was superior in kind to the education given to European children in the same condition in life, and was more favourably received by the natives, though there was a natural want of perseverance on their part, in availing themselves of the benefit to the utmost.

It is more difficult to judge both with respect to the number of converts and the influence which Christianity exercises over their lives. Neither at home nor abroad, at this present moment, have we reason to suppose that Christianity is enjoying a season of spiritual prosperity. It is rather a time of outward progression than of internal renovation; and a review of what has been done, both here and in distant countries, may more wisely lead us to place our trust in the Divine arm, which will never desert his own cause, than to form any very lofty and exaggerated notions of our present acquisitions. In some instances we have the encouragement to perceive that the success is far beyond the means. Amiable as the character was, and great as were the talents, of Henry Martyn, they are not sufficient to account for the striking and lasting impression which he produced on the Persians; and his short residence in Persia produced more fruit than a long life might have done, even with many prosperous circumstances attending it. Those who are last and least upon the missionary field have yet made a beginning; they have got what Archimedes required in order to move the world, a place where to stand and to erect their moral machinery, some influence over the native mind, and increased facilities for introducing new improvements and additional labourers from Europe.

Success in general will be proportioned to the means employed, and the efficacy of the means will depend upon the method of using them. The first efforts in all undertakings must be expected to be merely tentative. Resources are few, and there is a want of experience, in order to employ the scanty means to the uttermost. What was defective in the commencement is often unnecessarily prolonged, from the dislike of change; and the very proposal of improvements often appears to imply the censure of previous mismanagement.

In most instances it is the governed who force improvements upon their governors; but in religious enterprises the contributors are too well satisfied with having paid their subscriptions, to give themselves any farther trouble or thought as to the mode in which these contributions are expended. Yet on no subject is thought more required. The first requisite to lasting success is to act upon a system, and to be provided with a plan. Circumstances must modify that plan; but they who act upon a large scale, and through a considerable tract of time, will at last modify circumstances to their own purposes, and ultimately turn what might seem hindrances into helps.

The first object is to understand the nature of the country and of the people on whom a missionary society is intended to operate. The Americans afford excellent examples of missionary pioneers, previously exploring the country in which they intend to settle; weighing the advantages and the obstacles which present themselves, exhibiting a rare union of prudence and determination, and, whilst strictly acting up to their own principles, succeeding, at least for a time, in conciliating the minds of others; though it is not to be expected that this transient favour can last long, for it must be dissipated by the first success on the part of the foreign missionaries. These missionary travels are of double service, creating and deepening an interest at home, which is the true way to enlarge the re-

VOL. xix.

sources of missionary operations, and at the same time discovering how these resources are to be best economized, by preventing fruitless expenditure, and by pointing out and discovering the true points of attack by which the country to be entered is assailable. Those, however, who have done such service as explorers, should continue their good offices as superintendents; and in many cases there might be an advantage in separating between the council and the executive, between those who laid down the plan and were watching the progress of its being carried into execution, and those who were filling up the outline, and engaged in the details. Many reports and evil surmises will arise against missionaries, which, being engaged in more important occupations, they little hear of and less heed, and which, even if they were desirous to do so, they could ill ward off; but these might easily be removed by one w ho was friendly to the mission, and yet not a party implicated in each of its transactions.

If a physician in Mahommedan countries should make the first survey, and propose the original plan, by his influence with the governors he would obtain a more favourable opening for a missionary enterprise, and then watch over its prosperity, without being identified with all its proceedings. He would also have greater facilities, by the access which his profession gives him, both to governors and families of influence, to secure and extend favour and assistance from the ruling powers, and to remove the more speedily any obstacles or stumbling-blocks that might be cast in the way. The employment of physicians as missionaries, which has only very lately and very partially been practised, has been attended, on the limited scale on which it has been tried, with yet happier results than could reasonably have been anticipated. It has opened a new fountain of humanity in the hard and selfish breasts of distant nations, to see the strange spectacle of a man, in imitation of his Saviour, “going about doing good,” and healing the sick. Those who are insensible to the diseases of the mind, feel with sufficient acuteness the sufferings of their bodies; and though missionaries may complain of the want of listeners, a missionary-physician has no reason to complain of the want of patients; nor has he reason to lament the want of success in treating the cases that are submitted to him. The healing art transported to a distance appears to assume new powers; and the reason is plain. Here medicine has to contend with inveterate debility, and can only hope, by the most successful treatment, to prolong a sickly existence. There the more rigorous life has already swept away those who were not possessed of the stamina of a vigorous constitution, and the physician has chiefly to attend to the cases where nature is ready to second his efforts, where disease is not inveterate, but accidental; not to mention, that our usual remedies come to distant lands with the advantage of new discoveries, and seem to resume the efficacy which they possessed when first invented, and before the body, like that of Mithridates, seasoned to drugs, and therefore blunted to their operation, had lost the sensibility which it possessed on their first and hitherto untried exhibition. Novelty also greatly augments the power of not the least potent of medicines, faith and hope.

What interest would the residence of an intelligent physician possess at Jerusalem; of one who was a physician indeed in the largest sense of the term, and wise in the knowledge of nature? We need such a commentator even for the Scriptures, an intelligent and resident spectator, to view and to record again the same natural appearances which were viewed by the sacred writers of old, that we may stand again in their position, see, anew the same objects, and affix the same significance to their terms. What a benefactor he might be to the weary and superstitious pilgrims from distant lands, who might return home with prolonged life, and carrying with them the words of that p [7:19:114]life which will never end. The Moslems despise the Franks, but not the Frank physician. The caliphs themselves owed much of their fame and their intelligence to the Nazarene doctors, who communicated to them not only the art of healing, but much of the various knowledge of the Greeks. A Frank traveller is suspected; he is certainly seeking for hidden treasure. But a physician proceeding on the same path is reverenced; he is a benefactor, not a spoiler; he is culling simples to form some potent elixir; he has adopted the nobler part of the wonder-working art, not the secret of finding or making gold, but the mystery of prolonging life.

As the physician enables the missionary to gain immediate access to the hearts both of the young and the old, so the teacher, with the approbation of many who are unaware of the changes which he must introduce, is enabled to cut off the sources of error, and to implant the seeds of truth. Why is it that the present generation of idolaters still believe in their monstrous idols? It is because they have been educated to do so. All these superstitions are attached to the past, and have no other root in the present than what custom and education give them. They already exhibit the symptoms of decay, even with the Pagan education in their favour. An education founded on facts, even though it were not grounded on Christian principles, would unfasten the slight and relaxing hold which they yet retain over the minds of the multitude, and would speedily accelerate their destruction. It is a great improvement which is beginning to be introduced into education, the uniting the acquisition of reading and writing with the practice of some of the manual arts. By this no time is lost, and health is promoted.

The first of all the arts, and applicable to every condition of society, is the cultivation of the ground. How much would a few simple rules and improved practices alter the external comforts of the tribes amongst whom missionaries are labouring, whilst the improvement of the mind would proceed more rapidly along with the amelioration of their outward condition, and the more abundant supply of their temporal wants. The teacher also who is endeavouring to infuse common elementary knowledge into the minds of the young, has the best practice for obtaining that plainness of speech and simplicity of illustration, which will convey, in a tongue unused to express them, the truths of the gospel to those who are no longer young, but whose minds are still in the state of infancy, retaining the weakness of childhood without its pliancy.

There is great, hope for the world in this, that an education founded solely upon facts, without reference to opinions, and therefore without open controversy, is calculated to destroy all the roots of error, and, though it cannot change the heart, yet will leave a much wider field for truth than exists at present. The contests between different creeds is in a fair way of being reduced to narrow ground, and to a decisive issue. The only alternative speedily will be between Christianity and no religion; and, unless belief and hope could be exterminated from the human breast, we need have no doubt as to the general result.

The introducing agriculture, and the other manual arts, into missionary establishments, would remedy one difficulty which frequently presents itself in affording employment and maintenance for new converts, who, in quitting their former creed, are often cut off from society and the means ofexistence, and in this way, without a new opening to enable them to provide for their own living, must become a burden and a discredit to the new society with which they have become connected. The amelioration of the soil around missionary stations, and improved methods of culture, would be attended with manifold advantages; it would give a visible reply to the objections of the most sceptical, of what use are missionaries? It would afford food and employment to those who are in temporary want of both, till new outlets could be found for the new converts, either from the ceasing of persecution against them, or from placing them in situations where their recent change does not excite the same enmity; and it would form a little colony where Christian habits and Christian maxims prevailed, a moral oasis in the midst of the heathen wilderness. How great a change, in many missionary stations, would even an acquaintance with the best method of irrigation produce? There is sunshine to ripen any produce; all that is required is moisture, and the rock is as ready at the hand of art as at the rod of the prophet, to yield its secret treasure of waters, and to spread as it flows over the sand a profusion of fruits and flowers. It was ow ing to this art that the Arab dominion in Spain owed much of its prosperity and glory. The children of the desert, in their own burning regions, had been taught the economy of water; the same skill which produced a wretched garden in the Sahara, created a paradise in Spain; and to directing the Streams which were descending from the snows of the Alpuxaras, we owe these magic wonders which Madame de Stael could never hear of without her pulse beating faster, “Les orangers du royaume de Grenade, et les citronniers des rois Maures.”

The employment of a few religious artisans, whilst they would tend greatly to the success of a mission, and to its speedier taking root in the soil to which it was transplanted, would, if they were possessed of a missionary spirit, add little to the expenditure. A gardener or practical agriculturist might be expected to do more than maintain himself; a physician, though so important to the mission, might also, in many instances, detract but little from the funds. These, however, are minor considerations; for a somewhat liberal expenditure, if judicious, is in the end the wisest economy.

A source both of economy and power is to concentrate the efforts that are made; it may present a more imposing appearance to have a number of stations dotted about in all parts of the world; but we have the example of the apostles, that the first object is to establish a church, to collect a number of believers, and to form them into a new centre, whence the truth may emanate in every direction around. In war nothing is so frequently fruitless as a victory, and it is the highest art of a commander to improve it to the utmost. In missionary efforts, success might be almost as fruitless, if advantage were not taken of it to the fullest extent, by bringing up additional resources, and completely occupying the ground that was gained. The fate of a battle often depends upon the reserve. One or two additional labourers on the missionary field might often terminate a long series of disappointments by a prosperous result. A little missionary colony would at once transplant Christianity into the region proposed to be ultimately occupied, and the children of the agriculturist or the artisan might form the missionaries of future years, inured to the climate, habituated to the mode of life and thought, and speaking the language with native facility. When a single missionary goes amongst a multitude of heathen, he has the whole tide of sympathy against the sentiments which he endeavours to introduce; the case is reversed when the heathen youth is brought to the missionary settlement, and placed under the social influence of Christianity and civilization. A small missionary colony would at once commence a Christian church; it would immediately become sacred ground, “a place where prayer is wont to be made,” and where He who hears and answers prayer would interfere on their behalf, and would abundantly grant their requests.

The missionaries are availing themselves, with much intelligence and activity, of that instrument which is changing the world, the press. The Reformation was occasioned by tracts; and all other changes since, both religious and political, have been indebted to those swift and efficacious messengers, which, like the winged Hermes of the ancients,
[7:19:115]

glide without impediment over land and sea. The operations of the Tract Society are one of the wonders of our times. Their little works are showered down upon every shore, if not quite as eloquent as the words of Ulysses, yet, like his, they fall thick as the winter snows, and no barrier has yet been found that can effectually repress the effect of these missiles. There is no tongue or speech in which their voices are not heard, nor does there seem any limit to their operations, except that which circumscribes all human endeavours, the “alte terminus haerens,” the limitation of funds.

Another great instrument for diffusing civilization and Christianity, is the spread of the English tongue. It is to be regretted that many natives are more anxious to learn English than the missionaries are to teach them, from the fear, it appears, by some missionary accounts, that these natives, when instructed, would only employ their knowledge of English in the pursuit of gain. It might probably so happen in several instances at first; but the demand for those who have a superficial acquaintance with English is not unlimited, the market would soon be supplied, and the premium lowered. Then the advantages of teaching English would remain when the disadvantages were removed. The Romans understood the art of governing rather better than the English, and met the desire of the provincials to be instructed in the Roman tongue. With them it might be matter of amusement, not of scorn or rejection, that even remote barbarians had some aspirations after Italian refinement or Grecian eloquence :—

De conducendo rhetore jam loquitur Thule.

Still remoter regions from Rome than the farthest Thule are now desirous of an acquaintance with English, and, if the English were wise, would be encouraged in this attainment, for with the spread of their language they would extend their glory and their commerce.

The true end of missionary societies, it must never be lost sight of, is to raise up native teachers and preachers. Until this point be gained, the foreign missionaries must address the natives “with stammering lips, and another tongue ;” for though the words may be native, the idiom is sure to be foreign; and the missionaries will certainly continue to think in English, even when they are pronouncing the words of another language. This plain and obvious truth does not seem to have hitherto been sufficiently considered. Yet to perceive the difficulty, we have only to imagine a number of French apostles endeavouring, in broken English, to recall a heathen multitude of Britons to a sense of Solemnitjq and trying to infuse into their minds, through so distorting a medium, some knowledge of the truths of the Gospel. The actual engagement of a certain number of native teachers may serve indeed as an excuse, but not as a complete justification, for this important and obvious principle not having been carried more fully into effect.

The employment of well-educated native preachers supposes, in some degree, the erection of higher schools and colleges, and therefore presents the difficulty of finding sufficient funds and suitable teachers. But the employment of native teachers is itself a source of economy, tending to diminish the number, and of course the expenditure, of European labourers, whilst it would increase the efficiency of those who are actually sent. And the knowledge to be taught must in the first place be elementary, and suitable teachers for the elements might readily be found. The Kirk of Scotland affords a good example of scholastic instruction; the Church of England possesses a college on a large and liberal scale; and the plan of Serampore was marked by great ingenuity and intelligence. What is desirable is, that these beginnings should be pursued and extended; and that other denominations should make equal efforts for training up a body of native missionaries, possessed of the acquirements of Europe, and having greater opportunities than Europeans can possibly obtain, of familiar intercourse and ready sympathy amongst their own countrymen.

But if missionary societies do not raise up native teachers in abundance, without any one’s instruction or assistance native heretics will rise up of themselves. Light and darkness are intermingling together, and new and foreign opinions, from casual intercourse with Europeans, will combine with old prejudices, and produce a new set of errors. Thus Gnosticism arose from the first dawn of Christianity in the East; and thus Manes united the Persian doctrine with the true principles and the purer tenets of Revelation. Thus the Sikhs in India have remodelled the opinions of the Hindus, in part, upon the more warlike creed of their Moslem conquerors, and have adopted the half of the Moslem religion, which consists of the Koran and the sword, rejecting the Koran, but worshipping the “All-Steel.” The overflow of the English race from either side of the Atlantic would augment the confusion and destruction of the ancient systems, alike by their profligacy or their piety; even the outcasts, throwing contempt upon the idols, prepare the way for the reception of a new system of belief; for in many instances the native savages only wait for an example of their idols being despised with impunity, to cast them aside, and admit the superiority of that Power which has instructed the white strangers in so many arts of which they themselves are ignorant. The enterprise and rivalry of Europeans naturally tend to embroil the most distant nations in their quarrels, and shake the thrones of the native princes, already crumbling from their antiquity. Every new invention shortens the period which will make the whole world European; and, considering onlj' human means, steam alone has brought us a hundred years nearer to the conversion of the world.

The advantages of missions are obvious, both to those who send missionaries and to those who receive them. The contributors to missions have the double advantage both of saving and of giving. Every step of progress that the world has made from the lowest scale of barbarism, is by saving; by preferring the future to the present; by making the acquisitions of the day go farther than the day itself; and by rendering the surplus of the gain of the former generation a bequest to the generation which is to succeed it. But this noble attainment often proceeds from an unworthy cause. The love of money often injures the individual as much as it benefits his species. In giving to missionary societies, the saving is not only profitable, but the motive is generous and ennobling. It solves the question of Who is our neighbour, in the manner pointed out by the Saviour, and brings into a nearness of affection those who are distant in place. It restores the dormant affinity of our common species, and embraces the whole family of man in a new and still more elevated brotherhood. Some objects chiefly warm the affections, and others enlighten the understanding; but the cause of missions at once accomplishes both. The labourer who, from his hard earnings, spares a portion for the greater spiritual need of that distant brother whom he never saw, not only feels his heart warmed towards him whom he intends to benefit, but listens with an interest, unfelt before, to all the information he may receive concerning him. Curiosity becomes a loftier feeling, which exists after novelty is ended; and the head and the heart are alike actively employed in devising means to ameliorate the most distant tribes of the family of man, and in affording the resources which are to carry these plans into execution. If missionary efforts were attended with no other advantages, the benefits they confer upon the contributors were well worth all the sums that have been expended upon them. But they are “twice blessed.” Every [7:19:116]step abroad is also an advantage, even if the mission should proceed no farther. The mere employment of a physician, the diseases that he removes, and the gratitude that he excites, were sufficient reward for any expense attending his mission. Every step in education well recompenses the trouble and expenditure attending it. Every communication of knowledge, even if it should stop short of the highest knowledge, should more than repay a benevolent man for any little sacrifices he might have made in affording light to others. But these are merely the commencements. With common prudence, there is no danger that the stream of beneficence, after a short and rapid course, should be swallowed up in the sands. We may rather anticipate that its progress will be like the beautiful description of the son of Sirach.
I also came forth as a canal from a river,
And as a conduit flowing into a paradise.
I said, I will water my garden,
And I will abundantly moisten my border:
And, Io! my canal became a river,
And my river became a sea.

God has raised Britain to a pitch of power and affluence unexampled in the history of mankind. Great as its prosperity apparently is, it is still greater than it seems; for its immense resources have never been fully developed. Those who are blessed are intended to be made a blessing. We were raised to the height of our present condition, not to abuse the gifts of Providence in luxury, but to disseminate the distinguished mercies which have been committed to us in trust, as far as the winds and the waves can waft the messengers of benevolence from our shores. (b. g.)