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Turning now to another field: Who has not wept over the desolations occasioned by the reduction of five thousand dollars in the remittances to the Ceylon Mission, in the year 1837? The turning out of five thousand children from Christian schools into the great and terrible wilderness of the heathen world, as a consequence of that, was only one of the evils. But now another and perhaps more serious evil threatens that favourite and prosperous Mission. It is the want of men, to take the places of those who cannot remain by reason of sickness and other causes, and to watch over native churches otherwise left destitute, and prevent the strength of the whole Mission from failing, and all the cheering expectations of the churches from a ruinous disappointment. Already there is but one of the older Missionaries left on the ground; and the seminary has again been deprived, temporarily at least, of its head. It is the strong feeling, the unanimous opinion of the Prudential Committee, that as many as five new labourers should be sent to this Mission as soon as they can be obtained; and they have ventured to adopt a resolution to that effect. And who, that has read the appeal from this Mission, published in the first Number of the "Missionary Herald" for the present year, but will regard the accomplishment of this object as being worthy of sacrifices on the part of many? O brethren, if it be a fact that Missions to the Heathen are not premature, and if they are not to prove an utter failure,-as they surely are not, then that Mission, with the case all spread out before the churches, will not be suffered to languish and decline for want of the necessary assistance, whether in men or funds. It has been the object of too much feeling, too many prayers, too much enlightened interest in its well-being, to be thus suffered to decline.

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From Southern Africa four Missionaries have returned, after long and painful journeyings, and no small amount of sufferings, to establish a Mission among the Zulus, having had their Mission broken up by One of these has since gone to the Mission in Western Africa, and one is now on the point of embarking for Cape-Town. Two of the original company are among the Zulus, and the field is again opening before them with much promise, while the accession of this third person is exceedingly desirable. Shall he go? Are there not those among the friends of benighted, oppressed, wretched Africa, who will deny themselves in order to send him? Yes, we believe there are; and hence it has been decided to send him.

And what shall we say of the Indian tribes beyond the Rocky Mountains? No voice from heaven is necessary to assure us that God has prepared that field for the labours of Missionaries. A voice from heaven would not make our duty to cultivate it more certain than And there are powerful motives for haste. Already a colony is springing up on the Columbia river; and woe to the Indian when it shall have risen into power. Now, when the aborigines of those vast regions place themselves, with wonderful docility, by thousands, under

the instruction of any Missionaries we choose to send them, and when three Missionaries designated to that Mission are waiting to go, shall these three be sent? Where shall the fruits of self-denial be found for them? Who will do anything beyond his mere convenience, to erect Christian communities among the red men of Oregon, before adjacent settlements of white men render it for ever impossible? The question to be settled practically is, whether these men shall be detained from this field a whole year, at the risk of never going? Let the question be fairly put to the churches; and were they far more impoverished than they are, the Spirit of Christ which is in them would not suffer them to detain these men.

It is vain, however, to think of sending new Missionaries, unless the means are at the same time afforded for sustaining those already in the field. Regard must be had to all the Missions,-to the entire system, in all its parts. There are 26 Missions. There are 80 stations. There are 140 ordained Missionaries; and Physicians, printers, lay-Teachers, female helpers, and native assistants, sufficient to swell the number of labourers to nearly 500. There are 14 printing establishments, and 32 presses, printing at the rate of more than 30,000,000 of pages annually, in 32 different languages. There are 52 churches, containing more than 12,000 native members. There are seven seminaries and ten boarding-schools, containing together 700 pupils; and 350 free-schools, containing not less than 16,000 pupils. This whole great system of means must be sustained. The whole, as far as possible, must be kept actively employed.

Now it cannot be that we presume too much on the interest felt by the patrons in this holy cause, nor on their willingness to deny themselves in emergencies like the present. Perhaps they have been waiting for just such an emergency as this, to put forth the virtue of selfdenial. And now it has come. The exigency, the crisis, the very thing they were looking for, has come. It may be they have often flattered themselves, that, if matters should come to the worst, they might be depended on. They would then give up this luxury, and that comfort, rather than suffer the cause to fail. They would not look coldly on and see so much as one Mission relinquished, or one Missionary recalled, or one Missionary debarred from the field.

And now the strength of their principles is to be tried. It is no voice of an alarmist, that solemnly declares many a Mission to be in danger of being weakened, embarrassed, retarded, and discouraged; and many a Missionary to be in danger of losing that measure of confidence in his patrons and supporters, which is necessary to his cheerful, active, useful continuance in the field; and that even whole Missions are in danger of being broken up and destroyed, and whole bands of Missionaries of being called home. It is only necessary that the contributions continue at their present rate, to ensure disaster and ruin on a broad scale. A few months will suffice to bring out the evidences

of it, in the breaking up of Missions, the dispersion of schools, the stopping of presses, the agonized cry of distress from numerous Missionary stations, the return of Missionaries, and perhaps the chills of spiritual death upon all our churches, instead of the showers of grace now hovering over them. O here is the very state of things we have supposed would develope in ourselves this cardinal grace of the Christian character! We need not wait for it any longer. Lo, it is here, with its powerful appeal to the heart and conscience! And now let us turn away our eyes from human which is divine, and see what sustaining, animating motives to go forward there are in the fact,

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2. That the work of Missions is pre-eminently a work of faith. The work of Missions is not to be placed on the same level with commercial transactions. Missions, conducted on mere mercantile principles, would have a slow and feeble progress. Wherever this has been attempted,-and it has been attempted,-such has always been the result. The maxims and suggestions of human prudence are indeed to be always regarded; and a thorough practical acquaintance with them, in some of the members of a deliberative body for the management of Missions, is essential to the competency of that body for its high responsibilities. The maxims of human prudence must be heard. But so also must faith be heard. The work of Missions is pre-eminently a work of faith. Nothing but faith assures us, that any amount of means the church can employ will result in the world's conversion; so that all our courage, enterprise, and zeal in this work is based upon faith. At every step we rely for success upon the promises, faithfulness, and power of Jehovah, and have no hope, expectation, or confidence, but in Him.

Where now, in seasons like the present, is the impropriety of acting upon the suggestions of faith, in respect to the means for prosecuting our work? It is true, that, in the application of this principle, there is a point, beyond which it would result in enthusiasm and rashness. But that point lies not within the range of mere worldly calculations. In the performance of this work we obey an express command of God, and we have a special promise to rely upon; and there is no reason why we should not trust God with respect to the means of success, as well as the success itself. Let not an unsanctified mind trace for us the boundaries of that blessed region, over which a rational faith extends its proper influence. Let not a cold-hearted, worldly-minded Christian do it. But let it be done for it can be done-by a man endowed with sound common sense and largeness of heart, enlightened by experience, and sanctified by grace. Such a man, in prosecuting the work of Missions, will venture much on the ground of faith. With such calls of Providence as we hear from Syria, and from the Nestorians, from Ceylon and Southern Africa, and from the Rocky Mountains, to say nothing of other fields, he would send forth the needed

Missionaries, looking for the means of doing so to that God, one breath of whose gracious and almighty Spirit upon the churches would suffice to fill our treasury to overflowing.

3. A third reason for going forward is found in the ample ability of the Christian community to furnish the requisite means.

Although many individuals, and perhaps also some churches, have done what they could; yet this cannot be said of the churches and congregations, as a body, which operate upon the heathen world through the American Board; nor are they by any means contributing to the extent of their ability, even in these times of commercial embarrassment. Indeed, who is able to name a church, in which, if it be scrutinized closely, members may not be found, whom all regard as being able to do more than they do? This will be true in almost every church, even with respect to many persons who are the professed and undoubted friends of the cause. Of the twelve hundred Congregational churches in New-England, nine hundred made donations to the Board the last year, as the result of an associated effort. Had all the members of these churches given something; or, far better, had all given in proportion to their ability, as a few in each of them did, and did without detriment to themselves or their families; the receipts of the Board would have been greater than ever before. And this, too, without taking into account the more than a thousand Presbyterian and Reformed Dutch churches out of New-England, which are known to have given in aid of the Missions under the care of the Board, during the year. It is also a fact, that three hundred churches in NewEngland, of the twelve hundred just mentioned, made no donations to the Board during the past year. Should it be supposed that the greater part of these were feeble churches, and unable to contribute for foreign Missions, we would state, that the number of churches in New-England aided by domestic Missionary Societies, is 262; and that 132 of these, or one-half, made donations to the Board during the year, as liberal, in proportion to their means, as were those of their sister churches. It will show, too, that the sources of income are not exhausted, if we state, that but little more than five hundred of the NewEngland churches, or less than half, contributed anything to the cause of foreign Missions from their monthly concerts of prayer. The contributions from each of these five hundred concerts, on an average, was forty-two dollars; and generally what was given at that meeting had no effect to diminish the annual subscription, or collection, if there was one. Here, then, are more than six hundred fountains in New-England alone, flowing out from under the sanctuary of God, to which, by general consent, we are entitled to look with hope of future aid. And what we have said of New-England churches, is doubtless true of some thousand or fifteen hundred churches and congregations in the middle, western, and southern States. The fact is, the cause has only just begun to take hold on the resources of our American Zion. There is

room for great advancement. The professed followers of Christ can do more for this cause. What we do falls very far short of our ability. The average annual donation of each church-member in the Congregational churches of New-England, for foreign Missions, but a little exceeds fifty cents. And is this all that temperate, industrious, frugal, pious men and women can afford to give, in twelve months, for such an object? Can they give for such an object but fifteen dollars in thirty years? Would it require a whole century to enable each of the church-members, in this land flowing with milk and honey, to give fifty dollars, on an average, into the Lord's treasury for the conversion of the heathen world? Impossible! We can do more than this. Could not each church-member afford to spare, for this object, the sum of one dollar annually from his ordinary income? Could not each, by a little more than customary frugality and self-denial in the manner of living, save as much more? And could not each, by a trifling increase of industry, obtain still another dollar in the course of a whole year? Undoubtedly. The ardent spirits we used to buy, cost us more than this on an average. But in the modes which have been mentioned, the members of the church could, even now, contribute each three dollars a year to make known the Gospel to the heathen nations, and with but a trifling inconvenience; and many could and would give much more; and this, too, in addition to their donations to other objects. But this sum, given by each member of the Congregational churches of New-England alone, would create an annual income of 400,000 dollars; and the like sum, contributed by each member of all those churches throughout the country, which regard the Board as their organ of communication with the heathen world, would make an annual income of 900,000 dollars; and the associated members of the congregations would, in that case, swell it to more than a million! Dismiss, then, every fear that we are approaching the limit, beyond which the Christian community cannot go in the work of Missions. We have not yet discovered that limit. We have no distinct concep

tion where or what it is. And our children will doubtless live and die as ignorant of it as ourselves.

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We have but one reason more to mention why we are encouraged to forward; and that is,—

4. The fact, that far more may be done to draw out the resources of the Christian community, than has yet been done.

The community has not done, and is not doing, all that it may be induced to do. Of this some recent investigations have convinced us far more forcibly than we ever were convinced before. We have already glanced at the "much land to be possessed" in New-England, and especially at the three hundred churches that give nothing, and at the six hundred monthly concerts of prayer, yet to come up to the aid of the cause. We have now to add, that not more than one-half or two-thirds of the members of the Congregational and Presbyterian

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