at once ignorance, indolence, pride and self-conceit, inciting a thirst for intellectual progress; and above all, inspiring the high resolve to abandon each vile superstition, and arise and go to Jesus, crying, "Lord! save, or I perish "-and then reflect, that every land under heaven, however inhospitable and forbidding, is embraced in the great commissionwe cannot evade the conviction, that difficulties thickly crowd the path of the self-devoted missionary.

4. Still another difficulty springs from the too prevalent scepticism of Christendom on the question of duty to the heathen.

Avowed infidelity on this subject is unpopular; and high encomiums are often lavished on the disinterested and adventurous spirit, that breaks away from the endearments of home, and the attractions of civilized life, to carry the tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth. Still, in many quarters, there is felt an ill-disguised contempt for the reputed fanaticism that prompts to self-sacrifice for such an object; for the controlling motives of the missionary are not comprehended, the moral condition of the world is not justly understood, nor is the authority of the King of Zion cordially acknowledged. And hence, the stale objections of other years, though thoroughly disproved in the providence of God, still exert a wide and deadly though unacknowledged influence; and whether declared or not, it is surmised that the missionary enterprise is impracticable, without the miraculous interposition of Heaven-that little has been accomplished, even

at the cost of large expenditures-that civilization must precede the introduction of a heaven-born system of faith and morals-that the heathen world is more virtuous and happy in its ignorance and barbarism than is commonly believed-that we have heathen enough at home, to call into action all our sympathies and charities-that we have not at command sufficient means to give the Gospel to all nations--that the church must cease her own contentions, throw aside her superstitions, and cultivate a more fraternal spirit among her sons and daughters, ere she assume to bear the olive branch over a contending world-and, that "the time has not come" to rear the temple of the Lord amid the hilltops of idolatry.

These are either facts or fictions. But, that they are not facts, is susceptible of the clearest proof from history, experience and prophecy. And if they are fictions, they indicate only a godless scepticism, proportioned to their prevalence. But that this scepticism is broadly diffused among " the children of this world," and over Christendom,-that it operates powerfully to paralyze the energies of the church, -that it leads to the withholding of co-operation in well-concerted plans of benevolent effort, and even arouses a stern resistance to the claims of oppressed humanity,—and, that it involves regardlessness of the soul's worth, of the value of Jesus' blood, and the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, will not be questioned by the true-hearted observer; nor will the moral atmosphere thus surrounding the living Christian, depressing his holiest affections, en

feebling his highest resolves, and tempting him to the neglect of his plainest duties, be less dreaded when perceived, nor less anxiously shunned, than the sirocco of the desert, or the miasma of Acheron, by the health-seeking traveler.

5. Another difficulty arises from the character of the intercourse maintained between nominal Christendom and the heathen nations.

The larger portions of the unevangelized world make their first acquaintance with Christianity through men as far removed from its spirit, as those who have never heard of Christ. The cupidity and fraud, the licentiousness and violence of many commercial men and their agents, released from the restraints of Christian association, and tempted by example and opportunity to the indulgence of their ruling passions, are as familiarly known, as they are deserving of abhorrence. The brandy of France, and the rum of New England, the opium of British India, and the cannon of European navies, combined with the intemperance and debauchery, profaneness and falsehood of foreigners thrown into the ports, and resident in the cities of the dark-minded idolater, foster the vicious propensities of his untutored nature, plunge him deeper in pollution, than if left to the unmixed influences of his own debased religion, and increase his repugnance to a Faith that promises no improvement either to his social or moral condition.

But the most subtle and pernicious intercourse with heathen communities is maintained by men who claim to act under Heaven's commission, but

"whose coming is after the working of Satan-with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness;" men, who, like the priests of Jeroboam and the disciples of Loyola, blend in unholy union the rites of Pagan and Christian worship, transferring the honors of Jehovah to Baal or Brama, and exchanging the simplicity of Christ, for the imposing magnificence of an idol temple. Schwartz and Gerricke in India, Hocker and Rueffer in Persia and Abyssinia, and others of like spirit in South America and the Islands of the sea, encounter an opposition more fierce and obstinate from these "false Apostles," than from the priests and devotees of the most bloody and obscene superstitions. The thousands of baptized Pagans gathered into churches, whether by the minions of the Romish See, for the glorification of Mary and the aggrandizement of the Papacy-or, by the armed missionaries of Protestant governments, for the consolidation of their power and increase of their revenues,-whether persuaded to repeat their Avè Marias and Pater Nosters in connection with their prostrations and lascivious dances before the shrines of idols, or compelled by force of arms to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments within a Christian temple, are not only heathens still, but are more thoroughly fortified against the legitimate influences of the Gospel, than their former brethren in ignorance; pure Paganism, corrupt and destructive as it is to the soul, yields more readily to the claims of evangelical Christianity, than Paganism baptized into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Such are some of the difficulties that impede the onward movement of the missionary enterprise; difficulties to be overcome by the church, only when she shall be found "steadfast, unmoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord." And, it is due to truth to say, that they are rather imposing in their aspects, than substantial in their character, for were they accumulated an hundred fold and magnified into impossibilities in our eye, we might still say to them, either severally or collectively, "What art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel!" At the touch of God's finger they vanish, and before the breath of his nostrils, they are as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor before the whirlwind; with God, all things are equally possible, as the deliverance of Noah from the deluge, of Daniel from the lion's den, and of Paul from the prison of Philippi. Prayer, pains, and perseverance," with his blessing, "accomplish all things."

And if the soldier braves the dangers of the land and the sea, of the battle-field and the prison-house in defence of his country, or for the glory of his rulers,—if the mariner dares the fury of the elements and the fierce passions of savage men, for the fame of discovery, or the gains of commerce, and if the merchant encounters the perils of unknown seas, insalubrious climes and hostile governments, for the increase of wealth and of luxury,-shall the follower of Christ succumb to the pressure of no more than equal dangers, and forego the rapturous "Euge " from the lips of Christ, "Well done! good and faithful servant," when assured that the everlasting