quity; but their blood may be required at our hands.

Let no one object difficulties*. In a question of plain duty, a believer is not to be de

*An objection to missions among the Indians, or other savages, which many view as unanswerable, is, "that some "considerable progress in civilization is previously necessary to (6 prepare a people for the reception of Christianity. You must "first make them men, say the patrons of this opinion, before you make them Christians. You must teach them to live in "fixed habitations, to associate in villages, to cultivate the soil, "and then you may hope that they will hear and understand "when you unfold the sublime principles of the gospel *."

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Plausible and popular as this objection is, it is equally unsupported by reason, by scripture, or by fact.

If the gospel cannot succeed among the Indians, for example, the obstacle must be either in their understandings or in

their manner of life.

The former opinion "supposes a wider difference between "the understanding of the man of the woods and the man "of the city, than what does, in fact, take place. The human "mind is not, in any country, below the reach of discipline "and religious instruction. The American Indian, the Pacific "Islander, and the African negro, are shrewd men, whose in"tellectual capacity will not suffer in comparison with the "uneducated classes of people on the continent of Europe +." Why should it, since it is culture, and that alone, which destroys the level of abilities naturally equal? Surely the Indian, whose necessities compel him not only to hunt and fish for his subsistence, but to be, in a great measure, his own artificer, as well as the guardian of his private and public right, must be superior,

* Dr. Hardy's (of Edinburgh) Sermon before the Society, in Scotland, for propagating Religious Knowledge, p. 14.

+ Ibid, p. 15.

terred by difficulties. THUS SAITH THE LORD, is his warrant and as long as there is nothing

in point of general understanding, to those vast bodies of Europeans whose intelligence the division of labour has confined to a detached article of manufacture, or to the merely servile operations of agriculture. Indeed, all the national transactions with the Indians shew them to possess great acuteness, and no small share of what learning cannot bestow-common sense. How seldom will you find, I do not say among the vulgar, but among the polished orders of society, better specimens of wellformed idea, and of genuine eloquence, than are frequent in the Indian talks?

If, on the other hand, their manner of life be considered as presenting the decisive obstacle, this opinion supposes it much more diffcult to alter outward habits than inward principles, Christians will not dispute that the gospel can and does transform both the heart and the character; yet it is thought unable to overcome a propension to wandering from place to place. The plain meaning of the objection, therefore, is this, that some means more powerful than the gospel, must be applied to civilize the Indians, and prepare them for its reception. For if it be admitted, that the gospel can civilize as well as save, the objection falls at once to the ground. But if its power to civilize be denied, while its power to save is admitted, it becomes the objectors to shew the reason of this distinction; and also, what those more effectual means of civilization are. Be they what they may, since the gospel is excluded, they must be merely human; and then the principle of the objection turns out to be this, that the wisdom of man is better adapted to civilize the Indians, than the wisdom of God.

Further; the objection supposes that savages are to be civivilized without any religious aid. For whatever arguments prove the utility, in this matter, of religion at all, conclude, with tenfold energy, in favour of the religion of Christ. But to neglect the religious principle, would be to neglect the most potent auxi

too hard for Omnipotence, there is nothing to justify disobedience or demur. Unbelief looks

liary which can be employed in managing human nature; and to act in the spirit of that wise philosophy which would erect civil society upon the basis of Atheism.

It would swell this note into a dissertation, to state the various considerations which militate against the idea of civilizing the Indians before we attempt to christianize them. But granting this, for a moment, to be necessary, who shall effect it? Philosophers? Merchants? Politicians? If we wait for them, the sun will expend his last light, and the business be unfinished. The Indians have had intercourse with the whites, in the concerns of trade and policy, nearly two hundred years, and most of them are as wild as ever. To put off evangelical missions to them, till, in the ordinary course of things, they become civilized, is, therefore, equivalent to putting them off for ever.

2. If the opinion that the gospel can succeed only among civilized people, receives little countenance from reason, it receives less from scripture.

No such restriction of its influence is contemplated in prophecy. Its universal reception is the subject of numberless predictions; but they contain not a hint that the want of civilization shall be such a bar to its progress as is commonly imagined. On the contrary, it is expressly declared, that the most roving and untutored tribes shall rejoice in Messiah's salvation, even while they retain their unpolished characters and manners. "Sing "unto the LORD a new song-Let the wilderness and the cities "thereof lift up their voice, the villages* that Kedar doth inhabit. "Let the inhabitants of the rock sing; let them shout from the

top of the mountainst." Beyond all controversy, the general sense of the prophet, in the words of that elegant scholar, Bishop LoWTH, is, that "the most uncultivated countries, and the "most rude and uncivilized people, shall confess and celebrate,

at opposition, and faints. Faith looks at the promise of God, and conquers. In the strength

"with thanksgiving, the blessing of the knowledge of God "graciously imparted to them*." And he particularizes, as an example, those wild Arabs, who, in every point of comparison, were as inaccessible to the gospel as the American Indians.

No such restriction was thought of by the Apostle Paul. He was a debtor not more to the Greeks than to the barbarians+. He maintains, that in the body of Christ "there is neither Greek "nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." A position which evidently assumes, that barbarians or Scythians might be Christians no less than Jews or Greeks, bondmen or free.

No such restriction is to be found in the commission which the Lord Jesus hath left his church. Thus it runs "Go and "teach all nations-Go ye into all the world, and preach the "gospel to every creature," manifestly, every human creature, for such only are objects of the gospel-salvation. Not a syllable about civilization. And, unless it can be proved, that Indians, and other savages, are neither nations nor human creatures; or, if they are, that they are in no part of the world, the prejudice we are combating must be abandoned as in direct opposition to the will and the commandment of Christ.

Such a restriction, moreover, effaces the chief character and glory of the gospel, viz. that "it is the power of God to salvation." Were it what many take it to be, a system of mere moral suasion, of cool, philosophic argument, the case would be different, and the prejudice just. Indians and Hottentots are, indeed, rather rough materials for a religion cantly stiled rational. But whoever knows any thing of real Christianity, knows that the conversion of a sinner is the exclusive work of JEHOVAH the SPIRIT. It is this principle, and this alone,

* Translation of Isaiah, Notes, p. 198, 4to.

of the promise, worm Jacob threshes the mountains, and beats them small as chaff. It is

which makes the preaching of the word to men" dead in tres66 passes and sins," a reasonable service. Now, to say that the gospel cannot succeed among a people not previously civilized, is to say, either that it is not the power of God, or that there are some things too hard for Omnipotence.

3. This opinion, dissonant from reason and scripture, is also contrary to fact.

Was the world universally civilized when Christianity was promulged? or did it prosper only in civilized countries? What were the ancient Getulæ, in Africa? the Sarmatians and Scythians, in Europe? If we can credit history, they were as remote from civilization as the American Indians. Yet, among these, and other nations equally uncultivated and savage, had the gospel, in the time of Tertullian, established its reign *. And in Britain it penetrated into those places which Roman arts and arms had never been able to reach +.

This general assertion might be amplified in an interesting detail, and might receive additional force from the sanctions of modern history. But either would protract, to an immoderate length, a note already too long. We may, however, ask, why the gospel should be unequal to the effects which it formerly produced, and of which its friends made their just and unanswerable boast? Let us fairly risk the experiment, whether the cross of Christ has lost its influence on barbarian minds. Instead of waiting till civilization fit our Indian neighbours for the gospel, let us try whether the gospel will not be the most successful means of ci

* Tertull. adversus Judæos, cap. vii. opp. p. 189. ed. Rigaltii. Inaccessa Romanis loca. Id. ib. A number of testimonies to the same facts are collected in that learned work of Grotius, de veritate Religionis Christianæ, opp. tom. iii. p. 46, 47. Fol.

Lond. 1679.