sufficiently for the common purposes of secular life; but few even of these can abstract themselves sufficiently from their engrained notions to feel the force of arguments which most mis. sionaries but for painful experience would have pronounced selfevident. Mr. Trevelyan gives it as his opinion that there are not five hundred persons in all India, not educated by Europeans, who could read off with understanding a book upon philosophy, morals, or religion, in their own language and character.

Such then are the materials to be wrought upon; such the obstacles, superadded to superadded to those which oppose the Gospel in all places-which must be overcome. But let us not place all the difficulties with which Christian missions have had to contend, either to the character of the heathen, or to unavoidable circumstances. There have been very serious obstacles nearer home. For many years these "labours of love were sneered at by some, and gravely discountenanced by others, who ought, as professing themselves to be Christians, to have encouraged and aided them. What sent the Baptist missionaries to the Danish settlement at Serampore? The determination of the East India Company not to countenance Christian missions within the limits of their authority. The same cause, as we have above noticed, impeded the introduction of Morrison into China. But we do not blame the Directors of this great commercial and political company in particular; they were but an index of the general feeling of worldly-minded men in every class of society.

But suppose the missionary landed at the scene of his destination. He had to encounter, in addition to all other difficul

ties, the prejudices against Christianity engendered by the evil conduct of too many of its professors. Instead of being honoured, he was regarded with scorn or jealousy by too many of his fellow-countrymen; and was often persecuted as an unwelcome witness of their evil doings. How many years had the missionaries to labour and suffer in New Zealand before they could abate the antipathies and indignation engendered by the fraud, rapine, licentiousness, and cruelty of the crews of British vessels! How many Morrisons will it require at Macao to counteract the impression that Christianity and smuggling opium are the consistent faith and practice of a horde of demoralised barbarians! And even in India has it not been the oft-repeated lament of missionaries, that all their labours were counteracted by the vice, the oppression, the cupidity, and the obvious infidelity of too many of their own countrymen ?

Now if only some of these impediments have been removed, or diminished, missions have not been unsuccessful; and we rejoice to say that such has been the case. We are sure that nothing is wanting but a candid attention to facts, to convince any candid man that considering the paucity of missionary labourers, and the difficulties which have continued to beset their efforts, much-very much, quite as much as could have been expected or hoped for-has been achieved. If after five years, and nearly as many millions of money, had been expended upon the London and Birmingham Rail-road, it had been said, just before its opening, that nothing was effected because crowds of travellers were not actually passing to and fro be ween its terminations, would this have been a correct statement? Much may

ven.

be completed in potentiality, even while little is effected in result. The hoped-for result in missions is not books, schools, or even baptisms; but the actual transference of men from the empire of Satan to that of God's dear Son-faith, regeneration, holiness, and eventual glory; the kingdom of Christ upon earth, and accessions to his kingdom in heaThese are divine gifts, but the way may be prepared for the King of kings; the channel may be dug through which the waters of life shall hereafter flow. We are able to adduce much as to spiritual results; many sinners have been saved; but these, it is trusted, are but the first-fruits of an abundant harvest. The present strength of missions lies in the levelling of roads, filling up valleys, piercing through mountains, and preparing the implements for future labours. In these respects much, we repeat, has been done. At home, Christian missions are not scoffed at as heretofore; they are even encouraged, both in high places, and by public concurrence; and in foreign lands they are treated with respect by the European authorities. In India especially, of which we are sorry to have had occasion to say some hard things, the grace of God among our own countrymen has been the germ of grace to the natives; and a missionary now labours among the latter with far less of obloquy than formerly, and often under very favourable circumstances.

Then again, method and organization have been introduced into our societies; the work to be attempted is known and (humanly speaking) the right way of setting about it.

Painful experience has taught many valuable lessons, and they have not been lost. More money also is collected, to meet the unavoidable expenses of mis

sionary operations; and local agencies have grown up in our colonies and dependencies, to cooperate with a parent land in her work of mercy. Still further, numerous languages have been mastered; grammars and dictionaries compiled; the Scriptures in whole or in part translated, printed, and circulated; and also catechisms, formularies of public and private devotion, and many excellent tracts—and, in short, the rough work of pioneering has in many places been accomplished; and the road now lies smooth and open.

With these implements fitted to their hands, we have numerous bands of missionaries in actual service to use them; and others are training at colleges founded expressly for this purpose; and the whole Christian world begins to acknowledge missions to be a regular and indispensable province of its pious labours. The missionaries have under their superintendence printing-presses, which many of them employ locally to a wide extent, and with great benefit. The labour and expense of the preparations for printing in a new character, are very great; but these have been surmounted; and even the Chinese language and characters have yielded to the zealous and persevering efforts of despised Christian missionaries; so that the whole word of God is accessible to nearly one third of the human race (allowing for varieties of dialect) in one single tongue.

Of Christian schools it were superfluous to write; they spring up with every mission, and all its ramifications, and they are emphatically the seed-bed of the church. Already are they visibly shaking the whole fabric of paganism. And is this nothing?

Allow that these are but preparations; yet in great and ardu

ous undertakings, preparation often consumes the most time and expence; and though it brings no immediate returns, it is the foundation of all that is to succeed. Revert to Kishnagur. The fields silently, and to human vision almost hopelessly, sown, are suddenly bursting out white to the harvest, and a similar issue may take place in many other places, and where perhaps we least expect it. In due time we shall reap if we faint not. Many things doubtless might have been done better-we still "6 speak foolishly," as the Apostle says, and not as derogating from the divine sovereignty to do all, and in all-but a hopeful beginning has been made; and we have but to ramify and enlarge our operations; and with more of humility, self-denial, love for souls, zeal for the glory of God, and implicit submission to his will.

We have followed our own theme rather than reviewed the authors whose publications suggested it to our minds; but we will now add a few quotations

from those of them which we have not particularly noticed. We mentioned in our last number Mr. Hough and Dr. Duff; and cited Mr. Martin and Mr. Bateman; and we have above quoted from Mr. Malcom of Boston, (United States) who went out on a wide tour of inspection in Hindoostan, Malaya, Siam, and Siam, and China, on behalf of the American Board of Missions. His book, which is reprinted in England, contains much interesting information connected with missionary objects. We may say the same of Mr. Massie's volumes, though the style is sometimes too ambitious, and the writer is not over civil to the Episcopal Church. We will quote two interesting passages the first an account of a native convert; the second of CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 29.

an imported Jesuit. We take the last first. It depicts what a Romanist mission is, and a Christian mission ought not to be.

"I have consulted a Jesuit priest, who has spent thirty years in India: he was clothed in the native costume, his head covered by a large shawl as his turban, his legs bare and his feet shod with sandals, his body-clothes of the Indian punjam; his grey beard finely flowing over his breast, his manners corresponding with the native habit, his food the diet of the Brahmins, and in his public instructions avoiding every topic that would offend the prejudices of caste; becoming all things to all men to such a degree, that he would not permit the sensitive Hindoos to know that the prodigal's father had killed the fatted calf, or that the Mosaic law prescribed the sacrifice of bulls and goats, and would inform them that Jesus was not a carpenter's son, and his disciples fishermen of Galilee. I have examined him as to the character of that religion, which he and his coadjutors have laboured to propagate; and it seems that the first missionaries among them, seeing the empire of the senses over the Hindoos, and that their imagination was only to be roused by strongly moving objects, judged that some advantage might result to their cause, by accommodating themselves, as far as possible, to their inclinations. Conformably with this idea, the ordinary pomp and pageantry which attend the Catholic worship, so objectionable to the Protestant communion in general, were not deemed by them striking enough to make a sufficient impression on the gross minds of the Hindoos. They, in consequence, encumbered the Romish worship with an additional superstructure of outward shows, unknown in Europe, which, in many instances, does not differ much from that prevailing among the Hindoos. They have a pooja or sacrifice, (the mass is termed by the Hindoos poojah, literally sacrifice); they have processions, images, statues, tirtan or holy water, fasts, tittys or feasts, prayers for the dead, and invocation of saints. This Hindoo pageantry is chiefly seen in the festivals celebrated by the native streets are always performed in the Christians. Their processions in the night time, accompanied with hundreds of tom toms, (small drums), trumpets, and all the discordant noisy music of and fire works: the statue of a saint the country, with numberless torches placed on a car, which is decked with garlands of flowers, and other gaudy

2 S

ornaments according to the taste of the country; the car slowly dragged by a multitude, shouting along the march; the congregation surrounding the car all in confusion; several among them dancing or playing with small sticks, or naked swords: some wrestling, some playing the fool; all shouting or conversing with each other, without any one exhibiting the least sign of respect or devotion. Such is the testimony of a Roman Catholic to his own religion, as it exists in the eastern world.

:

"But ask the judgment of a discerning Hindoo I have done so, and he observes: They have changed the strong idols of their fathers made of stone, and come to worship weak idols made of wood. But they say they believe in Jesus Christ, and they shew me the small crucifix made of brass hanging round their necks, and they point out the image of wood to me as a proof of Christianity; they have a great many images in their chapel, besides that which they call Jesus Christ. Before every image they have candles and frankincense burning; they have feasts in honour of these images. During the time of these feasts, and also on the Lord's-day, they kneel down to the images to pray to them, and to kiss their feet. They say that the pope teaches them to count thirty-three prayers to Jesus Christ, and fifty-three to the Virgin Mary. They deliver their prayers to be carried unto God, sometimes by angels, sometimes by saints, and sometimes by the Virgin Mary. Have they seen or heard any order from God to pray to so many persons, or to send prayers to him by these persons? A man in the Church of Rome at seventy years of age, is not wiser in the writings of their God, than he may be when seven or eight years old. Counting beads, saying the Lord's Prayer, and Prayers to the Virgin Mary, and worshipping any piece of wood that is called holy, these things are nearly all that the old man understands.' Such is the impression produced upon the minds of the intelligent Hindoos, by the mummery of Rome. Is this Christianity ?''

with the missionaries is still, twenty years since his conversion, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and with energy and heaven-derived success, spending and being spent in the service of his Redeemer. Perhaps no man in British India now living, has been more honoured as an instrument of conversion to Christ among the Hindoos. His zeal, his love, and devotion, his faith, his labours, and his success, if properly appreciated, are calculated to provoke very many to love and to good works. Among them who shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, I do not doubt but my beloved though sable friend, Samuel Havel, shall stand in his lot at the latter day. The following record from his own pen, received only a few days ago, is an instance, among hundreds, of those whom God has honoured him as a means of turning to righteousness. It illustrates the process and fruit in multitudes of cases, by which the sinner has been brought to God. In 1833, while I was returning from the Koul bazaar, from preaching the gospel, my attention was directed to a deserted temple, by a light shining between nine and ten at night. I went up to it, and saw a man making pooja (worship) to several images. I asked him why he set up these images and worshipped them: he answered that he was seeking the expiation of his guilt and eternal happiness. After directing him to the Saviour, I invited him to come to my place the next morning, which he did, and, the Lord plucked him as a brand from the burning, and made him a monument of his grace and mercy.' He was admitted to the church at Bellary, May 1, 1836. The memorial from the convert himself is very satisfactory:

"I should prove myself a most unfaithful witness, and guilty, as a Christian, of deep ingratitude, were I to fail to record my testimony in this place of the fidelity and steadfastness of native converts, to whom I was introduced while in Bangalore. The native minister whom I mentioned as associated

vain. Of this time I spent five years in the worship of Vishnu, and had my shoulders burnt with the chakramkitaa ceremony designed to point out special dedication, in which a hot discus, the symbol of Vishnu, is applied to the shoulders. For seven years I performed the worship of Sheva; the rest of the time I spent in the adoration of idols of my own making. About three years

since I arrived at Bellary, and as I had often heard that if any one would take possession of a deserted temple, erect an idol, and pay it his adorations, he would obtain great merit, and God would reveal himself to him; I, finding a deserted temple near a tank, took possession of it, placing in it three images, which I had made, and to which I daily paid homage, and at the same time worshipped the sun and the moon, and made many prayers. I paid every attention to the decoration of the images I had set up. I suffered, also, many penances, sometimes my head covered with sand under a burning sun. I continued these ceremonies for the space of three months, and daily felt increasing sorrow and trouble of conscience, in consequence of finding that after all my pains, I could not obtain peace of mind, and that God was not pleased to reveal himself to me. When I was in this troubled state, one day when Mr. Havel was returning from the Koul Bazaar, he came to me, and asked me why I was taking all this trouble in worshipping these lifeless images. On my telling him that I wanted to find God and could not, he said to me, Come to my house to-morrow, (appointing a time) and I will shew you a safe way to find him.' After speaking a little more he left me. I went the next day to his house, when he spoke to me very long about the vanity of idols, and showed me the way of obtaining peace of conscience through the blood of Christ the Saviour of mankind. This was just what I wanted, and had been seeking for, and I felt great joy. I felt at once the truth of his arguments against idols, for I had my own experience to teach me that they could do me no good. I was so fully persuaded that I had wasted my life and strength in vanity and lies, that I went at once after my conversation, and broke the idols in pieces, and threw the fragments into the tank. I took off all the marks of idolatry from my body, and returned home to my family, in forming them that I had at last found what I was in search of these many years; that God had sent his servant to teach me the way of happiness; and that I was fully convinced that it was the right way. I then knelt down, and prayed to God, thanking him for his mercy in sending his servant to shew me the way to serve and please him. My relatives were greatly provoked that I had determined to forsake the gods of our fathers; and deserted me, with the intention of having nothing more to do with me. They continued for some time, till they found it would not keep me from persevering in the

course I had taken; they returned, but constantly persecuted and abused me. The Lord, I thank his name, has given me grace to bear it all patiently, and now they have in a great measure desisted from their attempts to draw me back to their ways. I have found great delight in regularly attending the house of God, and hearing his word preached. The more I have heard, the deeper have been my convictions that I am now in the right path. Peace of conscience I have found from believing in Christ. I desire to serve the Saviour who has bought me with his precious blood, and brought me out of darkness into his marvellous light. Since the time I renounced idolatry, I have found true pleasure in serving the Lord. I cast my soul at his feet, and look to his sufferings and death for the pardon of my sins, and my acceptance with God."

There remain on our list Gutzlaff and Dr. Morrison, both of which carry us on to China.

Gutzlaff's voyages are not new; but they are sufficiently recent to allow of our quoting a few passages which in the present relations-or non-relations-of China to England are well worth perusal.

The following is his summary of the character of the Chinese, and of the policy of their government in its "communications" with Europeans. The quiet word communication" was significantly used on a late occasion in the House of Commons. "I did not say hostilities or declaration of war, but a communication;" though "a groat's a groat," notwithstanding we should choose to call it, with the wise-acre in Shakspeare, "a remuneration;" and a bomb-shell will hit as hard and do as much mischief at Macao, Canton, or Pekin, though politely labelled " a communication," as if it were termed, in plain English, 66 a declaration of war." We will quote Gutzlaff's estimate, which should judge to be in the main

correct.

we

"Europeans have frequently, by petty aggressions, provoked the Chinese to carry their laws of exclusion into the most rigorous execution. We have cause to regret that they have