eternity, that may not be traced up to them ;-if, I say, this can be shown, then by what process shall we estimate, in what language shall we set forth, the merits and claims of those missionaries? Such are the obligations, such the men, that the established forms of thought, and the hackneyed language of eulogy, are wholly inappropriate, not to say preposterous, when applied either to them or to their benefactions. In this attempt all thought is feeble, all language poor. It is not in our power either to appreciate their services, or to apportion their reward. He who sent them, who wrought in them and by them, the Author of their being, the Source of their excellence, their Master, Protector, and Friend,-He, and only He, can do full justice to their claims on man as instruments of his own sovereign pleasure, stewards of his mysteries, vessels of his mercy, and channels of his love to a guilty world! Still, notwithstanding our insufficiency in these respects, we might, on some points at least, approximate to justice. This will be done. The time will assuredly come when the sound of a world's joy will break forth in every land as the voice of many waters, and proclaim its obligation to the man who " endured all things for the elect's sake;" whom "bonds and afflictions" could not move; who "counted not his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God;" and who, in the discharge of his duty, was always "ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus!" The expression, not of idolatrous, but of justly grateful praise to the missionaries of the Son of God, will one day rush from all the capitals and cities of a civilized globe, a regenerated world, ringing from the vales, and echoing from the hills of all countries. The poets, orators, historians, philosophers, statesmen, and rulers of a future age, the lights of society, the guides of opinion,

the great arbiters of truth and right amongst men, the true sovereigns of the earth,-these will trace back the history of man's felicity to the day of Pentecost, the garden, the cross, and the sepulchre, and highest on the scale of fame will be the names of Paul, of the other apostles, of martyrs, and of missionaries!

Each successive generation, as it ascends a step in the path of time, occupies a position more advantageous than that of the preceding for a right appreciation of the value of missionary labour. It is to be feared that the bulk even of the scholars of European nations have no adequate conception of our obligation to Christian missionaries; and the masses have no thoughts at all on the subject. The space which now divides us from the dismal days of idolatry is so vast, that it is not easy to conceive that the state of things among us was ever much otherwise than it is at present. We do not sufficiently reflect that Christianity, which is now established by the law of nations, was once an intruder, an invader, and that she only reigns by right of conquest; that ecclesiastical establishments are simply a legal incorporation and consolidation of missionary triumphs. Millions who now neglect or despise the Christian missionary, ought to know that they owe to him every civil, religious, and social blessing they now enjoy.

To men of reflection, such as yourself, Sir, the history of Europe during the last eighteen hundred years presents one of the most interesting and awful subjects of human contemplation. Resting on the fortieth year of the nineteenth century, as on an alpine eminence, and carefully looking back through the long period which terminates in century the first, what scenes present themselves to us! What a conflict do we behold How unequal at the outset Yet, notwithstanding the how rapid, brilliant, and

between truth and error! appeared the combatants! seeming imbecility of truth,

glorious have been her victories! widely her empire has spread!

How speedily and How the earth fills

with monuments of her power, and with temples to her praise! What transformations have been effected throughout the whole frame of human society! Generations would be required fully to record them: time would fail even slightly to indicate them. I can but hazard a few passing glances.

On the great theatre of missionary operations which that series of centuries presents, the first phenomenon that offers itself is the power of the word on individual character. Under the tuition of the missionary we behold man, in all the nations of Europe, quickened from a state of torpor and of death unto a new life, enlightened by the truth, and emancipated from the thraldom of idolatry. He becomes a worshipper of the one living and true God, through Jesus Christ. The knowledge of God in his Son works wonders in his soul. He is quite another creature; and the effects of the change extend to all the relations of life. His household are the first to benefit from his new principles, and the improvement of his character. His wife, his children, his slaves, his very beasts of burden,all find their account in the wondrous change. Power no longer wantons in cruelty; it is now regulated by law. Authority is tempered with mercy. Woman is now restored to the place she was created to occupy, but from which pride and cruelty had thrust her. From a despised menial she becomes the beloved and cherished companion of her lord. She henceforth receives from her husband, and in turn she gives, a whole, an undivided heart,-the first element of domestic felicity. To her is now conceded the helm of household affairs, as her own peculiar province. Husband and tyrant are synonymous no more! Polygamy, the curse equally of both sexes, disappears, and the foundation of social order is restored to God's creation. The child shares

in the new immunities of its mother.

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Smiling innocents and blooming youths are no longer things," portions of goods and chattels, objects without rights, to be at pleasure enslaved, sold, or slain! No; the doctrines of the missionary first awake in their behalf the dormant spirit of parental affection, and then throwing around them the broad shield of eternal justice, assign them a safe asylum in the sanctuary of law. Next in order are those who have been robbed of their indefeisible rights, and doomed to hopeless bondage. The sound of the missionary's footsteps is to these helpless and unfriended millions the harbinger of freedom. The highest stretch of Cicero's philosophy in their behalf, was, that their "masters ought to compel them to the performance of their duties, and then to pay them honestly for their work." Thus, while the orator asserts the rights of their labour, he overlooks the prior rights of their persons. He pleads

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for their sustenance, but he leaves them in chains. An advocate of a higher order now appears in their behalf. The gentle touch of the missionary at once dissolves their fetters! The missionary goes on preaching deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, and setting at liberty them that are bruised;" the manacled myriads hear, believe, weep, wonder, and rejoice in the tender and unmerited mercy of God, which comes to mitigate the unprovoked and remorseless cruelty of man! The slaveholder himself, too,

sharing the same sovereign mercy,-shamed, confounded, self-condemned, and softened by the benevolence of God,-lets go his captive, who starts from his bestial prostration, and stands up a man! Thus the fettered host begins to diminish, and under the melting beams of the Sun of Righteousness, it diminishes still further, till at length it wholly disappears! Where now are the slaves of Europe? They are lost in the great community of freemen!

Gazing over the broad expanse of the nations of Europe, we perceive a new element of mighty power arising in the minds of the multitudes who follow in the train of the missionary—an element wholly unknown to heathenism. That element is philanthropy, love to the whole human race. This marvellously alters the aspect of the earth. It has every where brought to light countless masses who, in all past times, had been neglected, contemned, forgotten. The poor, those who have among the heathen none to pity them, and who "embrace the rock for want of a shelter," now find a friend wherever they find a follower of the missionary. The solitary widow, too, with grateful wonder, perceives herself surrounded by those who are susceptible of being moved by her sigh, and who feel it a luxury to wipe away her tears. While the priests of idolatry urge her to self-destruction, leaving her fatherless children double orphans, the disciples of the missionary compass her with soothing kindness, minister to her necessities, and endeavour to conduct her to Christ as a deathless husband. Nor are trembling orphans forgotten; they find both fathers and mothers among the followers of the missionary. The sick of every

class, likewise, come in for their share of the common mercy and solicitude. Edifices arise like palaces for their reception, and stores of hoarded treasures are poured forth for their sustenance and comfort. The prisoner, whether of debt, or of crime, or of war, is also enfranchised in the commonwealth of humanity.

Again, casting our eye abroad upon the nations, we are struck with the entire disappearance of one order of religious institutions, and the establishment of another. The whole system of Polytheism, with its idols, altars, priests, and temples, is no more. Not a vestige of the mighty edifice, representing the monstrous delusion, remains. All its sanguinary accompaniments are also