Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

ever may be achieved by a clerical hand to convince and abash the adversary, there is still the disadvantage to be encountered the performance is professional. This is enough! But when men like yourself, Isaac Taylor, and other master spirits, step forth as the advocates of evangelical operations, the question assumes a new shape, and it must be dealt with in another manner. Do allow me, therefore, with all the respect which I feel for your character, gifts, and acquirements, to urge this consideration. Your volumes on the "Truths," on the "Errors," and on "Mental Philosophy," are good and useful; but a chapter of your " Advancement," or ten pages of your "Hints," are of a hundred-fold more real value than they all to the mighty work of the world's salvation! Do, Sir, do continue to wield your transcendant power, and to use the influence arising from your social position, to advance this most glorious of all objects! The subject is not exhausted; it is only begun. In your hands it may be made to assume a shape, and present a beauty which will command the attention and captivate the imagination both of the literary and the aristocratic circles. Had I the power to impel performance, you should assuredly have no rest until you had published and addressed to those circles a series of letters on Christian missions!

"Acceptissima semper

Munera sunt auctor quæ pretiosa facit."

LETTER VII.

TO THOMAS WILSON, ESQ., TREASURER OF THE

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

ON THE RESULTS OF MISSIONARY LABOUR IN RELATION TO THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE, ARTS, COMMERCE, AND CIVILIZA

TION.

MY DEAR SIR,-You are, beyond most men, an individual whose habits, character, and understanding, are all thoroughly practical. You have neither time nor taste for theoretic trifling upon any subject, whether of politics or of religion. Your eye is ever directed to results; and by these you have always tested both systems and men. In consecrating your time, talents, influence, and fortune, to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, both at home and abroad, you have always felt and maintained that you were adopting the most, and, indeed, the only successful method of at once promoting the interests of the purest patriotism and the most exalted philanthropy. You have long rejoiced in the benign spirit and the beneficent operation of Christianity, and laboured much to promote its spread both for the glory of God and the good of man. On these and other grounds I now address to you the

following letter on the glorious effects of the gospel upon the earthly welfare of the once barbarous inhabitants of Polynesia.

Christianity deals first with the individual character, next with the domestic constitution, and lastly with civil society; the first is the basis of the second, and the second of the third. When the individual man is brought to know the Lord, and is disposed to select for himself a companion in life, he is left to cherish his preference towards the sex with only two limitations; first, that all his affections shall centre in one object; and that she, like himself, shall belong to the family of God. The happiness equally of male and female requires the rigorous, uniform, and universal observance of the divine appointment concerning marriage. Polygamy is as injurious to the peace and comfort of the one sex as of the other. It is a violation of the order of nature and the command of God: he, therefore, who contributes to promote the observance of marriage is a great benefactor to his species. Now, polygamy is always, more or less, the attendant of idolatry; and hence when the missionary assails the latter, he undermines the former. Hence, too, it results that the missionary has done more to destroy polygamy than all other classes of men united. Of this species of benevolence, as of most others, he has a monopoly. How full of interest is the Martyr's account of the abolition of polygamy in Rarotonga! How affecting and laudable was the king's conduct! Of three wives-one of them his own sister-he parted from two, and, in the presence of his people, was married to one; and the people, as a matter of course, followed the impressive example of their sovereign. Who can estimate the extent of the

good resulting to Polynesia from the abolition of this great and prevalent evil? Who but the missionaries could have succeeded in effecting so serious a reformation?

The literature of missions demonstrates that Christianity is the grand civilizer of man. Enlightened statesmen, knowing little of Christianity beyond its effects, have yet perceived enough of its power to confess the truth of our allegation. Edmund Burke, in his Letter to Dundas on the civilization of negroes in both Hemispheres, utters the following remarkable words:"I confess I trust more, according to the sound principles of those who have at any time ameliorated the state of mankind, to the effect and influence of religion, than to all the rest of the regulations put together."* This witness is true. The conductors of all missionary societies, and a still more competent class of witnessess, the missionaries themselves, all unite in testifying that civilization is the certain, invariable, and speedy result of Christianization. I remember no person who has been more successful in the illustration of this point in a few words than Kahkewaquonaby, the Chippewa Indian chief, who visited England some years ago, and was known as Peter Jones. This interesting man, an excellent preacher of righteousness in the Wesleyan body, records the experiment among his countrymen in the following words :-"The improvements which the Christian Indians have made have been the astonishment of all who knew them in their pagan state. The change for the better has not only extended to their hearts and feelings, but also to their personal appear

* Works, vol. ix. p. 287.

ance, and their domestic and social condition. About ten years ago this people had no houses, no fields, no horses, no cattle. Each person could carry upon his back all that he possessed, without being much burdened. They are now occupying about forty comfortable houses, most of which are built of hewn logs, and a few of frame, and are generally one and a half story high, and about twenty-four feet long, and eighteen feet wide, with stone or brick chimneys; two or three rooms in each house. Their furniture consists of tables, chairs, bedsteads, straw mattresses, a few feather beds, window curtains, boxes and trunks for their wearing apparel, small shelves fastened against the wall for their books, closets for their cooking utensils, cupboards for their plates, knives, and forks: some have clocks and watches. They have no carpets, but a few have mats laid on their floors. This tribe owns a saw-mill, a workshop, a blacksmith's shop, and a warehouse, the property of the whole community. They have about 200 acres of land under cultivation, on which they grow wheat, Indian corn, potatoes, &c. In their gardens they raise vegetables of various kinds; and a few have planted fruit-trees. They have a number of oxen, cows, horses, and pigs; a few barns and stables; a few wagons and sleighs; and all sorts of farming implements. The men now make the houses, plant the fields, provide the fuel and provisions for the house; the business of the women is to manage the household affairs. The females eat with the men at the same table. I have often heard them expressing their thanks to the Great Spirit for sending them missionaries to tell them the words of eternal life, which have been the means of delivering them from a state of misery and degradation." What a

« НазадПродовжити »