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Emancipation. They moved in fetters; they were in hourly jeopardy; their presence was hateful to the bulk of the planters, and, so far as practicable, they were thwarted in all their efforts to promote the good of the suffering negroes. Such was their condition but yesterday. Now, however, old things are passed away, and all things are become new! The slave has awoke from the stupor of thraldom, and finds himself a free man; and the persecuted missionary now rejoices in all the privileges of an Englishman and an evangelist. Only those who have known both the past and present state of things, can fully appreciate the importance of the change. Then Africa, the land of darkness and of blood, stands ready, to-morrow, to receive a hundred thousand missionaries! No region ever presented a more inviting aspect to the servants of God than that suffering and benighted continent. It is now admitted that the poor black is not a beast, but a man; and the hardest heart scarcely disputes that eternal happiness is not the less necessary to him because he is black, and because he has been robbed, and oppressed by the white man! The African missions furnish some of the finest specimens of Christianity that modern times can boast. The mass of the South Sea islands are fields white unto the harvest. With one or two peculiarly barbarous exceptions, there is reason to believe that missionaries, in any number, may be settled on them all. Their sylvan voice breathes across the Pacific, to England and America, an hourly prayer for increased assistance. Passing on to the Indian Archipelago, all is ours; and the palmy plains of India, with all her millions, smile with the golden smile of harvest, invite us to put in the sickle, and reap for the Lord. Such, in a word, are

the fields which are open to us,-fields where life and property are both in perfect safety,-that were our missionary means and instruments augmented five hundredfold, we have ample scope for their employment. You are all agreed that this is the true state of things, and in this agreement you rejoice; but your joy is marred by the thought that the servants of your King are so few in number, as to form an army utterly inadequate to the glorious work which he has placed before them. Never, no never, since the days of the apostles, did the earth so resemble a highway as at this moment; all seas are safe to us; and nearly all lands are open to receive us. How has this been brought about? How? By prayer, suffering, and conflict! In the West Indies, in Africa, and in the East, our freedom has been the result of moral conflict on the part of the friends, agents, and advocates of missions,-conflict in which they have, by the help of God, worsted the oppressors of those lands, and the foes of civilization! Who can fully estimate the greatness and importance of these victories?

With respect, then, to the creation of the missionary spirit, to the organization of Christian communities for missionary work, and to the removal of all barriers to the spread of the gospel over most of the chief territories of our globe, it is certain that, within the space of the last half century, mighty wonders have been wrought in the way of general preparation. But it may be said that the opinion which I am controverting, acknowledges the existence of "a vast machinery," and only insists that there has been "an insignificant result." To this it might be replied, in general terms, that the month of June is too early a period to inquire for the "results" of the immense expenditure of March and April, in

human and bestial labour, in soil and seed corn, in rent and taxation, and all that appertains to the business of husbandry. The planting of the Pilgrim colony of New England, was an affair of much toil, vast suffering, and immense expense; and he who, in the fiftieth year of its existence, should have proceeded to inquire into the results, would not have had far to go for the materials of pity or of scorn. But let him repair thither at the proper period, when the colonial field has had time to bring forth fully even its first-ripe fruits, and let him mark the end! Little sagacity is required to discover that sowing precedes reaping; and we have a high authority for the application of the principle comprised in the fact, that "the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." In reality, fifty years is a period too short even for the full commencement of the great enterprise of missions. At this moment, it is but just begun. All that even an adversary has a right to ask, is first-fruits; but we can show him that, to a considerable extent, the harvest is actually commenced. To all who honestly ask us, What have ye done? We reply, Come and see! What hath God wrought? In all parts of the world in which we have sown, we have already received at least the first-fruits, and in many regions we have already reaped a very considerable harvest. The Lord hath no where left us without witnesses. You may, with all safety, even on this point, challenge a comparison with the success even of home ministrations of the gospel, under analogous, although infinitely more favourable, circumstances. You may ascertain the number of true Christian missionaries, of all denominations, now at work in

the foreign field; you may calculate the aggregate amount of their period of service; you may then determine, as far as practicable, the number of converts they have made, of hearers they have gathered, of schools they have established, of scholars they have assembled ; you may next ascertain the catalogue of school books, and of religious treatises they have composed, or translated, and printed; and lastly, the number of translations of the sacred Scriptures which they have made ; and when you have done all this, you may select an equal number of evangelical ministers from Christendom at large, all ordained within the same period, all ordained to new stations, and the aggregate amount of whose period of service is the same as that of the missionaries, and then you may compare the former with the latter, point after point, as above specified. Let this be done, and, if the result of the process be not decidedly, prodigiously, in favour of the missionary body, my reading, observation, inquiry, and experience, have entirely misled me. But I have done with captious men, and now proceed to more important business; and henceforth it will be necessary occasionally to address the churches of America, and those of England, apart.

Brethren of England! I have already referred to the extreme paucity of labourers; but, before any thing further be said on this head, we must discuss the previous question. If we had more competent agents, should we be able to support them? You have been frequently told that the Directors of the London Missionary Society have been compelled to reject excellent and accomplished candidates for the work, from the want of all means for outfit, for transport, and for after

sustenance.

Further additions to the lights of the dark places of the earth, is therefore, at present, impossible. Without more pecuniary means, must the force then remain stationary? No: would that this small consolation were a thing of certainty! But the truth is, that the existing incomes of your societies do not suffice to meet the wants of the existing stations. The amount of the deficiencies for the present year, will be as much as were the annual incomes at a time when your fathers thought they had achieved great things. Although it may augment your fears, and aggravate your calamity, it must not be forgotten that this state of things is neither an affair of a single year, nor is it to be accounted for by the condition either of our commerce or of our agriculture. All comfort from this consideration is denied us. The malady is chronic, and has been coming on for a number of years, annually augmenting in force and malignity. To meet emergencies, you have, from time to time, made extraordinary efforts; but while you laboured, the Lord blessed your labours, and the wants of the work increased with its expansion, so as to require not only the extraordinary efforts to be continued, and thereby rendered ordinary, but even to be annually increased from twenty to thirty per cent. Such are the requirements arising from the necessities created by your success. How have those requirements been met? There has been no such annual increase; nay, the extraordinary has not been converted into ordinary contribution. Has it returned to the former ordinary scale? Yes. Will it stop there? Would that this poor consolation were yours! But look at the manufacturing districts of England and Scotland, the prime sources of your missionary revenue. Is there

even

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