and to the spread of science in benighted climes, than all the academicians of Europe! But this was only an appendage to his mighty work. He conducts the people of his affections through nature to God. His lessons ascend from the Divine existence to the Divine character, and from his natural to his moral attributes,—from justice to mercy, from penitence to faith, from peace to purity, from earth to heaven. The physical philosopher cannot impart what he does not possess. His sphere is wholly confined to the works of God; he has no agents, no instruments to operate on the malignant, the mortal maladies which rage in the spirit of man! Mind and morals are the peculiar province of the missionary. But, Sir, attempts at comparison, between the missionary and the philosopher, must have an end; for in reality there can be no more comparison between them, than between the gospel and philosophy. We may contrast, but we can hardly compare them. The true philosopher is the appropriate fellow-worker of the missionary-not his rival. Their provinces, although distinct, are, nevertheless, harmonious. True philosophy is the handmaid of Christianity. Both, indeed, may unite in the same person, and, in some cases, the more they are blended, the better will it be for both. Christianity, in heathen lands, invariably opens the path of science; but in such lands science can make no way for herself, and still less can she introduce Christianity. For all that science can do, or indeed, cares to do, the heathen world will for ever remain as it now is. It is important to know what science has hitherto done to civilize barbarity and turn idolaters to God. For what she has already done, she may probably do again. What then, has she accomplished? I wish that her priests and

votaries would answer for themselves; they may have secrets which we know not, and which they have not told. The pursuits of the philosopher are intellectual, selfish, and solitary; those of the missionary are moral, benevolent, and social. The philosopher is the man of the few; the missionary, of the million. It is in vain, however, that we look for achievements of this description in the multitudinous volumes of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, or in those of any kindred institution. Nor by me are they blamed for the deficiency. Their proper business is science, which relates to nature, not philanthropy, which relates to man. But my pro

position is, that philanthropy is as much superior to science as perishable matter is inferior to immortal mind. By this principle I submit that we should estimate respectively the comparative honour, dignity, and importance, of the missionary and the philosopher.

I have largely spoken, Sir, of the past in relation to missions; I shall now close with a word concerning the vast, uncertain, and awful future! All my hope with respect to it is placed in Christian Protestant missions. The hope of all nations is bound up with the gospel of Christ, in union with the Protestant principle. True liberty, and free institutions, wheresoever found, are the fruits of genuine Christianity. That from which they spring can alone nourish and sustain them, where they already exist; and they can be multiplied throughout the earth only by diffusing the parent element. I am sure you will agree, that freedom, whether political or religious, as it exists even in the most enlightened states of Europe, is very imperfect. The freedom which conscience demands, is far from being completely

enjoyed even in England, and in the chief continental nations its name is a term hardly known. In this de

partment of the globe, a work of inconceivable difficulty and of prodigious magnitude, has yet to be performed, before these nations can enjoy the civil and religious liberty to which every soul of man has a clear, a natural, an indefeasible right, and of which he cannot be deprived or defrauded but by wrong and robbery. Toleration, in religious matters, is not enough; it is not a boon, but an insult; enlightened Christians, as such, demand entire equality in the sight of the civil power, and complete independence of all state support and state control. Now the spread of pure Christianity, in those kingdoms, and nothing else, can effect the glorious consummation. Pure religion can alone correct the errors of legislation. But if this be so, how great a work yet awaits her! Even in favoured England, there is much to discourage, and not a little to afflict, the sincere lover of freedom and of the human race; but in continental lands, there is, everywhere, every thing to awaken his pity, to exasperate his spirit, and to arouse his utmost indignation. Amid all this, however, there is also something to comfort and to cheer him. He remembers the contest of many ages to rescue civil liberty from the iron grasp of executive power, and he traces its growth from century to century, amidst sacrifice and suffering, proscription, and martyrdom! He looks around, and beholds on every side the happy fruits of the mighty conflict; he sees the steady progress of the great principle, and its advocates increasing every hour. He witnesses the press putting forth its power, and, beyond all precedent, almost beyond credibility, multiplying the means of mental illumination. With faith in the maxim that

"knowledge is power," he exults in its spread through England and other countries. He sees it contracting the expanse of the great Atlantic into half its dimensions, and bringing America and Europe within a few days' sail of each other. He sees with calm joy that the whole world is becoming a field for the operation of intellect. Genius, wisdom, experience, religion, humanity, liberty, begin to speak in many tongues and in many lands, and mankind begin to listen to their voice. Mind communes with mind in both hemispheres, and at either pole. Every wind of heaven is wafting truth over the dwelling-place of man; it rolls on every billow; it has living temples on every shore; it is gaining trophies in every clime. The Christian patriot and philanthropist knows that he shall die before the hour of final victory and universal deliverance; but he knows, too, he will lay down his head in the certain hope, that whatever land may yield him a grave, that land will, in the end, become the inheritance of freemen, the abode peace, truth, and righteousness!

of

But, Sir, my chief anxiety is about distant climes. I shall speak no more of Europe. I now speak of lands under a darkness still thicker, and galled by chains still heavier than those which bind the millions of Europe. Sir, I speak of Africa! What is to be done for her? Philosophy, philanthropy, diplomacy, have given her up. Her sorrows multiply. At this day, when our fathers expected that her slavery would have been abolished, the infernal traffic is more than doubled! While I address you, ships are being built, fetters are being forged, and arrangements are being made, to extend the traffic! In Africa itself, while I write, villages are burning, blood is flowing, and prisoners are

being dragged and driven across the desert to be sold to the white fiends, the merchants of murder, who, like vultures, hover on the shore, hungering for their prey! How is the monster demon to be destroyed? By the missionary! How is the work of mutual slaughter and merchandise in man to be put an end to? By the missionary! By whom is Africa to be covered with the blessings of civilization? By the missionary! By whom are the sable millions of that great continent to be lifted up to the fellowship of the free states of Europe? By the missionary! Let the Gospel of Christ have free course, and be glorified through all its borders, and then old things will pass away, all things become new. In that hour her degraded sons will rise from the earth, feel that they are men and not beasts, and worship their great Creator! Behold the change! Agriculture clothes her wide-spreading wastes with a measureless abundance of rich and varied produce. Commerce creates towns, cities, manufactories, and harbours,-navigates her rivers-circumnavigates her shores, and pushes her fortunes on every sea. Peace waves her banner over land and over ocean; plenty pours out her horn of wine and oil; the pirate, the man-stealer, the murderer, disappear; the slave ship, the ark of sorrow and death, with all its horrors, is seen no more! Education rears her schools; science, her halls; religion, her temples:

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And sovereign Law-the world's collected will,

O'er thrones and globes elate,

Sits Empress-crowning good-repressing ill;

Smit by her sacred frown,

The fiend Discretion, like a vapour sinks,

And e'en the all-dazzling crown

Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks."