cause as the confident hope of success? If I have but faint hopes of accomplishing an object, no matter how desirable-the languor of my hopes will be likely to impart itself, as an enervating influence to my efforts; whereas if I look with confident expectation to the attainment of my end, while yet I realize that there can be no success apart from exertion, I am in a state of mind to labour most perseveringly and effectively; and it is scarcely more certain that the object which I aim at is within my reach, than that it will be attained. I read the lives of the missionaries, and I see that they have not laboured in vain. I have evidence not to be resisted that the hand of God has already wrought wonders through their instrumentality. Shall I not then, shall not all my fellow-Christians around me, shall not the whole church, animated by the assurance of success, conveyed not only by the word of God, but by the providence of God,-rise up to a tone of more vigorous effort in this great cause? Shall not every heart be strength. ened and every hand nerved afresh, for new assaults upon the empire of the prince of darkness?

There is another consideration here which we may not forget-each missionary biography that is written tells of another active labourer withdrawn from the missionary ranks, and of course of a vacancy to be filled by some one devoted to the same high vocation. In reading their instructive works, we do right to pause, and thank God for all that he has accomplished by the subjects of them; and it is almost a thing of course that we follow them to their glorious reward; that we think of them as shouting louder hallelujahs because they have come out of great tribulation. But who shall take up the implements of spiritual labour on earth which they have laid down? who shall succeed to them in their efforts to enlighten and save the poor heathen? Who shall carry forward the work in which they were actively engaged who shall water the plants of righteousness which have already begun to spring up under their diligent and well-directed culture-who shall quicken the upward tendencies of the spirit that had already begun to rise, and secure to Heaven that which is yet exposed to hell? The answer to these questions falls on the ear and the heart of the church, as a matter of most impressive significance. Other devoted men must enter into the labours of those who are departed. If death takes away from the missionary ranks, yet he must not be allowed to thin them; for the zeal and charity of the church must not only supply the places of those whom he numbers

as his victims, but must constantly add fresh recruits, with a view to extend and quicken these benevolent operations. It is delightful to reflect that each missionary who is called to his rest should thus make provision by the appeal which he sends forth from his grave for filling his place, and that the tidings of his death in connection with the story of his life should come to a thousand hearts as an argument for renewed diligence in the missionary work.

Let it be remembered then that the memoirs of our devoted missionaries will not have fully accomplished their work, unless their effect is felt in a deeper sense of obligation on the part of the church, not only to keep good, but to increase the missionary ranks. Each of these works, as it comes from the press, embalming some honoured and endeared name, calls upon the whole body of the faithful to engage more vigorously, especially in furnishing suitable labourers for the conversion of the world. It calls upon our Education societies to extend their patronage, especially to those who are looking towards the missionary field; while they are careful to encourage none who, on any account, are disqualified for such a destination. It calls upon our young men who hope they have felt the quickening influence of God's Spirit, and are directing their thoughts to the Christian ministry, to remember the millions who are sitting in the region of the shadow of death, and to inquire whether it may not be their duty to carry them the light of life. It calls upon the heads of our Theological seminaries, to cherish with watchful and earnest solicitude the missionary spirit among those whose education they superintend; encouraging, so far as they can, every hopeful disposition for this field of labour. It calls upon Christian parents to strive to the extent of their ability for the conversion of their children, not merely that they may thereby escape hell and obtain Heaven, nor yet merely that they may be honoured as instruments of good to their fellow-creatures, but that, if God will, they may labour directly for the salvation of the poor heathen, and have an important agency in this way in the ultimate conversion of the world. I repeat, the memoirs of each departed missionary is a standing monition not only to repair the waste of morality, not only to strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, but to give new life to the missionary enterprize, till there no longer remains any part of the territories of darkness that is not enlightened.

The preceding train of thought, I trust, not only justifies, but honours the efforts which are made from time to time to perpetuate the memories of those who have laboured with signal fidelity and success in the missionary field. It is not too much to say that many of the most attractive as well as edifying works of Christian biography belong to this class; and if there are among them some of inferior interest, yet there are few, if any, which have not their sphere of usefulness. It was a happy thought in the projectors of the present work to bring together in a glorious group so many names which, by common consent, have illumined the records of the missionary enterprise. Though the notices of the several individuals are necessarily brief, to be included within the limits prescribed, yet each article will be found long enough to present, in an impressive manner, an exalted character and a useful life. As these pages, at once historical and commemorative, are read and pondered by the followers of Christ, may the missionary cause receive fresh accessions in both numbers and strength, and may those who are hereafter to engage in this work be the more devoted and the more successful from having contemplated the heroic and martyr-like spirit of so many who have gone before them.

A VIEW

OF

EARLIER MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES.

THE missionary enterprise was styled by John Foster "THE GLORY OF THE AGE." There is an important sense in which the appellation is just, for until within little more than a half century past modern Christendom has not, since the reformation, been aroused to attempt the conquest of the world. As civilization seeks out the farthest nations, to unite them by ties of commercial interest in one great commonwealth of states, the church, in a like spirit of enlarged enterprise, girds herself to extend over all that kingdom which "is not meat and drink," nor wealth and art, "but righteousness and peace." While, however, considered as a comprehensive scheme, planned upon a scale larger than the wisdom of Providence permitted earlier generations to devise, the missionary work of the present day has a character of its own, the enterprise itself is the same which was originally committed to the church by her adorable Head; and the spirit in which it is carried on is but a revival of that which animated the apostles and their immediate successors, and which in various degrees has been manifested during the intervening ages. As the present work concerns itself only with men whose names and memory are "the glory of this age," it is not inappropriate first to take a rapid glance at earlier missionary achievements, the record of which did much to kindle the flame that now burns so brightly on the evangelical altar.

If the apostles did not literally go "into all the world," according to the terms of their commission, they went fearlessly as far as Divine Providence opened the way, and in conjunction with a body of faithful coadjutors, laid the foundation of churches in a large portion of the Roman empire and regions beyond the reach of

CYTILORHI

Roman arms. It is the testimony of the apostle of the Gentiles, that "not many great, not many mighty, not many noble" were called. The disciples were poor and despised, but their liberality is in some instances specially commended in the apostolic epistles, and attested by pagan writers. Their zeal for the faith sustained them against reproach, persecution and death, and armed by the divine power of their doctrines, confirmed for a time by miraculous agency, was irresistible by Jewish and pagan hate or imperial power. The apostles traversed Judea and a considerable portion of Western Asia, Macedonia, Greece and the Egean isles, and preached Christ in the city of Rome. And though implicit credit can hardly be given to all that tradition has preserved of their travels, it is nearly certain that by them and their immediate successors during the first century, Christianity was carried eastward as far as the Indus, westward to Britain, and southward into the continent of Africa, while some hold that both Ceylon and Continental India were evangelized by St. Thomas. The concurrent testimony of both Christian and pagan writers shows the church, during the second and third centuries, to have overcome the ancient superstitions in southern and western Europe, and in the succeeding century Christianity was distinctly elevated to the height of worldly grandeur by the Emperor Constantine.

It cannot be necessary to point out the identity between the progress of the primitive church and those operations which are now distinguished as missionary. The object sought was the conversion of the nations, the motive, obedience to express command,-the means, preaching the truth,-the instruments, men set apart to the work, and sustained by the contributions, prayers and sympathies of their brethren; and the same objects are now sought in essentially the same manner, with such circumstantial differences of method in detail as convenience suggests and experience has sanotioned. In the view of some there is a marked disparity of success in the two cases, but when the modern missionary enterprise shall have completed a century, of which little more than half has now elapsed, such a comparison will be more just. In speaking of those early times, as the exploits of a century or two flit through the mind, or are fluently uttered by the tongue, the actual lapse of years is not always appreciated at the moment.

The corruption of the church, which was hastened by its alliance with the state till it ultimately ripened into the great Papal apostacy,