We call to mind the condition in which Christian Missions were at the commencement of the present century without, we believe, a single convert. Dr. Carey and his brethren were occupying Serampore. Two little bands of missionaries had started for the South Sea Isles. A few others were endeavouring to teach the truths of the Gospel to the slaves of the West Indies. Two or three more had gone to Caffreland. But as yet, the nets of these "fishers of men" had caught nothing."

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Yet from that memorable day on which William Carey took ship in the Crown Princessa Maria, and set sail from the Downs, other hearts have mused upon the miseries of heathenism and upon the healing grace of the Gospel until they have been constrained to ask: "How shall they hear without a preacher?" "And how shall they preach," the Church has exclaimed, "except they be sent?" And they were sentmany of the flower and chivalry of our Christian youth-a saintly and a sainted host, not counting their life dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.”

These men have not all been of one type. When the Lord of the harvest" gave gifts to men," there were "diversities among them. "We do not ask Dean Alford," says Mr. Mullens, " to go into St. Giles's. We do not expect the Marian of St. Giles's to preach in the Britannia Theatre, or to sit in the Professor's Chair." The same order of gifts are not needed for the Bechuanas of South Africa as are necessary for the literary work of China; and the pastoral labours of the South Sea Isles may be efficiently discharged by those who could not confute the philosophic sophistries and subtleties. of the Brahmin.

But how goodly a retinue do we behold in the line of that apostolical succession! Schwartz, "the patriarch of kindliness and peace, whose influence more than once arrested ar, whom idolatrous princes re

vered when living and wept when dead." And Vanderkemp, "schooled in philology and science," and yet, with meekest spirit, stooping to the wants of the lowliest. And Henry Martyn, who laid aside the honours and emoluments of English scholarship, and went forth to encounter the scorn of the learned of heathendom, to feed "his solitary lamp while translating Scripture and controversial tracts into the languages of Hindostan and Persia; unguided and uncheered by fellow and friend," and labouring on, till at last he was laid low in that plague-smitten and undistinguished grave. And Brainerd, who lived his useful missionary life, and then ended his days at the Pilgrim-fathers' resting-placeNorthampton. And Morrison, the stripling, who went forth undaunted to face the colossal powers of idolatry in their strongest fortresses, backed by 300,000,000 of adherents; who, with wondrous toil and patience, mastered the most difficult and yet most spoken of living tongues; his tomb, the pilgrim haunt of the linguist and the scholar, the missionary and the convert." And Carey, vanquishing indifference and unbelief at home, and encountering the most formidable enemies abroad; "only a cobbler" in his youth, and yet speaking, in his riper years, perhaps as many languages as the 'cloven tongues of fire represented -to be remembered and blessed long as Ganges rolls!"* And Smith of Demerara-an ambassador in bonds, consigned to a felon's doom in a pestilential dungeon; but who, while no footfall was heard, and no bolt grated in its socket, nor door creaked on its hinge, passed away from bonds and death. And Williams, whose gentle blood stained the waves of Erromanga; and many more "whose names are- -in the Book of Life."

In that goodly host there are, of those who lived the missionary's life, and died the missionary's death, “ of honourable women not a few." "The wives of Ward and Marshman and Judson, well divide their fame. Newell, Wilson, Altrecht, Stallybrass,

Richard Winter Hamilton.

Clough, Ellis, Coultart, Harvard, Jowett, Kilham, Loveless, are names inspiring as odes, and storied as chronicles. Their urns stand high and alone. And when the truth of courage and magnanimity shall be righteously adjudged, then shall these sufferers for Christ and for His cause, take their place above the rude and boisterous spirits who make war their trade, and carnage their delight." And there are other names of the great and the good who are still in the field, which might be here recorded; but, as it has been nobly said: "sacrifice for heroes is reserved till after sunset!"

"A glance at the Mission Field." We turn for a moment to Africa. Nor can we do so without recalling the time when her sable son, Simon, called Niger, bore the cross for Him whom the cross was soon to bear, and rendered a service to win the privilege of which martyrs would have dared to die a hundred deaths. Africa! that land which, wherever a vaunting civilization had touched, it cursed; but where Christianity had come, it had rolled the curse away: a land made tributary to slavery; a land where so-called merchant-princes turned men into merchandise, and enriched the coffers of Englishmen with the price of blood. There the Moravians first came to bless, and though their mission was discontinued for a season, it was renewed before any other began. There the Church Missionary Society took Sierra Leone, the new-founded asylum of the freed negro, under its pious care. There the Wesleyan and the London Societies have witnessed the triumphs of the Cross. And there those two warriors-Baren and Africaner-once the terror of the region, who had not seen each other since they fought three days by the Orange River-met in peace, both "converted, and become as little children." lions changed to lambs; met with looks of recognition, forgiveness, and love; met with mutual supplications and thanksgivings, and many tears-a scene that "would defy the painter and mock the bard." And Ethiopia shall yet

stretch out her manacled and bleeding hands unto God.

We glance at the isles of the Pacific. "What a glorious voyage will that be," exclaimed an elegant esayist, "and heaven grant that it may not be distant, when pious men shall fasten the Cross on the prows of their vessels, and triumphantly enter the havens of the Pacific Isles, announcing the good tidings of peace, joy, and immortality." "Six years had not elapsed when that hope was realised, and a vessel bearing the doctrine of the Cross, ploughed that ocean.

We turn to Polynesia, and how interesting are the results that have been achieved. When Mr. Ellis landed in the island of Hawaii, there was not a single convert; now there are 80,000 people, the entire population of the group, worshipping God on the Sabbath, listening to the Word of Life from the lips of several hundreds of native pastors, and forming churches that number not fewer than 25,000 communicants. And all this in the lifetime of an individual. Nor are they content merely with supporting the ordinances of the Gospel among themselves. They are sending their missionaries forth to the regions beyond that are still in darkness, and such progress has been made that it is intended in future that only a few, at any rate, of the Ameri can missionaries shall remain in the Sandwich Isles; and these not as pastors, and scarcely as missionaries, but as overseers, and advisers, and friends of the native churches, "to aid them in difficulties; to explain to them the Word of God; to raise them to a higher degree of Christian civilization; and, especially, that they may devote their talents, their wisdom, and their experience to the training of an efficient native ministry."

We glance at India: a land of thirty nations, and 200,000,000 and more of God's people; a land that was studded with stately cities when our fathers were only painted savages; a land where outward polish has done its best, and inward pollution has done its worst; a land of dream

ing mysticism and of iron supersti

tion. But though our missionaries have been few and far between; though there are still hundreds of towns as large as Brighton that have been hitherto uninstructed in the Gospel; though there are towns as large as Birmingham without a solitary herald of the Cross; though there is but one missionary to 400,000 heathens; yet missionary enterprise in India has not been without result. In 1812, Dr. Jud

son and his brethren were ejected from India by the British authorities. But they found a home in the dominions of the heathen king of Burmah; and now there are 100,000 Karens assembling Sabbath by Sabbath for Christian worship, supporting their native pastors, and sending missionaries into the mountains and jungles of their own land.

Little more than fifty years ago Buchanan wrote that there were not ten righteous men in Calcutta; that the only recognition of the Sabbath was the waving of flags at the military stations; that to have closed a house of business would have been looked upon as unusual; and that the Europeans in India were almost all of profligate life. But now the Sabbath is observed; many an officer emulates the "centurion of the Italian band" in his Christian devotion and activity; many a regiment has its praying company; many a prodigal, who had wandered from his father's house, has been reclaimed and become a preacher of the faith that he once destroyed; while, as a practical testimony to the worth of the instrumentality employed, the Europeans of India contribute not less than £35,000 for missionary purposes.

Instead, as formerly, of hostility to education being universal, there are now more than 60,000 sons of natives in avowedly Christian schools; instead of female education being rejected as an absurdity, it is sanctioned and practised; instead of the conversion of India to Christianity being regarded by Europeans as illusive, it is now declared to be but a work of time; instead of twenty missionaries in all India, there are now 541, besides native teachers;

and instead of 25,000 native Christians, timid and discouraged, there are now 125,000, many of whom have lost caste, and station, and wealth that they might "win Christ and be found in Him."

"Even India herself," says one who knows her well, "poor erring India, after her long wandering, her fearful system of superstition, her slavery of opinions, her multitude of vices, her awful ignorance and degradation, shall be brought safe home to Christ. From the lofty range of the Himalaya, crowned with the stainless snow, and clothed with redundant forests of soft feathery pines; from the towering crags, where the pure crystal air, wafted from icy caverns, breathes life and vigour into the weary invalid; across the heated plains, where for ages the hand of violence has stained the earth with blood; over countless fields cultivated by a teeming population of precious souls, whose willing hand shall cover the smiling soil with richest harvest of waving corn; over mighty cities filled with the beautiful products of ingenious skill; over cities now marked by the lofty towers of Hindoo temples, the gilded pagodas of Gaudama, the marble mosques and jewelled palaces of Mahommedan kings, down to the very verge of the land, where the dark Ghauts, clad in dense jungle, yet lightened by silver water-falls, overshadow the sand fields of Christianized Tinnevelly and the green slopes of Travancore, with their glorious forests of waving palms;-over all these noble provinces, rich in material wealth, but richer far in their priceless heritage of immortal souls, the Redeemer shall extend His mighty march of love. Joy, righteousness, and peace shall spring wherever He treads. Gorgeous in its tropic beauty, but lovelier far in the rich adornments of His jewellery and grace, the land shall pass under His perfect sway. All wrongs redressed, all sins forgiven; saved from destructive errors, the multititude of its immortal nations, with hymns and jubilee, shall bend before His feet; the crowns of every city,

every province, shall be clustered on the Saviour's brow; and, in spite of the crimes of ages, his children brought home at last, the Redeemer shall behold the work of his bleeding cross accomplished: "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."

But our space is gone. We may not even glance at Madagascar, with its memories of martyrdom and its monumental sanctuaries; or at the West India Isles, where, despite a recent local outbreak, there have been wondrous spiritual triumphs among a people who, not long ago, were bought and sold in the market; or at the labours of the Moravian Brethren in Greenland; or at China, where Christian hospitals are now planted in the capital of the Celestials; or at a hundred spots where now may be heard the hum of Christian civilization, and the hymn of Christian worship: where workshops and farms are thickening round their

schools and sanctuaries; and where the occupations of civilized men are carried on with vigour and success

hand in hand with Christian duties, by tens of thousands, whose fathers, and often themselves, were lately naked and houseless, and possessionless barbarians."

It is enough that that Gospel which won its first missionary triumphs over the obstinacy of the Jew, and the statuesque elegance of Greek philosophy, and the voluptuous rites of Isis, and the magnificent paganism of Rome; that that same spirit of power that broke through the crust of superstition and sin that had gathered in the dreary middle ages, and blazed out into the glorious Reformation; that that same power still wins its onward way meekly as the gentle love of Him from whom it springs-mightily as an army with banners.

But on this theme we shall have more to say anon.

IN THE DOCTOR'S KITCHEN.

DR. Hope's "Buttons," was a youth entirely destitute of manners, indeed, he was what must be called a very vulgar boy. The only thing for which he entertained a decent amount of respect was his livery jacket. Certainly, it was a somewhat uncomfortable garment, as it did not own the quality of growing with its wearer, and was rather short and tight in the sleeves; but then, as he himself observed, "you see, mother, it looks so;" and, on the strength of its "looking so," Todgers wore it with as much pride and as little comfort as can be imagined.

No one ever had a greater regard for the dignity of the cloth than he had for his uniform, and he was determined others should agree with him.

Crampton was not a large town, and its inhabitants were divided into two factions, each member of either

loving those of the opposite party with an affection equalling that of the Montagues and Capulets. However this questionable state of affairs served some end, for the excitement of the various dissensions just saved the brains of the good people of Crampton from stagnating. One party owned allegiance to the family at the Hall, the Vinson's; these talked of birth and pedigree; and the other to Mrs. Sansome, the widow of a retired wine merchant, and the energetic leader of the opposition. But the Sansomites consoled themselves with the reflection that length of purse compensated for short pedigrees, steadfastly ignored the existence of the Herald's Office, and never, by any chance, opened a "Court Guide."

Such was the position of affairs when Dr. Hope came to settle at Crampton; each party had its own medical adviser, and were not likely to patronise a young beginner, so

the little practice he had, lay amongst the poorer classes; and as they were guilty of obstinately persisting in having illnesses that required the administration of quinine, or iodide of potassium, and as he was just as obstinate in supplying their wants as far as possible, it was no wonder that his pocket grew light, whilst his heart considerably increased in weight. What right had people who lived or rather existed on eighteen shillings a-week, with a large small family, to want tonics? Mist. Cath. agreeably coloured with Bole Armenia, and occasional doses of rhubarb and magnesia were surely all they could expect! But then the poor are so fearfully exacting; and Dr. Hope certainly encouraged them in their selfishness, for he actually sent his last bottle of port to Mrs. Waters' little boy, and contentedly ate his walnuts without wine; could there be a greater amount of absurdity?

But to return to Todgers; who, on the morning of this particular Christmas Eve on which our story commences, was busily cleaning knives in the small back kitchen. The venerated jacket hung on the plate-rack, and Todgers himself, tied up in a large apron, rubbed bathbrick and knives with praiseworthy energy; and finally his mental excitement found vent in a muttered soliloquy. "Well, this here's a right down go; what we're to have for dinner to-morrow is more than I can tell; it strikes me pretty forcibly that there aint much of the needful in master's pocket at this very identical moment; else he'd never walk about as if there were no sich thing as Christmas; which in my humble opinion aint Christian-like. Here's old rumbustious!"

"Now then, are those knives done?"

IN THE DOCTOR'S DRAWING ROOM.

And now we are going to make the uncomfortable confession that having chosen Dr. Hope for a hero, we are, whilst taking the necessary mental survey of his surroundings and antecedents, most heartily ashamed of him, and strongly inclined to destroy the pen that has written his name, tear up the MS. that bears it and consign his memory to oblivion. But on second thoughts we come to the conclusion that the morals of the present day are proof against such an example, and as it has been clearly proved that marrying on three hundred a-year is next door to an impossibility, and shows an insane desire to sacrifice one's earthly comfort, we continue:—

After having "walked the hospitals," with an undue amount of attention to suffering humanity, and a pitiable disregard of “larking," he obtained a situation as assistant to a Dr. Clark, who had a practice slightly in advance of his brains. Philip actually devoted himself heart and soul to his profession, finally obtaining the reward of industry, by being allowed to put "Dr." before his name.

At a cabinet council, consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Clarke, and a couple of antiquated aunts, it was unanimously agreed that Philip was

a