How, we may ask, is any European state to obtain free labourers from the black men of Africa? Only, we may reply with confidence, by a base bargain with the old slavedealers of that Continent. And were we to grant (and any man of common sense may think this a very large grant) that the African would be treated well, and truly dealt with as a free labourer in the western Colonies; that would not touch the fundamental objection to the plan. The great mischief of slavery and slave-dealing is, I repeat, at the fountain-head. Plausible as some men may have thought the previous suggestion, it would, if carried into effect, not only help to perpetuate the present terrible social evils which afflict large portions of Africa, but it would also very greatly aggravate them; and it might perhaps extinguish, for many years to come, those warm hopes for the good of Africa which have been kindled among Christian men, and have had their issue in labours of love-the noblest example of which shines out in the Missionary Travels of Livingstone.

God forbid that any state in Christendom, after it had washed its hands of a foul, selfish and inhuman policy, should, in the 19th century, be so grovelling as to return to it! Good men who in their hearts believe in a superintending Providence, believe also that the moral and physical laws of nature are so ordained that, even in this world, good will have, in the end, its triumph over evil. But when that end is to be, and by what alternations of good and evil it is to be brought about, no mortal man can tell and it is a vain task for him to strain his sight in trying to look through the darkness that clouds the future. He knows, too, that unmixed good there never can be in this world, while it is held together by those great laws to which all nature, moral as well as physical, is compelled to yield obedience.

Still a Christian lives in hope; and with God's help can do his duty manfully and cheerfully: not like one who is dismayed and stupified by the many evils that he sees around

him; but who labours like a true-hearted soldier of the Cross; and knows that where there is ignorance and misery it is his duty to meet them and subdue them by deeds of love. And after all, is it not true that good men, labouring honestly on the principles of the Gospel, have done, and are now doing, much good work in humanizing the world? Speaking of the past, it is absolutely certain that the highest civilization of man, since Christ came into the world, has been reached by those nations which have accepted (at least nominally) the great doctrines of His religion, and professed to make His benevolent precepts the guide of their polity. Strangely and disgracefully as they often swerved from their holy guide, it is still absolutely certain, that all other civilization sinks into moral darkness when compared with that which is to be seen in Christendom.

But truth is progressive, and neither men nor nations are permitted to remain quiescent on the line of duty; and there is work enough before them. Black clouds are now hanging on our eastern and western horizon which may portend a long night of darkness and tempest: and if I might dare to talk of the future, I should perhaps say, that on the great question of social slavery hang the coming destinies of mankind, more than on any other that is soon likely to come under the arbitration of States and Empires.

If a great missionary work remains undone; then, to be done at all, it must be taken up by those who will begin it honestly and fervently. But we are often told that the missionary office is now undertaken by ignorant, unlettered, uncommissioned men; who have been heating their imaginations among crude prophetic visions, and pillowing their souls on empty dreams. It may have been so in some rare instances. Ignorant, unlettered men would have little chance of influencing the convictions and turning the hearts of the subtle and civilized Hindoo or Mahomedan of Asia-such men as the learned and pious Martyn had to deal with. But zeal and sincerity are in

all cases among the good elements of success: and the words of the Gospel, and the duties arising out of its commands, are so plain and simple, that an honest teacher, gifted with common sense, cannot well be mistaken in their application, while he is dealing with men of humble state like those of central Africa. Whether he be learned or unlearned can make little difference in the first doctrines he will have to teach, and the first duties he will have to enforce when he begins to instruct the poor unlettered heathen. Be he wise or foolish, as this world counts wisdom and folly, and whatever may have been his social position here, that man deserves our grateful praise, who, under God, has been an honoured instrument in first spreading the light of truth among the heathen, and leading their hearts and wills toward that kind of social union which is the commencement of a Christian society.

I remember well the mockery and ribaldry-seasoned with pungent wit, and spiced with words which if they helped to raise a laugh, served also to raise a blush on a modest cheek -by which a party of humble Missionaries, who went out to the Islands of the Pacific in the early years of this century, were held up to open scorn in some of the most popular works of that period. These Missionaries were not learned men; and some of them may have imperfectly known their own strength, and ill counted the cost of what they undertook. But they were earnest men, and not to be put down by the wit and mockery of those who had done, and were willing to do, nothing for the civilization and instruction of the licentious inhabitants of those beautiful Islands.. The Missionaries persevered against scorn and ill-bodings; and before many years were over, their labours were blessed; and they christianized the Islands to which they first shaped their course; and their goodly victory was, under God, followed by one of the most rapid advances in civilization of which we can find an account in the moral records of the present century. If some of the

fruits of this holy triumph have fallen short of expectation, and have not been allowed to ripen, that misfortune was not the fault either of the Missionaries or the Natives; but was the fault of stronger men who, without a plea of law or justice, invaded and beat down the inhabitants by force of arms, and drove away their Christian teachers. Wisdom is approved of her children; and from this good band of Christian labourers-once so much mocked and scorned by writers of great power and skill-have arisen works we may with truth call philosophical; which have advanced the cause of physical science; cast a good light upon the history of a very interesting section of the human family; and added a goodly chapter to the religious literature of the present day.

Just in the same narrow, and I am sorry to say unchristian spirit, some of the most popular writers of this time-men who have delighted us by their prolific works of fiction, and done some service to the cause of humanity and justice, national taste, social freedom, and brotherly lovehave thought fit to blight their laurels by frequent and lusty scoffings at honest acts of public zeal for the instruction of the poor natives of heathendom. They write as if every man must be a brain-heated fanatic who stands up on a public platform to plead for his fellow-creatures in distant lands; and as if every woman, who goes to listen to him and desires to help him, must needs be a simple dreamer, a slattern, a sorry housewife, and a bad mother. Such gross caricatures, if they prove nothing else, are a proof of vulgar taste, and may help to do some mischief: but they partly carry with them their own antidote; for they are nauseously false and ridiculously untrue to nature. Who ever doubted that there are, and ever will be, great follies even among good men? There will be found at all times men who talk of goodness, and make a show of it, without loving it for its own sake. Such men are the chaff which the blast of ridicule might, perhaps, winnow from the corn. But our Bible tells us not to be in too great

a hurry to divide the good part of the crop from the bad― rather to leave the separation to an unerring hand: and as for ourselves it tells us to hope all things, and to live in charity with our neighbour. A man who pleads honestly (and wisely too) for a cause in which his heart is warm, but for which his hearers have no sympathy, may perchance appear to them to be acting and talking like a fool while he is speaking the very words of truth and wisdom. Let us keep down our mockery, and try gravely and honestly to look society in the face; and we shall most certainly see, that among men and women of every grade-from the highest to the lowest-who have felt true love for their fellow-creatures both at home and in heathendom, and have proved it by efforts for their instruction in the lessons of the Gospel, are to be found some of the best patriots, some of the most high-minded men and best clergymen, and many of the best daily fire-side models of social duty and domestic love.

The preceding remarks do not apply to the Church of England only; but to every other Christian Church, whatsoever may be its name, of which the members believe in the promises of the Gospel as the ground of their hopes, and take its commands as the rule of their life. While such men are doing the good work of Christian love among the heathen, we pray, with all our hearts, that God may speed them well-without stopping to inquire into the Covenants they may have signed, the Synodal Confessions they may have published, or the outward forms of polity they may have chosen. A man may surely join in such a prayer without forfeiting one iota of his loyalty, or abating one particle of his active duties, to his own Church and Country.

But charity begins at home, it is said, and very truly said. Charity will, however, very soon be cold when it is confined to one household; and its flame will soon go out if it be not fanned by the open air. That man is sure to be a base citizen and a surly master, whose charities do not expand beyond his