stowed where, either in fact or in the supposition of the Review, the scriptural ground for missions, the salvation of souls, is left for the motives of a humanitarian philanthropy. But, unfortunately, even this small meed of praise is not all deserved. The missions of American Congregationalists are not the efforts of Unitarians to "advance Christian civilization," but of Calvinists to save souls and plant the church of Christ. And the methods and faith of our laborers in Ceylon and Turkey differ in no degree from those of the missionaries in Hawaii. The favorite doctrine of the Review and its co-laborers, that civilization must precede Christianization, is one utterly repudiated by the friends of missions in America; nor are these missions supported, save upon the ground, fondly believed by our opponents to have become antiquated, that faith in Christ is the only remedy for the effects of sin for time and for eternity. Hence, we must consent to forego even the small measure of praise awarded us, and seek to rest content with the approbation of Him who said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned." Oh Thou allwise and all merciful Son of God, forgive the weaknesses and imperfections of Thy servants, in their past deeds, and equip them for their contest with the enemies of Thy truth! Let Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Whilst it is undeniable, that enmity against the faith and strict morality of the Gospel, is the source of many of the assaults made upon the character and labors of its ministers alike at home and abroad, it would be equally unjust and ungenerous to attribute to this cause all that is urged against the results of missionary efforts. There are well-meaning men, who have arrived at false impressions on this subject mainly from two sources of error: from a lack of knowledge as to the condition of the unevangelized races of the Polynesian groups, both moral and social; and from lack of consideration as to what may fairly be demanded or expected of them, when the Gospel has been received by them.*

The long exploded romance of happy and innocent savages,

* We confine our remarks to the field brought before us by the Article to which we are directing attention, viz., the Pacific Islands.

is from time to time revived by infidelity to bring Christianity, by contrast, into disrepute. But it will be entertained by few who have any large knowledge either of the world, or of their own hearts. Yet a great part, even of the reading community, are very far from comprehending the real social and moral state of the heathen. We have already glanced at the moral, political, and social state of some of the Islands of the Pacific, before they were fields of missionary effort. It may not be amiss to remind our readers, that now, whilst we discuss this important subject, there are whole archipelagoes in the Pacific, embracing islands ranging in size from little patches of coral clad with thin soil, to almost continental lands, sunk in a darkness as gross as that which the light of the Gospel has dispelled from the fair shores of Tahiti and Hawaii.

Glance at the Feejee Islands. Here we see man in an utterly heathen and barbarous state. Roaming in almost perfect nakedness, all that constitutes modesty or decency in our . eyes, seems unknown. Lying and stealing are universal traits. In social intercourse they pass at once from perfect quietude to demoniac rage-a rage restrained in its effects only by fear. Polygamy, infanticide, and the putting of parents to death to save the trouble of caring for them, are all common practices. Wives are often strangled, or buried alive with their husbands. When a native, either man, woman, or child is sick of a lingering disease, their relatives will frequently either wring their heads off, or strangle them. Human sacrifices are frequentthe victims being usually obtained by war or purchase from distant tribes. The miserable wretches are kept for awhile, fattened, then tied, and whilst in full life and health, roasted in ovens on hot stones, offered to the gods, and then cut up and distributed to the people to be eaten. Nay, so great is their fondness for human flesh as an article of food, that merely to gratify this revolting taste, the sacrificial feasts are multiplied-and even friends will feast on the bodies of friends and relatives. A chief will show his superiority by matching the roast swine of his comrades at a feast with a human body.

The horrors of cannibalism are no fancy sketch, but a sad reality. In the third volume of the official narrative of Commander Wilkes, we have the following specific statement: "Whilst the U. S. ship Peacock of the Exploring Squadron,

lay off one of these islands, a canoe came alongside bringing the skull of a slaughtered foe yet warm from the fire, much scorched and marked with the teeth of those who had been eating it. While Mr. Spieden and others were agreeing with the natives for the purchase of the skull, a native stood near him holding something in his right hand which he soon began to eat. To their utter astonishment, they discovered it to be the eye of the dead man which the native had plucked from the skull a few moments before. They turned from the sight, sickened by its horrors, but satisfied as to the fact of cannibalism."*

Now, if it had been ours to tarry upon one of these islands some years since, to see one or two mission families there taking up their abode and seeking, amid a thousand trials, to turn this idle, licentious, brutal, and degraded population to the faith and practice of the religion of Jesus Christ;—and if, on returning to those shores after the lapse of twenty or thirty years, (where before it was dangerous for a ship to anchor,) we found this same people governed by rulers acting under laws of their own adoption; suitably punishing theft, adultery, murder, and other crimes; assembling each Sabbath to worship God in churches built at great labor by their own hands,— should we sit down to note in our journal that vice was not yet extinct, or civilization still imperfect in Feejee? or would we not rather, with admiring wonder, cry "What hath God wrought !"

Shall we be surprised if, where thirty years since licentiousness, idleness, and deceit were perennial and universal habitsthe very characteristics of society,-these vices still have more strength than in lands in which Christianity has been an accepted religion for a thousand years? If the conversion of the Islands of the Pacific is a sham and imposture, because a

* We do not wish again to bring the Westminster into our text; but we would here inform our readers that even for cannibalism it can find sympathy, if thereby missions may be disparaged. When berating the "bigoted and conceited missionaries," for "rooting out the faith by which men have lived," it sneers at these "special friends of the heathen" for not perceiving "that there is a genuine religious faith at the root of the practice of cannibalism,”—and this faith is eliminated in a manner so refined as to convey the impression that it were a pity to break in upon it with the Gospel! Out upon such revolting sophistry, we say!

single generation has not obliterated the vices of their inhabitants-then is Christianity a sham in England, in America, and in every Christian land. That a vast majority in these lands are only nominal Christians, and that vice and ungodliness abound, is manifest; yet this fact does not disprove the existence of a true, vital Church of Christ. Christainity is not responsible for sins which contravene its precepts, and which are the results, not of its agency, but of human depravity; yet there is no sophism more common than that which attributes to the influence of Christianity, the continued results of a heathenism subdued, but not extirpated. It is by this sophistical line of argument that such attacks as those we have noticed, are supplied with the materials of war. Supposing or asserting that Christianity claims to have effected that to which it makes no pretence, and proving that there is a different state of things from that which they have painted as claimed by the friends of missions, the straw man thus conjured up is brought to the stake, and at its solemn auto-da-fé the exulting shouts of the enemies of the truth proclaim, that the fabric on which Christendom looked with joyful admiration, proved to be a sham, has vanished into thin air.

But these assaults will not avail to arrest the work. It will go on in spite of the enmity of the ungodly, or of the neglect of lukewarm friends, as surely as all things promised of God march to their destined goal. If there be weak points in our plans, or defects in our management, we are willing to learn what they are not that we may retire from our labors, but with a wiser zeal press them more earnestly to their completion. Nor do we fear that any true friend of missions will be turned back by such charges as those to which our attention. has been called. The weapon is too feeble a one to prevail in the warfare against truth. Like the raven of Hindoo story, which, inflamed with partizan zeal for the temple at whose altar it fed, sought to destroy with its bill the massive walls of the temple of a rival sect, those who toil to destroy the edifice which God by his Spirit is rearing on earth, will find at length, when all their might and cunning are expended, that they have labored in vain and spent their strength for nought. The edifice will rise, and the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the deep.

ARTICLE III.

DUELLING.

As introductory to the consideration of the subject which we have placed at the head of this Article, we refer to the following passages of Scripture as containing the statement of the Christian principles in regard to the reception of injuries:Matt. v. 38, 39; 1 Pet. ii. 23; Rom. xii. 19, 20; Matt. v. 44; 1 Cor. iv. 3. These are the principles in relation to a most difficult part of morals solemnly enjoined in the Bible, and uniformly and beautifully illustrated in the life of the Redeemer. In painful contrast with these principles, we wish to consider the practice of duelling. Our object will be to illustrate the history of duelling; its characteristics; and the remedy for it.

There are not many men in any Christian community who justify duelling on any principle, or who are not ready to join in its condemnation. The universal expression of public opinion on the subject in this nation, is one of the most favorable indications of a healthful state of the public mind. All political parties, all religious sects, and all classes of men, have united in expressing their decided abhorrence of the practice. So far all is well; and such united expressions from all quarters are fit subjects of congratulation; and indications, we would hope, that the period is not far distant when the last duel shall have been fought in this land, and the painful and disgraceful record of single combat shall be only a part of the history of the past.

Yet there are some circumstances which lead us to fear that, decided and uniform as has been the public voice in condemning the practice, the principles which lead to it have taken a deeper hold on the community than such expressions would lead us to believe. When a man falls in a duel, if in humble life, the practice is met with ridicule or contempt. When one in public life falls, there is a burst of indignation and of abhorrence throughout the land. But soon, it may be, some young man is reported to have fallen; or some man in elevated rank and honored by his country, who would have been supposed