Mrs. Fuller's health has been somewhat affected by the labour incident to the charge of the orphan children rescued from death by the missionary. DACCA. The Rev. R. Bion mentions the conversion and baptism of a Sunyasi from the north-west, whose quiet and Christian conduct gives him great joy. His knowledge of Hindi enables him to address a special class of auditors in the bazaar, where the missionaries find large congregations. In a tour to Mymensing a large box of Scriptures was disposed of. CAMEROONS RIVER.-The Rev. A. Saker mentions that he was recently informed by a missionary from Corrisco, some distance to the south of the Cameroons, that his version of the Scriptures was perfectly understood by the natives of that part of the coast. Its usefulness therefore is likely to extend far beyond Mr. Saker's expectations. Mr. Grenfell has been suffering very much from repeated attacks of fever. Home Proceedings. The Treasurers of Auxiliaries are kindly requested to forward moneys which come into their hands as early as possible. Much inconvenience is often experienced by the Committee from the late period at which remittances are made. We invite the special attention of our friends to the opening article of the present number of the HERALD. Copies can be had, on application, for distribution. The completed arrangements for the missionary services on Tuesday, the 5th of October, at the meetings of the Baptist Union at Plymouth, are as follows:— The quarterly meeting of the Committee will be held at the Royal Hotel at eight o'clock A.M. A missionary service will be held in George-street chapel, at eleven o'clock A.M., for the designation of Dr. Wm. Carey and Mr. H. J. Tucker, who are appointed for India; Mr. J. T. Comber, who will proceed to Africa; and Mr. R. E. Gammon, for Turk's Islands. Dr. Underhill will describe their spheres of labour, the Rev. W. Sampson will ask the usual questions and offer prayer, and the Rev. W. Brock, D.D., will deliver the address. A public missionary meeting will be held in the evening in the Guildhall, at seven o'clock p.m., at which George Edmonstone, Esq., of Torquay, will preside. The expected speakers are the Rev. Dr Buckley, of Orissa; the Rev. H. R. Pigott, of Ceylon; the Rev. J. Kingdon, of Jamaica; and the Rev. J. Williams, of Muttra. We have the pleasure to announce the safe arrival of the following missionary friends: The Rev. Isaac Allen and family from India, the Rev. H. R. Pigott from Ceylon, and the Rev. Q. W. Thomson from Africa. Just as we are going to press, we have received the painful tidings of the decease of the Rev. J. Mintridge, of Jessore. This sad event took place on the 26th August. THE MISSIONARY HERALD. Valedictory Counsels. THE Missionary Designation Service held at Plymouth on the 6th October was one of great interest. A striking feature of the replies of the young missionaries to the questions addressed to them by the Rev. W. Sampson, was their united testimony to the sacred influence of early instruction, and the pious example of parents whose households were taught to "serve the Lord." After devout prayer, commending them to the care and grace of God under all the conditions of their missionary life, the following admirable counsels were given by the Rev. Dr. Brock, the perusal of which will, we are sure, give pleasure to all our readers. "I have been asked to speak words to you as you go-true and kindly and useful words-such words as, peradventure, you may remember to your comfort when you are far away. The apostle whom we follow will suggest to me words in season for the occasion. The loyal subject of Christ's government, as Paul was, and the illustrious expounder of Christ's will withal, he has left you an example that you should follow in his steps. Consider that example well, and consider it first in respect to the sphere of your future service, so that you may be re-assured. You are going to different places, and with people of strangely different character you will have to do. Then the locations in which you are about to labour, none could be more signally diverse. There will be manifold constitutional, and social, and intellectual, and moral, and religious diversities. It will be the same nature, generically, with which you will have to do, but the same nature under manifold, specific forms, substantially, indeed, as it was with Paul. At one time and another he came into fellowship with humanityin all its forms. Constitutional varieties were familiar to him, from the phlegmatic temperament of the Oriental to the vivacious temperament of the Gaul. Social varieties were familiar to him, from the sovereignty which wielded sceptres to the subjection which cringed, and crouched, and cowered, until it licked the dust. Intellectual varieties were familiar to him, from the profound, which dared to grapple with the Infinite, to the superficial, which raised no inquiry about the human, and cared not a whit for the Divine. Moral varieties were familiar to him, from the asceticism which mortified the flesh without any mercy, to the licentiousness which made all manner of provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof. Religious varieties were familiar to him, from the monstrous and the graceful mythologies of the Pantheon, to the Divine ritual and theology of the Temple of the living God. Sometimes savage rudeness assailed him, at other times diplomatic dexterity and crafty, sinister finesse. To-day he was accosted by metaphysical abstractions, by which he was well-nigh bewildered; yesterday he was accosted by gross and grim realities, at which he was appalled. No matter, brethren, how you may be confronted with the world, and the flesh, and the devil in your missions, Paul's confronting was at least equal to your own. Still he held along his way, finding in no peculiarity a reason why his preaching of the Gospel should be restrained. Strange sights had met his eye, we may be sure; and strange sounds had fallen upon his ear, in that long journey of a thousand miles from Jerusalem, round about unto Illyricum; but throughout that journey he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ. The like course would he pursue again were he your companion in travel, when you have reached your destination, whether in the East or in the West. Buddhism would neither confound nor repel him; nor Brahminism, nor Obeaism, nor Fetishism, nor the false prophet with his assumption of the crescent, nor the man of sin with his perversion of the Cross. He would go everywhere preaching the Gospel. Follow him accordingly, not troubling yourselves as to where you may be located; not troubling yourselves, either, if your location should be changed. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof '-every acre of it a portion of His mediatorial inheritance-every line of it and every point of it, latitudes and longitudes, and poles and zones, and continents and hemispheres, and all, a part and parcel of the purchased possession which He bought with His own blood. In the first Adam, the earth with man upon it died; in the second Adam, the earth with man upon it was made alive; so far, that is, that, stand where you may, or accost who you may, you are free to testify repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. The world, brethren, the world without the reservation of a hand's breadth-ay, without the reservation of a hair's breadth-the whole world for Jesus of Nazareth-the Christ of God!" CHRIST MUST BE PREACHED. "Consider the apostolic precedent, secondly, in respect to the character of your future service, so that you may be instructed. Paul mingled with the people everywhere, and everywhere he preached Christ. Men were assuredly under condemnation, and exposed to punishment; but their condemnation might be cancelled and their punishment annulled. In Christ 1edemption was obtainable; even the forgiveness of sins, obtainable at once, and obtainable by all. Addressing, as he is, on one occasion, a Jewish audience, made up of Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes, he is preaching redemption to them. Then, on another occasion, addressing a Gentile audience, made up of the elite from the philosophical and scientific schools, and of the off scouring from the city slums, he is preaching redemption unto them. To-morrow, at the morningtide, he will be addressing some worshippers of the great goddess Diana, and at the eventide some wor-shippers of the infamous Astarte, continuing, meanwhile, to address some worshippers of the god Remphan, and he will be preaching redemption to them. In every auditory, and, as far as possible, to every auditor, your forerunner in missionary work declared the good tidings of great joy, declaring it always in all wisdom, becoming all things to all men, if by any means he might save some. Manifold, indeed, even to fullest admiration, were Paul's methods; more or less argumentati or persuasive, as the occasion required; more or less patient or peremptory; inore or less impassioned or self-restrained; more or less simple or scholastic; but, manifold as were his methods, his subject and his object were the same. Let every one who heard him repent and believe the Gospel! Not a ruler was there, anywhere within his sphere -not a ruler nor a subject, not a simpleton nor a sage, not a commanding officer nor a private soldier, not a pro. prietor nor a peasant, not a landsman nor a seaman, not a despot nor a serf, not a nominal worshipper of the true God nor an actual worshipper of the false gods, not an individual soul who did not personally need reconciliation with God, who might not obtain reconciliation with God, and who ought not, there and then, to seek reconciliation with God, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Upon reconciliation our apostle was fully bent-upon personal deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. How he would have dealt with certain elaborate disquisitions with which we are sometimes favoured touching missionary work among the heathen, I do not know; such a disquisition, for instance, as was given a while ago in Westminster Abbey by one of the most accomplished and excellent men of our times. That Paul would have listened with profound respect, we may be well assured; and that he would have understood what he listened to, we may also be assured. Max Muller would have had no auditor more attentive or more competent than he, but what he would have said as to the practical issues of the elaborate disquisition, I do not know. What he would have done I believe I do know. No stranger was our apostle to complicated and intricate and abstruse discoursing about all things Christian -about Christian Missions among the rest. Philosophically and scientifically had they been handled within his hearing, though, confessedly, not in the devout temper in which they were handled in Westminster Abbey. Still, with the philosophical and scientific handling of the subject of Christian Missions Paul was familiar; but that familiarity did not induce him to refrain from preaching Christ and Him crucified, whether to the wise or to the unwise, whether amidst the barbarisms of Cappadocia and Mount Taurus, or amidst the refinements of Corinth and Mars' Hill. Safe, therefore, is it to infer that he would have given the due heed to the disquisition on Christian Missions which I have mentioned, and then that he would have gone forth straightway, and said unto gentle and simple ones alike, 'Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we beseech you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.' You are the sinners who are condemned to die, Christ is the Saviour who will deliver; you are the wanderers who are lost, Christ is the Shepherd who will recover; you are the weary and heavy laden ones, Christ is the very present help for ministering rest unto your souls. And in this very matter he has left you an example that you may follow in his steps, you mis sionary brothers, whom we so grate. fully designate to-day; go, we pray you, and preach Christ as Pau. preached Him, nothing daunted, although your preaching shall familiarise you with the offence of the Cross. To the cry for the morality of the Gospel, rather than for its dogma, I entreat you to give no heed. In the assurance that the example of Christ will be attractive, whilst the doctrine of Christ will be repulsive, I beseech you to place no confidence. With the intimation that, neither directly nor indirectly, should you ever venture to offend any institution, or custom, or lesson, or prepossession of heathenism, I ask you to have no sympathy. Not, indeed, that you are recklessly to disregard the partialities of heathen men as they contradict you, or their arguments as they reason with you, or their associations as they fondly desire to be let alone. No, brothers, do you unto the heathen as you would have them do unto you. Be wise to win souls. In the grand aboriginal sense, be wise to win souls. Be all things to all men if by any means you may save some. But save them if you can! Your business is not to elevate their tastes, but to purify their souls; not to improve their manners, but to renew their hearts; not to civilize their habits, but to regenerate their natures. That you will be the pioneers of honourable commerce may be expected, and the coadjutors of literature and science, and the promoters of equitable legislation, and the favourers and furtherers of a thousand things which are lovely and of good report; but, brothers, those are not the things to which you have devoted yourselves. Certainly they are not the things unto which we do solemnly set you apart here before the Lord. Your work among the heathen, appointed and defined by your Lord's authority, and provided for specially by your Lord's grace, is nothing less than this: To open the eyes of the heathen, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified, through faith that is in Jesus Christ.' To your work, then, amongst the heathen, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! Not impossible is it that the requisition to preach the Gospel, the whole Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel may seem to be severe, but the persuasion will prevail that He who enacts the requisition knows best how to execute His own will. Not impossible that by the responsibilities upon your souls you will well-nigh be overwhelmed, but the consciousness will be induced that your resources and your responsibilities correspond. Not impossible that your actual necessities will press more urgently than you know how to bear, but the Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that the supplies of very present help are immediate and immense. Not impossible that your preaching will be turned into vulgar buffoonery or philosophic scorn, but you will know in yourselves that you never preach in simplicity and godly sincerity without facilitating that glorious consummation, that vanishing point of the sublime, the travail of the Redeemer's soul, the fulfilment of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." LABOUR NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD. |