cannot always continue. They will soon have Mahometan or Hindu legends and literature, if we give them not the truth. These remarks are not at variance with the admitted fact that ignorance is a principal hinderance of Christianity. The edueated heathen is as ignorant as the uneducated: nay, his requisitions make him worse than ignorant. They fill him with error. They oppress him with stronger superstitions. They inflate him with pride, while they debase and harden his heart. To give any people a written language, is not to divert the missionary from his proper work. It is a part of his work, and highly important. In accomplishing it, he gives more or less literature to the people; and this literature, being at the foundation of all their future improvements, and based not on false, but on true philosophy, must even prove the handmaid to religion, to say nothing of still higher benefits gained by giving a people the written word of God. Two hundred and fifty or sixty men are wanted this moment to supply these new fields, and to reënforce the present missions in Burmah, even on the supposition that native preachers will be raised up in numbers equal to nearly all the demand for preaching. Further remarks are unnecessary. The facts speak with sufficient eloquence. Where are the thousand young men in our churches? Will they all go to the law, to physic, to merchandise, to mechanics, or to the field, without once questioning the propriety of giving themselves to the holy ministry? Shall the heathen, the Jew, the Mussulman, and the Papist, have none of their sympathies? Must every view of a perishing world be shut from their eyes, while, in their own land, and for their own ends, they seek domestic comforts, or amass property, or squabble in politics? May those whose duty it is to embark in this blessed enterprise hear the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" and without delay respond, "Here am I; send me." ON THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS WHICH HAS ATTENDED MODERN MISSIONS. Introduction. - I. The Number of Missionaries. II. The Kind of Labor performed: Preparatory; Collateral; Additional; Erroneous. III. Disadvantages of Modern Missionaries: Imperfect Knowledge of the Language; Poverty of the Languages themselves; Want of Familiarity with the Religion and People; Degraded State of the Natives; Inability to live as they live; Being Foreigners; The Structure of Society; The prevailing Philosophy; The Presence of nominal Christians; Popery. IV. Efforts which do not reach the Field. — V. The Amount accomplished: A large Force in the Field; Impediments removed; Translations made; Languages reduced to Writing; General Literature imparted; Tracts written; Grammars, Dictionaries, and other Helps prepared; Immense Distribution of Bibles and Tracts; Mechanical Facilities created; Schools established, and Youth already educated; Blessings of Christian Morality diffused; Idolatry in some Places shaken; Effects on Europeans abroad; Actual Conversions. VI. Effects on the Churches at Home Remarks. MANY of the best friends of missions avow feelings of disappointment, in regard to the measure of success which has attended the enterprise. Considering the great efforts which have been made, they are ready to infer either that there is some radical error in the mode of operation, or that "the set time" to bring in the heathen, has not yet come. At this we can scarcely wonder, when we consider the misstatements which are current, and the prevalent deficiency of information on this subject, even among religious persons, for want of reading missionary periodicals. Those who stand aloof from the work, are still more disposed to regard it as a failure. Some are not backward to charge those who persist, with fanaticism and folly; and a few go so far as to brand them with chicanery and corruption, and to declare their belief that most of the funds contributed for missions, are retained by the hands through which they pass. On the other hand, there are those who dwell always on animating prognostics and local successes. Reluctant to contemplate discouraging circumstances, they anxiously exclude such details from what they say or publish, and at monthly concerts of prayer, or other public meetings, create an impression that the work is well nigh done, at least in some places. There is thus a danger of making contributions to missions the fruit rather of temporary emotion than habitual principle, and of graduating the measure of our duty more by the amount of success than the distinctness of injunction. And when, in a course of years, the expected results are not realized, there is a proneness to dejection and lassitude. The writer cannot join with those whose tone is chiefly that of exultation. But he is persuaded that missions have succeeded, to a degree fully equal to the amount and kind of labor bestowed, and presents the following considerations to sustain this opinion. Before proceeding to measure the absolute magnitude of what has been accomplished, it is necessary to consider the true amount of means employed, and the exact manner in which they have been applied. I. The number of missionaries, and the amount of time and energy they have had to bestow on their work. 1. The English Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 1792; the London Missionary Society in 1795; the Scotch Missionary Society in 1796; the Church Missionary Society in 1800; the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810; the Baptist Board in 1814; the Episcopal and the Methodist Missionary Societies in 1820. Of course, the first years in each of these societies produced very few missionaries. By a careful analysis of all the missionary statistics within reach, it appears that in 1810, the whole number of stations was twenty-nine; in 1820, fifty-seven; and at the present time, about four hundred. If we allow two missionaries to a station, it gives us, in 1810, fifty-eight; in 1820, a hundred and fourteen; and at the present time eight hundred. We thus perceive that we have proceeded but slowly to the present magnitude of our operations. One half of the present number of missionaries have gone out within so recent a period, as not yet to have acquired the languages of their people. 2. The lives of missionaries are shorter than those of ministers at home; not exceeding, probably, on an average, more than eight or nine years. 3. As the highest instances of longevity are found among those who gave themselves chiefly to translations and English preaching, the average life of such as were devoted to the immediate conversion of natives is still farther lessened. 4. All those who died before they had been in the field four years, are to be presumed not to have become efficient preachers. 5. Three or four years are to be deducted from the brief span of all missionaries, as time spent chiefly in study. 6. Most missions have been carried forward in regions where the missionaries were robbed of one fourth of their effective energy by climate. Combine all these considerations, and the absolute amount of direct efforts for the conversion of heathen is reduced to a very paltry sum. Again: The calculations which have been made on the labors of the wives of missionaries, are for the most part, much too large. Speeches, essays, and sermons have described the public usefulness of females in glowing terms. It has even been declared that on this account, "almost all missionaries of the Protestant churches may count for two." The seclusion of women in certain countries, has principally given rise to this opinion, as they can find access to their own sex in a manner not practicable to their husbands. But it must be considered that only in a part of the field are females rigidly secluded, and then only the higher classes, with which few missions have much to do. Few missionaries' wives have acquired the language to such an extent as to enable them to be useful in this way. Their opportunities for learning are by no means so good as those of their husbands. Household duties demand some time; their minds have been less trained to the acquisition of language; and such as have children are greatly put back in their studies, and hindered from missionary work, if ever so familiar with the language. Among ourselves, we do not reckon ministers' wives as so many evangelists, when we compute the degree to which a state or county is supplied with the means of grace. Much less can we calculate upon the wives of missionaries. The helps and facilities enjoyed by a woman at home, who essays to do public good, are not found among the heathen. There, few nurses or servants can be trusted alone with children, even for an hour; the elder ones are not safe away at school, but must be about the mother, and taught wholly by her itself a great task, which few mothers in America could add to their other cares. In sickness, she is not aided by a circle of kind friends, but must nurse her husband, her child, or her scholar, day by day, alone; destitute even of the aid which servants might render, could they fully understand her commands or customs. At home, a minister's wife does good chiefly through others, by setting in motion and keeping up plans which they can execute. But not so with the missionary's wife. She has around her no circle of active and unencumbered sisters, to teach Sabbath schools, to form Bible classes, or to constitute societies for good objects. All she does must be carried on, from beginning to end, by her own individual unassisted energies. She must find her principal sphere of usefulness in keeping her husband whole-hearted and happy; in being a good housewife; sustaining all the domestic cares: training up her children well; furnishing her husband prudent counsel and affectionate support; and setting before the heathen the sweet and impressive example of a well-ordered Christian family, and the elevated and purifying character of conjugal life, as regulated by the New Testament. As time and opportunity offer, she should diligently and thoroughly study the language. Then let her take every opportunity of conversing with such as come to the house, form a circle of acquaintance among the native females, and faithfully visit among them as a Christian teacher. Unmarried females, and such as have no children, may generally be regarded as missionaries in the fullest sense. Some of these have maintained for years a course of public usefulness not inferior to their masculine fellow-laborers. II. The kind of labor which has been performed. 1. Up to the present period, the principal portion of missionary labor has been preparatory. He who views the lofty column is apt to forget how great have been the labors of the architect beneath the surface of the earth, and how widely the hidden foundations spread round beneath his feet. So when we survey the results of missions; most of the labor, though indispensable, is not now seen. Nor can any inspection of their present condition disclose the extent and variety of past labors. We need not here stop to inquire whether missionaries have devoted too much time to translations, authorship, schools, secular business, or preaching in English. It is sufficient for the present argument, that the major part of our efforts have been so expended. It is not possible to arrive at precision in regard to the exact proportion; but from careful inquiries, I am led to set down, as preparatory, three fourths of the work done in India, much more as to China and Western Asia, and somewhat less in most other missions. 2. No small portion of time and energy has been spent on objects which may be called collateral. A pastor at home looks for these labors to his church, and to |